Hon Tam Brisibe, represented Burutu Federal Constituency of Delta State from 2003 to 2011 and in this interview with some journalists, the CEO of TANDICE-B Solutions Limited has blamed the increase in violence across the country on security lapses. Ruth Choji reports for LEADERSHIP WEEKEND. Excerpts
The sixth House was enmeshed in lots of scandals bordering on appropriations of finance and most Nigerians regarded them as a failure. What is your take on that?
I am not too sure it was a matter of the House losing credibility. Certainly, there were lots of issues that were on the pages of newspapers, speculating on the allowance of members, accusation of embezzlement and all of that, it is unfortunate that all of that happened. The first thing I would say is that, it is standard practice anywhere in the world for politicians to be mistrusted; politicians are being accused of being selfish the world over. So what happened is not necessarily something that is unheard of. As representative of the people, the country has a right to expect a certain standard from members they sent to represent them and when there are issues that look like transgression, the press is bound to make comments on them. The fact is that, some of those things that occurred between 2007 and 2011, were never based on facts, some were speculative, but at the end of the day, there were items that were discussed by everybody. So in terms of allowing ourselves to be on the front page news saying we didn’t do well, I think part of it was because of the position we held, and what is expected of people holding those positions. The scandals and accusations could have been avoided, but I think it was more sensationalism than facts. So on that basis, as much as I regret those things that happened, in a way I will say that it was something that generally happens with politicians.
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Why Was The Petroluem Industry Bill Adandom
It has not been abandoned or rejected, the process is still on, it has many stages. After it was passed by the Senate, the House of Representatives, there were at the stage of dealing with the clause by clause passage of the bill, but we were not able to finish the process.
Why did the Bill suffer such set back, is it because it might favour some people more than others ?
It is not about the Niger/Delta, it is a bill for Nigerians and the oil industry Nigeria stands to benefit more. There are provisions in the bill that are skewed in favour of the Niger /Delta, and the PIB has about 460 clauses and it is only two that talked about the place. It talked about community participation in oil exploration, with talked about 10 percent being given to host communities. In my opinion, there are too many interests involved, the petroleum industry is what feeds us; it brings in money exchange; we have become too lazy in Nigeria that oil and gas is all that we can do; state governments that have other resources have refused to develop them because they are waiting for oil companies to drill products and give it to the leaders. The solution to me is derivation to everybody, forget about whether one part of the country is going to get more than others, the governors have become lazy, they don’t want to maximise what they have in their states.
Are you advocating for resource control?
A hundred percent control for everybody.
The plan to introduce Islamic banking is generating heat in the polity, what is your understanding of this phenomenon and the way out?
As far as Nigeria is concered, anything and everything can cause problems Islamic banking is a banking system that comes for Muslims following the sharia, from Muslim laws, which says that you do not take interest on monies you borrow, that is in Islamic teaching, but the interesting thing is that, in the Bible, taking of interest which is called the usury is actually frowned at. So it is really not an Islamic thing, but a religious kind of thing that we should not charge interest for monies you lend to someone, based on the practice of some people. Islamic countries have tried to differentiate banking in the ordinary way, where borrowing money is on interest basis. Those Islamic countries have tried to use their own understanding of Islamic laws of not charging interest to start a banking system. Pakistan for instance tried to change its whole banking operation from an interest system to a profit sharing system, they tried to eliminate completely the kind of banking we understand and replaced it with Islamic banking, but they found out that it did not work and they moved away from it. Some other countries like Malaysia tried to bring in Islamic banking and maintain traditional banking, those countries are basically Islamic countries, so the tendencies to call it Islamic banking was there. But even in some foreign countries in Europe and America, that form of banking has been allowed to operate in those countries, those countries have allowed banks that want to operate in profit sharing to operate.
The first Islamic banking that was given by the CBN was to Stanbic IBTC, can you say that Stanbic IBTC is an Islamic bank? I think if there is something good about an idea, let us look at it; of course some people think that, for you to participate, you must be a Muslim, that none Muslim cannot take their money there, that provision cannot work in Nigeria because Nigeria is not an Islamic country, that provision is made very clear in the constitution. As a Nigerian, I can put my money anywhere I want and you cannot stop me from putting my money in your bank because I am a Christian, so there is no way a bank will come here and tell me that I cannot do business with it because I am not a Muslim. We should look at all of that and understand what we are talking about, it is not something we should fight over.
Does it have any benefit on an average Nigerian?
What is the benefit of any of the banks on an average Nigerian? I would say yes, because the man can keep his money in the bank where a thief cannot come and steal it, if he keeps it in his house, it can be stolen, but when you have a foreign sharing bank, he is not expecting to get three naira at the end of the year but that, the money will undertake a project and from that one naira he has provided, the profit would be shared.
?But with the recent activities of the Boko Haram, don’t you think bringing in this system of banking now could further degenerate the problem of religion extremism in the country?
What I said earlier was that in Nigeria, everything can be used to foment trouble.
Do you think Nigeria has become a terrorist nation?
This is a matter of security; it means that our security operatives are not doing what they ought to be doing. It is a matter of security and obedience to the rule of law, we do not respect laws in Nigeria, when we don’t respect laws, it grows into the kind of situation we have, if we respect one another, then we will not be doing what we are doing now.
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