…Says no price too high for peace in Niger Delta
By Iheanacho Nwosu,Abuja
THE 8th National Assembly will today mark its first anniversary. In this interview, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki who also marks his one year in office x-rayed the journey so far. He submitted that some developments at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) have confirmed his earlier position that his ongoing trial is political. Saraki also spoke on the situation in the Niger Delta counseling the Federal Government that no price is too high in ensuring that peace is brokered in the region. Excerpts:
How would you describe your experience in the last one year?
I think at different times and moments, all the words you used can fit in one way or the other. Most importantly, it is that I give a lot of thanks to our creator, mighty God for giving one the opportunity. Whatever you say, it is an honour, an opportunity. It is not bestowed on many.
To have been able to achieve that, one is honoured. Based on that, everyday one is grateful for that opportunity. It reminds me when I was governor in Kwara state, I used to say that everyday. What was driving me was that I was counting the days when the job would end.
The day it ends, I want to be able to say that I did this and that. I don’t want to end the job and say hey, I wished I had done this and that.
I am one that is focused on what needs to be done. I believe this is a new challenge.
This is so because in the beginning, the change in bringing about this government, one played a very
key role. At the beginning, a lot of people used to tell me, why are you wasting your time? Have you ever heard of anybody defeating a sitting government?
They would advise me not to waste my time. They would say, you can’t win, you are just going
to endanger yourself, you are going nowhere. Even a lot of
our friends in the media, out of respect, they would listen
to me. But they would say this Oga, you are so optimistic.
You will defeat a sitting government, with what?
But we achieved that with the commitment of Nigerians. I feel one is carrying on his shoulder a lot of responsibility. I know what people sacrificed in making this happen. I believe that motivates one to see that we make a difference. Everyday, that is what drives me.
I wouldn’t say I underestimated what is happening, I expected the challenges when you are trying to make a change. This is more on the legislative angle. That is where the change is because Nigerians have
been used to the executive and judiciary.
The youngest arm of the three arms is the legislature. The one that people don’t understand the most is the legislature. The one people cannot see how it connects to their daily life is the legislature. An average man or woman in Nigeria knows how the executive affects his or her life. When a minister makes an announcement that we have now raised the duty on car importation nor the exchange rate has gone up to this and that, they know what that means. It is so for the judiciary. They know that this judge can rule for or against if they have a case. They do not understand what the lawmakers are doing. That makes our work more challenging.
I am very hopeful that by the time we are done, we will be able to change this perception.
Is this kind of senate you had in mind when you vied for the senate presidency? Can this kind of senate propel Nigeria to the destination the people are aspiring?
I very much believe so. I was in the 7th Senate for four years, I followed the activities of the National Assembly.
I believe that where we are now, the group of senators we have are focused, patriotic and they are committed to solving Nigeria’s problems.
They are patriotic because this is the first time we have a senate that is very divided, the majority is very slim. You can’t really compare it to the previous senate. You have a senate with this slim majority, everyday should be chaotic, the senators should be up in arms. But in the last one year, anytime we discussed national issues, issues that have to do with the economy, senators have jettisoned their political leanings and have presented themselves as senators of the federal republic of Nigeria. Right from the
time we screened ministers, looked at the budget, they acted like senators of federal republic of Nigeria and not that of APC or PDP.
The senators have shown a lot of maturity, patriotism and support. Nobody would even know that there is a slim majority. Without that support, that unity, majority of the issues we want to discuss especially those that border on reforms of this country cannot take place. They think of Nigeria first. I am happy and honoured by the support they have given me. I am confident that as we move ahead, we would build on our achievements. We would ensure that major issues that ordinarily should be discussed on party
lines because of their controversial nature are looked at from nationalistic point of view.
We have been doing that. Look at the supplementary budget, under a normal circumstance, it would not
have passed if the senators wanted to go on party lines but they rose beyond that; they saw themselves first as senators of the federal republic of Nigeria.
If you see the work we have done in the last one year despite a lot of distraction, it shows that it is a senate that has the roadmap. We are not just coming to the senate to jump from one issue to another. We are focusing largely on the economy, how we can address things that would make Nigeria a better place, create jobs for our people, improve the economy and make the country investmentfriendly.
Looking at things we have tackled, you can see a clear path that we have created. This is different from what was in place before. Some of the issues that people were not ready to touch in the past, we have touched them. We are opening up the senate to public participation. We are not
afraid that anybody would come with criticism of our activities. Of course, people should express their own mind.
We told ourselves, look, let’s open it up, we are ready to take whatever that comes with it if it will help make the country better. I don’t think the senate has ever had this kind of openness that is in place now. To achieve this, you cannot do it alone as senate president; it is because the senators wanted it and believe in that agenda.
If I don’t have the type of senators we have now to work with, some of the things we are doing would not have been possible.
Nigerians are facing hard times especially on the economic front. In what way or ways through your legislative agenda is the senate helping to steer the country in the direction out of the current situation?
Even before it became clear like this, the issue of the economy has always been on our agenda. You have to understand that 90 percent of our revenues come from oil. We are all aware that the price of oil has plummeted since the last one year. It came from $100 down to even $28, $30. We are operating a mono product economy.
