Sunday 20 January 2013

“We’re a nation with faulty leadership -Senator Kaka

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“We’re a nation with faulty leadership -Senator Kaka
Senator Gbenga Kaka, representing Ijebu East Senatorial District, in this interview with Tosin Adesile, speaks on current national issues, alleging that Nigeria has faulty leadership.


Nigerian government has continued to vote huge sums of money on the controversial fuel subsidy policy, yet the people can’t see the impact. What do you think is responsible for this?
Like I asked before, what stops us from having refineries in all the six geo-political zones to complement the four existing, moribund ones. We have licenses issued to about eighteen companies during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, up till now, nothing has happened. That must have gulped some money, and nobody is being made accountable. We talked of the fuel subsidy problem that consumed the lives of people during the demonstrations and right now, nobody had been brought to book.
Recently, we were made to approve the sum of 151 billion naira which brought the total current year budget for subsidy to 1 trillion. You will agree with me that when they were talking about the regulation of the anticipated amount of money which they planned to use SURE-P for the betterment of the people, I feel it is nothing but mere duplication of efforts of the executives. I can’t imagine how SURE-P will be running a parallel administration especially doing what government should be doing. You have so many agencies doing virtually the same thing, including the First Lady’s office. So it goes to show that we are a nation that has got no focus, we are a nation that the leadership is faulty. It is faulty because we have selfish leaders. From the look of things, we have the minister of finance, minister of national planning. From CBN, NNPC, we have trillions of dollars of our crude oil being stolen on hourly basis, and nothing has been done about it. So, it shows we are not serious, and why are we not serious? It’s because we have powerful people, the elite, who are benefitting from the rot, who sabotage the efforts to make oil generation and distribution work as well as power generation and distribution (PHCN). These people are there and we have leaders that are not ready to step on toes and nip them in the bud.
We know the number of banks we have, some of these banks have at least 250 branches, and each of these branches run on generator on a daily basis, ditto for various ministries and departments of government and of course, the private sector. You can imagine the quantum of generators that are being sold in this country, imported from other countries that produce it even though they don’t need or use it themselves. They produce it and dump it on us here. And some of our own elites keep working with them to undermine the generation of adequate electricity that will enhance our own development.
The question now is “What is the transformation agenda?” We are not transforming anything. Nobody can deregulate without a solid foundation, there can be no attraction of foreign investment if the environment is not conducive. The question is what have we done to make the environment conducive? In the last one year, the rate of rural-urban migration has been more than double what it used to be to the extent that most farming communities have become desolate. Those left are averaging about 60 years of age and don’t have the strength to do anything again. And yet , we are talking about transformation agenda.
We also talk of value addition. How can we add value to something that we don’t produce? The budget has become a ritual, without that, there is nothing remaining for the rural community. We have a structural defect, and much as we continue to do our best as legislators, the executive arm also needs to be on its toes. They need to block all the loop-holes so the leakage will be reduced to the barest minimum. Until we are ready to do that, we are going nowhere. One trillion has gone to subsidy this year, definitely next year another one trillion is being expected, and that is about twenty per cent of our annual budget. By the time you remove that, the overhead and the recurrent expenditure, that is about 70 percent, then we have a problem. Unemployment rate is very high, that is paradoxically, we have a job to be done, we have men to do the job, the resources are there to back up the men, but the leadership to manage, co-ordinate, review and energize the system is sadly lacking.
What are your contributions to the senate in the last one year as a law maker?
The three bills that I proposed, one is just awaiting second reading, two have passed through first reading and the fourth one is yet to be listed. So, you can imagine what we’re going through, the slow process sometimes serves to discourage, not providing the necessary impetus. But by and large, many of us believe we owe the nation a duty to provide purposeful leadership, to try as much as possible to be honest and be on the side of the common people. If you’re talking about people from my constituency, so far so good. Our constituency projects, we’ve been able to build a block of classroom in some of the local governments, we constructed a bridge that linked Ayepe and Ikorodu over Imu river which could serve to decongest Lagos – Ibadan expressway hopefully. It’s just at the design stage, whether it would be awarded or not, the answer is somewhere in the wind. So also, we have another one linking Imuren but sadly enough we have a list of abandoned projects, the Ikorodu/Sagamu road that was used during the colonial days, the only link between Lagos and Ibadan used by our prime minister and famous premier, Obafemi Awolowo, and others, in total disrepair. There was provision on this one for capital projects, but there are delays. Delay on the part of the ministry of finance not releasing money as at when due, then on the agencies involved who would not award contracts when it should be awarded and even when awarded, we have the problems with the contractor. These are parts of the inefficiency within our system. These are the things we need to eliminate, failure to eliminate them, there would be no development at all.
What efforts have you put up so far in the area of agriculture since you have expressed belief that it could change the lot of this country and diversify our economy from oil?
In fairness to the minister of agriculture, he has been up and doing. He has put everything towards the development of agriculture in the country with a beautiful blueprint, but the best idea cannot be translated into reality without adequate backing of funds, there is financial starvation of the agricultural sector in Nigeria. We are only paying lip service to the issue of agriculture. We are not serious. I can’t imagine why we now have people who are ready to work on the land begging for tilling, the rural areas are totally desolate, a lot of work needs to be done, rural road network, there is also a lot of food wastage because of inadequate storage facilities, and we complain as more and more billions of naira are being spent on importation of agricultural produce. Emphasis has been placed on value chain addition, yet, we have poor funding.
To me, 79 billion in 2012, 81 billion in 2013 budget, when you discount the overhead that is hovering around 50 billion, the remaining 30 billion cannot effectively create the enabling environment in just two states of the farming community when you talk about infrastructural provision, a good road network for the movement of their raw materials and incentives for bringing in people to farm, water to drink, good water, electricity and of other meaningful things in life that will make them want to stay in the rural areas. So, all our governments are doing, from the local, state to federal level , is to spend all the money on urban centers, causing more people to flock there. They will later come back and say they are doing urban renewal while the rural area, which is the goose that lays the golden eggs, is being neglected.
If the environment is conducive, you and I will be ready to stay in the rural area rather than being in the urban centre and having to endure the traffic jams, insecurity, carbon monoxides and other such disadvantages. That is why we need a shift, if need be, if we are have a DIFRI, directorate of rural development, so be it. We are not serious.

