From Desmond Mgboh, Kano

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Second Republic politician and elder statesman has always been a media friendly personality. In this interview he speaks on his relationship with the Jonathan’s administration, his role in the efforts to douse tension ahead of the 2015 general elections, and the unfortunate court case with The Sun Newspapers following a publication by a columnist of the paper.
Excerpts:
Background
This case, in suit FCT/CV/1720/2016, which concerned me and The Sun Newspapers arose as a result of a publication on page 44 of the paper’s edition of April 8th, 2015, which was authored by a columnist of the paper, Mr. Duro Onabule.
When I saw the publication, I contacted my lawyers and directed them to write to Mr. Onabule and The Sun Newspapers with a view to calling their attention to the malicious nature of the said publication, which was totally false, untrue and unfounded and was calculated to tarnish my image, my long established and hard earn reputations and the reputation of my children and grand children.
My lawyers communicated my objection in a letter, which was delivered and duly acknowledged by the office of the paper in Abuja. A time span was given within which Mr. Onabule and the paper was requested to retract the said publication and apologize to me. The time lapsed without any action on the part of the paper and the columnist and my lawyer drew my attention to that effect. It was at this point that I directed him to go ahead and file an action and claim damages for the injury inflicted on me by the publication, following which an action was filed in court for the sum of N500 million. The case was slated for hearing at a given date, a writ of summon to that effect was duly served to the defendants through the paper’s office in Abuja and a date of hearing was conveyed.
On the first day of hearing, a lawyer represented the defendants, when the matter came up for hearing. Then, the matter was adjourned for further hearing. The following adjourned date, I appeared and adopted my witness statement, but there was no representation from the defendants in court to cross examine me. The cross examination was adjourned for another day.
When a new adjourned date came, I appeared before the court, but neither the paper nor Mr. Onabule was represented and the judge decided to relieve me and allow me to go since the defendants were not interested in cross -examining me. And they went ahead to hear other witnesses. The case was further adjourned.
Now after two adjournments, you (the reporter) happened to know about the case and approached me for the resolution of the matter. On that occasion, I made it clear to you that I was only interested in getting the publication retracted, that I was not interested in the money or any other thing, that I just wanted the opinion in the column, which was totally wrong, to be withdrawn and an apology tendered so that I can keep it as part of my record and that of my children and grand children.
Later, I was contacted by some of the members of the management of The Sun Newspapers for an out –of –court settlement, which led to the present consent judgment.
The allegation by the Columnist
In the said publication which was published on 8th April, 2015 edition of the paper, page 44, and authored by Mr. Onabule,  titled” Buhari Must Pay Yakassai’s Debt”,  he praised some Nigerians for their patriotic roles in the Presidential campaign, but reserved harsh words against my person. He maligned my reputation in the following words:
“ ……the same cannot be said of Tanko Yakassai, said to be the Chairman of a bogus Northern Elders Forum, which emerged in the early days of Goodluck Jonathan’s administration with the sole mission of collecting free money from Aso Rock under the fraud of bribing innocent prominent Northerners to support Jonathan. Yakassai laid the foundation for that task by initially publicly threatening that Northerners would make Nigeria ungovernable for Jonathan. Desperate and mischievous elements were later to falsely attribute it to Muhammadu Buhari during the election campaigns. Yakassai and his co- conspirators were later to visit Jonathan in Aso Rock. After the meeting, Yakassai came out a born again politician, as he told the press corps, that Jonathan would not win the 2015 elections, but in the first round. It was in that same capacity that the same Tanko Yakassai was listed among those who collected the millions of naira public fund freely shared in the run-up to the 2015 elections. Since he was exposed, Yakassai has been struggling to save his neck….”
