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Why past leaders are not supporting Jonathan

Published by The Nation on Thu, 29 Jan 2015


Former Kogi State Acting Governor Clarence Olafemi is a member of the Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with JAMES AZANIA, he speaks about the chances of the party in the North Central state.TheAPC presidential campaign rally in Kogi was a huge success. How did you achieve that'We have no sitting governor. So, we had to carry our cross by ourselves. The whole thing is gone, but we thank God that it was a huge success. I have never witnessed the kind of crowd that I saw in Obajana alone. What I saw in Obajana was about three times what I saw in the stadium. It is unbelievable, even those ones alone vote in Kogi and they are all of voters age; forget about the problem of distribution of permanent voters card (PVC) cards, I have no doubt that the result of election, come February 14, will be too fantastic in Kogi.Initially, they were saying Kogi will be only 20 per cent but I told them they should aim at 80 per cent. I have been able to prove my worth, having overseen the conduct of a governorship election in 2008, that we won massively, I have proved that I am a manager of election process, by making sure that I delivered over 80 per cent of the total vote cast to my party, PDP then. There is no assignment you give me you judge me by my result. The next thing you can use in judging me was the decamping. The decamping to APC has never been so successful.The records are there. The leadership of the APC were so happy. In Kogi, we can get this crowd' There was no sort of insinuation that was not made; they said we rented crowd. Even if we borrowed, we borrowed from PDP and PDP cooperated' Is that not interesting' Even if to say we rented it means that the people we rented they have agreed to be hired. But the truth of the matter was that it was a fantastic success, the decamping was also centred around me, with the likes of Baba (John) Oda who was the leader of the group. He is a leader but the engine room is somewhere, and this one now has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Clarence Olafemi is capable of managing any political activity or structure. My concern is that let Clarence Olafemi not work and some sycophants will go and take the credit somewhere. The only leader ahead of me is Prince Abubakar Audu and he was not around, he came two days to the day. I have to give the credit vintage information because you dont value what you have until you dont have it again. I predicted to one of my closest political friends, Barrister Haruna, that there is going to be a Tsunami two weeks to the election and it is happening now. It has not even gotten to two weeks; people are going to start moving because we are tired of the government that is inactive. Why is Ekwueme not supporting Jonathan' Its in the papers. Why is Obasanjo not supporting Jonathan'Its in the papers. Why is Shagari not supporting Jonathan' Why is Babangida saying vote wisely; not supporting Jonathan' Why is Abubakar not' All these are past leaders that are still living by the special grace of God. They know that the country is not the country they wish and whatever is responsible for what is happening today is very unfortunate, its condemnable, that Chad will now be spearheading security safety of Nigeria. Chad! A state in Nigeria is richer than that country called Chad. We have crashed and collapsed the country called Nigeria; economically, politically, militarily, every sphere of this country has collapsed and people are paying lip service.What were your achievements when you were Acting Governor of Kogi State'When Clarence got into power as Acting Governor of Kogi State, he left a legacy; he established a college of education, staff and student today over 3,000 are feeding from it. Let everyone who steps into the corridor of power be able to say this is what I have done. We voted in the state house of assembly for state fund to be deducted at source to increase electricity supply in this country. Today, where are we' The money was deducted, the electricity has not come. I was Speaker of the House. I know what I am talking, Today, I spend an average of N8, 000 per day buying fuel and I have three generators in my house, yet I can still go without light. Eight times 30 will give you 240 Today, NEPA is charging me N8, 000. I am saying, NEPA please, charge me N30, 000, charge me N40, 000, but give me regular light, it is better than the diesel I am buying. I went to UK, I spent 31 days for holiday they never took my light and my computer was working on my computer Wi-Fi. Nigeria, Obasanjo gave us a platform for IT but we cannot develop it, we are retrogressing. You go to petrol station in UK that will be manned by nobody but by yourself, you plug your card, you put the nuzzle in your car, as soon as it sells the amount you want to you it cuts off and you go, whether it is 12 midnight, whether it is 11pm, you buy your fuel and you go your house. Our people go there they see them, why are they not able to allow that thing to happen in Nigeria'My ticket is what make me to enter the airport. I put it on something, once it picks the ticket it opens the gate for me I pass. These are IT and technology base that could revolutionize Nigeria.How do you respond to allegations by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode that the APC presidential candidate is batting serious health challenges'Let me just tell you, my problem with Fani-Kayode is that he is the most inconsistent Yoruba politician that we have in Nigeria. Hes the jeun jeun kind of politician, he moves by the current. I will not be surprised if tomorrow the good people of Nigeria decide Buhari should be the president and he won that election, he will criticise Goodluck Jonathan as the worst president Nigeria has ever had. So, for you people that are taking Fani-Kayode serious, I dont take Fani-Kayode serious. I dont see him as a politician of substance. He knows how to make noise. What has Fani-Kayode been able to electorally change in this country' Nothing. Since 2003 that I have come home to come and play politics are you not able to tell the story of Clarence Olafemi politically' Are you not able to say how he has impacted on the life of the average Kogite' I have a list here, which my lawyer was talking about, of how I have been able to transform the live of Kogites. Fani is an opportunist. Full stop. Is he a medical doctor' Which hospital diagnosed Buhari of cancer' And who told him that the law of nature cannot even make him to be sick tomorrow' Anybody, no matter who the person is, can fall sick. The man who owns the body has said that he only has cold, and in this changing of weather, catarrh and all these things, it is natural in African, in a tropical country. Even my little kid, Princess Tinu Olafemi, she has cold now. Are you going to say she has cancer' Can you be more Catholic than the pope' Anybody who is reckoning with Fani is wasting his time. He is an unnecessary distractions at these age of our election. He cannot gain any vote for Jonathan.There was a time the Kogi Elders Forum wrote a letter to the President that if something is not done to right, there will be repercussions. Your decamping with others, is this part of the repercussions you talked of'You have mentioned Chief John Oda, you mentioned others, the three of us were part of the six that signed the letter and in fact, they even took us to court that we are not elders from this state and the court ruled that we are elders. You know we did not come back to tell you the end of that judgment' We won. How will you say Clarence Olafemi, who is 64, who has been governor of this state, who has been Speaker of this state, is not a stakeholder of Kogi State' And, how do you define elders' Baba Oda is about 70.I saw long time ago that the PDP was going to crash. When you see an umbrella that the cyclone is blowing and you say you are looking for cover, I will not stay under the umbrella that is torn. We saw this thing coming and more will come. PDP has collapsed due to mismanagement.The impression is that you are nursing gubernatorial ambition. Is this true'Is it a crime for somebody of my age, who has acted as governor of the state to want to contest' Even if I say I will not, you will say I should and do so. Let me tell you, I am going to contest. Look at what is happening in Kogi, where nothing is working and you say that you are happy. Kwara gets about N200 million per month less than Kogi in terms of allocation but go to Ilorin and see what they have done. The other state you should be thinking about is Nasarawa, go to Nasarawa, go to Niger, go to Plateau; dont go and talk of Rivers, dont go and talk of Akwa Ibom; they will say they have oil advantage. My brother, what we have here is a desert, and if some of us do not stand up, our children, children yet unborn will ask us, they said your father was very prominent, prominent doing what' Looking for what he will come into his pocket. I remain the only Acting Governor that returned over N3.7 billion back to government purse. If Im looking for how to make millions, I would have made two out of it to my private pocket and leave 1.7 and they would still have praised me. Or, I could have attempt to transform to become the governor.The post Why past leaders are not supporting Jonathan appeared first on The Nation.]]>
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