The Nation Newspaper

Tag: BUHARI

  • Buhari and victory scavengers

    President-elect Muhammadu Buhari has two mutually exclusive ends before him. He can be a great President. He can be the leader who vindicates our optimism. Or he can be a colossal heartbreak, a lost investment in trust: the villain who kissed a generation’s promise and betrayed it.

    The good news is that Buhari’s fate is not predetermined. It’s neither fixed in the stars nor the lines of his palms. Buhari will leave a legacy of Buhari’s own choice and making.

    The wretched of the earth cast their hope on Buhari. They cast their vote for him. And they did so because they considered him the ambassador of their cause. They believed that his modesty, simplicity and integrity would make Abuja work for them. They sowed in that expectation. Buhari owes them the debt of proving that they had sown in good soil.

    There are also many who loathe him. They judge him as the same apparition of the past; a tyrant yesterday and today. Some doubt his capacity to bear the weight of the nation.  A good number grade him as no better alternative to the incumbent. Others are souls won by the hate campaign. Buhari needs to earn credibility with them.

    Buhari has already made a remarkable achievement. As the mascot of a surreal voters’ uprising, he has helped break Nigeria’s most awful jinx. He has shattered the curse that says the toughest job in the land will be offered on the cheapest platter to an apathetic conscript. Not claimed by a striving aspirant.

    It took resilience and the compound interest of four successive Presidential contests, but Buhari ultimately wrecked that default setting.

    We nearly missed this.

    Did we not reject a man whose personal discipline exudes the power of a shepherd’s rod and staff? A man whose gravitas will foster the interrogation of our moral infrastructure? Did we not throw away the prospect of introducing hygiene to the highest level of government?

    Buhari’s victory in this election means that reflections on the state of the nation will not automatically switch to those rueful conjectures. We will now experience his interpretation of the role of President and Commander-in-Chief.

    Dim Chukwemeka Ojukwu penned a terse and loaded tribute to late Chief Obafemi Awolowo; ‘’the best President Nigeria never had’’. Similar ‘’might have been’’ trope, an appeal to the possible supplement to a biography, a speculative but immeasurable loss of potentiality, would have fitted Buhari.

    Buhari has grasped the brass ring. He now has to show his bona fides. He will show whether his victory is an arrival or a point of departure. He would savor the euphoria briefly and start working. Or he will stretch his celebration and make his entire tenure some long-drawn-out jubilation. The span of his victory hangover will decide if/when he will be ready to begin duty.

    General Buhari has earned the right to scoop honey out of the carcass of the lion. He pressed on even when the odds were against him. He set his face like a flint. He endured a vicious profiling that called him the devil on the ballot. His faith triumphed over experience. His elation is valid. But he cannot afford to be conquered by his own victory.

    Buhari has apprehended the capstone of his life walk. Yet this crowning glory is only valuable to the extent it can serve as the foundation for his legacy.

    He needs to start booting for his task. Like a pregnant woman, he needs to start bearing the burden that will ready him for his impending responsibility. This is the best time to start defining the parameters of his agenda. He needs to make the most of the transition period.

    General Muhammadu Buhari has never walked this road before. Last time he managed a country was 30 years ago. And that stint in a junta context is very different from the democratic milieu he will have to operate in. He can’t lean back to the past. Because only very little of his experience in totalitarianism will be relevant at this moment. Nigeria and her people have changed since 1983: The country, in sensitivity of soul; the citizenry in permissible culture.

    All Buhari needed to function as opposition leader were a pair of critical eyes and an accusing voice. His new part as head of government makes him responsible for championing the search for solutions for problems of the day. The transition days would be more profitably used in studying modern statecraft.

    He must be in wonderment at his sudden change of fortune. He now spends the better part of his day hosting regimes of Magi from all the four cardinal points. In the twinkling of an eye, he has transfigured from an anathema into the celebrity everyone wants to court. He has officially become the most sought after personality in Nigeria today. He is the President in waiting. He is the man everyone wants to curry favor with because in a matter of weeks he will be the supreme patron and dispenser, the man with the yam and the knife.

    The familiar Any Government In Power jobbers, extinction-proof dinosaurs, all the characters who are the common denominators in all cycles of the nation’s woes, are swarming to his residence. These are folks who can’t breathe outside the orbit of power. Their victory scavenger visits ‘to pledge our unalloyed loyalty and support’ is nothing more than the expression of intent to infuse themselves into the plot of the inchoate administration. Their visits constitute a larceny of time and attention.

    The failure of many otherwise well meaning elected officials often begins earlier than their resumption of duty. The cause is loose permeability of their gate.

    There is a place for audience with well wishers and associates. There is a time for friendly backslapping. However, Buhari needs to have a gate that is less broad than the road to hell. He needs to institute a mechanism that qualifies people for access.

    The best use of a President-elect’s time is not tending to a surging stream of congratulators. A man who will soon assume the task of presiding over Nigeria should spend the days leading to his swearing in in more vital endeavors than feting wayfarers.

    Buhari is not being advised to quarantine himself. The last thing he needs to do now is develop a carapace of insularity. He needs to be very hospitable to many people and many ideas.

    However, the company Buhari needs to keep most now is those who can help him shape his agenda. Those who he sits with must be smart men and women who bring something to the table. They must come equipped with pragmatic proposals on how the tenure can deliver the deliverables that matter most.

    Nigeria has a vast, inexhaustible talent pool. We have the best brains in different spheres of human endeavor. At home and in Diaspora, many of our gifted countrymen yearn for an opportunity to offer their know-how in the service of their homeland. Buhari needs to fill his quiver with them.

    The tenet of federal character demands that he accommodates many identities to massage the sense of inclusion. Of course, like any product of our kind of politics, Buhari will also be under pressure to pencil down some names against certain ‘juicy positions’ as a token of gratitude or reward to donors and sponsors and others who laid hefty bets on his chance.

