Dr Ifeanyi Ubah's TAN Exposed How opposition leaders are fuelling Boko Haram insurgency As Presented By Udenta Udenta

Following the accusation by the All Progressives Congress, APC, that Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) fabricated facts about President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s re-election bid , Dr. Udenta O Udenta, a former Publicity Secretary of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) and currently the Director of Communications and Strategy, TAN, bares his mind on the issue.

Excerpts:

Following the formal declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term ambition, how do you describe Gov. Babatunde Fashola’s and the APC’s comments that the President’s re-election bid in 2015 is a farce?

The Constitution is very clear on freedom of expression, enabling every individual the right to express his views, even when those views are intolerably cast without facts and not elegant. Gov. Fashola has the right to his opinions even when such views are quite unnecessary. For a start, President Jonathan has done incredibly well and TAN has demonstrated not just through advocacy but with facts, figures and numbers. We have over 100 television jingles and broadcast 7,000 times. Not one single counter program from Gov. Fashola and his APC cohorts to discredit all the President has done. They merely indulge in high falutin, inconsequential noise making. You must be deep, sound and strategically equipped to confront a phenomenon like TAN to even discuss President Jonathan in the course of his campaign. If they don’t have the right tools and intellectual skills, then they should keep their mouths shut! What Nigerians expect from the opposition is counter media programming, to prove that there is nothing going on in virtually all the sectors TAN is showcasing to Nigerians instead of their idle rattle.

Gov. Fashola is indulging in idle prattle. It is clear they are grooming him to be something in APC but should not be to the detriment of TAN. TAN is not a faceless structure, we have people with deep knowledge of the Nigerian system and I am one of them. I had paid my dues through struggle, detention, advocacy and patriotism, fighting for democracy.

They are merely people that were nowhere pre-1999 history insulting the symbolism of Nigeria’s honour by humiliating the President. We will never allow such to happen. Fashola should hold his peace and go take the back seat because he has nothing to offer in terms of his criticisms. APC should set up a civil society like TAN to give us a run for our money and resources, time and intellect. If they cannot do that in any sustainable manner, they should shut up for good.

What about Fashola accusing TAN of fabricating achievements for the President to deceive Nigerians, for instance, in the power sector?

They are used to empty talks, not presenting graphical pictures to buttress their arguments. For instance, in 2011, Nigeria generated certain capacity like 5,000 MW and when GEJ came on board it now dropped. You consider what it used to be and the reformation of the sector before casting aspersion. President Jonathan took the bull by the horn by transforming the power sector. Although it may take time to click, he has privatised and constructed partnership with a foreign body to manage the transition of the power sector without stress down the line.

He (Gov. Fashola) further said that lack of power supply has increased the rate of unemployment among the youths.
He should come up with specifics. Increased unemployment from what percentage to what percentage? From what year to what year? How many are employed today? We need facts and figures! You don’t just wake up to make empty statements because they are pleasing to the ears of those who sent you out to do it! Fashola should be careful the way he talks in 21th century Nigeria. Unemployment attributable to President Jonathan should be spelt out. Such accusation to the President is not what is expected from a governor of a state like Lagos. He should know better.

There is need for BRF to be very serious the way he speaks as a leader! Because leadership is earned through years of hard work. Not somebody that had no pre-1999 history. I subject Fashola into pre-1999 history in terms of political consciousness and exposure. Then you will know what you will get.

The opposition, according to reports, also accused TAN and President Jonathan of not being sensitive to the plight of Nigerians in the North-east that has been ravaged by suicide bombings that killed about 50 students and injured many more prior to his declaration.

There is need to know when this was said, were the reports issued when the blast occurred or they knew he would declare the day after? Is Boko Haram that sophisticated to know that President Jonathan will formally declare his ambition the next day? Maybe they are aware and they decided to disrupt the occasion. The war against terror is not just a physical war, neither is it a military campaign nor a holistic approach to peace building.

