From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf is a second time member of the National Assembly representing Taraba Central at the Red Chambers. In this interview, he blames insecurity in the country on the failure of governors and calls for inclusion of independent candidature in the electoral Act. He also spoke on the economy, crisis in the APC and governance in Taraba State.
How did you receive the news of the President’s refusal of assent to the Electoral Act as amended?
I must say that even on the floor of the Senate, I never supported the idea of direct primaries not because it is not good; in fact, it is very fine. But then you know that democracy is about choice and so when you restrict the people’s right and even the political parties to chose what type of primaries they want to adopt, you are restricting their options and that is not very democratic.
Secondly, direct primaries in this country will require a lot of enforcement and the party must have a credible database of the membership and the members may also need a reliable means of identifying them which should be biometric based. And again direct primaries is very expensive and is almost just like a general election.
So, I don’t think we are ripe for direct Primaries in this country as it were until all these measures are put in place. So, I was not surprised that he refused assent in the first place. I believe that Mr President who is himself a supporter of direct primaries took his time to give it a good thought and has also concluded that we are not ripe for direct primaries at this time and so the National Assembly should look at it once again.
What other aspects of the act do you think you and your colleagues may need to give a second look at so that the bill is not returned to you again?
Well, fundamentally it is a matter of choice. In my opinion, what is really missing, which may not necessarily affect the passage of the bill once the issue of direct primaries is settled, is the provision of room for independent candidature so that if a candidate does not want to attach himself to any political party, he can go ahead and contest without a political party.
I think it is very important for us to look at that so that people are so strongly tied down by political parties and their rules. This will definitely add value to the Electoral Act. Another thing is that I think we should have a breakup with INEC as a regulator and a separate body for political party management because political parties should be managed in such a way as to have freedom in the management of their affairs so that we don’t have a dictatorship in the management of political parties.
What are your concerns about 2023 elections considering the present security and economic realities?
Certainly, there are some level of concerns; however this is politics, this is democracy where there is the rule of law and so I believe the citizens of this country need to stand up to the occasion and live within the ambit of the law so that they can align with the government and fully participate in the process. The government alone can not provide security in this country; so the citizens must play their role.
What is your take on the deteriorating security situation in the country?
The poor management of the local government system is largely responsible for the situation we have found ourselves. The local government has not been effectively and efficiently managed by the state governors and so in my opinion, I will give 80 percent of the blame to the state governors because they are the managers of the grassroots politics and managers of the local government.
Every security situation we have, be it insurgency, kidnapping, banditry or whatever, they all happen in location under the jurisdiction of the state governors and the state governors have also sworn to protect lives and property and so it is equally their responsibility to do the needful and so I will give them a chunk of the blame.
But the governors complain that they don’t have control over the security structures in their states and so how do you expect them to function well?
Thanks for drawing my attention to that. The idea is not for the state governors to control the security Chiefs in their states but to work with them. I am sure there is no Commissioner of police for instance who will say I am posted to your state but I don’t want to work with you.
You know that there are some states that the state government has good working relationship with the security agencies. So it is a matter of understanding and accepting to work with reciprocal regards for each other.
It boils down to attitude and I can tell you that, with all due respect, some of the governors behave as if they were demigods and therefore they can run the states the way they want it and things must always be their own way no matter what. This is a federal system and federalism has its own tenets which most of our governors seem to ignore. The bottom line is to work with the security agencies and not to control them.
Again the Federal Government is against state policing which a lot of stakeholders have advocated. Is this helping matters?
I must say I support the position of the Federal Government on the issue of state policing because it has always been my position as well. The state governments do not have the resources, maturity, infrastructure to run the state police.
However, I believe we should have community policing. This is the involvement of all aspects of the federal structure involving the community and giving them the right atmosphere within the ambit of the law to operate. So for me, the state governments do not have what it takes including the will to run state police for now, maybe much later but certainly not now.
How do you see the proscription of bandits as terrorists group and calls for proscription of killer herdsmen as terrorists in line with the global terror index?
Criminality is criminality and should be treated as such whether it is bandits, killer herdsmen, kidnappers or whatever form they come. I am sure Mr President will treat all criminal elements with same standards. He will not support any criminal group or gang under any guise. But you know, in this country, people fail to understand these criminal gangs.
There are herdsmen, non herdsmen, other tribal groups who emanate as criminal bandits and all of them must be treated as such. The thing is that, if you have genuine grievances, then you must approach the government in a civilized way with your concerns either as freedom fighters or whatever. But come with concrete platform and issues so that the government can sit down and discuss the way out.
So, the situation where you have discordant voices here and there without a clear head or platform and no defined ideology that the government can engage, then the government obviously should not even contemplate dealing with such groups. Rather, they should be treated as the criminal elements that they are.
Do you believe with the school of thought that some elites are sponsoring the insecurity for their gains?
