Asiwaju Olorunfunmi Bashorun, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was Secretary to the State Government (SSG) during the Lateef Jakande administration in Lagos State. In this interview with AKINJIDE AKINTOLA & ADEDEJI SULAIMAN spoke on national issues. Excerpts:
It’s about five months that President Muhammadu Buhari has been on the saddle and opposition party is crying that his anti-corruption war is one sided. How do you see the corruption war?
I would say that is not true; the former governor of Zamfara State who is a member of APC has been arrested, and the corrupt people they are talking about are about 80 % of those controlling the resources are within the PDP and who used to be in governmental. We should like to know, how many of Maduekes we have in APC? How many of Oduahs do we have in APC? And Oduah is in the senate, and in a decent society Oduah should not be in the senate but is there. Kashamu is wanted in the US and he is in the senate. The tribunal has made it clear that there will be another contest for that position but that notwithstanding he should not have been there. So, there are several of them like that who have been shielded in the past so i believe those who are in charge are pursuing those whom they have information about, if they don’t have information about anybody, they would not pick on you. They have information about Akpabio for instance ,and he was invited last week. If there are others like that and they have the opportunity, let those who are saying it mention names and send the EFCC to take care of him. Chief Adebanjo who was saying two days ago that the anti-corruption style of Buhari is the same as Obasanjo, that it is selective; I disagree with him.
For you, is it on course?
It is on course and he (Buhari) has sent a signal to the system unlike the time of Obasanjo, people are now cautious, like thinking deep about what they want to do. We should not comment on the man that has died but I believe it is part of this action. The man who turned to be a woman and escaped from Britain and the British people were annoyed. Would they say it is Buhari that is after him? Buhari is not helping him. The US that is asking for Kashamu, is it Buhari that is asking US to pick Kashamu? They have been asking for Kashamu all along but those who were there refused. I believe he is not going to let that happen and if he allows that, he has failed.
In terms of governance sir, it’s been five months that the new government has come on stream; people have been feeling that he is slow in decision making?
What actions do they want him to make? This government did not make the 2015 budget, the other government made the budget. Let us start with the budget and the other government that made the budget got the National Assembly to approve it. I don’t know whether they approved it or not I think they did and some issues in focus which are not captured. He has to settle down first, they cannot just rush into it and start doing what is in the budget particularly where it has been discovered that most of the budget are inflated and some of these are never touched; they just put it in the budget fritter away the money that is in terms of spending money and that is the major thing. We have to drive a budget to implement programs and this budget is not Buhari budget, it is someone’s else budget. He has to study the budget particularly, his anticorruption stance. That is the budget in line with his own anti-corruption stance and this takes some time. He started governance in May. On the choice of cabinet. Cabinet is very important. By the constitution, they are advisers, they can even decide not to have them until they like but he is going to have them now, the advisers, when they are in place, some of the issues which may take advise from civil servant want to deal with. They would first of all get the ministers to table it where there will be 30 something other people to hear it, probably richer and more useful when they have a full cabinet. But even then, there are many things you have to check, you have to check them gradually. I saw a picture in the paper this morning, they ought not to have touched that one but I won’t mention it. Somebody made a director general who is a politician to look after a very sensitive area, he ought to have removed him since but they claim that the man is removing anybody from that area, he is waiting, so Buhari has to do it step by step. If he has taken from somebody who is running the country in the interest of the people it would have been in a different matter but the last government was not doing it in the interest of the people. Very few minority, about 5% of the country and I believe that this government of APC wants to do what I called reducing the gap. As it is now, 95% of the people are at the mercy of 5%; which this government is pursuing, a position where the wealth of the country will spread and there will be redistribution. The 5% at the top continue to get everything and until there is a redistribution of wealth in the country, there will be no peace and everybody will not see a government we believe is our own. This government we believe is our government, he is going to do and is able to do it; what is in place and what do we change? How do we change it in the interest of the people. It has to be changed in the interest of the people.
See the INEC matter for instance, immediately the woman was put in acting capacity, he wouldn’t have planned to put another person in replacement of Jega and was searching for the right person particularly the way Jega performed, now he gotten another person, where the head of service was put, recently there has been change; that is how I believe he can run this government. On the INEC boss, he had made a true search and the little I was reading about the man this morning showed that that YES, the man has actually searched for the right person.
Sir, people are also saying that Mahmood Yakubu is also from the north?