My response to the allegations
I insist that all these statements are false, unfounded, wicked and malicious and calculated to destroy my character and hard earned reputation. That was why I asked for damages. I want to put on record that all the allegations contained in that publication were totally false and unfounded and I never received any campaign money from
Jonathan. I have also never taken any money from anybody associated with Jonathan for his campaign. I have never applied for or was awarded any contract throughout the six years of Jonathan’s Presidency. And I challenge anybody who feels that I had taken any money at all in that regard to join me in issuing a letter of authority to our respective bankers permitting them to release our statement of accounts throughout the duration of Jonathan’s Presidency for publication.
Even the money which was reported in the papers that Chief Tony Anenih gave to me was false. It was false because Chief Anenih did not give me money personally. The said money was given to a group which I led. The money given by Chief Anenih was N53 million in all, that is N3 million for our preliminary meetings and N50 million for a tour of the 19 Northern states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
And I have issued a statement in that respect, giving the breakdown of the expenses incurred in carrying out that assignment, how much was given to the group, how much was given to each member of the group ,how much was spent on hotel accommodation, how much was spent on air tickets, fuel, drivers allowances, among others. I gave all the details. In fact, all the issues, which Mr. Onabule in that publication ascribed to me, were false.
The issue of making the North ungovernable for Jonathan, I read it too. Yes, some leaders of the Northern Elders Forum were reported to have made those statements that were falsely attributed to me. The spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi was among the people who made those statements and not me, Tanko Yakasai.
In the first place, as I had mentioned, I was not the Chairman or even a member of the Northern Elders Forum. In contrast, I was the Chairman of the Northern Elders Council and I will like to state that the Northern Elders Council was a product of a decision taken by some concerned Northern patriots in response to the reckless and unpatriotic statements of some of the leaders of the Northern Elders Forum, which were overheating the polity in the period preceding the presidential election bringing about disunity in the land as well as undermining the peaceful co existence and harmonious relationship that existed among the different people of Nigeria.
We set up the Council in order to show that the views being touted by the leaders of Northern Elders Forum did not represent the views of all Northerners. We felt that there was a need for patriotic Nigerians from the North to air contrary views so that people outside the North would know that there were sensible people in Northern Nigeria, who were committed to the unity and peaceful co- existence of the people of this country.
In fact, in my speech at the maiden press conference of the Council on Wednesday, 29 January, 2014, I made it clear that, “as elders, we cannot shy away from the call to duty neither can we abdicate our collective responsibility in the face of challenges threatening the unity, stability and cohesion of our dear country.
Like I was saying, the request for my group to tour the North was initiated by President Jonathan, through Chief Tony Anenih. They wanted me to nominate some credible Northern leaders, with little or no political affiliation, to go round the North and talk to opinion leaders, religious leaders and traditional rulers with a view to assisting in bringing about normalcy and in dousing the tension that was threatening the nation’s peace and stability, which was giving serious concern to President Goodluck Jonathan on the eve of the last Presidential Elections.
They came to me through Chief Tony Anenih who requested me to meet him and when I saw him, he told me that the President wanted to find out whether I would agree to get some people, who would go round the North and carry out this assignment in the interest of national unity and stability. I gave him a list of nine people, including myself, with a resume of information in respect to each of them, which he took to the President. And when the President was satisfied with the caliber of the people nominated, Chief Tony Anenih provided the sum of N3 million to take care of our immediate need for transportation, accommodation and the preliminary meetings for planning  the requested tour.
Thereafter, we submitted the programme of the tour to which he indicated his satisfaction and gave us the sum of N50 million for the entire group of nine people to undertake a tour of the 19 Northern states. The tour, which began on the 14th of January, 2015 was concluded on the 14th February, 2015, a period within which we visited 17 of the 19 Northern states as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, leaving out two states, namely Borno and Yobe State, because as of that time, it was too dangerous to undertake such an undertaking in these two states.
Chief Anineh told us that he was giving the money to our group from his personal resources adding that he would claim for reimbursement later. He also said that the President did not give him a specific amount to give to us, but he would use his own discretion in such a way that the money would not be too much or too small. We carried out the tour and prepared a report, which I submitted to Chief Tony Anenih on April 14, 2015, which was duly acknowledged by his Personal Assistant with his signature on the covering letter attached to his copy.