As it is, Tai Solarin University of Education(TASUED) is not recognised by the law. As a legislator, what is your opinion on the development and what should be the role of the NUC and the legislature?
The NUC is responsible for the accreditation of various courses. In actual fact, they have responsibilities over the existence of universities in Nigeria, because any institutions that is not meeting up with the expected standards, they have the right to hack them. Under these circumstances, accreditation has been done and they have done some re-accreditation. So, I see no reason why the school should not be left alone. More so, when we realise the importance of the institutions vis-à-vis the gap of qualified teachers, the need to train and re-train our teachers and improve the quality of education becomes pertinent.
There are many private universities in Ogun State, yet the admission rate of qualified people is not up to 35 per cent of our annual turnover from secondary schools. So, there is no justification why the institution should not be allowed to live, no reason whatsoever and I hope it has come to stay.
What is your opinion on performance of ACN Governors?
I don’t have the raw data but the general consensus of the people is that the new ACN governors, despite the shortcomings, are by far better than the administration of the PDP. Those in PDP acknowledge what Fashola is doing in Lagos, as well as Oshiomole in Edo. Even when you get to Ogun, Osun and other ACN states, people appear to be satisfied with the achievement particularly when compared to others. As I said, I don’t have raw data, but the judgement of the people is enough for us to rely on.
2015 is very close. What is your ambition?
Almighty Allah is the master planner; nobody can plan except Him. I don’t have any pre-determined plan; I surrender myself to the wishes of the Almighty and ready to serve humanity to the best of my ability irrespective of the position, even if it’s as a councillor.
What advice do you have for the people of Nigeria and the government?
We must not despair. When God wants to do something very marvellous in the life of a nation and an individual, it starts with difficulty and in some cases, impossibility. So, it gives good tidings to those of us who can persevere when anything happens.
Believe in God. We should all be honest and steadfast. People should be hopeful and be prepared to take their destinies in their own hands. Oil has turned us to lazy beings, when you travel to India, America, they worship work, there, we are averse to work here. Not our making but the making of our leadership. So, we need to re-orientate ourselves and discover our value system. The oil money is not encouraging us.
The government should hearken to the needs of the people. Listen to them, know what their problems are and not foist your solution on them. Let the solution be what will serve the purpose.
TheNation

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