PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN HAS DONE WELL---Dr Dako Mamudu
The National Transformation Continuity is an NGO
that is wholly committed to ensuring that only leaders with genuine agenda for
the improvement of Nigerian society and economy are put in power in the country.
In this chat with the organization’s National coordinator, he reveals that the
group will campaign in every LGA in Nigeria and also in major cities
abroad, to ensure that President Jonathan is returned at the 2015 polls.
May we meet you?
My name is Dr. Dako
Mamudu, I am a medical practitioner, I am also involved in politics, both
locally and internationally.
As a medical
practitioner, do you work for government?
I am into private
practice, I practice here in Lagos.
We hear that you are the
National Coordinator of National Transformation Continuity, (NTC), can you tell
us what that is all about?
National
Transformation Continuity is an NGO we set up to assist politicians we know can
actually transform the nation to win. Apart from supporting President Jonathan
whom we believe is actually doing a lot to transform the nation, we are also
going to support a lot of other people such as senators to be as well as
Governors that we know can actually transform the nation.
We have had so
many pressure groups asking for President Jonathan to continue, did you just
emerge from the blues to join the bandwagon, or have you been in existence?
We have been in
existence for a long time, we have been in the business since 2009, but with a
different name, now we just changed the name to National Transformation
Continuity, then with others operated with the name Reality International. We
campaigned for President Jonathan and our campaign took us all over the country
and even beyond. We were in the UK,
we were in USA we were in Canada. The
only thing that’s changed is just the name.
How are you funded?
It is funded by
individual members; we source money from our pockets to fund our activities.
The organization is made up of people that believe the same thing; we support
people that we believe will transform this nation. So the individual members
contribute handsomely, financially, to our projects.
Where is your
operational headquarters?
In 2009-2010, we
had our head office in Abuja, and to some extent
it affected our operations because most of the principal actors were outside Abuja. So this time
around we have our head office in Lagos.
The members of your NGO
are they drawn from Edo, your state of origin
only, or were they spread around the whole geopolitical zones of the country?
Our membership goes even
beyond the nation, virtually all Local Government Areas of this country have
our members, we have offices in all the states, we have offices outside
Nigeria, we have a major office in the USA, we have a coordinator who
coordinates the USA, we have a coordinator who coordinates all the people in
the Diaspora, we have a secretariat in Canada, we also have an office in the
UK.
Why do you support
Good Luck Jonathan?
We support him
because we believe he is doing very well. We know that he is actually
transforming the nation, though very quietly. If you look at the railways, the
airports, look at the transformation in the sea ports, look at the
transformation in the power sector, you will agree with me that he is making
very good transformation of the country. For example, if you go along Apapa
Oshodi expressway, if you know what used to happen at a place called trinity
bus stop, and what is happening now, you will know that president Jonathan has
done things, where other people have never touched before. If you look at
Ore-Benin Expressway, during the last Christmas, no Ibo man slept on the road
while trying to travel home. In the previous years, it used to be nightmare for
people travelling to the eastern part of the country for the yuletide holidays.
Sometimes people spent two days on the road travelling because the road was
bad. All over the Nation, there has been massive transformation in road
infrastructure development.
How about agriculture,
has any meaningful progress been made in that sector in terms of development,
because food-security is one sector that affects the man in the street?
The contributions that
Jonathan’s government has made in agriculture in Nigeria
are not only recognized by people in Nigeria but also by people beyond.
To the extent that Nigeria’s
minister for agriculture has been applauded all over the world for doing very
well. Before this time, fertilizer was distributed with a lot of corruption.
These days, fertilizer is distributed directly to the farmers, they have direct
access to whoever is distributing it and each time they need it, they just make
a phone call and it is supplied to them, and the price has been crashed down.
When you look at food production, you will see that the contribution of
agriculture to our GDP has increased of recent. The quantity of rice we import
every year has reduced drastically, and in the next few years, I can assure you
that we will be exporting rice and some other agricultural products to other
countries.
Your core area of
involvement as a professional is health, how do you view the achievements of
President Jonathan in this sector especially with this outbreak of
Ebola?
Even the enemies and
adversaries of the president have agreed that Jonathan scored 100% pass mark in
the management of Ebola. The US
government for the first time came out openly to applaud the efforts of the
government, especially the Health Minister. We did so well that we have brought
the spread of Ebola to a stop. Apart from the case of that was brought into the
country by Patrick Sawyer, no other case has been imported in the country. When
he brought the disease into the country, all the people that made contact with
him and those that made contacts with any body that made contact with him, all
who in one way or the other were exposed to the disease, were traced, culled
out and quarantined. Those who eventually developed the disease were adequately
managed. Today we are Ebola free in this country. That is a very big plus for
the Nigerian government.