Now, I want to state that I was told that, before approaching me, Jonathan had asked Chief Tony Anenih to approach the leadership of the Northern Elders Forum, to find out whether they would agree to undertake that tour with a view to speaking to Northern leaders so that the tension that was threatening the stability of the nation at that time would be brought under control. The Northern Elders Forum sent one of their leaders, who took money from Chief Anenih for the assignment.
The man took N100 million on the promise that Northern Elders Forum would tour the North, speak to the opinion leaders, religious leaders and traditional rulers. But the man absconded with the money and the assignment was not carried out till today. It was after then that Chief Tony Anenih contacted me.
After we completed our tour, Chief Anenih told me that they had earlier on approached some people to do this same job, but the people took their money and did not carry out the assignment. But he did not tell me the particular person who collected his money or the amount.
It was later, on my own, that I searched and discovered the name of the person who took the money and absconded. It should be noted that the man collected N100 million for the assignment, but we were given N50 million only to carry out the same assignment. I would therefore say that everything we did in connection with that assignment at that time, we did it solely in the interest of Nigeria, its survival, its unity and the peaceful co -existence of the Nigerian people.
Why I supported Jonathan
I supported the second term bid of President Goodluck Jonathan without ever meeting him on a one- to- one basis in my life. No doubt, I met him in public on a number of occasions, but I never met him in person, except once and that just was a week before the Presidential elections and it was in the interest of national stability. The meeting had no connection whatsoever with his electioneering.
I felt I should support Jonathan this time around even though I was initially against his emergence for the 2011 Presidential race, as I even went to court against him at that time. I was not against him personally but I was against the National Assembly for adopting the so called, “Doctrine of Necessity” to confer the Acting Presidency on the Vice President at that time.
That was because that mandate was given to Yar’Adua and nobody had power, under our constitution, to transfer that mandate to any other person. The case is still pending in court and the judgment is yet to be delivered despite the adoption of the addressees by counsels representing the two parties. I did all that in the interest of the political stability of Nigeria.
I was a member of NPN and NPN was the first political party in Nigeria to introduce the concept of zoning and rotation in the country, a philosophy I held religiously as a member of that party. This is because I realized that all the political crisis in Nigeria, from independence to date, were associated with the control of power at the center. I am in support of the idea of rotation so that every section of Nigeria would have the opportunity to produce the President of this country so as to have a sense of belonging. I don’t support people because they are Hausa Fulani or because they are from the North and I don’t support people because they are Muslims. Rather, I only support people because of what they can do for Nigeria.
I have never been a member of the PDP and as a matter of fact, I don’t belong to any political party. The last time I was a member of a political party was in the year 2001, when I resigned from APP. And from Shagari’s administration to date, I have never held any public office. I am not looking for any office from the government.
On the contrary, the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi lobbied and was appointed by Jonathan twice as the Pro- Chancellor of Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi. He was given emoluments and accommodation. I was never appointed to any public office by the Jonathan’s administration or any other administration before him under the present dispensation, but I am doing what I am doing in the interest of this country.
I spent more than 65 years in my over 90 years of existence in the service of this nation. I, therefore, appeal to Nigerians to support people for what they can do for Nigeria not because of their tribal, religious or sectional affinity.
My relationship with the Sun Newspapers
Following the consent judgment entered between myself and the defendants, it was agreed that they would avail me an opportunity to refute the said publication by way of this interview. This interview shall be published in the Daily Sun Newspapers. It was also resolved that the defendants should tender an unreserved apology to me, which had since been done. Finally, it was entered that the defendants shall jointly pay to me the sum of N500, 000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira), being the legal expenses I incurred in this action.
In the end, I want to say that I have totally forgotten and forgiven the injury meted out against me as a result of that callous publication. I have since forgiven the paper because I would err to hold the entire paper responsible for the action and mistake of one individual. My respect and admiration for The Sun Newspaper has remained the same, despite that unfortunate incident.