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•Why we should go back to parliamentary system
A Board of Trustee (BoT) member of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Comrade Joachim Ezenwa Anyanwu, has said that the Second Republic politicians were statesmen unlike the present politicians, who are more of mercantilists.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the veteran journalist supported the return to the parliamentary system of government. He also highlighted why the late Mallam Aminu Kano’s political ideology should be emulated, and the reasons the late Balarabe Musa of Kaduna State became the first executive governor to be impeached.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
Nigeria is not in a war scenario, but the situation is tough. We don’t have the structure that can produce good leaders; leaders who are ready to make sacrifices and commit to getting Nigeria work. Rather we have people who are coming with baggage, creating confusion in the polity. Instead of putting things right, they have disorganised the economy and people get infuriated leading to confusion all over the place. The hardship we are passing through is caused by bad leadership.
You participated in the Second Republic politics. What is the difference between how politics was played then and now?
I was one of the youth leaders of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) led by Mallam Aminu Kano. In the Second Republic, we had committed politicians; people who were interested in the development of the country. Many of them were statesmen unlike what we have today. Then, you had people who practised politics without bitterness like Waziri Ibrahim of the Great Nigerians People Party (GNPP) with his followers. You had Aminu Kano, a very simple man and also poor not that he didn’t have the opportunity to make wealth from the nation’s or state resources but he never did that. He had only a daughter and died a fulfilled man. Shehu Shagari was a teacher; a very simple person, and very careful in his dealings and had the fear of God unlike these present day politicians who are more of merchants; transactional politicians. They only think of what goes in to their pockets, and not the progress of the country.
You belong to Aminu Kano’s political ideology. What’s his ideology all about?
His ideology revolves around giving commanding height to the state to drive the economy, as opposed to this structure, where we don’t belong to either capitalist or welfarist ideology, which has led to so much confusion everywhere. In this country, there is no clear cut ideology. However, in the PRP, we practise, we preach welfarist ideology. It is not the type that USSR was practising that led to their dismemberment. No, it is an economy that is managed by the state, where the state has a commanding height in the economy, and where people are meant to derive benefits from the resources that nature has given to them; where people in leadership positions don’t live above their means like what we are witnessing today. That is exactly PRP’s belief and it preaches that.
Why is it that after Aminu Kano’s death, none of his followers is carrying his mantle?
A lot of people still believe in him and there are so many of us who are toeing his line, but the problem is the Nigerian factor. We play politics that is highly monetised; politics that is selfishly driven, and not played according to the rules. So, people use money to disorganise credible candidates who come on the PRP platform to fix Nigeria. They use money, propaganda and other unwholesome practices to disorganise and frustrate these credible people and make them to lose out in order to appear as if PRP was not on board or didn’t make the desired impact. Far be it. We are actually on the ground, but the Nigerian factor is the problem – with its oppressive and repressive policies; mercantilist policies that are keeping us far behind.
Kano was the centre of Aminu Kano’s political ideology. As at today, you hardly see or identify any of his followers or the remnants. Why?
That is part of what I was saying. Of course, Kano is a thickly populated state and because of low level of education, most of them don’t tend to be consistent with that kind of time-tested ideology. Because of poverty, hunger and other challenges, they tend to gravitate to wherever their stomach infrastructure is guaranteed in that place. Otherwise, there is the presence of PRP in that state. We have our followership. Someone like Prof Jega, a lecturer in the Political Science Department at Bayero University, Kano is our member. There are so many of them in the state, but the only problem is that the moneybags don’t give them the breathing space to get to public notice.
A Second Republic politician, now late, said that at their time, they were collecting 10 per cent kickback, and delivered 90 per cent, while the politicians of the Fourth Republic now collect 90 per cent bribe and yet you won’t see what was done with the remaining 10 per cent. What do you say to this?
