Professor Hassan Saliu, former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ilorin, recently gives an assessment of the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government in a chat with ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF. The political science teacher says, although there are changes in the way things are done in government, the administration’s scorecard is far from meeting Nigerians’ expectations
We are under an APC-led government of change. What has really changed under this administration of change?
It depends on how one looks at the issue. For me, there has been some noticeable change in the way we do our things, especially at the governance level. You will agree with me that this so-called TSA , which was supposed to have taken off under the Jonathan administration, came to fruition under Buhari and that has in a way restrained people in terms of how reckless they have been in using government’s resources. For me, and going by what the president has said, over two trillion naira has been saved via the TSA. In other word, there is a slightly improved environment for probity, accountability and judicious use of government’s resources. To my mind, that is a significant milestone and change.
Two, even though it has produced a negative effect, the Buhari administration will be the first to allow the National Assembly elect their leaders in their own way without any visible interference.
Perhaps when you look at the way things are going, there are people who believe that was not the correct approach, because as the captain of the ship, he should have monitored what was happening in other areas so that he can effectively deliver on the change. But I want to look at it from the angle of his ability to resist oppression to allow the National Assembly elect their leaders. That this happened under him is also a change.
I also want to observe that this will be the first time we will have a president that is not so much tainted, in terms of his involvement in politics, in terms of having excess luggage. This is the first time the president of our nation would tell the public that if his own son is caught in the act of corruption, they need not take permission from him, he should just be arrested. This is also significant. You might say it’s tokenism or symbolism. Remember, we had a former head of state or president whose son was involved in some financial transactions that took place to the health of the nation and we saw how the matter ended.
Having said all that, I think Nigerians expect rapid development, they want things to happen quickly to change their living standard. You recall that Jonathan was voted out of office largely on account of underperformance. So, people had expected that with Buhari, we would be able to facilitate the rate of development. Unfortunately, the scorecard has not matched expectations. That is, there is still disappointment here and there. There is hunger in the land, business don’t have access to money because government seems to be pursuing a policy deflating economy, though we understand they want to spend money out of recession, and this is still at the level of proposal. So, by and large, it is a mixed berg.
What really is impeding the administration’s rapid movement to development?
Thank you for the question. There are three to four reasons. With due respect to APC members, one of them is that their level of preparation to take up governance was a bit suspect. Their level of preparation was far below what they inherited and that shows that some of their actions, like this ‘Change Begins With Me’ ought to have started within the first few months of assuming office. It took the government more than a year to realise that corruption cannot be fought in an automated manner. I think government is just getting to realise that it’s not something that can happen automatically. There were certain structures that ought to be in place, including failure to dialogue with critical stakeholders in terms of policy direction of government. This is a major reason. Again, the manner of merging the parties that formed APC is is also another reason, as people had different meanings about change. To majority APC members, all they wanted was just to replace Jonathan but want to continue with the Jonathan behaviour. So, from what is happening, it is obvious that it was Jonathan people didn’t want, but they didn’t see anything wrong with the profligacy of his government..
You want to provide some insight into that ..
Oh, they are there now. Look at the corruption and look at all that is happening. People that ordinarily should be clapping for the administration are the ones telling Buhari to soft pedal on the fight against corruption. That tells you that most notable Nigerians are in league with the governance behaviour of Jonathan administration but didn’t want Jonathan and some elements in his government. That is the point I am making. That is why the war against corruption appears to revolve just around the president because people around him are not too comfortable joining in the fight. For instance, how well is judiciary prepared against fighting corruption, how well is the National Assembly prepared in fighting corruption? The president ought to have dialogued with them long before now.
And more importantly, the South-south and South-east, I argued after the election that he needed to pay a visit there. The recent visitations separately extended to both the Niger Delta elders as well those from the South-east , are not enough. He needs to go there and engage with critical stakeholders and assure them he is the Nigerians president, not president for a section of the country. The fact is that his level of popularity in these two zones is very low. So, the president needs to get more involved in politics so as to visit these people and win them to his side. With the presidential power that resides in him, if he stretches himself a bit , the narratives from the two zones will definitely change.
But do you see Buhari doing that giving his antecedents and his comments, particularly about South –east when he was picking his ministers?
But he is seeing the effect now. Before he took over, I suggested that he needed to have gone to the two zones and engage critical stakeholders and he if he had done that , the IPOB that seems to enjoy both active and passive support of some people, would not have been able to achieve that. But there was a vacuum, the president was rejected during the election and no attempt to court them and people resorted to self-help and the effect is what we are seeing now.
How much of party machinery can be brought into all of this?
Our political parties are just vehicles for winning elections. They are yet to be part of our political culture and to that extent, it will be difficult. Although politics is a group activity, even all the visible parties you see, have been hijacked by one cabal or the other. So, the kind of transparency we expect , cannot be found and identified with our political parties. They are under the control of some elements, and therefore they are not seeing themselves as part of the agenda setting, they don’t see reason to mobilise Nigerians behind the government their party has formed. Rather people are falling in different directions.
It might interest you to know that, three or four years ago, a study was conducted and there was this complaint that political parties in Nigeria are the most corrupt body.
Fifty years of our nationhood, notwithstanding the military interregnum, we are still walking the parties to play their desired roles. For how long shall this continue?
The parties are hanging in the air. They are only active during election. I will cite an instance to buttress my point. In December 2011, when Jonathan was preparing the ground for oil subsidy removal, he invited a group not PDP and confided in the group he was about removing subsidy. About a week later, he invited the PDP under Kawu Baraje. And what was the mission? To tell them what he intended to do and to carry the message down.
