In this interview with journalists in his home town of Oro, Irepodun local government area of Kwara state, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the new APC government will not want to make probes the centre piece of its administration even as he says the ongoing probe in the NNPC is not meant to witchhunt anyone. UMAR BAYO ABDULWAHAB reports
Delays in appointment of ministers
I think we cannot be tired of repeating the facts that this particular transition is like new transition that this country has ever experienced. Before now, it is either one President succeeding the other or in the case of probably another President leaving, it was in the same political party. This is the first time that the opposition would take over from a ruling party and that in itself also throws up a lot of issues, foremost of it, you don’t even know what you are going to meet on ground, you don’t know how deep the hole is and as soon as elections were over, we were conscious of the fact that we had to hit the ground running but at the same time, we could not push the government in power out, they still had legitimately some time in office. The thing we did which was proper was to approach them and interact with their own transition team.
We were inaugurated I think 28th of April, we were given two weeks to conclude our assignment. The format we had was that we would be able to interact and interface with the outgoing government.
We have the handover notes, study them and ask questions, seek for clarification. If we had done that, we would have finished by probably 2nd week of May and the government would have another two weeks more to study the report and take immediate decisions. But as you aware we do not even get any handover note until the 26th, that means that the transition committee had extend its own assignment till about the 12th of June. So it was only on the 12th of June that we were able to hand over to Mr. President the transition committee’s report and that report was very voluminous, it is thorough, it is painstaking because we made far-reaching recommendations even including shinking of ministries.
Now between the 12th and today is just about two weeks plus, you need to study that, it is about 800-page document which has to be analysed, compressed and you now say which part of it we are taking, which part of it we are not taking. Honestly, Nigerians have the right to express concern, we also believe that government would have moved much better with Ministers in place but when you look at the combination of how long it has taken us to get the cooperation of the outgoing government and especially the kind of mess we find ourselves, I think if we tarry a bit to get the right people in the right place, I think it would be worthwhile.
We are not making excuses but we are trying to explain what transpired. Yes there is also the issue of other appointments like Chief of Staff, Secretary to Government. We also want you to please understand that when you go into an election and you win with the collaboration of so many forces and so many groups, you also have to be extremely careful and thorough before we make appointments here and there. But I am sure that very shortly the issue of appointments, ministerial list would be a thing of the past.
PDP ultimatum on cabinet constitution
You see I think the PDP is revelling in its new fond role of opposition and we must indulge them. I think they are just entertaining themselves and entertaining Nigerians. The honest truth is that you don’t give anybody ultimatum to appoint Ministers. What is there interest in that, are they going to be nominated?
Some people are of the view that APC never envisaged its victory at the poll and probably that is responsible for the lethargy?
This government has achieved a lot very quietly. You see we have been a month in office and within that month, the government has tackled very vigorously three areas which they promised Nigerians they are going to tackle. The first was insecurity. Immediately the President was sworn-in, he went on state visit to Nigerr and Chad to find a way out of tackling. After that, he hed a meeting with the Lake Chad Basin Commission comprising Niger, Chad, Cameroun and Benin Republic all in atempt to forge a common front against Boko Haram. He also rallied round the ECOWAS Heads of State and even the Economic Community of North-Central African states and base on that the Multi National Joint Task Force to combat Boko Haram would be inaugurated.
On anti-corruption, the President has wasted no time in seeking the support of the western nations in retrieving all our looted funds and he has taken certain steps, quietly engaging the major resource earners, like the NPA, Customs, the FIRS, NNPC and asking them that they should all close their illegal accounts and there must be only one joint account and it was from there that we were able to find out that out of the N8.1trillion that the nation made in the last two years, about N3.2trillion was not even paid into the account. You can imagine what N3.2trillion is going to make in the economy.
To me more importantly since he became President, Nigeria is gradually being respected all over the world. For instance, before his election Nigeria has contested more than three times for the position of the President of Africa Development Bank and we had lost to smaller countries. The perception out there now is that Nigeria as a veritable leader, a man of integrity, that has helped us. And that explains also why that within a few weeks of his being a President, he is being invited to the White House by President Obaama. And if you look at the country today, there is a general hair of hope. We know the expectations there are very high but I can assure you, we are just facing teething problems. What we are doing is to build a very strong foundation for governance after which by the grace of God, we would be able to meet our obligations.
High profile cases are being dismissed in court
The moment a matter is in court, both the executive and the President’s hands are off completely. We are not going to muzzle the judiciary. And don’t forget that we have a very beautiful judicial system whereby if anybody is not satisfied with the outcome of a case can appeal. Don’t drag in Presidency or the governors in this matter.
Unemployment and payment of N5000,000 allowances
This is why it is important that corruption is tackled squarely, this is why it is important that looted funds be returned. I can imagine how many jobs 3.8 trillion would create for Nigeria. Like the President rightly said, if we don’t kill corruption, corruption would kill Nigeria. And until and when we are able to tackle corruption, even the economic growth we are talking about would never materialize. So APC will still definitely strive to meet up with its campaign promises but we might, in your perception, be slow but in reality when we make the right appointments, that would make up the lost time.
NNPC probe should be extended?
Some people would even tell you go back to 1979. You see government must have a focus and if government in its own wisdom says, this is what we are doing, I think he’s been guided by some reasons.
I don’t think we want to make this probes the centrepiece of our government. If we do it, we would be distracted. Like the President himself said, the law are there already, we are not reinventing this laws. There is a limit of approval for every officer, there is also a system, there is also the procedure for approving, removing or spending money. You see for us probe of that is not about sensationalism or witch-hunting. The probe for us is to make sure that we build on the institutions, institutions can sustain governance. The probe for us is to ensure that when institutions are in place, money and funds meant for development would be used for what they are meant for. It is not to witch-hunt, it is not to create a distraction or it is not to create any sensation.
