Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), in this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, speaks on latest issues in the polity. Excerpts:
Given the kind
of debate it generated before the just concluded elections, do you think
President Muhammadu Buhari should pay attention to the issue of
restructuring in his second term?
Yes, I think so. In his first
term, restructuring was not something that was of priority to him. He
was more focused on process, doing things in accordance to laid down
procedures and doing it with honesty and integrity; in other words, to
purge the country of corruption and establish a system of integrity and
honesty. I think he has to move on to restructuring to a certain extent
now because that is the wish of significant proportion of people in
Nigeria. So, it cannot be ignored. The APC has a paper which strongly
supports restructuring. I think this is the time for him to pay more
attention to the issue and see what can be done to strengthen the
federating units and make them less dependent on the centre; and also
give them the capacity to be productive and self-sustaining. This will
make us move closer to how we were in 1966 before the military came when
the regions were the ones funding the federal government then. I don’t
want us to go back to that but it will be enough if the states can be
self-sustaining and be more productive so that this obsession of federal
allocation should end. They should stop doing like babies who need
federal feeding bottles in order to survive. It is humiliating for 36
state governments to send their commissioners of finance once a month to
Abuja with what I will call ‘begging bowls’, looking for allocation.
Civil servants collect salaries, states should not be collecting
salaries every month. We need them to be self-sustaining and
restructuring will greatly assist in making that possible.
There is this general belief that Northerners are opposed to restructuring. Why is that so?
Yes,
it is true that Northerners are hostile to restructuring. The fact is
that they are so dependent on oil revenues that they are afraid that if
restructuring takes place, the proportion of oil proceeds they will get
will be much smaller and therefore, their capacity to look after
themselves will be much more reduced. That is a fallacy that they
believe in because they are not looking inwards. Honestly, if I were
from the Northern states; the states that produced cattle; that is a
sustainable, renewable source which oil is not. Cattle should not be
mainly for people to slaughter and take to the market to sell. No! I
believe that we should have a system where cattle is used for milk,
butter, cheese, milk and frozen beef that can be exported, because the
world needs meat that can be exported in a clean environment. If they
can do this and move away from the current way of rearing cattle for
just slaughtering and eating, you will see that the North will have an
advantage. My own calculation is that at least, $5b can come initially
from the cattle industry by the time they maximise all the benefits from
the cattle and export some. This is not like oil that can dry up or
lose its value because the cattle will breed, new cattle will come and
they can continue to expand. Oil right now is contracting, getting
smaller and one day, it will go. I have pointed out all these in some
papers I have written. If I were the Northerners, I will never be afraid
of restructuring. I will rather concentrate on this natural resources
that we have, which will be self-sustaining permanently and it is the
Southern part of the country, particularly the South-South that should
be worried about the future of oil. This is because once oil goes and
there is no replacement economy, then there will be very dire
consequences.
Were you surprised by the resignation of Justice Walter Onnoghen, the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria?
The
resignation has come too late. It was a face-saving resignation because
if he had not resigned, he would have been sacked. There is no question
about that. At the very best, he would have been retired if not
actually dismissed. There is no value in the resignation anymore. It
lacks the honour and dignity that would have accompanied it if he had
done it since January when the charges were made at the very beginning
when he admitted in his writing that he forgot to declare his assets.
By
that admission, he should have resigned on the spot. But instead, he
went into a very dirty battle with the federal government and with the
Tribunal, going to three different courts to get the same order which is
a gross abuse of court process. He even went to Industrial Court which
is a labour court and has nothing to do with the matter. It is when a
worker is sacked without due procedure that is when you go there. So
Onnoghen ridiculed the entire judicial system the way he went about it,
whipping up sentiments in the South East and South South. Everybody was
being threatened in spite of obvious guilt and then Senior Advocates
capitalised on the issue to show how loyal and obedient they are to
iniquity. So, to me, the resignation is too late and I am not impressed.
He should have handled the matter with dignity and self-respect
As
someone who lives in Lagos, there are fears that some projects which
Akinwunmi Ambode, the outgoing governor of Lagos may not complete will
suffer under the incoming government. What advice will you give to the
governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu?
My advice is that he should
complete all on-going projects in Lagos state, just like what the
federal government is doing now by completing the projects that were not
finished by the Goodluck Jonathan administration. You don’t leave
uncompleted projects and go and start new ones. My advice to the
governor-elect of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu is that he should complete
any project that Ambode, the outgoing governor has started because at
the end of the day, government is a continuum. What Ambode did about the
Lagos Homs project that he abandoned will not speak well for him when
the history of Lagos is written because a lot of Lagosians need
accommodation in the state now and you can see the buildings wasting
away without being completed. To resuscitate them in future will cost a
lot of money. You can even see that the Lagos Metroline has slowed
down. Nobody is working there. Since Babatunde Fashola left, there is
hardly any construction going on and this is something that will have a
fantastic and positive impact on Lagos because people can now drop their
cars from Badagry areas right to the centre of Lagos. When they are
done with their businesses, they can take a ride back; pick up their
cars at the rail station and go. This is how it operates in civilised
countries. They can drop their cars at any of the stations and take a
ride to Lagos. So, what he did by not completing the Lagos Homs project
is wrong but nevertheless, I will not want Sanwo-Olu to do the same
thing on projects that Ambode is unable to complete. I don’t believe in
that kind of politics because your achievements will be undermined if
you abandoned projects which your predecessors couldn’t complete. I will
advise Sanwo- Olu to complete the ones that Ambode couldn’t complete.
In fact, he shouldn’t start new ones until he completes the existing
ones. Today, the federal government is basking under the glory of the
Abuja rail line. The same with the rail line in Itakpe- Warri. We have
forgotten that it was Jonathan who started these projects but they
didn’t do much and so, all the credits are going to the Buhari
administration which is completing these projects.
Source:- Independentng
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