I was shocked that the PDP could not recongise that as a party policy. It should have been the other way round, not the president telling them to go and tell Nigerians. Meanwhile, the PDP was not the first line to be consulted. So, the idea is that ‘I maintain them,’ keep them in power and should therefore be at my beck and call. As long as the party does not set agenda for elected officials but vice versa, as long as party leadership are not aware of their power, they look for gratification left right and centre, and the president and governors are the one funding the parties, they will remain only political party on paper.
Major issues have taken place in Nigeria. Where was APC when the president took the decision to increase the pump price of fuel? That idea didn’t originate from APC. It was seen as a government affair. That should not be the case. It should have been part of the party’s programme. It should be the party that will take steps to prepare the minds of Nigerians , but unfortunately they are only hanging in the air. They are not mobilisers, if they were we would not have recorded 800,000 invalid votes during the last election because the valid role of the party is to provide political education. Although they shared the role with INEC, but in this instance, I want ti focus now on the parties. In 2011, it was over one million invalid votes. This shows they are not on ground because they always rent people to attend their rallies.
Some people argue the present administration continuously blames Jonathan because it has nothing to offer. For how long should this blame game continue?
I will refer you to the speech I gave in 2003 when Ganiyu Cook was appointed Chief of Staff to Bukola Saraki then as Kwara state governor. You would see there was tension in Ilorin and lot of pressure being mounted on Bukola to probe Lawal (his predecessor f blessed memory). I advised then and that is my advice for now, that if you want to look back please do, but six months after, forget about the past and unfold your plan , otherwise you lose peoples sympathy.
Obasanjo did it when he was talking about Abacha, Abacha and after a while, people said unfold your plan for us. It is same advice I want to give the present government. Yes, Jonathan administration couldn’t do certain things it ought to have done, but Jonathan is no longer in power but Buhari is in power. If everything had been okay , Buhari would not have been voted for. So, I think should start unfolding its plan, develop a blueprint and communicate its programmes to Nigeria in a very clear manner. Prioritise and mobilise the people behind your programme. You cannot solve all the nation’s problems at a go. We have heard enough of what didn’t go right under the previous administration. Let us advance.
Let’s dovetail into the corruption fight of the administration. Is that being fought within the ambit of the law?
Let me behave like a street man not a professor. When people were taking money meant for the entire citizenry, they knew there were laws but didn’t follow it while amassing wealth illegally . But when the law is catching up with them, we suddenly realise the rule of law should be followed. Although, I agree with Afe Babalola that two wrongs do not make a right. For me, I don’t seem to be on the side of those who hammer so much on the rule of law, because if the rule of law had been obeyed , may be we wouldn’t have been where we are now.
In other word, in as much as I would have been a strong advocate of the rule of law, having reviewed the circumstances under which people help themselves to the money that belongs to all, noting in particular there were laws that would have stopped them from messing up the economy, but they chose to brush aside this, how do you now bring a cleaner regime of rule of law to deal with them?
My position is, I want rule of law and due process, but I am saying if these had been obeyed , the kind of money in the hands of some Nigerians would not have been in their custody. You know corruption is very difficult to prove because those involved are smart.
What I am saying is that all citizens should respect the law, but to suddenly jump to a level of neater regime of rule of law under Buhari in the current fight against corruption, I think we will be asking for impossibility.
How desirable is the proposed $29billion foreign loan?
My own view is that what has led us to where we are is yet to be fully addressed. I want to recall I interrogated Obasanjo’s debt relief and argued then that good we got the relief , but the regime was not attending the root cause of the debt hang and I predicted then that in a matter of years Nigeria will be back there.I wrote in 20017/2008, With this jumbo loan Buhari is trying to take , we are on the march again. My view is that the money is huge and Buhari does not have trusted hands that will give ius the impression the money will be judiciously spent. Two, I am not sure that some of the projects they want to execute have the capacity to generate sufficient capital to repay the loan. I will advise that the money recovered as well as those from TSA should be deployed rather than going to borrow. And if we must borrow at all, it must not be up to that. Whether the repayment period is three or ten years, the fact is that Nigerian public officials are not known to be prudent and the prudence of Buhari alone is not enough.
Judiciary, the supposed last hope of the common man is enmeshed in crisis. Where are we headed?
You are talking about the rule of law and the citadel of the rule of law , should ordinarily be the judiciary and the judiciary is also swimming in a pool of corruption. That is why some argued that fighting corruption will require some extraordinary measures because the corrupt person you are taking to, is ready to give money to the lawyer to bribe the judge and buy justice. In recent time, when you read the body of some judgement, what you get are different conclusions and the only factor that best explains is corruption. Judges want to live big, they want to to go on annual vacation in retirement , they want to do so many things because they are products of the Nigerian society. Even the legitimate system has taken care of this, not to the level of their greed.
Almost two years on, the executive and legislature still have a frosty relationship. What does this portend?
I think , with benefit of hindsight, the decision by President Buhari to allow the National Assembly to cut its flower and bake its cake, would appear to me a wrong one. This is because the national assembly is so vital to programmes the APC has promised Nigerians. I think the APC as a party gave the first signal of its poor level of preparation to administer Nigeria with the election of the National Assembly leadership. There was nothing bad in the president talking to a few people. After all, Eta Enang (Presidential Liaison at the Senate ), said they will engage with the National Assembly on the rejected bill, so also Ali Ndume, Senate leader. The question is, what is wrong in President Buhari talking to some people .
There were opportunities that offered themselves for the president to cultivate the ground for the programmes he seeks to achieve, unfortunately he missed them. One of them is the National Assembly leadership. It would not amount to interference speaking with some of them. The senators wanted to hear from him but some people were speaking on his behalf instead of cultivating a group of loyalists who would assist him in getting things done. His own perception of the Nigerian politics may be good, but in reality, it is faulty.
