THE campaign mantra of APC is the Next Level. But the opposition parties have been asking for what the ruling party has done to be talking about the next level. What is your view on this?
Well, it is natural for them; you shouldn’t expect your opponents to key into your mantra, because it is all politics. So, to even start on the basis of the fact that opposition parties are cynical isn’t even making any point, because absolutely, the duty and role of opposition parties is to be cynical about anything that government does.
Having said that, let me educate members of the public that they may have tried to hoodwink into believing that the Buhari administration has achieved nothing. In actual fact, what the Buhari administration has achieved in three and a half years, in the context of the resources available to it, is far more than what the previous governments achieved in 16 years. I say this, not as a matter of flimsy statement or comic relief, I am saying it with all level of seriousness and I will give you examples.
We know that the way to go now all over the world is the rail system. Go to New York, go to London, go to China, it is the rail system they use for mass transit, because the roads are blocked in mega cities. For 16 years, with high oil prices, with peak production which is highly the mono-economy that we have run in 16 years, the PDP didn’t establish a national network for rail. The only thing they did half-heartedly before they left, which they didn’t even complete, was just the Kaduna/Abuja rail. They still didn’t complete it at the eleventh hour when they were about to leave. In two and a half years, we now have the Lagos/Ibadan rail almost completed and any government should have known from beginning that this is the hub of the Nigerian economy. For 16 years, you should have finished that axis, from Lagos to Kano, which is the hub of the traffic of movement of goods in Nigeria: Lagos and Kano. They didn’t think of it. What the Buhari administration did when it came to power was to get cracking on critical infrastructure; it didn’t engage in razzmatazz, which is what annoyed those defecting from the APC, they thought that it would just be a matter of sharing immediately. Let’s come and share and you take back your election expenses. But now, they see a president who is focused.
You should understand why some of us who have come out of our shells. My friends ask me, “why is Keyamo doing this?” I have just come out of my shell because the state we are is a critical point in our lives. A few of my friends who are of my inclination too, the progressives, they call me and I told them to come out. This is a critical point in our country and the forces of retrogression are waiting to take us back to where we were coming from and if we don’t speak out now history won’t be kind to us. We need to come out now to guide our people; not because Buhari is a saint, not because he is the best you find around, but in the circumstances we find ourselves, we have no option but to stick to what we have.
So, in two and a half years, critical infrastructure have started to come in. If you look at the Lagos-Ibadan road, that was one problem after the other, all sorts of litigation — a critical sector like that.
But Nigerians have now been told that the Lagos-Ibadan rail you mentioned wouldn’t be ready until 2021. It is almost becoming a tall dream in terms of completion…
No, look at the progress that has been made. Have you passed through the Sagamu exchange? There is a clear plan and progress going on; you know that yourself and it has been brought under the PIBF I guess. It has been brought under a special fund just like the Lagos/Ibadan expressway, so that there would be no lack of funding.
I hope you know there are bridges there? It will take two, three months to do. But the point is that the will and the way have been shown to remove all the bottlenecks on the way that we know were there before. You can see that the thing has spread to the Sagamu exchange from the Redeemed Camp. You can see how big the project is and it is being done now. So, the point I am making is that there is focus on critical infrastructure. You have seen the Eastern corridor of the rail about to begin next year, they are about to sign that now.
Now, look at the concern for the roads nationwide. We had a report from the Minister of Works, Power and Housing that they awarded road contracts for the past 16 years and they didn’t complete any of them. The Buhari administration has concentrated on construction of all those roads now and awarded another set of road contracts. Right now, there is no state in the country where federal roads are not being done.
But why is it that the Abuja/Lokoja road remains a death trap and is not being given attention?
Yes, we are coming. It is in our plan now. People think that one or two and a half years will be enough to judge us, because the Almajiri schools that they built during their time, you cannot compare that to the Second Niger Bridge. If you want me to build those schools, 50 blocks of classrooms in Abuja, I will do it under three months! We are talking of critical infrastructure that takes time to build.
Like the Second Niger Bridge, you heard that the pillar, bringing it from under the sea to the surface is like building 12 stories upstairs. Those are the kind of infrastructure they are concentrating on. They are also rehabilitating airport, the first airport that was fully rehabilitated to international standard is in the South-South. Again, look at the Social Investment Programme. The achievements are so many that it will take our time. If you look at the SIP; there had been a half-hearted attempt in the last 16 years. The school feeding programme under [former President Olusegun] Obasanjo was aborted because of corruption; it wasn’t sustainable. But look at the massive SIP under the single-minded determination that we have started now. Over 9.3 million children have been caught within that web of the national home school feeding programme now and going forward, which is the next level; they are taking it to 15 million.
