What we told President Jonathan in Delta

FORMER national chairman of the Association of Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, ATROMPCON, and the paramount ruler of Siembiri clan, Burutu local government area of Delta State, HRM Charles Ayemi-Botu, aka Lion of the Niger, spoke to Saturday Vanguard on the recent visit of President Goodluck Jonathan to the state, the tearing of PDP’s membership card by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the renewed war against Boko-Haram insurgency and his impression on Jonathan’s government. Excerpt.

You called for the expulsion of former President Olusegun Obasanjo before he tore the party’s membership card, how do you see the behavior and his person?

HRH Charles Ayemi-botu, N-Delta monarch

Eh, as a monarch, we are apolitical, but since what happened had to do with the interest of the public, that is why I would comment. Ordinarily, I would not have.

But taken into cognizance the personality involved, that is a former Head of State and president to have openly torn his membership card of a party, it does not augur well and does not make any sense.

One could look at it from several perspectives. Was it out of frustration? Was it to prove to the unsuspecting public that for some time he had been fraternizing with the opposition party and it is time now to come to the open by way of tearing his membership card.

Because whichever way you look at it, it was messy for him and no justification whatever for him to tear the membership card of a party on whose platform that he had served the country for two tenures.

He was twice a president and chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, so what instigated him to do such a thing? The only thing I can think of because he had lately been fraternizing with the opposition APC and governors of the party, castigating the incumbent president, is that he has gone out control. He is not the only former president. To me, he has made a mess of himself. It is the height of frustration for him.  

President Jonathan said his ‘sin’ against Obasanjo was that he disallowed him from controlling him, do you agree with him?

It is obvious, I totally agree. The signs and signals are there, that when he (Obasanjo) failed in his tenure elongation bid, he quickly went to the party manifesto and changed it to the effect that it is only a former head of state or president that will be the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, that is his kind of person he was.

He wanted to use his position as BOT chairman to control the government remotely, but that was ditched when Yar’Adua was there and when Jonathan entered, for the first one or two years, President Jonathan was more of an apron string to Obasanjo.

Look at Obasanjo’s reign and Jonathan’s administration so far and give me your assessment

I can say and every patriotic Nigerian will agree with me that Obasanjo’s eight years of rule was totally abysmal. He had nothing really to show to Nigerians that after eight years, from 1999 to 2007, these were his achievements. Or we may add more, from 1976 after the assassination of Murtala Mohammed on February 13 and he took over till 1979, approximately 12 years, let him come out to say in which area of development that he has done well for Nigerians.

Jonathan’s four years are far better than his 11 years and eight months rule. Unfortunately, Jonathan sees Obasanjo as his mentor, otherwise, people like Obasanjo should not be allowed to walk free on the streets of Nigeria and you can see him that he does not even take a cue from former leaders like Tony Blair, John Major, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Jimmy Carter and others.

You see when you have ruled a country for years and your tenure is over, you become a real nationalist, you become adviser and a counsellor because you have attained the level of being father of the country. And you go quietly to rest, but this man seems to be carrying Nigeria on his head, Obasanjo sees himself as a god.

So what has Jonathan done?

In spite of the turbulence he has faced, none of Jonathan’s predecessors faced the kind of insurgency he has faced, he has done so well. If you go to education, you can see it, the new universities he set up, schools in the North, he has brought about much more enabling environment for teachers and provided infrastructural development for schools.

He has made education liberal and private universities are everywhere, more have been approved recently. On roads infrastructure, you can see it and even petroleum scarcity we used to have, he has tackled it. Did you not hear former President Shehu Shagari talking about his grandson of 27 years using train for transportation and even a Nollywood actress, Mercy Johnson, spoke of how Jonathan’s train came to her rescue when her car broke down in Lagos. Look at energy, there is tremendous improvement; he is really working despite the big problem of fighting insurgency.

What do you think are the chances of President Jonathan in the 2015 elections?

Indeed, without being strong-willed, he would not have been able to rule this country with all the problems and turbulence, but he has been calm and calculated. When he visited Delta he told us he came to thank us, not only the Ijaw, the Urhobo, Itsekiri, Anioma, Isoko, others. He said he came for a consultative visit and to thank us for giving him the necessary backing and pray that we should not relent because fighting insurgency is not a one man business.

And the forthcoming elections, he needed our support and we told him that he has been doing very well and if somebody is doing well, he should be given the necessary support. The opportunity I had in talking to him, I told him that the groundswell by parties against him is caused by envy, hatred and jealously because he has done much better than others, but his coming to the presidency is by divine intervention, not his power, and so, if the purpose for which God put him there has not been completed, nobody can remove him from power.

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