The nation’s Senate, especially its embattled President, Bukola Saraki is ready for a showdown with former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his recent letter to the national assembly..
Perhaps, if the wily old fox had tended to the needs of the assorted commercially lucrative birds in his Ota Farm instead of picking his pen to write mendacious letters to those in positions of authority, maybe the lawmakers would not be roaring for a fight at this critical period of our national life.
But because mischief is second nature to Obasanjo coupled with the nagging urge to display his writing skill after obtaining a degree in Religious Studies from the National Open University, we now have a problem to contend with. For a man whose letters made huge impact, both positive and negative in the runoff to last year’s presidential election, it is doubtful if anyone would have succeeded in persuading the Ebora Owu to lay down his poisoned pen and allow Bukola and his gang of lawbreakers to find a way out of the a pervading, nay putrefying, self-inflicted hypocrisy.
For, if the truth must be told, there are too many hypocrites fronting as the real deal in the nation’s legislative chambers. Recall that, in the not-so-distant past, one of their colleagues had actually wondered how drug peddlers, certified fraudsters, confirmed criminals and petty robbers found their into becoming powerful members of that ‘distinguished’ gathering? In fact, that senator, a former officer of the law, was forced to withdraw the statement. That was even before former state governor, including those facing criminal trials on corrupt practices, started adopting the hallowed chamber as some sort of retirement facility. Today, a big chunk of these characters have become a sickening plague to the system regardless of their pretentious leaning to party affiliations and ideologies if there is any.
Read more - The Nation
Sunday, 6 March 2016
MEET GODWIN OBASEKI
Mr. Godwin Obaseki was born in Benin City, Nigeria to the famous and illustrious Obaseki family. He had his early education in St. Matthews Anglican Primary School Benin City from where he proceeded to Eghosa Anglican Grammer School, Benin City for his secondary schoool eductaion. He attended the University of Ibadan where he obtained a BA in Classics.
Mr. Obaseki attended the Columbia University and Pace University in New York and has an MBA in Finance and International Business. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers, Nigeria and an alumnus of the Lagos Business School Chief Executive Program.
He was nominated a Global Leader for Tomorrow (GLT) by the World Economic Forum in 2001.
Career
Godwin Obaseki began his career over 30 years ago and has established track records in Investment Banking, Asset Management, Securities Trading and the Public Sector both internationally and in Nigeria.
He started out in 1983 with Capital Trust Brokers Limited Lagos as a stockbroker where he excelled and subsequently worked with International Merchant Bank (an affiliate of First Chicago Bank). In 1988 he joined AVC Funds Limited, Lagos where he served as a Project Manager and led the core team that set up two of the new generation banks which eventually reshaped the face of the banking industry in Nigeria. Between 1993 and 1995 he worked in New York as a principal of Equatorial Finance Co, a Financial Advisory firm with a focus on Africa and providing Structured Trade Finance for African related transactions through credit, financial advisory and risk insurance.
He Founded Afrinvest West Africa Limited (formerly Securities Transactions & Trust Company Limited (SecTrust)) in 1995 as the pioneer Managing Director. The firm has since grown to become a leading Investment Banking and Investment Management firm in Nigeria. In 1995 SecTrust was appointed the correspondent stockbroker for Nigeria by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). In 1996, SecTrust established the first derivative product, the Nigerian International Debt Fund (NIDF) on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which allowed Nigerians invest local savings in US Dollar instrument. This fund has outperformed projections on returns.
SecTrust pioneered and was local adviser on the first global offering by a Nigerian bank through the issuance of Global Depositary Shares (GDS) to raise UD$50 million from the international Capital market. Afrinvest has acted as advisers on some of the largest and most significant transactions in the Nigerian capital market since 2005.
Afrinvest is one of the most trusted advisory firms in the domestic corporate finance market, pioneering major innovations and providing leadership in the Nigerian Securities market. The Firm has advised on numerous landmark transactions including the first Eurobond Issue by a Sub-Saharan Africa Corporate (outside South Africa); the first ever simultaneous merger and tender offer transaction in Sub-Saharan Africa and the largest ever listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Afrinvest has been ranked as a major Investment Research firm which is at the forefront of playing instrumental roles in the introduction of new financing products such as Eurobonds and Global Depository Receipts to Nigerian Companies.
Mr. Obaseki is presently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the firm which won the Best Asset Management Firm in Nigeria (2014) Award by the Wealth & Finance International Magazine Finance Awards.
Mr.Godwin Obaseki currently serves as the Chairman of the Edo State Government's Economic and Strategy Team (EST), a position he has held since March 17, 2009 Pro bono publico.
Key achievements as chairman of the economic team of Edo state Government include:
Documentation of State Economic Development framework through Sectors' Strategic Planning which is reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis;
Introduction and enculturation of retreats as a platform to ensure all parties engagement not only in planning and executing state development initiatives but also in monitoring and evaluation of outcomes;
N25 Billion Infrastructure Development Bond from the Nigerian Capital Market in 2010;
$225 Million Concessionary rates Development Loan from the World Bank with the 1st Tranche of $75 Million already accessed;
Successfully hosted Sector based Economic Summits and Policy Dialogue Series including the Power Round Table in 2010, 2011 Education Round Table and 2012 Agribusiness Round Table.
These summits have translated in measurable and desired outcomes including:
i. Azura-Edo IPP project with over $1 billion in FDI currently under development in Ihovbor, Uhunwode LGA
ii. Education Reforms which have translated to significant improvement in Educational Infrastructure and student performance in WAEC and other Exams.
iii. Following the 2012 Agribusiness Summit, the state has attracted investment in the Rubber Sub-sector for the development of the single largest Rubber Plantation project in Nigeria in Sokponba in Orhiomwon LGA under a privately developed and financed initiative;
iv. A framework for Local Economic Empowerment through out-growers schemes is being finalised to attract funding into the development of key crops for which Edo State has natural endowment including Oil Palm, Rubber, Cassava, Cocoa, Rice and other grains
Other Committee activities in Edo State Government
1. Tax Assessment Review Committee for Edo State Internal Revenue Service (TARC) - Chairman
2. Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) - Chairman
3. Committee on the Implementation of the Law Establishing the Edo State University of Science and Technology, Uzaire - Secretary
4. Committee on Contributory Pension Scheme - Member
5. Edo SEEFOR/DPO Steering Committee - Member
6. Committee on the Report of the Audit of the Credentials of Teaching Staff in Public Schools in Edo State.
7.State Steering Committee on the European Union Assisted Niger-Delta Support programme (NDSP) Component 3 (Development of Edo State Water & Sanitation Policy and Law.
Professionally, Mr. Obaseki has served on the Presidential Committee on the Reform of the Nigerian Pension System. He also served on the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission Committee on the Re-activation of the Nigerian Bond Market and the review of the Investment and Securities Act. He served as a member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange Council between 2006 and 2009. He also serves on the board of some companies such as Dorman Long Engineering Limited, Pillar Oil Limited, Seric Impianti International Limited.
He was the founding secretary of a New York based US Africa Chamber of Commerce in 1992, which promoted US organisations doing business in Africa. He was a Director in Junior Achievement of Nigeria - the local affiliate of the worldwide Not for Profit organisation which trains students to appreciate market economy values. He also participates actively and serves as Trustee, in the Dr. Jackson Owen Obaseki Foundation, a family owned NGO which is involved in providing free educational and health services to the less privileged.
