Senator Abu Ibrahim is the senator representing Katsina South Senatorial District on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). A close associate of former head of state and presidential candidate of CPC in the April 2011 presidential election, Major General Mohammadu Buhari, he was the links man in the aborted merger plan between the CPC and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) ahead of the 2011 elections. He spoke with Tony Akowe on a number of issues. Excerpts
2015 is around the corner and there is the clamour for a northern presidency. What is your take on this?
I think 2015 is not around the corner because we have only spent one and half years in four year tenure; with two and half years to go. What is in front of me now is to have the opposition parties merge into one; ACN, CPC and probably ANPP, to form a formidable opposition party. One thing Nigerians do not know is that the moment we succeed in the merger plan, even the PDP must step up because they know there is somebody who can take over from them. But because most parties are not united and have strength in certain areas, that is why they do things with arrogance because they know there is no single party that can take over from them. But the moment we come together, even though we are taking over power, they too will stand up and make sure they do the right thing. Of course, every region has the right to clamour for the presidency. But I always think the right moment will bring the right president which will be acceptable by the people, maybe a northern person or anybody from any part of the country. But when you look at the way we are passing power from zone to zone, it should be the right time for the north to have the president. But it is not a constitutional issue. It was a suitable arrangement by the political parties. But like I said, my main concern now is the merger of the political parties.
Before the last general elections, there was a move by opposition parties to form an alliance but it collapsed. How sure are we that there won’t be a repeat of that scenario?
You are wrong. I can claim, without contradiction, that I was the principal link between ACN and CPC. I can claim that I was the principal connector between Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari and I know what transpired. It is the correct story I am telling you. There was no problem then except for lack of time. The issue became very serious six months to election. So as far as I am concerned, what was against us then was time. A name was agreed upon at that time for the two parties. The name agreed upon was Action Congress for Progressive Change (ACPC). It was also agreed that General Buhari will be the presidential candidate while ACN was to produce the Vice- President. But due to lack of time, we couldn’t do that. Every party then has done its conventions and had their candidates. There was no way we could go and start another convention. At least, we have basic understandings and CPC have a basic understanding on the parameter of merger. Then Buhari was agreed to be the presidential candidate and so, I don’t think there was a problem on that. But the timing was just too short because of the election. But we all knew that there were external forces that wanted to bring a setback.
What do we expect from the National Assembly with regards to the Petroleum Industry Bill?
What we agreed regarding the PIB was that we need technical briefing on it before considering the bill. But till now, the minister has not come to give us the briefing. Before we make a law, we need to ask a lot of questions. There are issues that need to be discussed technically and if we don’t understand the technicalities, we may pass something we don’t know anything about. After the minister and experts have briefed us, then we will understand the reasons behind the 10 percent to be given to the oil communities. It sounds nice, but how did you arrive at the 10 percent? How much is the investor making before you start talking about the 10 percent profit. So, we are still waiting for the Minister’s briefing.
Many Nigerians believe that legislators are not performing their oversight functions well and that their laxity in doing so is responsible for the decay in most sectors of the economy. What is your reaction to this?
I agree with you and that is the truth. But Nigerians should understand that the legislature is the weakest part of government and this is occasioned by the fact that during military interventions, when army take over, the presidency and the judiciary still exist while the National Assembly is closed down. In some countries, you will find out that some Senators have been there for over 30 years and such a senator knows virtually everything and have everything at his fingertips. Only 25 percent of members of the current Nigerian Senate are third termers and what this means is that a lot of members have a lot to learn. That makes the National Assembly the weakest in terms of capacity building, infrastructures, training and lots more. So, I agree that we are weak in that area. But we have been discussing these issues on how we can enhance our oversight functions and Nigerians must know that all these things cost money. People should not shout or cry that large sums of money are going to National Assembly. There is a complete budget office where budget is being prepared by the executive. They will study it item by item and can cost it for you and say look this project cost is high. So our oversight functions may be weak, but we are conscious of that because I am a member of the leadership. Honestly, every time we meet, we lament over our weaknesses. Like the issue of the state of our police colleges, I am a member of the Police Affairs Committee. Since I found myself in the Assembly, I have not gone to any police college. It is only now that we are preparing to visit the police colleges to see things for ourselves. We are even thinking of visiting zonal commands and places like that.
Some people believe that lawmakers don’t actually carry out oversight function when they go out, but they go there to collect money from the agencies?
