Being on the precipice, it would be bad if Nigeria slips with its choice in 2023 —Olabode George

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, speaks with BOLA BADMUS on the chances of his party against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and at the national level in the 2023 general election.

 

Nigeria seems set for the 2023 general election with the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Senator Bola Tinubu as the presidential candidates of thee Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), respectively. What is your view on the conduct of the presidential primaries of the two parties?

Both [primaries] were done in the open but in our party, PDP, we didn’t have the show of shame of people stepping down after having paid N100 million to contest. Or was it all a charade? They really paid N100 million for the forms and it took them just between five and 10 minutes to drop the trip. It was a charade, a shame.

I watched it and I felt sick. It is not 100 kobo or N100, they spent N100 million to purchase the form and what they did was to come up there and drop off like bags of filth. Nigerians should have a strong introspection because our nation is now at a crossroads.

We have problems in every sector but the greatest problem is this insecurity. The first thing any government must provide for its people is security of lives and property. It is sine qua non. It is the ultimate support that any government can give its people. We were told again that people were killed in Ondo town after the massacre in Owo. It is happening all over the country.

I listened to most of the people that spoke at the APC convention but I want to single out Pastor Tunde Bakare. I was waiting to hear what he would say. Having paid that much money to contest, he said as a pastor, as a man of God, ‘I will not step down, I will step up’. He showed valour in this age of mess that we have found ourselves. Amid this bubble of rubbish, some people are still bold enough to say truth to power. I don’t want to call it a show of shame but shenanigan. Why? Anybody who wants to be the leader of this country must be X-rayed, must Nigerians that he has the right qualities, the right character, the right education, and he should be truthful. What is your source of income? How did you make your money? Those are the criteria I believe we must put forward. We want to know all these things and the physical health of the person. Are you healthy enough to be head of this country?

Your age, you lied; your educational qualifications, you lied; where you come from, you lied; the documents that you claim you have, you lied. I have been asking a simple question: who owns the Alpha Beta that has been sucking the money from our treasury since year 2000? Nobody has answered that question. Who claims the money? The tollgates, the LCC, who owns them? All these properties in Lagos, who owns them? And I heard from the speech that Tinubu read at the convention that he took Lagos State from what? Ask anybody who lives in Lagos, who amongst them is comfortable. Ask them if it is not a crisis going to work or returning home. I was born here. I went to school here. Look, this is not the Lagos of our forefathers, the dreamers.

 

What do you think is the implication of Tinubu’s emergence as the APC candidate for the PDP and for Nigeria?

I am not a soothsayer; I believe very strongly in the power of prayer. Our nation must go into full-blown prayers because, like they say in my part of the world, agbara kii gba, adura lo n gba. We must be very prayerful. The next nine months will decide where we are going as a country.

You asked about the implication of his emergence for the PDP, we will move forward. We will go out. We will talk to the people. Let the people decide. And I am happy that the umpire, INEC, has told us that the whole results would be electronically transmitted. The transmission of the results would be streamed, not the old, archaic way of physically carrying results, by hand.

 

And you believe in INEC?

I worked with the INEC chairman when he was in charge of the finances of the 2014 confab. He exhibited civility and fear of God. I will say it again that he is under watch. He is almost getting to the zenith of his career. All he needs now is the grace of God. Let him also attract the grace of God. If the other members are not fair, that is it for this country.

 

If Tinubu becomes the president, what do you think that would mean for the country?

What will he do? Let Nigerians speak. It is easy to claim ‘I been winning Lagos’. It is complete, absolute nonsense because everything was manipulated. We are done with the Stone Age when people would carry results from your polling unit to the next polling unit and from there to the collation centre. The ballot papers and the results get to the collation centre and then they drive you away, do the manipulation and say you have won. That is why we are where we are now. The votes didn’t count. The will of the people was subverted and you find people who don’t care about the nation and the people.

 

Universities have been closed. Students are at home. Lecturers are not well paid. The salaries of security agents are nothing to write home about but you want them to face the rigour of their job…

You see the way accommodation for the police is. It is when you bring smiles to their faces that the commitment will be reflected; that they would be totally committed to that job.

That is why you must bring to the table, certain characters, certain norms because you want to mentor younger generation on their behaviour. So, if you lied about your age, you lied about your health, you lied about your name, you lied about your income, you acquired all these incomes through some shady means, and have the audacity to promote a motor park garage man to be the chairman and a retired AIG of police to be under him, what kind sense of administration does that fellow have? And you want to entrust this massive entity called Nigeria in his hands? Is that the best we, in Yorubaland, can throw up despite having the first educated, the first doctor, the first lawyer, even the first bishop in Africa?

 

But people say Senator Tinubu is a man with a large heart, who loves the people and tries to assist them and that is the reason people love him. With his emergence as the APC candidate, do you think the PDP is still a match for him or have any chance, especially in Lagos, come 2023?

What does he have that we need to match?

 

People might be inclined to think that since the man will become the president, let us vote for the APC in Lagos…

I believe that those people who have been enjoying his largess, who have been eating the crumbs he has been dropping for them know what he calls them? He calls them edie, that is, chickens; that once you throw corns at them, they would rush at it. Does he have regard for human beings? They claim that he loves the people, ask those people who have worked with him. He is a totalitarian in every aspect of his life. The joke is that it is not a free gateway to the Villa, there would be serious competition, there would be serious talk; there would be serious debate. You need to speak to Nigerians.

