[size=14pt]Ribadu’s anti-corruption drive a hoax – Bakare[/size] .
Monday, 21 March 2011 00:00 Victor Oriola Hits: 457 .

Pastor Tunde Bakare’s entry into politics has attracted comments from people depending on the divide they belong. Why some feel that the fiery clergy has every right to participate in politics, others say his scathing remarks about politicians in the past may make it a bit difficult for him to operate in the polity that is full of intrigues and shenanigans. Recently, Bakare told a group of journalists why he decided to mount the soapbox and canvass for votes. He also explained that the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has endorsed his candidature. Victor Oriola was there.

WHy did you accept to become General Buhari’s running mate?

Ordinarily, I have no business in partisan politics. Politics is too important to be left in the hands of politicians alone. I thought my job is just to raise the standard of God’s consciousness in our nation and to ensure that righteousness exalts this nation by way of preaching and instilling the fear of God in our people. I have been harassed myself by military dictators and their civilian counterparts in mufti, but I never thought that day would come that I would do this. The last time I marched the streets in my life was in 1978 and that was the day of Ali-Must-Go, and all that happened was that they increased our fees from N30 to N90 and that was killing in those days.

When I left school, I thought marching the streets had ended, until the crisis that almost put Nigeria into the precipice, and we rose by the grace of God, gathered all civil society organisations together on the 7th of January and fixed a date for 12th of January. Using our networks within the country to pull our people down to the streets to protest what was happening. A culture of impunity against a sitting Vice President, not a candidate at this time and by the grace of God, the people joined us in the protest. We had our way, the president was endorsed and that was it.

We thought SNG should not end there, that let’s go to the next phase; the next phase is unblocking the minds of our people to know that sovereignty truly lies in their hands and to ensure that many of them this time around would register to vote. We began to open SNG chapters across the nation, until one fateful afternoon, the 3rd of May. I will never forget it. Someone asked me a question that: Pastor Bakare, are you raising responsible people to vote for irresponsible people? That hit me like a thunderbolt, and that was the turning point for me. There is no quality leadership to provide, not just direction, but to supervise our development.

That day after that question came to me, we decided to engage the political class and not just cry out, let’s come out with what we will show Nigerians that irreducible minimum that we should be looking for in a candidate that you will cast your vote for. So, we came up with a contract for Nigeria, which was launched in Nigeria on the 5th of May 2010; we held a meeting in the afternoon, the former president at night and the rest they say is history.

We began to engage the political class; I personally engaged Atiku and we drew our seven point irreducible minimum that we want to see in parties and politicians and key players in every political party. High level transparency, internal democracy, which is germane to our development. We engaged the political class and finally we took a stand. We went to President with a document, which we gave to elders in some parts of the country and religious leaders like Pastor Adeboye on why we will not support Jonathan.

[b]On July 31st, 2010, we summoned the first meeting, 10 people were invited but only eight people showed up. At the meeting that time was Nuhu Ribadu himself, Malam Nasir el Rufai, Donald Duke, Oby Ezekwesili, Ngozi Eweala, Fola Adeola, Jimi Agbaje, Governor Fashola was also invited. So, we called these arrow heads together, because we wanted to go all outside of normal party structure, raise a new caliber of people that will either enmass move to a political party or start a new one. That day we decided to use a new party because I loved the name, the Labour Democrats. The name was good and I said to them that day the only way I would participate in this process is to give two conditions: I will spend and be spent for it, but I will not touch elective office and I will not join a political party. Those were the two conditions I gave them. I’m fulfilled the way I’m functioning and everybody knows by the grace of God whether you like what I’m saying or not, when I rise to speak, I say it the way it is and leave it there and we agreed. But unfortunately, the man who registered Labour Democrats, which we were going to use, decided to become the campaign director in the diaspora for IBB, the rest is history. And so, we decided to use Labour Party and we engaged Labour Party because it is generic; but one of us pulled the trigger, Nuhu Ribadu decided to pick the ticket of ACN, that was a good development, and I said if that’s the way you want to go, we will still go together and we were all going together on the platform of Labour Party. We now thought who we should present as candidate. I’m giving you this background because stories have a way of being muddled up, and I like saying it the way it is because there is nothing you can do to truth. Even if people don’t believe you, your conscience is clean. It was Donald Duke that we were going to feature as Vice President and Malam el Rufai as the presidential candidate. But Donald Duke came back and said right now, I’m not able to accept such responsibility, it was even Duke that suggested Labour Party to us.

