Encounter with President Obasanjo

ONCE UPON AN INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT OBASANJO


By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu



9.42 AM. Friday, May 20, 2005. Aso Villa, Abuja. A well-modulated voice announces the coming of the leader of the nation. The five men and one woman in the hall rise as one. In strides His Excellency Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His colorful agbada radiates against the soft amber of the hall as Mr. President walks to his chair with that characteristic swagger that is all his. He sits expansively, scans the hall and turns to his right to ask his Senior Special Assistant, Media, Mrs. Remi Oyo: “How much time do we have?” Mrs. Oyo is fast with her response: “Thirty minutes, Sir.” Mr. President adjusts his cap and asks jocularly in pidgin English: “Se my cap dey well?” All say “Yes, Sir” with laughter.

The mention of his cap by Mr. President struck a particular resonance with my presence in the hall. When I came into the hall a handful of breathless minutes before the arrival of President Obasanjo, I had no cap on my head even I was in a traditional attire that ought to be complete with a cap. It was the photographer Tunde Olaniyi who first asked of my cap as I took my seat between Mr. C.K. Alabi and Ken Tadaferua. I brought out the cap from the pocket of the gown and put it on my head where it ought to be. When running late to meet up with an appointment with the President, it is infinitely more important getting to the venue in the first instance rather than be properly fitted out only to end up arriving when the door had been locked!

The interview with Mr. President was a case of running against time. It had earlier been fixed for 2 O’clock in the afternoon, but because of unforeseen pressing presidential matters the interview had to be brought forward to 9 in the morning at very short notice. For Tadaferua and me who had to travel from Lagos that very morning it literally meant running a marathon with the speed of a sprint. Getting out of bed in the pre-dawn hours and making it to the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, before making the long journey from Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, to the seat of power in Aso Villa called for all the effort and coordination in the world.

Consulting Editor (Copy) Taiwo Obe, fondly known as TO, who had coordinated the pre-interview sessions was on top of the matter from the very beginning. At exactly 4AM, he sent across the text message that it was time get up for the journey to the airport. He was himself heading for the office to muster additional questions for Mr. President. Tadaferua made it in good enough time to make the first flight out of Lagos on Bellview Airline. The construction site at Iyana-Ipaja impeded my journey to the airport and I was forced to make a detour through Agege, that is, after losing a bag in the melee! Even so, TO was always in touch with me until I boarded the Chanchangi flight to Abuja. The journey in an unmarked taxi to Aso Villa was another matter entirely, a very fast race not unbefitting of Michael Shumacher of the Formula One fame! There was no time in my mad rush to send the message to TO back in Lagos that I made it after all before submitting my mobile phone to the security apparatchiks at the last door in the Villa.

Editorial Board Chairman Alhaji Ibrahim Ida (CON), C.K. Alabi, Tommy Odemwingie and Tadaferua were already seated waiting for the arrival of Mr. President. After the issue of my cap had been sorted out, the little time left was used to assess the questions to be directed at President Obasanjo. There was no point repeating questions that had been elaborately addressed by Mr. President in other interviews and whose answers were already known to the wider Nigerian public. The point of the interview was freshness, an issue that had been stressed by Consulting Editor (General) Chido Nwakanma who would have been at the interview but could not make it at short notice from Enugu where he had gone to for an assignment.

It was therefore meet to grill Mr. President on the true worth of Nigeria’s foreign debt, an issue that had taken much of his time. There was also the dimension of the IMF stressing that Nigeria’s foreign debt is sustainable at the current $50 per barrel for crude oil, except that the body ominously did not say what would happen in a future of declining oil prices. The cost of the peacekeeping exploits of Nigeria was also an issue at question. The vexed question of Charles Taylor’s continuing asylum in Nigeria when the rest of the world would rather have him surrendered to face the war crimes tribunal equally needed an answer from the horse’s mouth. Even as they sound somewhat alike, NEPA and NEPAD are worlds apart, but it is a measure of the vastness of President Obasanjo’s enterprise that only he can provide the requisite progress report on both issues. The farmer-president cannot but be put to task in the field of agriculture. Matters such as dearth of long-term funds, bank recapitalization and the battle of poverty against slogans like NAPEP, SMEDAN, SMEIES etc, it was agreed, would give the President sufficient food for thought. Other questions slated for discourse included independent funding for INEC, restiveness in the Niger Delta, the controversies attending to the then ongoing National Confab and the embarrassing issue of importers using neighbouring countries’ ports because of high Nigerian tariffs. The clinching question goes thus: If the Confab recommends a third term for you, will you accept?

Of course when it dawned on us that we had only 30 minutes to exhaust a score or so questions, there was an immediate re-ordering of priorities. Mrs. Oyo was quick to point out that the President would not take kindly to undue flattery; each interviewer should go to the meat of the question immediately, not going round in circles. It fell on Alhaji Ida as the chairman of the board to put the introductory question. While waiting for the arrival of Mr. President I took in details of the room, the handful of paintings on the wall, the quietude of the place, and the general sense of order pervading the atmosphere.

The appearance of Mr. President belied the “tough” image always portrayed in the media. He was as relaxed as can be, showing a kind of media savvy he had never been given credit for. He advised not to allow ourselves to be bullied by Mrs. Oyo while hurling our questions at him. He took all the questions without any ill feelings whatsoever, and was somehow helped to be at ease with all because none of the interviewers got his facts and figures wrong, a feature that almost always annoys Mr. President. The interview took more than the allotted time, with President Obasanjo allowing for more questions even when Mrs. Oyo felt we had had enough. Even the Chief of Staff and other stalwarts had to come into the hall, and wait a little while, before Mr. President genially answered the last question. For a man who remonstrated against us for not coming with a woman, Mr. President was quite generous to the “male chauvinists” who had come to interview him! At the photo session that followed the interview, he amiably exchanged banters and pleasantries before departing to another urgent engagement.

However, the impression that would forever remain green in this encounter with the President is how at home he appeared to be with the interviewers immediately he entered the hall. For a man who is widely seen as practicing the art of attack as the best form of defence he did not initiate any gesture to put us out of our stride. After making sure that his cap was sitting well on his head, he waved at the interviewers to start the encounter with the pidgin word “Oya!”