On his assessment of President Buhari’s performance 12
weeks after and comments that he is slow
Those who are in a hurry because of the word ‘change,’
are making a very grievous mistake. They are being
unfair to Buhari and the nation. Probably, they are
enemies of the country because for over 16 years we had
some people in power who did not know what to do other
than to plunge the nation into a very bad situation to the
level of bankruptcy, then they expect Buhari to become a
magician within 45 to 100 days, or even one year. I
think they should give Buhari the room to do what is
right and what is expected of him.
On Buhari’s anti-graft war and probes
For Buhari, it is no probe, no performance. If they
want Buhari to close his eyes to what happened in the
last 16 years and move on as if nothing happened,
definitely, Buhari will not be able to perform. So, he
will have to be methodical, dig deep into their atrocities
and bring many of them to book to serve as deterrence to
others.
Resilient manner
Anything short of that, no serious person will take
Buhari seriously. So far, the man is being methodical.
He has been going about it in a resilient manner and they
should give him chance to dig deep and bring to book the
nation’s wreckers.
On fears that ethnic differences in the country could lead
to war
We will not go to war. The war we can go to is war of
sanitation, which I believe and pray that God gives
Buhari the courage, wisdom and good health to prosecute
successfully because the thing is enormous.
If it will involve all of us, who at one time or the other
had been in government, bring us to book. It will be a
necessary sacrifice. Yes, you may not necessarily go to
jail or be killed but bring the loot back to the table so that
life will be more abundant for the people.
And if you see Buhari’s style, you will discover a true
change. Usually, when new government comes on board,
they don’t want to use the old cars used by the past
government. I see no reason our recurrent expenditure
should be more than the capital expenditure. A situation
where we spend over 70 percent on recurrent is very
bad. And what accounts for it is that many of the items
being recycled in the budget every year are expenditures
that ought not to be.
Recently, you heard the President saying that over
N400 billion was to be expended on just six armoured
cars. He said no to buying new cars and declared that he
would use old ones used by the former President.
As a member of the 7th Assembly, did you ever sit down
in a session to change the Senate Rule?
That is one of the areas that I will not want to dabble
into but posterity will never forgive us if we fail to
discuss it. I knew that the principal officers set up a
committee and there is standing rule by which, at a
particular point in time, they review. In fact there was
an attempt under Senator Ita Enang to review the
entire rule. I wouldn’t know whether it was concluded or
not, I must be frank with you.
On the leadership crisis in the National Assembly and the
issue of party supremacy
Yes, the party is supreme within the structure of the
party and its cocoon. By the time you move away from
the party and get into the larger society, which is the
entire nation, it is the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria that will be at play.
Party supremacy
The supremacy of the party is with respect to the
constitution of the party. The supremacy of the nation is
in respect of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. And the constitution of any party is meant for
the party. It has little or no bearing to that of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. So, the parties can have
their internal mechanism for whipping their members into
line but once they get to the larger society, the game
change is inevitable.
If there is any manoeuvre they want to make, they ought
to have done it in-house so that when they get to the
main arena, they will try to mouster enough support to
ensure that their views are respected by the others.
Sincerely speaking, when you look at what we have in
more advanced democracies, you find people voting
against their parties on some critical issues when the
national interest becomes more important. It has
happened. During the recent economic meltdown in
America, people voted across party lines.
But here in Nigeria, for 16 years, we were where the
PDP brought us because we allowed them to impose
what they called ‘family affair’ on all of us. Any time
atrocities were committed, you would hear Obasanjo
say, “Don’t worry, we would solve that. It is a family
affair.” A family you have one person removing the
chairman of the party at will. Not one, not two, not
three and yet it is a family affair. If it is a family
affair, there must be collective decision and everybody
must have equal opportunity to contribute toward that
decision.
So, we should stop being hypocritical. Rather than
weighing down the nation, whichever situation we find
ourselves, we should find a way of moving forward.
Happily enough, all the personalities involved, both the in
the Senate and the House of Representatives, are very
qualified to occupy those positions. I have my respect for
all of them.
If for whatever reason something has happened, rather
than wasting the time of the nation or creating
unnecessary heat for the system, they can device a means
of addressing it ensure that the nation doesn’t suffer.
Comments
Post a Comment