Senator Abdullahi Adamu represents Nasarawa West Senatorial District. In this interview with OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, the APC lawmaker, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and two-time governor of Nasarawa State speaks on restructuring, diversification of the economy among other national issues. Excerpts:
The current economic recession in the country has been linked to some policies of the present administration, do you agree with this?
The mere statement that the new administration at inception made it known that it would commit itself or made a policy statement that it would fight corruption and go after corrupt people in a bid to stamp out corruption in our socio-political life cannot be linked to recession. It was absolutely clear when the administration came in that there had been mismanagement of our resources, especially the government funds. This is not hidden; everybody witnessed how money was spent and lifted from government treasury without budgetary provision and spent on extraneous activities especially in the name of promoting government.
However, the issue of recession is essentially due to the price of oil going down to as low as below $20 when this government came into office and this is critical, but it is largely due to global economic recession. Hopefully, by the end of this quarter the country would be out of the present predicament.
Some people are clamouring for the sale of some nations assets in order to cushion the effects of the recession but the Senate has vehemently opposed it. What is your own opinion about this?
I think it would be a great disservice to this country and if we sell our national assets, it means we have not learnt from history and history will not forgive us. This is not the first time that the national assets were sold. A good example is Ajaokuta Steel Company. It had problems but some people believed that the solution to it was to sell and after selling what happened? The buyers later removed some parts of the machines and took it to their own countries and made use of it. Also the Mercedes Company in Enugu, Steryer in Gombe, Fiat Truck Manufacturing in Kano, Volkswagen in Lagos all were sold. You will agree with me that nothing happened after. Now because of recession you want to sell some of our best companies. Where does that take us and what guarantee do you have? The reason behind the sales is to get immediate money but if you sell everybody knows the status of our Naira presently against the Dollar.
However, during the debate at the Senate, l made my point very clear: selling national assets would create more disparity between the citizens and those who have the money. There is not going to be an easy way out. Hard times require hard decisions. l believe this government is serious. Let the country borrow money, this country is credit worthy.
One other way out is to renegotiate our debts. It does not make sense to sell what you have to get what you don’t have.
As Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, how would diversification of the economy help us out of recession?
One big point we keep missing anytime we are confronted with this type of question is that the parliament or the National Assembly is responsible for initiating programme that would boost agriculture and improve the economy. This is not correct. The Legislature is to make law which can be through private member bill or executive bill which can direct the Executive to do certain things. Another function of the National Assembly is the approval of the budget and to see to the performance of such through oversight functions. This is to ascertain that funds allocated to projects are actually spent judiciously. The Executive comes to us with a proposal and it is the duty of the Legislature to look at it and approve or reject completely. However we need to look into such proposal and how it would help the country.
Do you agree with the call for restructuring?
I am not against restructuring per se but l am against empty talk. You are talking Nigeria agreed, but what do you want to restructure? What to you is not working that you want to restructure? Then you need to be specific. After that we can see to it and look into what you are proposing but you cannot just throw an empty shell and say restructuring, just to score cheap political point. Maybe, there are some things somewhere that are of concern to some people and you find yourself in certain position to cheaply get into their minds and gain political identification and support and just talk of restructuring, such does not make sense. You just need to be specific. We are a Federation. If you think the federal system as we have it today in terms of geopolitical area, in terms of governance at federal or states or the council areas, say you have any quarrel against any of these, say it and make suggestion so that we can talk. Be specific about what is wrong with what we have today. Put your proposal on the table so that we can talk. If you are talking of restructuring of the thirty-six states we would know what you are talking about. Be specific! Anybody can just go to the market place and talk about restructuring Nigeria, such does not mean anything.
The fact of the matter is that we have cheapened the issue of Independence. Some of the political states we have at present are not economically viable because at this point in time the diversification of economic activities that can improve the economy of the country is not exploited fully. As a result of that they don’t have the kind of money to provide the roads and other infrastructure. The fact also remains that I grew up and witnessed the growth of the First Republic. I was already working before the First Republic and from what l have seen and read and what l have discussed with people there was healthy competition among the regions.
First it was a Protectorates, Southern and Northern, and later there was the Northern Regions, Eastern Regions and Western Regions. By 1963, the Mid-Western Regions came up. There were competitions but they were developing at their own pace and got a share from the Central government treasury; the resources were in a central pool. The resources then were shared according to some formula. Regions then were developing their own budget to suit their own purposes and it worked.
Today the competition we have was not like the one we had before when we were operating the regions. However we missed it at a point that the military came into our polity. The military intervention killed both political and economic growth in the country. The military had so much discredited the politicians; essentially they were not patient enough. Besides they had so much dismembered the political group. The military toppled the civilian because of corruption but one found out that they were more corrupt than the civilian.
The issue of Fulani herdsmen has generated a lot of controversy in the country. With the present scenario, what do you think is the way out?
