Date: 2015-04-18

The re-elected Senator for Kwara Central and leader of the All Progressives Congress in the State, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Monday, addressed newsmen at his Ilorin residence on the outcome of 2015 general elections and other sundry national issues. Ahmed 'Lateef was there for The Herald.

Your take on the just concluded general elections

This victory is not only for APC it is for all Nigerians.  I say this with all sincerity because it was the determination of Nigerians and their commitment to stand for what they believed in that got us thus far. In the past, Nigerians and voters in general would not come out to vote and even when they came, it was not with conviction; they were frustrated with the process. But this time around, it was clear that Nigerians were convinced that APC represents change and it was time for a new Nigeria.

I always believe that we are opening a new chapter in this country.  Nigeria can never be the same again. I am very convinced about that; that to me is the greatest achievement. The victory of APC in the elections is small to me compared to that of Nigeria.

The Nigeria we are starting now is the one all of us have been wishing for. It does not matter if you have money you will win in an election. That is fantastic for all of us and for our democracy, because we will begin to see good governance. Now, all our elected officers must be accountable and deliver dividends of democracy to all.  Also, it will help build our political parties. It is good for our democracy.

In Kwara here, the message I have always been saying from day one the way politicians in the opposition parties behave, think that Kwarans are fools. They go away for three and half years and come back six months to elections and believe they can take the people for granted. They are not the kind of people to be trusted with leadership of the state. Whatever you might say about APC, they are the people that are always there with the people. They wait for elections to come. They are there thinking on how to improve the look of this great state.

Everybody knew how President Goodluck Jonathan told the world that they would take Kwara back to PDP.  Normally under that kind of situation when people see almighty power people tend to desert you. But the people of Kwara did not desert us and that is why I am entirely grateful to them. They stood by us despite the threat coming from the centre. The period was fraught with intimidation, blackmail and all sorts.

There was nothing they did not use to threaten people, but Kwarans say no and they gave us a result that is even better than 2011. In 2011 we did not have the whole 24 members’ state House of Assembly.  For Kwarans all I can say is that this confidence they have reposed on our party under our leadership, that we will continue to do our best not to disappoint them. If there are areas, because there is no perfection, that need improvement we will do our best.

It is our honest view that we have now put in place a more credible person who will be accountable that there will be better funding at both the state and local government levels and we will begin to see improvement at the state and local government levels. We have seen what has happened to the exchange rate. Just in this period now the rate has appreciated for about 30 percent; that for the fact that President Buhari is coming and APC is forming government.

Assessing the outcome of governorship and House of Assembly elections in Kwara

On the governorship candidate of the PDP, Senator Simeon Ajibola, who said he has not lost an election. He should have said that he has never won too, because he didn’t win. We were the one winning for him, so he didn’t win right from his first senatorial to the second. In the 2011 elections, there is video recording when I was begging people not to vote for him but for me. I said it many times because people were saying they did not want him. He has never won an election that is why he could not win even in his local government.

Or his running mate, Yinka Aluko who has not contested any election because they all believe that the election would be done in Aso Villa. The message to all politicians is for them to go back and win the confidence of their people. It is now clear to them that power lies with the people and not with outside state.

It shows that they do not have the interest of Kwarans at heart. They are doing it largely because they want to dislodge the Saraki dynasty because we have been there taking care of the good people of Kwara state. That is why very soon PDP will collapse and they will want to defect. If they truly believe in freedom for Kwara let them stay in the opposition and provide alternative for Kwarans.

On Rivers state elections

I don’t think anybody can deny the fact that compared to other states of the country that there was something wrong in the Rivers state election. That already raises a red flag that something has gone wrong there. That needs to be investigated and I think it is only fair for the people of Rivers to have an election that is similar to what happened to other parts of the country.  There is nothing that should be special about Rivers that people should be deprived of anything that is not up to standard that is acceptable today in what you call an election. I think the responsibility lies on INEC and elections petition tribunal to rectify that anomaly. There are two issues here. There is the issue of the election itself and the issue of what happened in Rivers and how do will ensure normal democratic process in Rivers state. We cannot accept that was a norm.

I think more importantly, we must ensure that people that violated the electoral laws must be punished. It is the only way in subsequent elections people will respect the law. We must begin to hold people responsible for the actions that they commit during elections. In all civilized societies going for an election should not be the issue of one’s life being threatened.

Improvement on pipe borne water in Ilorin metropolis

We did provide some funding on the issue of water, which was meant to be phase one of the project. I think it is something that continues, it has not been done. Definitely, it will require a lot of funding for the state to be able to ensure the project is completed so that the people, especially at the central can get the benefit of uninterrupted power supply. That now comes back to the revenue profile of the state.

I think one of the things we cannot turn away from and we must come to terms with, is that there must be increase in revenue independent of federal allocation. But in doing that, we the people must be ready to make sacrifices. We have been hearing about Lagos and Ogun States. But the people of Lagos are paying a lot for those revenues. Generally, our people are very reluctant when it comes to taxes of different types. I think we have to begin to come to terms with the fact that if we really want the kind of development that we are seeing in some parts of Nigeria particularly Lagos and Ogun States, we must begin to appreciate that it is time that we might have to start paying those taxes.

