CHIEF Frank Kokori, former Secretary General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State. He spoke with Correspondent, Polycarp Orosevwotu on the Buhari administration, the economy, true federalism and the anti-corruption battle.
How would you assess President Muhammadu Buhari’s one year in office?
Buhari has done so well. I am saying this because he is operating from a very difficult situation as we all know. The country went through 16 years of massive corruption under the PDP administration, where there was no sense of decorum in the way they managed the country. Where all they do are based on money, to the extent that everything in this country is now being monetized, no social responsibility or sacrifice, all is money.
You can now see why we find ourselves in this kind of mess of PDP 16 years of misrule and corruption. And if you could recalled, for almost 12 years out of the 16 years of PDP government, oil price was hovering between 70 to 130 dollars per barrel. And we saw what happened recently when the oil price fell down below 30 dollars, so we are in real trouble, coupled with this social crisis that is happening in the Niger Delta with the so called Niger Delta Avengers that had emerged from nowhere bombing everywhere and destroying government facilities.
Critics of Buhari’s fight against corruption say it is lopsided. Do you agree?
Those petitions were sponsored ones and they were not substantiated. When you say a man is corrupt, one should be able to substantiate one’s position with facts. People saw that Amaechi was one of the committed and dedicated members of the APC party, who had made sacrifices, so how do we handle him, they decided to come out with framed petitions to rob him, but there were no evidence to show that the man was what they describe him.
Now, coming to the issue of UK allegations, l do not want to say anything but we should not also forget that some reports could be sponsored without a substantive evidence. PDP chieftains know themselves and all they have done to corrupt the country, so, they should not unnecessarily drag people into their misfortune to give them a bad name.
Do you think Buhari should named the looters?
No, the Buhari’s government is in the right track because he has to apply wisdom in all that he is doing. In a situation where one is recovering money from looters and the process of investigation still on, not closed, releasing the names of the looters will now amount to self defeat, so it was a wise decision taken by the federal government. Who will come out and say the Southsouth governors are not corrupt; they are the most corrupt governors in this country. If you see states like Kano, Bauchi and others are doing well with less allocation compare to the Southsouth governors that get high allocations and yet cannot account for it for the past 16 years, except Southsouth states like Cross Rivers and Edo that are also doing well.
Some people are of the view that Buhari govt is not addressing the economic problems, what’s your comment?
There is no doubt about it that people are suffering, but if you look you will see the government is playing his card for everybody to see. So, when I see critics saying Buhari is not doing anything, l feel bad because PDP has emptied the treasury, so they could have money to sponsor and publish what they do not see because somebody has been paid to do that.
When I see some of these handbill critics, I ask what did they do for 16 years when there was so much money in foreign exchange. You talk of excess crude account, and here was Jonathan few days ago, saying he was being deceived that his greatest mistake was to allow people to influence him to play on Nigerians people. Great country with a great leader, when they are passing through boom period, they must remember to save for a rainy day. So, let us give this man some time to put the country in the right path.
What is your take on the clamour for restructuring of the country?
You and l know it is impossible at this time because those who are making the call, where were they before now; when PDP and their brother Jonathan were in power. When Obasanjo was in power for eight years, he couldn’t call for conference because of his greed for third tenure, when it was a year to leave, he hurriedly call for National Conference and when he could not succeed, it ended abruptly.
The PDP is a self centered party. they had 16 years to restructure this country but they did not, and the man who entered for few months ago, you are telling him to restructure the country, I mean, is it not a shame, when intellects and elites talk about this thing. Then, look at the Niger-Delta region, who are the greatest victims of marginalization in this country. we have prayed and prayed that our son become the president, vice president for 2 ½ years, Acting President and President for six years, what did he do when everything was under his pocket, nothing.
The Nigeria President is so powerful; did he remember his people that are suffering and to create a true federalism for the people in the Southsouth? No. Jonathan came to power in a well-wind of good will. Even, when he was to be an acting president, the civil society took the battle against the northern cabals with other groups that you must make this man an acting president when the cabers were busy deceiving the country that Yar Adua was climbing the mountain. He became the acting president and finally he was elected the president; what did he do even when people cried to him on true federalism? It was after 18 months when his popularity had dropped from 100% to almost 25%, that he hurriedly like Obasanjo, with less than 18 months to leave, that he wasted billions of naira organizing a Jamboree national conference but could not sponsor it through the national assembly.
In fact, are they serious when they ask Buhari to restructure the country? The Avengers from Niger Delta came from nowhere because they are being used by corrupt politicians to disturb the Federal government’s peace.