So, we retained Malam Nasir el Rufai, who the first day I met him, was the one saying to me, let’s use Nuhu Ribadu, and I said we can’t present Nuhu Ribadu for obvious reasons that were known to us at that point in time. You will be doing so many things and having to correct and explain so many things. So, we decided to pair el Rufai and Oby Ezekwesili; he (el Rufai) was away and I called him to return and that we are going to galvanise everyone to fight this monster called PDP because there are some things that I know, if time permits, I will expose them.

With another four years of PDP, you can kiss Nigeria, goodbye.

Malam el Rufai returned to the country and gave us some stiff conditions that for as long as Nuhu is out, he would not come out. It will look like competition and it will just divide the north further. I saw the point and we said let’s forget this, we are not guilty of not trying. Before we got to that stage, we also engaged General Muhammadu Buhari. We went to him in Kaduna like we sat with Jonathan and Atiku as well as Ribadu. I will never forget my encounter with Nuhu Ribadu at a town hall meeting in Washington, which was put together by Professor Aluko. This time we were pure SNG, we weren’t partisan and Nuhu rose up that day and said “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you why I want to rule Nigeria.” It was my time to speak and I said “Nuhu, I would have almost cursed the day I met you, but because you are my younger brother, I will not do that. You want to rule Nigeria, who would be your subjects?” I told him that all these anti-corruption czar, we have stories we can tell, but we keep quiet for now, until the appropriate time. [/b]

I came back to Nigeria to engage Buhari, because we didn’t give him any chance at all. If you read in the press all that I said about him (Buhari), I said they were all part of the whole, who can’t produce anything for us, there is no point lying. I won’t say something and deny it. Until I engaged the man and I discovered that he has changed from what he used to be. And of all the people I sat with, he is the most credible that gave all the right answers, and that was willing to engage us and to seek help. A good leader is not an all rounder, he is the one who knows his weakness and can starve that weakness, and will engage in people who are much more competent than himself and release them to accomplish a task. If you don’t mind who takes the credit, you will get much more done. When Malam el Rufai said he would not contest because he would be seen as competing with Nuhu, we felt that the other candidate that is left is Buhari, but we wished them all the best and washed off our hands. I was tidying my wardrobe when the phone call came and it was General Buhari on the other side, and he said: ‘Bakare, after deep thoughts, I will consider it a great honour if you can run with me as my Vice Presidential candidate for the 2011 elections.’

The answer was not far fetched, it was in my lips waiting to explode: thanks, but no thanks, and I gave him the reasons that I didn’t come because I wanted to play politics. I want to be part of those who reshape Nigeria and create a party that can be respected. I called Pastor Adeboye, and he surprised me because I thought he would say no way, but I played into his hands. When we went to meet with President Jonathan, the documents we gave to him, we also submitted it to Pastor Adeboye, and he asked who is the best person that can salvage Nigeria. I told him, from all I have seen, the person that can rescue us right now is Mohammadu Buhari, but he has no money, he is popular in the North, he does not have a clue of how to come into the South, because of so many things they’ve hung on his head over the years.

I was still not persuaded, I went again to meet Pastor Adeboye, submitted what we were doing; he said: ‘If you are ever considering Mohammadu Buhari, then you need to look for a strong Christian to be his running mate and the emphasis was strong. And I stood up and said we will look for the strong Christian, but I want you to know that it cannot be me, I’m satisfied with what I’m doing. I did not know when I was doing all these, I was warming myself in the heart of Buhari. But it was ACN that first came to me through their publicity secretary and said: ‘Can you persuade General Buhari to run on our platform? That was part of the engagement, to let the best of the North and the best of the South pair. I preached it that let ACN and CPC form an alliance, and let’s call it ACPC and PDP will be history. But there are other issues that did not make that work. It was not Buhari, it was Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu that frustrated those efforts, and I have facts and figures. Time will tell.

