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National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, in this interview, reviews some of the efforts being made by the party to reposition Nigeria. He also describes as nonsensical the insinuation that the running mate to the presidential candidate of the APC, Gen.Muhammadu Buhari, Yemi Osinbajo, is a stooge of the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Explaining that the party decided to assemble men of integrity to face the PDP in the February elections so as to tell Nigerians that change has come, Oyegun warns that the electorate will serve as vigilante against alleged plot to rig the elections by the PDP.
He speaks on other national issues including the return of some loyalists of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu in Edo State to the APC.
Excerpts:
The APC held a successful convention. How did you make that possible?
There was really no magic wand, that was the APC putting on show before the Nigerian public what the APC is and what we are all about. All what transpired were, with all sincerity, honest of purpose, deploying the right personnel to do the job the way it ought to be done. We appointed a team that was up to the task, very honest and transparent. The team was headed by Dr Fayemi, a former governor of Ekiti State. There was this noise about consensus candidate but I told them that consensus is good if it comes from those directly involved.
I made it clear to them that I was not going to be party to twisting any body out of the race. What all the aspirants wanted was a level- playing field and transparency that they too could see. And we gave them that and that proved that Nigerians can be gracious losers. Nigerians can accept defeat when they see that the process was not skewed against them; that is the APC, that is what we are offering the Nigerian people.
People expected the APC to pick one of the South South governors as running mate to Buhari, but you went for someone who is considered relatively unknown. Why?
That is the APC for you, expect the unexpected. We had qualified people. As a matter of fact, the candidate had a list of ten from all over the country and the attributes that we were looking at were quite clear, given the nature of the aspirant that he has become to the nation a symbol of rectitude. We were also looking for some body of equal rectitude, totally none controversial, a dye in the wood professional, a very organized person.
It was a difficult choice because it took us a few days, it was a very difficult choice because every one of them in the field of selection was highly qualified. At the end, we thought this man best balanced the ticket and today we are presenting to the nation, the kind of persons that we think Nigerians can become; people who have succeeded through being transparent, hard working and dedicated. Everything we did we want to let the people know what to expect when they give us the mandate in February.
But many people see Osinbajo as a stooge of Asiwaju Tinubu?
It is only the people in the PDP that see it that way because they don’t know what is called integrity. I don’t know if anybody can be anybody’s stooge particularly a professional like that. And not just a professional he is also high in the hierarchy of the Christian world. He may get on with Tinubu, I get on very well with Tinubu, he is also close with Tinubu because he worked with him as a Commissioner years ago but since then he has devoted his time to his professional duties. So it does not matter if he is close to Tinubu or not. He is a highly qualified professional, he has made himself a success in that profession; so he is not looking for sustenance, people like that can never be stooges of any body.
INEC recently expressed fears over re-run in the 2015 polls. In case if it happens, what is your view?
INEC never fails to surprise us. Four years ago, we all knew there was going to be another election in four years which is this year, but you can see they have not proved to be ready even with four years of planning. I think unfortunately there is a lot of infiltration into INEC at the lower level particularly the ICT department and the voter registration department, those fields have obviously become the playing field of the PDP.
So one pities (INEC boss) Jega really because he is now dealing with a machine over which he does not exercise total control as those two departments have become agents by and large of the PDP. So I am not surprised that they are not ready, with the voters registration, they are not ready with the PVCs; I am not sure they are ready with card reader. So if there is going to be a re-run and with only seven days, to do that after the main election, at least it is good the INEC is confessing that they are also unlikely to be ready for a re-run.
What all that tells us is that we need to take a new look INEC; there is now no question about it, that has become inevitable but, of course, that cannot take place between now and the elections. But it is good they raised the alarm so we must begin to think now of what to do should that happen. We don’t expect that to happen because from our own investigation around the country shows we are going to have an outright victory on February 14.
A presidential aide likened Jonathan to Jesus. Do you see him that way?
I don’t want to be involved with this Jesus Christ debate because it is one of the most blasphemous thing that anybody can say. If anybody is given a responsibility, six years down the line and has not already proven and he is still hoping that, in future, he may turn out to be a saviour, six years he has not done any thing to show that he has started on that road. I think six years is enough for anybody to prove himself. Nigerians are fed up with the level of corruption, Nigerians are fed up with insecurity, so fed up with a litany of unfulfilled promises.
This is not a case now of some body failing an exam and he is being asked to repeat; when you fail so woefully in our days, you get thrown out, you will go and learn a trade or find something else to do. We cannot continue like this, the country is in pieces, our economy is in shambles. People troop to Abuja, states that have not paid salaries for one year like Kogi, Benue, there is no school open in those states due to non- payment of workers, yet you now went there to donate N50 million which you could have used to pay your teachers salaries.
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