‘Apart from Buhari, Tinubu, every other person in APC is from PDP’ |10 things we learnt from Ahmed Gulak

Ahmed Gulak, who was a former Political Adviser to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, recently granted an interview to Premium Times, wherein he spoke on several topics including the possibility of Jonathan being indicted in the ongoing anti-corruption war, the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party and why they lost the 2015 election.

Gulak also spoke on the Muhammadu Buhari administration and gave reasons why the APC might fall apart.

Here are 10 things that we learnt from the interview.

1)The former Presidential Adviser took the PDP to court because he wanted the party to obey the rule of law.

“I actually set out to achieve one thing and that is constitutionality. We have given ourselves a constitution and I felt as a member of the party we must abide by the provisions of the constitution and when I saw that Uche Secondus and his team were adamant, they were not ready to follow the part of the constitution and legality, I went to court to test the veracity of their action.”

2) Gulak is satisfied with Ali Modu Sheriff as chairman of the PDP because he is from the Northeast

“I am satisfied with him; he is from the north east and I am from the north-east. And like I said, somebody from the north east must occupy that seat and Ali Modu Sheriff is a qualified person to be the national chairman from the north east. So I’m really satisfied with the outcome of my action and without that action may be that couldn’t have been achieved.”

3) He is still a member of the PDP and he isn’t part of the plan to launch a new party -Peoples Mega Party (PMP)

“I was never consulted. You know these are people who are politically mature in their own right. The fact that you are my associate does not mean that I control your actions. So I have never been part of it and I don’t intend to be part of it. I remain in the PDP. I have begun to pick up the pieces and partner with anybody to rebuild this party. That is my stake as for now. I don’t know what the future holds.”

4) People are leaving the PDP because of impunity

“It’s unfortunate and it is because of impunity in the party that people started leaving. Look at Senator Ken Nnamani. He has left the party, a former senate president. He left because of the impunity that Secondus and his people have fostered on the party. They consider this party as their personal organization.

5) PDP might replace the All Progressive Congress, if…

“….the PDP manages itself well, if the PDP is able to embark on genuine reconciliation and come up with peaceful congresses and conventions and give the party new faces and new managers that will radiate confidence and trust and Nigerians will begin to come back to the party. I see a bright future for PDP and I see a new PDP that has been repositioned to harvest fall outs from the APC, because of the way I see politics being played out in APC.

6) APC is divided within itself

“It is so clear that there are four blocks in APC that don’t appear to be ready to mix and the internal crisis of the four blocks, namely the ACN of Bola Tinubu and his people, the CPC of President Buhari and his people, the PDP of Bukola Saraki and his people and the ANPP of Ogbonnaya Onu and his people. These are four different blocks that are not ready to mix. So the PDP, if repositioned, can harvest from the fall outs of the crisis in APC and before you know it we can bounce back to power.”

7) Saraki’s trial is proof that the APC is divided

“For example, there are three arms of government – the executive arm led by president Buhari, the judiciary which is apolitical and led by Justice Mohammed Mahmud and the legislature led by Dr. Bukola Saraki. Remove the Judiciary since they are apolitical and let’s talk about the executive and legislature.

“There is principle of separation of powers, not separation of government and when you begin to see another head of government being prosecuted by the same government you know something is wrong. As a practical politician I am sure and convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that, that head of that arm of government will not be happy with what is happening to him by the same government he believes he is part and parcel of.”

8) Buhari brought APC to power, APC didn’t bring Buhari to power

“Buhari and his party came to power because Nigerians wanted and believed in the change mantra and the promises made. Buhari brought APC to government; it is not APC that brought Buhari to government. That is the way I see it. Buhari brought APC to government so there must be that distinction. I believe most of the APC governors became governors because of Buhari and Buhari did not become president because of the APC governors.

9) Buhari is trying in the fight against terrorism, but not in corruption

“Yes, Buhari is doing his best in the fight against insurgency and in the fight against corruption but to me the government will start in earnest when they begin to execute their programmes; when the budget is passed and they begin to implement the budget in consonance with the manifesto of the political party. But I have started hearing that the APC government is no longer available for execution of some of the programmes like the N5,000 stipend, the one naira to one dollar promise etc.

10) APC and PDP are the same, both party ruined Nigeria

“In fact, if you remove Buhari and Bola Tinubu and his people, every other person in APC has been a PDP member. So if you say PDP ruined Nigeria for the past sixteen years, know that PDP is just a name. Who were the components of the PDP that ruled Nigeria in the past 16 years? I will begin to name them for you from governor of Kebbi to governor of Sokoto, governor of Kastina, governor of Kaduna, Adamawa, Plateau, Benue. These are all PDP members and so it is not right for me to say that PDP ruined Nigerian for the past 16years. It is better to say Nigerian politicians ruined Nigeria in the past 16 years.”

11) Gulak knew that the PDP will lose the 2015 election

“Because we embarked on impunity that will not take us anywhere. We had no reason to lose the states we lost and we did that because of protest votes. We had no reason to lose Adamawa State but because of imposition of the candidate. We had no reason to lose Plateau State; we lost Plateau state because of imposition of candidate.

10) A Northerner might not have been a better candidate than Jonathan

“Who in the north would you have fielded against Buhari to defeat him in the north in the circumstance of the 2015 election? Let us be truthful to ourselves, I did not see any. But if PDP had listened to our advice by picking popular candidates in the states of the north may be the difference would not have been much and we would have recovered the lost ground.”

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