Senator Olugbenga Obadara, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament says President Goodluck Jonathan doesn’t have the nerves to fight corruption. Obadara, who represents Ogun Central Senatorial district in the National Assembly, in this interview with TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE, also speaks on his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) quest to take power at the centre from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 elections, on-going National Conference, among other issues. Excerpts:
What is your assessment of the just-concluded congresses of All Progressives Congress (APC) especially in Ogun State?
In Ogun State, we went to the ward congress on April 5 with much enthusiasm and support from our legion of party faithful. Unfortunately, the Ogun State congress committee led by Ope Salami were not fully ready because they came on April 4.
Coming on April 4, when they ought to have displayed the names of the aspirants 48 hours going by the guidelines, forms were not made available and when those forms were made available, they were only given to a section of the party. As a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I did not see any form in my ward and as a party loyalist and leader of my people, I called and reported. He promised that those forms would be made available and they were never made available. I have so much evidence to prove this.
What is even funny and threatening is the competence of the man to the extent that he allowed people that did not pay the requisite amount of money to be aspirants. The guideline is so clear; if you did not pay, you cannot be a contender. And to all intent and purposes, he did not even provide forms for those people who paid and have tellers as evidences as enshrined in the guidelines for the ward congress. Our national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and the party had reiterated that you must present your teller as evidence that you have paid before you can contest.
Many people because of the education we gave to our people; he who wants to contest must go and pay and I can assure you that Ogun Central that I am the senator has 74 wards and 36 aspirants in each of the wards paid with evidences of their tellers but they were not provided forms. Justice has to be done and for justice to prevail, the people who paid as at April 4 must be declared the winner at their different wards.
Apart from the crisis that emanated during the ward congress, there were also crises during the local government and state congresses.
At the ward congress there was no faction but you cannot go to local government without finishing from the ward. Everything started from the ward and if we did not finish that of the ward, we can’t go to local government. So, definitely as a lawmaker and not a lawbreaker, I will not participate in breaking the law of my country and law of my party. Definitely, those people who paid must be the one to continue the journey.
Is that the reason why APC is having two factions in Ogun State?
Believe me, that is the reason because he who did not emerge from the ward cannot go to local government and I am sure the national leaders of our party taught us not to be illegal.
But many people have attributed the crisis in Ogun APC to leadership tussle between Governor Ibikunle Amosun and former governor, Aremo Olusegun Osoba.
That is not it. People are just saying what they like. Governor Amosun himself said Osoba is his leader; he is the leader of the party in the state. I do not in any way believe in people saying Amosun or Osoba faction. What we believe is justice and rule of law. Osoba stands for justice, stands for things to be done properly. He is a fantastic party man. Osoba is 74 years old and he must be able to face the truth. Osoba is the father of the party in the state. Do you think a two-term governor in the state will want to destroy his state and legacies?
No. Have you ever seen somebody who doesn’t passed primary school going to secondary school or university? You must first pass your primary education; so primary education is like the ward congress. If you do not passed ward congress, can you move to local government congress? To go to university; if you do not paid the prescribe fee for JAMB, can you write examination? Can you be matriculated? If you allow impunity to stand, that is injustice.
It is generally believed that the 2015 election is the heart of the crisis in Ogun APC as some see Amosun planning to install his loyalists.
2015 is still far off. Who do we know would be alive tomorrow? I believe so much in the efficacy of God. I am doing my work fantastically as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with 89 projects in the state. And it is on record that I am the only South-West member of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the Senate that is chairman in the Senate.
And not just a chairman but the chairman of super Grade ‘A’ committee, which is Privatisation Committee. I am the only member of the party in ECOWAS Parliament; I am the only one representing them in the United Nations.
Are you telling me, I have not served my people meritoriously as first timer in the National Assembly? That tells you that I am really pushing myself, elevating the status of Ogun Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly. It has never been this good.
How true is the speculation that the likes of you, Senators Akin Odunsi and Gbenga Kaka are fighting Amosun because he is planning to stop your re-election?
When you are saying that Amosun is not trying to give ticket, without being immodest APC is a party and APC is the one to even give the ticket to the governor. This is a party issue. There is no way a governor can just wake up and start giving party tickets to people. It cannot work like that.
Don’t you foresee APC losing Ogun in 2015 as a result of the crisis?
