Waziri Bulama is a former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress. In this interview with BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, the former APC scribe speaks on why Nigeria should not be restructured and other burning national issues. Excerpts:
The administration of President Bola Tinubu just clocked one year in office. How would you rate the government?
We have been able to sustain a democratic rule for 25 years. The most important thing is that the country is being run by people elected by the Nigerian people; we now have the right to vote and also exercise our freedom of speech. We now have the right to freely express ourselves as citizens.
One thing is that the democratic system has been evolving over the years, even as we have our challenges with some desperate politicians engaging thugs and violence to win elections.
There are also insufficient electoral laws that guide the management of elections and the way the judiciary reacts to these issues are part of the talking point.
Now beyond all these, what really concerns the ordinary man out there is the cost of living compared to what it used to be in the past few years. Today Nigerians have less money in their pocket and this cannot buy anything for them, how do we get out of this?
Yes, there is no doubt that there are developmental and economic challenges, the cost of living and everything associated with it has gone very high in the country. Families are struggling to get by, pay school fees and afford everything that is associated with living. Again the government has to contend with banditry and insecurity across the country, these are all governance challenges.
As much as I know that the government has been trying to fix all these challenges, I still believe that there is room for improvement. Just as we have succeeded in having governments by the peoples’ consent, we should also do more to address the spate of insecurity across the country.
“At the moment, most of the projects and programmes being implemented are not geared towards the prosperity and good life that Nigerians are expecting”
If you are to advise the government, what do you think should be done in the immediate and near future to reduce the rate of inflation which is already spiraling?
What I expect our political leadership across the country to do is to look at the anxiety, the fear that is prevailing in the country, the inflation caused by the high cost of living, poverty and insecurity ravaging the country. If we must face reality, we must fix security and confront poverty, we must take some radical measures; intensively engage professionals and economists so that we embark on policies that will bring prosperity to the county.
At the moment, most of the projects and programmes being implemented are not geared towards the prosperity and good life that Nigerians are expecting. There must be free communication between the citizens and leaders, but most policies are not being communicated to the people. I believe that there are resources in the country that can guarantee everybody a good life but these resources are being cornered by few leaders to the exclusion of the majority.
Most of the policies being implemented both at the national and state levels are not being targeted at the people. So this communication gap between the government and the people must be quickly closed; the point is that we should radically take another look at our budget and make quick decisions because the situation we are in at the moment is very dangerous because people don’t have money to solve their day to day problems.
This type of frustration with hunger in the land requires an urgent attention. Most people don’t have jobs, so the rescue they need now is to give them palliatives for about the next six to seven months while the government plans to engage the people in a lot of productivity.
For instance, this is the rainy season, the government should massively engage in agriculture. They should encourage everybody both in the urban and rural areas to plant one crop or the other. Every space in Nigeria should be used to plant something. Even if it is a 10 square meter you have in your backyard, plant maize, yam or even cassava. If you have enough space, buy chicken and grow, they will give you eggs or you grow broilers, we all must do something to end this food inflation in the country.
Let us stop watching television and sitting under the trees lamenting, even if you are a rich man, plant something, even tomatoes or cucumbers, this will make us self-reliant.
I want the government to review most of the capital projects that have no real value for the economy and channel such funds to activities that have value for money to ensure that with the little capital we have, every capital investment should be able to enhance productive activity of the country.
Also, talking about the local government autonomy, to address the emergency we have now, the governors should cooperate with the president and the government to release all the resources belonging to the local governments to them. We will also insist that any allocation that goes to them should be spent on production, not in building infrastructure, not in building classrooms or any of such, no, let it go to agriculture.
In the South, let’s plant cassava, yam and rice. Also in the North, let us use every available space to plant grains, vegetables, fruits and raise livestock all over the country, let the money go into that kind of productive activity because we are facing an emergency. The situation is really precarious for the citizenry. This will close the gap between the government and the people and by extension enhance political stability. You see, at the moment people are really angry and parasitic and they are questioning the very basic foundation of the Nigeria nation. They are asking whether these leaders are even sensitive, these are fundamental discussions.
Some people have started calling for the return of the military…
That is exactly what we are talking about. It is out of desperation and frustration and the fact that the leaders are not addressing the concern of ordinary people, so we need to apply a break to what we are doing at the moment and focus more on ameliorating their plights by generating policies that will impact on the lives of the citizens.
These policies should be in two tracks; number one is that people need to be assisted to eat, to buy drugs and other things. There are many Nigerians who are asthmatic, people who have children to cater for; elderly people and these people need support to get on.
