*Explains why he took Buhari campaign materials to FEC

By Kemi Kasumu, General Editor

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Dr. Abdulraheem Adebayo Shittu, has said that he would make no new comments about former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who not only recently wrote an 18-page letter putting up his principal up as incompetent but also has followed it up with launch of Coalition Movement of Nigerians (CMN) which he has insistently said was put in place as a Third Force to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. Shittu’s latest decision not to talk on Obasanjo has been construed to be in obedience to his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari’s appeal that none of his aides should attack the former President over the letter that Shittu and his Information and Culture counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had earlier described as portraying Obasanjo as ignorant of Buhari’s obvious and undeniable achievements.  He also explains in this interview why he took Buhari campaign materials to a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting recently.  Excerpts:

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, after he had caused problem in Nigeria with his 18-page letter tagging President Muhammadu Buhari as an incompetent President, went to Addis Ababa to shake hands, smile, and romance with him at a forum the President was being celebrated as leading light in Africa.  How would you react to that attitude that some watchers of events have tagged hypocrisy asking if he thinks Buhari is going to be the same as Dr. Chuba Okadigbo and Chief Audu Ogbeh, who he dined with in the morning only for him to sack them in the evening as Senate President and National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), respectively?

Honestly, I want to reserve my comments on Obasanjo.  I won’t say any new thing about him anymore.  No comment and let us leave it like that.

“…all Nigerians should thank God that we have a President for once that is respected not only by Africans but by the entire world.  And he is reflecting very dispassionately in Nigerian affairs and insisting that Nigeria shouldn’t be knocked down by religious, tribal killings that are seen in parts of the country.”

Even at your having no comment about his letter, President of Nigeria is now respected and celebrated daily in the West, Europe, the Asia and even on the African continent.  What does that mean to you in comparison with the issues raised in the Obasanjo’s letter?

More than any African leader, President Muhammadu Buhari has commanded respect not only for himself but also for Nigeria.  I got excited when I saw the picture of all the Presidents of African countries lining up to have handshakes with our President.  That is the kind of thing Nigeria deserves; a President that will be respected because of his discipline, a President that will be respected because of his level of incorruptibility, a President that will be respected because of his passion for orderliness and, in other sphere, for his level of patriotism not only for achieving goals and development for Nigeria but also for the entire Africa and peace of the world.

And I think that all Nigerians should thank God that we have a President for once that is respected not only by Africans but by the entire world.  And he is reflecting very dispassionately in Nigerian affairs and insisting that Nigeria shouldn’t be knocked down by religious, tribal killings that are seen in parts of the country.

You see what the Igbo did just few weeks ago when they came and gave him all the support.  Now he is playing a lot of roles, a lot of infrastructures have been put in place in the South East.  And if you look at the distribution of the ministers, the five Igbo states, it is only one state that has a minister of state; all others are substantive ministers.  He didn’t look at the fact that he didn’t get all the votes from them and that is what he does for others.

If you take for instance also the ministers distribution for the South West, you will find out that only one is minister of state but all others are substantive ministers occupying critical positions and, by these, you talk of communications, you talk of works, housing and power, you talk of health, you talk of solid minerals and you talk of finance.  These are very critical portfolios that the Yoruba nations have never been given at a go by any administration in long time ago.

Even from the North West and the North generally where he got all the votes from, they are more of ministers of state than substantive ministers.  So, we have decided that we will be supportive of him because in him, for once, we have a compassionate father to all as President of Nigeria.

Well, compassionate father to all, you say.  But at the same time, may I ask if that is why, according to Hausa/Fulani and the over 90 million Nigerian Muslims, he has to be unfair to them by the way he allows all the sentiments, provocations and deprivations against them like they said of the killing of over 700 Fulani and their defenceless wives and children in Mambila plateau, Taraba State, without him ordering action against the killers only for him to take action against them even when the killing in Benue was not confirmed to be by them.  So also is the way Muslims are being put on the defensive by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), for instance, with deprivation suffered by a University of Ilorin Law graduate that a supposed CAN agent denied from being called to bar by the Nigerian Law School over hijab?  They don’t believe that the President has to deprive them their rights just because he wants to be seen as father of all. How would you react to that?