Ask anybody, including the governor this question. I am the advocate, the peace manager and agent of peace in the state. Ask anybody involved, from the beginning of this problem I have been to the house of the state chairman many times. I have been to the national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and our national leader, Bola Tinubu many times.
I have been to Osoba’s house and I have been to the governor’s personal house in Lagos and his office many times preaching peace; that we do not appreciate the work of God enough. There is nothing that would make us to get to this stage, if we believe in the efficacy of God and how we were helped by God to be where we are today.
Nobody should play God. We need ourselves in order to get a good result at the poll. The APC as a party will not lose Ogun State in 2015. I am a democrat and a complete gentleman and I consider myself without being immodest to be highly cerebral. Everybody knows how we got to this place and I am sure God will intervene. Our party will maintain and keep the leadership in the state beyond 2015 by God’s grace.
There are speculations that some APC chieftains are planning to defect to opposition party if their interests are not protected ahead of 2015 elections…
I do not know of that. I am not even in anyway bring myself to think of such. This is the house we built together. This is the house we suffered together. Don’t forget this is not my first time, we did everything possible and I was a target to be killed before this time. This will not be a time that I will jump ship to anywhere. I remain a democrat. I remain a man with justice and a man who is serving his people. I was born by the first chairman of Odeda Local Government, who was a mate to Chief Obafemi Awolowo in primary school and who was with Awolowo in Action Group (AG). We remain progressives; that is what was in my blood and we shall work together to make sure we answer the callings of our people.
Should you be denied the APC ticket in 2015, what would be your next line of action?
The whistle has not been blown for us to start the contest for 2015. When our party declares it open, I believe my people would be reasonable enough to return me to the National Assembly.
So, you are confident that you will go back to the Senate in 2015.
Only God knows where anybody will be. I believe so much in God and I leave my next step in the hands of God to determine. Not by individuals. It is God and I believe God will do what is right in my life.
Is APC not threatened by Labour Party or PDP in Ogun State?
We are not in any way threatened. When the chips are down, people will see. It is going to be a mass movement. We have had people that have been senators in the past, what I achieved in the last two and half years is unprecedented. You have schools built, community centres built, you have roads, provision of water, health centres and lots of empowerment done in the livee of people in the 74 wards that I represent. Let anybody who has been a senator, my predecessors point to what they have done. My people are not fools; they are highly intelligent. My people know how best to serve them. My people know that I have sacrificed for them.
APC has expressed its determination to take over from the ruling PDP at the centre; do you see the opposition party winning 2015 presidency?
We will get it; we will be the government at the centre in 2015 by God’s grace. Nothing is really bringing us back. The Second Niger Bridge, which the President flagged off, they are now telling us that they did not do environmental impact test. How would you go and flag something like that without you following the due process. Look at our security; 234 schoolgirls in the forest for almost three weeks and the president is dancing samba dance everywhere. Tell me what is positive about this country? Enough is enough since 1999. We know our party; APC has the template for progress. We have people of impeccable character; people who can really see that this nation move forward in every sphere of economy.
As a member of the Senate, how would you described the relationship between the National Assembly and the executive?
As a chairman of a committee in the Senate, putting me in the position of leadership in the Senate, we know that the executive is playing a lot of lip service. They are not working as expected with the quantum of money we release to them. It is quite a shame that we are not getting what we expect as dividends of democracy. If they want to talk they will say the National Assembly is being overpaid. In N4.7 trillion budget, National Assembly has only N150 billion to be spent by 5,000 people in the National Assembly Commission; that is 2.7 per cent of the budget. It is highly offensive.
But the federal lawmakers col-lect jumbo pay.
There is no jumbo pay anywhere. N150 billion per year for 5,000 people! Go and check your records. What is N150 billion in N4.7 trillion? Is that not 2.7 per cent for an arm of government? We have three arms of government and for an arm to collect 2.7 per cent of the budget, that tells you that whatever they are saying is a big fallacy.
What is your take on the view in some quarter that National Assembly members should operate on part-time basis?
Let me tell you, if that is what the country wants, I do not fear anything. As a person, if it is part-time, it will even be good for me. I will be back fully in my businesses and make more money.
Are you saying you are not making more money as a lawmaker?
I am telling you, what I have worked for in my life is what I am even spending on politics. Everybody expect a senator to build school, community hall, construct roads, health centres, send their children to school, and embark on many empowerment programmes. Where does that comes from?
But there is a provision for constituency allowance?