I don’t want to start defending that because Jega is from north-west while Yakubu is from north-east. The north has three zones which is the central, north-west and north-east and if anything comes from those places and we have south-east, south-south and south-west. If it is from the south or north, let us identify which of them so i wish the man best of luck. On the situation of slow in governance, slow and steady wins the race. Yes, we are making hay slowly, but in some certain circumstances, it has to be slow, if you rush, you rush into trouble.
What about the accusations of nepotism against the president that he is appointing people from the north. Sir, how do you see this against the background of fairness and justice APC used in getting into power?
The issue of appointment whether from the north or south is a form of other several factors depending on the type of appointment. If as am here now, I want to appoint a private secretary, the constitution, it will be different from a governor that wants to appoint a commissioner. Those who are going to serve the president, secrecy would be given consideration from those who are constitutionally made to be part of the government. As it is, he has not changed the Governor of Central Bank, he is still there. The Governor of Central Bank is from Delta State not from the north so are others like that. The director general of NDLEA, he has not changed her and she is not from the north. There are some in place who are from this other zones which have not being changed, people should not just say anything because he is making certain appointments. When you look at totality of the appointments that are down and the new ones that are made, you will find out that this question of nepotism does not arise.
The APC government is controlling The National Assembly but since coming into power, there have been some sort of crises between the federal government and the senate particularly over the appointment of officers. Do you think it is normal in this era where a government in power controls the majority of the National Assembly and yet, they are still having conflict in the National Assembly?
We are evolving a change in the country, many parties come together, the way they come together is still making some of them to think about their party and some who were somewhere and used to certain people still believe that they own themselves certain obligations. That notwithstanding, what worked against APC is I think they have 59 senators while the other people have 49, the gap is narrow. In the House of Representatives, the gap is a bit wider. In choosing principal officers, a lot of things take place and in the process, what I will call tactical error was committed. If you heard Ndume yesterday, you will find that he started realizing this. He said that never will he allow the Deputy Senate President to preside, he knew what will happen to the party so they are somehow coming back home from the different contribution everybody made to meet APC. They are now seeing it that APC is their symbol because when they went to the polls in April, nobody thumbprinted Saraki and Ndume, they all thumbprinted the broom which is the symbol of APC so, they must see it as their cardinal issue all the time. If they have made that mistake, time will tell because they are human beings. If you are in charge of something and the thing is turn by turn, one issue may come and you will get some people getting it that you are on their side but some other time, the thing maybe you and that time it is going to be negative for you. That is when you will recall your senses that there is an error and commitment to the people are what they need in the senate. I saw a bit of no commitment in the part of some people who are elected who thought it was going to be Jonathan forever. When they were screening, the type of questions they were asking. When Fashola was in the box as one of the nominees and Abarebe was asking him why they dispersed south easterners from Lagos; he knew that the case had been settled; why should he come and ask him at that occasion, what has that got to do performance of Fashola as a minister and the issue which his own party were making in Lagos, but the man explained that he doesn’t sign a cheque. Such are the types of things that will make our own senators to sit up, they will use a little opportunity they have to ridicule us unless we stand as a government. In the House of Representatives I think they are getting things right and in any setting, give and take is important. When they talk of Senate rules, does it supersede the constitution because most of the thing they are doing is rule of the senate. Can the rule of the senate be higher than the rule of the constitution?
The ongoing trial of the Senate President Saraki, do you think its a punishment for him for disobeying the directives of the party?
I don’t know what informs that case, i see it as a Pandora box. When he finishes with his own allegations and goes whichever way, there are many others who have not made declaration, and they have to pounce on them if they don’t expose them. So, I don’t know whether it has to do with his being senate president or is a way by those who design it think they can use to caution him. Caution him is to draw his mind to the fact that on the day of election , the electorate did not vote for Saraki, they voted for APC, so behave like APC man, if i am to talk to him, that is what I will tell him. All this are distractions like 81 senators following him, that won’t stop the judge from doing his job even if the entire 109 goes to court with him and there is a case made against him, their presence will have nothing. Are they not trying to intimidate the judge? If I were the judge, they cannot intimidate me. If they want to claim their solidarity with him, good luck to them. If anybody has done anything wrong in this country, the judge should do his duty if it is true, when are we going to stop this rubbish that is happening in this country? There are people of early 50s who want to own trillions. Tafa Balogun former Inspector General of police had N1.2 billion in one account and houses in Abuja. What is he going to do with all these or did he acquire all these in his salary as inspector general of police? I don’t want to talk about Alameyeseigha case, that one was revealed, it’s not a question of rumour. Why should people be so avaricious, it should be stopped.
