‘Executive alone can’t fix Nigeria’
From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Senator Babafemi Ojudu is Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Republic, Muhammadu Buhari. In this interview, he regretted that the Senate did not handle the issues of EFCC’s Ibrahim Mustapha Magu and Customs’ Hameed Ali with carefulness and in manner that would not tarnish the image of the legislative institution. He spoke more. Excerpts:
When you look at the manner the Senate handled the issue of EFFC’s Magu and Customs’ Hameed Ali, what came to your mind and what would you have done differently if you were still there?
I hate to criticize an institution in which I had served and where I still have many friends and colleagues. How I wish these issues were handled more carefully and in a manner in which the image of the institution would not be tarnished.
The reactions I have read both on social media and the traditional media to the conduct and handling of these matters have been unsavory and not complimentary to the image of this noble institution.
As Political Adviser to the President, how would respond to series of opposition and criticisms against the President? Is it that you did not provide the political way of handling them or the President does not take your advice?
We are in a democracy. The people, whether high or low, are entitled to their opinion about government and its activities. The people too, who are consuming these opinions and criticism, are enlightened and equipped enough with the antecedents of these individuals to know what much store to set by what they say.
I think it was Churchill who said you do not stop to throw stone at every dog that barks at you. If you do, you won’t get to your destination. Our concern is to work assiduously to solve the problems confronting Nigerians and we are beginning to get results.
So, let those who want to bark continue to bark until they lose their vocal chords.
It is said that Senate President Bukola Saraki has become so powerful that nobody in the current APC dispensation can check him. How true is that?
Saraki is the President of the Senate and he is a member and leader in my party, APC. If I have anything to say about how he conducts himself either as President of the Senate or leader in our party, I will walk up to him and say so. That is what decency and decorum demands when you belong to same party and holds positions of responsibility in a government run by your party.
By May Buhari administration will be two years in office. At mid-term, would you say the government is on good standing considering performance?
I can confidently say that when it comes to fighting corruption this government has done its bit. It is left for the other arms of government, the judiciary and the legislature to do theirs. In all ways Buhari has demonstrated his readiness and preparedness coupled with determination to fight corruption.
In doing so the executive cannot do it alone. You need the legislature to come up with the enabling laws, the security apparatus to carry out its investigation and the judiciary to carry out the trial expeditiously.
If Buhari begins to fight the war against corruption without carrying along these other arms of government we know what the noise will be. It is you people who will start shouting that he has come again, he is a dictator, he has jettisoned the rule of law.
The government has even gone further to whistleblower initiative in providing information on the activities of looters. I think within the limits of what we have now the President has acquitted himself in the fight against corruption.
As a political adviser to the President, why is Buhari not taking charge as leader of the party to save the party and government from collapse?
I can assure you the President is taking charge. What you have seen is a man, who as he once said, has transformed from the command and control ethos of the military to a consensus builder. In the military an order is instant and must be obeyed by all subordinates while in a democracy you have to employ persuasion and lobby.