Daniel Reyenieju is a third term member of the House of Representatives, representing Warri Federal Constituency. In this interview with South-South Regional Editor, Shola O’neil, Reyenieju, who was member of Navy, Air Force and Petroleum (Upstream) comittees, among others, in the 6th and 7th Assemblies, explains how past administrations’ policies to cripple the Armed Forces in order to discourage coup plots hampered the Boko Haram fight. He also spoke on why the PDP lost the last presidential election, among other issues. Excerpts
On the PDP going from being the majority to the minority party in the Senate and House of Representatives
Interestingly, we are in the minority, yet we remain the biggest party in Africa, irrespective of being the minority party. Yes, being the minority is not a negative point to democracy; it is part of the evolution of democracy. Our party was in government for the past 16 years and we have done creditably well to the best of our ability. It is subject to other peoples’ view, but for me, as a PDP member, who has represented the party for the past eight years, I wouldn’t say we have done too badly. Yes, in some areas we weren’t able to meet up to the expectations of Nigerians, but you must not forget that we had some challenges after the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Beginning with the president, who we thought would be there for up to eight years, but unfortunately we lost him and Goodluck Jonathan took over from him for about six years.
There were so many challenges: of infrastructure, dwindling oil prices, governance and the most challenging one was the Boko Haram insurgence. It was something we had never experienced before. We had various domestic challenges – kidnapping, robbery and others, but international terrorism was not something we were used to. It was difficult for us to combat it and I think that was the sour point of our regime. Unfortunately, we couldn’t combat it with a credible approach. We tried our best towards the tail end of the administration and do not forget that the elections were shifted for about six weeks to enable us tackle Boko Haram. Whether we like it or not, I think that was a turning point in the history of the fight against the insurgence because within the six weeks we were able to deplete the flanks of the insurgents.
That also goes to show that at some point our military was ill-motivated and the equipment were not there to fight because within that six weeks a lot of things happened; funds were taken out of the country, huge cash, to directly procure arms and ammunition from the international market for the military. When it started arriving was when we started making some substantial inroad in the fight and this was something we couldn’t fight in five years.
Just a section of the country, so the international community wondered why it took that long for the PDP-led Federal Government to take the fight seriously, particularly on the eve of the elections?
Firstly, there was that desperation to get vote for the PDP; that was key. Also, the insurgency was becoming something very unbearable and we needed to do something to manage them from that point on. Thirdly, I would say that the inability of our country to manage the Boko Haram as at when it started and when it began to grow up was the fact that our military was depleted by successive governments in the past. There was this sense of getting down the military so that they don’t become too powerful to plan coup and take over government. It became an issue which later costs us dearly.
The military was actually down; all we had as military men were just men in uniforms without arms as Girls Guide and Boys Brigades.
People might not know this, but we (lawmakers) knew it because we interact with them. As a member of the House Committee on the Navy and the Air-force, we interacted with them and they used to tell us in closed door meetings that the military was ill-equipped. At that point, it was too sensitive to bring to the public because it had many negative dimensions to it. We are a country, a sovereign nation for that matter; if we start to expose our military as ill-equipped then we are at risk of being attacked at some points by our neighbours. So, we kept quiet and hoped that we would be able to manage it. So, while we had it that bad was a result of very many factors.
Even before the death of Gen Sani Abacha, successive military governments tried to cripple the military to make them unable to plan coup and take over government. That turned out to be a very sour point in the history of our military.
But today, I think we are doing well, a lot of arms have been procured and we still need more to be able to combat this menace.
I think we (PDP) were also desperate as a party and it became an issue because people were saying if we have a government that cannot provide security, secure lives and property then of what use is that government. We knew we were having challenges with the electorates so we decided to come out very frontally and we did our best.
To what extent would you say the embarrassing situation of Boko Haram contributed to your party’s electoral defeat?