And there is high level of unemployment. So, it is clear for us that, in order to address some of these issues, we must do the following. First, we cannot continue to depend on oil. We must diversify. We must diversify to agriculture and solid mineral.
But we all have to understand that these sectors are not such that you can go there on a Monday and by Tuesday,Wednesday, you begin to see results. They need five to ten years
to give you what you want. What we must bring about in these sectors
are reforms. It is not even policies.
People who want to invest in these sectors are skeptical of somersault in polices. What people are looking out for is the kind of laws the country has that support the sectors.
For instance, if you talk about agriculture diversification and you don’t have any law that is clear or shows that there is a move to promote either commercial agriculture or credit to farmers, nobody is going to do any business. People would not want to invest in those sectors.
So, you begin to see that we are addressing some of these areas. In the agricultural sector, we are doing it.
On the economy, one of the bills before us which I am hopeful that the two chambers will soon pass, is
our public procurement law.
It is a pity that it is not well reported. We saw earlier on that we must do something to stimulate the economy.
One of the things we must know is that when you are going through this kind of downturn or recession, you must think outside the box.
We told ourselves that the country spends in its budget a lot of money, close to N2trn in capital purchases, outside salary etc. Most of the money is used to purchase goods outside the country; so that two trillion is to help other countries’ economy. What stops government from saying,
look, I have my two trillion naira, if I don’t find those goods in Nigeria, I can buy it any other place. But I must first make a concerted effort to see whether I can find those within Nigeria.
How much of distraction has your trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal had on your senate
presidency?
What we have done, despite the power that is given to the legislature by the constitution, is to stand with
the people. As part of the cooperation with the executive, we ensured that the executive got what they want.
We bent backwards and even relinquished some powers we have as part of the support.
This is a government that has come to change things, we told ourselves that we should as much as
possible support it and work with what it wants. There is no excuse on the executive part.
On our part, we are to ensure that enabling laws are passed. I give you example again with the procurement law that we are amending.
It is an effort to fast tract the process by which budget would be implemented. And then, of course, our
own oversight, we have resolved that we will monitor every naira, every kobo to ensure that they are spent in line with the budget. I can assure you that we will do that. We will make sure that all the agencies and ministries implement the budget fully. In saying that we have to be realistic and see what the executive does with the challenges it has. Nobody anticipated the disruption we are having in the Niger Delta area. The budget was based on 2.2 million barrels a day. But now, it has gone down to as low as 1.6 million barrels. That is temporary setback. Government must show its capacity and ability to get peace restored in
the Niger Delta. Everything must be done to ensure that production goes back to the original projection which is 2.2 million barrels.
Remember oil price was down to $28 per barrel. Some people were worried and even asked how are we going to implement the budget.
Luckily, it has gone up to $50. There is some buffer there that should help to cushion some of the shortfalls here and there.
On the CCT, I agree that anytime the history of this period is written, the aspect of CCT will be there. From what we are seeing in the court, not my words, even the words of the witnesses support what I said earlier that my trial is political. Remember the day the chief witness said the first time they wrote to the committee on federal government implementation of property sale was in August 2016 which was like two months after I emerged. To me, that was further confirmation to what I said. It means that prior to then, there was no investigation done.
Be that as it may, it is a distraction. There is more we could have done. There are a lot of ours that we are losing when we do go to court. We have to do that, I want to clear my name as soon as possible so that we can move forward . It is an unfortunate distraction. I think it was ill-conceived by
those that started it.
However, it has not deterred us. We still have been able to address and push along our own agenda. It
is something that after the case is over, as an institution, we must look at how to strengthen our judiciary and how to ensure that political battles that are lost in the political arena do not find themselves into the judicial arena. It is not good for the system. Sometimes, you hear people use the word corruption trial but when you actually look at the issue, at best you call it administration
misdemeanor. There is nowhere at anytime we are talking about government funds missing somewhere.
When we start to paint the fight against corruption and people begin not to be sure whether it is corruption fight or politics, we do more harm to the war on corruption.
What step do you recommend should be taken by the Federal Government to restore
peace in the Niger Delta?
We had this problem under Yar’Adua and we were able to find a solution that restored peace to the region.
Clearly, there is need for all of us to put hands on the deck and bring peace to the Niger Delta.
I was chairman of NGF when we did it in the past. I know the role we played at that time to ensure that
Yar’Adua’s government work out the amnesty programme that restored peace at that time. The National Assembly is there and available to play our own role in bringing about peace in the region. It is a priority and I don’t believe any price is too high in restoring peace.
Are you recommending that Yar’Adua model should be employed by the incumbent administration?
I didn’t say that. I said that we have done it before.
Every situation has its own solution. There is an amnesty programme already in place, so it might not be the issue of amnesty. Whatever the issues are, what I am saying is that we must be able to bend backwards and find a solution. At the time of the Yar’Adua time, nobody had heard of such programme.
It was fashioned out at that time to meet the situation. Now, we must fashion out whatever is required. What I am saying is that no price is too high to pay for peace to reign in this country.