There are questions I have been asking. Maybe now he would be able to convince me about where he comes from. What is his real name? Which schools did he attend, primary, secondary, among others? He claims he has CPA. Did he attend the Government College, Ibadan or the Government College, Iragbiji, because both are GCI? And who owns Alpha Beta? There are many other questions.

Now that he has got the APC ticket, congratulations. This is the time to get him on the pedestal. He should answer all these questions, which our party would put forward because we want to show who is better between A and B to be in the Villa and who can be trusted. That is what democracy is about. It is not just about throwing money here and there. I am happy that finally, members of the two chambers of the National Assembly, President [Muhammadu] Buhari and INEC have accepted that we are modernising the electoral process in this country. If the people make the wrong choice, as you make your bed, so you sleep on it.

If you make your bed well, put a proper mattress that would take care of your back and bones, you will sleep well. But if you put stones and sand on that bed and you think you are going to sleep well, we will see about that. So, Nigerians are ready. They want to listen. You see, they have not crossed the Rubicon yet; we want to know what you have done? We want to know you, your character, your activities, your source of money; we want to know what you have been doing for a living.

 

Now, what does Tinubu’s APC candidacy mean for you personally, having said on several occasions that you would leave the country if Tinubu became the president?

I have a choice. This year, I will be 78 years old. I retired a while ago. What else am I looking for? By the time you clock 70, you are already at the departure lounge; you are only waiting. You have got your boarding pass. Only now it is when God calls your flight that you are gone. Every day you live is gratias and you need to be thankful to God. And if you will not tell the truth, then you are going to hell.

Let us face the truth and tell truth to power. That is the only thing that can save this nation. When you know that something is bad and you are pretending that it is well… Within one week, do you know how many people have been kidnapped or killed? Insecurity is driving everybody mad. So, for me, I took an oath that no matter what, I would say it the way it is. I have lived and survived from my background. I always tell people how I came through that family where Papa Herbert Macaulay led us. He was the first Nigerian politician in 1922. He didn’t become the president; he laid certain rules, certain parameters that a developing nation must follow. In trying to identify who should lead you, there are certain criteria they must be able to meet to convince you. I thank God that this election is going to be electronically transmitted and not by hand. You will see surprises. If, in the end, people choose wrongly, I will say to them, as you make your bed, so you lie on it and so, don’t complain. We can forgive the past now because it was a charade because all those that emerged and all that, you can see the state of the nation. Where is that giant of Africa? Look at Rwanda; do they invite us anymore to the G20? Who recognises Nigeria anymore now as a great country? Any known professional endeavour in life, you will find one Nigerian who is an expert. So, what is wrong with us?

So, let the best man win. Choose right when the time comes. It is not the shenanigan who is dancing around, paying some noisemakers to be saying ‘Baba o!’, ‘Baba o!’ It is a serious issue now and I bet you, all these things I have said will come up for debate, for discussion, for campaigns to educate the minds of Nigerians and you will have to promise them how you want to turn this country around and not just for yourself or your daughter. You are coming to public office which is a public trust. When the time comes, we will campaign, we will tell the people in whatever language they understand and explain to them because all that glitters is not gold.

 

In your estimation, is Tinubu a match for your party’s candidate, Atiku?

Physically, is he a match? Did you see when he was reading? He has some medical issue, it is obvious. He has got to that stage. He claims to be 70 but his daughter is 61 years old. So, you started producing at the age of nine? Is that possible? Why are you not proud of your heritage? Let us know. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands because that lady of justice that is blindfolded has a sword and a scale. She doesn’t care who the hell you are.

 

But his supporters cut across the country, among them governors…

The taste of the pudding is in the eating. We will get there. People have emerged. We must convince the electorate and their percentage is higher than the card-carrying members of the political parties. They must listen, more so that they have experienced a state of helplessness, a state of hopelessness. We will tell them it is time to guarantee the future of their children and their children’s children. We cannot afford to tell us through wuruwuru that this fellow won. If you do wuruwuru, that is the result you get. Search your soul and don’t sell your conscience because the governance they would give you would not guarantee good health, good education, good living and security of lives and property. It is time for you to take a deep breath and analyse each of the people in the race. We are now on the precipice, if we slip, that would be bad.

So, why can’t you leave positive taste in the mouth of the people you want to lead? With the little droppings made available to those that are dancing and shouting, they think they can now replicate the mess they created in Lagos all over Nigeria. You put forward substandard people to be heads of those who are properly trained and educated. Let the campaigns start. It will be interesting.

And you see, we don’t have an emperor in our party. Something happened during their (APC) primary that I saw. At the end of it, when they declared that he (Tinubu) won, what was the statement he made to Ahmed Lawan, the Senate president? He said he should go and lick his wounds. Leaders don’t say that. You don’t talk evil to your colleagues. If you compete with people and you won, you should be gracious. The fact that you won doesn’t make you better than the other people. ‘Go and lick your wounds’, does he sound like a gentleman? What does he want to learn now at that age of his?