He has been a card carrying member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) since xxxx and has participated actively in all elections since 2009 and was Chairman Fund Raising Committee for the Oshiomhole-Odubu re-election bid in 2012.
#WeAreUnited
#WeHaveDecided
#GO4Governor
#ContinuityNotNegotiable
#TeamGO
#Godwin
Monday, 29 February 2016
Edo 2016: Ofeimun, Edebiri, Emuan, Esele jostle for space
But while more aspirants are springing up from the ruling APC, fewer persons appear to be showing interest from the opposition parties including the PDP. Still others like Odia Ofeimun are yet to indicate which platform they want to use to get to the Dennis Osadebey House.
Chief Solomon Edebiri of the PDP believes that human capacity development and a resuscitation of the industrial sector hold the key to the hearts of the Edo people, while Arch Ilenre Austin Emuan and Comrade Peter Esele of the APC are focusing on an economic blueprint anchored on welfarism; and education, agriculture and culture respectively.
Ofeimun on the other hand wants to modernise Edo through cultural civility and technological proficiency within a period of 40 months.
In an interactive session with journalists, in Lagos, Edebiri said that human capacity development and industialisation have been neglected by successive administration in the state noting that the state lacked the required foundation for growth and development.
According to him, the graph of growth and development has been declining since the end of Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia’s administration stressing that economically virtually all the industries that made the state robust have become moribund.
“Delta Line, Bendel Brewery, Bendel Wood Treatment plant, Bendel Printing press, Afuze sports complex, the Agbede Wareke farms, Bendel Insurance, etc. are dead. As the industries get castrated so our people began to loose their jobs. As they loose their jobs, the resultant effect was that the young ones went into crimes and the young ladies started finding their ways out of the country”, he stated.
Edebiri said he was stepping into the gap to provide the foundation for growth and development of the state. He acknowledged that the state governor did well in the construction of some roads, which would be built on.
“We need a man who is liberal who understands the business of the state, who knows how to run the state as a business entity and turn it around for good. That is where I come in,” he disclosed stressing that he would localize crops in their local government area of advantage along with their identified natural resources to grow the state’s economy.
“The principle of one local government one commercial crop syndrome with each local government area concentrating on the area of advantage will be adopted with the attendant agro-industry established,” he said.
Edebiri promised to de-emphasise taxing the citizens, grow the revenue base of the state to make it an export hub as against the current import hub.
Esele of the APC said he would focus on education, agriculture and culture if he becomes governor
“The bottom line, which I think, is a matter of ideas, considering what Oshiomhole has done in the last seven years. It is a matter of telling ourselves the truth; moving beyond ethnic politics and not queuing behind somebody that is not going to add value. It is all about building beyond what we have today. That is why I am into the race today,” he added.
Emuan, a development expert explained that his passion for development generally informed him asking why do nations failed and that this stimulated the interest in international relations that eventually prompted him to join politics.
He said he would democratize development and investment process with 25 years solid economic development plan that will enable Edo State become one of the most industrialised economies and investment destination in Nigeria.
According to him, Edo would be modernise and provided with infrastructure that will offer Edo people wherever they are located in the world to grow themselves economically, adding: “The philosophy of this vision is hinged on co-ownership and participatory democracy.”
He said that he belonged to the neo structuralism ideology where credit is given to welfarism of the state in line with the ideology of the APC. “The only way to go about this thing that I am talking about is to create the Economic blue print of Edo State that is quite peculiar to Edo State. It is a very unique model that will be used to develop Edo economy.”
His words: “We need to develop the next generation such that they can think, write and innovate and communicate in their own language because culturally if we don’t do that we can go extinct. Any people that loses her language loses their identity.”
Ofeimun who said he was interested in only one term in office, promised that in forty months he would have turned Edo around and laid the foundation for a “Singapore” within the Nigerian nation.
“I am determined to prove that within the particularity of one nationality, Edo, and the fold of a multinational state, Nigeria, it is possible to achieve high feats of modernity, cultural civility and technological proficiency comparable to that of any other country in the world,” he stated.
The renowned poet and polemicist said if he makes it to the office of the governor, he would create money, investible and welfare funds, through aggressive solid minerals, gas and agro-allied industries as well as eliminate punitive taxation, waste, and improper expenditures.
APC chieftains bicker over board appointments
The problem, which has the prospect of tearing the party apart, had been on ground even before President Muhammadu Buhari sacked the heads of no fewer than 26 heads of parastatals and agencies of government.
Trouble started after Chief John Odigie-Oyegun leadership of the party mandated chairmen and vice chairmen of the 36 States chapters of the APC to come up with a list of fifty nominees from their respective States that would form the pool of those to be considered for board appointments.
Rather than call a meeting of stakeholders of the party, The Guardian was reliably informed that most of the states chairmen and vice chairmen opted to pick their cronies and relatives as their preferred nominees for board appointments into agencies and parastatals of government.
The situation was further compounded by claims that members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who recently defected to the APC and were keen on getting board appointments, induced some party chieftains with monies in a desperate bid to get on the list of the nominees for boards appointments.
Expectedly, the development led to series of complaints and petitions from aggrieved members of the party from across the country, forcing the presidency, which was piqued over the issue to come to the rescue of the ugly situation.
The source who asked not to be named said: “The truth is that most our party chairmen in the states in conjunction with some states governors settled for their relatives, wives, friends and cronies. The worst side of it was that the mode of selection actually negated the goal of Mr. President who wanted men and women that he could work with to move the country forward.”
However, it was learnt that a committee led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir Lawal has been constituted to correct noticeable anomalies and hold due consultations with aggrieved members of the party in a bid to arrived at an amicable resolution on the issue.
The committee which comprised Oyegun, the National Secretary of the party, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, and the six zonal vice chairmen of the party have been mandated to meet with the states chairmen, secretaries, factional heads of the party in the states so as to ensure that those deserving of appointments into boards of agencies and parastatals were given due considerations.
States believed to be hit most by the crisis were Kaduna, Kano, Enugu, Imo, Anambra, Lagos, and Oyo States.
With Crisis in PDP, Discordant Interests in APC, Politicians Realigning for New Party
A growing number of politicians are
making moves for a realignment of political power in Nigeria towards a
new political party, THISDAY has learnt. This is amid crisis in the main
opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and conflicting
interests in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
It was gathered that discussions among
politicians from the two leading parties towards the floating of a new
party started in earnest some months ago, and it was fast gathering
momentum. Insiders said the new political move had the support of some
serving governors from both the APC and PDP, key principal officers of
the National Assembly, and some aggrieved political leaders across the
six geo-political zones. A former senate president, Ken Nnamani, is
being prevailed upon to act as the arrow-head of the emerging party, it
is gathered.
Nnamani announced his resignation from
PDP on February 6, saying, the party had abandoned “the path of its
noble vision and values”. He was elected Senate President in 2003. In
his statement titled, “PDP, the Burden and My Conscience,” Nnamani said
he was fed up with the state of things in the party. But said he was
quitting “without any iota of bitterness.”
He stated, “I do not believe I should
continue to be a member of the PDP as it is defined today. This is
certainly not the party I joined years ago to help change my country. I
do not also believe that the PDP, as it is managed today, will provide
an opportunity for me to continue to play the politics of principles and
values, which I set for myself as a young man on leaving graduate
school and working for a large multinational in the United States in the
70s and 80s.”
