2015: The danger signals from the opposition — Prof. Alkali, Political Adviser to the President

•‘Jonathan is sellable ’ •Speaks on the gains of National Conference Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, a political scientist from Gombe State, is the immediate past National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters. Alkali, in this interview, speaks his mind on his new office, support groups for Jonathan ahead of 2015, the opposition parties and the 2014 National Conference, among other issues. By HENRY UMORU How has it been having served as the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP and now working directly with Mr President as his Special Adviser, Political Matters? As you rightly observed, this is a different assignment and I believe that Mr President gave me the assignment based on trust. Since I took over in June, I have been spending my time to understand the work and I am pleased to let you know that we have made appreciable progress. Jonathan-hands-headThe challenge of 2015 is a challenge for all Nigerians. Each and every one of us has a role to play. The president has done his best and, from what you can see, at the moment, we have over 8,000 groups all calling on Mr President to step forward for the presidential election in 2015. Some of the things we did since I came in are, we want to understand these groups, know them, who they are, what they are doing, how they are doing what they are doing, who is behind them. And for this reason, we set up a committee to go to all the zones in the country and give them forms which we just produced and circulated free of charge so that we can get a proper documentation of the groups. And I want to tell you that even by my own initial skepticism about the level of commitment of some of the groups, I feel what they have done is overwhelming. I really want to commend them. We are now working on the details of analyzing the information provided by the groups. This will help us in knowing how to interface with them as we prepare for 2015. You also know that we invented the GSG (Goodluck Support Group), an organisation that served as the umbrella for all the groups. It was a group that was formed in 2010, in the run up to the 2011 elections. I said this sometime ago that most of the groups have remained solidly on the ground and new ones have also emerged. But the GSG has also undergone some changes; and we have a feeling that if we are to face the challenge of 2015 squarely, definitely we need to do some house cleaning. And we are happy that the committee we set up to look at the structure and organisation of GSG has done a marvellous job. We have also set up other committees for various purposes. For strategic reasons we will keep the details to ourselves. We will also be reaching to stakeholders both within and outside government, those within and outside the party, to create good will for the office and to sustain them for a long term. Our clarion call has been that we want more friends for Mr President and we want more friends for the PDP and we want more friends for the government. We are satisfied with the progress so far, but we are doubling our efforts because time is not on our side. How much of synergy do we have between your office, the Presidency and the PDP? Everything is going on well. There is no problem because I am a messenger, I am doing my own and I believe the party is also doing its own. After all, the overall duty is to make the work much easier for the president, as he faces the challenges of governance of a country as huge as Nigeria, as complex as Nigeria. Other organs of the political system, whether formal or informal, whether governmental or party, subsidiary groups, all are to play their roles. The Presidency is already working with the party chieftains. If you recall, when the Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, was appointed, I was among the first people to congratulate him, and to assist him to succeed. To me it is an achievement and we are lucky also that things have stabilized now. And with the way things are going, I believe we will be able to face 2015 much stronger. You said over 8,000 groups so far are rooting for the president. What is the response of Nigerians in the Diaspora as it applies to Mr President and 2015? Some people just came all the way from the US to let us know that they are also following the events in this country and they are happy with the progress, but they feel more can be done especially in terms information management. It does appear that those persons who are not happy with PDP, they are always ready to do anything, to go all the way to say all kinds of things against the party, not only on the open media, but on the social media. They (people from the US) feel they can also make contributions to support this president. In the past two or three weeks also, here, we have received a number of visitors, they have been in the US, who have also canvassed a lot of support for President Jonathan. And then we are in touch with our friends in Europe especially in Britain. For now, you are the major marketer of Mr President ahead of 2015. What are you putting on board, on the table for Nigerians to say that yes, Mr President is the one? The selling point of Mr President remains he himself, his effort to change the face of Nigeria, in other words what we call transformation. Looking at the sectors of the economy in this country, there are a many things that Mr President has done, but we Nigerians take them for granted and we will be reeling them out very soon, so that those who are in doubt will clear their eyes and see these things as facts of life. We believe that he has made a difference in a number of areas in this country and some of these differences are very profound in the areas of education, energy, health care, transportation, even the media. There was a time there was a lot of crying over the signing or not signing of the freedom of information bill. Now it has come to pass, but people have forgotten that he was the one who signed it. The reform in the electoral system was also very strong, very profound; these things are taken for granted. You are witnesses to what happened recently. There was an election in Ekiti State, which the PDP won decisively and the opposition honourably accepted defeat for the first time in the history of politics in Nigeria. You also saw Osun State election although we lost out. But initially those who are used to turning things continued their trait of being bad losers. But now when they won, they kept quiet. These are major issues that we take for granted, but they are