The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fully assumed its role as the leading opposition to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, closely examining his actions and inactions and speaking loudly about them. In this exclusive interview, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, expressed the party’s concern about the lack of movement in government affairs under Buhari.
HOW are you settling into the opposition role?
Well, it’s been tough. It is a very harsh atmosphere; harsh in the sense that upon the loss of the election and the government as well, the present ruling party and the government never gave us time to settle down. They came in such a vicious manner to dramatise their victory and the fact that we lost the election. There was a lot of boasting, a lot of cajoling, a lot of arrogance that was displayed by them. But we are down. We know that we are so down, we have hit the ground, we have hit rock bottom and the only way we can go up is by being humble, by learning from our mistake. Yes, we made mistakes and we lost the election. It’s a humbling experience but we are determined not to make the same mistake twice.
First, we now appreciate the interest that Nigerians have in getting involved in matters that affect them. Nigerians now want to have a say in government and this last election was the best example of participatory governance since the inception of democracy. We want to be sure that at the end of the day, our position is focused and issue driven.
You are working to reposition the PDP. At the end of all your ongoing efforts, what kind of party do you envisage?
A party that will truly belong to the people. A party that will be determined by what the people say, a party where the candidate will truly be elected by the people. No more by super delegates but by the ordinary people. A party that truly shows that power belongs to the people of Nigeria, a party that reconnects with the people and a party that will have a say or rather, influence in governance by pursuing their options and alternatives in ways and manner that will cause government to properly shape up. That is what we expect. A very vibrant party.
How do you assess the present ruling party now in its second month in office?
Thirty days, six weeks is too short a time to assess government. We believe that ordinarily, we have no right to be making comments on the performance or non-performance of government but for the fact that the APC and the spokesperson of the president have brought out the president and brought us out to criticise him by their advertising or publishing of imaginary achievements of the president after three and half weeks. They did not wait for Nigerians to look critically at the performance of the president but they started shouting and publicising and engaging in propaganda to promote imaginary achievements of the president. I call that voodoo achievements. So, we now went in and asked, what exactly had the president done besides blaming PDP for everything, blaming PDP for his not being ready for governance. We have not seen the policy thrust of his government.
He has shown a willingness to operate alone, to be almost a sole administrator. He has no respect for separation of power in terms of the legislature being independent from the executive. He thought that he would appoint the head of the legislature without knowing about the separation of power. I don’t blame him. He has admitted that he is not a democrat by nature.
But you know that our president, being elderly, you must give him respect and accord him the status that he deserves. As an elderly person, as a well noted upright man with integrity, at least, in the entire country, people see him as such and someone that is the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he deserves that respect. But in terms of performance, in terms of being active in the last six weeks, we have seen him as having all motion but no movement. We have seen him engage in cosmetic governance. We have seen him engage in getting involved in minute, inconsequential things and leaving the issues at hand.
We are worried that a president will be dramatising that ‘oh, Mr. President has refused to approve N400million bullet proof cars,’ ‘Mr. President has cut his salary by 50 per cent, thereby donating N7million to Nigerians or to the economy of Nigeria.’ Whether you take your salary or not is not important. What is important is that you drive our economy very well and you remain true to the promises you made to Nigerians when you were campaigning. You must perform your manifesto, you must perform the obligations you professed to Nigerians and they elected you. Cutting your salary is not one of them. It’s merely symbolic. We thank him for the N7million but that is not what we are looking out for in his government.
His managers blame the rot left behind by the PDP for his government’s seeming inability to hit the ground running. Don’t you think they have a point there?
The way they are going about it, by next year, they will still be blaming the PDP for their inability to achieve anything and blame the past government. It has taken Mr. President 12 years to attain the presidency of Nigeria. Within those 12 years, whatever rot that might have been in the system did not preclude him from making up his mind on who becomes Secretary to Government of the Federation. It did not preclude him from making his mind up on who becomes the Chief of Staff. It has not blinded him such that he has not found Nigerians worthy, at least, 37 Nigerians that he can nominate as members of his cabinet. It has not precluded him from saying this is my policy thrust. After two months, we have not seen any policy thrust; we have not seen any programme you have for this country. Does it have anything to do with the rot?
Now, we have seen that he has engaged people who are high on propaganda and media but very low in economic management that they have not been able to separate economy from publicity. We are shocked that they have not been able to differentiate what taxation is as opposed to dividends. The spokesperson of the president did not even know that tax is paid to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and then it goes directly into the Federation Account, which is now allocated to everybody and he comes out on air and displays his ignorance by stating that they have not seen any evidence of where NLNG paid money to the government. You don’t advertise of promote ignorance in a federal appointment.
You have spoken so much about the appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari as the acting chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). What’s the problem with that? Does the president not have the right to appoint whoever he chooses?
Let me explain two things here. First, Mr. President has every right under the constitution to appoint some that he deems fit as chairman of INEC. But Mr. President does not have the right under the constitution to appoint an acting chairman. Acting chairman is an anathema; it’s unknown to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What should normally happen is that the INEC commissioners can sit down and bring someone to act in that capacity until Mr. President appoints anyone that he deems fit. Even when Mr. President decides to appoint someone, it must be someone that in his own estimation and in the estimation of Nigerians a person of such conduct that they will believe that the electoral commission will be independent.
Now, Mr. President who is almost like a foster parent to Mrs. Amina Zakari, can she be said to be independent from matters that affect the presidency and the president himself? I don’t want to go into details of her strong relationship with a governor from the North-West. Is the electoral commission independent? Definitely not! We are not questioning the capacity or the competence of Mrs. Zakari. Definitely, she must be competent for President Goodluck Jonathan to appoint her. People say yes, President Goodluck Jonathan appointed her. President Jonathan appointed her because she has no nexus with him; he had no consanguinity or affinity with her. So, as long as he didn’t have that kind of strong relationship, she could have been a chairman of INEC under President Jonathan or under any other president that did not have such a strong relationship with her.
So, we warned Mr. President who is the leader of this country and who wants to do what is right to understand what PDP is saying. We are not against Amina Zakari as a person, we are not questioning her competence; we don’t want to dwell on powers of the president to appoint an acting chairman. We can concede it to him. But all we are saying is that the person should be independent. Mrs. Zakari does not qualify to be a chairman of an independent National Electoral Commission but she can be an acting chairman of a National Electoral Commission without the “Independent.”
Justice should not only been done, it must be seen to have been done. Nigerians should know that if we lose the Kogi election, let it be because we did work hard and not because the president appointed his foster daughter. Let it not be that we have problems with Bayelsa election because the president’s foster daughter is chairman of INEC. That is simply our argument. How do you promote democracy? How do you want us to accept the result of an election? How do you want us to believe that our rights and privileges will be protected as we go into these elections?