Nnamani did not announce an intention to join any political party, but he promised to remain politically active.
A former Senate Chief Whip, who chose not to be named, confirmed the emerging political moves. He said, “Go and talk to many political elites across the country today, you will hear and confirm huge frustration among them. Nobody seems to be happy with what is happening in the APC and the PDP. And some of us have come to a conclusion that there is urgent need to have a new and credible platform to save this country.
A former Senate Chief Whip, who chose not to be named, confirmed the emerging political moves. He said, “Go and talk to many political elites across the country today, you will hear and confirm huge frustration among them. Nobody seems to be happy with what is happening in the APC and the PDP. And some of us have come to a conclusion that there is urgent need to have a new and credible platform to save this country.
“You will be shocked to know that the
agitation for a new political platform is more pronounced in the North,
in spite of the fact that we currently have a sitting president from the
North. It shows how frustrated people are in the country today.”
Another enthusiast of the emerging
political grouping, who is a prominent leader of APC, also told THISDAY
in confidence, “The hope that things will change for the better, with
President Muhammadu Buhari in power, is being dashed by the day. As I
speak with you today, the soul of the APC is gone. Go to the national
secretariat of the party, they will tell you.”
It was learnt that some desperate
efforts recently by concerned leaders of APC to iron out things among
themselves were frustrated by the political hawks around Buhari, who are
already strategising for 2019.
“What you are likely to have in the
coming months is a congregation of old PDP members in the APC pulling
out to form a formidable political party with some progressive-minded
members of the present PDP,” the APC leader said last night in Abuja.
The special caucus meeting held last
week by APC was said to be part of the measures to halt the tide of
disenchantment, which promises to seriously threaten the ruling party.
Very little was achieved by the meeting following the absence of
President Muhammadu Buhari, who was unavoidably absent. But another
meeting is being contemplated for this week, where aggrieved APC members
would be expected to table their grievances before the party and the
government.
Many APC members are said to be calling
for the removal of the national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, citing
poor leadership. It is suspected that the replacement for Odigie-Oyegun
would come from the North as part of a grand plan to put the president
in a position of comfort as far as party administration is concerned.
But that is expected to meet with resistance, as party leaders from
other parts of the country are likely to oppose the idea. Generally,
many leaders of the party are said to be unhappy with the current status
of the party and the government, having been shut out of the
decision-making process, despite their commitment to the success of the
party.
One of the problems believed to be
delaying the manifestation of the idea of a new party, according to the
promoters, is the question of the personality around which the party
will be built. They want a personality that would sell, like Buhari did,
for the APC.
Indications of how the politicians are
readjusting towards the eventual formation of a new party are clearer in
PDP. The party has lurched from one crisis to the next since it lost
the general election to APC last year. The high turnover of PDP national
chairmen since the election is symptomatic of the crisis within.
Adamu Muazu resigned under pressure as
PDP national chairman on May 20 last year, accused of leading the former
ruling party to a devastating defeat at the polls. He was replaced by
Haliru Bello, who was appointed acting national chairman on May 25 last
year and was sacked on February 10 this year. Bello was succeeded by the
PDP deputy national chairman, Uche Secondus, who worked in acting
capacity until February 16, when he handed over to the newly-appointed
national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff. Sheriff’s appointment has been
enmeshed in controversy.
Though, PDP says it has resolved its
leadership crisis following an agreement to let Sheriff run the affairs
of the party for three months, until the national convention, when a new
national leadership of the party would be elected. There are fears that
PDP may come out of the national convention more divided than it went
in. This is due to the very huge likelihood of a clash between the PDP
governors, who were the main force behind Sheriff’s emergence as
national chairman, and other groups and interests in the party that had
opposed his choice.
In recent times, some prominent PDP
members have resigned from the party without joining other parties, in
what is seen as a strategic move to help nurture the expected new
political platform. Besides Nnamani, Samuel Ogbemudia and Dalhatu Sarki
Tafida have recently left PDP, but did not defect to other parties.
In APC, the National Assembly has been
the main theatre of war. Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of
Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara won their positions last June
against the wish of the party, in connivance with PDP legislators.
Sources say Saraki’s current trial by the Code of Conduct Bureau may
prepare the ground for the consolidation of the moves towards a new
party. Both Saraki and Dogara belong to a bloc within the party, the New
PDP, which believed they needed to be compensated for their
contributions to the victory of APC.
ThisDay
Buhari in Quest to Secure Nigeria
However, the irony in Buhari’s character could be deemed a reflection of his transition from a military officer who overthrew a democratically elected government in December 1983, to one who after retirement became an avowed democrat that has sought to rule Nigeria via the ballot, albeit in three unsuccessful attempts.
But for many who have followed Buhari, they would be the first to remind anyone who cares to listen that his democratic conversion occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union and dismantling of the Berlin Wall. Essentially, it took the collapse of communism and totalitarianism in Eastern Europe for Buhari to take the journey on the road to Damascus like the biblical Apostle Paul.
For some, drawing the similarities between Buhari, a practising Muslim, and Paul who is considered one of the most important figures of the Christian Apostolic Age, may be taboo. But after the THISDAY Board of Editors met with the retired army general last Friday at his home in Abuja, the board came away with the view that Buhari is anything but a religious bigot, as his opponents would have us believe.
Yet, despite Buhari’s best efforts to distance himself from religious extremism, he cannot runaway from the fact that in his three attempts to return as Nigeria’s head of state through the ballot, he has not been able to build political structures that transverse the fault line between the north and the south. Indeed, whilst his following among the masses (better known as the Talakawa) in the north is cult-like, the same cannot be said of his followership in the south.
For the first time in his political career, the general would also have to compete for the ticket of a political party to contest the 2015 presidential election. In the past, Buhari was handed presidential tickets without lifting a finger. To secure a win over four other contestants on the platform of the APC, especially his closest rival former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Buhari has been forced raise the ante by lobbying for delegates’ votes.
Should he win the APC presidential primary and go on to win the 2015 presidential election, Buhari informed the THISDAY Board of Editors that one his primary goals will be the defeat of Boko Haram in the North-east and combating corruption in Nigeria. Indeed, on matters of security, Buhari’s military background and grasp of warfare shone through during his interview with THISDAY.
So did his disdain for corruption, even though he acknowledged that times have changed since his stint as head of state between 1984 and 1985. On the economy, however, Buhari has so much to learn and found it difficult to present a coherent blue print on the economy. The conversation with the THISDAY Board of Editors, nevertheless, was not just limited to matters of security, corruption and the economy. Uncharacteristically, Buhari opened up on a host of other issues.
In thefirst installment of its Presidential Series, THISDAY presents the man and presidential aspirant, Muhammadu Buhari.
INTERVIEW
Buhari: Nigeria Will Be Secure Under My Leadership
The key issues facing Nigeria obviously are security, corruption and governance. I believe your last beat as a serving general before you became head of state was GOC Jos Military Command. As the then GOC Jos, the current North-east was under your command. Given what is happening today, given the onslaught of Boko Haram, how would you have prosecuted the war differently?
