*Warns: PDP should know their strategist may work in America, not in Nigeria
By KEMI KASUMU
Otunba (Dr.) Fatai Olajide Olukoga, Chairman, Council of Otunba Ayangburen of Ikorodu, is a member of Democratic Party, State of Chicago, United States of America. He says the recent visit of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has a big trouble lurking ahead for President Donald Trump as he says American system will deal with him at appropriate time, knowing Atiku to have committed fraud in the country and still allows him into his hotel and go scot-free. A seasoned administrator and retired Permanent Secretary in Lagos State Civil Service, Olukoga began his political career when he was appointed as Chairman Caretaker Committee, Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State by Colonel Muhammed Buba Marwa administration before returning to the service as Permanent Secretary Parastatals Monitoring Office (PTO) and later ministries, under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration, before his retirement in 2015. Right hand man of the Ayangburen of Ikorodu in succession, the former Special Adviser on Education to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) speaks in this interview with The DEFENDER mainly on topical issues bothering on President Trump of America, President Buhari, Atiku and Obasanjo-led Third Force. Excerpts:
“The Electoral Bill they sent was not signed by Buhari, because he knew what was going on. We don’t have experience of electronic voting in general as a nation but you want that to come into our electoral system within a short time to 2019 general elections. They, the PDP strategists, know what they want to use electronic voting for; so that they can hack into the electronic system and award victory for themselves. But the man is much cleverer than they are and that is why he insisted that he was not going to sign it within that short time to election. And that strategy failure on their part which Buhari’s refusal to sign the bill has caused them is already giving them sleepless night.”
You refused to seek elective national assembly office in 2015 because you were 65 but have accepted appointments after your retirement as Special Adviser on Education to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). Why?
First and foremost, while I could not and can still not seek legislative elective office where you are the only one studying all cross-country bills, doing oversight functions by yourself and which can be so tedious for an ageing person like me having served government for the greater part of my years in life, if it is governorship or presidency, yeah, because what is needed in that office is experience and it is only in age that you find that experience. All the governor needs is sensitivity and the thinking cap that make him work well.
But why did you not seek governorship of Lagos State in the ongoing election season knowing you to be a notable member of Bola Tinubu-led Political Garrison Command of Lagos State?
On that, we have our candidate and the candidate is Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who, like Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) Mr. Performer, both as then governor and now minister, has also been in the system. All the achievements reverse that Governor Ambode did to Fashola’s legacy will be corrected by Sanwo-Olu. He will return Lagos to its greatness and complete all abandoned or badly done project and will bring LAWMA and beautification of Lagos back to the mainstream. So, there is no need for me to put head in it so long we have other people who can do the job. I have some notable people in other political parties who have called on me to be their governorship candidate but I told them no. Why? My lineage is progressives from the Action Group, through the UPN, SDP, AD, AC, ACN, to APC. So, this is the political ideology that I belong to and that is where I want to continue to be because that is where the performance is.
How do you place that side by side if you are asked to contest for governorship or President considering that President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo, are in the 70s and 60s?
Like I said that the governor or president does not have to all the jobs alone like legislator, even though his job is far wider than that of legislator. Take for instance, President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo that you mentioned, you can see that what are working for them are their age, knowledge capacity, experience and you know both have their respective military and professorial background, which is key, and the President has close monitoring of all jobs he delegates and the thinking cap that is making the job so good for the country. Yes in his 70s but he is trying, I’m going to give it to him, at this age he is energetic and agile to the job.
The two leading candidates in the country today are Buhari and Atiku who are in their 70s which has really removed the use of age as campaign tool by the Atiku group. But in terms of performance, Atiku who has been there with Obasanjo for eight years and his party for 16 years have blamed Buhari who is there for three and a half years for the problem of Nigeria. How would react to that and would you say that everything about Nigeria now is problem and nothing we can say is good at all?
I will say that one, Atiku is a not a match to Buhari. His antecedent is not good enough for him to be. If you go back what happened when he was in charge of the economy, you would find out that he did not do well. Together with his party the Peoples Democratic, they plunged the country into chaos. Most of the things they supposed to do in eight years were scandalous. The economy was mismanaged and that continued in the other eight years of their party to make 16 sixteen years of scandalous administration they handed to Nigeria. So, Atiku cannot exonerate himself. Most of the assets and parastatals were sold to friends and all his cronies and he has promised that is what he wants to come and do again.
Buhari has only been there for three years, although he is old but with the support and cooperation of his Vice President and the ministers that he appointed, you can see a lot of things they have done in three years. Most of the abandoned projects of Atiku’s PDP regimes are now completed. Things are working. It is just that you cannot build Rome in one day because, there has always been serious problem unattended in the country before his coming in 2015 and he is employing system approach to ensure that Nigeria gets back on its feet.
Right now our GDP is getting better, our commonwealth reserve is getting better and most of the infrastructural development coming on, agriculture is good now as we can now produce the food we eat and our road transportation is going to be improved, boosted with the rail coming in; from the Apapa Port of Lagos to Ibadan, Ibandan to Kano, so from Lagos to Ogun, Ondo, Calabar and from there to Maiduguri and from there for Kano, all states of Nigeria linked together by rail system, which we can testify is already working well between Abuja and Kaduna and so on and so forth. With all these in place, the economy is getting better.
But how do you think this has been possible in three years?
It is possible in three years because President Buhari, who is doing it, is sincere and also has passion for the job of helping other Nigerians to fix Nigeria for the good of the generality of the people. It is his sincerity that makes things to work well for him.
