Kenny Ashaka

A National Executive Committee, NEC, member of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Alhaji Mohammed Abdulrahman has disclosed that some ex-military officers and politicians are reforming the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP, into an organized and effective political force ahead of the 2019 elections. Mohammed, a former political secretary of the Northern socio-cultural group, ACF and an international security surveillance consultant since the time of Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s tenure as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, revealed to Sunday Sun in an exclusive interview last Tuesday that three Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stalwarts have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SDP.

According to him, all the retired soldiers in Nigeria, whether under Obasanjo, Babangida, the retired soldiers, ex-military officers are the people leading the SDP back to light. “They are getting ready. If 2019 proves to be a herdsman issue and a Buhari power confrontation… all the former soldiers will set up a group that will deal with Buhari and every other person in Nigeria that is creating problem. So, they should not just look at SDP simply,” he added.

Mohammed also addressed other pressing national issues facing Nigeria and disclosed that the government was planning a firm official action to be taken against the media in Nigeria.

Recently, PMB appointed Tinubu to bring about an end to the crises in the All Progressives Congress, APC, by reconciling the warring factions in the party. I’ll like to have your thoughts on that.

I think Buhari may have the honour to be president of Nigeria, but I think he is very bereft of political wisdom, a man lacking, very lacking…the poverty of political wisdom is afflicting him.

Can you break that down?

He is suffering from the poverty of political wisdom. That is the simplest I can put it and I think Nigerians will understand this.

Is it because he appointed Tinubu as the man to reconcile the warring factions in the party?

Yes. You have abused a man and disparaged him. A man led you to success…I was one of those who insisted…you remember during the alliance when they were having a meeting in Abuja, the first alliance meeting when I held a press conference in Kaduna that Babangida now owns 51 per cent of ACN of Tinubu and that I was there when it happened, then Buhari said the meeting was inconclusive and that the alliance will not hold. They went to polls after then and he failed woefully. It was then that Aliko Mohammed and the rest of them called me and begged me to use my spirituality to…

Let’s address this present issue rather than what happened in the past.

I was trying to let you know the genesis of the reason why Buhari is suffering from the poverty of political wisdom. The magic which Tinubu brought to the victory of Buhari through the alliance was disparaged, abused and rendered useless  by his nepotism by the way he operated the presidency, neglecting Tinubu completely, never knowing that there will be a tomorrow, never thought of 2019 at that time. Buhari’s political strategists are the most useless ones I have ever known in my life. Even if there is any political strategy for him, there is no political adviser. The person that is supposed to be his political adviser he doesn’t listen to him. He is not even present there. So, most of the infrastructure that the presidency used for leadership and rulership are not present in Buhari’s government because personal common sense and personal uncommon sense and wisdom are the three things that help a leader to be a good leader. So he is suffering from leadership dysfunction because there is no common sense regulated. Nigeria is too big for his small brain. So, he needs a political adviser, he needs strategic adviser. Tinubu brought a big luggage of political wisdom to him. He didn’t use them. From his appointments you can see he never used it. The people they call the cabal are diminishing the effect of Buhari’s capacity and capability to rule Nigeria. They are not helping him.

If you say these things of Buhari what would you say about Tinubu who was that disparaged after victory as you have said who accepted the job of reconciling factions?

Tinubu is a Nigerian. He knows the luggage he brought into ACN and CPC alliance that led to the formation of the APC. The Yoruba nation as a whole may not focus on the fact that Tinubu is a political businessman and can never be a good leader in Nigeria. Tinubu will make one of the worst presidents Nigeria will ever have if he ever goes into that table. It is money he cares about and it is money he knows how to capture, but leadership he cannot. He is so selfish that he can never be a leader of any group of ethnic or tribal collective which is what Nigeria is. He can never be their leader because he likes money too much.

Will Tinubu succeed in reconciling these factions in APC?