How do you feel
being a medical doctor concerning the risks of Ebola infection? At First Foundation
Hospital Where Patrick
Sawyer was admitted, the people that died from being infected by him were
medical doctors. What pro-active measures are you putting in place to make sure
that medical workers are not the first victims?
When the Ebola
case was first reported in Nigeria, The Nigerian Medical Association,
Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners and all other
associations, within the health industry, held a series of meetings with the
Federal and state Government and adopted
a series of measures which border especially on hygiene, to curtail the spread
of the disease , bearing in mind that the Ebola that came into Nigeria was as a
result of the fact that the first and the carrier victim, was not faithful, he
was not fair, he was not frank, he did not tell the people he met in the health
facility the truth. If he had done so, they would have taken adequate
precautions. But thank God that the eventual victims, though they sacrificed
their lives, made very good efforts and succeeded in preventing further spread
of the disease. And if you look very well, you will see that after the first
index case, and secondary and tertiary contacts, there have been no other cases
because the health people took a lot of precautions to prevent further spread
of this deadly disease.
Apart from Ebola, which
you have claimed is well managed by the government, via the Health Ministry,
what about other key issues in the Health Sector such as Malaria and HIV/AIDS?
In the case of
HIV?AIDS, even the World Health Organization, WHO, has agreed with us that it
has been well curtailed. I as a health practitioner have not seen a
single new HIV/AIDS case for the past six to seven months now. In the past it
used to be a daily thing; two or three cases everyday you will see in the
clinic. This government has done very well and apart from the very government,
the government before this very one had taken very pro active measures in
managing the AIDS scourge and that has helped in curtailing the spread of the
disease. Malaria scourge, yes that is another big problem worldwide, especially
in the tropical regions. In most of these diseases, it is actually the countries
outside the tropics that initiate the control measures because they have the
resources. But in the case of malaria, the Nigerian government has done pretty
well in the control of the disease. Individuals are also being educated in
hygiene which is a personal control measure for the management of malaria.
One sore point in
the issues of this government is the problem of insecurity, as a result of this
Boko Haram. There has been a lot of accusing fingers and condemnations between
APC and the ruling PDP over who is to blame for the malfeasance of Boko Haram,
what is your view on security in the country?
Security is a
national issue, whether you are a ruling party or opposition, but unfortunately
in our country, security is taken as a political issue. People do not want to
own up to what they know, and they do not want to come together and fight
insecurity. In other lands, both opposition and the party in power, they come
together to fight insecurity, especially when it comes to insurgency. Islamic
insurgency all over the world is very difficult to fight. USA has not been
able to exterminate it. It remains a scourge all over the Middle East, Iran, Iraq,
Syria,
etc. Even Russia also found
it difficult to fight it in the Chechen
Republic. So it is not a
battle for a particular political party to fight. In our country, in a
situation where blames are being put up here and there, nobody wants to own up,
nobody wants to come forward and contribute positively if you are not in
government, it is very sad. Even before the present government came into power,
certain individuals in opposition threatened to make this country ungovernable
if certain individuals come into power. It appears that is what we are seeing
today. And unfortunately, because of the judicial system we have in this
country, it is almost impossible to judge somebody unless you catch that person
red handed. It is a problem I think is facing all of us, not only the ruling
party.
One other issue is
deployment of troops during elections. APC has lately been accusing
President Jonathan of using the military might at his disposal to muscle people
coming out to vote during elections. As a card carrying member of PDP, do you
support the use of military during the elections?
Yes, I fully support it,
I think the APC is complaining because the presence of military men during the
elections prevented them from doing what they wanted to do. If the military
comes into elections management to create a fair playing ground for a free and
fair election, I do not see anything wrong in it. The security you put in place
to run a system is a function of the type of players in that system. Elections
in Nigeria
for some time now, have been taken as a do or die affair. Sometimes it is
compromised. The military being what they are, the way they operate, it is not
easy to compromise them. Once you bring them into a place, everybody will check
himself. And you can see from the way the elections were conducted in all the
places where the military were involved, they were free and fair and violence
free. Even the results were better than expected by all parties. So I
think the involvement of the military in election management was a good omen.
What is your
comment on the election results from all the particular areas where the
military were used in managing the elections?
