The Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Nigeria, Ashraf Salama, has said that the newly inaugurated democratic order in Egypt under the leadership of Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, is committed to sustain the values of democracy and develop the country. In this interview with a group of journalists in Abuja recently, the envoy said Nigeria and Egypt have strengthened their relations especially in the area of tackling insecurity. Excerpts:
By Innocent Odoh
On the election of Sisi and the new democratic order in Egypt
I just want to share with you our celebrations, our joy as Egyptians with the latest development in Egypt.
We started the roadmap to the new democracy since June 20 last year, after a first trial that did not see a true feasibility for a year.
We want to have a better life for the Egyptian people, because the Egyptians were the ones that came out again to express aspirations for freedom and liberty.
The elected candidate, Abdel Fatah Al Sisi, was one of the two candidates and for the first time we had a very high percentage with democracy different from what we use to have in the last 16 years.
There were a lot of regional groups that monitored the elections and they have witnessed the transparency and efficiency of these votes. We are very proud to have Nigeria monitor the elections, the head of the Nigerian Electoral commission Prof. Jega was invited to attend and he really praised the elections so highly.
People were very happy on the eve of the elections and did much to stop the restive media that wanted to show the opposite of what is going on in Egypt because what is happening in Egypt now is that the majority of the people want to have a better life. Al Sisi has a very good privilege because the people of Egypt love him.
The next days to come will witness great time for Egypt to develop. The election of Al Sisi is not only for Egypt but the Middle East region and the entire Africa. I praise the Nigerian government for the efforts Nigeria made to put everything on track and to support us. Nigeria was the first country in Africa to congratulate us for our election and gave us support.
So what are the immediate challenges facing the new government in Egypt?
The challenge facing the new government is how to develop and promote the country, which has suffered for decades. This will not be the work of the government alone, the government’s work is to administer but the big chunk of the work is with the people. We are 92 million in Egypt, the second biggest population in Africa after Nigeria. Everybody has to work; everybody has to be very sincere about this work. That is why the people chose Sisi, a candidate that is very sincere at doing the work that will take Egypt to another level.
How would the new Egypt handle the Muslim Brotherhood who feels isolated with the election of Al Sisi?
They are not isolated. Let me tell you, the Muslim brotherhood have been there, they have been underground. When we had our 25 January revolution against Mubarak, the Brotherhood were there.
The brotherhood killed Sadat, so they have always been there but not a major part of the population like the mainstream Muslim and the Christians. They have a special ideology and they try to promote and influence others with the ideology. When we had the 25 January revolution, it was a revolution without a leader, it was just people who got tired and clamoured for freedom.
For the first time in the political history of Egypt, people came out to demand for change but unfortunately there was a political vacuum, which made the Brotherhood jump over and take advantage because they were a small organised group and there were no similar groups or parties that could also take advantage of things. The Brotherhood are very well organised, they are also very well funded and because we have a lot of poverty they were giving things like bread and other things to buy votes from people.
During the previous elections that produced Mohammed Morsi, you will find that 22 million went to cast their votes, half of the votes were for Morsi and half was for the other candidate who was pro-Mubarak. Morsi had 12 million votes out of 22 million, which is not the majority and so many people including myself did not vote because I did not know who to choose. I did not want the Islamic Brotherhood and the Pro-Mubarak candidate.
It was the first experiment of democracy, but we gave it a chance believing that there will be an agenda for development but unfortunately our debts increased. During Mubarak’s time we had about 30 billion dollar debts, which mean 1 billion every year for the 30 years Mubarak stayed in office.
But in one year of Morsi, we had 15 billion dollar debt because of poor management. The people did not feel any improvement because the Brotherhood were not patriotic. We, Egyptians love our country, we love our land. The Brotherhood came with divisive agenda and that is why the whole region, not only Egypt was threatened because they were overlooking the borders. They were having a lot of connections, and a lot of conspiracies.
Some protesters were tried for protesting the ouster and arrest of Morsi, and over 500 of them have been sentenced to death. Can you still say that the Egyptian government allows freedom of speech and expression?
We have over 50 independent channels in Egypt and we have a lot of newspapers, and a lot of social media, so there is freedom of expression. But sometimes people get distracted because of the impact of the myriad of the media and this is not good for them. Now that we have a baby democracy we have to be sincere to give the baby the right doses and the right things.
We are organizing our house, there is a lot of dramatic changes in Egypt, there is a lot of things that we need to improve. We will first of all stand up on our feet to establish a stable democracy. What we hear is real incidence of some people trying to destroy the country using some fabricated news especially the Aljazeera. They do the dirty work and they give it to the Western media to tarnish the image of Egypt.
On the arrest of the Aljazeera journalists, do you feel the government has proof that the Aljazeera reporters are working with the Brotherhood?
Evidence showed that the two Egyptian Aljazeera reporters were with the Brotherhood, they were inside the demonstration. We have evidence about it. Egyptians cannot afford to do things anyhow because people are alert, there was strong evidence that the Aljazeera reporters are conniving with the brotherhood.
Egypt’s history is replete with men of military background presiding over state affairs. E.g Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak. How could this be reconciled with the new democratic order still being presided over by a military man?
The times are different and the people you mentioned had different ways that they came to power. Nasser was a revolutionary and the leader of the revolution against British rule. He came during the Non-Align Movement and that was the system of that time. And after he died, his deputy, Sadat, took over, and when Sadat died, his deputy, Mubarak took over. You cannot compare what is going on now to what happened before because Sisi was not the deputy of Mubarak. He came to power with no revolution so you cannot put all of them in the same whole.
Sisi is an Egyptian, loved by the people and chosen by the people, his military background notwithstanding. People loved him, and chose him. This is a new system; this is democracy because we never had voting before. After the 25 January 2011, it was another state, another revolution; we started a new process to start our life and to get it right for Egypt.
In what way is Egypt assisting Nigeria in the fight against terrorism?
Egypt has always been a very close friend to Nigeria ever since the war of Biafra, Nigerians will not forget that. We have always supported Nigeria and we have had cause to assist the Nigerian government in fighting terrorism and in coordinating the efforts, because Nigerian is a strategic partner of Egypt. So there is a lot of things that we need to coordinate together in all issues especially security.
Do you believe the Boko Haram sect is an affiliate of al-Qaeda?
The OIC Secretary General was in Nigeria and he also agreed that the Boko Haram is a banned group, a terrorist group and it does not relate with Islam. What they do has nothing to do with Islam.
Islam says you have to be tolerant; you have to love your neighbor, not to lie, not to sin. You have to be faithful to others and you have to regard God before doing anything. Islam has strong ethics for humanity. So we cannot relate the principles of Islam with what is going on now. I don’t think is related, even if you have to prove a point you don’t prove it by this bloody violence. That is why the whole world is condemning the Boko Haram in Nigeria.
What can Nigeria learn from Egypt in tackling the Boko Haram terrorism?
Nigeria is doing its best in tackling terrorism. You see terrorism is a very dangerous and tricky phenomenon; it is something that comes from the middle of nowhere. But I think that Nigeria is doing its utmost to tame it. Nigeria is also seeking international expertise to coordinate and fight terror especially in West Africa, because if you have the coordination in the region it will contain the sources of the terror. Nigeria is doing great job I think is a matter of time to Nigeria will end Boko Haram.
