Chairman, Senate Committee on Housing and Urban Development, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, 63, shares the October 1 birthday with Nigeria. In this interview with CHIKA OTUCHIKERE, the former? Governor of Yobe State says that successive leaders have not taken the country to the desired destination. He also looks to the future generation to do the magic.
Nigeria was 52 yesterday, October 1; how would you assess Nigeria?
I was also 63 yesterday, so I’m 11 years older than Nigeria. I have seen it all happen during the colonial days and during the post colonial days, when we had a parliamentary democracy, and also during the military when we had military democracy. And now, we are back in the presidential system of democracy. Well, Nigeria has come of age really; Nigeria has developed very, very much. Nigerians have done well and Nigerian leaders have done well. We could certainly have done better with the kind of resources we have had over the last 52 years. If we had the kind of leadership that was visionary all through, that was transparent all through, that had the respect of all the people, all the time, all through, we could have done much, much better. But, we have come of age; we have strived. All our leaders have strived in their areas of strength while areas of weaknesses have been identified. We hope our future leaders will learn a lesson from these areas of weaknesses of our past leaders, so that we’ll wax even stronger and make Nigeria the country of our dreams.
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Nigeria today is not Nigeria of our dreams. Nigeria today is not the place where you’ll say, ‘all is fine, all is well’. It’s not a place where you’ll say all is going well. We have a problem today with security; we have problem with education; we have problem with health; we couldn’t fight desertification and desert encroachment;? we couldn’t fight costal and land erosion. There are so many major problems besetting this country and I just hope that the future leaders will do something about these very important areas, including power, infrastructure, security and so on. Every aspect of development is important but you must get your priorities right. Today, our number one priority should be security. Our priority number two should be free education at all levels, for our children in primary and secondary schools. Other priorities should be fighting desertification and desert encroachment; fighting coastal erosion; getting much more improved power supply, much more improved road network and road maintenance, much more improved health care services. Nigeria, with all the doctors we have, our hospitals do not have the relevant equipment, so we rush to Cairo and India and United Kingdom and Germany for every small ailment. This is not good enough; this is not acceptable. This must change.
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Can you say Nigerians are more united today than when they first started out?
Well, 52 years down the line of Nigeria, I think we are fairly well united for a country where you have a very heterogeneous society, all brought together by force of colonialism. I think we have strived well. If it were a voluntary union, if it were a cosmopolitan society, things would be different, but we are not. So, I think, to that extent, we have tried. Though, we need to improve on our national unity and also our justice system. You see, some of the security problems we are having in Nigeria are brought about by injustice. And there can never be peace in a situation where injustice is being practised left, right and centre; top, middle and bottom. Injustice is what spoilt our security. We must ensure justice to all in all parts of Nigeria, all corners of Nigeria. We should not treat some parts of Nigeria as special part because they have oil, and mistreat other parts of Nigeria because they don’t have oil. You don’t know what they are going to have in the future. That is the beauty of democracy; that is the beauty of federalism. Everything found inside the ground belongs to all Nigerians, not just those who accidentally happen to occupy those areas.
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What is your view on the agitation for more states?
I don’t really think this makes any sense at all. I don’t think we need any more states than we have now. What is important is to bring about real, all-round even development nationwide. It’s not more states or more local government that we really want; in fact it’s more relevant to have more local governments than to have more states. I believe if the states are allowed to remain as they are, or they are allowed to say the number of local governments that they need without changing the revenue formula, it is better. It is more local governments we really need, not more states. If we start creating states, we will run into a lot of trouble. So it’s better to leave it lying low, but allow states to create more local governments to bring about more even development.
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In the last two decades, some groups have agitated for sovereignty of their regions; what is your take on this?
It’s rubbish; they are just bluffing. If we allow them to go the rest of Nigeria will be better off for it. Don’t think about this little oil they have in the ground, it will soon dry up. Nigeria is much greater than oil. They are just bluffing; I don’t think that they are serious guys. These kinds of people are just people who want to be kings in little kingdoms, rather than be citizens of superpowers. They are not serious.
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One of their grouses is the way our federalism is being practised
Well, let them tell us how we should practise it very loudly. Let us hear them, let us call whatever conference they want us to call and agree at a roundtable what needs to be changed. We are not against change; we are not running away from change; we are not afraid of change if it will bring about a better nation, a better community, a better society than we already have.
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Do you subscribe to the call for a national conference?
I have no objection to a national conference, but not a sovereign conference; you cannot have two sovereignties. You cannot have National Assembly and you are talking about sovereign national conference. These National Assembly people were elected from all over the country, from every nooks and corner. We have about 440 Nigerians elected, not selected, from all corners of Nigeria; that’s sovereignty. We don’t need any more sovereignty. Whatever conference we call, let them work and then bring what they have done to the National Assembly for ratification.
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Some have also called for state police; do you also subscribe to state police?
We don’t need a national conference to introduce state police; we only need legislation. And I fully support state police. That does not mean there will be no federal police. There will be federal police working hand-in-hand with the state police for local criminal activities and other local issues. The state police will be very effective. These are people known by everybody; they also know everybody; they are going to operate in their own community; people know them; they know people so they can’t do the kind of rubbish Nigerian police does today simply because today you are a Bayelsan and you are posted to Damaturu, you mess up and leave Damaturu tomorrow; you have nothing to fear. So to that extent, state police is a good thing, and we don’t need national conference to do that; we just need legislation.
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People have argued that the state police could be hijacked.
We shouldn’t allow it to be hijacked. Why have the federal police not been hijacked by the president and his cabinet. What’s the difference? The president and his cabinet are not angels; governors and their commissioners are not angels; local government chairman and their councillors are not angels, so it is left to us as a country to ensure that no one would hijack any security network for selfish ends. These are some of the obvious things you will definitely face when you have state police. That does not mean you cannot fight that kind of malaise.
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Some have argued that politicians today calling for state police may become victims tomorrow?
It leaves to be seen. If anybody does the wrong thing, let him be a victim. Why we are agitating what we think is best for Nigeria is that we care what happens to the individual. Individuals will always find their levels in a given system. We should be bothered about the system, about the network, about the thing we are going to introduce, about the institution we are talking about, not individuals.
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What would you advise President Jonathan on our 52nd independence?
Well, as I said earlier, all our leaders have tried in their various ways and now he’s on the saddle – he’s on the hot seat – he should endeavour to do the few things I have mentioned which are very, very critical to the survival, development and transformation of Nigeria – the issue of free education at all levels, fighting desertification and soil erosion. He’s already fighting for better power supply, fighting for agriculture, fighting for security, fighting for better infrastructure, fighting for better equipped hospital and more trained doctors. That kind of person should double up in order to leave a very good legacy behind after his term.
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What do you expect of Nigeria in the next ten years?
I expect Nigeria to be a better country than today in the next ten years.
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You share birthday with Nigeria, how do you feel turning 63?
I? feel elated, I feel satisfied, I feel fulfilled. I am very happy about my 63 years of existence, from birth through my education, through what I have done so far as a civil servant, as a state commissioner, as a governor and now a senator. And I hope to continue to put in my best to uplift Nigeria until I die, and I will die a politician Insha Allahu. I will never get out of politics, in or out of government. I will continue to be a politician and I thank my nation for recognizing my little effort and honouring me with the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) last year (2011).
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What does birthday mean to you?
It’s a landmark. The day you were born and every year you remember and think over the last 12 months and see how far you have done and be a bit more determined to even do more before the next birthday. It’s a landmark, and it is a good thing to remember every year, but other than that I don’t think there is much to do about birthday.
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