I think from the word ‘go’, when you say Fulani, there is element of prejudice already because l don’t believe every herdsman in the country is a Fulani man. It is a fact that a Fulani man lives a nomadic life, like grazing among others. I want to say very categorically that l do know people who are not Fulani and are into cattle rearing. If you go to Igboland they rear cattle, Yoruba in the South West very many of them rear cattle. I don’t want people to attach violence to herdsmen and grazing. I think people have gone extra mile to over politicise the issue of grazing. This issue of herdsmen came into public glare immediately after the 2015 election in order to discredit the Federal Government. It was a campaign of hate to say that President Buhari is not competent. But was it not Buhari who gave the security the directive to pursue anybody anywhere involved in violence in the name of grazing? I don’t support anybody who carry illegal arms, be you Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba. Let us say the reality: inter-communal clashes are not peculiar to Fulani alone. I was a governor; clashes had taken place in my state and other states. The inter-ethnic clashes should not be restricted to herdsmen.
However, during the debate at the Senate, l made my point very clear: selling national assets would create more disparity between the citizens and those who have the money. There is not going to be an easy way out. Hard times require hard decisions. l believe this government is serious. Let the country borrow money, this country is credit worthy.
One other way out is to renegotiate our debts. It does not make sense to sell what you have to get what you don’t have.
As Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, how would diversification of the economy help us out of recession?
One big point we keep missing anytime we are confronted with this type of question is that the parliament or the National Assembly is responsible for initiating programme that would boost agriculture and improve the economy. This is not correct. The Legislature is to make law which can be through private member bill or executive bill which can direct the Executive to do certain things. Another function of the National Assembly is the approval of the budget and to see to the performance of such through oversight functions. This is to ascertain that funds allocated to projects are actually spent judiciously. The Executive comes to us with a proposal and it is the duty of the Legislature to look at it and approve or reject completely. However we need to look into such proposal and how it would help the country.
Do you agree with the call for restructuring?
I am not against restructuring per se but l am against empty talk. You are talking Nigeria agreed, but what do you want to restructure? What to you is not working that you want to restructure? Then you need to be specific. After that we can see to it and look into what you are proposing but you cannot just throw an empty shell and say restructuring, just to score cheap political point. Maybe, there are some things somewhere that are of concern to some people and you find yourself in certain position to cheaply get into their minds and gain political identification and support and just talk of restructuring, such does not make sense. You just need to be specific. We are a Federation. If you think the federal system as we have it today in terms of geopolitical area, in terms of governance at federal or states or the council areas, say you have any quarrel against any of these, say it and make suggestion so that we can talk. Be specific about what is wrong with what we have today. Put your proposal on the table so that we can talk. If you are talking of restructuring of the thirty-six states we would know what you are talking about. Be specific! Anybody can just go to the market place and talk about restructuring Nigeria, such does not mean anything.
The fact of the matter is that we have cheapened the issue of Independence. Some of the political states we have at present are not economically viable because at this point in time the diversification of economic activities that can improve the economy of the country is not exploited fully. As a result of that they don’t have the kind of money to provide the roads and other infrastructure. The fact also remains that I grew up and witnessed the growth of the First Republic. I was already working before the First Republic and from what l have seen and read and what l have discussed with people there was healthy competition among the regions.
First it was a Protectorates, Southern and Northern, and later there was the Northern Regions, Eastern Regions and Western Regions. By 1963, the Mid-Western Regions came up. There were competitions but they were developing at their own pace and got a share from the Central government treasury; the resources were in a central pool. The resources then were shared according to some formula. Regions then were developing their own budget to suit their own purposes and it worked.
Today the competition we have was not like the one we had before when we were operating the regions. However we missed it at a point that the military came into our polity. The military intervention killed both political and economic growth in the country. The military had so much discredited the politicians; essentially they were not patient enough. Besides they had so much dismembered the political group. The military toppled the civilian because of corruption but one found out that they were more corrupt than the civilian.
The issue of Fulani herdsmen has generated a lot of controversy in the country. With the present scenario, what do you think is the way out?
I think from the word ‘go’, when you say Fulani, there is element of prejudice already because l don’t believe every herdsman in the country is a Fulani man. It is a fact that a Fulani man lives a nomadic life, like grazing among others. I want to say very categorically that l do know people who are not Fulani and are into cattle rearing. If you go to Igboland they rear cattle, Yoruba in the South West very many of them rear cattle. I don’t want people to attach violence to herdsmen and grazing. I think people have gone extra mile to over politicise the issue of grazing. This issue of herdsmen came into public glare immediately after the 2015 election in order to discredit the Federal Government. It was a campaign of hate to say that President Buhari is not competent. But was it not Buhari who gave the security the directive to pursue anybody anywhere involved in violence in the name of grazing? I don’t support anybody who carry illegal arms, be you Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba. Let us say the reality: inter-communal clashes are not peculiar to Fulani alone. I was a governor; clashes had taken place in my state and other states. The inter-ethnic clashes should not be restricted to herdsmen.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE
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