Ninety-seven years old First Republic politician, foundation member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), former Hausa Editor of Daily Comet, Kano State-born elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, reveals why census figures have been controversial, offers suggestions to the incoming government of Senator Bola Tinubu, rates President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years administration, among other issues in this interview with DARE ADEKANMBI.
The elections have come and gone. What lessons do you think Nigeria should draw from the conduct and outcome of the elections?
In my opinion, the election was conducted in better manner than the previous elections we have ever conducted in the country. So, I think the outcome of the elections, by and large, reflected the views and yearnings of the majority of the electorate in Nigeria.
What do you make of the concern raised that ethnicity and religion played a major role in the elections in a country that is trying to bring everybody together?
This is a democracy and everybody is entitled to his opinion. I don’t agree with that submission. The election, particularly the presidential election, was driven by the programmes and the manifestoes presented by the candidates. That is my view. I don’t believe the voters voted because of ethnicity or religion. Take a look at the pattern of votes in the Christian and Muslim dominated areas and areas dominated by different ethnic groups. With the exception of South-East, voters from different ethnic groups voted for the candidates of their choices. Even in the South-East, some voters voted for Senator Bola Tinubu, but a majority of the voters in the zone voted for the candidate of their own ethnic group. This does not speak well of democracy. If we all decided to support only candidates who come from our ethnic group, those who will emerge through that process will not be seen as national leaders. They will be seen as leaders of their own ethnic groups and therefore will pay attention to their ethnic group in carrying out their policies and programmes. That does not speak well for the country. In any case, people in other areas voted for the candidates of their choice in either Tinubu or Atiku Abubakar.
What lesson do you see Nigeria taking from the conduct of these elections so that future elections will be less controversial?
For the first time, there was no massive complaint of rigging. As for the election regarding the governors, state assembly members, by large and throughout the country, there was not much accusation of rigging in the conduct of this election. It was in the federal election that there were complaints. Nonetheless, we had politicians focusing on their programmes rather than other trivial things.
What is your suggestion or advice for the incoming government of Senator Bola Tinubu?
The government came on a platform, sold a programme to Nigerians. So, let him concentrate on the items on his manifesto and programme and work on delivering what he promised to Nigerians. He should set his priorities according to the wishes of the generality of the electorate.
Do you have specific areas you think are calling for immediate attention? For example, people are talking about security and economy as being very important.
If the government comes with its programme, that programme should address the concerns of the majority of the electorate. I believe this is what is going to happen. So, what we should focus on is the implementation of the programmes and promises made by the president. Whether he is following the promises or he is deviating from them, when he takes over and starts working, then we will see whether he is doing so in accordance with what he said prior to the election. My hope is that he will implement his manifesto as presented to Nigerians.
What would you consider the high and low points of the Buhari administration that is winding down in a matter of 22 days?
I don’t know, honestly. You know, right from the beginning, I have never been an ardent supporter of President Buhari. I won’t be able to ascertain what he has been able to achieve or what he is not able to achieve. I think it is up to him to come out and tell Nigerians what he was able to implement out of the programmes which formed the basis of his election by Nigerians. People who are his supporters will be able to say something about that. What is the programme upon which he was elected as president? What are the policies emanating from the programme that he has implemented? Let Nigerians do the assessment.
The national census was called off last week to give the incoming government the chance to have input into it. What do you make of the decision to postpone it?
I support that decision wholeheartedly. I hope a lot of work has been done to conduct the census. I will urge the incoming administration to complete the process and conduct the census. I want them to adopt a policy that from this census, we should stop the practice of having a population census as we do currently because it is too controversial. Using the number of people born and the number of deaths will to update our population figures will reduce the controversy and acrimony that accompany our census exercise.
If we don’t adopt this approach, census in Nigeria will not stop being dogged by controversy. The problem is that anytime there is a census each ethnic group will be struggling to outnumber the other ethnic, thus setting off a very serious competition. The result of census in most cases is not the reality of the situation in the country. There is a little bit of inflation [of census figures] in the various parts of the country in order to boost the population of their ethnic groups. This is so because budget is related also to population. So in the conduct of census, people inflate their own population in order to attract projects of consideration during budgeting by the government. I think this is not what other countries are doing. We can do the census the way other countries are doing it. We can update our population on the basis of the birth and death rate figures, that is, through percentage of birth and death to get the real number of the people in the country. We need to start with the number of people in the country now. So, I think the conduct of census is only a source of friction in Nigeria and we should do away with it and adopt the system of birth and death rate which other countries are using to ascertain the number of people in their countries. Census outcomes have never been universally accepted in Nigeria because one ethnic group will try to cheat and the other one will accuse it and there will be friction. This is not in the interest of the country and we must avoid doing things that will not promote national unity. Census is one of such things.
How can we get the acceptable population figures upon which your suggestion for the adoption birth and death rate approach will stand going forward?
I think we already have something to start with. If you go to the Bureau of National Statistics, they will give you the current number of each ethnic group in the country. I will suggest that should be used as the starting point before we adopt the approach of using the registration of birth and death rates. This will bring less friction instead of conducting a fresh national population census. You can’t stop Nigerians from trying to cheat in matters like this. We need to develop a method that will be acceptable to the majority of Nigerians in the conduct of census.
In celebration of the Worker’s Day, the president-elect, Tinubu, said he would take tough economic decision, but will prioritise workers’ welfare. During his campaign, he spoke about removal of subsidy from petrol. Do you think this is part of the hard choices he is referring to and would you support the removal of subsidy from petrol?
I am not a fortuneteller. It is up to Tinubu to tell us what he is going to do because he is already elected president. It is he who will be able to tell us what and what he is going to do about the economy. Then, we will begin to fix our gaze on the activities of his government to see whether he is doing it according to what he told us he would do. This is my opinion about it.
Would you support the removal of subsidy from petrol?
You know I was once a Commissioner for Finance [Kano State] and the issue of subsidy has something to do with the budget. You and I as laymen do not know the reality about subsidy. Only those in authority know what the real issue is as far as that is concerned. So, to just come out without any statistics to support the removal of subsidy is unscientific. I always like that we interrogate issues: what is the basis? What is the issue? What is the complaint? What is the reality on ground? I will prefer we ask these questions rather than just supporting something without the facts to rely on.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then