Mr. Osita Okechukwu, chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is also the spokesman of the South-east caucus of the party. In this interview with newsmen at the party national secretariat, he gives reasons President Muhammadu Buhari cannot save the embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki from the Code of Conduct Tribunal trial, the controversial Calabar-Lagos Rail project among other issues. BODE OLAGOKE was there.
How would you react to Baraje’s concern about APC and the lacuna in the legislature vis-a-vis what is going on with the Senate President and his case in the CCT?
I have the sympathy of Baraje that our friend, the Senate President, Saraki is at the tribunal, there is nobody who would not be concerned about it. He belongs to the school that alleges that Mr. Senate President couldn’t have been tried, if he did not become the Senate President that there are other Senators, Ministers and other public officers who have one skeleton in their cupboard or the other I am not dismissing that. But what I am saying is that Baraje should know that we have a four year mandate and in the first year, Mr. President has two critical elements; one is the corruption that made us not to have new refineries.
In 2010 if you could recall the then Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Dr Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala announced publicly the award in July 2010 the award of three Greenfield refineries at a cost of $22billion. One was to be located in Bayelsa, one in Lagos and one in Kogi. How those three refineries commenced and concluded, they could have been concluded today, we would not be facing fuel crisis today. They squandered the funds, by the time that contract was made, Nigeria had $17billion excess crude account is in record.
So, is not what Baraje is saying Baraje I understand where is coming from and I also talk to people and I say as well that Mr. President on one hand cannot be fighting corruption on the other hand he will tell the Code of Conduct to stop trying the Senate President. Already he has been accused of selective in the corruption trial.
For those who accused him of being selective also forget that if you are trying Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd) as former NSA, you can’t try Osita Okechukwu because I wasn’t an NSA and luckily for me, they didn’t call me when the Bazaar was going on. You can’t try me for NIMASA, because I wasn’t the DG of NIMASA , I wasn’t a contractor in NIMASA, I wasn’t a consultant in NIMASA, I wasn’t a messenger in NIMASA. The sixteen years of the PDP calls for question, because at a certain point, the oil was been sold at $147- $145 per barrel and we ask where is the money, but is a human memory that today the Nigeria people cannot know who raped the Nigerian economy. So Baraje yes, I know where is coming from there is sense in what is saying that had Bukola Saraki not contest for Senate President, maybe he would not have been tried that is a point that I may not controvert.
But on the other hand, for you also to say that Mr. President to stop the trial, is also neither here nor there, because, its goes against the tenet. Don’t forget the manifestoes of the APC I am a member of the Merger Committee and also member of the manifestos sub-committee. It became our first cardinal programme and if we don’t plucked all these loopholes even if fuel is sold at a $1000 per barrel, we are not going anywhere that is the true of the matter, that is what the Chinese did. It is the day the Chinese enacted a law that anybody found culpable to be executed, because corruption is a human factor, but if you don’t curb it strongly it can’t go, because some of, I also want to have a private jet it would have been interest that if I have a private jet, I could have taken you people to one Island, after the interview, I will return you here so that is the position my brother.
Are you not worry about the controversy going on between the Presidency and the National Assembly over Calabar- Lagos Rail project?
The Caucus of South East Zone of All Progressives Congress (APC) appeals to the National Assembly to let the Lagos-Calabar Railway Project be; as we have listened carefully to all the cacophony of voices and none has condemned the project as irreverent or building bridge to nowhere. Let the blame game stop and let the project be. The controversy over the project is uncalled for and an ill wind which blows no one good.
Our appeal is anchored on the truism of millions of employment opportunities and economic prosperity which the project will engender. We need projects like the Lagos-Calabar to create massive employment and revamp the economy. More so when the reality is that both the Executive arm and Legislative arm are on the same page on the Lagos-Calabar Railway Project is of urgent national importance.
We also understand that the Lagos-Calabar Project is in the China-Shopping-List of President Muhammadu Buhari,GCFR, for Nigeria’s infrastructural renewal. This being the case, what kind of message are those opposed to the project in the National Assembly sending to the Chinese government if they continue to bicker over mundane procedure? Is it sabotage?
Consequently, we appealed that the issue of procedure – that is, whether it was not presented or lately presented or early presented by Hon Rotimi Chibuike Amechi, the Minister of Transport should be forthwith discarded in our collective national interest. For us, the prevailing position is that the project has been publicly presented to the nation and by extension to the whole world. All indication is that there is a national consensus in support of the project.
For the avoidance of doubt, we of the South East Zone of APC do not subscribe to the insinuation making the round, that those opposed to the project are afraid of the political gains Mr President will make in the South East and South South. They alleged that if the project sails, coupled with his success on the war against corruption and containment of insurgency, he will be unstoppable. Hence, the fear that the two zones may support him in 2019, given the political value of the project.
Our counsel, let’s not throw the baby away with the bath water, for the welfare and prosperity of Nigerians far outweigh political gains. To erase this ungodly insinuation, we once more appeal to the National Assembly not to be caught in political cross-fire.
We reckon that Nigerians have all along enjoyed the cordial Bi-Partisan relationship between the Executive and Legislative arms, which hitherto existed since the convocation of the National Assembly in June 2015, which made it possible for the ministers and other appointees to cleared seamlessly. Let the cordial Bi-Partisan relationship continue for good of the polity.
In sum, to avoid gridlock, let the Lagos-Calabar Project and other employment generating and infrastructural projects be accommodated in 2016 Budget, since they can be financed via Treasury Single Account, loans and recovered looted funds.
Before this Calabar-Lagos Rail, there was and there still the one that goes from Enugu to Makurdi , to the north and no one is talking about that, it does not exist in the budget, what is the position of the South-east on Railway line that passes most South-east states that has not been captured in the budget?
Thank you very much for the question, we have just taking-off a new regime. It’s unfortunate, that the past sixteen years was like a locust years where 1300 kilometres Lagos-Kano Rail gauge was awarded for N8.3 billion to the Chinese, it was very unfortunate.
Because around the same time this rail gauge was 1300 kilometres was awarded at N8.3billion, the Chinese awarded to the Germans and Canadians, a 4000 modern Gauge rail line between Lisa capital of Tibet and Beijing capital of China 4000 kilometres modern gauge at $4.2 billion. So what I am trying to refer to is that we are going stage by stage, Mr. President wants to modernize the Lagos-Kano and then Kaduna-Abuja and this coastal, what we called the Coastal rail-line, we are coming to the one you are referring to, luckily Mr. President is open to negotiate with International creditors to revive the infrastructure we found on the ground. There is also the fact that he had plucked to a greatest extent, the leakages in the corruption sections. So no matter we having a dwindling oil sales due to the vagaries in the weather of the price of crude of oil that used to be between $90 and $100 today is between $30 and $40. In spite of that, the fact that he has plugged the leakages and this is where the media comes in.
