In an interview with JOHN ALECHENU, the National Publicity Secretary of
the All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed, reacts to claims by the
PDP that the APC presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. MuhammaduBuhari
(retd) is not qualified to contest, among other issues:
What do you make of the statement credited to the National Secretary of
the Peoples Democratic Party referring to your presidential candidate as
“a semi-illiterate jackboot”?I think this is the clearest expression of desperation on the part of the PDP. It is the clearest indication that reality has dawned on them. It is ironic that it is the same party that has asked for clean campaigns.
They have been rattled by happenings in the APC, especially within the last two weeks, starting first with the orderly conduct of the convention and the primaries of the party — the process and the outcome — and the global acclamation of that convention as the most transparent. These are the things that have so much unsettled the PDP that you can see them attacking even the running mate (Prof. Yemi Osinbajo), saying he is larky. When you go as low as describing someone who was a Head of State of this country as an a jackboot
illiterate, it shows the level of desperation and it shows a party that clearly has nothing to offer Nigerians.
It is strange because this is the same party that said if Buhari emerged as the candidate of the APC, they would go to sleep. I think they have been having nightmares rather than sleep. Even when they tell you that Buhari stood for elections thrice and lost, they know that the circumstances are different.
What are the different circumstances?
Today, Buhari is running on the platform of a major national political party. More importantly, the issues that will define these elections are insecurity, corruption and unemployment. If these were the issues that defined the elections in 2007 and 2011, it would have been a different ball game.
These issues are what define this election and they know that Buhari is the man that fits the bill; they know that the only person today that will say ‘I will go and fight corruption’ and will be believed globally is Muhammadu Buhari. They know this and this reality has dawned on them.
Clearly, a corrupt government cannot fight corruption.
The only person today that can say ‘I am going to put an end to insecurity’ and be believed is Buhari because he did it in the past. He routed the Maitasine sect, which was more deadly than Boko Haram in its time. This is a man under whose watch nobody could play with the territorial integrity of Nigeria.
With regard to the roads, rail tracks and other achievements listed by this administration, don’t you think this is enough to return the PDP to power?
Those who are benefitting from this administration will make a last ditch attempt, they are not even convinced themselves. This is a ‘honey-pot’ economy where some people have cornered and secured sweet deals, they are now protecting the President. They are protecting their honey pots. Unfortunately, these elite, who live in unimaginable luxury and comfort, form less than one per cent of the population; that is why they can spend all the money we have on television.
Nigerians who go to bed hungry everyday know that claims made by this administration that it has performed, are not true; Nigerians who spend four, five hours on the road will know that it is not true; people who know it takes four days to go by train from Lagos to Kano and back will not believe them; people who cannot go back home to spend Christmas with their families because of insecurity because of insurgency, because of ethnic wars and poverty will not believe them; people who are graduates and are still roaming the streets will not believe them.
It’s quite instructive that this government has not noticed that the tide has changed. Our only fear is not whether we are going to win or lose this election; it is whether this government will accept defeat. This is where we want to implore Nigerians and the international community to please put pressure on them that they do not need to destroy this country because they are going to lose this election.
This administration has reeled out several statistics about jobs it had created over the last five years.
Are you saying these jobs do not exist?
When you look at the statistics that this administration has been reeling out, you begin to wonder whether they are still in this same country that we are in. The truth is that today, over 100 million Nigerians live under two dollars a day; we have 30 per cent unemployment, even by their official figures; we have this number of our youths in rural areas that are unemployed.
By their own official
figures, forty per cent of our youths are unemployed, where are the jobs they have created?
If they have created jobs, why then did we lose about 17 innocent youths at the immigration employment fair, where for about 5,000 job places, they advertised and invited about half a million people? They (Nigeria Immigration Service) did not only invite the youths, they made sure they paid exorbitant fees to participate. Even those who were injured in that stampede, and the families of those who lost their lives and who were promised jobs, have not been compensated.
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