Senator Kanti Bello, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in this chat examined a number of happenings in the polity.

What is your take on the ap pointment of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as INEC Chairman

against popular wish of selecting somebody from in-house(INEC) to continue from where Prof. Jega stopped?

Nigerians are funny people, sometimes we are not fair. When Hajia Amina Zakari was appointed as Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there are insinuations whether right or wrong that she is related to Buhari.  And any move to take somebody from in-house (INEC) as you people are suggesting, the right person to take is the same woman because she is the most senior. If Buhari does that there will be accusation of nepotism against Mr. President. I think Buhari did the right thing by nominating Yakubu as INEC Chairman and if there is anything, it is up to the Senate to decide whether he deserve to be INEC boss or not.

As former Senator, many have condemned the action of some Senators who accompanied the Senate President, Bukola Saraki to the CCT where he is facing some charges, what is your view?

I see the trial of the President of Senate, Bukola Sarak as political. At what point did he declare false asset, is it when he was Kwara State governor or in 2011 and 2015 when he came to the Senate? Why did it take the Code of Conduct Tribunal all these years to try Saraki? Justice delay is justice deny. If he has been found guilty, this thing should have come four or five years ago. They didn’t do it until he became Senate President and we cannot say this guy is corrupt without conviction. Of course, Senate President suppose to be a clean person, but why didn’t you do it earlier. How come the tribunal did not alert this guy that he declared false asset all these years but now? I don’t know where the discrepancy came from, whether when he was governor or when he came to Senate in 2011 and 2015. He must have submitted his forms. I don’t like this nonsense. If government wants to fight corruption it must fight it correctly. The best the tribunal should have done was to draw Saraki’s attention to explain if there is any error in the form he submitted and not trying to jail him without being sentenced by the court. To me, it is a political trial and if Iwas  in the Senate I would  accompany him to the tribunal.

Do you see Buhari’s hand in Sakari’s travail?

I don’t speculate because Buhari cannot have hand in anything that has to do with the judiciary, but if he hasn’t any hand which I believe he doesn’t have then he should intervene. There is nothing wrong in him intervening in this particular case because it is a political case. We cannot allow our judiciary to continue to take us for granted. Saraki has submitted his form thrice and nobody saw anything wrong but now. Just like me, so if I had been appointed a minister the CCT will say I did not declare my asset having been in the Senate for four terms. He declared his asset as governor, in 2011, 2015 respectively as a Senator until he became President of the Senate you now accused him of false declaration of asset.

How best can the fight against corruption be won ?

You must fight corruption in the right way and not if you don’t like my face you say I’m corrupt or trying to jail you without any reasonable reason. When Saraki came to the senate in 2011, the CCT should have asked  to him explain any irregularity in his form.  if he could not the Senate would not have elected him Senate President. If he had a Case to answer, he won’t aspire for to be President of the Senate.

Many believe this is not unconnected with the way he assumed the position against the wish of the APC leadership, do you think so ?

I’m not supporting Saraki and I have nothing to do with the Senate President, but I’m always on the side of the truth. The position of Senate President is for the Senate to decide who leads them and it includes all the political parties. The normal thing is that he must come from the ruling party and since Saraki is from the majority, it is expected that through dialogue APC would have presented him for confirmation in the Senate.

But this never happened?

Exactly, APC did not do that. Rather, they allowed the Senators to elect their leadership and later they started fighting Saraki. In politics if you make contribution you expect to get something in return. After all, Buhari have struggled severally to be president and he now got it, are you saying he will not reap the reward? So, politics is done in order for you to get something, Saraki and other governors of PDP came and merged with other political parties to form APC, I’m from Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). We all merged and formed APC. These people worked hard for this to work out. So, what is wrong for them to realize their ambition? One egg head or political wizard cannot sit down in his house somewhere in Lagos and decide who should be what. Also, the party has no right to say who should be the Senate President. It is the business of the upper legislative chamber to decide. Did any of those against Saraki contribute more than Saraki? Initially, we all agreed that should APC win the Presidency, the position of President of the Senate should remain in the North-Central by tradition.

This arrangement is by convention and not by law. Out of selfish interest somebody wanted to take it to the Northeast, but the people said no they wanted the Speaker of the House of Representatives. So, if you don’t like the face of somebody from the North-Central that does not mean you should change the party’s decision. Politics is a game of number. I don’t want to believe that Saraki manipulated his way to become Senate President. Even if he did provided the manipulation is legal. There is what we call legal manipulation.

The question is, did Saraki break the law to become Senate President? The answer is no. He broke the rule of an acclaimed master and leader of APC. What is this so-called master looking for? Why must he decide who becomes Senate President? Or is he looking for opportunity to become president in 2019? If that is what he is looking for, he should work hard for it and not by manipulation or creating wahala in the country.