No, he will just throw it back on the face of Buhari that sorry APC cannot win election in 2019. So please just stand down your efforts. It’s all Nigerians that gave you the effort because the Yoruba nation will tell Tinubu he is unintelligent. What reconciliation can Tinubu do when he led the entire Yoruba nation to the Villa? Whatever profit they made out of it is not responsible profit. They are hustling profits. There is a difference between responsible profit and hustling profit. Responsible profit is the one you earn as a citizen being nationalistic and patriotic to your nation and government. That is not present.

Would you advise Buhari to re-contest in 2019?

They are bandying the masses they captured on video when he went to Kano, Nasarawa…they are not the people who will come out for voting in elections. It has never worked like that. Have they forgotten the twelve two-third of the Akinjide era? Do you remember that? So because the whole of Kano are in the picture, the whole of Nasarawa and Zamfara are in the video and he has up to 20 million people there doesn’t mean that he would win an election. They are preparing for the greatest of all rigging and post-election violence that Nigeria has ever witnessed in its lifetime as a country. The indicators are all the pictures and videos they are showing of people in one city that welcomed Buhari. What has that got to do with general election in 2019? How can that be an indication of those going to vote for Buhari if they are not planning to rig an election? It doesn’t imply. The fact that they have put all their weights, thinking, resources and responsibilities on just some people who have gathered in one visit of Buhari and they snap it and start showing Nigerians and some people who think that they are political strategists will say he has already 16 million votes. Those people hardly come out to vote. So if they are not planning to rig an election they will not be grandstanding on this. They should look at the ingredients of progress in Nigeria, economy and leadership. Look at the issue of herdsmen, the unpeaceful situation, the economy, inflation, schools. We are now in another turn of Chibok in Dapchi, Yobe State. You can imagine that. How can such a man think that he can become president again? Are Nigerians fools? So they are only holding on to illiterates and poor people who want to come out to see a president. They are not thinking about why people go out to line up and vote. And the government wants to disenfranchise those who can vote and disabuse their minds. If INEC is not watched, the materials for voting will not go to where the opposition party or PDP or SDP can win an election. They will be short of election materials. They will concentrate the materials only where Buhari is going to get big votes and they will come out with a decision that Buhari has won the election.

What then is your projection of all those who are now eyeing the presidency?

My projection is a very funny one. Funny in the sense that Atiku is the one who is going to carry the day. But in my vision some people have decided to assassinate Atiku.

Assassinate?

Aren’t herders killing people all over the place? Is that not assassination? No, I am asking you. If a herdsman…they have infiltrated everywhere in Nigeria. If Atiku’s aeroplane gets up, don’t ask me how they are going to know it is Atiku’s aeroplane. Don’t you see herdsmen being driven out of tarmac? Don’t you see herdsmen using telephone all over the place? If Atiku boards a plane and is going up, herdsmen can shoot down the plane. What are you telling me? I was more inclined with NSO (defunct Nigerian Security Organisation), the military security in those days. You know it was when NPN government was going to come in that we converted NSO into three organizations. I wrote the document and I still have the document, the document with which Vision 2010 was written and if you remember Abacha did a national broadcast on Vision 2010. They will stop Atiku. Then out of the blues, emergency, Dankwambo will be asked to take his slot as the presidential candidate.

How will that happen?

That will be worked out, but Dankwambo got interested in the race after my eyesight on the Atiku presidency. Somebody called me from his state and tried to find out how right is the efficacy of my vision and I told him it is 99.9 per cent. So, Dankwambo, whatever it is will be railroaded to that contest to be a president. If they have already zoned the presidency to the North… I don’t know why because when Ekwueme and Shagari were in power, Ekwueme was going to be the next president as the Vice-President, but Buhari did a coup against them. Now, Yemi Osinbajo is favoured to be the next president and he has performed very well when he was Acting President… Nigerians have no doubt that Osinbajo can do it and Osinbajo is saying Buhari is not nepotic.

Let’s look at the position of the Igbo in the equation. The Igbo, especially those in the APC are banking on the fact that if they assist Buhari to realize his second term dream, the Igbo would get the presidency in 2023. What do you think?

