Alhaji Ahmed A. Gulak, a former Speaker of Adamawa State House of Assembly in this interview with Igho Oyoyo urged Nigerians to support the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan. Excerpts:
How would you asses the transformation agenda of Mr. President so far?
Good transformation agenda! The word transformation is self explanatory. We have to change from our old ways of doing things, we have to transform this country. The transformation agenda of Mr. President simply means the old ways of doing things must be changed. We cannot be spending billions of naira in the power sector for example, without getting results, we cannot be spending billions in the education sector without getting results; similarly in health, transportation, sport etc. What this means is that when you work; you get result to the admiration and appreciation of Nigerians, because a typical Nigerian is in patient with leadership. If you say something, they want to see it on ground, If you say by 12 noon you will? see the food on your table in Nigeria; at least even if there is a delay, let us see that food by 3 pm. So the transformation agenda is that Nigerians are awake to see changes in all the sectors that affect the social life of our citizenry.
You talked about diplomacy, we believe that any relationship with any other country must be based on investment opportunities that the countries will have to see from this country and bring in investment and capital to develop some of our economies. There are a lot of untapped resources in this country, we must partner with some foreign investors to come and tap these resources. Is it in the mineral resources, agriculture? Name it, Nigeria is so blessed with both? human and natural resources that we have no business with poverty in this country. All we lack is the political will to harness these resources and we believe that the man at the helm of affairs today must be supported to really actualize wishes and vision, his missions for this country to be achieved. The elections are over, the support we need for this man is not only during elections, even in governance, the man must be supported and how can he be supported? Government officials must carry the people along in all aspects of project implementation because government belongs to the people. It is when everyone plays his or her role that we can really achieve transformation.
Some persons are criticising Mr. President on his policies, saying they are not favourable to the masses. What is your take on that?
Yeah, you have to tell me what policies are there to criticize. Is it policies that we must get stable powers supply in this country, is that what they are criticising? Policies that we must get qualitative education for our children, is that what they are criticizing. Policies that agriculture must be the bed rock for employment in this country in this is that what they are criticising? What are they criticising? You see some critics in this country just criticise for the sake of it. Don’t forget there is always an opposition to whatever he says or to whatever he does, don’t forget some people believes President Goodluck Jonathan is no body and as such should not be allowed to rule this country. So one should expect? to hear such criticism from politicians.
But I will tell you that if you study and analyse critically the policies of Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, it is to the benefit of the ordinary Nigerians – qualitative education, agriculture as the bed rock for employment, power sector that will turn around our economy, these are the challenges we are frontally facing in this administration. Security situation, he is frontally tackling it. You would agree with me that the challenges we had in the Niger Delta has substantially reduced. We are able to produce our own quota in the oil production and more revenue is coming to this country. We are having the Boko Haram challenges in the north, he is addressing it frontally. You know the security challenges is not only limited to Nigeria. It is world all over. You can see what just happened in the U.K. It is a global thing, it is not only limited to Nigeria. All the man needs is support from the citizenry to confront these challenges frontally and deal with it satisfactorily.
Many Nigerians are of the view that the six-year single term bid is a distraction and a wrongly timed project that will distract governance and the transformation agenda. Do you share their view?
I don’t really get to appreciate the psyche of Nigerians. What is the right time for the President to put his card on the table? Is it after four years? Or is it after three years? This is the right time for Mr. President to put his card on the table. And don’t forget he doesn’t have the final say on this matter. If the National Assembly in their own wisdom passes the bill, fine. If they kill the bill in the National Assembly, fine. It means that Nigerians don’t like it. This is only a proposal and based on the fact that this second tenure syndrome is very expensive and is more of disadvantage to this country than advantage. A governor is sworn in to office today and in the next four months he is preparing for a second term, which one is more distracting? You see it depends on the way you look at it.
To me, Mr. President should put his card as a sincere person. Like I told you, Mr. President is a different character from the past leadership, he does not pretend about anything, I believe that is what was working in his mind when he put his card on the table for Nigerians to decide. It is not for him to decide, but as a leader he has to propose. Its left for Nigerians to decide whether to take it or not. We have our representatives in the National Assembly who are saddled constitutionally with the responsibility to look into it – to accept it or reject it. So why the hue and cry about single term? And you know Nigerians only look at sensitive things. Mr. President has proposed among the proposals about this local government and state joint account is giving us wahala. We don’t get development at the local government level. Let us amend the Constitution to remove it so that the local government can get their own subvention directly from the federal government.
I think that is good. In the Nigeria constitution of section 7 it says, ‘The local government at every given time must be an elected local government council but you see in this country, a governor could wake up one day and just dissolve an elected council and set up a caretaker committee and a caretaker is not recognised by our constitution. Section 7 of the Constitution is clear about it. These are some of the constitutional amendment that Mr. President is putting forward for the National Assembly to consider, to accept it or believe these proposals are genuine needs for the advancement of this country to remove the bottleneck we are facing, like the Joint Account, dissolution of elected council. How would you feel if the President wakes up one day and dissolves a state executive council? People will start crying that it is unconstitutional, it has never happened, but it is the same Nigerians, the same people that dissolve constitutionally elected local government council with no prior notice and put up a caretaker committee which is not recognised in the constitution. So what I am saying is that the amendments Mr. President intends to propose to the National Assembly are genuinely and sincerely for the advancement of socio-economic development of the country. He is the President, but by the constitution, he doesn’t have the final say. That is the angle I want Nigerians to really appreciate.
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