Now that their scorecard shows failure, they have become desperate to retain power in the most crude and illegal way. Again, their desperation has led them to be making mistakes upon mistakes, multiple mistakes. Look at Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant to the President On Public Affairs saying that APC will not last one year and that if it does, he should be called a bastard. Now that APC is more than a year, is Doyin Okupe now a bastard? They underrated APC formation saying that it will not happen because it is a conglomeration of strange fellows. When they found out that the merging was going on well, they came to say that the merger committee had broken down. I said that we have not had the first meeting and PDP said that we had broken down. Another thing they did is the planting of some of their men in the merger committee. We know them. Later, their agents showed their faces.

What I am saying is that APC was ready for what is happening right from the beginning. They did everything from the outside to frustrate the primary, but our primary held and was successful. They never wanted to register us. God is with APC and nothing will stop the party. We have finished all the conditions for registration, they went to INEC and came up with all sort of hurdles to prevent the registration of APC. There was one condition difficult to fulfill, the merger must have a secretariat in Abuja. We didn’t have money to build a house for our secretariat. God performed a miracle. Few days to the deadline of registration, a business man wrote to us giving us his newly built complex free of charge as our secretariat.

Then, they came up with another issue saying Tinubu and Buhari cannot work together, that also failed. To cut the story short, PDP has tried everything to frustrate APC but they have failed in all because rather than addressing fundamental problems, they were busy chasing shadows. As at now, they have come up with another stupid gimmick against APC which is attacking the personality of Buhari.

Don’t you think that the Federal Government’s excuse on security is genuine?

They said that they are postponing election for security reasons. President Jonathan’s National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, whom I know very well, a former ADC to Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, a very likeable man, very pleasant person, firstly flew the kite in think-thank Chatham House, London asking for and justifying postponement of the election. It is what PDP had planned for long. The reason they give is a lie. Sambo came and said the election should be postponed. They called the council meeting, Jega said there that he was ready to conduct election and they said INEC was not ready. Some of the PVCs that are yet to be collected are registered by PDP with fake names. INEC has assured us that they are ready and from that background, there is no basis for the postponement of the election. They used security as an excuse but they have failed. The security challenges that they are unable to resolve in about six years is what they want to resolve in six weeks. The reasons they are giving us are suspicious. In any case, as at today, as we are speaking, the insurgents are still bombing and operating.

Their activities have not reduced. Six weeks is around the corner, let us wait and see how far they can bring down the activities of the terrorists. One thing I know and so sure of is that there must be a change in Nigeria. We need a new leader that can deliver us from our many problems and the person that can do it is Buhari.

How correct is the insinuation that they are working on elongation?

In fairness to them, I don’t think their mind is on elongation; their mind is to buy time to be able to catch up with APC’s momentum but they can’t catch up because Nigerians are now more conscious about what they want.

What about interim government?

That also will fail. The fight is not between PDP and APC but between PDP and Nigerians. If they are doing it to perfect rigging, that will be very difficult now because Nigerians really want a change. If Jonathan has done well, I as an Ijaw man will be very happy. If Jonathan wants to come to my house, I will not open my door for him because he has messed up Ijaw people. He is confused and doesn’t know what to do. If they extend the election till December, they will still lose.

Don’t you have the fear like some Nigerians that Buhari can make Nigeria an Islamic nation?

That is unfounded fear and one of the attacks on the person of Buhari. I have heard them saying Buhari will Islamise Nigeria. No Muslim head of state in Nigeria can make Nigeria a Muslim country and no Christian head of state can make Nigeria a Christian state because we are a secular state. Being a religious fundamentalist is good because it shows that you believe in your faith. A religious fundamentalist is different from a religious extremist. They talk without researching. I went to Kaduna, I found out that three of Buhari’s cooks are Christians, his second security officer is a Christian, his second driver is a Christian, and his confidential secretary is a Christian. These are the people that have been working with him for a long time. The late Babatunde Idiagbon’s wife is a born again Christian.

In 1984 in Geneva, we had OPEC meeting but we had agreed that we will finish the meeting before 25th December. The meeting did not finish and they extended it to 25th of December. I told them that I could not stay to have a meeting on the day of the birth of Jesus Christ. OPEC is composed of over 90 per cent Muslim members. I told them that if they schedule a meeting to the day Prophet Muhammed was born, I will still object to it. I told them to respect the birthday of Jesus Christ and Muhammed. They were arguing, I said ‘no problem, I am the leader of Nigeria’s delegation, I am pulling out Nigeria’s delegation. I am not going to be here on Christmas.’

I pulled out the Nigerian delegation and the meeting collapsed and there were lots of problems in the oil market. Some Christians told Buhari that I had caused international problem, therefore, he should sack me. When I arrived Nigeria, I went straight to report to Buhari what happened. He said, “Professor, I heard what happened on television. BBC and other international news media agencies have reported what you did.” He congratulated me on what I did. He said you are right, we must respect our religion. That same night, Buhari sent me Christmas present. How can he be anti-Christian?