by Akan Ido

Dr. Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, speaks with the Punch Newspapers on the achievements of the president, Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Amnesty for Boko Haram militants and other issues.

Read excerpts of the interview below:

Some Nigerians, especially members of the opposition, are of the view that President Jonathan is not performing well. What is your take on this?

It is important to identify those you are quoting because in terms of the assessment of this government, there are more people out there that are saying this government is doing well. Only yesterday (Wednesday), the Peoples Democratic Party said they were amazed at the level of the achievements of this administration. They made that statement on the basis of their interactions with ministers who went to present their activities and achievements of their various ministries to the ruling party.

The fact is that the people you are quoting have been very active in trying to deny and misrepresent the achievements of this administration. The truth of the matter is that those people you quoted are partisan and Nigerians should be able to distinguish between truthful statements and partisan statements.

For people who want to grab power, people who want President Jonathan out of office and who want the PDP out of office, you can never expect an objective comment from them. The opinions of those you are quoting can be conveniently discarded as a misrepresentation of the truth or the reality.

The truth of the matter is that this administration has moved Nigeria forward on different fronts. First, to cite a few examples, when President Jonathan took over, the electricity supply situation in the country was in a very bad shape. This government introduced the power sector roadmap, reactivated what it met on the ground and as at this moment, Nigerians have noticed a critical improvement in the electrify situation in the country.

In the rail sector, before the President took over, the sector was completely comatose. Under this President, the sector has been re-energised. Nigerians can now travel from Lagos to Kano, from one part of the country to the other. The few complaints we have heard is that people are saying that it can be further modernised. The truth is that the railway sector that used to be one of the poster agencies for the abandonment of government responsibilities has come back to life.

Nigerians were in this country when the aviation sector was a major centre of scam. The Jonathan administration has taken the bold step to revitalise that sector both in terms of infrastructure and the basic provision of facilities across the country. People who travel by air will tell you the difference.

It is also this administration that allowed the Freedom of Information. Nigerians have never been freer. This government is also responsible for the regime of transparency.

Take the agriculture sector, fertilizer and tractor scam used to be the order of the day and yet agriculture remains at the level of subsistence farming. This President has changed all of that.

Don’t you think this administration can do better than it is doing to fight the menace?

The Jonathan administration did not create corruption in Nigeria, it is an inherited problem. Corruption is also not limited to Nigeria. Even the countries and individuals who shout most about corruption, you will see that it is a challenge that they too have to deal with. President Jonathan had admitted recently that corruption is present in Nigeria as it is elsewhere but that is a challenge his administration is tackling. There are many concrete ways in which this administration is fighting corruption.

This administration took up the challenge of the fuel subsidy scam headlong. People will collect allocation to bring in fuel, they will not own any vessel, they will not import any fuel and they will still collect government money. Over the years, previous governments have created a community of rent collectors and this administration said this is pure economic sabotage and it must end. But the propaganda machineries of the beneficiaries and their collaborators insisted that it won’t work.

The biggest forms of corruption you can have are at the level of economic sabotage and the second is political corruption. Once you allow political corruption, you will create a lot of problems. This President decided to fight political corruption by insisting that elections must be free and fair. It is only when elections are free that those elected can be accountable. The 2011 general elections were acclaimed to be free and fair. Every subsequent elections conducted under this President’s watch have been free and fair and so adjudged by both local and international observers. In Adamawa, Kogi, Sokoto, Edo and Ondo, there were no problems when elections were conducted in those states.

The truth of the matter is that Economic and Financial Crimess Commission made it clear that last year alone, it secured over 200 convictions. Nobody is noting that, they are looking at the cases that have not been resolved. The truth is that there is a clear doctrine of separation of power. Once the agency has initiated action, it is for the judiciary to look into those issues and we all know that in Nigeria the wheel of justice grinds slowly. Those who say this administration is not fighting corruption are not speaking on the basis of fact, they are speaking on the basis of emotion and selective reasoning.

There are reports of the President moving against Governor Rotimi Amaechi as NGF chairman and attempting to install a candidate of his choice ahead of the 2015 elections?

First, the President has not taken any stand on the 2015 elections in terms of his own candidature. The only stand that he has taken is that nobody should drag him into the politics of 2015 at this time. When he decides his involvement in 2015, he will tell Nigerians. Trying to drag him into the politics of 2015 which being fast-tracked by certain ambitious persons is unfair.

The issue of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum is really an over-exaggerated matter. The various governors are responsible to people who elected them in their various states. What is the NGF? Is it an association? If it is an association, is it registered? Is the NGF a union? If it is a union, is it registered with the Ministry of Labour? Is it a limited liability company, is it registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission? On what basis are we all elevating the NGF to such a special entity? Is it a collective body voted for by Nigerians? If we say the NGF can validly exist under the umbrella of freedom of assembly and association, what interest is it pursuing? Is it pursuing the interest of the 36 governors collectively? If it is pursuing the interest of the various governors, is there a common interest in Nigeria? Whose interest is that? Is it the interest of the people who voted the governors into power? These are fundamental questions that we should ask. It will be a gross disservice to Nigerians to have a body like the NGF which operates like a trade union. I do not think that in voting the various governors to office, Nigerians envisaged a trade union because that is what that body has turned to. It is not registered anywhere. Is it a political party? As you can see, that NGF looks like a divided body. The politics of the so-called NGF should not be used to measure the political future of President Jonathan.

Why then is the President interested in the person who leads the group?

That is not true. Has the President ever made a comment on the leadership of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum? He has never said so. If the governors are congregating, it is their own affair. President Jonathan has never come out to speak on that matter.

Many Nigerians were surprised by the President’s sudden change of mind on the proposed amnesty for Boko Haram? Some believe it was a way of wooing the North for the President’s 2015 ambition? Why did he change his mind?

I think this obsession with 2015 makes it difficult for people to reason which is very unfortunate. There is a certain reductionism; everything that is done in government is reduced to 2015. Such thing obstructs people’s ability to reason.  When the President went to Yobe and Borno states, what he did was to challenge the leadership of the region. The Sultan (of Sokoto) had earlier made a case for amnesty and the President speaking metaphorically said government cannot grant amnesty to ghosts in the sense that government cannot grant amnesty to people that have not even come forward to talk to government.

He had said previously during a media chat that if the people were willing to come forward, the government was willing to talk to them. He used his trip to Yobe and Borno to throw the challenge back to the leaders and they took up the challenge. The clamour for amnesty and dialogue came from the people. The ACF, JNI, Borno Elders and Northern Elders Forum all said they would support government to explore these options. For almost a month, everybody from the North was asking for amnesty.

The President, as a listening one and who believes that public opinion is central to democracy, then said government also has an obligation to listen to them. This is consistent with his position that the challenge of ensuring sustainable peace is not for government alone, it is a collective responsibility.