Follow Us on Google
From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Former Senate Chief Whip, Roland Owie, has advised the electorate not to vote based on religion but on what the major candidates have done in their environment during their past political engagements.
Senator Owie in this interview, spoke on various issues.
I want you to put on your political binoculars and look at Nigeria in 2023; where are we going?
In 2023, when election will be conducted and a person with a compassionate heart wins, I can tell you that things will change.
Now without being biased, myself and Atiku Abubakar were in PDM when we formed the PDP; it is the M we removed to become PDP. As you see him, he is like you. In short, when he wears his suits, you will think he is a pastor in the church. He has a broad mind, three wives, one Yoruba, one Ibo wife, just like that. As a matter of fact, he is a man of compassion.
Like IBB, he will not leave you in difficulty without showing signs of support. That is what saved IBB as well. I say it, IBB, you can’t pass his way without showing you a favour. That is what saved his regime.
So, I can assure you that 2023, when a responsible Nigerian with a compassionate heart wins the presidency, within six months, this country will turn back and goodness return to it in Jesus name.
Right now, there is this insecurity that is engulfing Nigeria. When we are looking at the political side, how are we sure that we will get to 2023?
The insecurity you are seeing today, it is aided and abated by the government itself. Quote me because there is no way a responsible government which does not have a betrayer within the security organization, his convoy will be attacked in Katsina, a prison in Kuje, the headquarters of Abuja, will be attacked and as we are talking, not one person has been dealt with and you are saying you are doing security. Which security? As far as I am concerned, all these things you are seeing, kidnapping and others are aided by this government.
During Jonathan, when this issue of Boko Haram started, Buhari was named as the one to represent them to negotiate. He has never denied it. He complained that government was dealing with them wrongly that they are free citizens.
So, what we are seeing today are aided by this government, so they can’t complain. But certainly the souls that are dying and being treated by these Boko Haram, their spirits will wait for this government and their major sponsors at the throne of grace when they die. They will pay dearly for it.
I tell you, a responsible government with a headship, the security is seeing their leader is straight, they too will be straight. Recall about a year or two ago, they caught a military man from the North East with a huge sum of money and nothing happened.
A lot of things have been found like this and Buhari will sit down and you can’t hear it anymore.
I was reading in the newspaper that the Accountant General, N109 billion was traced to his account and after about two days in prison, I saw in the newspaper that four wives were welcoming him and were smiling with their new born babies. Actually, this government is aiding and abetting corruption, a nation that is not ashamed of itself.
The president’s convoy was attacked in Katsina as we are talking today, nobody has been arrested.
The picture you are painting now, how are you sure we can conduct election in the country?
The truth is, when God says yes, nobody can say no. I can assure you, the number of responsible Northerners issuing statements and talking now, they themselves are more fed up than yourself.
When the thing started, some criminally minded Northern leaders were thinking that the thing is for the South but today, it is more in the North, it is now in Katsina, it is more in the North because you can’t mock God. What they want to give to us as a bad fruit, they are now the one eating it badly now. Look at my friend, junior schoolmate, El-Rufai in Kaduna, a man who was a Minister and a lot of things were traceable to him and he can open his mouth; right there in Kaduna, an enlightened person.
Looking at the candidates who have indicated to rule the country, do you think they have the wherewithal to turn things around considering the way the country has sunk?
Peter obi is my in-law and a faith brother. I have said it severally, that the president of Nigeria, come 2023 on PDP platform, has to come from the North since the South, with OBJ and Jonathan presidencies, has spent 14 years plus while the North has spent 2 years plus and therefore I am not able to support a Southern candidate for 2023. However, if after this Northern slot by Atiku Abubakar, and the slot shifts to the South and Peter Obi shows interest to run for presidency, on appropriate political party platform, I will, God willing support him.
And for my co-in-law, Tinubu, married to Itsekiri from the same place with my wife, he should know, let us face it.
What has happened to the legacies that Lateef Jakande left as governor of Lagos State under UPN? What happened to the railway that Jakande started which Buhari stopped? He was there eight years as governor of Lagos State, why did he not revive the railway system? If Buhari had not stopped it, he would have completed it before he left in his second term and may his soul rest in peace. What has happened to all the investments Jakande put into housing and estates? Who converted them into their personal property? My co-in-law Tinubu has been the one producing governors in Lagos State all along and why is Lagos State still where it is today? From the report I was seeing from the ministry of finance about three or four weeks ago, the indebtedness of Lagos State is higher than most of the states in Nigeria.
Get into Lagos, you can’t drive. The third Mainland bridge that IBB built, for eight years of Jakande and for many years of his surrogate being governors, which other bridge have they put into operation? So as far as I am concerned, Tinubu knows, he crowned it all with infidelity by taking a Muslim as his running mate.