Differently? Certainly something has to be done first to secure that part of the country, which is virtually under Boko Haram. I have the background information of what happened in the North-east then as the GOC in Jos back in 1982-83. You would recall the Chadian troops made an incursion into Nigerian territory. The United States then asked (former President Shehu) Shagari to help Chadian President (Hissene) Habre because Habre was suspected of being used to destabilise Libya. Oil had not been discovered in Chad then and the country was a bit poor. So the president agreed to provide petroleum products to Chad. All the tankers were lined up and were providing fuel to Chad. And Habre decided at that it time to attack Nigeria and killed our soldiers, took some of our military hardware and I was extremely concerned. I flew into Lagos, saw the Chief of Army Staff, General (Inuwa) Wushishi then, and I moved into Maiduguri. That was the last time, until recently, in whatever form the Chadian troops dared Nigeria. I have also been a governor in that area, the North-east.
The question is how did Boko Haram start, because we have to know how it started before we can effectively get rid of it. Just like how did the Niger Delta militants start in the South-south. Politicians use unemployed youths as vanguards, they called them ‘Ecomog’ in the North-east then. One of their leaders called Yusuf, a young charismatic man, tried to give it a religious tinge but unfortunately the chaps were badly handled by the security forces – a combination of the police and the military. There was a small demonstration by members of the sect on motorcycles over the death of one of them accompanying a corpse and seven of them were shot dead. Of course they were not wearing protective helmets. Now this is an ordinary offence in this country and it was easy to handle. Just arrest the people, take them to a police station and charge them to court the following day and fines could be imposed. But instead, they chose to shoot them. From there, Boko Haram really started and they have never looked back. And once the police couldn’t handle the situation, according to the Nigerian internal security operations, they handed the matter over to the military. The army commander then did extremely well. The GOC of Third Armoured Division in charge of the command went and looked for Yusuf, got him and handed Yusuf to the police. The police killed Yusuf, his in-law and levelled their houses and since then Boko Haram got out of hand.
What would I do differently? It is to make the military much more effective in their operations. If we get the opportunity, we will make the Nigerian military capable again because if we could go through ECOMOG forces to stabilise troubled zones and go to Darfur and to other places of the world and perform, why can’t we perform at home when our national sovereignty is being threatened? That is what we will do differently, to make Nigerian military capable again.
The Nigerian military became incapable following a failed coup against your successor, General Babangida. And following the failed coup, the command and control of the army decided, as it were, to disarm the army so that they were not able to take on the political leadership of the military at the time. We heard some of our helicopters were even given out to Congo and other countries, so that the army would not have the weapons. Since then, the army has not been equipped. So is it a question of lack of equipment, a question of will or that of rot over the years?
I think it is a question of the rot over the years, because the most important thing is the intelligence. Having known how the Boko Haram developed, what I would have personally done differently would be to get the Presidents of Cameroun, Chad and Niger together to say, ‘look our borders are porous and that we are not able to effectively protect them and monitor movements of people in and out of our territory, but please make sure that you do not provide training facilities or allow people to be coming into the county.’ The practical possibility of guarding our border from Lake Chad area to Sokoto is nil. If you look at that area, you cannot stop the donkeys, the oxen, the camels and human beings from crossing that border. It is impossible, unless you will line up all the Nigerian population, which is not possible. But firstly you have to reach an agreement with your neighbors. As we talk now, Cameroun seems to be fighting Boko Haram more effectively than Nigeria, from what I read in newspapers. You cannot change the Nigerian military overnight but still, but I think there are trained officers who can train the men and you can get the weapons legally. There are government rules and regulations and as an elected government, the people or countries that normally provide you with weapons will not refuse to provide the weapons because it is an internal operation. We are not attacking anybody, rather we are being attacked. So countries that have been providing us with military hardware will have sympathy for us and provide us with weapons. We do not have to change money in the black market or take it from the vault of the central bank in a hired aircraft and say you are going to buy weapons. This is unusual, very, very unusual as government has legal ways of how to source arms and ammunition. Look at how we fought a serious civil war for 30 months without borrowing a kobo. General Gowon was the head of state then, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the Minister of Finance and deputy chairman of the Federal Executive Council. We fought the civil war without borrowing a kobo. Now you want to chase insurgents after spending what they have spent, they are rushing to the National Assembly for permission to borrow $1 billion, there is a problem of leadership and I think everybody knows it.
But how will you make the US to supply us arms given the accusations against the military and how will you get Cameroun to cooperate more given the crisis over Bakassi and the border demarcation, bearing in mind their refusal to cooperate up till now?
On the question of the US selling arms to us, the US can influence our traditional arms suppliers but the US is probably not a major supplier of arms to Nigeria as far as I can recall – right from independence till now. But they can influence those that can supply arms to us. As you know, the black market of sourcing military hardware has never been stopped even with international pressure. I think for the weapons we need to fight Boko Haram, a group of people taking arms against the country. I do not think we need weapons of the magnitude people are talking about. Of course, the military was disarmed in order to stabilise democracy. But how can I stabilise the army and get the cooperation of the US to help us and at least to give us the moral support and allow our traditional arms suppliers – France, United Kingdom and Russia – to give facilities for maintaining those weapons like tanks and armoured cars? I believe the US will not stand in the way of a democratic country getting supply of weapons and ammunition to defend itself against internal or even external aggression. As I have said earlier, Cameroun is even fighting Boko Haram more effectively than us. If you would recall that there were some kidnappers that took away the wife of a (vice prime) minister but the Camerounian law enforcement agency got her released.
Given your experience in the military, what can you point to as the problem with the military in challenging Boko Haram?
I think what I can do is appeal to the patriotic sense of the military. The military’s constitutional role is to protect this country from external aggression and I mentioned earlier on, even in internal operations, the police are allowed to come in at the initial stage but once things are bad, then the military has to come in, just as it is happening now in the North-east. I believe the military would like to preserve a strong Nigeria because if they allow Nigeria to be balkanised, they will be the first to lose their security because I do not see any part of a balkanised Nigeria that will like to get a general or colonel to be in charge, and you don’t talk about pension or even gratuity. So there will be total insecurity if they allow anything to happen to Nigeria. I think the situation needs a leadership that will give the military the backing in terms of sourcing the weapons and ammunition to fight. And Nigeria, no matter how oil prices have fallen, will source enough funds to fight the insurgents.
Do you see corruption in the military as a major problem?
It is a major problem. As I have just mentioned there are ways to source weapons, ammunition and other military hardware; there are rules and regulations; tenders boards at various levels where they examine applications by suppliers; getting the best for the country and then recommending to the government to go and secure it. The issue of putting dollars in an aircraft or handbags or asking one senior officer to go and look for weapons does not arise under the Nigerian laws. This is corruption and I do not blame the military because it is a situation of a fish with rotten head.
Don’t you think that the nature of the warfare, which is asymmetric, in the fight against insurgents also has a lot do with the limited successes the military has recorded? We have a situationwhere you have to seek out terrorists who live in the midst of the people. It is not like fighting with a conventional army?
I agree with you partly, but look at how some of the committed commanders that dealt with the late Yusuf’s case. I talked about intelligence; we have structures of assistance throughout the country. We have ward leaders, district heads and emirs – these people are good sources of intelligence. There is this structure on ground and it still exists. Some parts of Nigeria have been able to ward off Boko Haram. It is not because of government’s effort but people started their own JTF. If Maiduguri people did not organise their own Civilian JTF, the city would have been overrun.