Again, I put it back to the people and the citizens of this country. These people are clearly living amongst the people in various communities so why are the people not flushing them out? Where are the civil societies? They should be able to come and work with the government so that they can go out there to some of the rural areas and communities to identify these people. Let the society expose these people rather than harbouring them.
But the people don’t have such intelligence. The government through her agencies do. Shouldn’t the government be the one exposing these people?
Globally, the source of information is the society because that is where these people live. The society knows and tolerates these people. It is not just about the government. The society should be able to begin to question the source of wealth of her members.
The society knows them, where they stay, how they spend money, their live style and their antecedents. It will be a slap on the Nigerian face if we are waiting for some foreign government to come and tell us about our own citizens who are sponsoring our challenges from within.
What is your impression about the state of our economy?
Yes we have challenges, nobody can dispute that. But the economy has improved considering the fact that when the APC came to power in 2015, a chunk of our money used to go to the importation of rice but today we are self-sufficient with our locally produced rice and I think there is relative food security in the country now.
Secondly, you know the economy has survived two recessions and is the fastest growing economy in the world to survive recessions under such a very short time. Three, in terms of managing our foreign exchange, we have challenges there but that is because we have an insatiable taste for foreign goods and services and it is very difficult to manage the situation. So, it is a societal issue.
The way out is to cut down on our crave for foreign goods and services to save foreign exchange which is not even there. And then we have the endemic corruption that is killing us. It is one of the greatest problems we have in this country and if we don’t kill it fast, it will consume us all. And like I said earlier, the society has a great role to play.
First of all, the society should stop glorifying wealth. The moment you are not rich, you are not taken seriously but once you have acquired money, nobody cares to know the source of your wealth. You automatically become an important member of the society that is worshipped.
For instance, as Legislators, our primary responsibility is making laws but you are now judged by the number of physical projects that you do and by bringing rice. Once you don’t bring rice, they will insult you and call you a very stingy senator. So even the fight against corruption cannot be won by the government alone. The active involvement of the populace is very important.
How will you assess governor Ishaku’s nearly seven years in office in your home state of Taraba?
I think it is very challenging to Governor Darius Ishaku because when he came he said, give me peace and I will give you development and I am not sure he has got that peace yet.
However, that does not mean that I am satisfied with the governance of the state under his watch. There are some elements which I am not comfortable with and there are some that are also beyond his own control. And yet there are some within his control but he is obviously ill-advised.
Like I said, he is a new man in Taraba. He has always been in Kaduna and he has found himself ruling in Taraba where knows very little. Sadly, he has come in and met some figures who have been part and parcel of the politics and governance in the state. I think he needs to have done much more than he has done today.
Sadly, it is a combination of his ignorance of the state and it’s working, I’ll advise and the political will may be there but maybe the competence is not there. If he was well advised in the interest of the state rather than people advising him for their personal gains, I think he may have done better.
As the leader of the APC in Taraba, how do you intend tackling the internal wrangling in the party ahead of 2023?
I think the crisis in the party in Taraba is being amplified by the media. I am in a position to know a lot about the situation of the party in the state and I can tell you that the situation is not as bad as it is being projected. I can tell you that the crisis in APC in Taraba that is drummed is crisis between individuals. These are personal issues rather than factional or corporate issues.
For instance, we don’t have factions in the party in the state. Yes granted that this is democracy and politics and it involves people with varying interests and background that are coming together to work for a common goal and so you must expect some frictions every now and then but by and large, we are intact and ready to take over Taraba in 2023. We are working to do the needed reconciliation where there is need.
Taraba has always been an APC state with PDP government. That has not changed. But come 2023, assessing the odds and levels of preparedness, I can tell you that APC is the party to beat in Taraba come 2023.
Are you planning on contesting for governorship of the state in 2023?
For now, we are looking into it and consulting. If it becomes pertinent for me to, sure I will. However at this stage, our major focus is to unite the party and get everyone working on the same page. We cannot afford to allow personal ambitions and interest to overrule our sense of duty and commitment to the party.
And so we are more concerned about positioning the party strategically for grand success rather than nursing personal ambitions. As you are aware, the state has never been so polarized as we have it today. Tribal, religious and sectional sentiments have taken the centre stage in our political environment and we need to purge ourselves of this venom as we go into the next elections. But if we find it absolutely necessary, sure, I will contest.
What are the highlights of your performance in the last year and what should your constituents expect this new year?
You know it is extremely difficult for one to assess himself. However, I can tell you that the fundamentals of a legislator is to move motions, to provide security for his constituents, to do rules, bills and over-sighting. To that extent and with all modesty, I can confidently say we have done very well within the ambit of my constitutional roles.
The rest is up to you the Journalists to go to my senatorial district and find out how much I have done for my people and to weigh their feelings. In this new year, I have a few bills coming up and in the area of over-sighting, I have a lot going on also especially as I am over-sighting the North East Development Commission, which is one of the commissions saddled with the responsibility of providing intervention in the Northeast. So I think we may have a better outing in 2022.