    He needs the courage to give priority to merit. Only those with demonstrable capacity to function at the level of excellence should make his vetting list. His success or failure will depend on the quality of his hires and how prudently he deploys their competencies. If he makes his picks solely to appease election investors, he would have failed even before he begins.

    A nation perennially shortchanged by delinquent leadership is in a hurry to see the sandal-wearing ascetic acquit himself.

    Nigerian people have fulfilled Buhari’s dream. He must return the favor by alleviating their nightmare.

    • Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu

    @emmaugwutheman

     

  • Buhari: Beware of desperadoes

    Despite the warnings by Chief John Oyegun, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman that there will be “no place for gold diggers in APC Federal Government”, and President-elect Muhammadu Buhari’s earlier declaration that recent joiners of the party “should not expect to become ministers in his incoming government”, some desperate characters are still unrelenting in their manoeuvring to gate-crash into the new administration.

    I am particularly worried about the on-going invasion of APC by our Igbo brothers who now suddenly pretend to love Buhari more than those who braced all odds to make him President.  No one in his right senses will advocate that Igbos should be excluded from Buhari’s administration as they are equal citizens, protected by the constitution to participate fully at all levels of the Nigerian government.  Whether they voted for that government or not is immaterial.  For the purpose of clarification too, I wish to point out that I am a Lagos-based Northerner, and GMB ardent supporter, who is gainfully engaged in foreign exchange business, which takes me regularly to Port Harcourt, Aba and Onitsha.  I have more Igbo friends and clients than any other tribe in Nigeria. I hear and speak a little bit of the language.  So, I can never hate the Igbo.  Rather, I admire and respect them for their hard work and business sense. But, decency should guide our conduct.

    During the campaign period, I regularly witnessed the most negative and unbelievable hate discussions among educated Igbo against GMB in particular and APC in general.  It was as if they were prepared to lynch anybody who dared to market GMB to them.  This is why it is very important for the APC hierarchy in general and GMB in particular to appreciate the courage of the few visionary Igbo who braced unspeakable odds to be on the side of GMB during his season of hate. Where were the Ike Nwachukwus, the Vincent Ogbulafors, the Charles Soludos, the Ken Nnamanis, the Jim Nwobodos, the Idika Kalus and others when the conventional wisdom was to hate Buhari first and think after?

    Buhari must be careful to accord any serious accommodation to these “solidarity” tourists and others who are spending stolen money to advertise themselves.  Take the case of an obviously sponsored article in a national newspaper of last Saturday brazenly advertising “Men Buhari Cannot Ignore”.

    In the said write-up, Soludo was conspicuously placed first.  Apart from his stint at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which financial institution has Soludo ever worked to be advertised as “a financial expert”?  Everyone knows him to be an Economist, but because he has always had his eyes on Okonjo-Iweala’s job, he is now promoting himself as a financial expert.  From Nasir El Rufai’s account, Soludo almost treacherously upstaged Okonjo-Iweala during her first coming as Finance Minister.  Could there be a link to his quest for that office and the tirade he published a few weeks ago about her management of the economy?  Before anyone would dine with Soludo with a long spoon, his tenure as CBN Governor should be critically examined.  It is instructive to note that it was under Soludo’s “Banking Consolidation Agenda” that the Northern economic base was destroyed from which it is yet to recover. To drive home his point, Soludo fired two Northern Deputy Governors “to teach them that Nigeria does not belong to them”.

    Another “expert” on their list is Pat Utomi. He is addressed as a Professor and also an Economist.  But if you google his name, it reveals he has a B.A in Mass Communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.  I have no evidence to believe he has any further academic training to justify his new titles.

    Apart from old-man Idika Kalu who should be praying for his grand children, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili is the third among those listed as indispensable.  Among the Nigerian newspapers and other media, she is addressed as Dr, yet, to the best of my knowledge, she has no Ph.D.  She has not told Nigerians why she left her World Bank job.   Or was her tenure not renewed?

    Has the Finance Ministry been permanently ceded to the Igbo? With an Igbo man as CBN Governor, will it be right to also have another Igbo as Finance Minister?

    It is stranger than fiction that some of these people are being pushed forward as if APC has nobody in the Southeast.  Dr Chris Ngige has been a consistent and charismatic face of opposition in the Southeast for a long time and worked tirelessly to fly the APC banner in the Southeast, even in the face of jeers. Governor Rochas Okorocha is another uncommon patriot who did what few Igbo could ever do by shunning the overtures of the ruling party.  He embraced the APC when it was most dangerous to do so.  At a point he was even ostracised by his fellow Southeast governors and like a vibrant lion, he remained undeterred and stayed focused to the huge task of bringing change to Nigerians. When the history of Nigeria’s democratic development is written, Governor Okorocha’s name would be written in gold.  But even before the two joined the GMB train, there was the brilliant and hard-working Chief Ikechi Emenike who was the principal voice for GMB in the Southeast.  If APC is to avoid one of the major mistakes that ruined the PDP, it must give preference to the views and interests of these gallant men, and a few others, who faced huge odds to be in opposition.  It could be recalled that for the first four years in office, President Goodluck Jonathan refused to appoint any gallant politician from the Southwest and Kano into his cabinet.  Dr Aganga was brought in somewhere from Europe to represent Lagos just like Dr Shamsuddeen Usman came from the Central Bank of Nigeria to represent Kano State.  The result was that as elections approached, the political harm was already too deep for any meaningful salvage mission in these vital electoral areas.

    I am not a Christian, but as a Muslim, I know that ingratitude is not a small sin. GMB should never be lured into abandoning those who stuck their necks out for him.  It is not a crime to work with those who worked for you.

     

    • Abubakar, a foreign exchange dealer,  sent this piece from Lagos.