I cannot accept that because I have been to many places and nothing of such happened. I think the issue is beyond giving or receiving brown envelopes; it is the issue of capability. If you look at the number of staff an American Senator has and you look at what we have here, you will laugh. A Senator in America has over 70 staff, while I have just five staff. Every committee should have operational vehicles, but our committee has only one. So, if we want to visit for example Police College and our members are ten in the committee with only one vehicle, the car will not be able to take us all and we will end up looking for assistance from the ministry for a bus which could compromise the process. So, all I am trying to say is that we need to do our oversight functions well, but the National Assembly is not founded properly to have the capacity to do the job well.
Every year, a lot is said about constituency projects for members of the National Assembly and people have always come up with this idea that money budgeted are diverted to personal use by members. How much was actually budgeted for constituency projects last year?
There was negotiation between the federal government and the National Assembly on that and at the end of the day, I think about a hundred billion will be provided for constituency projects. However, let us not misunderstand constituency projects as if the money is given to members of the National Assembly. Each Senator is allocated some of the money and you decide which of the projects is more important to your area. You will go then and put it under the ministry concerned. The ministry will receive the money and execute the projects.
This was how this issue of constituency projects came in and nobody is given a Kobo out of the money. What is important is to make it clear that money is not taken from federal treasury and given to me for example to go and implement projects in the name of constituency projects.
Don’t you think that getting involved in project execution and monitoring is taking you away from your legislative duties?
Approval of the budget is one of our primary functions and the budget covers project. If we approve, why can’t we have the right to say my constituency should have this and that? I am more of a representative than a minister because I am elected. I am supposed to have a constituency office. I am supposed to be with my people always to know their needs and report back and make sure their needs are attended to.
It is easier for people of my constituency to come and see me than to see the Minister even though the budget is prepared by the Ministers. So, approval, which is the Appropriation Bill, is the function of the National Assembly. The President prepares it and brings it to the National Assembly who appropriates. That is why this issue of project is not taking our time. An oversight function again is to make sure that the projects that are contained in the budget are carried out. When you look at the constitution, you will see that it is part of our primary function. In fact, it’s our biggest function to make sure that the budgets are implemented. That is why we have committees for each sector. For instance education is attached to education ministry. They can go to the minister at any time to say look, we appropriated a hundred million to build a schools in so and so places; we want to go and see the place. Appropriation and monitoring of oversight function is the most powerful tool in the National Assembly and they can indict the government if they so wish. They can go and see project and with that we can expose corruption.
What do you think should be done to tackle insecurity in Nigeria, particularly in the north?
I was watching Al jazeera recently and I saw the president of Somalia saying there was this link between Alshabab and Boko Haram, which means that these things are now having a global network. So, I think the Federal government has to act fast in terms of diplomatic relations with those countries that they think Al’shabab and Alqa’ida have roots. This fight in Mali is so important to Nigeria because definitely the alqa’ida Almagrib have link here. It may have started as a local issue, but international terrorist groups are looking for local groups so as to start coming in. The federal government has to step up and cooperate with other nations for a lasting solution for this insecurity issue.
Coming back to your state, Katsina, what is your take on the activities of the PDP-controlled government in the state? How will you rate the performance?
I am disappointed with the attitude of the Katsina State Government. There were two issues of concern to me. There are power projects, transmission lines which were awarded by late Yar’adua and funded for two years. One of the projects was in Katsina South and three are in Katsina North. Suddenly,
in last year’s budget, they were removed and these were projects that were signed and construction was going on; but they were removed from the budget. Along with my colleagues, we were fighting to ensure that they were restored in the budget. I tried to get Katsina State government involved but somehow they were not forthcoming.
Another issue is that of water. We have Jibiya dam and the Safka dam which will involve foreign loan and because of our involvement in the approval process, we said Katsina has been omitted. But we have no right to sign loan on behalf of Katsina and so it requires the governor to come but he didn’t come. Honestly, Katsina state government have failed completely in addressing the suffering of Katsina people, especially in the area of water and electricity when they can come and use their position as PDP government to do so.
We members of the opposition got some listening ear and all that was required was for them to come and participate in the fight; but they didn’t come. I cannot say right now whether the issue of Power has been restored in the budget. So, I cannot give the Katsina State government pass mark. They claimed to have built 600 tube wells in the 34 local government areas of Katsina State while we have built 1100 of such wells in Funtua zone with eleven local government areas. Some of the roads we are doing belong to Katsina state government. I don’t know what they are doing, but I can see buildings with no relevance being built. Class rooms without teachers; you can see buildings but no teachers.
I am bringing ICT schools, but we need security. We are going to put computers in the class rooms but we need security. If the schools are not capable of securing them, we will try to involve the state government. I will take the project there and let them secure them. I may be in this position maybe for four years but if a state government or local government is involved, there will be a permanent security so that it will last longer. I am sorry to say that Katsina State government is not doing what it is expected to do.