But if you put someone who is a mediocre and doesn’t have passion for the country but for ensuring that he, his family are good like Atiku, Bukola Saraki, Dino Melaye, Femi Fani-Kayode, Fayose, name them on like that, who want to come back and corner the economy again, Nigeria will be in doom. So we need to be very careful. Good enough, now, I am sure a lot of Nigerians are eyes open, they have charged their brains, they know who is good, despite all the sentiments that you see out there, and I can assure that, by the preparedness of those Nigerians now, no matter how much Atiku is going to spend to get back to that presidency, he is going nowhere.
President Buhari has demonstrated to the country and the people of Nigeria that at his age he had turned Nigeria around in three years, which is kudos to him.
As a quintessential administrator like you are described in one of your book and a proud American democrat, knowing that an aspiring presidential candidate of your home country, Atiku, was “smuggled” as “aide” to the United States, if you are challenged on this by a white American, how would you feel?
Well, you know disgrace he got back. He is problem in himself that he went as an aide to the Senate President Bukola Saraki, which is the only thing that helped him to enter America. And don’t forget that he hired President Donald Trump’s lobbyist, Brian Ballard, who he paid over One Million Dollars to help and so on and so forth to get him into the Trump’s mind.
Would you say Trump is actually aware of the Atiku’s visit?
He is very aware! You know how Trump is running America. Trump is a racist and he doesn’t like the blacks and so does not care if what he does hurt the black race or not. See what happened to America in recent times, the government shutdown for two months, nothing worked. Government hospitals were not working because he could not pay salary. Only private hospitals worked. How can a good president allow government to shutdown just because you want to build a wall blocking Mexico and is not in the budget? You never put it there and you are saying you are not going to sign the budget. That was what caused it. And you know, Americans will deal with him at appropriate time.
We know some white Americans like what he is doing because of their racism and that is what they want to bring back and why they won’t like to see any black race succeed. But they have forgotten America is a democratic society that has the sovereignty of “We the People” not “I”. So, at appropriate time, Trump will get what he deserves. You can see most of his aides are in jail now and at appropriate time, America will deal with him.
But in Nigeria, do we have the law or the effrontery to deal with people who have embezzled money? They are still running around the country and talking! Look at Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is still talking instead of hiding his face after having destroyed the Nigerian economy by his corruption. Obasanjo, who is yet to explain the $16 billion he spent on electric power without anything seen, he is not only still talking but also even leading the gang up to unseat President Buhari, who has done far more than all of them ganging up put together. The America that his candidate, Atiku, and PDP are trying to seek for help against President Buhari’s government, can what they have done against this country Nigeria, and are still moving freely after, happen in America?
The Governor of my state, Chicago, was found to be involved in funds embezzlement and also to smuggle in a senator in carrying the fund, he was impeached. So, what Atiku, Obasanjo, Jonathan, Saraki and the rest of them have done against Nigeria cannot happen in the America they are lobbying against Buhari now. It is either before you finish or when you finish, they will get you.
Are you of any fear that President Trump being aware of Atiku’s visit to America will have any effect in how Nigeria runs its internal affairs particular at the election, particularly considering the side America is turning over the suspension of allegedly corrupt Chief Justice of Nigeria Onnoghen?
I now that 2019 elections in Nigeria, Trump himself will not have the time to even think about countries outside America talk less of Nigeria. You can see his rating is down and you know there is problem in America now. There are a lot of things going on: RussiaGate, election arena is here. He himself will not have time in 2019 to think about who is doing anything in Nigeria because 2020 is already in corner and so on and so forth.
The only thing I want to say is that, if as a good President who has a lot of crisis on him already, yes, you say you are a business man, but you allow Atiku to stay in your hotel? It is a big image problem that you know that somebody, who has already committed fraud in your country is not only in your country but stays in your hotel and you allow him to go scot free. It is a big problem already that the AtikuGate has put Trump in.
But when Atiku returned to Nigeria, he and his party said the PDP’s presidential candidate is loved globally and that Buhari has no friends all over the world. How do you react to that?
That is just a gimmick. They are attention grabbers by saying that.
Are you saying Buhari and your party the APC are capable of handling that?
I am sure that Buhari is capable and we are. We are very much capable and we will deal with him at appropriate time. You see it is just a gimmick. Atiku is going nowhere. You will see what will happen. Atiku should just rejoice less because he will have the biggest shock of his life. In three hours, you will know the results. Buhari will have taken the majority of the votes. That is what will happen. Even they (PDP and Atiku) hire a strategist, they need to realize that their strategist may work in America but cannot work in Nigeria.
How do you mean?
Ha! That is why the Electoral Bill they sent was not signed by Buhari, because he knew what was going on. We don’t have experience of electronic voting in general as a nation but you want that to come into our electoral system within a short time to 2019 general elections. They, the PDP strategists, know what they want to use electronic voting for; so that they can hack into the electronic system and award victory for themselves. But the man is much cleverer than they are and that is why he insisted that he was not going to sign it within that short time to election. And that strategy failure on their part which Buhari’s refusal to sign the bill has caused them is already giving them sleepless night.
You will see. You can see that everywhere Baba goes Nigerians sing aloud “Sai Baba!”, “Baabaa Oyoyoo” and see the crowd he is pulling compared to what happened to Atiku wherever he goes. People are even showing their hatred for you here and there. It is because Nigerians are so smart and are eyes open now and saying no way for Atiku. They will use their brain to say that Atiku is going nowhere and they cannot allow those who had plunged Nigeria into economic, political and security problem situation to come back and rule us again.