  • Buhari on votes, security and economy

    Last week, this column pushed the argument for a national upgrade to electronic voting, as an important legacy,for the incoming administration.
    So, I was excited when I subsequently read an interview bythe President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,where he promoted the fundamental connection between votes, security and the economy.

    In the president-elect’s interview,published by The Nation on Friday, April 17, the General said: “If Nigerians have the confidence that their votes counts, then they will mind their business and I assure you that there will be much security in the country. But when people feel that they are abandoned, then they will resist.”

    The import of the assertion by the incoming President on accountability of votes, is that electoral brigandage is substantially at the root of the insecurity in the country, and I guess the majority of Nigerians will agree with him. Indeed, when votes fail to count as a routine, we have the entrenchment of the undesirable. Many who have the competence and capacity to serve, take the back seats, out of fear, arising from the recurrent insecurity that pervade electoral malfeasance. So, electoral violence ensures that those with requisite competence are relegated to the background, while those with the capacity for violence are promoted, as they are found useful during every election cycle.

    Pushing the argument further, where electoral brigands hold sway, best-class Nigerians do not have the opportunity to serve, as they will not get elected. As footballer pundits willsay, the second or third elevenis allowed to play, at the expense of the first 11. So,those who get foisted on the people, are officials with limited capacity; who will concentrate all their time and energyon protecting and expanding political privileges, rather than growing and expanding the human and economic capital, that aggregates to improvement, in the quality of life of the people,and the society.

    Furthermore, with a limited world-view, the charlatans thrown-up through electoral sleaze, find it difficult to appreciate the far reaching consequences of their actions. So, whether as law makers or members of the executive branch, electoral malfeasance throw-up those who would rather make laws to increase their welfare packages, even when there is not enough money in the state or national coffer. That perhaps explains the incredible appropriation of nearly all the resources of the nation for recurrent expenditure. As rightly observed by the President-elect, “There must be more money available for infrastructure, for investment in getting the factories back, employment and getting goods and services for the population”.

    Accordingly the General in that interview, said:  “I think the worst thing is the lack of accountability and the terrible budgetary system. Imagine that over 90 per cent of Nigerian budget is on recurrent. How can you sustain development in a developing country like Nigeria with only 10 per cent of your income?” Of course, it is important to remember that the present federal government, led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had offered similar lamentations, about the sheer absurdity of having nearly all the national resources eaten-up by human termites, masquerading as leaders; but failed to effect the necessary changes.

    So, the president-elect must watch out, for an unwilling or aided regression to that to era of good ideas, without the will to effect thenecessary changes. While it is urgently important to plug all the loopholes, through which our national economy haemorrhages, it also abundantly important that the national economy is expanded and grown, to accommodate the high expectations of Nigerians. Of course, the greatest hindrance to an expanded national economy is poor supply of energy, which include electricity and other forms of fuel. Resolving the Nigerian energy quagmire, will perhaps be the greatest challenge for the in-coming administration, and it is of utmost importance, that,it does all in its power, to get it right.

    General Buhari in that interview, also lamented the dearth of national economic engines, like the Nigeria Railway, Nigeria Airways, and Nigeria Shipping Line among others. He argued that “some big companies that employ a lot of Nigerians and give them training facilities” have suffered similar faith as the crude oil which “rose to about $140 and has crashed to about $50 now”. He noted that “the important thing in a country with a huge population of youths, with more than 60 per cent of them under the age of 30 who are unemployed, is job creation”. For the General, “you need these institutions to give jobs and training to Nigerians”.

    While there will be arguments whether or not, we need to recreate mega state-monopolies, as in the past; there is no doubt that we need such economic expansion, as the president-elect envisages, to gain employment opportunities, for our teeming unemployed youths.

    Part of the obvious strategy which the All Progressive Congress (APC) government, must as of urgent necessity adopt, is to grant legal empowerment to states, to exploit the minerals and other natural resources within their geographical areas. The insane status-quo, where many states endowed with natural resources operate as poor church-rats, because a law incongruous with federalism, has placed all the mineral resources in the country, in the hands of the Federal Government, must change.

    As this column has persistently argued, Nigeria can only make the expected progress, when we have the courage to federalise, income and wages. Therefore, creating economic opportunities in all geo-political zones of the country, and indeed in all states, is not a mere political favour. It is rather a safety valve, to forestall the invasion of the political and economic space of the locals.Comparatively, the regrettable xenophobic war taking place in South Africa, will not solve the economic challenges of the South Africans. Truthfully, what will save local jobs and political space, is economic regeneration across zones.

  • Buhari, Atiku mourn Chukwumerije

    Buhari, Atiku mourn Chukwumerije

    President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari , has said the death of former Minister of Information, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, is a blow to the generation of true progressives in Nigeria and the African continent.

    Also, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar described Chukwumerije as a fine gentleman whose outstanding quality will be missed.

    In a statement signed by Mallam Garba Shehu, the Director, Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Buhari said the late senator was a Pan-African par excellence.

    “As a man of my own generation, I observed the progressive political activities of Uche Chukwumerije and admired the Pan- African interests and national patriotic zeal which dominated and dictated major part of his actions and pursuits,” Buhari said.

    Buhari recalled that in the Second Republic, Chukwumerije parted ways with the ethnic and regional politics of that era to identify with Mallam Aminu Kano, the leader of the masses (Talakawas) and this “marked him out as a worker for national unity and a man of noble values.”

    “As a media practitioner, Chukwumerije was a professional who did his job with passion and conviction in all positions he held. I was not surprised he was a leading voice in the Senate for 12 years, where he had been serving the Federal Republic till death came calling.”

    Buhari maintained that Comrade Chukwumerije, as he was fondly called by admirers, lived an active life and never sat on the fence on any national issues, saying, “Senator Chukwumerije has played an exceptional role in the business of legislation in the country and we will all dearly miss him as an outstanding politician and an elder statesman.”