At the initial stage of the insurgency, you were quoted as saying that any attack against Boko Haram was an attack on the North and that while federal government negotiated with the Niger Delta militants it was attacking Boko Haram. So you were now tagged as one of those behind Boko Haram. How would you react to this and what do you think is the place of negotiations in arresting the insurgency?
Yes, I spoke on the radio and gave a press statement. I hope you would take the positive ones as well and not only the negative aspect. I mentioned that they were trying to give it a religious tinge and I came out to say that no religion advocates hacking the innocent and our people can easily understand. Christianity and Islam do not authorise anyone to take the life of any other person. Justice, which needs restraint, is what is supposed to be applied by the strong to the weak. The incident where I made that statement was, if you could recall what happened in Barma and Baga. I think Boko Haram killed a soldier or two and the whole town or part of it was razed, some satellite pictures of it were published. This is not how to do it. What to do was what was done to Yusuf before he was killed. If you recall, the army did not have raze the part of Maiduguri but they went and caught Yusuf and handed him over to the police. This is what the army then was supposed to do and even now. It is not to go on a rampage killing everybody and that was why I made reference to what the late President Yar’Adua did when he invited the militant leaders, sent them presidential jets and they came here in Abuja and they negotiated with him, empowered them and put them back into the society. But that type of army, which was sent to Barma and Baga, they created part of the problems we are in now and now the problems have proved stubborn to be solved. Instead of trying to get the leadership as Yusuf was found, they just went and razed parts of the towns and alienated themselves – the military and law enforcement agencies – from the people rather than getting their sympathy. This is what could be done differently, use intelligence, find out the leaders that are responsible and deal with them.
But that statement led to the feeling in many quarters that you were sympathetic to Boko Haram and that led to the political brickbats between your party the APC and the PDP, and PDP alleging that APC is sympathetic to Boko Haram. Do you regret the statement now or the context in which it was made?
The problem is the failure on your part, the media, to carry out investigative journalism if I may use the word, because when I made the statement it should have been in the context of my position that no religion advocates the hacking of the innocent and that the strong should be sympathetic or show some restraints when dealing with the weak. If it were in that context, then the question of I being sympathetic to Boko Haram would never have arisen.
When I was bombed, what was the reaction of Boko Haram? Did Boko Haram ever put out a statement? It was the government that quickly said that they were not responsible and that was the last we heard about it. Even if it was an unknown Nigerian, I think a proper investigation would have been carried out to find out what happened. How did they get the sophisticated weapon to bomb your headquarters in Abuja and the United Nations building? How did they get to such a sophisticated level of detonating an explosive device just adjacent to my vehicle and see how it pierced the body of the bullet proof vehicle as if it was a piece of paper. I think that we have to really have a capacity for investigating this type of things. So my party and myself have shown enough patriotism that we are not behind any insurgency in or outside Nigeria. The harm it is doing to our economy has not yet been calculated by anybody but I was reliably informed that everyday about 100 articulated vehicles, not even tankers, used to go to Maiduguri and traders from Cameroun, Chad and Niger do business there. At least two million Nigerians, from wheelbarrow pushers to big time shop owners, make their living in the city. But look at it, these are all being destroyed.
Tell us what happened on that day you were bombed.
I don’t know why you want to listen to a disaster story again. Well, you know Rilwanu Lukman died somewhere in Europe and if you could recall he was my Minister of Power and Steel. So I was told that his body was to be brought the following day. I was told on Tuesday that on Thursday he would be brought home for burial, through Kano Airport where it will then be flown by another aircraft to Zaria. So I decided to drive to Daura, my hometown to be able to come to Kano the following day to receive the body. Luckily, was in a bulletproof vehicle. I was only using it from Kaduna to Abuja and may be Abuja to my hometown because armed robbers are getting more desperate now and they operate 24 hours a day now. A vehicle was trying to overtake us, but my backup vehicle stopped him in Kaduna. But when we came to that market before the overhead bridge, there was confusion in the market located on the right side of the road leading to Zaria. So that driver got an access and quickly drove close to my vehicle. Then the bomber exploded the device and when I came out I saw blood on my trousers and I looked to the right and I saw body parts of people selling second hand clothes, sugar cane on the roadside. I don’t remember the law enforcement agencies ever telling Nigerians how many people were killed there. I shook my head. Some of my operatives quickly came to me. I saw some of them were bleeding. They pushed me to the other side of the road in case there was another bomb. They stopped another vehicle coming, replaced the driver and drove me home. That was what happened. They tried to take the picture of the vehicle and we saw the army when they came. I noticed one person dressed like a woman with a handset contacting some people while beside the armoured car. So I told them, go to the military, show them the picture and tell the soldiers that you too want to interview the man in ladies dress. I do not know why he left his jeans trousers on but he had his wrapper around his body. That was the last I heard about it. Nobody ever bothered to brief me on the outcome of any investigation on the incident.
From all you have said, we are persuaded to believe that the solution to the problems afflicting the country is just about having a good leader. What credentials are you presenting to Nigerians as an alternative to what we have currently?
Yes, I tried to mention one. While I was the GOC in 1982 and Nigeria was giving Chad economic help and instead of the president of the country coming to thank our president for giving him economic support, he just sent his soldiers to kill our soldiers. I had a command then and it was within my area of responsibility. I went and sorted it out. Secondly, you must have known about Maitasine sect. I was the Head of State in 1984. Maitasine, you recall developed from Kano and he was killed during the Second Republic but his followers resurfaced in Burunkutu, again in Borno and Jimeta, Yola. My second in command then, Tunde Idiagbon, was not in the country. I flew into Yola, Gambo Jimeta, I think he was the AIG and Wash Pam were there and that was the last we heard about Maitasine. Really, I do not think the Nigerian military including the law enforcement agencies have absolutely lost their capacity to deal with internal security problems. The leadership seems not to be aggressive and cannot properly lead. And the fundamental problem of Nigeria now is security. Nobody is feeling secure in the country and I think this is the fundamental responsibility of government. So the leadership must make sure that they secure Nigeria and efficiently manage it.
Are you also thinking of doing something to beef up your charisma? Nigeria is a complex entity and needs somebody who is flexible. People say you are stiff.
If I can achieve results with my stiffness, let the stiffness stay. Because when you go and ask ordinary people, when we, myself and Idiagbon, came on board, ordinary people in Kano came out when it was hot, they put the keys of their cars on top of the cars, slept in front of their houses and woke up the following morning. People say time changes, yes, but when people find out that you do not tolerate big thieves not to talk of the small ones, then they will sit up.
Do you subscribe to the view that oil is an issue with regards to this security challenge? What is your position on the role of Chad in the botched ceasefire agreement?
I think Chad knows that Nigeria can certainly secure its borders. I still cannot understand why it took the leadership of this country so long to get those three presidents to sit down and agree. I think even within the framework of ECOWAS such agreements were feasible to make sure that weapons do not cross our borders and that people were not given training facilities. How could Boko Haram abduct 200 schoolgirls of ages of 14 to 18 from their school and we were giving the impression that these girls were in Nigeria? For seven months, the Nigerian government could not get the intelligence of where these girls were in particular and where they were moved. They kept saying they know where the girls are, then what the hell is stopping them from getting the girls out? Imagine you have got a daughter there, how do you go to bed and how do you wake up for seven months? Your 14-year-old daughter is in the hands of insurgents and your government is making noise and spending money on unnecessary things. I think the whole country ought to have been mobilised to get those girls back alive or their bodies so that their parents can get closure.