I’m sorry I don’t want be tribalestic. Northeast produced over 6.8million votes for APC in the last presidential election, Southwest with a difference of 5, 000 and Northeast and North-Central brought higher figures. Don’t forget that Saraki increased the political fortune of the ruling party when he and other PDP governors joined APC and he delivered North-Central to the party yet, you say he had no ambition to be Senate President? Or you think all the time and money he put into APC will be without reward? Or you think he is a fool like Kanti Bello who have been investing and contributing to the growth of APC since 2002 without reward but in principle? No. somebody cannot wake up and say Saraki is corrupt now that is Senate President. So, he is now corrupt? When he offered his private jet to the party and was using it to fly members around the country during campaign to ensure the party won, then he was not corrupt.

Former governor of Rivers state , Chibuike Amaechi was finally screened , what would you say is Amaechi’s real sin ?

Amaechi has no sin as far as I am concern. He   should be confirmed by the Senate. My reason is simple, he worked hard for the party. For instance, during my days in the Senate, such case arose when some of us in the Senate delayed the confirmation of Prof. Aborishade as minister until we were convinced. Not that he gave us money, but because he worked hard for PDP. Amaechi worked hard to the extent he fought his brother from the South-South and became the most hated person in the zone. Most of his people have not forgiven him for stopping their son, Jonathan from continuing as president. Even though, today, people like Chief Edwin Clark have changed his tune.

The issue is simple, it was Amaechi who stuck-out his neck and ensured Jonathan was defeated. Unless you prove to me that there is a court verdict or verdict from a competent tribunal that Amaechi is corrupt, I will not believe that he has indeed, stolen his state fund. Buhari is the right person to know whether Amaechi is corrupt or not because he has the security agencies at his disposal. He must have got security report that Amaechi is not corrupt before he nominated him as one of his ministers. Who is Kanti Bello or anybody to say Amaechi is corrupt? Therefore, to me, it is another political corruption. Because if we believe that Buhari is honest and it took him four months to come up with the list of his ministers, then we should not doubt his choice.

As an advocate of steady power supply, would you say electricity supply has improved under Buhari?

This is rainy season therefore, we cannot say power supply has improved until after this period. We all know that during rainy season water in the dams is up and power generation increases. Fortunately, throughout my stay in the Senate, I headed and was  a member of power committee. In fact, I was one of those that initiated and fought  for the passage of the Power Sector Reform Bill (PSRB) which I believe is the key to power development in this country. We travelled to different countries and came up with this laudable policy that can help Nigeria. Unfortunately, it is not strictly adhered to. If I were Buhari, I will concentrate on four sectors.

I won’t be bothered by anybody telling me to go and revive Nigeria Airways because it is not our priority. Our priority is to make sure that our rail system is developed, there is no developed country in the world that got to where they are without improved general communication andtransportation system. And the transportation  system is the railway, because it provides goods and services easier and you can’t create it overnight. So, if Buhari loves this country, I advice him to develop our mine and steel industry before we can develop as a nation because if we have functional mine and steel industry, then we can develop our rail system.

We can produce all the hard ware that can give us an enviable rail system in Ajaokuta. Since we have iron ore and we have coal in Alaja and Enugu with Ajaokuta in the riverside of the Niger, it is high time government paid 100 per cent attention to the development of iron and steel industry. Industrial and agricultural equipment can be taken care of because you have to produce these things to grow your economy and it can help in transmission of power. Also, Buhari should revive Manbila. It is a project that should be handled with seriousness perhaps it can produce six to seven  thousand mega watts of electricity and it will add to the national grid. I was impressed when somebody said they are trying to do few things to  multiple the hydro. We can create a lot of electricity generation using multiple hydro at 2kilometers away. Small hydro plants that can produce enough power because we need steady power supply to generate and revive our industries. We have to complement the industries with steel because we cannot continue to import spare parts since we can produce them here.

This analysis shows that you can fix power and steel sectors and that is why most Nigerians think that Buhari should have  involved you  in his cabinet, are you not pained ?

That is people’s opinion because the people may have their say but Buhari will have his way.

Without getting the power sector right, don’t you think the much anticipated change may not come?

He is the president and I’m just an ordinary citizen. I have confident in Buhari and I believe he will fix the power sector.

Don’t you have hope that you may be invited to serve in this government?

Until then, if it is the will of God, like I said, I will continue to work with Buhari whether inside or outside government because I’m a stakeholder in Buhari presidency project and if he fails, God forbid, I have also failed. I’m a proud man and it is not in my nature to go about begging for position because I’m comfortable by the grace of God.

So, if I can’t advice Buhari one on one, I will do so on the pages of newspapers.

You blamed Jonathan for not being  able to deal with Boko Haram, Buhari has given the Nigerian Army until December to flush out insurgents in the Northeast, is it possible?

I’m not a security personnel but I’m a very realistic person. If a government headed by a former military general said Boko Haram will end by December, an ordinary engineer like me cannot argue it. It is not my field and I’m waiting for December. I’m confident Mr. President will do it because the professional ability of the Nigeria army is at stake and that of the president. He is not like Jonathan who they say is clueless because he does not have clue on military operations. This is a former army general saying that before December he will wipe out Boko Haram, how can an ordinary engineer like me say it is not possible?