I wouldn’t know the politician who said that. Definitely, the person was not a member of the PRP. It depends on the politician. To the best of my knowledge, the person whom I served, the late governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, right from the time he was impeached until November 20, 2020 that he died, lived a frugal life. Also, the late governor of Kano, Abubakar Rimi, who passed on some years ago, was in the same mould. I know them very well. Musa, long before he died, the house he was living in was leaking. He was living on his pension and farm. He never got involved in anything that is contrary; stealing government money or any unwholesome practice that is inimical to the growth of the nation or individual. He never did that. He lived a quiet and a frugal life until his last day on earth. The politician who said that they were collecting 10 per cent bribe depended on individuals; such people were not from the PRP stock, which I belonged. If we had observed such a thing, we wouldn’t continue to tolerate such a person in our fold because it is antithetical to the vision of the party.
Why was Balarabe Musa removed as governor?
In Kaduna State then, the PRP produced the governor, Balarabe Musa, while the majority of the members of the state House of Assembly were from the National Party of Nigerian (NPN). The NPN of the Second Republic was just like the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the All Progressives Congress (APC) of today. The members of the Kaduna State House of Assembly then were after what they would line up in their pockets. They were mounting pressure on the governor to allow them have their way in the selection of commissioners. He selected his commissioners and sent their names to the Assembly, but they refused to give their imprimatur and started giving all funny conditions or the other. One of the conditions was that they should be given N10, 000 each, which was a very big money in 1981. They also demanded for plots land in choice places in the Kaduna. Musa was the last person to accept such conditions. The dingdong continued, and along the line he folded his mat and drove himself in his Mercedes car out of Katsina House, Kaduna Government House. That was how he vacated the place for them and then his deputy, Musa Rimi took over.
He couldn’t accept the funny conditions they gave like we are having today where members of the House of Assembly and the members of the National Assembly are lobbied or bribed by the executives to do their biddings. Balarabe Musa couldn’t tolerate to tinker with public money or take public money and pay them. For what? These are the models we have been following. These are the people we believe in.
You mentioned that the house Musa lived before his death was leaking and he lived a frugal life. Is poverty part of the Aminu Kano political ideology?
Not at all. They didn’t take material acquisition to excessive level. I was trying to bring out the spirit of contentment; they were not carried away by the ephemeral and flamboyant lifestyles, putting up eye popping structures here and there.
I’m saying that he was living a simple life. Friends and well wishers had to encourage and support him to put up the house. That same house he was living in Mala Ali, GRA in Kaduna even before he became a governor was where he lived as a governor and where he lived until he died in November 20, 2020, unlike these present politicians who steal and launder public money to build houses in every corner of the world, even obscure nations and invest even where it can get missing without any benefit to Nigeria. It is just the difference, I’m not saying that we are wearing poverty as clothing material or poverty as a virtue. I’m talking of contentment, which is lacking in the politicians of today.
What is the way forward as a country as there is lack of clear cut political ideology?
The way forward is to put up a structure. This military-produced constitution is not doing Nigeria any good. We have to tinker with the constitution by patriotic Nigerians coming together, calling a spade by its name; putting the constitution in such a way that the recruitment into political process will no more bring people of doubtful characters; people with low qualification, people who go under the bridge to produce certificates overnight just to cross the hurdle and contest an election and become a burden on Nigeria.
The recruitment process has to change, if you have no meaningful or tangible means of livelihood, you shouldn’t occupy public space. You must be committed to delivering on your promises and not all these haphazard and confused processes that produce all manners of people and causing havoc in the polity.
Some people are advocating a return to the parliamentary system of government. What is your position on this?
Parliamentary is a good system if we have that frame of mind to operate it. The presidential is expensive even though it works in other countries, where there is discipline and order. America is a model, but here we don’t understand what presidential system is all about. Here, we spend our earnings on public officers while investing little or nothing on capital projects, human capacity building. We should go back to the parliamentary. It makes public office less competitive. It produced credible leaders then unlike this confused system we have today.
