If things work out the way they should and APC organises itself as it should, something it is trying to do, because the primaries are soon going to start in the wards, local governments and the states, they can elect their leaders, which is a good thing, and then we have the right type of candidates that people elect, not imposed; then the future will be very bright, not only for the party, APC, but also for the country. The country needs a stable political system with good opposition, which will certainly influence how the government is being run. When you have a good, sensible opposition making constructive criticism, making suggestions and blaming the government where it goes wrong and praising it where it has done good and right, it is then we shall have very stable polity. Nigeria will be the better for it. But, if APC goes the same way PDP is going with dictatorship, lack of direction, then we are going to have problems. If APC and PDP have problems, then the entire country will have problems and that will not be good for anybody.
It is incumbent upon these two political parties to make sure that they have in-house overhauling in terms of their leadership and utterances, in the way they conduct themselves, so that we could have a very sensible, secure political activity in Nigeria. If opposition means attacking government or if been in government means attacking the opposition, throwing bad words against each other, abusing each other, then our focus will not be on the right path. It will be on the path that will lead to destruction of the political system and who knows what problem it will bring.
2015 is a very delicate period in the history of this country. This year 2014 is an election year; so within the next three months, politicking will pick up and there will be too much politics involved; so, we have to be very careful what we do and what we say to each other. When nominations come, we have to be able to nominate credible candidates, popular candidates, both in PDP and APC. People will no matter what happens, will win the elections, will serve this nation. That is the situation we are in; So, each of these political parties and also the subsidiary parties or smaller parties will need to play their own roles too. Some of them need to align themselves with one of these two major political parties.
Nigerians are worried that there seems not to be any difference between the PDP and APC. How would you react to this?
Well, first of all, there is a difference. One is PDP and is in government and exposed because whatever it does will be known. That is why it is often criticised. The other one is an APC and the opposition party. If you are talking about manifestoes and ideologies, most parties anywhere, not just in Nigeria, have similar manifestoes; that they will provide good services, good government. There are no parties that think they will do anything bad for the people. In terms of ideology, whether one is a Socialist, Conservative or Leftist party, etc, well, that remains to be seen. What happens in Nigeria, it is not the parties that have any ideologies, but individual candidates who will be elected based on their personal ideologies, which they will implement when they are elected. That we are a Conservative or Lliberal party depends on the members and circumstances in the country.
Things change and they have to change with it. It is not really a very important matter. What is important to the people of this country is not what ideology and party, because they do not follow it; but how the economy is affected by the policy of the party; how individual Nigerians are affected by what the party does. What is the security in the country? How is business going? What is the industrial base and how does the country grow in terms of GDP? Whether this GDP is truly translated to peoples’ lives or it is just something that is written; that is in the air, just like you see in Nigeria. They will say that Gross Domestic Product is seven or eight per cent, but gross poverty of Nigerians is minus 20 per cent. While the country boasts that it is getting wealthier, the people are getting poorer which is in congruous.
That is what is happening in this country. There is no relationship between the wealth of the country and the wealth of the people and that is an area that really needs to be looked at and that is where APC, in my opinion, needs to concentrate to ensure that the wealth of the country is reflected in the welfare of the citizens
Many people believe that the opposition propaganda is swallowing up all achievements by the Jonathan administration. Do you think that nothing has actually changed looking at the roads, airports, transportation, river basins etc?
Well, look, just three months ago, the electricity supply showed signs of improvement. But for some weeks now, it has decreased drastically. They say we do not have more than 2000 megawatts for the whole country.
In some states, there is no light at all. So where is the improvement there? If you go to Bompai or Sharada, here in Kano, these are industrial layouts. You will see that a lot of factories have closed down because there is no electricity and the price of diesel is so high that you cannot run your factory on diesel. Therefore issues of unemployment has become very vexing, especially with what happened where hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates were rushing to get employment in the country’s Immigration Service and a lot of them died. This is very embarrassing for the country. Most people you ask, unless they have some direct relationship with somebody in government or with government itself, will tell you that last year was better than this year. That is how we are going backwards. Yes, there are roads; they did some roads somewhere and people’s cars are in the garage, because they do not have the money to buy the fuel and these cars are only for few people. How many people drive cars in Nigeria? They prefer to go into commercial buses and taxis.