Tinubu was one of the first people I called after Buhari made that call. To cut the long story short, by the time I called Pastor Adeboye, he said: ‘In that you did not lobby for this, it is an opportunity for you to express everything you have carried for this nation. Move forward. I called him (Adeboye) again the second day and said sir, will you support me, he said: ‘With everything I have got in my own way, just go for it, I will be praying.’

What actually are you bringing to the table, that other people can join you in making your aspiration fruitful?

One of the things that we made a condition precedent before accepting this, and all my friends were there in Kaduna before I signed any paper, General, you can fight corruption. You have the courage and the will, because you have been adjudged a clean man, a man of probity, but beyond fighting corruption, I don’t know you to be an economist, and me that you are asking to come, I am not an economist. Would it be acceptable to you that we build a change team, a people who are not just technocrats, who have been there before, who understand the issues, so that we build a formidable team from within our nation and outside of our country in the Diaspora; to bring in this people, for this first and foremost rescue operation, because we need to recover Nigeria, we need to rescue Nigeria. If you ask me to give those names, permit me to still keep them where we keep them behind the scene. Because at the crucial time their faces will be out and you will know who they are.

But if you are asking me if I am adding any value, if that is the question, politics is a game of number. Someone said that he had no political structure and I said, you didn’t build your own in one day either. There was the first day that the man who has political structure also stepped in without structure. Where was your political structure when Nigeria was sliding into precipice. And when I rose and people said you can’t pull it through, I remember the ACF person, Shettima Yerima; he said don’t go to Abuja to protest, stay in Lagos where you have people; but you do not know what we have done over the years building networks across this country. There is no part of this country, no zone that we are not represented. If politics is the game of number, Dr Amos Akingba pointed us in the right direction when he said: ‘Are you raising credible people to vote for unreasonable men. Look at the last voter registration, Lagos State has the highest number, 6.2million people, it is because Lagosians are aware. We knew what we did. SNG started what we call VEAC-Voters Education Awareness Campaign. We sent 10 men to every ward to go knock at people’s doors to bring them out. Those we have on our data will shock you.

Also in our deliberation, we decided that there was no point wasting our energy and resources. Fashola is good in Lagos. You can’t beat Fashola in the next election except if the almighty decides otherwise. So, instead of you looking for one candidate that is not going anywhere and you waste your resources around him, let’s build party structure. Let’s build a Unilateral Strategic Alliance (USA), go to such governors and , here are our people, they will vote for you, we want you also to help our own course so that when it comes to presidency, we will have such collaboration. And we know we don’t want them involved in any anti-party activity. We don’t want that. But nobody has monopoly over South West right now. It is so open. And we are going to do what people don’t do. We are not going to win this battle just on the pages of newspapers, just as much as we need the press. We need the press so that what we are doing is communicated accurately out there. We need the press to also showcase some of the things behind what we are doing and what we stand for. What our government wants to do for the people of Nigeria. And there is no place in Nigeria that the press is so powerful like in the South West. But we are not going to be paper tigers like you call them. It is not just going to be television appearances. We are going to the people where they are. And that is why after the flag off, you are not likely going to see us doing rallies and doing fashion parade. I told them at the NN24 debate, you see how many times Jonathan has changed clothes, it is because he is conducting a farewell party across Nigeria. That’s all. Let him enjoy it. We don’t have time for that. We are rolling our sleeves to go to where the people are, in the hinterland, in rural areas, everywhere to give them hope.

Many years I transverse this county going from campus to campus, there is no university in Nigeria, except the ones just being established that have no foundation, no classrooms; I went to all those universities to begin to raise new generations. We call them, a new breed without greed.

If you are asking about people and numbers, you will be shocked at the right time.

Many people say Buhari is on the extreme, pastor Bakare is on the extreme too. Don’t you think two of you will be too hard for the polity?