Then the second issue is that we have to seriously engage in productive activities. We should also fast track the issue of transportation; whether it is conversion to gas immediately and if that is slow, we have to subsidize the transport sector so that people can easily move from one point to the other. We need to do what we must do to ease the sufferings of the common man and that is why I earlier talked about farming, we can go anywhere with the aid of technology whether in the urban or rural areas, whether on the pavements, we can use plastics to grow things everywhere.
The third is the case of electricity; the rate at which we are providing it is very slow. Recently, the minister of Power said we are generating about 5,000 megawatts and that by the end of this year, they may reach 6,000, this means that the rate at which we are moving is very slow.
The President promised that in his first term he will provide about 15,000 megawatts; even so, knowing the kind of technology that is available on this planet, we should engage any country or any company anywhere so that in the next six months, we can double or even triple the availability of power in the country.
With power people can do many businesses and many people will be self-employed and many companies will be operational, that sector is very important, so massive engagement in power, massive interest in agriculture and immediate palliatives, if we do these three things, in a short time the tension will be doused.
How do we change the prevailing situations in the country?
You know my own understanding of the major steps taken by President Tinubu were mainly major economic measures carried out to prevent the ship of state from grinding to a halt, from preventing the economy from a total collapse. So, I trust in the determination of the President and his government in addressing not just the economic problems in the country but the very difficult inflationary impact the reform measures have generated.
I have confidence in the determination of the President because the way he talks with conviction, with passion and with his background as someone who was a governor and senator means that he succeeded in bringing back law and order in Lagos, the biggest state in Nigeria.
I believe that Tinubu will lead the country to economic development and stability. The reforms measures have made life more difficult, but what I am saying is that the government should not only communicate more to the citizens, but to also directly give relief to people to feed, transport themselves and send their children to school and also mobilize all Nigerians to put their hands in agriculture, everybody no matter your profession.
Recently, some members of the House of Representatives were trying to sponsor a bill to create additional states for the South East, another one was to have a six- year single term for the executive and having two vice presidents one from North and the other from South. What is your view about that arrangement?
Well, my take is that the issue of political alienation that some people are feeling in the country can only be addressed by discussions like the one being done by the House of Representatives. Again there are other fallouts of the political exclusion like the violence agitations in the South East, South West and parts of the North East; agitation can be formal or informal, it can be violent or civil, but I believe that if the democratic system we are operating now can be allowed to work up to the grassroots, it can take care of most of these agitations that people are complaining about.
Some of these agitations are elitist desire for political space or inclusion, some of the agitations too can also be addressed if our political parties are working effectively; the issues of rotation and the structure can be reasonably addressed by the political parties.
But unfortunately, the political parties at the moment are not developed enough, they are not mature enough and they are just there controlled instead of ebbing autonomous organizations that will recruit leadership and also generate ideas for governing the country. Today they are being controlled by those with political positions, then it used to be the godfathers but now even as the idea of godfather has become decadent, the political parties are not free. If they are allowed to progress and mature, all these problems of who should be what and where the person should come from, all these issues would be addressed by political parties.
But this argument of rotation has its problems because if you say for instance it is the turn of the North West; this means that someone from there will be president even if he was not the best at that time because it is the turn of his zone. At the moment, our concern is not the political exclusion of any zone or region, our concern is good governance and it doesn’t mean that the president has to come from your zone to give you good governance, that is what the Nigerian experience has shown.
But given where we are today, I believe that there is no part of this country that you cannot find quality men and women that can hold any office in the country, so if the system we are running today is breeding mistrust and distrust, why not open the space so that who feel marginalized would be accommodated?
This is not opening the space, this is a kind of framing of the space to give advantage to people who were either prepared or unprepared because they must have to produce the president. Look, anybody who wants to rule this country should work for it. The provision of our constitution at the moment has not conferred any advantage to any region over the other. The provision of the constitution on the pathway to become president has made every part of the country a minority. So any person that wants to be a president has to be on the platform of a national party that is not tribal, regional or religious and you must have spread and make 25% of voters in 24 states, that kind of reduces the propensity for any religious demagogue or tribal warlord to become the president of Nigeria. Even a very popular person like General Buhari who was a former head of state, a Muslim, a northerner, he has to cooperate with the South West after failing three times.
Tinubu also became president because of APC, Obasanjo also became president because of PDP, so nobody should exploit all these petty sentiments that the position of president should be zoned to any region. This can also be easily addressed in the political parties.