    “I sincerely condole with his family and friends, especially his constituents in Abia North senatorial district, the people of Abia State and members of the National Assembly,” Buhari said.

    Atiku on his part said in a statement from his Media office in Abuja that the news of Senator Chukwumerije’s death on Sunday evening came to him as a rude shock.

    “Senator Chukwumerije was in the class of those gentlemen you cannot but notice his outstanding qualities even when he stood in the midst of other men.

    “His mannerism came across as someone who was well cultured. He was very sartorial in style and in presentation and he never confused you about the disciplined background of his origin. He was a very worthy ambassador of his people.

    “As a politician, he was very classy and as a statesman he was exceptional. His death came as a rude shock and I do sincerely pray that God grants his family, the people of Abia State, friends and colleagues at the National Assembly the fortitude to bear the loss.”

  • My agenda for Northeast – Buhari

    My agenda for Northeast – Buhari

    The President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday said his administration will accord to priority to the task of ending Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast geopolitical zone.

    Buhari also said he will focus on re-activating the Lake Chad in addition to deploying enormous resources to resume vigorous search for oil along the Chad Basin in parts of Borno State and other parts of the region.

    He spoke while responding to requests by Governor Kashim Shettima, the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai Elkanemi and some elders of the state who visited him at his residence in Kaduna.

    ‎The President –elect said he was very much aware of the problems of the northeast and will not waste time in taking them up one after the other.

    He said his administration will enhance collaboration with governments of Chad, Niger and Cameroon to curtail the trans border movement of Boko Haram insurgents, cut supply of arms, cut recruitment and training of fresh recruits.

    He said stability of the northeast is a vital project for his administration, noting that nothing can be achieved unless peace is restored to the troubled region.

    Buhari also assured the delegation that the receding of Lake Chad will be addressed through the transfer of water from the Central African Republic to the lake to boost it commercial activities for fishing and irrigation farming.

    He recalled that he once read a document raising fears about receding of the Lake Chad which he handed over to former President Olusegun Obasanjo but now that he would be coming as President, he will handle the matter.

    The lake, according to him, has the potentials to create millions of jobs through irrigation and many other commercial uses it was associated with many years ago.

     

     

  • Buhari’ll inherit polarised nation, says ex-ACF chief

    Buhari’ll inherit polarised nation, says ex-ACF chief

    A former spokesman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, has said the incoming government, to be led by General Muhammadu Buhari, will inherit a polarised nation.

       He urged the incoming government  to bring all Nigerians together to address the collective challenges facing the nation.

    Sani, in a statement yesterday in Kaduna, urged  the incoming government not be coaxed into the politics of zero-sum game or winner takes all.

    The former ACF chief said the government should balance competing demands among the various parts of the country.

    He said the 2015 elections had been adjudged to be relatively better than previous polls in transparency, fairness, freedom to choose and credibility, adding that it was the first time in Nigeria an opposition had defeated an incumbent, who has conceded defeat.

    Sani, who was also a member of the National Conference, said:  “The conduct of the last elections, though with some problems here and there, was relatively better than those of the past exercises. What is more: this was the first time that an incumbent government has been unseated by an opposition, and the President conceded.

    “All these show our democracy has come a long way and improving by the day. All that our leaders need to learn from the results of the elections is to be able to make a distinction between entrusted power and the claims they make on its behalf.

    “Now, all one can say is to appeal to the winners to be magnanimous while basking in the glory of victory, just as those who lost should do so with equanimity, precisely because victory and defeat are never final…”

  • Buhari backs FG’s plans to protect Nigerians in South Africa

    Buhari backs FG’s plans to protect Nigerians in South Africa

    President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed steps taken so far by the Nigerian government to protect the country’s citizens from the wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

    In a statement released in Abuja on Saturday, General Buhari said that Nigeria’s Head of Mission in Pretoria had taken the right steps by advising the Nigerian community in South Africa to close their shops, stay home and keep out of trouble, while ensuring that they obey the laws of their host country.

    “We equally understand that the South African government is making efforts to bring an end to this unfortunate situation,” General Buhari said. “In the meantime, Nigerians in South Africa should abide by the words of caution extended them by their government representative in Pretoria.”

    General Buhari also commended the Nigerian government for its decision to monitor the situation in South Africa and evacuate its citizens at any sign of escalation.

    “I am happy to see that the Nigerian government is very well aware of its responsibilities to its citizens in South Africa,” General Buhari said.
    The President-elect noted that the unfolding events in South Africa is sad considering Nigeria’s and South Africa’s friendly relation since the end of apartheid.

  • David-West to Okonjo-Iweala: Buhari doesn’t need your advice

    David-West to Okonjo-Iweala: Buhari doesn’t need your advice

    A former Minister of Petroleum, Prof. Tam David-West, has replied the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, over her advice on how the incoming administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari can increase revenue, saying the incoming president does not need her expertise.

    David-West, who spoke to our reporter in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, yesterday, said Buhari is highly experienced in the art of governance, stressing that he knows what to do to manage the economy well.

    He said that while Okonjo-Iweala supervises a Nigerian economy in which a United States (US) dollar exchanges for N190, Buhari, during his days as the Head of State, supervised an economy where N1 exchanged for US$1.5.

    His words: “I read Okonjo-Iweala’s advice to Gen. Buhari on how to raise revenue with interest and amusement. I don’t think that Buhari needs any advice from her on the subject. He is not new on the terrain. He is a very knowledgeable person on how to move the economy forward. I don’t believe he needs advice from Okonjo-Iweala.

    “When Buhari was in charge, oil was $30 per barrel. It even went down to $15 per barrel. Yet, he managed the economy very well. Oil price is now double that price and they are complaining that oil price has fallen.