(Prolonged laughter) So you have not seen the plan? Haba, my brother. We struggled in Abiola days in the trenches with you. You ought to be seeing it now. They want to give Buhari…they want to revenge what happened to Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election. Do you think any human being, a candidate will ever spend as much money as Jonathan in a presidential election in Nigeria again? They moved the Central Bank pounds and dollars onto the streets. They went section by section of Nigeria…

(Cuts in) I want you to address this issue of Igbo presidency. Is it not feasible in 2023?

They are trying to revenge what happened to Jonathan my friend. They have it in their hearts. That’s why they have come out en bloc to say that Buhari should continue. They want to let him hit the ground badly. They want his political injury not to heal at all. They know that the issue that will make them get Igbo presidency are more than just shouting and talking. It is in the question of attitude. It is in the question of IPOB and all that. It is a question of character. Igbo should look forward to becoming Nigeria’s president if they change their style. Do you remember all the documents in the media about paradigm shift? I started the issue of paradigm shift and I think you did an interview for me at that time. Paradigm shift, age shift, that a young man should be president of Nigeria. It was what I used to help Jonathan become president. I moved against the traditional rulers in the North, the Military establishment in the North and the ACF. I even weakened the political committee of the ACF all for Jonathan to become president of Nigeria. If Jonathan seeks for presidency today, the failure will shock you.

You need strategists and spiritualists who are reading God’s intention to be able to walk somebody into the corridors of power in Aso Rock. I did it for Jonathan and the North and ACF started cursing me to make sure that I and Jonathan never became friends so that I will never benefit from God using me to make Jonathan president. So, I didn’t get a Kobo from Jonathan. That was the first thing he mentioned…

In other words, Igbo presidency is not feasible in 2023?

It is not. It is not. If Igbo would be president they will have to change their style. You don’t use blackmail to become president. You don’t talk about IPOB and become president. As long as there is a faction of Igbo land that thinks about IPOB they cannot be president of Nigeria. It means they will turn the whole of Nigeria to Biafra.

Is that the thinking of the North?

Well, it is my thinking and my thinking is 99.9 percent correct. I am sorry to say so but it has been correct since Abiola ran for election in Nigeria. If I have been right since then and everything I have said have come to pass since Abiola’s time, Babangida’s time, Abacha’s time, if everything Abdulrahman Mohammed have said have come to pass, this one too will come to pass my brother. By the grace of God, by the glory of God, my vision will never become damaged.

What would you say about the race for the presidency in 2019? What do you think is likely to happen?

Muhammadu Buhari may not see the light of the day. His illness is coming back. It is knocking on his door now. That is why anytime I say anything if it is vision proof I will say it is 99.9 percent. This one I am telling you is 99.9 percent. Why they almost killed Buhari is because he disparaged his wife when he said the other room. They will tell him that he has started something good and that if he leaves now they will reverse everything he has done. So for his good he should stay there to make sure they institutionalise everything and get it through. But you see Buhari is not capable of doing that…

(Cuts in) If you meet face to face with Buhari today, what will you tell him?

I will not tell him anything because he doesn’t listen. When the wife talks to me on the social media I always advice her on what would happen to Buhari. There are certain things the Bible and the Quran have prevented us from talking about. The power of the unseen is that of God alone. So we can see certain things about people’s longevity we may never know the day the person will go because only God knows that. But if Buhari contests 2019 the predicament he would face from the diabolical casting of shadow they will do on his life and living, please watch my words very carefully my brother, do not misquote me, the people that are going to fight Buhari, who do not want Buhari to continue as president of Nigeria, are going to confront Buhari spiritually and diabolically. What I have seen in APC’s Chairman’s extension of tenure, because some people have gone to court already to challenge that, is that the court will either stop Oyegun from the extension they did or the APC will break up and not be able to set up an infrastructure that will go into election in 2019. But Nigeria is not Buhari alone. From a contraption, what we have not seen, or envisaged can come up as a contraption of God’s will for Nigeria.

