Jonathan’s real enemies are in PDP — Labaran Maku

Former Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, is today eyeing the governorship seat in Nasarawa State under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA.)

He spoke with CHRISTIAN OKEKE on his sudden exit from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Excerpts:

Some analysts believe that you committed a political suicide when you jumped out of the PDP to the APGA. Do you share this view?

I never in my political career in this dispensation thought I would leave the PDP. This is a party that we invested so much in since 1998. I was a loyal member of the PDP in Nasarawa and when I was made the Minister of Information, I gave the party my all. I served it with total loyalty. In all the offices God gave me under the PDP, I became a loyal member of the party. At no time was I found wanting in the PDP. I am a very loyal person. When I am in something, I am there totally. When we lost the election in the state in 2011, the burden of rebuilding the party rested on my head. I used my resources to rebuild the party, from ward to the state level. I was the one that was helping the party to survive because it was thought immediately the PDP lost the election, the party would fall apart. But, I insisted the party shouldn’t fall apart because democracy made it that you must sustain opposition. I encouraged every one.

Every one you see in Nasarawa State that is an official from ward level, I bought the nomination form for them to make sure they were not discouraged. Apart from that, I made sure that each time there was any meeting in Lafia, I sent money to everybody to come and go back because there was no governor to help them. Every time there was Christmas or Sallah, I sent gift to every electoral ward. I sustained the party. I have always been the one defending the PDP against all other parties;

I was almost like the spokesperson of the PDP at the national level. Whenever there was an attack on the party, I would be the one who would raise my voice for the party. I was virtually the one that was involved in the political polemics. I gave my party everything. There was nothing left for me to do. So, I am a very loyal member.

Every little money I had; all my earnings, I poured them into the PDP to make sure the party gets strong. Unfortunately, events turned against me. As I was treated in 2007, so was I treated in 2015. In 2007, I was deputy governor after serving the state as a commissioner for four years, and another four years as deputy governor. I contested for governor; I went round because I am qualified. Out of 13 local governments and 16 development councils, making 29, I have the leaders of the party in 23 of them strongly behind me. So, we were working together with them because my governor then was leaving. He had finished his tenure.

How do you mean?

Just like two months to the election, the system began to turn against me. I was surprised after I had worked with so much loyalty for my boss as a son. I didn’t work with him as a deputy governor; I mean he appointed me a commissioner and deputy governor. So, I was loyal to him 100 per cent. Anything he wanted me to do, I would do, everything. Even his speeches I will write just to put them in the right perspective. But in the end, just a week before the primary, the party officials started telling me they were asked not to work for me; that it was like my governor had somebody else in mind. It was later it was made clear the party was working for Akwe Doma. I knew he contested under the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) against the PDP in 1999 and ended up in court. He contested again in 2003 and again, ended up in court. So, I was a bit confused as a young man how this will be possible.

At the end, the argument was that he was an elderly person and they needed somebody who was elderly to govern. I knew as at 2007 that I was 45 years old. I was older than some governors, who were already in their second term. I was told that I was too young and that I should wait, that it was not yet my turn. Of course as a human being, I was upset. I felt I had given a lot of energy and commitment to the party.

Of course, there was a lot of pressure on me to leave the party. The ANPP brought its ticket and said, ‘look, you are the one that has the followership, come and contest.’ But, I said no, I wasn’t going to leave the party. At the end, I didn’t leave. I finished as deputy governor and went back to my village because I had no other job, no work but I was a loyal party member.

I gave my support to Governor Doma. When his administration came on board, he said, ‘look, young man, come let’s work together’ but I said, ‘look, there can’t be two governors in a state; the mandate God has given you, I am with you’ and I gave him all my support and loyalty. In the course of the waiting, God lifted me by the benevolence of President Goodluck Jonathan. He made me the Minister of State for Information, working close with the governor and I became even more loyal to the party. I did my best. I worked with the governor, campaigned in all the local governments with him and our party won the election and I can tell you, the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) didn’t win election in 2011. Some godfathers, who were nominally in the PDP were working for the CPC in Nasarawa State. Some godfathers were in the PDP undermined us. And I was surprised, because I knew there was no way the CPC could have won.