The use of military in
conducting elections is for the well being of all Nigerians. In Edo State, the
APC won the elections, the military did not favour the ruling party which is
the PDP, APGA won in Anambra state, Labour party swept the polls in Ondo State,
In Ekiti State, the PDP won the election, the election was said to be biased by
those people who felt they should have won the election without the military.
In Osun State, the APC won the election and the
military was there; they did not twist things to favour the PDP which is in
control of the Federal Government. So to me the military has been very fair in
protecting and ensuring very free and fair elections and their coming in was a
very good omen for all of us.
So you think the
presence of military in future elections will guarantee fairness and security
at the polls?
In future
elections, as long as the parameters remain as they are today, I think the
military should be used. For example, if you want to conduct an election in the
North Eastern part of the country today, I wonder if you can achieve anything
without the military. In future when democracy has been well assimilated by all
of us and elections are well tolerated by all of us, I think the military can
go back to the barracks.
Let’s go back to
your state, Edo State, which was formerly a PDP State, APC later won the state
through the personality of Adams Oshiomhole, it’s like the PDP is strategizing
to get back the state. What do you think we are likely to see in Edo State
in the coming elections?
In Edo State,
during the regime of Igbinedion, PDP did not manage their success very well.
That was why the success slipped through their fingers and went to the
opposition party. Now in the coming elections, it is going to be very
interesting, there is going to be a reversal. PDP is coming back to power
because Adams Oshiomhole did not manage his success very well. And this time
given the consistency and perseverance of the Edo State PDP executive, led by
Chief Obi, ably assisted and supported by our leader, Chief Tony Anenih, we
will come back to power.
There have been
talks about Adams’ inconsistent policies.
There has been a time he organized a check for teachers who had never gotten
any certificates. Later we heard in the news that he has reversed the
termination of those teachers’ appointments, do you think this was just a move
the win the votes of those teachers?
Yes one of the
biggest problems with the policies of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has been these
inconsistencies. We are not going to start with the teachers, first of all, a
man was in charge of the environment, he was doing the job very well, then
right there in the public, he caught the man and threw him into the van as if
he was a common criminal. A few months later he called the man back. The
Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Environment had an accident and was bed
ridden in the hospital with P.O.P. On the air he dismissed the man for not being
on duty. Few months later, he called him back. A poor widow with her wares was
waiting for transport by the road side, he accused her of violating
environmental laws, despite her pleas for clemency, The Governor called her a
witch and asked to go and die. A few months later, he made her a heroine. So
that of teachers is not a new thing at all. He seems to act before he thinks
and that is not too good for a governor. My brother there has refused to
realize that there is a difference between labour unionism and governance. In
Labour unionism, you are free to do things in a commando style and people will
be praising you, but in governance, it is a different ball game entirely, you
have to consider a whole lot of things before you take a decision. Your
decisions are final and if you keep reversing these decisions every day, you make
a mess of your own government.
Let’s go back to
your group, the NTC, what do we expect from your group in the coming days?
A: In the coming days,
you are going to see a very vibrant support group. We are planning to have
rallies, starting from Lagos we will move to all
other parts of the country, and we are also going to have rallies in major
cities outside Nigeria,
where you have Nigerians in large numbers. We will need their support because
some of them, their words at home carry a lot of authority. We have been doing
a lot of campaign for our candidate through the electronic and print media and
through physical campaign. Like I said, the resources to carry out all these
activities are already on ground, we are not going to anybody to beg for funds;
we are ready for it.
We heard in the
news that the whole PDP governors have endorsed President Jonathan for 2015,
and there seems to be no room for another candidate to come up, ie the
incumbent must be adopted. Looking at it, does it portray the internal
democracy which they preach?
Yes I think so because
if there was any discordance within the party, they would not have adopted him
at all. It is because we looked at everything and we decided that going for
primaries is going to cost a lot of money, and since we have all agreed that he
has done very well, there was no point conducting another primary, we just had
to adopt him. Nobody actually raised any opposition against his adoption, which
actually tells you that internal democracy in PDP is not a fluke at all.
Outside of
politics, how do you spend your leisure time; how do you relax?
I do a lot of
writings when I want to relax, I write very interesting stories, I have friends
all over the world who have similar interests, infact I spend about four hours every
day on the internet, communicating, learning new things and putting up my own
writings.
What about sports, do
you follow football?
I am a football
enthusiast. I have some soccer teams that I cannot do without, such as Arsenal
and Barcelona,
so anytime they are playing, even if it’s twelve midnight, I will watch the
match to the end. I also have interest in watching Nigerian soccer. I am a fan
of the Golden Eaglets and the Super Eagles, so anytime they are playing; I am
always there to watch, either in the stadium or on the television.
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