That is a good thing for those who are mathematically inclined, because two negatives will produce positive. If you think we will be too hard for the polity, give me the alternative. Those who say we will maintain status quo. There is no status in status quo. Nigeria will never come out of the woods.

Let me tell you this story, we have finished going through four emirates from Kaduna to Minna. Our last port of call was Etsu Nupe. And when we finished the rally in Minna, we couldn’t even get to the podium.

I am not sure you know what is happening in the North. This man (Buhari) does not give money to anybody. Do you know what he pays for? Announcement on Hausa BBC Radio to show the venue of the rally, and pay for venue, the stage and the public address system, that’s all . They don’t come here to eat. They bring their own water. If we are careful, this time around, if any election is rigged, there would be wild, wild North; not wild,wild West. The story I am telling you is to let you see the humanity of this man,that people don’t know. We are not trying to play politics with this issues, because I sat him down and asked him direct questions: “Are you a Sharia Fundamentalist? Tell me know now, because I am not going to change and become a Muslim. He just laughed and said those who even think it or say it are they not stupid? How can I Islamise Nigeria. Show me how I will do it , shut down all churches and turn them to mosques?

“I did not take Nigeria to OIC, because of the economic situation in the days of Shagari, when we had nothing. We had to resort to barter. When they said we could get loan from OIC without interest, that was the only interest I had. I pulled down mosques, because they were not in proper places. In my regime, it was not a case of Muslim or Christians being locked up, it was a case of corrupt people.”

He told me a story that when Idiagbon was trying to compel his wife to become a Muslim, because she was a Christian, he was the one who refused; that let people be persuaded. That is the person you call an Islamic fundamentalist, an extremist. He is a disciplined man to the core. He manages resources so well. I will rather follow such a person than be part of looters.

Do you think within the time frame, you can make impact?

I took that up in Ibadan three days ago. I assembled all our chairmen and stakeholders in Ibadan. And I said I had heard this repeatedly mentioned that we have no time. That time is against us. Time is not against us. Time is never against you. Number one, all the courses we studied in university called time management is a lie. You can only manage yourself in time. You can never manage time. The rich, the poor, the young, the old, the male, the female, the sick and the young, we all have the same amount of time.

Let me focus on the question. The question is, do you have time in your hand. God said I was born out of due time, and the grace of God was sufficient in me and I labour, when God is behind a particular thing, when there orchestration of divine providence and the people are yearning for change, how long did it take to remove a 28 years depot in Egypt. How many days. Do we have 18 days? More than. If you ask us what are we doing, we are not going to begin to invest money on billboard, that only those who are graduate see, they don’t even know what message is in it. I pastured a church in this country for 22, 23 years now, never pasted a poster, had now billboard, how did I get people to know of our churches and they keep coming? The same method. They are things that I can’t even tell you that we are doing right, because they are all strategies and I don’t even know your party ( general laughter).

We have put this in place, what will enable us reach that critical mass of people. We have no problem. The North has decided who the president would be by what we are saying. If what we are saying translates to vote. And South West is very critical, that does not mean South East does not have a role to play. We need 25 per cent from 24 states. And you can’t ignore South East, ignore South South and get 25 per cent. The whole of the North is 19, plus South West it’s 25; if you get 25 per cent and the whole of the North, you are already president of Nigeria.

But you know the battle of South West, it must be fought hard. It must be fought with re-engineering in the mind of our people. That is what we want to do. That is why we have kept the flag off of the South West to the last.

What would give anyone the optimism that Buhari who is principled and a forthright person like you would win election in Nigeria?

