Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, in
this interview with OLALEKAN ADETAYO,
insists that President Goodluck Jonathan
did not sign any one-term agreement
with PDP governors
Despite the President’s statement that
he did not sign a one-term pact with
anybody, members of the New PDP are
insisting that he signed the agreement
and that at the appropriate time, they
will release a copy. What is your
position on this?
Eight months ago, when the Governor of
Niger State came up with the claim on
the one- term agreement, I particularly
challenged him to come up with a copy
of the agreement. This is because as a
political adviser to the President, I know
there are only three organs of the party
at where such decision can be taken.
They are the national caucus, the Board
of Trustees and the National Executive
Council and there was no time that such
as issue came up at the level of any of
these organs.
I challenged him to come up with the
agreement, but up till now, the so-
called agreement is nowhere to be
found. I have repeatedly said it that Mr.
President has never signed any
agreement with anybody not to run for
second term. The President himself said
it at the last presidential media chat
that he did not sign such an agreement
with anybody.
Their plan is to tell Nigerians lies in
order to intimidate the President or
abridge his constitutional right to offer
himself for second term if he so
chooses. They should leave Nigerians to
decide who they will vote for. It is not a
group of five or six people that will tell
the President what to do. I am happy to
say that from G7 governors, they have
reduced to G5. Two governors have
backed out because they know it is not
true. So there was no agreement signed
by the President.
What then could have informed this
insistence by the governors that there
was an agreement?
I have said it that it is part of their plan
to issue out tissue of lies in order to
abridge Mr. President’s constitutional
right. It is power. Certain people want
to be President or vice president. It is
part of their strategy. We have
debunked this claim. We challenged
them eight months ago and we still
challenge them to present this
agreement.
If the President decides to run, can
these aggrieved governors and other
members of the New PDP stop him?
Nobody can stop him. Are we not
governed by constitution in this
country? The constitution allows the
President to contest for the second
term. Nobody can stop him from
contesting, if he chooses to contest. It is
only Mr. President himself that will say,
“Look, I will not contest in 2015.” That
prerogative belongs to him to decide
whether or not to contest. So let us
wait for the man. He has said he will
only declare his intention to contest or
not in 2014. So why are they
pressurising him and heating up the
polity? They are trying to drag the
President into the ring before the time.
They should go and prepare if they want
to contest the Presidency of this
country. They should not wait to know
whether the President will contest or
not. If you want to be President, go and
prepare yourself and present yourself to
Nigerians.
You have just claimed that two
governors have backed out of the G7
whereas the group claimed five more
governors would be declaring for them
next week. Which one should Nigerians
believe?
Their claim was mere propaganda. I am
telling you authoritatively that two
governors have backed out. They are
now G5. Only that I won’t mention
names but go and find out. Even the
statements that some of them have
been making are also indicating that
what I just told you is right. Two
governors have backed out. It is
authoritative, go and cross-check.
The Baraje group also issued a
statement asking the President to
postpone the peace talk earlier billed for
October 7 because some of their
members would be on Hajj. What is the
Presidency’s position?
I don’t believe they are sincere from
the beginning. If you have followed the
trend of events, you will see that the
President has been bending backward to
accommodate everybody. He is ready to
go to any length to achieve peace. But it
just appears that they are not ready for
peace. Immediately after the last
meeting was adjourned to October 7,
they went to the National Assembly and
you know there was no need for that. It
was a fundamental breach of the
agreement reached at the meeting, that
all parties should refrain from further
actions until October 7. Nigerians now
know that they are not sincere. So
whenever they are ready, I believe Mr.
President will be ready to listen to them
once more.
You said the President could go to any
length to achieve peace. Will he forego
second term if that will bring peace?
There can never be agreement to
abridge constitutional provision. It is for
the President to decide if he wants to
contest or not, that is his constitutional
right. You cannot intimidate Mr.
President out of contest, who are you
and who do you think you are? When
the constitution gives a man the
opportunity to offer himself, who are
you to say he will not? Unless you go
and amend the constitution and that
does not lie within the powers of the
governors.
There are reports that a copy of the
agreement is with a South-South
governor who is a loyalist of the
President and he will not make the copy
available. What is your position on this?
Is that what they are saying again? That
is just propaganda. If there is an
agreement, they will have more than
one copy. There will be duplicate
copies. But I am telling you again that
there was no such agreement between
the President and any other persons.
Agreements must be between two or
more parties, except the agreement
was entered into in the absence of the
President.
With the way the New PDP has been
issuing statements criticising the
President and government policies, do
you think genuine reconciliation can still
be achieved?
I am telling you from my own
experience in politics that there is no
sincerity in everything these people are
doing. They can go on to criticise the
government and we will go on to tell
Nigerians that what they are saying are
tissues of lies. Nigerians are watching
everybody. Ninety per cent of Nigerians
have come to realise that these people
are just out for their selfish ambitions.
They should go about fighting poverty in
their states, not fighting President
Goodluck Jonathan. Thank God two of
them have backed out, having realised
that their move is not in tandem with
the constitution of the country. Mr.
President has the constitutional right to
contest and it is left for Nigerians to
decide whether to vote for him or not.
What then is all this noise about?
It is about power, it is about their last
term in office, it is about what next in
their political career. It is not
unexpected.
Apart from this agreement that you said
is not in existence, are there no genuine
conditions among the ones put forward
by these men?
There are no genuine grievances. One,
the President is entitled to offer himself
for second term if he so desires and it is
left for Nigerians to decide. Two, that
the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission should stop probing them:
it is not within Mr. President’s power to
stop EFCC from probing them. EFCC is
doing its statutory job and whoever is
involved, EFCC must investigate that
administration. The commission is also
probing the Federal Government.
Haven’t you seen the fuel subsidy probe
and people being prosecuted? It is a
nonsense thing for a governor to say
EFCC should stop probing his
administration. In fact, I expect them to
invite EFCC themselves to look into
their books if they are genuine and
sincere.
The third is about the national
chairman. I have always maintained that
the national chairman is a product of an
election at the national convention and
his election was observed to be correct
by the supervisory body, which is the
Independent National Electoral
Commission. As there was process of
emergence, there is process in our
constitution for his removal. No
governor or group of persons can just
stand up and say you must sack the
chairman.
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