Should the Nigerian government negotiate with Boko Haram?
Well, since they are stronger than the government, I think the government should negotiate with Boko Haram. But we did not even negotiate with President Habre of Chad when he tried to come into our country. We tried to solve our problem ourselves. Nigeria is capable, this is my point. I firmly believe that because when we were there with Prof. Gambari as Minister of Foreign Affairs, we had an Afrocentric foreign policy, that is, first Nigeria in our heart and then our immediate neighbours. If you do not cultivate a good relationship with your neighbours, it will cost you so much in terms of security and the economy. So you have to cultivate a friendship with your neighbours and then it goes on to ECOWAS, Africa and the rest of the world. I think this is a viable policy option. But if your neigbours think you are a nuisance to them, then the economic activities and the cross-border trade suffer. Since colonial rule, when they sat down with rulers and maps and they cut us off; they cut us off in Benin, in Niger, in Chad and Cameroun. We are virtually surrounded by people who are culturally related to Nigerians. So it is quite easy to get our neighbours to sympathise with us and help us check insecurity so that we can stabilise out country and move forward.
The North is backwards in terms of development and the Boko Haram scourge has further compounded it. If elected the president, how do you hope to bridge the gap and reconstruct the economy of the North-east?
First of all it is important to debunk the notion being peddled by Boko Haram that Western education is ungodly. They go into schools and slaughter children both Christian and Muslim children. They go to mosques and explode devices, they also go to the churches and motor parks. So really, it is very easy to disabuse the minds of Nigerians on the wrong notion that Boko Haram is a religious enterprise. They are just simply terrorists. Having reduced them to that, then you can earn the support of the immediate communities for you to flush the insurgents out of the society. I believe that this will not take a long time. Then you discuss with your neighbours to make sure that weapons are not crossing the borders and that there are training facilities for terrorists. As we can see, the Camerounians are very serious about fighting Boko Haram. They are fighting the sect more than we are fighting the insurgency and they are doing it more successfully because they are able to secure their own part of the country from being occupied by Boko Haram. So you have to first get rid of Boko Haram before you can talk about rebuilding the North-east because you cannot do it while the fighting is still going on.
Then we have to go back to General Gowon’s three Rs. We have to assess how much damage to infrastructure has been done and then see how we can re-equip them and help people to get employment and access to goods and services. I think that soldiers and police barracks and their armories must be strengthened to ensure that they are properly secured. Thirdly, I think that the air force has to be made more effective by acquiring more new aircraft and establishing a base in Kano so that the distance to cover is shorter and returning to base is made easier.
Is oil an issue in this insurgency, especially with regard to the role of Chad?
Yes oil has now become an issue because Chad no longer needs us as it used to need us in terms of supporting them because oil has been discovered and developed in commercial quantities and they generate more money now. They can really bypass Nigeria and get what they want. So oil is an issue. It makes a country economically viable, especially because foreign countries investing in Chadian oil will certainly have sympathy for them and they can try to help them to be stable.
Why did Boko Haram prefer you leading their negotiation with federal government at the initials stage?
You know there were problems with the Boko Haram leadership, there were some people that claimed to be leaders of Boko Haram and the sect disowned them. So we have to identify the real leaders of Boko Haram before you can negotiate with them. I do not think the government has identified the leadership. So it is shooting into the dark and this is why I am insisting on intelligence, which means gathering information and making sure that it is correct and you deal with it. Without intelligence you waste too much resources and lives.
In terms of economic policy, the central question right now is oil and the fall in (foreign) reserves and the exchange rate? What direction of economic policy will you take Nigeria if you are elected president?
You see, it is a pity that we have a mono-cultural economy and we all depend on oil. We have agriculture, mining, things that can complement oil in terms of income and employment. I think insecurity cannot be separated from this. The amount of oil lost to the activities of oil bunkers sometimes has put Nigeria in a very serious condition. On the question of reserves, having been in charge of Ministry of Petroleum for over three years, I know that people who invest their capital and knowledge, they know Nigeria has prolific fields but they have moved offshore mainly due to insecurity. Unluckily for Nigeria, the offshore oil fields, most of them are prolific but are expensive to develop. The best way we can persuade investors to come in and invest is to secure the country. Security is still key to economic development. People will just load the barges and tankers on the high sea and come to collect the crude from the terminals and go and empty them because part of the oil proceeds belong to them (60:40%). But when they are losing, they cannot bring in more resources and technology to establish more reserves in the country. So security is the key, this country has to be secured.
If you are elected president when the country is in great economic deficit, how will you turn things around and secure the economy?
I think that for the navy, air force and the army it is their fundamental constitutional responsibility to secure the country with whatever we have. I believe this country is still strong to make sure that we secure these areas as quickly as we can and re-establish confidence in ourselves, in the world and in our business partners. The capacity to do it rapidly, I am afraid, one has to know the total intelligence, one has to know where we are exactly before you can make a determined move to correct the situation. Really, it is a question of putting whatever we have available in terms of fighting capability to first secure that area, to earn the confidence of investors for them to quickly come back, because they can even organise soft loans for us to stabilise our budget deficits so that we move forward.
So can we deal with security without tackling corruption? When you came to power last time, you were known for your fight against corruption. Today, it’s a different kind of fight. In your party, the APC, there are many people accused of corruption, so how do you first put your house in order and then deal with the hydra-headed issue of corruption?
I think the priority has to be the other way round, we have to put the country in order first. In attempting to put the country in order, it is going to be a terrible situation for whoever wins and I pity whoever succeeds President Jonathan, even if it were to be myself. But this is what we can do; the practical way to tackle corruption is to draw a line, because institutions have been compromised. We cannot go on the way we did in the military in 1983 to fight corruption. This time around, you cannot do it that way because most of the institutions have been compromised. The person you will depend on as the auditor to go and check the CBN, maybe he has got some substantial part of the deal. These are the facts on the ground. So what you do is to persuade them and tell them to help to amend it. You have drawn a line, part of these are in courts and you cannot interfere with the judiciary, no matter how bad you believe the judiciary is. Constitutionally or otherwise, you have to leave the judiciary, you cannot bring better judges and put them on the job over night. It takes generations. So you have to appeal to their conscience and prove to them that you are serious and that cases in the courts that you are interested in them but let the judiciary continue. Cases that have been struck out, the government will move forward but any case that comes up will be handed over to the judiciary. But to say that you are going to investigate, I am afraid that government will not last a quarter because the institutions have been compromised.
So there is no capacity to investigate corruption and what you are proposing is to draw a line going forward?
Yes, to be honest, the capacity is not there because as I said, institutions have been compromised but if you say I am not going to participate in corruption, I am not going to tolerate it from day one, I hope the people will believe it and those that have cases in court have to give way so that people that have not been caught because God help those caught helping themselves then. We can deal with them. But as I said, you cannot go head on as we did under the military.
Essentially to understand you sir, so all these governors who are alleged to be corrupt, all these senators and others, you are drawing the line. Is that amnesty for corruption? Don’t you think that you are also being a victim of your past, that something you did successfully, that because you were criticised, you are now afraid to do it again?