The N-Power scheme that empowers young graduates to learn some skills while they are paid N30,000 a month so that they can still survive is ongoing. It isn’t the best but at least it is creating something for them to live on now. They are being trained in small crafts so that they can be self-sufficient. About 500,000 are within that scheme and I am sure you have seen their testimonies on the television and social media. Now the next level of that is to add one million to that bracket. There are another two million, three hundred thousand Nigerians who are covered as small term traders, who are receiving tradermoni and marketmoni and all that. Of course, we have all seen the wide acceptance; you have seen the vice-president go from place to place, market to market in all the six geopolitical zones of this country, even in opposition states.
Some Nigerians have issues with the source of the funds being dished out piecemeal to traders in the open market. What is your take on this?
But it is budgeted for. Nobody has queried the Social Investment Scheme; the National Assembly is there. It is part of our manifesto. You do something for the poor, they blame you, if you don’t do, they say you aren’t doing anything for the poor.
But that effort has been described as a vote-buying move. Some Nigerians view the fact that on the eve of a general election, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who is a running mate to a presidential candidate, is moving about markets dishing out N10,000 to prospective voters, as a disguise to buy votes.
So you mean because of accusation of vote-buying, something that started in 2016 not now, the government shouldn’t do anything for the poor? Is it not silly? These are very silly comments going on. That we want to empower women. Please, don’t forget that these are done without regard to whether you are PDP or APC, it is blind to party affiliation. They just do it randomly and they pick them. Now, women can grow progressively from small time to medium scale traders, because it is progressive loans they give them.
A whole basket of tomato is N10,000. If a woman sees N10,000 today, she will add to those basket and if you pay back within one or three months, you move up to N20,000 and N50,000 loan, once you pay. The incentive isn’t a collateral; it is to pay back and move to the next level.
Can you address the three-point agenda the Buhari administration set for itself: security, massive job creation through diversification of the economy and the crusade against corruption. Nigerians continue to score the government low, saying Boko Haram remains a threat, while herdsmen are also on the loose. What is your reaction?
We aren’t at the mercy of Fulani herdsmen. It has been tackled. It has reduced drastically.
In terms of the unemployment rate, the statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, (NBS) is appalling. What do you have to say on that?
If you look at it, first of all, it is a collective aggregate of the failure of federal, state and local government. People fail to realise that. That unemployment statistics you are seeing, first of all isn’t about the Federal Government alone. You don’t know that? There are three tiers of government. Go and look at the National Bureau of Statistics and look at states with the highest unemployment rates, because states are tiers of government that employ labour too. The states with the highest rate of unemployment are Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross Rivers. Those are the three states with highest figures in terms of unemployment and you know the party they belong to. The states with the lowest unemployment rates are Osun, Katsina and I think Adamawa. So, it is a function, an aggregate of states, federal and local government.
In any case, jobs have been created. It is just a culmination of all that we should have been doing over the years that is responsible for where we are, because Buhari has helped us to press the reset button. Once you press the reset button in any system at all, things appear to shut down and start all over again, because you would have gone too far on the wrong road. For example, look at the wrong road we have travelled since 2000 and I am sure you heard this from the mouth of the vice-presidential candidate of the opposition party, that we should have been implementing the MDGs to eradicate poverty. India, China, Japan started. Please, it doesn’t take one, two years to eradicate poverty. Nobody should deceive the ordinary man on the street of Nigeria. We the elite have more access to information than they have and we shouldn’t deceive them.
This government, in the eyes of Nigerians, haven’t done anything to transform the economy from its mono-cultural status. Do you have anything to say on this?
Are we on the right path? Yes. Will it happen overnight? No. But why are we on the right path? There is what they call the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, it hasn’t been done over the years before. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has chosen small-time farmers for loans to produce cocoa, rice, yam and all that for export.
For the first time, we are exporting yam and you know that for the first time in many years, rice importation has dropped. You know too that local production of rice and many others have been boosted by our local fertilisers, through revitalisation of our blending plants. The production of local fertilisers has gone up. Now, is it the right path? This is the right path, let us be honest. Let us share the money that we have; don’t let us share it amongst ourselves and feed our big boys and girls. The real efforts to diversify the economy have started. Non-oil exports, in the first quarter of 2018, have gone up for the first time in many years and this is really commendable. It will now begin to expand. I can say it anywhere that President Buhari is resetting Nigeria and we are part of that pain to reset it.
