Mazi Paul Ibe is the Director of Media in the Atiku Media Office. In this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, Ibe who doubles as the spokesman for former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, throws light on the controversial issue of restructuring being advocated by his boss among others.
Some people have said that some of the things Atiku is doing is motivated by his ambition to become president. Do you think they are right or He is rather misunderstood?
We are all ambitious people. As a reporter I probably desired to be an editor. As an editor you would probably want to be the editor-in-chief or the managing director so as human beings we want to rise in life. Atiku is human like all of us; he is flesh and blood. He has desires and ambition but you need to understand his desires against the backdrop of where the man is coming from and here is a man who keep saying repeatedly how this country has been good to him. He went to school in Northern Nigeria where he got free education and so he believes that he has a responsibility to a society that has given so much to him. He believes that by his training, exposure and the experience he has gathered, skills that has put him in an advantageous position to be able to impact on the society to transform lives of people and that is legitimate and if it is done within established rules there is nothing wrong. Even those who say he is ambitious are also ambitious; they are also ambitious to ensure that he doesn’t achieve his own ambition.
There are some persons who believe that at this stage Atiku should be nurturing young leaders, not seeking for political offices. What is your take on that?
There is nothing wrong in nurturing young leaders. One of the things Atiku is passionate about is young leadership but you can’t put forward people who haven’t been well schooled, well tutored in the art of leadership.
Still on the issue of ambition, a lot of people feel that perhaps it is not his fate to be the president of the country, having failed a number of times to realize this ambition. Do share such view?
Well, everybody can’t be on the same page with Atiku. There are people who are for and against and the important thing is that the man is focused. He knows where he is heading to and if an American president can run for an election on four different occasions and be successful why not him? It is not how long a man has to learn something that matters. He learnt early in life that no matter how many times you fall, the question is how many times would you pick yourself up and he has also said it in a couple of occasions that nothing has ever come easy to him in life, everything he had to struggle. Let’s not forget that his life was a struggle, he lost his father early.
Atiku ought to be seen playing leading role in the search for solutions to the North East insurgency crisis,; do you see him playing a vital role in resolving the issues of the North east?
We forget that Atiku is just an individual and there is a limit to what an individual can do. We forget that he has been away from government for about 10 years now. He has been a private citizen and even as a private citizen he has continued to engage government at all levels to see how they can better address some of the challenges we face. We all know the history of insurgency and how it came about. It could have been better managed but because it wasn’t it festered and the consequences are staring at us but the good news is that president Buhari administration has taken the bull by the horn and for those of us who live in Abuja we can even see the manifestations of the turnaround that has happened in the area of security. Some of the access roads where we have military and police stations have been opened up. Those of us who couldn’t go to churches and mosque for fear of attacks go about our lives. One of the biggest fish market where I used to get my own supply of fish.
From Abuja all I simply do is send money to someone who will buy it and I pick it up at the motor park but I couldn’t do that, the price of fish skyrocketed but now it is opened up, the roads are opened again. Once again we have the opportunity to reinvent in our country and it requires investment in critical areas of infrastructure in the rebuilding of the North East and that is what Atiku is focused on right now working with both the federal government, state government of the region and nongovernmental and multinational institutions to see how we can attract investment into this region. Don’t forget that even before the Boko Haram, the North East has the worst deficits in development indices and the insurgency has worsen the situation. But I believe that not just him other people working hand in hand can turn around Nigeria. Never forget a tree can’t make a forest no matter how big that tree is even if it is an iroko tree. The forest is a combination of both trees, shrubs and so we need all of that; you and I putting all our little might towards the Nigeria project.
In a country where some people believe that the elderly have been the problem in quote of this country and there should be a shift to the younger generation. Are you still advocating that someone of 70 years and above should be the president of this country?
The question I will throw back at you is what has age got to do with it? Is the man qualified? Does he have the experience, the intellectual, does he have that? What about Donald Trump of the United States he is 70. Like Atiku Abubakar he has being running businesses and he is successful, he has created thousands of jobs. He has returned benefits to shareholders, to stakeholders. Billions of naira in tax to the state, a man of great compassion, a man of unparallel humanity, a man who can bring people to power so that is the person we are talking about and if he has these treats how will that impact in our society? Those are the questions we need to ask ourselves.
Why are some of those around the president so uncomfortable with Atiku?
You know you are dragging me to a different direction, into political arena.
From an insider’s prospective, do you think Atiku and the former President Obasanjo have truly reconciled?.
Well let me tell you what I know and that underscores the essence of politics of Atiku Abubakar. He is a man that is very tolerable. He is the promoter of the politics of tolerance and accommodation. Along the line a lot of people have hurt him but if you are on the frontline with him like I am and see these people coming and the way they are received, I don’t think it is about politics, I think it is about the heart of the man, his ability to embrace people. It could be a minus and it could also be a plus but the reality is that for Atiku it has been his staying power is his ability to embrace people despite the fact that this may have been some of the people who have been on the opposing side.
One of the things Atiku is passionate about is young leadership but you can’t put forward people who haven’t been well schooled