here. Even in the energy sector where people often make a lot of criticism, the transformation taking place in the system is also very much evident. But the effect of all these things will take time to go down, but surely the journey has started. Ahead of the 2015 presidential election, are you in any way disturbed that there is a strong opposition? Well, yes and no. Yes because whenever you are facing an election, you are bound to anticipate a lot of things. Remember, apart from the election of Mr President, you also have to contend with the issue of our National Assembly members; you also have to be worried about the governors; you also have to be worried about the House of Assembly members; and you have to go down to the level of the chairmen of local government and councillors. Whenever you have general elections, everything is open, so it means that you have to be vigilant so that you don’t take things for granted. But what I can say now is that Nigerians are much wiser, now we are now seeing things much clearer in the sense that if you are in an opposition and you have been fighting PDP, but as you are fighting PDP, you are also desperate to take away some of its members into your fold, it means there is something good in the PDP. For example, the APC is willing to accommodate five governors who came from the PDP and they are now celebrating together, dancing together, it then means there is something good in the PDP. If they can have 37 House of Representative members and celebrate them as victory for them, without going through general elections, then you know PDP has something. Even I can tell you about 10 senators, and privatized them, then you know that there is something good in PDP, otherwise they wouldn’t bother to go through all these. But you should also understand that if it was the PDP that took away five governors from APC, 37 members from the House of Representatives, 10 or 11 senators, the party would have collapsed. But the PDP did not collapse because the party is very strong, nationwide; it is exceptionally well structured. In fact, already the party has been regaining its position. Ekiti is back and even Adamawa is gearing up. The stakeholders in Adamawa have corrected their anomaly. So, along the line, I think we will, perhaps, not disintegrate after 2015. You said the PDP must be vigilant. In what area? The price of freedom is internal vigilance, we cannot afford to assume that because we are strong, we can become complacent, we cannot. We have every reason and every duty to ensure that we continue reaching out to our members everywhere they are, mobilizing them, ensuring that we also gain some marriages in our membership drive. In politics it is never over until it is over. So I believe the leadership and membership of our party are conscious that when you have an opposition, they pose a threat to take over from you, you have to be very mindful of what you do and what you say. But Nigerians are much wiser; we can see beyond the smoke screen, we can see what is on the ground. Beyond the fact that the opposition can see something good in the PDP and even came to collect it, own it, we also have reason to say that the PDP has done much better if you compare the states where PDP is in charge with some of the states where the opposition parties are in charge. So virtually all the zones in the country, you will see that wherever you see an oasis of progress, you will see a PDP flag there. Are you also optimistic that the PDP will win more states as often said by the leadership of the party? I am very much hopeful on that. Definitely we will go beyond where we are. Some of these states, if you take a good look at them, are basically PDP states in the first place. But some of them, if it was either because of these decamping that you have seen or maybe because of some other factors, we lost the states and then, along the line, things began to go one kind. If you look at the number for example of senators from Anambra State, at least two of them are PDP members. If you take a look at the House of Representatives members, about ten out of them are from PDP. If you look at the House of Assembly, until recently, PDP was having over 80 or so members. Some decided to run away. So who says Anambra is not a PDP state but Anambra is controlled by APGA; we have so many states like that where PDP is very strong and only waiting for us to come and claim victory. You are the political adviser to Mr President. What time have you advised him that is convenient for him to formally declare for 2015? I am sure you do not want me to answer that question. You are also a politician, I believe, somehow. What is your take on the recently concluded Justice Idris Kutigi-led 2014 National Conference? What does Nigeria, President Jonathan stand to benefit from the exercise? Maybe two lessons we have learnt from that. And they are interconnected. When the conference was convened, it apparently started in turmoil so to say. Defining their rules, knowing their rules, defending their agenda, selecting their leaders, organizing their thoughts, everything was heading to some sort of chaos and doomsday prophets were waiting to celebrate that this country was heading for the rocks. But by the time Mr President went to close the conference, you could hear the sound of jubilation, you could see the excitement; you could see in the delegates faces that they were happy; one, that they were nominated to serve in this capacity. Two, they had the opportunity in a four-month period to brainstorm virtually over every sensitive issues concerning this country and, finally, for concluding the assignment of this conference. Two things are important to say on this. One, that the chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi, swore that, throughout, from the beginning to the end of the conference, Mr President never interfered in the affairs of the conference. Two, the chairman confirmed that all their decisions were done on consensus. A lot of people misunderstand the concept of consensus in politics. In fact, some people feel that consensus is not good politics. They say it is only when you vote, then that is when it is politics. But consensus is a form of voting. In fact, it is even more profound because it is easier to vote on issues for a minority to appear on one side, for the majority to appear on one side and then for the position of the majority to prevail. And then maybe, for the minority to be decided that or defeated and accept their defeat. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/2015-danger-signals-opposition-prof-alkali-political-adviser-president/#sthash.ymYQRv2c.dpuf