    “Buhari can manage the economy better than Okonjo-Iweala. He never took International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan. Neither did he flirt with IMF. He refused to devalue the naira in spite of the problem the country was facing from different areas. $1.5 exchanged for N1. But during Okonjo-Iweala’s time, it is N190 to $1.

    “Finally, it was N2 to £1. During Okonjo-Iweala’s time, it is N240 to £1. Buhari did not import fuel; he was exporting whereas Okonjo-Iweala imports fuel with bogus subsidy running to trillions of naira. And she has not been able to arrest anyone involved in subsidy scam let alone get a refund from any of them.

    “Nigeria is the only country in the world where Okonjo-Iweala is the Finance Minister and coordinating the economy where provision is made for fraud in the annual budget by way of subsidy. So, Buhari does not need her advice.”

  • Why Buhari is extremely popular among the people

    Why Buhari is extremely popular among the people

    Senator-elect for Katsina North Senatorial District, Alhaji Mustapha Bukar, holds the traditional title of Madawakin Daura. Until 2014, he was district head of Ragogo in Daura Emirate, a position he voluntarily left to pursue his senatorial ambition on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). A former Director in the Federal Civil Service where he worked in several ministries before retiring in 2008. Alhaji Bukar who beat a sitting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator in the March 28 polls, spoke to selected newsmen on the person of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and many more, in this interview at his Daura residence. TONY AKOWE was there

    You defeated a serving senator in the primaries and went ahead to win the main election to represent your people at the chamber of the National Assembly. How do you feel about this?

    Satisfied. In the first place, I am a retired civil servant. I worked for 30 years with the state and federal government and retired from the Federal Ministry of Works as Director of Procurement. I have also worked extensively in the water sector. I am saying this because it is partly because of what I did for the people while in service, especially in the water sector by developing some understanding with my people. When I retired, I was under serious pressure to join party politics, especially by those people who knew me to have been with General Buhari since my childhood and we have always supported him.

    So, when I retired, I was virtually conscripted into politics, even though I was then a district head. I accepted that call and went into politics and joined APC right from its formation. Of course. I have gone to the people, I have always been a grassroots man and so, when the General was asking everybody to go back to the people, I did and convinced them to vote for me because I believed that while I was retired, I was not tired. I was affected by this eight tenure thing and so, I still feel strong enough to serve them. That explains why I was able to win the primaries and when it came to the final election, I was also able to defeat the PDP candidate.

    People believe that many of you won this election because of the imposing figure of General Buhari. How true is this?

    To some extent, that is true. But in my own case, whatever we do has always been part of General Buhari because we also stand for what he stands for. Therefore, it is not surprising that in many locations, especially in the North, that when somebody wins a seat, you can see clearly that he has some of Gen. Buhari’s followership. I know certainly that we have worked very hard by visiting all the 128 wards in my zone, visited all the villages and delivered the message of Gen. Mubammadu Buhari. We were all amazed that in any village you go, even the smallest child will say Sai Buhari! That shows that Buhari has been a phenomenon from 2003 to 2015. I think this is somebody that has built democracy for Nigerians. Without Gen. Buhari coming into politics, I think that Nigeria would have been a one-party state a long time ago. I believe that phenomenon is true. We won all the senatorial and House of Representatives seats in Katsina State and that is not surprising because this is his home state. In fact, during our campaign, we were telling people that we don’t think we should be out in Katsina State campaigning for the General. It has been a wonderful experience for me.

    You talked about the fact that without Buhari, Nigeria would have become a one-party state. But today, everybody is rushing towards APC and there is the fear that we are heading toward that one-party state. What is your take on this?

    It is a very interesting phenomenon. We don’t know yet, but we have seen that he has been to the court three times and stayed for several months there trying to defend democracy. People don’t understand why Buhari will go to court during those years. He went to court so that history will judge what his contributions are when it was developing its democracy. It is only in Nigeria that you have this type of presidential system of government being practised aside America. In fact, we have broadened it and modified some aspects of it. All the same, Nigeria is the only country that is practising that. Buhari is disciplined and this is known to everybody. I don’t think that he will be so hard on the opposition.

    There is the fear by those coming into APC that since they have been there making sure that Buhari does not come to power, since he is now coming to power, they had better join the train so that they are not sanctioned. But eventually, I think they will come to realise that if they are not part of the change train, if they are not part of the progressive people they are supposed to be, if they are not part of the ideals and values of Gen. Buhari, they may eventually have to leave the party again. Unless they decide to change and if they change and things on well, I don’t think others will just abandon ship. Other parties can come up.

    I don’t think that under his leadership, Nigeria will turn into a one-party state. If you look at when he was going to court, I don’t think that any other person would have sustained that tempo. The PDP government would have tried to find one fault or the other to frustrate all the efforts. I think we will build a very strong opposition because it is important that in democracy, we also have the opposition. It is unfortunate that in Nigeria, many people think that when you are in the opposition, you are just out there in the cold. The opposition is also very important, in fact, as important as the government that is in power because it criticises what the government in power does, trying to bring out those issues where they differ in terms of policies and reasoning. I think that the APC government, being a progressive government that will be in place, will listen and where there are differences, I think it is very good for democracy. It is good to criticise because it is not good for everybody to just accept whatever is coming. We want to be criticised, but objectively.

    People feel that General Buhari’s corruption stand has distinguished him from others. Do you share in this.

    His credentials speak for themselves and so, I don’t think that it is necessary to continue to hammer on that. He has said it many times and everybody knows the positions he has held in this country. He told the world at the National Convention where he emerged as candidate that he has no money and it was based on his ideals that he was able to get the ticket of APC. So, the issue of corruption is real and everybody knows that in Nigeria, most of the institutions are not working. They are not working because the system that is supposed to be in place to make them work is not being respected. If you don’t follow due process and the rules, it will be very difficult to get anything moving. So, it is like a moving train that is slowing down. I am sure that he will find the strength with the support of all Nigerians to get that train moving once again.

