I’ll flee Nigeria if APC wins — Bode George

In this interview with ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, a
national leader of the Peoples Democratic
Party, Chief Bode George, speaks on the
recent comments of former President
Olusegun Obasanjo and other national issues
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says
President Goodluck Jonathan plans to
perpetuate himself in government like the
former President of Cote d’Ivoire, Laurent
Gbagbo. What do you think of this
comment?
He (Obasanjo) says he is a Christian and as a
Christian, it is emphasised in the New
Testament of the Bible where Christ said
judge not so that you will not be judged. But
his judgment is no longer about the policies
of Jonathan. He has gone down to the extent
of saying Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
(retd.) will jail you (Jonathan), that is why
you are afraid. I am holding my breath
because in an African setting, you talk to
elders with respect and that is why I am
trying to get the right words to describe my
feelings. Baba (Obasanjo) is not a young man.
He was Head of State at 39. So averagely, he
should be about 84 or 85 and I am requesting
that he should graciously fade away into the
midnight. In the Bible, Romans chapter 13
states clearly that we should pray for those
in authority. It says pray for your leaders so
that they don’t run aground. So, to me that
is my own interpretation. If baba (Obasanjo)
had attended the Council of State meeting in
Abuja, where they were very well briefed,
and that it was decided that only the
Chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega,
that could pronounce a postponement and
that he should go and come up with a
decision and Jega addressed a press
conference. Now to start comparing our
President with Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire is
unjust, unsavoury and unfair because what
is the population of Ivory Coast? What are
the tribal sentiments of Ivory Coast? Are
they the same here? I want to plead with
Baba. God has been kind to him and he has
served his own time. I don’t want to
conclude that his life will be like King Saul
in the Bible. I pray it will not be so. Baba has
played his role. No generation can finish any
job. Nation building is a continuous exercise.
You come, do your own and go back into
history.
Apart from the issue of insecurity which
Jega gave as the reason for the
postponement of the elections, do you think
INEC was ready to conduct the elections
on February 14 and 28?
I granted an interview recently and there
were two posers that I gave to Jega. Thank
God Jega is a professor. He told us that there
was an 88 per cent collection rate in Borno
State where there is massive insurgency as
well as in Yobe and Adamawa states. Here,
where there is calmness and civility, only 30
something per cent of the populace had
collected PVCs. It is just improving. I think as
of last Friday over three million had
collected as against 5.6 million. And he is
saying we are ready. Without the Permanent
Voter Cards, you are immediately
disenfranchised. Ask Jega that as a professor,
will it be fair to conduct an examination
whereby you have (students who have)
covered 80 per cent syllabus and another
class where you have (students who have)
covered only 30 per cent syllabus. Is it fair?
The other question is this issue of card
readers. Have they been tested? I am talking
as an electronic engineer of 48 years in
practice. You just bought equipment from
China and the last time it was tested was in
China. Our own environment is not the
same. Look at the vagaries of the
temperature here from the swampy areas of
the South and the savannah in the North.
Who has tested the equipment? Now, I am
not saying they will not all work but if there
are almost 9,000 polling units in Lagos, is he
saying all the 9,000 card readers will be
functional? If the card readers fail to work in
some polling units, what shall we do?
Why did the military surround former
Governor Bola Tinubu’s house?
If Bola Tinubu finds his way into national
government, I will go on exile. He hasn’t the
temerity and the calmness of mind. They
don’t even know what to do in power.
Because the vice-president is his boy, he will
just order that Bode George should be picked
up. He said soldiers came to him but he
must have been dreaming. When he said
soldiers had surrounded his house, I drove
down there because my house is not too far
from there. I know the hierarchy of the
military and its behaviour. That they
surrounded his house is lie number one
because on either side of his house are two
buildings. There is also one at the back. So, I
wondered where the soldiers were hiding.
Why would you lie for public consumption?
So when I got down there, I knew that his
spin doctors were working. These days
people go on the social media and the story
went viral. Why would he (President Godluck
Jonathan) from Abuja, be running after Bola?
Let them be very careful about the
statements they are making. More so, if
Obasanjo is now linking Jonathan with what
happened in Cote d’Ivoire and coup; not in
this 21st Century. That is past and gone
forever. No nation goes through this kind of
tribulation twice and survive. We have had
our own experience of Civil War and I pray
that God does not direct our minds in that
direction and our people have to watch their
mouths.
The general perception in Lagos is that the
governorship race is between yourself and
Tinubu.
Absolutely not! In the PDP, no individual
owns the party. I happen to have been the
first national vice chairman, South-West PDP,
and then became deputy national chairman
South and then deputy national chairman for
the whole country and having done that,
they have honoured me that as long as I
remain in the party, I remain a member of
the Board of Trustees and I am the only one
representing the South-West in the national
caucus forever. That is a great honour in our
party but I don’t decide who becomes a
candidate. Primaries were conducted and in
this particular case, the voice of the people
became louder than anybody’s. I am not like
Bola Tinubu, I don’t have the papers of the
party in my pocket. I don’t even have a veto
power. But the other side doesn’t practice
democracy. We have friends that are
members there. Jimi Agbaje has no godfather
but will not behave like an authoritarian
governor.
But Senator Musiliu Obanikoro said you
were the one that imposed Agbaje.
That is absolute garbage, he knew he was
lying. You know he came from their party
and that is why he was saying it was me. He
has now retracted the statement. We are now
one indivisible party and we are ready for
election. All the vagaries and all that
happened during the primary was a test of
the ability and the strength of our party and
we listened to the voice of the people. The
voice of the people is the voice of God.
Jonathan’s perception in the South-West is
not as favourable as it was in 2011. There
has been blame on you and other PDP
Yoruba leaders for allowing Buhari to
increase in popularity in the South-West.
If you had said this about two or three
weeks ago, I would have agreed. I got these
feelers straight to my face. People came to
me and said they would vote for Agbaje but
they will not vote for Jonathan because he
had done nothing for us here. And I
explained that there is a general
misunderstanding of the concept of operation
in this country. The long periods of military
rule presupposed that the Head of State was
responsible for everything and it is that
same thinking that is responsible for this
situation. We are all hands on deck
explaining the differences between military
governance and democratic governance.
Highly educated people, my age groups, were
asking me this question but I explained to
them that 60 per cent of the impact the
President will have on you is through the
federal allocation to your state. Does he give
every state and every local government
allocation? Yes. They collect it religiously
every 30 days. In the area of security, he
guarantees it. It is only three states in the
North-East battling insecurity. There is peace
and he guarantees that. What of
infrastructure? All federal roads in Lagos
from Alfred Rewane in Ikoyi all the way to
Third Mainland Bridge and Ebute Meta are
federal roads. Are they like the roads in
Somolu and Akowonjo?
Secondly, the APC refused to participate in
the National Conference. Since he (Buhari)
has refused to debate, what will he do about
the resolution unanimously reached by the
National Conference? What will happen to
the report? The decisions of the National
Conference are so germane to the future of
this country. The more reasons why the man
who conceptualised it should be allowed to
implement his decisions.