From Okey Sampson, Aba

PRINCE Benjamin Benedict Apugo is a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of All Progressives Congress (APC) from Abia State. In this interview, he spoke on the one year in office of President Muhammadu Buhari, why the president should not spare his predecessor in office, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan if he is indicted of corruption among other issues.

Excerpts:

 

How would assess the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in the past one year?

President Buhari has done very well in the past one year and I don’t think Nigeria could have had any better man now as president than him and everybody has seen that. Take for example the Boko Haram insurgency that could have crippled this country if not for the emergence of Buhari as the president of this country. The Treasury Single Account (TSA) that has brought in money to this country instead of losing is something that should be commended. Again, many other things that are for the interest of this country are also commendable like the fight against corruption which he has started even though I would advise he steps up more in the fight by creating anti-corruption courts that will enable the judiciary function very well.

It’s like you are not much satisfied yet with the fight against corruption?

That is our life, to fight corruption and kill it because if we do that now, our children will step on a good footing and the country will be better for it. If Buhari does not fight corruption and kill it, because he is the only person that can do it now as a corrupt free man we are still in a problem because our children that are coming will still swim in corruption. And I will also say there is no way we should hide our feelings. If you are proposing a rail line from Lagos to Calabar for instance and corruption is still there,

who will handle it, how will it be achieved?

My brother, corruption will kill it. If he does not make changes, it is the same corrupt people that are going to handle such projects.

We want changes to be made no matter who it will affect. So, we don’t have to hide these things because the country does not belong to one person.

The president appears to have concentrated more in the fight against corruption

at the Federal level; couldn’t he extend that to the states?

 

It is not the president that will come to the states to fight corruption; the police and

the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) people are there. We have

complained severally particularly in my own state, I’m not talking about any other

state, I’m talking about Abia State that was looted by very few officials of the past administration.

The type of looting done in the state by the said officials is not equalled

in the country. What they did are in tapes, discs and published in Newspapers. There

are over 200 petitions written by Abians and a body known as Save Abia Initiative (SAI)

against these officials, they are all there. We are waiting on EFCC to invite Chief T.A Orji

who was at the helm of affairs of that administration; I hope they will do that.

I don’t think the EFCC will hate Abia State as not to look into her matter because

the state is bleeding today as a result of the looting done by these officials.

 

Some people being investigated for corruption in the country have been pointing

fingers at former President Goodluck Jonathan as approving their actions; could it be

wise to invite him for questioning?

 

Well, Buhari the world over is known to be a corrupt free man and my very self knows that too.

No matter the status of anybody who commits a crime, particularly in the way of corruption, he

or she should be invited to clear his name or be punished. It has happened in many countries, even in Egypt where their former President, Hosni Mubarak was put on trial for corruption.

 

If you were the president, one year has rolled by, what would you use your second year to do?

 

I will use the second year to fight corruption; I wouldn’t do any other thing. I will fight corruption to a standstill so that my third year will be devoted to developmental programmes.

Because when you fight corruption and you bring up development, it will stand. If you don’t kill corruption, no matter your trillion naira budget, the money will still go into the hands of the corrupt people because you have

not removed them, they are still there.

There are many people who are corrupt in this country that are still in office and if you don’t remove them, we will not make any headway. Like a friend of mine, Alhaji Buba Galadima put up a press release not quite long

ago and said that APC is in government, but PDP is in power. That statement is very meaningful. Who looted the country, they are PDP people, they are still there and anyone found guilty should face the punishment.

 

What’s your opinion about the removal of fuel subsidy?

Why do we look at things always from the wrong side? This man, President

Buhari, has come to turn things around for good in this country. All

these time that former President Goodluck Jonathan was doing voodoo

for the country, what do you think we achieved? We were in hell; in a heap of

indebtedness. Buhari has come to put things right for kingdom sake.

There have been resumed attacks on oil installations in the

 

Niger Delta area, what’s your advice to the militants?

My advice to them is that if you are a Nigerian, the first thing you do is to love your country. If you love your country, you will not go to destroy the source of income of that your country.

Every problem no matter how big could be solved through dialogue.

 

APC as the opposition party in the state is not heard of much,

what do you think is responsible?

Well, we have state executives down to the wards. As one of the leaders,

I don’t have much to say because I know eventually there will be congresses,

not only in my state because after a general election like this, every

political party has to reorganize itself by going for congresses from

Ward, Local Government, state and national levels. So, since I know that

it will definitely happen, I am not seeing anything that is happening in Abia

chapter of APC as anything to worry about. This is because if the people in

the state have done very well, they will be re-elected, if they have not, they

will be replaced by the people. I cannot talk about their managerial ability

because I am not there with them in the state executive.

What I cannot say for sure is the date of the congress, it is something

that will be decided by all of us at the national level, but definitely, it must

hold. In fact, my advice to Mr. President is that rushing to do Board appointments

does not arise. It is true that some people have worked for the

party, but we have to look deep down because most of them that are supposed

to bring in the names of those that worked, did not do that, rather

they started fixing in names of those who should not be there; some of them

are not even members of APC. I’m not saying it is only members of APC that

should be given Board appointments because it is not only in APC that we

have good people; we have good people too in other parties. Anybody who

would assist Buhari to achieve what he has in mind in the country is a good

person.

 

Going by the way things are, are we sure that APC will win Abia

in 2019?

Yes, that one is non-negotiable. Whether the people in the executive now are talking or not, APC taking over Abia in 2019 I say again is nonnegotiable because you are going to see why APC will take over Abia after

Buhari had finished what he is going to do for the country. So, when you see a good thing, will you leave it and go for the bad one? Forget about what you are seeing, definitely Abia is APC state.

You know, a lot of people and in fact every Abian want to join APC.