Sir, you mention Fashola, There have been rumour that the former governor of Lagos State and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu are quarrelling but eventually he was nominated as a minister and he has been cleared by the senate. Do you think that if there is a war between Fashola and Asiwaju, Buhari would have nominated him as a minister?
I don’t know who nominated him, Buhari said this before that he doesn’t need anybody to nominate for him that he picked those he think that are fit for each state; but that aside, the issue of quarrelling, Asiwaju had cleared what people are rumouring. The first one was when a book was launched, that book was not written by Fashola, I text him complaining why I was not there and asked for some copies because people around me were asking me for books and he replied that he didn’t write any book, that it was Akeem Bello who wrote the book and he invited those he wanted to invite that he will try to get me some copies. That was when they started; But Tinubu sent somebody there who extolled the virtues of Fashola. When accusations were made against Fashola, Tinubu supported him, saying half of the blame was his. So therefore, people should forget it, because he and Fashola are one and the same that he has nothing against him that they are not fighting. Then I went to him, we were discussing other party matters then I said that I saw your statement and I was very happy, is there any quarrel, if there is, we can settle it. He said there can never be any quarrel, the boy who did well in government, can we be quarrelling? That was his answer to me and I don’t think I want any other answer from him
The new man in Lagos (Ambode) do you think he will perform well as Fashola did taking Lagos to a better place?
First, I want to say that the take off of Fashola is different from the take off of Ambode; Fashola was part of Asiwaju government as Chief of Staff, he was the member of the executive council. He had a lot of things in his head when he was nominated, you know that time it was not real primary at all, it was the question of Asiwaju wanting him to succeed him and eventually he convinced all the party leaders and they agreed. So Fashola had that advantage of knowing what they were doing and how to improve on it. In the case of Ambode, it has to take months now to study the situation, to fashion out what method he will use and I believe that’s why some people think he is not fas. what he would use to be able to do as much and possibly than Fashola did and I think he is on it.
Yes Fashola handed over to him, it is on paper, to me, he is laying his own foundation and from the look of things, I believe he is going to do very well. The budget he met is still the budget of Fashola not his own, so the people will allege that he is slow, he is not doing anything, some roads are not being handled, some projects have being abandon. No, I have made enquiries and i am aware that he is not abandoning any project, he is going to start on many them, he had already started in some areas and by the time he positions himself with executive council he choose two days ago, I believe he is going to do well but you know we cannot start predicting if he will do better or not which is our hope that he does more than Fashola has done.
In view of disaster that PDP led Nigeria into, no payment of salaries and others like that. How do you want to advise Nigerians with the new government that have been into place?
There is one governor for instance, Taraba State who appointed 112 aids, and what is he going to do with them? Lagos is generating about 30 billion per month, it is only River state that talks of 34 billion per annum, some other states are praying to get 1 billion per annum and yet, they want to do what Lagos, River and Akwa-Ibom are doing, it is not possible. They want to have a long list of convoy made up of jeeps, bulletproof jeeps. Some of them realize that some of these states are using helicopters; they don’t even know that some of them hire it they don’t buy. Many of them are over trading, the RMFAC that fixes salaries should stop fixing uniform salaries. What the California governor get is not what the governor in Maryland takes, even in Texas that is very big not to talk of New York and their tax rates are different even in Maryland. Like Lagos Island LG and the Ibeju Lekki LG chairman having the same salaries with all the service pressures on Lagos. What is the service pressure in Ibeju Lekki and the IGR of Lagos Island is able to meet whatever salaries and allowances to pay to who are serving them where as the Ibeju Lekki, I just pick Ibeju Lekki not that anything is wrong there, they would wait for Abuja, Badagry LG is far inside there and there is nothing like IGR but the executive chairman is going to have the same salary with the man in Eti-Osa. The same thing goes to states, they should stop giving same recognition in terms of salaries and allowances to those who run the affairs of the state. That will be the first step of running down the government if they continue like this. So Nigeria can only hope to continue running all the governments successfully if this approach is examined critically not to start making salary the same, allowance the same.
source for Honeyland News