2019 polls: Buhari has done enough to secure South-east – Omoregha, Buhari campaign coordinator

Tunji Omoregha, Deputy National Coordinator (South) of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, is vocal in his assertion that President Muhammadu Buhari will carry the day at the forthcoming presidential poll on February 16. In this interview with Chibuzor Ihegboro, he expressed with conviction that President Buhari “is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria.” He also that Buhari has done enough to earn significant votes in the southeast region, despite the seemingly opposition of people from the zone to his presidency.

 

With barely three weeks to the election, how does the campaign hope to convince voters in the southeast to vote President Buhari?

With the Presidential election, we are good to go. Nobody is against the president.  He was welcomed in Enugu and other parts of the region he has been to. It is certain that in the forthcoming election, he will fare better than in 2015.  What PDP couldn’t do in 16 years, Buhari has done it in the southeast.  Take the second Niger Bridge for example. He might not have a landslide, but I know for sure he will have significant votes, say between 45 to 55 percent.

The arraignment of the chief justice has further heated the polity with critics lambasting the timing?

Is there a specified time that a man who commits a crime cannot be judged? How can a man of Walter Onnoghen’s stature claims that he forgot to declare money of such a huge amount in euros, pounds and dollars and over 50 houses? Before he was nominated, he has been on the watch list of the federal government. In fact, Abacha (former  Head of State), during his days would have sacked him if not for his sudden demise. Walter Onnoghen is a corrupt person.

Once upon a time, there was a man called Tai Solarin who was appointed Public Complaint Commissioner of the defunct Soutwest. He was arrested driving with an expired driver’s license, two days after its expiration––though he has a window of two weeks to obtain a new one. When he got to his office on Monday, Solarin resigned. Onnoghen should resign and let the country move forward.  As for the hue and cry by PDP, they are only looking for an excuse to discredit an election they know they are going to lose.

They were quick to ask Amina Zakari, to resign her position as Chair of INEC Committee on collation centre for the general elections, on a baseless accusation that she is President Muhammadu Buhari’s niece, but now they are shouting that a man caught red-handed in corrupt practice should stay. That is double standard. If Onnoghen has moral and integrity, he should resign.

There has been concerns about the president’s health, arising from the mix-up in his speech in Warri and when he missed his steps in Kogi?

What happened in Warri when he gave the APC flag to Great Ogboru was a slip of the tongue. Even (Omoyele) Sowore, who is much younger, also made a mistake about his admission and graduation dates from the university. He said he was admitted in 1999 and he graduated in 1995. If it were Buhari, they would make a big issue out of it.  Yes, he missed his step in Lokoja, he didn’t fall and that did not in anyway indicated that he was not healthy. I am amazed the way Nigerians reasoned.  They should leave Buhari alone. He is the best thing that has happened to this country.

READ ALSO: Why Buhari can’t move Nigeria forward – Junaid Mohammed

Would those campaign blunders affect his chances of winning?

He had 14 million votes in the direct primary. Those people will vote him again. So we are targeting a few more millions. I can assure you he is going to defeat Atiku effortlessly.

The discord in Ogun State should bother those of you in charge of the campaign to win the 2019 polls for President Buhari in the southwest?

It is not only Ogun State that is affected. There is also Imo State under Rochas Okorocha. Ondo too is not exempted. That idea of Ibikunle Amosun of saying he is supporting APC for the presidential poll and doing otherwise in the governorship election, I considered it a political rascality. It will never work.

There is no partial belonging. Its either you are in or you are out. But whether Amosun supports APC in Ogun State or not; whether Rochas supports APC in Imo State or not; with or without them, APC will win that election. There are bound to be issues and disagreements sometimes in a party, but the spirit of oneness must prevail towards the achievement of a particular goal. Amosun and Okorocha are still strong party members and it’s not too late for them to retrace their steps.

Afenifere has narrowed its support down to restructuring, a serious condition that will lead to a head-on collision between the group and the Buhari Campaign Organization in the southwest.  How are you going to tackle this?

Afenifere as a group spoke on behalf of Afenifere, not on behalf of the Yoruba. Yinka Odumakin, who happened to be their secretary, speak for the Afenifere, and whatever they say is not a Yoruba view. The PDP presidential candidate has come up with a mantra of Get Nigeria Working and has promised to reform Nigeria within six months of getting into power. It is unfortunate that most people cannot read the handwriting very well. Restructuring means a lot of things to so many people, but I want to tell you that restructuring is not an issue of six months.

