President Muhammadu Buhari held a townhall meeting with the Nigerian community in Dubai and responded to questions from the audience. He explained, among other things, his approach to governance. JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH presents excerpts of the interaction during his visit to the UAE.
On what to expect from the Next Level Agenda…
I’m sure you are informed group of Nigerians. You know we campaigned on three issues in 2015: security, economy and fighting corruption. I explained so many times where we are, what we have been able to do with resources available to us from that time till now. The next level is to consolidate on whatever we have done initially. It makes common sense that in order to manage an outfit, whether a nation state or an organisation, you have to secure it. We all know how many local governments the Boko Haram was occupying. People among you that are from the North-east know now that they are not holding any local government. They were holding 17 out of the 774 local governments; they are not holding any now. They have reverted to indoctrinating young people, mostly girls and arm them with explosives and send them out to soft targets like churches, mosques, market places, motor parks and so on and after blowing up the place, they will say Allahu Akbar.
They don’t know what they are saying, because God made everything good. You can’t kill innocent people and say God is Great. You either don’t know what you are saying or you don’t believe it. We are trying our best not only in physically dealing with the combatants but in trying to rehabilitate the left behind in the internally displaced persons camps and we have a Commissioner there, who is supposed to look after them. I hope he has the time to look after them. So, the next level is to consolidate on our success. Now to the north-west, the bandits there and the conflicts between herders and farmers and so on and so forth. But those of you who are neighbours to cattle rearers, Nigerians cattle rearers use+ to carry only sticks and their machetes to cut foliage for the cattles. But these are cattle rearers with weapons like AK47.
But the problem is that you can hardly identify the difference between cattle rearers from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and other cattle herders. They look the same but I was accused of not doing anything about those operating locally but I took the governor on this and this is one of the reasons he left our party for another party. Because I told him the cattle rearers and settlers problem in Nigeria is older than myself not to talk of him. But the so-called politicians because they are so much in a hurry to make money, they acquire some of these lands and turned them into their private farms. So, if you are a cattle rearer or you know something about cattle like myself, the herders now go through anybody’s land to find water for their cattle to drink. I told Audu Ogbeh, the minister of agriculture to look at the gazette of the First Republic to get the cattle routes and get the grazing routes and re-establish them so that we can reduce this incidence.
On mining…
There are illegal mining there and we have taken action about it. We said all mining activities should be closed and the expatriates participating should go back to their countries. We have enough problems. So let them go back.
On health of workers and occupational hazards in the oil and gas industry…
There are standards, there are rules. I used to be in the petroleum sector for three and a quarter years under Geeral Obasanjo, there are rules. You can’t take Nigerians on paper. It’s when it comes to practical application of what is on paper, this is where you have problem with Nigerians. But when you look round, there are rules, there are committees and it depends on the leadership of a particular institution or place. If the leadership has the time and commitment to do its job, then there are rules and regulations by which it can go and efficiently run that organisation or institution. But a lot of Nigerians, they will commit to memory all the paper work, and then they will proceed to do what they like personally. So I assure you that the health of workers is clearly defined in each of the institutions especially the dangerous ones like oil rig operators and so on. Then, anybody who is wounded as a result of mismanagement or bad instruments, there are enough laws to prosecute that institution and get money or payment for those who have been wounded. It is up to the ministries responsible to maybe develop how they can go round and ensure that people are going by the rules.
On treasury looters…
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I have once ruled this country, some of you know that once upon a time I came in uniform and what I did was to arrest from the president downward. The president, vice president, the governors and ministers, other than the president and the vice president, the others, I put them in Kiri-Kiri prison, and I told them they are guilty until they can prove themselves innocent. And you know subsequently what happened. We put about six tribunals based on the geopolitical zones, and those who were ministers and governors were asked to justify what they have in the banks and physical on the ground relative to their legitimate earnings. There were only two Nigerians then to my knowledge who were found to be very honourable, both of them are dead now – Biliaminu Usman, a junior minister, from Jigawa State, and Adamu Chiroma, a minister of finance and governor of central bank. They were incredible Nigerians. But you know what happened, eventually, I myself was arrested. I was put in detention for three and a quarter years and luckily for me, I was so stupid, I didn’t take anybody’s money. So there was no bad publicity for me because they couldn’t find anything against me. Eventually, I was released, and that was why I made up my mind since the bulk is partisan politics, I joined the partisan politics. You also know what happened, I tried three times, and I managed to succeed the fourth time. And the three times I tried, 2003; 2007, and 2011, I ended up in the Supreme Court. All the time, I was claiming that I was actually the person who won the election but I was rigged. But because I was in the opposition, I never won any of the cases until God brought technology – Permanent Voter Card (PVC) and so on. The fourth time, before they realise it, I won the election. So there was nothing anybody could do. I may be ‘Baba Go Slow’ but I didn’t loot. People have to be proven guilty before they are locked up. All that I have to do is to tell the police, and SSS that somebody has so many houses, he has so many investments and his salary is this. Recently, the EFCC placed an advert in some of the national newspapers and showed how much was recovered in terms of fixed asset and money.
But what this administration did is to encourage Treasury Single Account (TSA), where government revenue goes to. If you see how the money goes in, then when it goes out, you can follow it. Before, everybody was doing his own thing. You had a ministry with 20 accounts. The office of the Auditor-General of the Federation or the Accountant-General could not follow it.
So, when we came, we said there must be TSA, all government revenues must go there and from there you can trace where it has gone to. It’s a very unpopular decision but I think I feel relieved that people have to account for whatever they manage. We are investing more on research and development because it’s a new technology in educational institutions and so. Government is coming up with a policy of trying to make sure that we take the full advantage of the resources of the country to get first-class equipment in our institutions and to train and retrain our teachers.
On diversification…
What we did is to try to encourage agriculture. Fertiliser made available at the half price it used to be. We encouraged people to go back to land. The response was excellent. We have virtually achieved food security, we have stopped the importation of rice. The money we have saved in foreign exchange in hundred of millions of dollars, not even in naira. We are putting that into the infrastructure.
As you know the roads, some of them were not rehabilitated since when we had the PTF. From Abuja to Onitsha, from Abuja to Port Harcourt, back and other roads. Equipment in hospitals and other institutions. I was forced to go to public so many times. What Nigeria was earning between 1999 and 2014 from crude. Production was 2.1m barrel per day, the barrel of Nigerian crude was $100 per barrel, it went up to $143. So, Nigeria was earning 2.1m times $100 times for 16 years. But look at the condition of our infrastructure when we came; the roads, the rail was killed and you know there was no power.
I think one of the leaders of those administrations made a slip of tongue by saying that they spent $16bn, not naira on power. But, where is the power and where is the $16bn? Maybe eventually by the end of this term, we will get at it.
So, whoever call me ‘Baba Go Slow’, I’m very cautious of historical antecedents. Since I was in a hurry, I was locked up, I’m going slow so that I can survive.
On the 2019 election campaigns…
I was very impressed by the turnout of our supporters in every state to see me and hear me. The crowds are more than what you can buy or force to come out. Nigerians voluntarily came out. So, I’m going to be slow and steadfast.
