Senator Adegbenga Kaka is a former Deputy Governor of Ogun State and member of 7th Senate. In this encounter with Daniel Adeleye in his Ijebu-Igbo country home, he spoke on the need for state police, the rot in governance in Nigeria, Yewa agenda, amongst others. Excerpts
EXPECTATIONS were high when this APC-led administration came to power in 2015, but today it seems things had gone worst. As a chieftain of the party, are you not concerned?
Like any other patriotic Nigerian who has the genuine interest of people at heart, I am worried. First and foremost, we have had almost 19 years of democratic rule and up till today, we are still behaving as if we were under military, fostering unitary system of government on our people in a republic that is supposed to be practising federal system of government. It’s so pathetic that despite the military’s shortcomings and after 19 years of civilian rule, we continue to present ourselves as if the adornment of khaki is the only required minimum to ascend the mantle of leadership in Nigeria. When I say this, I am saying it strictly out of patriotism because the problem we found ourselves today started from 1966. And we are yet to get ourselves off the hook, as the same set of fellow countrymen are the ones directing our affairs with transformation from khaki to Agbada. Yes, they have the right to aspire to leadership; they are qualified and they have tried their best under the circumstances they found themselves, but that is not to say that we must remain under these military turned politicians forever. Their primary constituency is the security of the nation, both within and without, that is within the confines of our territorial borders.
But we have seen how non khaki presidents misruled Nigeria in the past?
Since 1966 to date, there is no administration or change of administration that was not directed, overtly or covertly by the military leaders. We need to say the fact. Yes they may have their good point that we can tap into, but it must not be electioneering over the nerve of the society. I’ve said it earlier; there is constitutional provision that guaranteed their participation at any level of government, but some of them are going beyond their boundaries by wanting to be alpha and omega over the political landscape of this country. Now, they are championing ‘give youth a chance’, saying what they think the people of Nigeria want to hear.
Here are the same youth that they have incapacitated. Can we just be talking on nothing and expect it to stand? Are the education of the youth you are talking about solid enough to withstand the challenge of governance?
They can say whatever they like but all of us, including my humble self, I have said it time without number that we are all guilty of the mess we found ourselves. We need to re-orientate our past. And when I say re-orientate, yes we have National Orientation Agency (NOA), but it’s been equally incapacitated because of lack of funding and proper personnel’s who can do the needful for our attitudinal change. And when I say this, the military, like any other institution and all other institutions that we think of, being public or private, need re-orientation now more than ever before. It’s when that one is done, and then we have the involvement of the youth who can stand in the position of leadership effectively. It’s easy to tackle the symptoms why the cursative is buried inside. The cursative is what we are talking about here. We have missed our road and we need to navigate ourselves back to the righteous path if at all we must move forward.
One of the issues in the front burner now is the growing insecurity in the country; how would you react to that and what do you think is the way forward?
With the subsequent military administrations, strenuous efforts were made to incapacitate the police that was once vibrant and they are yet to recover up till now. Subsequent budgetary allocations to the police were not adequate enough, where they have semblance of adequacy, the dis-orientation of the headship also contributed to the menace we found ourselves. Money meant to equip the police was being diverted. We know of Inspector-General of Police that EFCC bundled into jail and we know another that escaped untouched. We know what happened to the ranks and files. It was reported that out of about 350,000 workforces in the police, 50 percent of them are protecting politically exposed and even criminals in our society once they can pay the rightful cash. In addition to that, we are supposed to have, I think one police to 400 citizens, and we are having nearly 200 million people in the country, and we have below 400,000 police personnel to police us. To say that we are under policed is an understatement. The dilemma we are in, which is the source of paradox,
is that with below 400,000 police, largely ill-educated we are millions of unemployed graduates roaming the streets. But because of nepotism and favouritism, you find those that are ill-educated being recruited into the police force. The finesse that is expected of police is just not there. Now, we have been talking for years of the need for state police, and some people are still arguing that we are not yet matured to have state police. I don’t know how I, Adegbenga from Ogun State, can effectively police an area in Zamfara. And yet we keep advocating for public police relation. If we know that the communities involved are necessary, then why are we pretending that there could not be state police?
The recent superiority and egoistic feuds between the NASS and Executive particularly the upper chamber and the presidency cast a dark cloud over the polity of the current administration. As a member of the 7th Senate, how would you react to this?
I have not seen any dark cloud there. Many years back, I espoused that I wish to see a situation in Nigeria, it often happens in America, where a different party will control the executive and another party will control the legislature. Then and only then we will be able to see the beauty of democracy. The checks and balances expected of the legislature will bring the difference out of any determined executive. If you put the executive on their toes, the society will be better for it. The semblance of this is what we are seeing in the 8th Senate, either accidentally or out of omission, but it’s an irony that a party in power could not take decision through a parliamentary caucus meeting to produce the leadership of the House if they were so desirous of it.
But still talking from my own antique, I believe these were not there to choose their leadership without any interference whatsoever. Apart from ministers and other appointees being forwarded to the National Assembly for screening and clearing, the executive has the responsibilities to the electorates. They take decision on their own; those who are supposed to be in conjunction with the party that brought them to power. But definitely, except they called parliamentary caucus meeting, the legislature may not be there when they are taking their decisions. So either they resolve every issue at the executive or legislative level through parliamentary caucus meeting whereby leadership of both the executive and legislature and the party come
together and iron those things out.
Then secondly, the party, we keep saying the party is supreme, is the party actually supreme? We are a bad copier. We are copying the presidential system of government from another land without domesticating it to suit our own purpose as a nation. Who will want to undermine the party that brought them to power, when they are thinking of the power, the party is supreme. They look upon the party to be nominated as candidates and immediately they got the power, they rebel against the party and put it to the background. And that’s why it was possible for a president within a spate of four years to remove the party chairman unilaterally like what we have seen severally in this country. Is that how the party will be strong when there is no internal accommodation of authentic decency that is supposed to protect and uphold the party the way it should be? Those are some of our problems and we need, no matter how highly placed you are, the constitutions are protected, the governor, the president are even over protected.
Coming back to Ogun State, you are one of the chieftains of APC seeking to succeed the incumbent Governor Ibikunle Amosun in 2019; why are you contesting?
I am contesting because I believe things could be done differently.
…and what are those things?
First, all I’ve said before, our national outlook should be attended to differently. We will give the party the rightful control of the structure of the party. There will be little interference. The legislature, though are supposed to be independent, there is nothing like absolute independence; we are inter-dependent. So, the legislature also will be given the right atmosphere and environment to function as expected. The job of judiciary will not be meddled with, because they are the last hope of the common man. When we have a good and robust inter-relationship and things are working, then we would have entrenched justice. And it’s from justice that we could derive the much needed peace and unity. And that will engender, of course unimaginable development and growth.
There is the issue of zoning in Ogun State and one of such is Yewa agenda. Don’t you think people may think you want to take their position unjustly?
Zoning may be good where you have consensus of opinion, but in the absence of consensus of opinion, you have constitutional provision that overrides all other considerations apart from the Almighty God’s decree.
I can give a classical example, the old Western Region, comprising the entire Yoruba land, apart from those in Kwara and Kogi states; but with the addition of Edo and Delta willingly, voluntarily and joyously followed the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo as Premier of Western Region. They all knew that Chief Awolowo is from that ghetto called Ikenne. They did not think about zoning. The result is the monumental achievement of legacies left behind by late Pa Awolowo that are reference points in the last 50 years. These would have been lost on the altar of zoning.