It is a constitutional matter. Labour, State police, salary, etcetera, are all parts of restructuring. There is no way restructuring should be a campaign issue because it is a constitutional matter. Anybody who is saying, “I will restructure Nigeria in six months” is just telling Nigerians a lie. State Police, for instance, is an issue that is going to be discussed by the National Assembly. Senators that receive about N16 million salaries will want to stand it down and ensure that this discussion does not see the light of the day.

So, all the noise about restructuring is a political gimmick. We are not against restructuring–it is purely a constitutional matter. It is an issue that should be directed at the National Assembly, not an issue for one politician to continue to trumpet “I will restructure Nigeria in six months.” Is the country his private company?

Nigerians are sceptical of the Buhari-led government performing better in another four-year term?

The first two years appeared to be very hard for Nigerians because the foundation has to be laid for a balanced economy. After the country came out of recession, the president has been building on the foundation.  Nigeria has always been a monolithic economy, but this government has successfully diversified the economy. In 2017, the income from agriculture was in excess of N577 billion. People are now encouraged to go into agriculture and to set up industries. With the foundation laid so far, I believe the Nigerian economy is picking up strongly.

The fight against corruption in the opinion of the public has been reduced to a political witch-hunt?

What witch-hunt are they are talking about? Since Buhari came into office, EFCC has recovered from looters some N794 billion, $261million and £1.1million. In 2015 alone, EFCC had 103 convictions.  In 2016, the agency recorded 194 convictions. In 2017, they have 189 convictions. So far in 2018, 217 convictions have been recorded. How can someone say the fight against corruption is not working? It is only in Nigeria someone will say what they are doing is recovery of money not fighting corruption.

What is recovery of money, what is fighting corruption? When you raise an alarm and a thief drop your property, what do you do? You pick your property and go your way. Yet a senior advocate said what we are doing is recovery of public fund, not fighting corruption. That is a sad thing. Can you recover what was not stolen?

A total of 407 mansions were seized by the EFCC, of which 127 are permanently forfeited to the federal government. And they still claim that the fight against corruption is not real. We have N57 billion abandoned in a particular bank because of BVN. This BVN was not introduced by this present regime, it was introduced during the time of President Jonathan, but it was not effective because all the people around him will be affected.

The fight against corruption has been dismissed by many as a witch-hunt against the opposition party? When they complain that it is only members of PDP that are prosecuted, the question is which party was in power before now, was it not PDP?

Let me tell you this, one of the prominent members of PDP returned a lot of money. But still, he claimed he has not been convicted. Now, when they returned the money, they have not been convicted legally, but what had played out is that they have been able to crucify their conscience, that is even more than being convicted by a court.

There are those who crossed from PDP to APC and have been spared the investigation of the EFCC

The people that are in jail today are APC members. How many were they able to convict during their time? The country has never been so divided as we are today. What plans has APC to heal this country in the event that they win the presidential election?

As to whether we will win the election, that is a foregone conclusion. As for the division, it was caused by PDP. Has anyone seen President Buhari kneeling before an imam to pray for him? Has anyone heard he invited marabouts to pray for him to win the election? We knew what happened when President Jonathan was going around the churches to pray for him to win the election.

So, if there is anyone that divided this country, it is the PDP. APC is trying very strongly to reunite the country. What they did is now haunting them and they are now crying wolf that President Muhammadu Buhari is dividing the country. Buhari is not a religious fanatic. He is a good Muslim.

READ ALSO: Cameroun Govt. to create 500,000 jobs for youths in 2019

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is presently in charge of President Buhari’s campaign for the 2019 polls. Many people blamed him for the way Lagos State’s politics turned out in the last four years, why does he seem to be so misunderstood?

First, I would say the Afenifere, which happened to be a socio-cultural group from my own race, should apologize to the man because he meant well for this country. Asiwaju is a strategist that you cannot wish away. The man loves this country and he loves the Yoruba race with a passion to the extent that he set the path of progress for everybody to follow. Lagos State is one of the luckiest states in the federation when you look at the antecedent of Lagos, right from Asiwaju’s time as governor.

He rolled out development plans that the state has been following since. He doesn’t associate with failure. He works with technocrats he believes can deliver. Those against him today do not buy into his ideas. Some will tell you he is domineering, he is this, he is that, he is everything.  If there is anybody in the issue of Lagos State that does not even want Ambode to go, it is Bola Tinubu, but the pressure on him from the members of the party was so much that he had referred the issue back to public hearing. He is a visionary and he is a leader that meant well for this country. He has demonstrated that he is capable of leading the Yoruba race.

So, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a leader to be respected, not only in APC but the country at large.