OUR SUPPORT FOR BUHARI IS SUPPORT FOR NIGERIA
-KASHAMU

Buruji Kashamu is the Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly. Despite being a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he is one of the ardent supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight. In this interview, he likened Nigeria to an aircraft going through some turbulence before regaining balance and urged Nigerians to support the Federal Government. He spoke on a wide range of issues. Excerpts:

In as much as you are not a member of the ruling party, your love and respect for the President is obvious and you talk about it freely too. Why, if I may ask?
We all know that the Almighty Allah has His own way of doing things. His wisdom is superior and his ways unfathomable. Before the 2015 general elections, Nigerians were crying out against a government that they felt had lost control of the ship of state. They prayed for the Almighty Allah to intervene and give us a leader who will turn things around. As a devout Muslim, I do believe that the Almighty Allah answers prayers and so in submission to the sovereign will of God, I said to myself that whoever emerges victorious at the polls is Allah’s answer to the cry of Nigerians. General Muhammadu Buhari won that election and naturally I believe that he is the divinely-ordained leader for our country at this time. On that basis, he has my unconditional support and loyalty. I love what Allah loves and reject what Allah rejects.

Secondly, President Buhari has unquestionable antecedent and strength of character that he uniquely brings to the office of the President. One can easily say that his unique core competence is the integrity he brings to the highly sensitive task of governance, coupled with his unflinching resolve to do everything it takes to effectually midwife the new Nigeria we all desperately long for. Let me cease this opportunity to say that President Buhari’s job is to engage and manage the various human and natural resources that are essential for the political and socio-economic reformation of our country. He is not a magician or miracle worker who will just wave a magic wand or chant a password and then everything that is wrong with Nigeria will be fixed. We must do away with such fallacies and begin to see President Buhari as the father who is leading us all as one big family to do a job that we all have a role to play, from the greatest to least amongst us. This is not the time to sit on the fence and complain. We prayed for a leader and God gave us one. Now is the time to stand with him and ensure that he succeeds because President Buhari’s success is the success of Nigeria and all Nigerians. Now is not the time to play politics. Now is the time to meaningfully participate and contribute our own quota as patriotic citizens.

But Nigerians are crying out against the government of President Buhari. Many people are now saying that he has failed to deliver on his promises.

General Muhammadu Buhari became the president of this country at the time that our global economy was not only in the doldrums; the global economy was also battling recession. Oil prices were flunking lower and restiveness in the Niger Delta made matters worse. In some ways you may want to say that he was not as lucky as his predecessor. I must say that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan was the luckiest person to have been president of this country. Oil prices were phenomenally high and the amnesty programme that was still at the early stages of implementation maintained some kind of truce in the region.

External debt was actually very low and our excess crude account was heavily funded. But he mismanaged the resources at his disposal and left the country broke and vulnerable.

There is enough information and analysis that give an honest perspective to our current predicament. It is now common knowledge that the administration of our father and mentor, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo left behind 45billion dollars external reserves and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua administration grew the reserves to 64billion dollars within just one year.

That was why it was able to finance 15 months of imports despite the 2008/2009 world economic meltdown. Hence, Nigeria survived the melt down because those administrations had the political will to save. Even more commendable is the fact that in spite of the tough economic reality at that time, the administration left 47.7billion dollars in reserves and an external debt of 3.94billion dollars even though the administration earned only N9trillion from crude oil sales within that short period.

But after the demise of President Yar’Adua, his successor’s lack of political will to save in the midst of an oil boom brought economic destitution. It would be recalled that Brent crude sold at over 100 dollars/barrel and raked in 51trillion Naira within a period of five years. But because of corruption, governors demanding it was their constitutional right to take all the savings and other irresponsible acts of government, the administration did not only squander the oil revenue, it depleted the reserves left by President Yar’Adua, leaving 32billion dollars and a huge external debt of 63billion dollars.

These acts preceded the dip in the price of Brent which fell to as low as 35 dollars/barrel shortly after the current administration took over power and has only managed to climb to about 50 dollars recently. So, in as much as the buck always falls on the leader, it is not appropriate to heap all the blame on the current leadership.

Besides, emerging facts and figures paint gloomier pictures. For instance, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) said this administration inherited 206 uncompleted road projects and contract arrears worth 2.1trillion Naira from the immediate past administration; and for about two to three years the contractors were not paid. That must have slowed down the economic activities forcing the affected companies to retrench workers. Such incidents exacerbate the decline and if the situation had continued, the economic crisis would have been worse.

More people would have been out of work while even more would have been working without salaries because Dr. Okonjo-Iweala also exposed the fact that we started borrowing money to pay salaries since October, 2014.

Fortunately, today Nigeria no longer borrows to pay salaries. Rather, we are now borrowing money for investment in capital projects.

So, those who blame President Buhari for the current hardship are either ignorant or mischievous. We should not join the bandwagon in rabid criticisms.

He is our leader and President. And as followers, leaders and opinion-molders, we are onboard with President Buhari, our pilot, on a flight to recovery at a time when the global economic climate is turbulent. Naturally, Nigeria will also feel the discomfort caused by the turbulence but we all must trust that our pilot has the experience that will bring stability and take us safely to our destination. If we rock the plane with chaos, it is our dear country and the destiny of our people that will crash. There comes a time when we must draw the line between patriotism and politics. We cannot afford to be playing politics all-year round and all through the life of the government of the day. It does not matter whether we like the faces of the current office holders or not. We must not politicise everything.