My exposure to the corridors of power frightens me. If the PDP by hook or crook wins the 2011 elections we might just kiss Nigeria good bye, and we will not be guilty of not trying. It is not a do-or-die affair. I am not going to borrow money or sell houses to run the election and Buhari will not do that either. One person gave him all the posters and bill boards in the North-West, another person gave us vehicles for the campaign. I took her aside and asked why she did that, she simply said: “In Petroleum Trust Fund days, I got contracts without lobbying and we tried to give this man he refused and this is the only way we can compensate him.” Are we going to say because of this depravity we won’t do what is right? The responses we are getting from ordinary people if translated to votes would see us through, but the environmental pollution has clouded our minds that we do not think it is possible. Most of the elites will not vote that day, some people say we can’t win, let’s do our best and leave the rest for God. In Tunisia, one man tired of oppression, set himself ablaze and the President is no longer in power. We can make a change if we all beam our searchlight on those things that are holding us back. I read in the papers that Jega has adopted the voting procedure used during the 1993 elections which I support, it’s simultaneous voting. I presented this same position to Jega when I had no interest in politics. We have systemic failure in our institutions, which is why the police would be the tool of the man in power. For example they denied us using a particular place because they said the PDP would be coming that day. Buhari said since we were free citizens we could use any open field. When they saw the huge crowd they got a bigger place for us. That’s the power of the will of people. There is a wind blowing around the Arab world and Africa, it is a will of the people against the power of incumbency. Now is the time to rise because if we do not rise the systemic failure will doom us.

In some states in the North, the problem of candidates’ name substitution is seriously affecting the CPC. How does the party intend to come over this before the election?

These small problems arose because Gen. Buhari was not going to say it must go this way and we are looking at the political solutions to the issues- that is the beauty of democracy that people will disagree and they will explore the party constitution to protect their freedom and they will go to the court. Recently the president said it didn’t matter who won at the court, it is the party that has the power to decide the candidate. The political party is not a cult, so the good, the bad, and the ugly will come once they are accepted as members, then they are free to contest elective positions. What can be done is to hold the key that makes application of certain rules that will deny them from expressing themselves. Those they do not want should have been dealt with at the screening level. So, now we have to look for political solutions to the problem, and that is what we are doing. We are not going into the elections with a divided house.

In recent times there have been violence in the course of political campaigns and the PDP has said it is the CPC that is causing violence?

Did the CPC cause the violence in Bayelsa? Did the CPC cause the stampede in Port-Harcourt where so many people died? I am an eyewitness to history; we flew from Abuja to Maiduguri one hour 20 minutes, the Governor of Borno took away all the buses from the streets so no one will come, they trekked, ran, some on motorcycles, it took us over one hour thirty five minutes on a five kilometre road to arrive at the palace of the Shehu of Borno. This people labelled as violent got into the palace. We are preaching peace; we are telling them to re-channel their anger. The people are frustrated. The CPC is not behind it, it is the revolt of the poor. That is why I said we should be careful, if the elections are not rigged and its fair then everybody will be calm, and it will be acceptable, but if the people feel they have been cheated,

Do you think the elections will hold?

The judiciary is already compromised and all kinds of injunctions come from the court. It was my passion and I was getting ready to open my chambers again, because the likes of Chief Gani Fawehinmi is gone. That’s why CPC is saying we are not going to the court, we will settle it at the polls, not to mean violence. There must be simultaneous voting, the modified open secret ballot system. We advocated it they said it was impossible, but finally they agreed.

What message is the CPC bringing to the South East?

We did the Owerri flag off, where I spoke about resurrection, All Progressive Grand Alliance(APGA) and the Ohaneze Ndigbo had already said they were not involved in the vice-presidency or presidency in the 2011 elections. So, Buhari should not be blamed for not choosing an Igbo running mate because the key leaders had already spoken. The truth about the election is that the April poll is not between PDP and CPC. It is between honest men and dishonest men, promise makers and promise breakers. There is hardly anywhere in Nigeria that you will not find an Igbo community, but Nigeria has gone beyond that, in our manifesto we said that things like religion, tribe and others will never feature in documents most especially in public documents so that people can live together peacefully. We are not here just to make promises we won’t keep but do justice to our manifesto.

What is the strength of your political presence?

The ACN is strong in Lagos, but we will win in the state. People are already talking about run-off, but we will win the first ballot. But where we don’t win, we have assurances from various quarters that they will support our bidding. There might be an alliance when everyone is settled because everyone is trying to prove their political mettle.

http://www.compassnewspaper.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2760:ribadus-anti-corruption-drive-a-hoax--bakare&catid=43:interview&Itemid=612

Bakare is a double mouthed junta lover.