I see the emphasis in his being more objective and very dispassionate person.  In that objectivity we have fairness and he has given it to Nigerians.  He is trying to give every section of this country a sense of belonging.  He appreciates also that what is improper is not the way everybody talks.  He has ensured that every religious person will practice his or her religion without fear and that all religious and ethnic people in the country will exist in peace and tranquility.  That is what he has been doing and he has not deviated from that path.

Furthermore, if you take a review of works, you will find that he has truly been fair to all parts of this country.  Just look at road infrastructures and all of that.  If you look also at what he is doing with railways whereby he is working hard to link Nigeria up; for the first time from Calabar to Lagos, from Lagos to Kano, from Kano to Maiduguri, and again from Maiduguri to Calabar.  So, the view of anybody saying he is depriving any section does not arise.

Somebody asked: How does the leadership of this country at the present feel with the kind of dangerous politics that people are practicing with fake news and hate speeches in the name of freedom of expression coming from the same Nigerians whose President is now respected globally, which the asker said had not happened even since return of democracy in 1999?  Any feeling of discouragement at the level of the leadership?

Well, we will not be discouraged.  We have come of age and so we will never get discouraged by all those things that we have from some people in parts of the country.  We will push on with what we think and believe is better for Nigeria and will continue to believe that hopefully God, by all the efforts we are making, will take Nigeria to where it should be.

We only pity people who do not see what we have done.  If you look at the last election for example, he (President Buhari) was contesting for the presidency and he was the one who did not have access to all the monies that the sitting president had at that time and, yet, he emerged victorious.  That, in itself, should convince anybody that his emergence is an act of God to take Nigeria to where it should be.

Thank you Honourable Minister.  But you were said to have taken Buhari’s campaign materials to a Federal Executive Council (FEC) and you are reportedly the South West Coordinator for the Muhammadu Buhari Campaign Organisation…

(Cuts in) I am not the South West Coordinator.  I am the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of MBO support group.  What we did was to open the South West Zone up in preparation for the time the President will be set to declare his interest to contest the 2019 presidential election.  What we did with the caps was to say this man must possibly re-contest.  We must start preparing for the campaign.  One of things we would need are face caps for the campaign and we need samples of the campaign materials for all potential supporters and the samples were what we brought to the meeting.  It is to prepare for the future.

Again we tried to use that occasion to publicise some of the achievements of Mr. President.  Over the last one or two years, a number of PDP apologists continue to engage in misrepresentations and falsehoods against the government, especially in the area of performance and achievements.  And we thought it was fit for us to itemize the achievements of the government, which is what we said and we continue to say it that what the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government has done in two years, the PDP governments never achieved it in 16 years.  And that is what we are opening up the South West Zone for and that is what we publicized.

But what is the petition you wrote against Governor Abiola Ajimobi for?

The petition speaks for itself.  I don’t have to go over it again.  It is part of the things to get our party into noticing areas where things need to be put right in order that our party will not be affected in future elections.  And I believe that necessary authorities in the party will take appropriate steps at addressing the issues raised in that petition.

But are you aware that the party is backing Ajimobi against you?

I don’t know what evidence you have.  But that will be based on presumption.

Congratulations on your award of doctorate degree honourary consal by the West African Union University in Benin Republic.  Will I be right to now address you as Doctor?

Of course, that is what I am: Dr. Abdulraheem Adebayo Shittu.  It is based on what they consider that I have done for Nigeria in the area where I have served the nation so far that I have been awarded doctor of public administration by the West African Union University in Benin Republic, and today, I also thank the university for giving me that award.