You said that the way we are is that nobody is marginalized. If a region like the North West has seven states and the South East has five while others have six each, in the National Assembly, the region with the highest number of states already has an advantage?
Emm…., the arrangement of the formation of states and the granting of autonomy, the creation of states, all these things have been discussed and debated and adopted by the constitution. There were conferences and decisions at various levels before we arrived at these, so it is good for us to continue to accommodate agitations and to also continue to engage and explain how these things came into place, yes, no system is perfect but if we have any agitation or observation, we have to discuss and address it.
Yes, you compare the South East, let’s say, to the North West, the North West has the biggest population in this country, with the biggest expanse of land, and the biggest population in this country. In fact if you consider the conditions that gave the South East five states and local governments, if you apply it to the North West, they will have more states and more local governments. Imagine Kano State with all its landmass and population for instance, they have 44 local governments and their population is about 20 million, now Bayelsa State has a population of less than three million and all their local governments is nine, yet they have three senators in the National Assembly just as Kano, where’s the justice in this? Where is the justice in this? In any case a state like Kano should have three states like Bayelsa instead of one state with only three senators while a small state like Bayelsa also has three senators.
“I believe that Tinubu will lead the country to economic development and stability”
What is your view about true federalism?
This is a fruitless and useless conversation and I don’t subscribe to it. The point is that this type of argument will not solve our problems at the moment. We are facing an existential problem, a problem that concerns how we will eat, how we take care of our medical bills and I believe that if we do two things, we will overcome most of these agitations. Number one, all of us agree that we want Nigeria to remain as a country; the biggest black nation on earth, the biggest country in Africa and with all the prospects for growth and development. Number two is that we want to see this country develop a framework where there is fairness and justice, where there is respect and regard for every citizen, where there is equity and equity, where there is respect for everybody, we need that. The third is that we need a country where there is an enabling environment for survival and growth, a country where you can freely travel and live freely anywhere, set up businesses, build your house and settle without any impediment. A place where you can strive, you are loved and you love the country, this is the aspiration of all Nigerians.
Again, this democratic system that we have adopted and practiced for 25 years now has shown the prospects of achieving these aspirations, already we have done 25 years, let us work to improve this democracy to attain the ultimate goal or the kind of condition that we want that will enable us grow faster in peace and achieve prosperity and happiness for all. I believe that instead of the mainstream calling for the restructuring of the country or abandoning the democratic system, I believe we should not abandon what we have achieved so far to begin afresh because we are still going to face the same problems of underdevelopment, problem of managing diversity and problem of change. The point is right now, in all the states and zones, this complain we make about the centre is equally there because we also have diversity in our states and zones, so how do you manage our different cultures, different regions aspirations and interests, even in a local government we have diversities, in the states, in the zones and in Nigeria but we are only looking at the diversity in the national, why do we abandon those other diversities and focus only on the federal? Now the people of the South East you are talking about; talking about marginalization, they own 50% of properties in Lagos, they own over 70% of Abuja, is it their original land? Is it their ancestral land? They have businesses to about 50% of the economy in all the states in Nigeria, they sell motor spare parts, they sell pharmaceuticals, they build schools, build hospitals, they freely go everywhere and bring food to the south. We are living as a country with our strengths and weaknesses . Let’s consolidate on that, but now when you say okay you must give prominence like emirs to your own place and because of that you create agitations and bad blood everywhere, why? This is something that is futile and completely needless, for instance this Buhari that the south east never supported gave the biggest, the crown, the cream and the king of the achievement of Buhari was invested in Anambra State.
What was that investment?
The second Niger Bridge was the biggest achievement of Buhari throughout his eight years in office, he built and completed it.
He never did that anywhere in the north or in the South West that gave him the highest number of votes, the biggest single project that Buhari awarded was this AKK Gas project running from Ajaokuta, Kaduna and Kano, that contract costing $2.8 billion was given to Emeka Okwuosa, an Anambra man. That project if you now compute it today is about N5 trillion, he gave it to one Igbo man. Nobody in the whole country even in his home State Katsina, nobody got any N50 billion contracts. Look at what is happening in Katsina State now, because of hunger and frustration, they are becoming criminals. There are about 10 local governments you cannot enter now, yet he carried the biggest contract and gave it to an Igbo man.
These people are talking about political exclusion and alienation, every day they are abusing Nigeria and everybody, the elite are wrong in their thinking; they shouldn’t lead this country into war and anarchy. Ojukwu did that before.