Sen. Shaba Mohammed Lafiagi, representing Kwara North Senatorial District has urged the federal government to revitalise industries that have been shut down to create more jobs for Nigerians. Speaking with journalists recently, the former governor of Kwara State also called on government to handle the Boko Haram issue with care. Ruth Choji was there for LEADERSHIP WEEKEND. Excerpts;
There Have Been reports that Al-Qaeda is trying to make Nigeria its operation base. With the recent increase in bombing, would you say Nigeria is becoming a terrorist den?
I don’t know, maybe there are some information that the people have that I am not aware of, but I hope it does not happen, because Nigeria is such a large country and very volatile. When we have that kind of issue here and knowing what is happening in a place like Pakistan, then I would say that we are in serious trouble, I hope that report is not true.
Don’t you think these signals will further dent our already battered image?
These signals are not good, I hope we are able to tackle them quick because, if we have this type of thing entrenched here with our history of religious violence and other vices, then it will make this country a very difficult place to govern. But the fundamentals of unemployment must be looked into, especially graduates who are left idle. I also call on government to revisit some of these privatised companies that have not been revitalised after they had been sold. I also think we should start producing graduates that will create job opportunities for themselves and not one waiting for white collar jobs only. Let us get the railways working, it will employ thousands of people.
What is your take on the recent bombing and attacks on innocent Nigerians in Maiduguri and other parts of the north?
I am concerned about what is happening. It is unfortunate because there is no religion in whatsoever guise that teaches violence, so I don’t understand this. But what could be responsible, I think that the rate of unemployment that is increasing by the day among the youths is responsible, I also think that lack of trust on the part of the leadership has a role to play. People talk about the injustice that is going on in the country and it is like they are not happy with the way things are happening, maybe those leading them have not been fair to them, and so they have been denied justice.
There have been mixed reactions over the way government has been handling the issue, what is your take on this?
To be honest with you, I think care should be taken because there is a religious element attached to this, that is the difference between the present situation and the Niger-Delta case. The peculiarity is their (Boko Haram) mode of operation, look at how many years it took America to get the leader of al-Qaeda network. This kind of security problem where you cannot identify the specific individuals responsible or specific method they operate and areas they target makes it difficult, there are some aspects of it that you must understand properly and I think that is what the government is trying to do, I think that is why people feel government is not doing anything about it.
Islam preaches peace and here is a sect that claims to be Muslims unleashing violence and terror on the lives of people, does it mean that the religious leaders have failed or is there a misinterpretation somewhere?
To some extent, some of the leaders have failed, because they don’t tell their people the truth, they are aware of this sect springing up and I think that this group should have been tackled immediately, when they were springing up. We also hear preaching around us that tends to encourage people towards violence, but we ignore these signs, believing that they are preaching the words of God, I won’t say all the Islamic leaders have failed, but if we had tackled this right from the beginning, it wouldn’t have gotten this far.
The north has ruled this country longer to other geopolitical zones, one would have expected it to be the most peaceful and well developed area, but with the continuous violence, don’t you think it has indicted the leaders?
I agree with you that we blame the northern leadership, we have the highest number of unemployment, so the youth have the right to react. We have ruled this country for 35 years and virtually, there is nothing to show for it, we have had all kinds of opportunity in this country that should have changed the fortune of the north, yet the situation keeps deteriorating, our education has become rottened, look at the industry look at Kaduna, all the textile mills have been shut down, the oil mills have been shut down. Apparently all those that took over from the founding fathers have not done well as required.
Government is extending an olive branch to this sect and at the same time sending security personels to fish them out by force, what action would you advise government to take?
I believe that crushing them with the use of force is not the only way to go about this issue or any other one, I think that we should identify their leaders and go into dialogue with them, violence will not solve the problem, we might be able to suppress them, but as you suppress the old ones, new ones will develop. With the way Boko Haram operates, it will be very difficult to use force to suppress them.
From the way the president is handling these issues and the kick off of his administration, people are beginning to see him as being weak and slow, how would you asses Mr. President?
Running a country like Nigeria is not like running a company or organisation. Is it the religious interest that you must make sure you balance or the tribal interest that you must balance or is it the zoning issue that you must try to balance? Take the case of ministers and see the crises that trailed it, you cannot run a country as complex as this and think you can meet everybody’s demands; even the sharing formula is always difficult to balance, so to run a country of 150 million people is not easy.
Nigerians have been calling on the president to priorities some of his policies while others have tried to set agenda for him, what areas would you advise him to look into first?
The idea of people setting agenda for him is not going to make him succeed, anybody who becomes the president of this country should have prepared his mind on where he wants to take this country, he should have a plan, a road map, he should know the problems and their solution. Having said that, then what areas should he really face?
I think power should come first, because everything in this country rotates around power, to make sure that the industries are working, to make sure that the young girl with a hair dressing salon has power to work, the women in the market grinding pepper need the power to function, for infrastructure, I think the road network is very important because people need them to travel with, I believe also that the banking sector needs lots of rejuvenating, I must commend the Central Bank governor for the various steps he has taken to make sure that things are sorted out, our economy cannot be strong if the banks are not sorted out, agriculture is another key area, I do not believe that this country that has varied natural resources from heavy rainfall down to the savanna in the north is not efficient, it will enable us to produce any kind of food we want. I don’t think this country has any business importing food. Look at places like River Niger, River Benue, and other big rivers, we have lots of places that we can use to produce rice, I believe that we should be able to produce our own rice and export them to other nations, I don’t think we should be bringing in much grain as we are doing.?
Education is another key area that we need to look into, it is not enough to say that we have lots of students in secondary schools, what results?are we getting from these students, is it a child that goes to school and comes out, yet cannot construct a simple sentence or write a letter?
It is as good as not producing him at all, you must also look after the teachers, it is not enough to send them to the schools and equip the schools, while the teachers will not be there to teach them, because they have gone to do another business outside, that will augment their little income. We have to identify what the problems really are and where we want our economy to be, we must also know the kind of education we want to give our children, these are some of the areas we need to look into.
There have been lots of argument over plans to introduce the Islamic banking to Nigerians; would you explain to Nigerians what this system is all about and why the tax payers money will be used to start it off?
First of all, I disagree that they are trying to use public funds to finance this, it is not established by the Central Bank, it is a group of people that have decided to establish Islamic banking. I honestly don’t know why they decided to name it Islamic banking, the basic interest of this banking is that it shares profit, because Islam does not recognise interest. It is more of sharing profit banking than Islamic banking, it is about an establishment that is there like any other establishment. If your religion does not permit you to use it, then you don’t have to use it. I don’t think we should bring the issue of religion into it, because these are the type of things that create conflicts. As long as nobody will tell you to go and bank there, nobody will tell ministries to go and put government money there, it is absolutely the decision of the individual, therefore should we deny people of their right of what they want to do?
There are many oppositions now in the Senate, and there are fears that this will make the PDP not to have an easy ride like it used to, what do you think?
Having opposition doesn’t stop you from moving forward, as a matter of fact, it makes the chambers more healthy. But of course, the opposition will have its say but the majority will have its way, the calibre of people we have in the Senate are responsible people who carry their responsibility well.
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