    Many also believe that Gen. Buhari is rigid and not friendly and that he does not listen to people. How true can that be?

    I believe that you have associated with him. Two weeks ago, you were in his house. He is a very friendly person and if you don’t come close to him, you will think that he is not friendly. But people think that you only be friends with people by giving them money or asking them to do something that is wrong. When he declines, somebody will think that he is not friendly. General Buhari is a very friendly person. One thing I like about him is that each time we talk, there is always a lot of jokes that will make you laugh and relax and make you understand that he is listening and taking your advice. You may say that I he does not give you the answer occasionally, but that is because he digests whatever you give him. He does not just take things the way you think because anybody coming to a senior person like him would have thought through what he wants and if the outcome is not what he is looking for, then be thinks the man is not friendly. I think he is a very friendly person.

    General Buhari has been voted for massively across the country. What are the areas you think he should concentrate on?

    I think that he will perform very well. I know that there has been a lot of expectations from across the country because of the situation we found ourselves over the years. That, to me, has been because of lack of consistent policies. If you ask anybody where we are going, you will find it difficult to say in any sector, this is the policy on transportation, this is the policy on water, this is the policy on energy. If that policy is there, perhaps it was written by the civil servants. In a democratic setting, I think we made a mistake. When democracy came in 1999, the experience that the civil servants had was that of a parliamentary system of government and we started with the presidential system of government in 1999. So, the civil service setting has always been that of parliamentary system, while the government is presidential system.

    That anomaly has to be addressed. We have learnt how the executive is supposed to perform in the last 16 years, how the legislature is supposed to perform, and how the judiciary should perform. Once these three institutions are able to take on their responsibilities, you will see that the performance of government will improve because the institutional setting will definitely improve, delivering mechanism for whatever programmes the government has. We expect to bring these challenges to the table so that they could be discussed. The programmes that General has been mentioning are three. The first thing he mentioned is security. Nigeria needs to be secured first because without security, you cannot have development. Once the security issue is addressed and I believe that the General being a former Head of State, he has the discipline and knowledge to get over this problem of insecurity which has been caused by several reasons.

    My understanding of it is that it has been caused by lack of intelligence. If you have intelligence, what happened in Nasarawa where some policemen were sent in and killed would not have happened. I believe that once security is handled, every other thing will follow. The second thing is the issue of employment. Nigeria is a very young society with a lot of young men and women who are qualified, but no jobs. We now have an economy that is based on importing almost everything that we use in this country. To me, that is not development but allowing other countries to develop at our expense. In the past, I know that whatever you find in Nigeria was made in Japan and at the end of the day, everybody was looking for Japanese products. But now, everything is made in China and we import from toothpick to anything you can think of.

    How do you intend to handle the pressures that might be brought to bear on you considering the fact that you are from the same area with Buhari and so, there will be pressure from those who want to get the attention of the President.

    Like I said, General is somebody that is very friendly and I think that being his senator, we have to accept the fact that I have been with him for a long time and he is not likely to change. We are certainly going to have his ears and we will tell him what others may not be in a position to tell him, even when they have had the chance to tell him. We are ready for that and we accept it wholeheartedly and we hope that we will get the right criticism that is needed for democracy to work and for General to perform. Just think about your house and everything you wear. Are they made in Nigeria? There is nothing made in Nigeria that we use every day. So, for the country to develop, I think we have to start looking inward. But with globalisation, we also have to look at integration. So, we must find areas of our strength, areas that we think that we have economic advantage and develop further and that is where our teeming population can move and do something.

    The third thing to be mentioned is tackling corruption. If we can address that issue in Nigeria, we will stop all those leakages, which have not allowed money to come in. If you look at the budget of any state or the Federal Government, it is mostly recurrent. There is nothing like capital. Even where there is recurrent, the budgetary system that we have is so bad that you don’t get money flowing into projects. For instance, you have a budget running into several trillions. The projects there may not appear in the budget of the following year. If I have a water project and the money does not come to complete the project, it will always end up as an abandoned project and that is why we have a lot of uncompleted projects. These are things that we believe if we look at them, they can work out. There are so many brilliant Nigerians that are willing to assist the incoming government to bring about that change to Nigeria.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Speaker, Dimeji Bankole once alleged that civil servants are responsible for corruption. As a retired director, how would you react to this?

    It is always easy to accuse the civil servant. But we must remember that as a civil servant or even as a director, if you point out what needs to be do, you will be over-ruled by the political class because you are not the chief executive. So, tell me who is corrupt? Before you can steal, I know that you must have a willing civil servant to work with. But the point is that whether that guy is willing or not willing, it is the master that determines what happens at the end of the day. So, I think we have to tell ourselves the truth. If we want this thing to work, there are financial rules and regulations that we should follow.

    Those people you mentioned established the ICPC, EFCC and the rest of them. Why are these things not working? Whatever you have, there has to be the political will to get things moving and that will, I believe we will get it from General Muhammadu Buhari. If you get the political will by the leadership, everybody will fall into line. You remember when we had War Against Indiscipline, people were willing to line up. If the leadership of the country is ready to fight corruption, if can be fought. I have seen many civil servants that have been retired because they did things that were not palatable to the minister and at the end of the day, they are put in the cold and nobody cares. Many people have not been paid their pension. If you look at the salary of the Permanent Secretary or the Director, you will know that there is an injustice. If you want people to work, you have to pay them for that work and corruption is not only in the civil service, it is there in the private sector too because it takes two to tango. It is not only one person that brings about corruption.

    You are going to the Senate. How well are you abreast with the workings of the Upper Chamber and in what area do you intend to improve upon?

    I may not know the rules of the Senate because they keep changing. But certainly, the time we have to go there, we will have to learn the rules. Otherwise, whatever activities are happening at the National Assembly, I have tried to acquaint myself with them in the last four years.  But what is important is what my people want when I get there and not what I want. I am representing 12 local governments. What do they want me to bring to them from the senate? What do they really want in terms of economic and social development? I don’t want to make the mistake of thinking that what I want is what my people want.