No, I am not afraid. If I was afraid the day they attempted to bomb me, I would not have felt like continuing. But I felt I have done nothing wrong other than telling the truth where I find it serious enough to tell the truth. The important thing is that I mentioned it, you don’t have the capacity to catch the big thieves right now, you don’t have the capacity. You have to do it gradually because, as I said before, all the institutions have been compromised. Do you know that I said it about 18 months ago, I think it was at a book launch where I said in my own area in Nigeria, people hardly go to the police. If they are cheated or something, once they are alive, they say ‘God dey’ and they continue with life because they cannot afford justice, they cannot get it. Virtually the whole country has reached that stage.
How do you reconcile your party’s position to ensure zero tolerance for corruption with the approach you have decided to adopt on corruption?
No, I said that as far as corruption is concerned I will not tolerate it from the day I take charge of governance. But those cases that are in courts, they will continue but as we move forward, cases that come up will be handed over to the judiciary.
The effects of shale oil and the direction of our oil right now, how do you intend to save our mono-cultural economy, given the new world order for oil?
Again, the issue is the security and then the unemployment of restive youths. Those who go to school cannot get jobs and others cannot go to school. I believe agriculture and solid minerals are the sectors we can move quickly into in dealing with the unemployment of the youths. But then moving forward has to take a lot of thinking and planning and cooperation of the international community to come and invest. We must get our infrastructure back. For instance, power supply. A lot of industries were closed because they cannot afford the diesel, they cannot survive the roadblocks from the ports to their places. You can imagine how many roadblocks are mounted by the military, police, customs and immigration. Everybody is asking for money, whether you are guilty or not guilty. So to secure this country is no joke. It has to be done. That is the bottom line.
Now let’s talk about religion. There is a perception that you are either a fanatic or a fundamentalist. Are you a religious fundamentalist?
Well, what I know is that I am a practising Muslim. I think that those who accuse me of being a fundamentalist ought to have seen which career I came out from. From the day I left school I did not work for a day and I joined the military and consistently the Nigerian military has been 80 per cent Christians. So you find out that your orderly, your cook and sergeant major are Christians and you are a Muslim. And fighting through the civil war, if you could recall the international media was saying the Muslim North versus the Christian South. You remember how it upset General Gowon to the extent that after the civil war when they rushed to help us, he said, ‘I do not need your blood money.’ They refused to understand that Gowon was and is still a Christian and all his commanders were Christians and less than 10 per cent of the military were Muslims. So this perception that I a religious fanatic is what can I call sophisticated disinformation. I cannot disown my religion because of the accusations. People I worked with for more than 20 years and I rose from second lieutenant to general. All the commands and staff that I worked with along the line, most of my associates were Christians, for example when I moved into Maiduguri to sort out the Chad invasion, my number two then was Ugokwe. He is a Chritian from the South-east. He happened to be my coursemate but because of civil war he lost his seniority and he became my number two. When the Americans provided President Shagari with satellite pictures that I had gone beyond Nigerian border, I received a presidential order to pull out and fall back into Nigeria. I handed over the division to him and went back to Jos.
Do you go to Mecca? When last were you in Mecca?
I did not know you were following me so closely. The last time I was in Mecca was 12 years ago. Somebody asked me this question why was I do not go to Mecca like some others and I told him that I come from a big family in terms of numbers. And with the collapse of education, I have to make bigger contributions to the education of members of my family. Again with the collapse of the health facilities, these are immediate requirements for majority of Nigerian families. So I have less money to go to Mecca because I have to contribute to the education of blood relations.
So should the state fund anybody to Jerusalem or Mecca?
My opinion is no. As far as Islam is concerned, going to Mecca is your personal business.
Religion is also a toxic issue in Nigeria, I understand that there is somebody that you like, who you may make your vice-president but happens to be a Muslim. Will you have a Muslim-Muslim ticket?
Yes these developments are very irritating. I talked about General Gowon and his commanders and his nine years in office. I talked to you about past pairings: (Bashorun Moshood) Abiola and (Ambassador Babagana) Kingibe and I told you myself and (Major-General) Tunde Idiagbon – military – and Abiola and Kingibe – civilian. So this surge of religion consciousness, as far I am concerned, is a recent development and it has been taken to a bigger dimension. Let me tell you in 2007, I went to Lagos to meet with religious leaders and one of the biggest Christian religious groups. After an hour of meeting with them, the leader said to me, general, I replied ‘Your Eminence’, and he said, ‘We are not going to accept a Muslim-Muslim ticket.’ I said thank you very much. I respected him because he meant it. But if you ask me, I think Nigerians ought to be less concerned about the issue. I joined partisan politics in April 2002 and by 2003, there were governors, there were senators, but I got the ticket. I picked late Chuba Okadigbo, every Nigerian knew Okadigbo, he was a Roman Catholic and an Igbo and he was brought up politically by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, we were rigged out and we were in court for 30 months, up to the Supreme Court. In 2007, I picked Chief Umeh-Ezeoke, he was an Igbo and Roman Catholic. Again we were rigged out. In 2011, I picked Tunde Bakare, a pastor. So how more Christian do you want me to go in picking as running mate? I never picked a Muslim as a running mate.
But this time around?
I am not going to tell you. I would do that after the primary. If I win the primary then I will reveal who is my running mate.
But would you consider a Muslim-Muslim ticket?
I said I would not tell you.
There is a school of thought that said your incursion into Chad was in disobedience to the civilian authorities. That you did not wait to get the permission of President Shagari.
The type of training I received up to my commissioning and up to my rank then, major-general, was that you have to be loyal to those that are below you and those above you. How can a country, which America literarily forced us to give petroleum products to, instead of its president flying in to come see our president and thanking him, went and killed our soldiers and you think I will wait for orders. Well, I asked for their understanding, whether they gave me or not I do not know until they asked me to pull out, otherwise I would have lost respect from my soldiers.
I think that most people think that you are not a fundamentalist. But I have seen your children at the airports, they are like my children, they love good things. I do not think that you raised yourself in that fundamentalist way. However the fear is about those around you, that the nature of your support base is driven by clerics. The fear is that if you become president will these clerics not take over the Villa?
I am just a Muslim and those who studied Islam or know more about its tenets know that it is all about justice. But in Nigeria, we are not practicing Sharia, the constitution has set out legal provisions and states that have voted for Sharia have got their courts to some extent. But then in the end, it is the Supreme Court that will decide. So I cannot work out of the constitution of the country. If those clerics are supporting me as you alleged, then perhaps they are supporting me because they feel there will be justice. If you steal, you will have to return it and maybe get some punishment but if you do not steal you will live in peace.
There is this perception that Boko Haram has religious undertones. If elected president, what will be your position be on Sharia?
It is about the constitution. It is the constitution that we agreed to follow as an emerging nation. The 1999 Constitution gives every Nigerian the right of practicing any religion of his or her choice and not to even practice any religion. I had deliberately refused to make comments on what happened in Nassarawa State where some 70 policemen were killed by a militant group and one misguided SSS person came and said that they had pardoned them. I issued a statement that she had no right to do that. The fundamental responsibility of government is to protect the lives and properties of citizens. And Nigerians, by the constitution, can practice any religion they wish to or refuse to practise any.
Now what do you like about President Jonathan?
His smile.
If you look at other four people running with you under the APC, assuming that you choose not to run again, who would you chose to fly the party’s flag at the election?