I will take it from the political point; don’t forget that the North – Northwest, East and Central formed more than 60percent of the aggregated vote of the entire country. I can tell you that for sure. I will give you an example, if you take the votes from Kano State, you have nearly five million votes, juxtapose it with the votes of the entire South-South, which is about six million, you will find out that you have one state taking care of an entire region. It is like that even in the South-East, take Katsina that could have 2.4 – 2.6million votes and that is almost half of the entire votes from the South-East region. So, that area (North) was political key in terms of voters’ strength in the country. Now, don’t forget that it was that same area that was being ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency. People (there) were becoming very tired and it was obvious that it was going to be a problem for us. People were not happy because their loved ones were being killed and their towns being devastated, the economies of those areas were completely down and they (FG under PDP) could not do much and ultimately it was an issue, an electoral issue, which any right-thinking political party would see as dangerous to its success..
Okay, away from your party’s electoral loss, do you think your party as it is now is capable of providing strong opposition to the APC?
It is subjective, but I think we are doing well, considering that we have never been in opposition before. Now that we are there, it is nothing new because we saw people doing it and we knew what they were doing. If they were doing it negatively, I think what we need to do is be constructive; constructive criticism of the governing party, because Mr. President said he doesn’t want his party to be seen as a ruling party. We are going to give robust and constructive engagement – we are not going to be opposing, we are going to be engaging the government on issues. We are all Nigerians, whether you like it or not, elections have come and gone. Opposition, ruling or whatever party is mere nomenclature because what affects an APC man as a Nigerian is what affects me as a PDP member. So, we should be looking as one Nigerian people to be able to frontally confront the challenges. Our experiences are common; if there are no roads, power, good healthcare, it is not just for PDP members; it is same for APC or apolitical Nigerians. At some points, our fears will also be the fears of the governing party. So, there is nothing that we should be fighting and killing ourselves for on daily basis.
We must at some points continue to prick the consciousness of the ruling party so that they do not derail because we have been there before and we know the challenges and that is why they must consult us in taking some policy actions. We have been there for 16 years and we know the problems of this country. What we need now is just engagement and reminder so that they are not carried away by the victory of an election that has come and gone. I don’t like the idea of saying we are opposition party; no, that is not it.
Having resolved the internal crisis that rocked the House at the inception of the 8th Assembly, what are the issues you think the House should now focus on?
As a member of the House, I use this opportunity to apologize to Nigerians for that unfortunate incident; it was too early in the day, it shouldn’t have happened in a House of 360 members. Nigerians were expecting so much from this Assembly, unfortunately we started with crisis and I think it is better to have had the crisis when we had it so that we can now settle down to business.
The House is always very vibrant, but we want to see this House better than the 7th. I can assure you that with the crop of people I have seen in the House and the leadership we have as at today, we are going to hit the ground running. The crisis in the House was an issue, which ordinarily, I would have said was uncalled for, but it is natural to have disagreement at some point. I am not in the APC and I won’t want to blame them for having such disagreements. I have seen them trying to pick the bits and pieces and get going; they are trying their best. At some point, I saw it as an issue that would have been easily resolved by the APC. I stayed off it because it was a party issue and the only thing I offered, as a ranking member of the House, is to advise those interested parties within the APC to give them some level of guidance based on our experience as a ruling party in the past. We, PDP, at some point also had same challenge.
In terms of our legislative duties, last week we rounded off debates on our legislative agenda as put forward by the Honourable Speaker of the House, whom I must say is a very stable character. I have known him for the past eight years and I know he is of impeccable character. He is capable and able to deliver the House at the end of the session. We debated on the legislative agenda, which is the cardinal points of activities for the next four years and it was unanimously adopted by the House and we are set to get running.
What we need to do as Nigerians, because we have a new government in place, is to support, as members of the House, the executive to be able to discharge its responsibilities in terms of making good laws for the governance of the country, security and protection of lives and property, food security and power. These are critical areas which we need to focus on.
In saying that, I would want to say that there is over-stigmatization of Nigerians; everyone is being seen as corrupt. People are being pushed out of government on a daily basis and we just say they are corrupt. I don’t want to say that all Nigerians are corrupt. Not all Nigerians are corrupt and most of these Nigerians being kicked out of offices are entitled to jobs.
One of the key points of this administration is anti-corruption. The president has no tolerance for corruption and we would support him with good laws and strengthen those in existence to support the executive in this drive.
