Buhari should stop making noise, let him take action on corrupt Nigerians - PDP dares

In this interview, the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS correspondent  on Friday concerning the problem in the National Assembly, Buhari’s administration, among others:

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News

With the problem in the national assembly, how long do you think the APC is going to last?

Olisah Metuh

Well, we wish the APC to last as long as necessary as long as they are in office, because the option of APC having a huge problem or breaking down is not good for the progress of democracy and even our economy, we need stability. What we prefer is a situation where they can come together and bring out their program but they have not been able to bring out their program and that is our main worry. If APC can bring out their program, then we may offer our own alternative adoption that is the only way we can have a stable polity.

The crises that we are seeing now with APC will not go well with anyone. The success of this administration is not Buhari’s success, is not APC’s success, it will be for the progress of the entire nation and that is the problem with what APC did when they were in the opposition, why we were shouting; it was not for Jonathan, stop distracting him, it was not for PDP, it is about the progress of the country. For us now that we are in opposition, we will not make the same mistake that they did when they were in the opposition, we will cooperate with them.

Why is PDP supporting Senator Bukola Saraki, the man who led the rebel group against his party in the first place?

Well, having be a member of the PDP, at least, he was bred and nurtured in the believe of our founding fathers, the ideas of our founding fathers, of a stable democracy build on peace and unity. Now he offered himself for senate presidency, as against someone who was bred and nurtured with violent ideology of the position. For us we rather deal with someone who we have something to do with. Yes we have our differences but we believe that his ideology and principle are nearer ours even though we have one or two point of difference. So the PDP chose to vote for such a person as against someone who never had any education on ideas of PDP’s ideology and that is what happened

The truth is that, at first we chose not to get involved in the senate contest but when it was offered to us on a platter of gold by the naivety and the disorganization in the opposition of course we have to take it.

Initially when the problem started, President Buhari said he was supporting anyone who comes out to be the leaders of the National Assembly, but yesterday, he issued another statement that they should follow the party rules and regulations. Isn’t this contradictory?

You see, it is not contradicting.  From day one, he knew what he was doing. For us, we believed him in his first statement and commended him but by yesterday, we found out that he was not only his body language those people were following, they were following direct instruction from the presidency; so we cried out and that is why we accused the President. He is leading an arm of government, executive and these people are living another arm of government and there should not be any direct interference.

Remember we as a party four years ago chose someone to lead the House of Reps, the speaker, when they got there, the House of Reps members voted for another that they wanted, we were unhappy about it, but we never did anything to cause instability in the house on the account of that. We never challenged the account of Tambuwal, we never told the people to disrupt proceedings on the account of that. And quickly we realized being matured, civil and being people who were nurtured in democratic principle, we embraced each other, we worked together. But now they are doing as if they are in a military regime, that these people must step down or you cannot be speaker, you cannot be senate president.

What I find so worrisome is that four years ago, the like of Lai Mohammed even Akande issued statements that whatever happened in parliament should be left for parliamentarians to handle and today you are insisting that either your party or government should dictate to them. 

The PDP is supporting Bukola Saraki’s list of national assembly leadership and one of the names on the list is Senator Ali Ndume who is presently standing trial for his alleged link with the terrorist group, Boko Haram. Isn’t this unexpected?

Don’t forget there are laws. In any decent democracy, everyone is presumed innocent until the contrary is proved. I am in court right now, Governor El-Rufai since last year sued me for N500m for defamatory and are you trying to tell me that if it was a criminal matter, in that matter I am already guilty, no no, listen, everyone is presume innocent until the contrary is proved. If we start behaving like that, then all you need to do is to accuse people and will never have any position, so accusation on its own can not stop you from winning political office.

Are you comparing a financial accusation with a terrorism accusation judging from the numbers of innocent Nigerians that have been killed by the sect?

I do not speak for Ndume and I will not speak for Ndume and he is not in my party. All I am saying is that in a democracy, it is believed that everyone is innocent until the contrary is proved. Now the fact that he has been accused, why should he run for that office as a majority leader is for him to defend, not me. I don’t speak for him and he is not in my party, I will not bother myself about it.

After months of coming into office, the President has not been able to announce his cabinet, isn’t this a sign that Nigerians may not be able to rely on administration?

No, I don’t think there is too much worry for the fact that he has not been able to announce his cabinet. The worry there is that, the fact that he has not had other appointment like the Chief of Staff, Secretary to Government, there are other parts that can help him function well, and he can’t handle everything at the same time. So he needs some level of assistance from his personal staff and that is the worry.

For the list of ministers, he can take all his time and you must conceive the fact that the President is in a difficult position on the ministerial list. Here is a man that promised that “I am anti-corruption and I am going to fight” but all around him, surrounding him are people who are perceived to be corrupt, who are identified to be corrupt so who are the people that he is going to appoint ministers? IT is difficult for him to bring out the list of the people, let him bring them out and we will see if he is really committed to fighting corruption because he cannot be pointing to PDP and be claiming that we are corrupt, and you bring out the list of people who are tinted, who have been involved in some things, let him bring the list and let us see. Let us see the people from Lagos state, or people from other states, we are waiting for him to bring out the list, so he is in a difficult and tight corner to bring out the list, we have to understand that, we sympathize with him.

Most importantly, the present premise they came into power, they can’t sustain. They lied to Nigerians, we said it then but people did not believe us. They lied, they made bogus promises, they promised they were going to give N5000 to 25 million Nigerians, a lot of people voted them on account of that, they promised they will hit the ground running within two weeks, they promised that within two months, problem of Boko Haram will be over, there are a lot of concrete promises they made to Nigerians, that is our worry and not the problem of ministers, when they bring that out, we will handle them on that. This government came to power on transition of lies and they cannot sustain the promises they made to Nigerians and that is the problem they have. You cannot build something on nothing, they were built on lies and they cannot stand. We need Nigerians to pray because in the next four years, we need at least to have a stable mission, we need to pray for their party, we need to pray for the government so that Nigerians can make progress.

President Buhari vowed to retrieve whatever amounts that have been stolen during Jonathan’s administration. What’s your take on this bold move?

If you want to shoot, shoot and don’t talk. Let him stop making noise, he is the President; he has all the powers, let him start, let him stop disturbing us with threats, they should start action immediately, why are they disturbing the polity? What kind of statement is that? Such kinds of statement are becoming nuisance, you are the President, if you want to take action, start now, why talk and talk? If they believe that people were corrupt, let them come out with the fact for Nigerians to see. He had made a statement that he met an empty treasury; he has made up several statements so we are tired of his excuses, there are too many excuses.

A similar situation is going on in Rivers State, Wike is probing Amaechi

In Rivers State, they did say they were going to investigate the former governor, Rotimi Amaechi, they have started investigating him, they set up judicial panel of enquiry, but with Buhari is about “we are going to do this, I will not tolerate corruption”,  are you a head of state? This is a democracy, start the action and implement it let us see.

So in general, what are you expecting from Buhari’s administration?

Well what I am expecting is different from what I am wishing. I am wishing that there will be stability, that they will be respect, the rights and privileges of Nigerians, I am wishing there will be guaranteed freedom of expression and opinion, I am wishing that they observed democratic procedure in the administration, I am wishing they have economic team that will sustain the economy policy the last administration put in place. But I will not wish them bad because it will affect my future.

 

 

 

 

 

Buhari should stop making noise, let him take action on corrupt Nigerians - PDP dares