By Fred Itua, Abuja
Senator Abdullahi Adamu is representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District in the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly.
In this interview, he indicted state governors for not doing enough to police their domains. He also lampooned them for frustrating restructuring. He spoke on other national issues: What do you make out of this current situation in the country?
It is the first time since I have come of age that somebody will just get up and say anything about the government and go scot free. A lot of people today sabotage this government by the day. Even people who are under oath are sabotaging this government today. So, what do you expect? Those who are willing and lurking by the corner to do bad have now got the leverage. They have now got people who are even in government who are not showing satisfaction, loyalty, patriotism. How do you expect somebody who has such tendencies to go along, just waiting for an opportunity? These are some of the issues that together have placed us where we are today. And nobody can single-handedly, no matter what power you give him, can get us out of this mess. It has to be all of us Nigerians to get us back on track. This is not to say that Buhari’s government is blameless. I am not suggesting that at all. What I am saying is that we are contributing more to creating problem for the government than what we are doing to solving the problem of the government. This government is our government. It was elected. No matter what we say. The National Assembly has PDP, APGA there and the YPP, APC are there, so everybody is there. There are people from every part of this country in the National Assembly and also in the executive. Take a look at the federal cabinet. Every state in this country has a minister. Some even have two. The idea is that, they are supposed to bring value and add to Buhari’s capacity. Where are they? What are they saying today? Is there anything in this country that says a minister cannot talk? If a governor can talk, a minister cannot talk? What are we are doing? Everybody just fold his hands and Buhari unfortunately for us, is not the talking type. If he were to open up, you will wish you are down the drain. But God has given him the capacity to absorb. It is part of the characteristics of a leader. Yes, there are certain things that have happened. Yes, also he was supposed to react and respond to, but we have people who are not patient. You saw a problem today and you want a solution today. I don’t want to sound like I am justifying what you may see as failure, but I am giving my own thoughts as to why I think we are where we are and why I think most Nigerians who have the responsibility are not living up to their billing. If I am in government, you expect something from me. I am also part of government. I cannot exonerate myself. Most of us that say we are educated, even if you went to a missionary school, there was a contribution of this government in educating you. So, there is a contribution the public have made in preparing you to be where you are today and as a patriotic citizen, one would expect some level of concern, and the concern would not be genuine if you become a critic. Even a critic can be positively critical, but where it is just a matter of picking whatever you want to pick and then throw it out without caring about the implication, it is not good. It is just bad.
Recently, there have been different groups with agitations here and there. The Southern Governors met in Asaba. They called it the Asaba Accord. In that accord, they called for many things, including the ban on open grazing, call for structuring. Why do you think these agitations are popping up now?
They are sounding like a broken record. You know what a broken record does? It cracks. I expected them to be more educated people with responsibility of governance. Each of those governors is under an oath for loyalty, for preservation of the sovereignty of this country. That means everyone of them is duty bound to stay away from any act or words that have the tendency of being perceived as being separatists. I was a governor for eight years. I know what the Governors’ Forum is. I headed it for five years of my right years. Before that, I was chairman of Northern Governors’ Forum. So, the secretariat you see and the bureaucracy I set them up during my time. Those that took over from us we began to have a situation. This is because we are in a democracy and people will come from a zone and bring a shopping list to the president. There are people in the cabinet and the National Economic Council, National Council of States. They will get themselves out and come and talk for their states or their zone only. They hold meetings almost every year or twice. They have a meeting of all stakeholders, ranging from private citizens, captains of industry, who have made a mark, who are respected in some parts of the country. They hold meetings publicly and come out with a communique. Among them, are people who have served this government and they will make pronouncement against what the government is doing. Before the Asaba Accord, there was a meeting of all the state governors. About 36 of them were there. Less than a week of that meeting, some people came out and claimed Southern Governors Forum. There is nothing wrong with regional bodies. But these governors know the constitution and they know that every Nigerian has the right of movement and association. A right to pursue legitimate goals. These governors are saying no cattle or open grazing. What is the alternative? Have they provided any? If Northern governors come together and take a position, what will happen? What right have you to tell Nigerians not to move freely? If northern groups say no southern business in the area, how will that end up? There are killings of northerners going on in the South. If the North decides to retaliate, we will call it geniocde. What is happening to us? We only know about problems, but not solutions. People are openly calling for a break up of the country.
People have attributed some of the agitations in the country to the leadership style of President Muhammadu Buhari. Do you agree?It is too wide a statement. When you’re talking of somebody’s leadership qualities, you don’t just pass a judgment. We have the misfortune of combining situation with Boko Haram and other insecurity challenges. It is unfortunate. We must get one fact very clear. This thing didn’t start with Buhari. Yes, there are a few cases and increase in insecurity. I cannot deny that. That will be unfair. But the major problem is the failure of state administrations to take up the issue of security seriously. Just like Buhari, every governor has taken an oath to protect the lives and property of the citizens. They get money from the Federation Account and also generate revenues from their states. These are the facts. We agree that the central government needs to handle the issue, but states have to play complementary roles in tackling the issues too. Go and take an inventory of the number of states paying salaries today. This is not just about Buhari. States are not paying salaries even with the Paris Club refunds and others they’ve gotten. If you’ve small problems from the various states, overtime, they aggregate and they become big problems. Suddenly, they refer to the problems as Buhari’s problems. Every state governor has a responsibility to provide for their people. Nobody said Buhari was an angel. Nobody also said because Buhari is now president, every state governor should abandon his responsibility.
Why are these agitations on the rise?
Some of these agitations are induced. Few years ago, were they talking about break up of the country? Why now? Political leaders are in support of what their people are doing. They cannot speak up and challenge them. They just lament. They want the president to handle it. They are talking about restructuring. What is new there? When you and I know that we passed a law in the National Assembly. We tried to free state assemblies, judiciary too. Is Buhari responsible for that? Local governments were created by law. We have tried to free them. Governors are opposed to it. Is Buhari responsible too? How long have we had this aberration? They operate a joint account with local governments. But do these funds go to them directly? I was a governor. Local givenments used to get their funds directly. We created some development areas. We followed the law. Not a dime was taken. Now, local governments can’t execute projects. They don’t see any money. Local governments don’t even get their money. These issues are affecting our democracy. We want to give Buhari a bad name.
Efforts were made by the National Assembly to free up the Local government and assemblies. Even the state judiciary as part of moves to restrcutire…
That was part of restructuring. What is even this restructuring? Those saying they want us to take a look at the Exclusive Legislative List. We don’t have to fight over restructuring. We have two chambers that can handle that. They were elected. This is our job. If you’re dissatisfied with the issues in Nigeria, you can bring these issues to the National Assembly. They don’t want that. They want to blame the president. There is nowhere the president can alter the constitution. He can”t even give an order for that to be done. And these agitators are educated people. Take the issues to us and Buhari will assent to it. We keep saying that Nigerians didn’t write the constitution. Was it Buhari that wrote it? Why is everybody calling Buhari? It’s sickening. There is a limit. Not that we can’t talk. We have the capacity to do more. But what we won’t take likely is for any part of this country to think that they have a louder voice. That is not true. When the North starts talking, maybe there will be sense. If we want this country to stay on, we will. I speak as a Nigerian of northern extraction. I will defend that as long as I live. Those who want to leave can go. We will continue to exist as one Nigeria. Let’s see where they will go. Seperatists are taking laws into their hands and we are tolerating them. They shout about human rights. We need to stop. It won’t do us any good. No country has survived two civil wars. Army generals have told me that. We must watch out and guide against another war. We should be careful about what we say. These agitators can go. But we will remain.