There are some areas where infrastructure is important, it will serve generally the people. In some areas, what the people really need, no attention is given to those areas; areas like education, health and other social services. All these things I am saying, go to the hospitals, a lot of people are sick and cannot afford to pay the bills in government hospitals. We do not have any social security structure in Nigeria. Such services are not there. Nobody is compensating anyone because he is sick, cannot get a job, social security benefits are absent in this country. Compare it with this notion by the people that with the money, this country is losing through theft, vandalism, corruption, etc. How can one say that we are making progress in this country? We could be 100 times better today than we were years back, if we were doing the right thing; but we are not doing the right things. Some people are having everything to themselves and the bulk of people in Nigeria are not happy at all.
I watched a video about oil situation in the South-South. I had tears in my eyes after seeing how the people there live. The whole place is polluted by oil, in their farms, in front of their houses, water wells, etc, plus the fact that the people themselves look very unwell, dirty, with some of them stealing some of the oil and dying because of it. It is so pathetic, yet some people say because the oil is from the South-South, they are having all the money. The fact is the money is being stolen by a few of them. The real people do not get the benefit. All these things have to be looked into so that the real people, wherever they are in this country, get the benefit and enjoy the wealth. But, that is not the situation. Now a single person in government will steal billions of dollars. What is he or she going to do with such monies, while other people are dying. How can someone steal that kind of money. This is wickedness. It is beyond the normal corruption thing. It is real sickness and I think elected and authentic officials, a lot of them are sick. An American once told me in Washington, ”Mr. Tofa, there is corruption everywhere, but you people in Nigeria are corrupt beyond your means, the amount of money people steal in Nigeria is beyond comprehension and imagination”. This is the situation. So, anybody who said there is progress in this country is not looking at things properly and honestly. I don‘t think there is any progress in this country where a one kilometer N60 million road will be costed and given out at N600 million and the rest of the money stolen. This country truly needs change. Nigerians must realise that they have to do something to effect change in 2015.
Do you imagine that APC will arrest corruption and give the country the necessary changes?
That is what we think. Even PDP can bring about change by making the right people occupy the right places, the best people will be elected. It is up to the two political parties to ensure that the people, who will be elected in 2015 from whichever party, are very honest and patriotic people. The people must be screened by the parties in the best interest of the country. I do not think, just because APC is a new party, that they will bring about changes if corrupt people are to be elected to occupy posts from the local, states and the Federal Government. APC must ensure that it presents truly credible people. For instance, the presidential candidate must be a person who no one in Nigeria will point a finger at and say this one was a thief or still a thief; this is only what will give Nigerians the confidence to go for this party; but if the party goes to do the same thing, they will not win elections, because, people will be saying look at their presidential candidate, Senatorial, House of Representative members or even local government, there is no difference between him and the other one. But if the PDP will put up a better person, that person will win elections. Nigerians today are very eager about APC, it will be better if the party sponsors really credible people who will work honestly for this country. If they fail to do so, you will see that PDP will be winning the elections.
Do you suggest that there should be legislation against corruption?
There are already legislations against corruption. If you are caught engaging in unwholesome corrupt practices, you will be taken to court and sent to jail if convicted. We have all the laws, but the question is: Who implements the law? Everybody believes that in the end, nothing is going to happen, because, it is not only me, everybody is corrupt, from the presidency to the ministers, police, judges, et al. So nothing will happen to me. That is why the monster called corruption cannot be dealt with, but once there is a new change that will lead the way and a president is not corrupt and cannot be pointed at as a corrupt person; once there is a president like that who will not touch a kobo of this country, then nobody is going to be corrupt. But, the moment the president steals N100 somebody below him knows about it, that somebody in turn steals N10. How can the president ask him why he stole the money? He will say, “well, I saw you steal it, so you cannot talk to me”. He too, the one below him, will do it because his senior cannot talk to him. So that is how it goes round. The top must be very pure, he must be a man or woman who could be seen to be without blemish and has no intension whatsoever to be corrupt or to do anything that is financially wrong against the people of this country.
Suppose Jonathan asks you to become his Special Adviser, what will you say?
Everyday I advise him. I have always said the most serious fault I see against President Jonathan is that he does not have the right sort of people around him. He may want to do some good, correct certain things, but the people who are advising him are the sort of people who should not be there, all of them. We know some of them and that is why it takes him time, he finds it very difficult to deal with anybody who has done something wrong. He is very slow in acting. It is like he is absent or absentee president, some people are doing things in his name and he would not do anything about it and I think right from the beginning, I have been saying that for the president to be able to be a captain, first he should have those who can truly advise him, who will know the thing that he seeks advise on better than he knows those things. But, if he takes unqualified or undignified persons, before he could control them, they have grown very powerful to a point that even if the president has good intensions towards anything, they will dissuade him about it. They are there just for the money and other comforts. They will just be there serving themselves, using the president. You have to recognise that you are the leader, you are the person elected, you have the responsibility to make things happen in the right way to ensure that Nigerians are satisfied the way things are going. Nobody else has this onerous responsibility, but you.