There is a thorny issue in the polity, that of power devolution often described as restructuring. It appears that your party’s leadership and its presidential candidate aren’t on the same page on this?
You see, President Buhari isn’t a deceitful man. Anybody who tells you that he wants to restructure Nigeria in six months or even one year, it is an open deceit! Nobody should even listen to such a person, because it is an open deceit.
But the APC set up a Committee on Power Devolution headed by the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, which travelled round the six geopolitical zones and submitted its report to Chief Odigie Oyegun, who was national chairman then. Why are you saying now that any promise of power devolution amounts to a deceit?
We did that so that the party and the president would have an idea about it.
The party has submitted the report to President Buhari. Are you aware of this?
But it isn’t a function for the executive arm of government but that of the National Assembly. The point is that whether as a party or as a whole, because of our different persuasions, different areas we come from, there cannot be an agreement overnight on devolution of power, on fiscal federalism. You know that too.
Now I have heard the Atiku campaign indulging in denial recently after we confronted them on the hard fact of constitutional amendment. They started changing their position. They said, ‘no we are talking of mental restructuring.’ Was that what they told people before? We have confronted them with the impossibility of constitutional amendment overnight and the need to carry all parts of the country along. Don’t forget that you need two-thirds of the state Houses of assembly.
Are you aware that devolution of power is the first item on the agenda of the APC while campaigning before the 2015 elections? Did your party also promise Nigerians what they know is almost impracticable to fulfill, just to hoodwink the electorate?
Yes, I agree with you that it is our agenda. We want to do it, but can we do it alone and overnight? That’s the point we are making. Buhari isn’t a deceitful person. To say that we are going to do it overnight, states must be consulted; regions must be persuaded; it must be a give and take. So, it isn’t an overnight thing. The president has also not said that he would not address his mind to it but the National Assembly must kick-start the process. It isn’t the president’s function. It isn’t for a presidential candidate to say that I will do it in six months, when he knows that he is lying.
President Buhari will always subject himself to popular will; he knows restructuring is a touchy issue and he will not get up to say, ‘I want to take this from this part of the country and give it to this part.’ No, it is a function of negotiation, of debate, of everything. Don’t forget that National Assembly is critical: you cannot do anything now in terms of devolution of power and restructuring outside the purview of the National Assembly. It isn’t possible, except you are calling for a revolution or coup. That’s the honest truth.
You always speak with such confidence that Buhari will secure a second term mandate. Where did you derive that conviction?
Well, that is because, one, despite all the noise in the air, on the ground we understand that a majority of Nigerians are still sympathetic to Buhari and they trust him. Why do I say so? Politics isn’t all about the headlines in the newspapers; politics isn’t about social media ranting. There must be returns on the field. The PDP has lost all major by-elections since 2015. They lost everything. That’s a clear indication as to where we are going. What is going for Buhari is that each time you see him on television in the morning, you know that the man isn’t stealing your money. That’s what is going for him. There are other issues; maybe he condones corruption around him.
So, you agree that he condones corruption around him?
No, I say the issues, there are other accusations. It will take me another one hour to dismiss that and say, well it isn’t totally correct. But I am just saying that people shouldn’t think that I am not averting my mind to that. But the long and short of it all is that in governance when you know that the very head tells you to do what exactly he does and he tells you to refrain from what he refrains from doing too, that’s the best way to galvanise the people. That’s what is going for Buhari. He is 100 per cent ahead of Atiku Abubakar.
Finally, are you not bothered that the military elite aren’t with Buhari as he seeks a fresh mandate?
The influential forces that are also not with him then have also come to be with him. It is a balance of terror and force. Big names like those of Godswill Akpabio and Emmanuel Uduaghan in the South-South; big names like those of Senator Ken Nnamani and Senator Hope Uzodinmma in the South-East. Former governors, former senators who weren’t with him in 2015 have now joined the APC.
I want you to avert your minds to the like of Generals Obasanjo, Babangida, Danjuma, Gusau and the rest of them…
Look, I am averting my minds to human beings like you. You are calling human beings, I am calling human beings. The people I have mentioned, are they not human beings? Look, the people I have mentioned, are they goats?
and then