Would I then be right to interpret what you have just said to mean Oyegun’s tenure extension will break APC?

Yes. Absolutely. Very well. I want to be honest with you. I want to be very honest with you. The spirit of Oyegun and Buhari are repulsive to each other. And that cannot be changed. But Tinubu’s spirit is even more amiable to the spirit of Buhari than Oyegun’s. But Tinubu is not destined to be leader of Nigeria.

Some Nigerians may not believe your predictions

Let them not believe me. Let them fight God. Even Saraki has made up with Tinubu now maybe a ticket of two of them can work. It cannot work. Ekweremadu has a better chance of becoming an Igbo president although not in 2023 because the entire political system we are in now are diabolic. Look at what the herdsmen are doing. Look at how we are being ruled, people killed everyday, blood is flowing in Nigeria. So, the entire political alignment is scattered. It will never bear Nigeria any good.

You mentioned SDP earlier as one of the opposition platforms that should watch INEC. Tell me more about the SDP because it has never come up in any political discuss.

You see, Shehu Yar’Adua was a top holder and a prince from the Katsina royal house hold. He was a good, die-hard soldier. All the retired soldiers in Nigeria, whether under Obasanjo, Babangida, all the retired soldiers, ex-military officers are all the people that are leading this SDP back to light. They are getting ready. If 2019 proves to be a herdsman issue and a Buhari power confrontation… all the former soldiers will set up a group that will deal with Buhari and every other person in Nigeria that is creating problem. So, they should not just look at SDP simply. They cannot fight the SDP. They should not even attempt to do so. Let them get rid of their herdsmen, let us have peace. Then everything will be okay for everybody and Nigeria we hail thee.

But SDP is dead and not operating now as a political party that is registered.

Watch what is going to happen, my brother. The people involved, people like Ibrahim Mantu, Jerry Gana, Tunde Adeniran, all these PDP stalwarts are all going into SDP. For God sake, let me tell you, they are the best tacticians that politics has. They are the best strategists in politics in Nigeria. They have held Nigeria under their vice grips at one time or the other. They will be able to institute 2019 properly to a conclusive end, not inconclusive end, please. So, no leader can be that powerful to hold Nigeria prostrate on their knee. No leader has ever emerged like that. If they could get rid of Obasanjo on the third term plan, Buhari should just stay clear and leave quietly. Nigeria will be peaceful. Nigeria will survive.

And you think they will use an unregistered political platform?

All the confrontational institutions in East and South Africa, are they registered parties? The ones in Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, all of them, they are contraptions. The power groups are political parties but the powers that be may not be in political parties. If they are registered as a political party and they create havoc…I am not one of them but I am seeing what they are doing. You see the SDP, do you know that Prof. Jerry Gana, Tunde Adeniran , Ibrahim Mantu have all joined SDP. They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SDP already.

Who are the leaders of SDP?

No. I am not going to tell you that. You won’t hear it from my mouth. But I know Atiku is one of them. They contacted Binta Yar’Adua but she said she is not a politician and that her husband is dead now, that the leaders of the party that were close to her husband at that time can go ahead and do what they want to do. But definitely, she is not a politician. Three former Heads of State are in support of this arrangement.

Who are the three?

Oh no, my brother, I can’t tell you. Why are you trying to rail road me into this talk? It is too premature to talk about that. They have three powerful former Heads of State behind them and they have South West behind them.

The three key figures you mentioned- Jerry Gana, Tunde Adeniran and Ibrahim Mantu- are still with the PDP and here you are linking them with the SDP.

They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SDP already. Bukola Saraki is with them. Ekweremadu is with them; Rochas Okorocha is with them, Willy Obiano is with them. That recalcitrant governor that is from Rivers State, Wike is with them. Intimidation; you remember one time I said Buhari should release the people that they have arrested? I said all the people they have arrested let them release them. You don’t arrest the people you want to rule over. That will be his saving grace and protection. But with all the people incarcerated now and the arrests they are making about this thing is going to finish Buhari before he starts reining down the current political establishments in Nigeria. That is the situation. And the Buhari government is planning to clamp down on the media. They should not try it because if the media gets back into the trenches, the government is finished. I am being honest with you. They are going to clamp down on the media. That is what the cabal asked him to do. They feel if they are able to do that they would have effectively cut down Obasanjo and Babangida’s influence on the political journey to 2019. But they are wasting their time.

