YOU were one of the leading aspirants for the gubernatorial seat of Ekiti State, but suddenly, you were disqualified, what happened' i don't want to sound as if I'm offended or that there was a sense of deprivation. It has happened and we move on from there. There was no doubt that I was the most popular candidate among all the aspirants at that time. But my own position has always been to make the optimum sacrifice if it will lead to public good. The reason I stepped down was that the government at that time, for whatever reason, did not enjoy the enthusiasm of the people of Ekiti State. It happens everywhere that if you pick a less popular candidate than the one that the people want, there will be some electoral consequences.As a leader of the PDP in the South-West, are you not worried that your party is gradually fading out from the zone' That is the natural anxiety of anybody associated with the PDP, not only in Ekiti State, but the entire South-West. How we respond to that situation now is what matters. We already have a situation on our hands that we probably did not anticipate. But I think the PDP is still in the process of responding to the situation vis--vis the next election. Of course, it is important for the PDP to fight its way back into the seat of governance in those states that it lost in the South- West.Of course, there could be an implosion which a ruling party usually suffers and that is when you say a party is divided against itself. The PDP candidate might emerge and win by the default of the factionalisation or implosion of the other party. But at the end of the day, it is the public good that matters, whether it is the PDP or ACN. If the governors of the South-West are doing well and are delivering the dividends of democracy, I should be very happy with that. I cannot wish the ACN governors in the South-West bad. In Ekiti, for instance, I should be happy if Fayemi satisfies the people through good governance because that is what matters at the end of the day.You served former President Obasanjo very closely and was also seen as one of the kitchen cabinet members. But suddenly, people started reading all sorts of meanings to your performance and that of the former president. How do you see Obasanjo's performance vis-a viz his public representations in recent times'First and foremost, Obasanjo can only be judged by his own standards. Relative to any other Head of State or president in the past, I think he is still the best president that this country has had. If you want to compare his previous regime as military Head of State to when he because president in 1999, I think that is a very fair comparison. But again, the difference between a democratically elected president and a military Head of State is so wide. In democracy, you have to balance interests and so many other things. Democracy is the best form of government. But when it comes to implementation of decisions, it is less efficient.If you say Obasanjo did well or didn't do well, you can only say that in comparison to his own records. There is no president of this country or Head of State, in my own sincere belief and understanding, whose performance was superior or better than Obasanjo's from 1999 to 2007. The problem with President Obasanjo is publicity. Part of this is due to the military tradition. He has tempers and he does not believe that he needs to carry everybody along. But the situation in Nigeria is such that if you are waiting to carry everybody along, you might not achieve much.Of course, it is famously noted that he did not like journalists that much. But, unfortunately, these are the people who are mirroring him to the world and to the country. So, as a result, there was a tendency to underrate his achievements and grossly exaggerate his shortcomings. The media was very unbalanced in assessing him. If, for whatever reason, you want to assess a public figure, if you do it subject to your own personal idiosyncrasy, that is not fair to the person. Secondly, for the country itself, if you continue along that line, you are going to lose the objective standard or culture of assessing people correctly. This also means that you are doing damage to the public capability to make assessment of their leader.Looking back, with the benefit of hindsight, is there a policy of the former president which you think should have been handled differently'The only thing that I believe is that the dominant characteristic of Nigeria till now is confusion, whether intended or unintended, but with mostly unintended consequences. For instance, you are now heading towards another crisis of fuel subsidy or no fuel subsidy and, of course, the question you have to ask concerns our internal capacity for refining this oil product which, of course, will substantially reduce the cost. Since that is the case, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and his friend and business colleague, Femi Otedola, bought the Kaduna Refinery in 2004 or 2006. But President Yar'Adua came in and revoked it.Personally, I get so exasperated by the problems of Nigeria and the way we treat or maltreat it. For me, if Dangote was ready and said he would pay, say not more than N10 for that refinery but that he would make it work, that is acceptable to me because the point is that government is bleeding its coffers with all these public utilities. This is something that should be generating you money but, as it is, you are rather putting money there to sustain it and it is going down the drain. So, this is the point.Imagine a situation where these people bought that refinery and got it functioning again, would we not have a functioning refinery today' This is business logic because there is no way that somebody would put in $600 million into a business and let it go to waste. So, we have this confusion all over the place.Another example is the last general election which President Goodluck Jonathan won and which was a fairly credible election. People who had no reason to say anything said it was fair and these are the international observers. These are the people who have been monitoring elections and they didn't have any reason to like Jonathan or hate Buhari or whatever. From all the information gathered, if there were areas of irregularity, they were not of the magnitude to substantially alter the outcome of the election. So why don't we learn to use the truth as a basis to renew this country' It was a testimonial for us and that is enough to get the international community to come to Nigeria because we have something positive.
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