Friday, March 29, 2024

I don’t hate Tinubu, but I detest his politics- Bode George

Chief Olabode George is a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party. He is now aspiring to the office of the President of Nigeria come 2003. In this interview with AYO ESAN, he speaks about his ambition to govern the country, the current insecurity and sundry issues affecting the  Nigerian nation. Excerpts:

 

That you have shown interest in the 2023 presidential race is known to many Nigerians, but what are the things that keep motivating you as you proceed day by day in this journey?

 

You know I was born in this country; I grew up in this country. This country has been very nice to me, it trained me. It sent me to the United States War College. It sent me to the Royal Naval Engineering College. I have acquired a lot of training and things I would never have thought of.   I have been exposed. I have sailed the coast of the seas in the World- Atlantic, Pacific, North Sea and so what is there that I will now sit back and won’t pay back? When I see something that is not going right, I must say something. And this doesn’t matter, I am not talking politics now. I am talking as a Nigerian. Yoruba people say heaven will fall is not a matter of one person, it will affect everybody. If the heaven is going to fall, nobody can escape. When you see these signs, this is the time to have the elephant in the room. Let us look at it dispassionately, without any emotion and tell ourselves the truth. The British planted their wuruwuru here and we have allowed it to fester. Why? Nobody selected where he was to be born, he just popped out there. Why would you hate another person? You know that seed of discord that they planted instead of us to jointly uproot it and throw it away and live like brothers, we allow it to fester. So, I have made friends all over this country and see this nation, the strength of our country, weaknesses of our country, compare to any other country. We are blessed with human resources. There is no known profession anywhere in the World that you won’t find one Nigerian who is an expert. Then, why are we fighting ourselves? You plant something, effortlessly it will start growing, is that not a luck for us? From the Tropical to the Savannah region. It is the differences in culture, the respect for that, that is our strength rather than creating hatred between tribes. When I look at this thing, I said if they send it to the zone here because there is conditionality, you know the lawyers will say condition precedent. If those things are met because right now the state of the nation is wobbling, it is disturbing. That is why I have been a bit quiet. I want to join the others from the North, from the East, let us stabilise the platform called Nigeria. All is not well.  Everybody lives in fear, whether you are from the North, or you are from the West or from the East, Middle Belt or South- South. Where are we going? I have never been this frightened and concerned about this state of our nation. Those are the things that made me say why not? I don’t have money like those who have bullion vans driven in and out of their homes, but I know and believe in God Almighty and His power is much more than that of any individual.

 

This means that those who are saying you are just flying a kite and that you are not really interested in the presidency are wrong…

 

(Cuts in) I am not just flying a kite. I am dead serious. At 75, will I now be joking like a jester in a Jankara market? No. But it is for us to show your interest, if it is the will of Almighty God, nobody can stop you. Nobody.  That is the awesome power of God.  You know it is not a matter of life and death for me. I have made friends in all corners of this country. I see them as my brothers and sisters. I am not going with any biases. That is what is giving me a push, saying why not manage this nation? I have managed many things in life. I had been given an opportunity to manage Ondo State, go there and find out.  To me,  I have worked assiduously in managing a political party successfully and we were able to defend democracy. We allowed democracy to grow till this time these people took up government. And we didn’t have this kind of nonsense.

 

You talk of your party now, the party you worked for and you help to rebuild. How strong and united is the PDP as we head towards 2023?

 

I will keep on praying.   It is normal, once human beings are involved in something, you would have the ups and downs. You would have time of tribulations and trial. No system is perfect but the beauty of it is that we should be able to know when things are not working right unless you want to deceive yourself. But  with all the ruffles and shuffling , rumbling  in PDP,  we are more  better  than this  APC, which is a congregation of  strange bed  fellows . I had never heard in my life that people in the party would take their chairman to court to be suspended.  Ruling party! Look back into history, where do they get that from? There is a leader of the party, where is the leader of their party? Where are the elders? Where are the Board of Trustees people? Where are those people? In the PDP you still have the people who are so concerned, who can call the shots and tell Mr. Chairman you are wrong. Where are those people? Is it not a national disgrace that the chairman of a ruling party has been asked to back out. Nigerians should note, they should know their methodology of management. APC is not a political party. It is like something that is conceptualised in a dream. They don’t have any taproot.

 

In Lagos, two people are laying claim to the chairmanship of the party?

 

You see, this is what I am saying,  we cannot have an organisation without disturbance, disagreement, but it should not go beyond the resolution. The beauty of it is that there is a constitution.  It is only in the animal kingdom they don’t have laws. We have a constitution and the constitution should be able to guide our behaviours in the party, outside the party, at the congresses. Because today you are there, at another time you are not there. There is nobody who is perpetual except the Almighty God. Don’t play God, because it is all voluntary. If you do well, you will see it; if you do badly, you will see it. We warned them about this thing they created a hell in the party. Somebody, I mean Moshood Salvador, left in disgraceful circumstances. He left the party. The law is clear. If any member of the state executive council at any level leaves, there is a procedure in getting somebody who should replace him and how long he will work. I didn’t make the law, but that is our constitution, which is the grand norm. The full exco met  and  elected somebody , Mr. A and he  was running the party and all of a sudden from nowhere, they said oh  he is supposed to spend only 90 days . That must be an oversight because the 90 days did not apply to him; it applies to the man who was just to act. He cannot act for not more than 90 days but somebody who was elected by his executive at that level was to serve out the term of the man who left. You now congregated some people and I told them you can’t do this, but they think they are there today they can change the rules, they can bend the rules. That is not a proper way to manage. You are causing more confusion here. And they have come to talk to me that we cannot discount the mistake they made. If you discount that one, we will just continue to perpetuate illegality. The one that is there now, they can tell him tomorrow we give you only 60 days, get out.  There are rules, there are laws and I was part of those who built this party. I cannot be the one to take a hammer and strike down the foundation. It is not in my interest that we are in court. But thank God we have a seasoned young man who has a wealth of wisdom, who is so committed and his loyalty is beyond doubt. He saw the reprehensible behaviours and they even invited a grandmaster, master of politics, former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, they have come. What else does he want in the party? When the founding fathers built this party, our prayers was that for the next 50 years PDP would be ruling. It was our jagajaga behaviour that sent us to the canvass. But they have spoken, that they would see how to manage the situation. Remember the story of Solomon and the two women. King Solomon listened to A and listened to B and he said if you are both claiming this child, let us divide the child into two. He knew for real the child would be dead. The one who was not the mother was the one saying cut it, but the mother of the child said no, give the child to her instead of killing the child. Didn’t you see the truth? Truth will prevail, justice will prevail, and equity will prevail.  Those are the tripod on which any sane organisation stand on. If you remove one leg, it becomes wobbling. So, I was happy the governor intervenes. To me, it is only the God Almighty that we give all Glory. In every situation, just thank him.