Let me end this interview by giving you the opportunity to treat the subject matter in the nation that is dearest to you.

What is dearest to me as a subject matter in the nation now is the herdsmen issue. You see, Buhari should stop…there is a difference between herdsmen that are Nigerians of Fulani and herdsmen from North Africa and West African Coast. They are not the same. The herdsmen that are entering Nigeria and carrying AK47 rifles are not the Nigerian Myetti Allah Fulanis. So, Buhari should be honest to his God and protect the Fulanis in Nigeria. Look, the herdsmen that are coming with AK47 are devouring our farmlands. Food will soon become scarce and famine will come in. See how they devour yams and eat everything. Yam is not only all we have but all harvests that they get in the farms before they pass them herdsmen are there. Why are these herdsmen, foreign herdsmen, why are they all over Nigeria? Buhari should reverse their tracks and let them leave Nigeria. We will survive. Nigeria will survive. The politics of Nigeria and the inter-relationship in our ethnic and tribal collective will be peaceful. Distrust has come into Nigeria seriously. All these things about colonies and others are not Buhari’s business. Let’s leave herdsmen. It is not the Fulani herdsmen that you know, Myetti Allah, no.  It is the foreign herdsmen carrying AK47 and all that. Our Nigerian Fulani herdsmen don’t carry guns. The ones in Zamfara came in from Niger. So, let Buhari take his hands away from that. That is the problem he has. That is the terrible end time disaster that Buhari has. This cattle colony that is being proposed will bring disaster to Nigeria. How many cattle do we have? The table of cattle all over the world I put it on Facebook. I distributed it through WhatsApp. Nigeria is not even in the list of the first 50 countries with cattle in the world. Why has it become a problem for us, killing each other and all that if it is not end time destruction? And all the people who are the main players and actors will be carried away with it because these international Fulani herdsmen have had their problem with every West African country and the only way it was solved was that they were pushed out, banned from those countries. All over West Africa, from Niger to Burkina Fasso to Senegal, they were banned. Why should Nigeria accept them? And Nigeria is thinking of colonies. Why?  So this is the problem. So that is what is on my mind. Let them ban all these AK47 carrying international herdsmen. Let them leave our country. John Shagaya said it then he died. I am not going to say they killed him because two former Heads of state have called me and said I shouldn’t say anything about it, that they smell a rat. Shagaya told them what has been happening since the Military on this international herdsmen coming into Nigeria. What Shagaya said is in the media. So, they should just ask all the AK47 carrying international herdsmen to leave Nigeria. Then Nigeria will survive. Look at them in Benin, Akure, Ondo, everywhere. Which time did we ever have enough herdsmen in Nigeria; Nigeria herdsmen as many and numerous to be able to cover up the entire landscape of Nigeria? Even in Lagos they are there. We are deceiving ourselves. If he doesn’t expel them, if he doesn’t remove them from Nigeria, he himself will be part of the first of the example of the predicament that is going to hit Nigeria on this herdsmen issue. It is a very serious issue. He will be part of God’s intervention to rid Nigeria of this problem that we are faced with because every ethnic and tribal collective pray to the same God. The God we have in Nigeria is not the God of Buhari alone, it is not the God of politicians alone, it is the God of every ethnic and tribal group in Nigeria and they all pray to God and God will listen.  So, they should never think they are going to have a safe landing on this herdsmen issue. Get rid of them now and let Nigeria live the way it was living before. Let them stop killing people that don’t want herdsmen here. Anybody that does not want herdsmen, they kill the person the following week. Why? More blood, more blood. Is this how we are going to live? Trump has explained why we are a dysfunctional country. We live on blood. Those who live by blood shall die of blood.