I Won’t Be Like Jonathan –Anyim
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, believes that President Goodluck Jonathan is too humble with power, which many misconceive as weakness. But he said this is tactical. The former Senate President speaks on Nigeria’s Centenary celebration scheduled for 2014.
National interest above personal interest
The time I was leaving the Senate I was getting to 42 and I didn’t think about what I would be tomorrow. I walked away. Why wouldn’t people also think that the country should be above them? I had become chairman of the National Assembly and I said I had no business there again and I walked away and I had no plan about what I was going to do except that my father was a farmer and I had a farmland. It is as simple and straight as that. We must join hands to promote the country above every selfish interest.
Are we now going to say because the opposition will say they are suspecting they want to promote President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election in 2015, we must not celebrate our nationhood? This is not the reality. Didn’t they contest election and somebody won? I think the duty is for us to elevate the corporate well-being of Nigeria because it is all our collective well-being over and above every narrow and parochial feeling.
I don’t think about tomorrow
God has so pampered me in my life that I don’t sleep and worry about tomorrow. I don’t think about tomorrow, because I think my tomorrow is secured in God’s hand and I sleep very well.
I won’t be like Jonathan
Let me again empahsise about this issue of perception. I have never seen a man humble with power as Jonathan. I wouldn’t be as humble as that with power; I can tell you that, and I was not. I have never seen anybody that is as tolerant with power as he is. I have never seen any leader in Nigeria, and I have been around, that has managed power the way Jonathan has and that is why everybody thinks we can rubbish him, that one, what can he do? He won’t do anything.
We can step on him! We haven’t had it that way before. And I have told people, we have wonderful opportunity under Jonathan to deepen democracy because he will not interfere with anything, he will not interfere with what you are doing. He will not even challenge you. What you want to do, do! Those working with him, he doesn’t manipulate, he doesn’t control, just run your office. That is the basic principle that will advance our democracy. But we turn it otherwise to say it is weakness. We have to choose between the principles of democracy or a peculiar type of democracy that is peculiar to Nigeria.
Taking Mr. President for granted
We have measured civilian regimes and military regimes. How would Sani Abacha have done it? How would Murtala Mohammed have done it? How did Olusegun Obasanjo do it?
But the truth is that the principle of democracy is universal. So you have to compare what he is doing with what should be or how the other people did it. Somebody told me that the kind of president Nigeria needs is the one with iron hand. When he comes you know he has come.
We shouldn’t take it for granted because instead of maximising the opportunity of the kind of person Jonathan is we are abusing it. I won’t be as soft, as humble, as tolerant as he is in power. I will not be, I am saying so. You know I am saying the truth, if you step on me, I step on you!
Let’s get it right this is the duty we have to perform together, the country should be above every personal interest. You mustn’t rule. People will come and tell me it is the turn of the South-East, it is the turn of this or that zone for presidency. Who zoned it to South-South now? Who zoned it to them? God! Who gave it to Jonathan? This is a man nobody ever gave any chance. Who didn’t even want. He wanted to remain in his small Bayelsa, they dragged him out overnight and you cannot see the hand of God in it? You think you can throw him away like that? It is not possible. It is because we do not believe in God that is why you cannot see God in anything. We should get it right.
Involvement of states in centenary celebration
The centenary celebration with the theme “One Nigeria: Great promise and mission to re-inspire the unity of Nigeria,” is being packaged to show case Nigeria to the whole world, depicting her past, present and future while highlighting the rich heritage in cultures, languages, ethnic diversity and yet, unity in diversity.
One of the major arguments we had in the Senate was people from Kogi saying that Lokoja, the state capital, should host most of the activities. That is why we said that states can come up with their own programmes and align with us because the states may have their own projects that they want to sponsor and others we may want to raise funds from alternative sources. So, it is not exclusive.
Participation of former Heads of State
The programme we are doing is not fragmented on the basis of parties or on the basis of regions. At any level which ever programme that concerns anybody we will reach the person. We are interviewing people on what they say about Nigeria. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has been interviewed, Ibrahim Babangida has been interviewed. They are yet to get Obasanjo, they haven’t interviewed him. On the flag off day, Yakubu Gowon has a role to play, Abdulsalami Abubakar has a role to play, Obasanjo has a role to play.
Centenary not political
The centenary celebration has no party or political colouration. It is the celebration of the unity of Nigeria. If we do it party by party, we would not even take off because political interests is not what you just resolve overnight because in this part of the world politics is life. So, we don’t want to bring politics into this, we are talking about Nigeria.
We will not because any party wants government, we should not celebrate our existence as a nation. If it is politics, that is the responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigerian electorate. It is different from what we are doing.
The truth is that Nigeria is 100 under Jonathan. It is not Jonathan that put 2014 close to 2015. These issues will arise, but it is for you to put it right. The festivity is not about the government and its achievements; we are going to celebrate Nigeria in the next 20 months, not the administration or the government.
Why we must celebrate
At our age and experience as a people, we know that there is no country like Nigeria…. If we cannot celebrate Nigeria, then it means that we are not proud of Nigeria…. We must use the occasion of our centenary celebration to affirm to ourselves that Nigeria is not an accident. Indeed, in the words of Lord Lugard on the occasion of the amalgamation, ‘Nigeria is the product of a long and mature consideration.’
We must celebrate because our unity is the common symbol of our collective existence that has put the nation on the path of development and potential global ascendancy.
We must celebrate because without Nigeria, we will not have the largest and most vibrant parliament in Africa, in tandem with other maturing political institutions with deep and rich traditions.
We must celebrate because if not Nigeria, we would not be the largest black nation and the 7th most populous nation in the world.
We must celebrate Nigeria because if we cannot underscore the essence and advantages of our unity, it means we plan to promote disintegration.
Centenary projects
The legacy projects include erection of a new City Gate in Abuja; Centenary City also in Abuja, which will attract investments totalling $15 billion from the private sector; generation of over 15,000 jobs; a unity square in every state capital and medical diagnostic centres in each of the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Others are: ICT centres in all the universities that are yet to have one; a modern library in a university in each of the zones; Police crime laboratories, one in each of the zones; building and renovation of sports facilities in each of the federal universities as well as renovation, naming or renaming of colonial sites in the country.
Also to be embarked on, are: renovation/ upgrade of the National War Museum in Umuahia, Colonial History museums in Lokoja and Aba, the National Museum inside the Old Residency in Calabar and establishment of a dialysis centre in each of the zones.
The Centenary City to be built in Abuja, which would be replica of Dubai, Monaco, Shenzhen, Singapore and lately Songdo, will occupy a space of more than 1,000 hectares of virgin land along the Airport Road in Abuja, making it the second largest ‘private city’ development in history, after Songdo International Business District in South Korea.
The land for the project would be acquired in accordance with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Land Swap Agreement. Being a private sector driven project, government will not put any money into it. It is also not a concessioning arrangement since government will outsource the project to a company that has secured land allocation in accordance with FCT land swap programme.
The proposed city was conceived to focus the attention of the investing world to Nigeria in a way that had never been done before. Cities like that had provided strongest social, political and economic tool for securing foreign investment, promoting positive international attention and indeed signalling a new national economic awakening.
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