When Americans and the British were being hit by terror, their leaders told them to stand up tall, going about their daily businesses because they didn’t want their people to live under fear. Our security agencies are risking their lives to curtail insurgency. If Mr. President did not declare prior to the bombing, he would have played into their hands. His declaration is a sign of victory that we will win the war against terrorism. Our ways of life must remain our ways of life, while we remain eternally vigilant and conscious of our environment, and while we duly get information across to security agencies in record time, for them to use such information and data to keep on preserving our lives. We must live our lives normally. The President’s declaration is welcomed by millions of Nigerians as an act of courage. If he had not done so, he would have changed our value system to accommodate the tragedy of the terror situation. We are proud of his courage. That was why he started with security challenge. He called for minutes of silence to honour the injured and those who lost their lives. But as a leader, he must press on; as President George Bush, pressed on, Barack Obama is pressing on, combating ISIS, Talibans and Al Qaeda. As the British people are pressing on all over the world, because they can’t just allow their lives to be changed because of bombings. I was in London during the 2007 bombing, the people were living their lives normally even in the station where it happened. For you to abandon the environment completely, for you to leave the area, is to say terrorists have won psychologically. Which is the first line of victory and the President says no!, they cannot win the psychological war. We have to remain resolute, firm and as proud and patriotic Nigerians. We have to encourage our armed forces and the security agencies for doing sometimes what they are not trained to do. We must recognise that this is not a typical conventional warfare, where you fight with people in uniform. It is a new kind of warfare unknown to mankind 20 years ago, so they have to adapt to the change in circumstances to accommodate the dynamics of revenge seeking task forces cutting across all our borders who are foreign fighters from the collapse of the regime of the Gadaffi and his death after he employed thousands of Africans to protect himself. When Americans and the rest of the world bombed them out of Libya, what happened to the thousands of these militants? They left for northern Mali, took territories there. Why do you think it is North-east Nigeria borders, not in the North-west or North-central? Because that is where they are strong, where they can infiltrate our borders, move in materials and rebuild their lives. The President recognises that, and said we must build sustainable relationships with our neighbours as brothers and with the international community in terms of sharing strategies and data.

You said earlier that terrorism is an on-going combat. Why should Nigerians trust President Jonathan winning the war against terrorism if he wins re-election?
Nigerians should trust him because he has demonstrated the capacity, the required skills and tools to defeat. He has the calmness and maturity and does not buckle under pressure. That is the mark of a leader that is thinking. It may take time but we will surely overcome.

Do you see President Jonathan winning the war again insurgency ?
Very well. He will, just the way Obama is still battling terror, not only in his home front but across the world. Nigeria will surely win this war and at the same time help our neighbours who may be afflicted with similar scourge. That terror will overcome Nigeria will never happen. If it does, we can then say to a great extent that our forces have been seriously degraded.

With the lingering terrorism, how do you react to the view by the opposition that President Jonathan does not deserve second term?
Like I said earlier, it is an indolent approach. It screams to high havens about Nigeria’s insensitive opposition.
Maybe they tend to strengthen the hands of these terrorists with such comments. Who knows? Like I said, were they aware that terrorists will attack Yobe prior to President Jonathan’s declaration? Maybe these terrorists read what the opposition are saying and are strengthened by it. Only God can tell. But when terror struck America, everybody rallied round and a consensus was reached; they overcame their divisions within the Congress and enacted the Patriot Act. Civil liberties were even curtailed. The NSA surveillance program came after 911 and Americans tolerated it. There was no blame game from Democrats saying President Bush was not doing anything. But what do you find in Nigeria. The opposition doesn’t seem to give the government benefit of doubt or lend a helping hand. As far as they are concerned, they are angling for power, they criminalise and demonise the government and the armed forces at every turn. This was why I said, if these characters are not traitors and saboteurs, they should not be tagged as patriots as such because their views don’t count in overcoming the threat of terror that aims to destroy our democracy and our country.

Interview granted to Olayinka Ajayi of the Vanguard