I think if I am not running, I should leave it to the party to decide. I understand Rochas Okorocha got two forms, one for president and one for governor, I do not know which one he wants. In any case, I think by receiving those two forms he has disqualified himself from the race. So out of the remaining, Atiku Abubakar, Kwankwaso and Nda-Isaiah, I think I will choose Kwankwaso. Atiku was the vice-president to President Obasanjo for eight years and you know how they ended up. You know that one more than myself. While in school, I was a class monitor, a prefect, a head boy. From there, a governor, a minister, chairman of PTF and a head of state and so people can refer to something. Kwankwaso has also served as governor for the second time and was Minister of Defence, may be you can refer to something. But Sam is a very difficult one.
What is your economic blue print?
It will be a set of regulations, strategies, policies and a vision on how to stabilise the economy, secure the country and move forward. I think that’s what it is.
The APC presidential primary is coming up this week and you have never gone through a competitive primary. What do you think your chances are in the contest?
Well, that is why I have been going round the country meeting the delegates to seek their understanding and support. There are these reports that some people are spending so much money. But I think Nigerians have suffered enough and I think it is not a question of getting just N50,000 and then you are on your own for the next four years. I think it is a question of thinking seriously among the five of us who will really make an attempt at securing our country and managing it efficiently. I respect the system, so the best way we sell ourselves is to tell the electorate what we can do and leave them to decide based on our previous performance or lack of it and then vote for us. If they make a mistake, then we will suffer, our children will suffer. If they make the right choice and regroup around the right person, then we may salvage our country once more.
You presented yourself to Nigerians in the last three elections but lost although you claimed you were rigged out. What measures have you put in place to ensure that this does not happen again?
What I am suggesting is that Nigerians should stand for a free, fair and credible election, otherwise look at the problem some parties are having anointing candidates before the primaries. The system does not stop parties from having consensus candidates to produce the candidates but the ideal is to go through the primaries and choose who they want to represent them. The bottom line is to have a credible election.
ThisDay
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Saraki Set For A Showdown With Obasanjo - The Nation
Saraki Set For A Showdown With Obasanjo - The Nation
Aso Rock Lens: Buhari’s padded budget of controversies
Olalekan Adetayo
Governments at all levels derive
pleasure in christening their annual budgets. Apart from naming them
budgets of a particular year, like 2016 Budget, they also come up with
catchy words such as Budget of Consolidation, Budget of Emancipation and
so on.
Since this present administration came
on board based on the change mantra of the ruling All Progressives
Congress, it was not a surprise to many that the first budget prepared
by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the 2016 budget, was tagged
Budget of Change.
Events have however showed that there
are more appropriate descriptions for the document, far from being a
budget of change. What about christening it a Budget of Controversies?
If not that it will only be meaningful to those who understand Yoruba,
one would have considered a Budget of abiku so oloogun deke.In the beginning, not a few Nigerians
held the belief that the 2016 Budget held a lot of hope. For instance,
the APC had last year explained that it could not begin to implement the
social welfare programmes that formed part of its electoral promises to
Nigerians because the funds needed were not captured in the budget of
that year which was prepared by the administration of former President
Goodluck Jonathan.
The Office of the Vice President that
supervises the economy has been using every opportunity available to it
to inform Nigerians that the money needed for the programme had been
captured in the budget proposal currently before the National Assembly.
The making of the budget was as dramatic
as the controversies that later trailed it. The government had boasted
that it adopted zero-budgeting method as against the previous way of
preparing budgets through the envelope system.
Some officials in charge of the budget, I
recall, were camped in the old Banquet Hall of the Villa for days while
they were busy with the document. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was
invited on a Saturday to see and appreciate the kind of efforts the
officials were putting into the preparation. During that visit, I saw
the officials glued to their laptops like yahoo yahoo guys will do.
Finally on December 21, 2015, the
Federal Executive Council approved the 2016 Budget and gave Buhari the
go ahead to present same to a joint session of the National Assembly the
following day.
I remember vividly that on January 6,
2016 after the first FEC meeting of the year, the Minister of Finance,
Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, joined her Information and Culture counterpart,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to brief reporters about the outcome of the
meeting. A question was raised on how the government would ensure that
Ministries, Departments and Agencies do not pad the budget.
Adeosun was very categorical in her
response that such could never happen under the present dispensation.
“There can be no padding of budget when revenues are so thin and one of
the things that I think that the budgeting process is doing is pruning
down unnecessary expenditure. Let me also mention that we have set up
the efficiency unit that is going to look into how we spend money, look
at how we make savings because the money just isn’t there. I don’t think
this administration is part of that and secondly I think at this level,
I don’t think there can be anything like that,” she had said.
Not long after, the controversies
started coming up. It started with the claim that the budget presented
by the President had been withdrawn. Later, they said the document was
missing in the National Assembly. Again, another story went round that
there were more than one versions of the document before the lawmakers.
Then the issue of discrepancies in some figures also came up.
Expectedly, all these were denied by the authorities.
When the evidence became overwhelming,
the government admitted that there were discrepancies in the document
and was quick to attribute them to some government officials described
as “budget mafia.”
Just last Saturday again, Mohammed said
the budget was not padded. “A lot has been said about the budget. Let me
make it clear that nobody can ever accuse this government of padding
any budget. The total of all ministries put together has not exceeded
N6.08 trillion that was submitted. It is factually incorrect to say that
the budget was padded,” he said.
But the President disowned the minister
on Wednesday when he admitted that the budget was indeed padded. I like
Buhari for his frankness. He talks from his heart when he talks and he
is always blunt. You may not like his bluntness but this President will
say it as it is.
In admitting that the budget was padded,
Buhari said the alterations which he described as embarrassing and
disappointing made the document being debated in the National Assembly
completely different from what was prepared by the Ministry of Budget
and National Planning. He said since he had been holding public offices,
he had never heard about budget padding before this incident that
happened under his watch! What else can we say on this matter?
… and Osinbajo’s curious political meeting
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo hosted an
unusual meeting on Wednesday. That was the first time that kind of
meeting would be held under the present administration. The bigwigs in
the ruling APC attended.
They included a leader of the party,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; the party’s
National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun; President of the Senate,
Bukola Saraki; Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf
Lasun; Senate Leader, Ali Ndume; Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Babachir Lawal; and a former interim chairman of the party,
Chief Bisi Akande.
Others in attendance were the party’s
Deputy National Chairman, Segun Oni; Chief Tony Momoh; Minister of
Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; Imo State Deputy Governor, Eze
Madubere; and the Special Adviser to the Vice President on Political
Matters, Babafemi Ojudu.
There were many curious things about the
meeting. First, the meeting was not on the Vice President’s schedule
for the day, at least as of the time his schedule for the week that I
sighted was prepared. The second curious thing was that a meeting of
such magnitude could be held when Buhari, the leader of the party, was
outside the country. Another curious aspect of it was why the meeting
was not held at the national headquarters of the party.
It was also curious that the Office of
the Vice President attempted to stop journalists from reporting that the
meeting held. It was again curious that all participants were advised
not to grant press interviews after the session. In fact, Ojudu saw them
off one after the other to their cars to ensure that they did not break
“the oath of secrecy.”
When it became clear that they must
break their silence on the meeting, the Office of the Vice President
came up with a two-paragraph statement that was neither here nor there.
The statement claimed that the party leaders met on issues affecting the
party and the nation. Authors of the statement did not find it fit to
mention some of the issues, especially those that affect the nation.
The meeting left a lot of questions unanswered and I am sure the last has not been heard about it.
Punch
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