    Of course there are certain national issues which the government will want to address because there are government policies that come from the government itself. That is why we have hardly found ourselves where we want to be in Nigeria because if you want to have a policy, you must have the policy element. You can’t have the policy element until you know what your people want. That is what you bring to the table that leads to legislation and eventual implementation. What we lack is the ability to monitor and evaluate what we do especially when it comes to resources. Nigeria used to have the National Development Plans and I think that is what we need, even if it is a four-year plan so that if you have a government that comes to power, it will know exactly what it wants to do in the next four years, otherwise, you may end up not doing anything. If you have so much to do, you have to prioritise and that has been done by APC with its six-point agenda, which will begin to unfold as we move into the Senate.

    There is the argument by Nigerians that the cost of governance is too high and your party tends to agree with the idea of reducing the cost of governance. Would you support the cutting of allowances of government officials, especially legislators, to make way for funds for developmental projects?

    It is not the issue of allowances. I know that for several years, the government has been trying to find a way to devolve power. If you concentrate power too much in one location, then you end up with corruption. Due process was brought in to checkmate some of the things you are talking about. But when you concentrate power in one hand, it brings bottlenecks. So, the waste that happens is not necessarily because of the allowances. It is because the government has been allowed to grow too much. I think several attempts have been made to streamline the organisations of the Federal Government because there is a lot of overlap and when you have overlap of functions, you end up just spending money with people just taking salaries. That is why I said that if you look at the budget, you find out that recurrent is always more than the capital because there are too many organisations that need to be streamlined. You have to look at the functionalities and not necessarily because I want t give people jobs.

    We have a lot of resources that have also been kept idle. Look at the pension funds. These are funds that can be used for infrastructural development, if you have the right environment. The ICRC is there, but it needs to have the right law that will guide how this is done and we need to have the right policies. What is happening in this country is that we still have to develop the policies that we want in all the sectors. For example, in the highway sector, Nigeria is supposed to have a road reform programme that will enable us have green field projects; that would allow us have roads that are motorable. We need to allow this system that will allow the contractors to bid for a road project in an open qualitative bid, to egg the contract and you give him seven years. He will complete the road in three years and maintain the road for the next four years and you pay him according to the service level. That would have an entry point for private participation in the way we run our road network.

    Now, every year, after the rains, you find that the same road you repair last year is in a bad shape again and you continue repairing them. But before you go into all this, you must have a road policy. What is the road policy of Nigeria? What is the tariff regime? What I am saying is that you need to have the right policy and the right strategy to implement these policies and a means to monitor those policies. That is why you have the public accounts committee at the National Assembly because if you allocate resources to any programme, it is the responsibility of the National Assembly to find out how the work is done. That is why the job is given to a person who is not from the party with the majority, but somebody from the opposition.

    So, it all depends on the political will to implement all these things. So, for the allowance, where it is seen as a distortion should be cut, but to me, what is important is the cost of governance. If a governor is travelling, you find him with about 10 vehicles. What are they meant for? Most of the security personnel that are supposed to be with the people are now with the big men. That is why the cost of governance is becoming too much and the productivity is low. You go to the ministry both at the state and local government levels, nobody is working. They don’t even go to the office because the have nothing to do. Civil servants are supposed to be moving files, but nobody is moving files anymore, because even the files are not there anymore. The local government chairman only comes to the office once when the money is there.

    At the state level, nobody does anything except the governor. When I was General Manager of the Water Board, I was getting my money directly and did not have to rely on the governor. I was doing what I wanted to do. But now, the General Manager or even the commissioner has no power because all that has been usurped by the governor. To me, that is the area we need to look at before we can get things running. People have responsibility and they must be held accountable for it. The River Basins are things that would have allowed Nigeria sufficiently function and be self-sufficient in food production and manage our water resources the way it is supposed to be managed.

    But we end up doing boreholes. What business has the Federal Government with sinking boreholes? I was director in charge of water supply and quality control in the country and that was one of the problems that we had. Boreholes should be left for local government or at most, the state government. The Federal Government can just intervene and not going about sinking boreholes that you cannot maintain. We used to have cities in Nigeria that have 24 hours water supply, but today, you can’t even find any. I know there is population explosion, but I also know that those systems that were there are no longer functioning.

    General Buhari has been an enigma to most Nigerians and other people around the world. People wonder that since his retirement, he has not been seen doing any kind of business or involved in trying to empower the people and yet, he remains very popular among the people. What do you think is the secret behind this?

    It is not having money that should make him popular but making people see him as an example. He is liked because he is honest and so, people come to him. They believe in his ideals; they believe he leads by example. He does not have to give them money, but he tells them what to do and when he was in a position to do what they wanted, he did not hesitate. When He was in PTF, he did a lot of projects and nobody has been able to do what he did. No ministry has been able to do the amount of work that he did when he was in PTF and he made sure there is social justice.

    They believe he is a person that will ensure there is equity; and what is needed in any nation is to have that social justice and equity. Give people what they need. He is somebody who has always tried to show the people that there is social justice and that people should be given their dues. The people know that as a leader, he will take care of their responsibilities. The followers believe that anybody who is in a position of authority is there to take care of all their problems and there is no way he will allow anything to happen to them. Unfortunately, these days, the leaders who are supposed to take care of the subjects end up compromising them. That is the difference. He is a very simple person to work with.