You really have to get the people that will truly help you because your legacy is very important. Right now, if President Jonathan leaves the presidency, he will leave with a very bad name. But, in the few months that he has now, 15 months precisely, he can do certain things that are so powerful indicators that will be truly of him. For instance, he can dismiss his entire cabinet and get people who really know what to do, put them there and give them their tasks, say between now and September 2014, I want this and that to happen. You can call the judiciary and the police and say all these criminals who stole people’s money must be brought to book. You can call the legislators and say, look, we have to make the following laws, this law, that law, etc; we have to protect ourselves and our image, I would want you to do this and that. You can cut their salaries and review everything subsequently and substantially. He can do certain things, even today, that in six months, will show him as a very serious man.
Even for his campaign?
Yes, he has to show some seriousness, but you see the way he is going now, he is not going anywhere. Here in Kano, nobody really likes him. Even the PDP people, they cannot campaign for him openly in Kano. It is the same thing in most states, but they will go and tell him lies saying Kano will do this, in Sokoto we can do that, it is all lies. He will be seriously disappointed. People do not hate PDP, but they hate what is happening. Whoever will do those wrongs, they will hate him. They will not elect whoever it is.
That is why the APC has to be very careful who they put up as their candidates in the elections. If they show some selfishness and just put somebody because he has some money, people will question, ‘Where did he get the money ?’ From that day, that campaign is ruined. Then the question will arise, ‘How is he different from the other men of the other party? If he is a governor, how is he different from the incumbent? Same as senator; they will ask, ’How is he or she different from the one on ground? These comparisons will have to be made; whoever we shall put up as presidential candidate will have to be compared to Jonathan. People will have to ask, ‘is he corrupt or not? Others will say this is the man who stole billions of naira before and now they are bringing him here, and he is going to be campaigning as president with the money that he stole, and then we are finished. In that case, what do we tell the PDP because we shall no more have any moral right to come out and say we are better? We cannot do that.
Let’s talk security?
The purpose of government is threefold. Each of these is given to each tier of government. One is to harness the resources of the country; all the incomes of the country whether they are taxes, investment monies, etc, the purpose of government is to harness all these resources and use them to provide security as social services for the people and also ensure that there are adequate laws in the country; and that the rule of law is implemented, that whenever anyone commits a crime, that person will be judged and treated like a criminal.
The first part is the duty of the executive, harness the resources and provide security in all parts of the country, make laws for the country that are adequate, serious, and do not ordinarily and unnecessarily term people as criminals, but rather protect innocent citizens and make laws for the ordinary life of the citizenry. They should make sure that these laws are implemented and followed adequately and anybody who breaches them is adequately dealt with legally. That is the work of judiciary. Now, which among these tiers are doing its job and what is it not doing? Did the executive provide the security, and other services like education, health etc? The answer is ’no’.
The legislature, did it make the right laws that really affect the lives of the people, that protect people, that ensure the issues of corruption, lawlessness are dealt with; fairness through the given laws is brought to bear on each part of this country? I doubt. How are these laws implemented? How many criminals have gone to jail? How many thieves have gone to jail? None.
So where is the government in all these things? It is just like there is no government, because, all the functions of government are not being implemented, nobody is doing his job properly. It is as if we have no government except in name. In terms of security, nobody is sure that he will see tomorrow, because one can be easily attacked. It depends on where you are. One could be a target of Boko Haram, hoodlums, cattle herders, kidnappers, ritualist, rapists, baby stealers, head hunters, etc. There is no where you go in the entire length and breath of this country and say this place is safe. Every part has its own problems and unfortunately, we also see the problems as their problem. Boko Haram is a Northeast problem, we do not see it as our national problem’ kidnapping is a Southeast problem; it is not seen as a national problem; vandalism, oil theft, etc, are being myopically perceived.
Unless we begin to see these problems as our collective problems, the problem of the country will persist. For instance, if someone is kidnapped from the north or south, is it a northern problem or southern problem? It is a collective problem. Because they do not kidnap you is not maybe because you are from Southeast or somewhere else; you are just lucky by the whiskers. It is just an opportunity. You could get kidnapped or killed.
No comments:
Post a Comment