Then, what happened on the election day?

On the day of the election, soldiers turned against us; police turned against us and we were the ruling party and they would come and chase away people who were voting in areas that were predominantly the PDP. Unknown to us, Al-Makura had godfathers in the PDP. In the end, strangely, we were told AlMakura won. How can he win the election, whereas out of 24 members in state House of Assembly, we had 20. It was strange but in the end, the case went up to the Supreme Court and the court gave it to Al-Makura. I felt for Akwe Doma because I knew he was very devoted to the PDP. He was one of those who worked closely with us for the election of President Jonathan and I knew also that he received a lot of insults during the time.

The PDP can be funny sometimes, as there are people in the party, who have loyalties elsewhere and that is part of the problems that the president is facing today and I continue to say that the president’s opponents are in the APC but, his enemies are in the PDP. There are still people in the PDP, who keep undermining the party sometimes for ethno-religious reasons. Somebody is in the PDP but, he is the one championing the fight against the party from the opposition. So, we lost the election but President Jonathan again, generously gave me back the minister. Today, APC is just a name in Nasarawa. All the principal actors that were in the ANPP and the CPC have today returned to the PDP. Since Senator Ewuga left, the APC is just a ghost. Truly speaking, nobody is talking about the APC again apart from Al-Makura, who is hanging on to power for his day to expire on May 29. There is nothing on ground and again, he is doing that because his godfathers are also protecting him from being impeached otherwise, we will not be talking of Governor Al-Makura because he is so unpopular owing to the violence that has been unleashed on the state since the advent of the APC in the state. The kind of violence you have in Borno and Yobe, which we thought will never happen in the North Central, is now going on in Nasarawa. We already have a situation, where insurgents were brought from Niger, Chad and Cameroon. What you see in the state is an army of occupation. You bring people from outside the country to occupy your state, to destroy your state; to undermine the security of your state just for security reasons. So in the light of this development, I continued to invest in the PDP as an alternative vehicle for power. I felt the violence cannot end until the APC leaves power. So, I now invested in the PDP to give us chance to rebuild the state.

How did you decide to join the APGA?

The list of delegates for the PDP congress for last year’s primaries was changed. The list that Wabara (PDP national headquarters) had was different from the ones we elected at the ward congresses. We were surprised that that kind of thing could happen. So for the conduct of the primaries, thugs were brought in to threaten people on religious ground. ‘If you vote for Maku, we will kill you. If you vote for Maku, we will demolish your house.’ There were meetings in Lafia and elsewhere in the house of a PDP stalwart to perfect voting on sentiment of religion and I said, ‘look, we can’t be eating and drinking together and you tell my people if they voted for me, you will kill them.’ Nasarawa State is a mixed state, where we have an equal number of Muslims, Christians and traditional worshippers. As I am speaking with you, my senior brother is a Muslim. He is the one following me on my campaign train wherever I go, praying for me, helping me to organise things. How will I reject him on the basis of religion?

In Eggon community where I come from, we are so mixed up like in Yoruba land. That is the way we are. In every family, there are Christians, there are Muslims. We have no problem at all. Our politics has never followed religious line. Whoever that is good, we promote, just like the Yoruba people do. So when we now begin to elevate religion to a point of division; to a point of hatred, it becomes dangerous.

When this was going on, I appealed to the party, believing that it would give me an opportunity to maybe, explain myself but it never called me. The appeal committee was headed by (the PDP national chairman) Alhaji Adamu Muazu. All of them just ignored me. In the course of this, while I was waiting till the last day, the APGA came. Its leaders were surprised at what was happening to me at the time.

It is a very interesting development that is going on in Nasarawa today. I believe that my joining the APGA has expanded the frontier of competition; it has made available options and improved the choices for the people of state and because I am in the APGA, the game has changed. Neither the APC nor the PDP can claim that the governorship is theirs to be taken in April. And from the massive support I am getting from youths, women and young people, it is clear that in April 11, an APGA governor will be elected in Nasarawa and this will again teach all of us lessons.

