In the wake of renewed call for the restructuring of Nigeria by some interest groups, there are some others who think the idea has been overtaken by events. One of such stakeholders who do not see any reason to restructure the country as it is today is Arch. Waziri Bulama. In this interview with our Correspondent Kelechi Opara, the former National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) spoke on this and other burning national issues including an x-ray of the Tinubu administration one year after. Excerpts:
Recently, the administration of President Bola Tinubu clocked one year since it was inaugurated, how would you rate the government with reference to where we are and where we were before its advent?
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 believe 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.
Ok, if you are to advice 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 will expect our political leadership across the country to do is to look at the anxiety, the fear that is prevailing 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. For instance, this is rainy season, the government should massively engage in agriculture. They should encourage everybody to 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 10sqm you have in your backyard, plant maize, yam or even cassava. If you don’t 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 a rich man, plant something even tomatoes or cucumber, this will make us self reliant.
Recently, some members of the House of Representatives were trying to sponsor a bill to create additional state 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 matured enough and there are just there controlled instead of ebbing autonomous organizations that will recruit leadership and also generate ideas for governing the country.
But this argument of rotation has its problems because if you say for instance it is the turn of 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 the space to give advantage to people who were either they were 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 Gen. Buhari who was a former head of state, a Muslim, a northerner, he has to cooperate with the south west after failing three times.
You said something here that the way we are, that nobody is marginalized. If a region like 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 and 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, 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 is the justice in this?
Some people believe that Abuja has become so attractive, that the powers of Abuja should be reduced to end most of these contestations. That every zone should pay tax to the federal government for the running of the military, foreign affairs and federal police and other sundry agencies, so that nobody cares how many states of local governments you create in your region, what is your view about that?
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, problem that concerns how we will eat, how do we take care of our medical bills and I believe that if we do two things, we will overcome most of these agitations will reduce. 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.
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 there 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. 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, 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 dollars was given to an Anambra man. That project if you now compute it today is about N5tr Naira, he gave it to one Igboman. Nobody in the whole country even in his home state Katsina, nobody got any N50 billion contract. 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 can enter now, yet he carried the biggest contract and gave it to an Igboman. 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….
….No Sir, let me get this thing clearly, in Nigeria there are six regions and the one that has the least number of states is asking that it should be at par with the others , is that a call for war and anarchy?
What I am saying is that agitation is good, let it carry on. The agitation can also be formal and informal, it can be official or unofficial and it can be violent or peaceful. What I am saying is that the political class, the leadership is wrong to have allowed these agitations to continue but they should engage them and explain to them and where necessary, we can adjust the constitution to accommodate ideas, really there is nothing wrong about that. I am trying to disprove the fact that there is so much political alienation or marginalization in the country to warrant this kind of bitterness in the country, I think it is futile.