People do make mistake; constituency allowance you are talking about, you are only to give them place to cite them. They don’t give you money. Go and check again, I stand to be corrected. You only bring that constituency project to that area, you are not to handle the money. The money is not given to anybody. I stand to be corrected.
What is your take on the position of some people that technocrats are better in public office than politicians, what is your take on this?
That is why they made me a chairman of privatisation. I became chairman September 2011 and by 2013 we have privatised power. For successfully privatising power, I was highly commended by the Committee for Investment in Africa and there were also commendations from many places.
As the chairman of privatisation committee, why is it that there has not been improvement in the power sector, which government privatised?
There cannot be any improvement because before it was totally decay and extremely bad. If you buy something of such, what do you do? You first do a lot of scrapings to make sure that you are getting things and you start on a good note. That is what is happening. I have gone round and I am still going round on oversight.
You will see that by the time they finish proper harmonisation, infrastructural development at those places, you will see massive improvement. You see, government has no business to be in business. They are to provide enabling environment, good legislative responsibilities and legal backing to the working of the private sector. A private sector driven enterprise is best for any nation to develop.
Some people have described the National Assembly as corrupt institution…
No, that is not a fair judgement by anybody. Have they pointed at somebody that has really corrupted the establishment, the National Assembly? Has anybody pointed accusing fingers to anybody that we stole anything? We are not executives; we are not to implement or even to enforce the law, we are to provide the law. Where does corruption comes into it?
But the National Assembly has embarked on several probes without anything concrete coming out of such.
We are not to implement, ours is just to pass recommendations to the executive to implement.
So, why is the delay in implementation of what you passed to the executive?
Because the President we have doesn’t have the nerves. See what happened with the issue of Stella Oduah. See the N10 billion private jet saga, see the pension scam. Did the President do anything. We are not to implement.
Are you saying the President does not have the nerves to fight corruption?
Yes, he doesn’t have.
How would you describe the state of corruption in Nigeria?
It is huge; we should not deceive ourselves and it is killing our nation. So what do we do? That is why we said there should be a constitutional amendment that would make our suggestions, bills we passed, motions we passed on the floor mandatory.
Do you see the ongoing constitutional amendment scaling through?
It will scale through. We are not chasing a lost battle. For the betterment of this nation, things would change. And the constitution amendment committee is working powerfully.
Do you see the ongoing National Conference providing the change that many Nigerians are yearning for?
I am an agent of change in my life. If the national conference comes up with anything that we know is going to help this nation, there is nothing too bad for us to take. But at present, the National Conference do not have any legal backing. The National Assembly is the authentic body elected by the people to represent them. Even when they finish the conference, they cannot even bring the report to the National Assembly; only the President can bring the report to us. And when President brings it to us, we will look at it as good Nigerians and we would work on it.
The issue of subjecting the report of the constitution to National Assembly approval is one of the issues many Nigerians seem to be against.
Can the President just pick somebody to go and write constitution? Go and read the constitution of Nigeria.
But some people are of the view that the outcome of the conference should be subjected to a referendum?
Is referendum in the constitution? To even pass the referendum is to first put it in the constitutional change before referendum can hold.
So, you believe National Assembly still have a role to play in the ongoing National Conference
Of course. President cannot take it and just start issuing order. No, he is not a military government.
As APC is aspiring to take over central government from PDP, opposition parties, especially the PDP are also battling to take over South-West from APC. Do you see APC losing South-West in 2015?
It is an out of order for them to say they want to change. As we are aspiring to change at the federal, what we know is that our electorate would determine who they want; who will serve them better; who will stand by them, who is truthful, genuine and who is a team player. That is where we are.
Do you really have confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct credible elections in 2015?
In the present time whether, we like it or not, INEC is the one to conduct the elections. My advice is to make sure that you carry everybody along. You can only win where you are popular. If you have people who are determined and they monitor their ballot boxes, there would be less manipulation. And that can only happen if you trust your people, you treat your people well, carry them along and not to be an emperor.
So you believe people will determine the outcome of the election
Yes. It is people that will determine 2015 elections not politicians. Don’t forget that in South-West we are knowledgeable and we know our rights.
What is your message to Nigerians, especially people of your constituency?
Let the people of my constituency stay on. Let them judge me by my performance and I know they are with me. Let them see me the way I served them and stand for truth at all times. And for people of Nigeria, let them be able to see what APC is working to give them to make a positive change in their lives.
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