It was tried in 1993 and we are now in 2023. Look, it is just that history is just repeating itself. The 1993 Muslim-Muslim ticket ended in fiasco and this one will go nowhere.
Finally, Atiku Abubakar was vice presidential candidate to Obasanjo. Obasanjo lost his unit in that 1999 election, he lost his ward, local government, his state, his zone in the entire South West zone and became President of Nigeria and Atiku was the Vice president of Nigeria.
We were there in the Senate, a meeting was held in Agura to elect principal officers for the ruling party which had majority. The late Solomon Lar, National chairman was presiding and all major principal office holders were there, election was conducted; Chuba Okadigbo was there, the thing went. It was now Monday, it was done on Friday. Monday which was now the formal inauguration of the Assembly before the election will be held; Saturday of it, Obasanjo got Agagu to be using bus to be carrying all of us to the Villa and we were the last set to be carried. We went there and he advised us to support Enwerem against Chuba Okadigbo and I opposed it.
He got AD and other party members to elect Enwerem. After the jamboree of sharing money, Atiku was in his own office calling everybody, please, go and obey what the party decided.
You can see a man, he was not part of that money sharing. So, apart from being with him in the PDM, he was loyal to late Musa Yar Ardua and as I am talking to you today, he has an Hausa wife, he has a Yoruba wife and he has an Igbo wife.
He has a University and that University, the chairman of the Governing Council, is not a Muslim. Out of the 19 members of the governing council, about 10 are Christians. Atiku does not deal with you on religion level.
His relationship is open. He will just tell you my friend, I don’t like this one. He has no bias against any religion.
As a matter of fact, quite a number of times, he donated to church establishments without looking back.
Two, we are talking about experience. He and Okonjo-Iweala ensured that the government of Obasanjo was fruitful.
When Obasanjo openly destroyed all the toll gates in Nigeria, I know the advice Okonjo-Iweala gave him over toll gates.
I was to go to court to challenge him for destroying toll gates because that was willful destruction. Whereas those toll gates would have been modernized, put the collection of the toll gates, automate them, and put health centre near the area, and buy an ambulance near. My brother, if toll gates were automated, Nigeria will not be putting money to tar roads; it will take care of itself, it will pay workers, it will reduce unemployment; he destroyed it and today, we are in this mess that we are in.
So, I can assure you my brother, you have Atiku who is a human being, if he becomes the president of this country next year, you are going to see innovation; he believes strongly in the devolution of power; that this over concentration is not necessary. I tell you when ordinary Abacha came, and the local government were autonomous, they got their allocation direct and local government in Nigeria performed.
Today, three quarters of the funds are hijacked by the governors.
Beyond that, looking at what is to come on board, you talked about the three candidates as you assessed them, do you think Nigeria is redeemable?
Yes. Nigeria’s integrity is fully redeemable; if you see what the young man today, the young lawyer, who is the chairman of EFCC, I don’t know him, I only see him on television and newspapers, is doing, may God bless him. What that young man is doing in EFCC, it tells you that Nigeria is redeemable. If you see the rot that Nuhu Rubadu and Waziri brought to EFCC which this boy is cleaning up without looking back, you will know that Nigeria is redeemable. We are human beings, this world is vanity. Very redeemable God will redeem it. The moment the man that has compassion, a man that believes that this world is not our home like Atiku and then getting human beings as part of the system from top to bottom, Nigeria is redeemable. This is because we have great Nigerians, the ordinary people, they mean well; if you see Keke Napep boys driving, 90 percent of people driving Keke Napep, they are not Yahoo boys, they do their best. Let us face it, look at you Journalists all over the countries, there are some states where the governor does not know if you people are alive. Whereas, ordinarily, it is the media that is the face of government. The media is like paint which you put in a house. Build a house, three hundred scrappers, and is not painted, you will not see the beauty in it.
It is the media that paint the government and shows the people of the world what the government is. Ninety percent of our people who are in the government don’t care. Sometimes, I look at the television and I see people saying that they are in need of some five million or so to go to India for kidney transplant. Each time I wacthed it, I will ask are we living in this world? A responsible government should appoint special assistant on health matters. Their duty is to watch television and read papers and report back to the government. All you need to do is to investigate to know if it is real. What is five million when most governors collect more than eight hundred million naira a month as security votes? What is five million naira even though they spend such money on those that are in need of it; God will record it for them at the day of judgement.
What is your advice for voters in the forthcoming general elections?
My advice to voters as we approach 2023 is that they should look at the history of everybody. Let them consider what the major candidates have done in their political lives, those who have been governors, those who have been Vice Presidents who are running, let them see what role they played in the environment they were and they vote and that they should not look at it from religious basis.