Apart from the verbal reactions by the PDP leaders against your defection that we know of, are there other real threats that you have faced since joining the APGA?

It is expected that if I left a party they would not be happy. The bashing from the PDP leaders was expected because I believe they know my worth, what I could do to the success of the party but they ignored me. What did they expect me to do? But like I said, I am not going to join issues with them. A number of them are old enough to be my parents. A number of them are my leaders in the respective offices they are holding today and I don’t want to be seeing to be quarelling with them. I want to focus on my campaign. What they said, they said to the public and I have already responded to them. My people are in jeopardy. People are being killed in Nasarawa; people are dying every day and in the end, every politician responds to the needs of his immediate constituency because they are like water for the fishes to survive and you are a politician and you said you don’t want to respond to the yearnings of your people when they are dying; They are crying to you, and you say you don’t want to follow them, then that is the end of your politics. My people in Nasarawa are saying, ‘look, we are dying, we are suffering, this state is in a state of violence, government has lost direction and we want somebody who is strong enough that will restore peace; reconcile us and give this state a direction.’ They know who I am, so they called on me. If I ignore their call, then I am no longer a politician. I am responding to the immediate needs and cries of my people.

The issue of Ombatse, will it continue if you win?

What is going on in Yobe and Borno states is what is going on in Nasarawa today. I can tell you that today, a lot of people cannot go to their farm because insurgents are occupying them. Insurgency has overtaken the previous crisis we used to see. Both parties involved in the crisis are today running away from the land because stronger and more violent forces have taken over the land. We are talking of a war scenario now. If I become governor, I want to assure you, all these crises are associated with violent politics. as a politician, right from the beginning up till now, I have never been associated with violence. I have always believed that God will do things for me. I don’t have to kill. I don’t have to maim. I don’t have to attack anybody. I don’t even know how to sacrifice a chicken. I am a Christian. I raise my hands up to God Almighty and He answers me because he knows my heart and once my heart is clean, he will make me who I am going to be. If human beings refuse, God is the God I worship. He can send stones to raise me to power. That is the extent of my faith. I bow before the true and living God. I don’t bow before any other throne or principality. When your heart is with God, He will find a way to solve your problem.

The Ombatse crisis, if the state government was serious about addressing it, would never have grown to where it was. But, the government wasn’t serious about addressing the crisis there. They are rather interested in exploiting the situation to cause commotion and confusion. What is going on is a completely different one; now different from what it used to be and what we need to do is to reconcile the communities and send the mercenaries out of the state, in the first instance, and they win back the state so that the people can return.

The crisis in Nasarawa is politically-generated. It is about politics, it is about control, it is about holding unto power. The local Fulanis are crying because they said they lost up to 20, 000 cows in the crisis because the mercenaries that came also engaged in cattle rustling. Everybody is suffering in Nasarawa. Everybody is tired of what is happening. The Fulanis are the first to call me to come and contest because they are tired of the crisis. Everybody is tired and that is why the APC is so unpopular today. They can’t make it. And the PDP, of course when I’m out of PDP, the soul has left.

The real party on ground today, that is cruising to victory, that will resolve this problem, is a neutral party called the APGA and this party, the slogan is Be your brother’s keeper. You know some of the parties are their brother’s killers. The APGA presidential candidate is Jonathan and I am leading the campaign for him. People attack him because of ethnic rejection. I am in the APGA because I know that the electoral process is today cleaner than it was before the president came in because I believe I could win if I work hard. The image problem President Jonathan is suffering is not because he is not performing, but because of the violence in the North-East. Agriculture is coming up because Jonathan has focused on agriculture within this period of time. Ten power stations have been established by his government. If this president continues, power will definitely stabilise with more investment coming in.

What was your role in Al-Makura’s impeachment effort? There are speculations you didn’t support it?

I was the only one who supported Al-Makura’s impeachment, when it became a fact on the table by the assembly and especially because of the killings and PDP felt if he is removed, it will go down. So a lot of people supported the impeachment and I supported it. My not supporting it is rumour that is being peddled because I am now contesting election.