 

As I said, Governor Makinde, very cerebral, brilliant, good academic, good managerial skill. He cannot come, and I will say no, I don’t want to see you. He is the mediator, he has come here, and he has talked to us. We would try and balance the two. All we are talking about, it remains one year only for the party chairman in Lagos. Only one year. You don’t have general elections next year. You don’t have election the following year, until 2023. So, what is all the fight for?

 

Due to your recent interviews where you mentioned Tinubu here and there, one of the APC Leaders, Chief Lanre Rasaq and APC State Secretary, Seye Oladejo, said you have phobia for Tinubu. How true is that?

 

I am shocked that Rasaq can mention my name. If he is looking for position from Tinubu, he should have used a further depth that God has given him, not to open mouth and be telling Nigerians I have a phobia for Tinubu. What has he become? When he was in PDP, what was he? His ability and all that. He was given opportunities to prove his mettle. Since he went down there to APC, what has been the outcome? I want to, please, advise him: don’t come here and insult me. Don’t ever come around and insult me. That is a blatant insult.  I have known him way back. What does he mean by phobia? For me, I don’t have any enmity against Bola Tinubu. What I abhor and detest are his politics, his general comportment and attitude. As a human being, I have no right to say eh this person is good or bad. We are all sinners and we beg God every time to forgive us our sins and He has promised us to forgive us our sins seventy times seven. What we are saying is that in Yoruba Wonni won gbe e sidi pepe, gbogbo nkan to wa nidi pepe o tun je tan.  Are you alone, there will be a day after? My advice to him is kada kada, small small. You cannot live in two rooms in a day. You cannot ride two cars at the same time. There will be a day the Lord will say enough is enough and nobody knows that day.  That language should be clear to him.

 

Let us look at the issue of insecurity. The United Nations has threatened to sanction Nigeria. The United States said it would intervene directly, saying the number of deaths is appalling. Governor el-Rufai, few days ago, apologised to the people of Kaduna for his inability to secure them. Looking at all these, is Nigeria not becoming a Pariah nation and what is your advice for the President on this issue?

 

Let me first of all say never in our history, in the history of this country, I have spent 75 years on this mother earth, never has Nigeria been in this state. Distrust for tribes, distrust for religions, what for? Show me anywhere in the Koran where you are told that you can kill. Show me anywhere in the Bible where you are told you can kill. In fact, in the Ten Commandments, one of it says thou shall not kill. What is going on? The more you spill the blood of somebody created by God, you pay thrice for it. My suggestion to Oga is this; he should as a matter of urgency call a national meeting, call all the leaders from all the regions for a dialogue. Nobody knows it all. Two heads are better than one. We don’t need the press, just shut down the villa. By the time they spend hours together, they would have talked the truth to themselves. People will talk the truth to power. That is it. That is the African way of drawing us from the debris of hell. He must call this meeting. By the time they talk to themselves, when they come out, you will see a new Nigeria. This country is a gift from Almighty God. I have been everywhere; there is no state that does not have major resources that they can use to generate income. What of human beings, boku like sand.

 

Number two, the governors who started regional security outfits like the Amotekun in the South West, community policing, why are we fighting against it? It is a value added to the internal security of this country. Let’s look at the police, how many police do we have presently? 245,000 as against 200 million people, how can that work? And they are controlled from one point. The Amotekun will employ people within the local communities. They know who is there. If they see a stranger, either in the day or night, they will ask him what he wants there. And to also control them, there will be Area Fathers who will also be part of Amotekun. So, within their environment, they will control them. If any governor wants to use the Amotekun for political purposes, they will be against him.  We need this not only in the South West but everywhere.  That is my number two suggestion.

 

Number three: I have been thinking about what General Gowon did. That singular action, he started the National Youth Service Corps. People from this area move to another area and within one year you should learn and see other people’s culture. Very brilliant, but it is not complete. I am suggesting as a matter of urgency that every child of primary school age in South West, before you can be given Certificate of Graduation, must learn to speak Hausa and Igbo. Every child of Northern Nigeria, who is in Primary School, before you should be given certificate that you have passed must be able to speak Yoruba and Igbo. The same with a child of South East in Primary School, you must learn Hausa and Yoruba before you get your certificate. Language is a powerful tool. It won’t be the first. Switzerland is made up of three major tribes and they do rotate the headship of that country among the three tribes.   There has never been any problem and they don’t even have the resources. They have never been in any war or raised any cacophony of voices.

Popular Articles