Leadership (Abuja)
Iyobosa Uwugiaren
9 April 2008
interview
Abuja — Uba Sani was the special adviser {public affairs} to former president Olusegun Obasanjo. In this interview, he discussed the unfolding political events in the country, the role he played during president Obasanjo's regime and the seeming current probe of the regime. He spoke with Iyobosa Uwugiaren..
In the last few weeks, the unfolding political events appear to be suggesting that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua-led administration is probing your former boss, former President Obasanjo. What is your take on that?
Those who are insinuating that President Yar'Adua is probing Obasanjo don't understand the true situation and the dynamism of politics. Because, so far there is nothing to suggest that President Yar'Adua is probing the immediate past president of the country. What has President Yar'Adua done that will make people think that way?
Looking at the on-going public hearing on power sector by the House of Representatives, is that not an indication that this government is probing Obasanjo?
No. You cannot connect what is happening in the House at present with President Yar'Adua. Under a democracy, the legislature has every right to conduct public hearing on any issue, in line with its oversight function and responsibility to determine the wrong or otherwise of government's policies and programmes. The legislative arm of government is different from the executive. I think we need to be very careful in drawing our conclusion. We should not be in a hurry in drawing our conclusion on the current public hearing because until now there is no logical reasoning or evidence linking Obasanjo to wrong doing, as far as the issues are concerned. Most of the people who have been linked to the issues have been invited; they have made their submissions; I am sure more people will be invited to give evidence or testify. So, let us wait for the outcome of the investigations; let's not rush into conclusion in saying that Obasanjo has committed the worst crime, concerning the matter. It may be Obasanjo today and it may be somebody else tomorrow. As a leader, there were many people who worked under Obasanjo; they had responsibility in taking certain decisions that were related to their ministries or agencies. Those who are trying to connect the public hearing with President Yar'Adua are not fair to him. And those who are also insinuating that Obasanjo has done something are not being fair to him because the House is still investigating the matter.
Don't you think Obasanjo should take responsibility over what happened during his tenure?
I agree that the main reason why people are calling for Obasanjo's head over the matter is because those things happened under his tenure; but there were persons who were charged with responsibilities of implementing the policies and that is why most of them have been called to testify. For example, two ministers were recently forced to resign their appointments, over an alleged involvement in corrupt practices and nobody can link President Yar'Adua to it. As a leader, you have several people working under you, at all time and you don't know what they are doing; not all of them will be sincere in what they are doing. My position is that we should wait for the outcome of the investigation of the matter.
So you don't believe that Yar'Adua is probing Obasanjo?
For now, there is no evidence to suggest that.
What about several requests by people and members of the civil society groups to President Yar'Adua, asking him to probe Obasanjo?
We are in democracy; people have every right to express their views; some of them might be genuine in their requests; some might have political motives; some might be selfish. But we should have our facts; we should not act on hearsay or rumour. We should be very careful with the way we accuse people of wrongdoing; our action should be based on facts.
Are you saying there is no evidence linking Obasanjo to the huge corruption that took place in the power sector in the last nine years?
Let us wait for the House to finish its work before we draw our conclusion. Like the House committee on power sector said recently, the House has not accused anybody of wrongdoing because the investigation is still going on. If that is the current position of the committee, then we should all accept that. If at the end of the day somebody is found guilty, the law should take its course but even the committee has no exclusive power to indict anybody-its report must be subjected to thorough debate and scrutiny by Nigerians. For now, we should not allow our personal interests, political differences, emotion and other peculiar interests to form the basis of our judgement.
Do you still see Obasanjo?
I see him anytime I want to see him.
Is there anything to suggest that Obasanjo is not happy with President Yar'Adua?
Obasanjo has nothing against the president; he is not regretting his full support for him because the president has not wronged him. Like I said before, those who think Obasanjo is fighting Yar'Adua don't know the dynamism of power and politics. As far as I am concern, the former president and Yar'Adua still enjoy a very robust political relationship and Obasanjo had consistently told many of us who worked under him and worked for the emergence of this government to continue to support president Yar'Adua. I have also had the privilege of meeting with President Yar'Adu in some occasions and I can tell you that he has high and tremendous respect for Obasanjo. Some of the issues people discuss on the pages of newspapers, on television and radio don't just exist at all.
You said Obasanjo had asked some of you to continue to support president Yar'Adua. Is that happening?
Clearly that is happening. But as a matter of fact, I personally doesn't require Obasanjo's advice to continue to support Yar'Adua. I knew him before he became governor of Kastina State; we have been working together since 1995 and I have a very good relationship with him. When he came out to contest for the presidency of this country we supported him because of his past good records. Personally, I believe he was the right person to take over from Obasanjo and until this moment I have no reason to change my position. President Yar'Adua has unique leadership qualities that are not known to some people. He is a very thorough person, he takes his time to understand the problems for credible and lasting solutions. He is a very dedicated leader, especially when it comes to responsibilities. Based on these qualities, I have always believed that he is the right person to move this country forward. I believe every Nigerian has a responsibility to support him, irrespective of our political differences because if this country works, we will all benefit from it. It is not about President Yar'Adua; it is about our country.
How would you access this government? I ask this question because some critics of Yar'Adua said he is too slow.
I don't believe he is too slow. It is a very wrong judgement on the part of those who hold that view. Every leader has his or her leadership style. We need to be very patient. Of course I know every Nigeria including his worst critics believe President Yar'Adua has the capacity and leadership qualities to move this country forward. So we need to give him enough time to study the problems so that he can get it right. He has his own programmes and it is better for him to sit down, study them very well and get the right persons that will implement those programmes before taking decisions.
What do you think should be his priority for now?
The president has good programmes that will move this country forward. They include: health, education, transportation, power, employment, agriculture and others. So far, he has shown enough commitment to solving these problems. He believe in doing things in a right way; he could be slow but it is better for him to be slow and get it right than for him to be fast and get it wrong. All we need to do now is to support him to succeed.
Given the complex nature of the nation's socio-political issues, do you think the president has enough information and understanding to tackle these problems?
Certainly yes. Yar'Adua is a thorough breed administrator who is versed in the socio-political dynamics of this country. He has huge concern for the common people. He is very concern about the welfare of the people. Check his records, when he was the governor of Kastina state. He was declared as the most prudent, transparent and open governor at that time. So, I have no doubt in my mind that he will move this country forward.
As somebody who worked very closely with the former president, you were an insider in the political process that produced this government at all levels. Now in the last few months, the election tribunals have nullified some elections both at the federal and state levels. Is that not an indication of fraudulent electoral process?
I don't agree with your position. Nobody has ever said that the last general elections were 100 percent perfect. I still strongly believe that the outcome of the elections, to a very large extent is a true reflection of what happened during the elections. But that is not to say there were no minor problems in some states. Even former president Obasanjo also admitted that the elections were not perfect hoping the election tribunals would correct those few mistakes and that is what is happening now. Let us hope that the tribunals will do justice to the matter.
Do you believe President Yar'Adua won his election?
Absolutely yes. It was only president Yar'Adua and the People Democratic Party {PDP}, at that time that had the capacity and structures to win the presidency. Going by several opinion polls conducted by credible researchers, within and outside the country, Yar'Adua was the most popular candidate; he was the only candidate who campaigned in all states of the federation. He was the only candidate who had solid political structures in all the local governments, across the country. And we were not surprised he won the election overwhelmingly.
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