What we need to begin to look at is how to hold government accountable as much as agreed on the type of leadership. Because I have always believed that if you are providing leadership, you must do it honestly. There is no point sweet-quoting some things. The reality on ground today based on the oil price of over $50, if the Federal Government blocks the leakages, address the oil theft, yes, that will help revenues.

But taking it to the extent of oil price going to $100 per barrel at the international market, if it does at all, for another two to three years, I don’t see that. I can see an oil price of $70 per barrel stabilizing for the long time. If you have that as your projection, then you can walk back to us to see if oil price gets to $70 or $80, you can anticipate what total revenue will be. Would that revenue be able to sustain development. I think these are frank questions we need to put before ourselves. There is no need for us to be sentimental and emotional on this issue. There is a saying “No pain without gain. I believe that those are the challenges the chief executives in the 36 states have ahead of them.

Seriously, we in Nigeria must understand that there cannot be miracle. There has to be some pains to get some gains. It is unfortunate that we lost the opportunity of six years of $100 per barrel of crude oil, and we did not make gross advantage of it. I believe that if we have had an accountable government, there is no way we should not have reserves and excess crude. Unfortunately what we have now, we have to face reality. But I believe that sometimes this kind of things happen for a good cause. It will help us to see that we don’t have any other option than to diversify our economy, to move away from oil and look at other areas.

And also there is no way out of it. We have to increase our non-oil revenue base. To do this, you must go to the issue of taxation. So these are the challenges, not only in Kwara but all over the 36 states.

Quality of people forming President-elect cabinet

I think the President-elect has emphasized the issue of integrity and capacity. You have heard what I just talked about the challenges ahead. It is not going to be a tea party. There is work to be done. We have the mess to clean up. We have expectation also to meet for all the people that have gone around on change slogan. To expect the immediate result, we must have people that hit the ground running and be able to perform. The issue now is to balance between the political expectation of people who have supported the political party win and also on performance. It is clear that with the kind of mandate we have been given, we must ensure we perform and we succeed so that we do not run into the same problem like PDP.

Agenda for the APC government at the national

The President-elect in the campaign was very clear. The issue of corruption, security and provision of jobs for the youths. I think these are three clear areas that are key in addressing that. In the area of security, the fight against Boko Haram, bring down insurgency in those areas and restoring credibility and belief in our military. There would be zero tolerance for corruption and because of the backdrop of that, you begin to see revenue coming up and you will have more money for infrastructural development.

On asset declaration

We are just making a lot of noise of it. Definitely, by and large, there is no public servant that would not declare his assets. Now with FOI, you declare your assets with code of conduct and you declare it in public. I don’t think it is declaration of assets that would make you less corrupt or more accountable. I think it is your own individual commitment to your party and leadership provided. Leadership is very important because the leader leads by example. Honestly, things will change. Instead of sitting with the president to seek favour, you  come home and sit down with your people so that you can have the better chance of winning election.

And if you are not accountable, you are stealing government money, people will not vote for you. Honestly, March 28 was a turning point in the history of this country.

With influx of people into APC, Nigeria is drifting toward one party state.

One party is not good for our democracy. I believe that our democracy is begining to mature. We now must begin to involve party representing policies, principles and what they stand for. It is important for democracy to have a strong opposition. It is important for us to see our sacrifice and service not about personal gain. When somebody after election does not have any major issue for decamping, then he is not providing good leadership or prepared to serve the people. So I do not support the issue of one party.

In our state, a lot of people have been talking, some said they are freedom fighters. So their freedom fighting should not end after they lost election. Because if you believe in freedom, that is what they were saying, unless you were deceiving the people to use freedom to try to get what you wanted to get. That freedom should not end after the election. It is clear that they were not fighting for any freedom, it is for their own personal things.

Implantation of Gbemisola Saraki in the PDP

Apart from the fact of being a biological sister, if you look at the political family and remove the biological aspect of it, tell me who is in PDP that is not a family member of this place (Great Hall) or who is in PDP that did not start from this place. So if you say implant, then all of them, we took them there for implantation. The only difference between Gbemi among them is biological sister. Is it Bio, Abu, Ajibola or Yinka Aluko, tell me who among them. The only person there you might say is Dele Belgore. Apart from Dele, everybody in that place is coming from this house. Tell me one person who did not come from this house or who has risen in his political career independent of this house. That is a cheap blackmail that cannot take us anywhere.

On the performance of INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega

This is the man that has shown us in Nigeria that we have credible people, we have people that can stand for what they believe, would not be intimidated and would do the right thing despite all the pressure. But what I think is more important as he (Jega) leaves, he should ensure that the institution he is leaving behind would continue along this line, to ensure that his successor also has those principles that he has brought in. And he should also play a key role in ensuring that he gets a good successor so that the good things he had done would be sustained. I think that is when Nigeria would be better for it.

Rumour over Kwara Deputy Governor’s replacement.

I think that is just cheap propaganda and blackmail. You all know what the constitution provides on the issue. In 2011 we rejected it, ditto even in this last one. The issue of replacement does not even arise at all. It is clear to some of these people that this kind of cheap propaganda doesn’t sell. What sells is what has been their performance and what are they doing to the people. I think that is just garbage talk.