Ambassador Yahaya Kwande is an elder statesman and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress. In this interview, the politician speaks on the nation’s 18 years of uninterrupted democracy and the performance of the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. Excerpts:
As Nigeria marks 18 years of uninterrupted democracy, what are your thoughts? Our democracy is equal to that of any country, even the so-called advanced democracies in the world, did not reach where they are without suff ering. Even with their muchtalked advancement, they are still trying to properly walk, they call us developing democracies, and they call themselves developed democracies, but it is all the same thing and the same ways.We are democratically progressing in spite of the challenges in place.
As an elder statesman who saw yesterday’s democracies, how do you rate it with that of today?
I was among those that gained self-leadership from the colonialists. In the fi rst republic, our leaders did sacrifi ce a lot of things just in order to gain independence, I was then having a Grade II teacher certifi cate and was trained on how to run administration. I had seen how the politics was played, and I partook in the running of politics that followed and I am now seeing how it is being played. I can say today’s democracy, is a theft democracy; things are done now that couldn’t be done in the past. In the past for instance, ordinary party member will not want to do something that would tarnish the image of his party, because of his political ideological beliefs. But in today’s politics, it is all about money, the politician is after public funds, the people themselves are forcing the politicians to steal, so that he can give them to satisfy their needs.
Again, today, a minister is expected to give out something before the legislators would approve his budget proposal, in a work that will greatly help develop the country.
As President Buhari-APC led administration clocks 2-years in offi ce, what would you say of the change promised by Nigeria? We have a manifesto to develop this country, and we are succeeding at some level we have even succeeded, having known the security aspect of our country before now. Everybody knows that the President is doing very well. Most importantly, Buhari’s achievements are glaring in the areas of security and fi ght against corruption, as promised to eff ect change in those areas.
Th e economy is really picking up and the administration is putting up serious administrative change. Th e President has been able to improve the good of image Nigeria and also got it back into good relationship with the international community.
How true is the claim that the fi ght against corruption is failing, and only targeting political opponents? I do not believe in that, I knew so well that before President Buhari, assumed the mantle of leadership, the situation in Nigeria had seriously deteriorated, public funds were looted openly, on the streets, bags of money, they called it ‘Ghana must go,’ are been paddled into ministries without fears and with impunity. But today, the situation is drastically changing. Buhari’s name alone is making a lot of people afraid of stealing public funds as was the case before, so that in itself alone is a great achievement of his/our administration. Th e whistle-blowing policy of the administration is also yielding result in the fi ght against corruption.
Th e stealing in the country is too much and believe me, no one would say he can completely succeed in cleansing the dirt, but Buhari is trying his best as he promised Nigerians, and we are supplicating that God, would heal our President of his illness, to continue with the good work. I think this anticorruption fi ght should also permeate down to the populace themselves, most especially, the policemen that mount road blocks and extorting monies from the ordinary masses. But by and large, the fi ght is greatly being achieved rather than failing as others were saying. Buhari has not failed Nigerians — Kwande Kwande To many, Dogara’s doggedness and calm in managing the crisis, and steering the House out of the much expected storm was a big plus DEMOCRACY DAY
Some are of the view that only politicians are thieves in the country, how true is that? I feel so sad, whenever I hear people saying that. Again, it is so sad and painful that people are only accusing politicians as thieves, it is better if people say government workers are thieves, than putting the blame on politicians.
If one could look at say Federal Ministry of works, one would fi nd out that there is only one politician, that is the minister who is assigned to oversee the aff airs of administrations. But from the messenger up to the permanent secretary, these are not politicians and to me they are the thieves, they are the ones violating administrative processes to steal funds. What would you say government has been doing in the area of the economy, to alleviate the suff ering of Nigerians? A lot of damage has been done to the nation’s economy and one has to plan well to rescue the economy, which President Buhari and APC have planned. For instance, the agricultural aspect has been witnessing remarkable revolution with the important aspect of empowering the small scale farmers, and this is really helping the economy and generally the masses.
My only problem is that the citizens are not even helping the Government by increasing the prices of their commodity, of let’s say potatoes by 25 to 30 percent and are doing it arbitrarily on the ordinary masses, because he says the dollar is high, and I think we have to tackle that. What feats has the government achieved in the area of infrastructure development as promised Nigerians by the change mantra?
I said we have achieved a lot. My friend, the security of this country alone is something that everybody should be proud of. We have also touched on the area of infrastructure in the last two years. Again, if people have carefully followed the budget, they should also wait and see, since we’ve started, we have done well in the area of railways, we are talking about major roads been planned and executed, so also hospitals are been done as part of plan by our governments at all levels, right from local government councils, state governments, and so in particular the section of the federal government is doing its best to develop the country. Lastly sir, on the average, how would you rate the performance of the Buhari administration? Believe me, sincerely, I will say, we are on course , we are almost about 70 percent.