  • Buhari’s amazing transformation

    Buhari’s amazing transformation

    In spite of his many sterling qualities, I had always harboured the fear that the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari’s virtues could also be the source of a serious weakness that could sabotage his best intentions for the country. The ascetic General is widely revered for his record of integrity and incorruptibility. He is a man of character. Discipline is the defining essence of his life. Buhari is, in many ways, a moral exemplar in a vast ocean of ethical decadence. Millions of ordinary Nigerians see him as a secular saint of sorts. They thus expect him, on assumption of office to deal decisively and ruthlessly with corruption and the corrupt elements in our midst. General Buhari, they believe, has the magic wand to abolish corruption in Nigeria ‘with immediate effect and automatic alacrity’ in military parlance.

    Of course, the trust and confidence of the vast majority of the President-elect’s country men and women in his moral integrity is a huge social capital on which the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) administration will draw on its mission of national redemption. For, the erosion of trust between the leaders and the led due to decades of serial betrayals by the latter has been one of the most formidable obstacles to good, effective and productive governance in Nigeria. But such extravagant expectations on the part of the populace can easily engender feelings of political ‘messiahnism’ on the part of a leader. This is a feeling of political self-righteousness, of being on a national Salvationist mission, which must not be hindered by constitutional or other systemic constraints.

    General OlusegunObasanjo provides a good example of the limits and drawbacks of the Messiah complex. The wily Ota General has been variously described as imperious, vindictive, abrasive, intolerant and much more. But his fundamental weakness derived essentially from his sense of self-righteousness, of possessing a superior patriotism and commitment to national development than his fellow country men and women. This is why, for instance, he declared in his controversial new memoirs that there are only two honest and incorruptible Nigerians – he and General Buhari. In Weberian terms, a Messiah complex leads to a situation in which a leader believes that his legitimacy derives more from his own personal charismatic and moral qualities that can easily override constitutional and institutional restraints in the national interest.

    Thus, Obasanjo was honest and sincere when on assumption of office in 1999, he promised to launch a frontal assault against corruption. To his credit, he set up the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFCC) in pursuit of this objective. The only problem was that Obasanjo tended to see everybody else as corrupt except he and those within his inner circle. Thus, even though the EFCC under MallamNuhuRibadu’s leadership did a lot of good and effective work, the anti-corruption effort soon became unduly personalised and politicised under Obasanjo. It became a weapon to hound his political opponents and constitutional provisions were not allowed to stand in the way of the administration’s zealous war against graft. The Messiah complex is disdainful of systemic controls and ultimately results in impunity. It was the root cause of the Third Term Agenda pursued by those who believed that Obasanjo’s continued personal rule after two constitutional terms was imperative for the sustainability of socio-political and economic reforms.

    It is against this background that I was pleasantly surprised at the President elect’s profound insight into the nuances of power and politics in a democratic context in the media interview he granted during last Saturday’s governorship and State Assembly polls. His is clearly the most extraordinary transformation yet in Nigerian politics rivalled only, perhaps, by the late MKO Abiola’s transition from pro-establishment business tycoon to a courageous Martyr of democracy. It is obvious that Buhari does not intend to run a one man show. He has no desire for personal heroism. His will be an administration predicated on team work and strict commitment to the rule of law, due process and respect for institutional autonomy.

    For instance, on the massive rate of defections to the APC in the aftermath of the party’s presidential election victory, the President elect said “I think this is mainly a question meant for the party. I wish Chief John Oyegun was here to answer you because we have a system. Just because I am the presidential candidate and the President elect does not mean that the system has allowed me to usurp the power of the party executive”. This is fantastic, almost unbelievable. Under Buhari, there will be a distinction between government and party. We will not have the kind of unhealthy situation under the PDP, in which the party lost its autonomy and became subordinate to the presidency. The President became the leader of the party and could manipulate the removal and election of party officials at will. This is the root cause of the gradual but steady inner decay and ultimate implosion of the PDP as a viable political party.

    General Buhari reinforces this point in his response to a question on the composition of his party’s transition committee. In his words, “…my hope and my idea is to get knowledgeable and experienced technocrats that are really patriotic to study the handing over notes by Ministries and make recommendations…When I get it ready and before it is published, I will show it to the leadership of my party and the terms of reference as well as the time limit and the result of their work, we will quickly study it before the inauguration so that before we are sworn in, we get into action”. This is another evidence of the President elect’s belief in the autonomy and supremacy of the party.

    One would have expected General Buhari to get emotional and partisan in his response to questions on the violence that characterised the elections in states like AkwaIbom and Rivers. This is because his party was at the receiving end of the violence and lost the elections in the states. But his response was restrained, statesmanlike and demonstrated, once again, his firm belief in allowing requisite institutions to function without interference or hindrance. According to him “I think we should allow INEC to give its comprehensive report…I think we have to take our time and let us get as much report as possible in accordance with the electoral Act. I personally want to be legal about this so that people will appreciate that we believe in a system. What we need to do is to modify the system according to the law if we don’t like it and that no one should come out and do to the system whatever he likes”.

    Of course, General Buhari asserts firmly that the electoral violence in Rivers, AkwaIbom and other parts of the country would be thoroughly investigated and culprits made to face the law so that “In the future, those who are in position will know that they are not beyond the law”. On governors of his party who have had running battles with security agencies in states where they are supposed to be the Chief Security Officers, Buhari’s response is once again very insightful: “We discussed and advised them to document these things legally so that it can be taken before the court so that people who work against the law are prosecuted, especially those who have lost their immunity. This is the best way to stabilize the system. People must not benefit from being lawless. You can’t be in a position by virtue of the constitution, subvert the constitution and continue to enjoy the privileges of the constitution…So, whether you are in the opposition or the government, you have to behave yourself. I think that is the way we can make progress”.

    Well, need I say more? These edifying words by the President elect offer glimpses of hope into a more ennobling future under his leadership. Buhari clearly does not suffer from the Messiah complex. Under him, we are likely to have a restrained and cultured presidency that subordinates itself to the constitution and the rule of law and respects the autonomy of other institutions of state.  This is certainly a necessary condition to actualize the change Nigerians voted for on March 28.