Last year, Governor of Ekiti State Mr. Peter Ayo Fayose made some predictions for this year. Now he has said he going on another retreat and will be making more predictions for 2017. How would you react to this?

Well, first of all let me say that it is customary for people to reflect on the outgoing year and make projections into the New Year. Even if the reflections are made with a feeling of déjà vu, the projections should be done with hope and faith in the good that lies somewhere in the belly of the New Year. It is crucial that at all times, we must let our thoughts be guided by positive aspirations and patriotic ideals.

Fayose has abandoned the primary reason he was elected and made “President Buhari Bashing” a state policy and anyone who knows him can predict his so-called predictions. They would be no more than the painting of a gloomy picture meant to incite the people against the present administration. But, Nigerians are wiser. They know that the hood does not make the monk. They even know better with the truckload of evidence stacked against him over the ONSA funds. Nigerians now know that his hands are not clean after all, in spite of his grandstanding. Instead of posing as a friend of the poor and the masses, it is now obvious that he is one of their greatest enemies. It is now glaring that it was the corrupt acts of people like him that coalesced to get us to where we are today. And whenever these anarchists seek to confuse and manipulate us by reminding us of our present situation, we must have the courage to remind them of where we are coming from. If they shamelessly say things were working better with corruption, we must be bold enough to let them know that we were already an accident waiting to happen.

Shouldn’t Nigerians be concerned about what he has to say? Some of the things he predicted could be said to have come to pass.

We do not need a prophet to predict what is happening in Nigeria right now. And from prevailing situation and emerging trends, you can hazard a guess into the future. And no one is better qualified to reveal to us the trajectory of our economy than the two-time Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy in the immediate past administration, Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. In a talk she gave at the George Washington University in the United States of America early this year, the former Managing Director of the World Bank said the last administration was so desperate to corner the loyalty of stakeholders and associates that it lacked the political will to fight corruption and save for a rainy day such as this.

She said during her first outing between 2003 and 2007, the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration saved $22 billion because the political will to do it was there, adding, “And when the 2008/2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about a five per cent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the economy, and we never had to come to the (World) Bank or the Fund (International Monetary Fund). This time around and this is the key now, you need not only to have the instrument, but you also need the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will.” In essence, what Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was saying is that if the seeds of our present situation were planted by the maladministration of the past, the lack of the political will of the immediate past administration nurtured and exacerbated the turn of events. So Fayose should keep his lies to himself and face the primary reason the good people of Ekiti State elected him – their security and welfare.

It is said, “When the head is rotten, it affects the whole body”. Conversely, I dare say that when the head is good, it equally affects the whole body. We now have a more efficient, responsible and responsive Armed Forces, EFCC, Police, SSS, ICPC, Customs, Immigration and other agencies. They are now up and doing. The war against corruption is on course. No Minister or appointee of this government dares misbehave. They now do their jobs in accordance with their oath of office and the law. Boko Haram has been subdued notwithstanding the occasional strikes. But the fact is: no Nigerian territory is under its control again.

From the evaluations and reviews of the process so far, it is obvious that many expected to see a perfunctory change that will give them unfettered access to our common wealth. Not many imagined that the President had the fortitude to shut his ears to distracting criticisms and focus on the arduous task before him. They thought that the heat of the fire of adversity that will be ignited by the cleansing process will force the President out of the kitchen. But he has proven that he is well trained general who does not flee in the face of a daunting challenge.

The processes of a new order are being courageously and systematically implemented. The consequential scourge is worth the gains of the functional, economically vibrant, safe and united Nigeria that we desire. Like it is often said, it is always darkest just before the dawn. The Nigeria of our dreams is almost here. There is no more room for the recklessness of the past.

Already, experts are beginning to say that because of the bold steps taken by the administration; the current recession will pale into positive economic growth beginning from 2017. This claim is reaffirmed by experts that are also predicting that there could be a minor growth rebound to 1.97 per cent in our economy by 2017. Thus, it is imperative for all leaders and stakeholders to encourage the government to continue with its current economic diversification agenda, which will cushion the effects of ongoing disruption in the global oil market and further reduce the contribution of the oil sector to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Hopefully, this budding recovery will be strengthened by the commendable reform in public finance, infrastructural development and growth in our indigenous manufacturing sector.

This prospect should grab the attention of cynics who have made a career out of fault-finding and undue criticism of the government. Such lopsided critics who are fuelling the vehicle of apathy, coercing uninformed citizens for a disruptive ride are clogs in the wheel of progress. They work hand-in-gloves with political predators and saboteurs, amongst other unscrupulous elements who previously lived large on slush funds and economic brigandage.

Mercifully, their raucous criticisms are being overtaken by their own individual failures at their various duty posts. The people now know that they lack the capacity to practice what they preach. For instance, Fayose who is doing poorly in his state lacks the moral capacity to negatively judge what is happening at the national level.

That is why I always ask the question; what has he done to make life better for the people of his state? What ingenuity has he brought to the practice of governance? If you say somebody is not doing his job well, you must as a matter of obligation do your own job to show him how the job is done and prove that you are better. But the sad reality is that apart from the resources that come in from the FAAC allocation, there is no concrete evidence of any form of wealth creating projects that are being implemented in the state. How can a man who arrogates to himself the status of opposition leader be a regrettable failure in his own state?

You paint a positive picture. Should this be enough to recover the support of critical Nigerians and encourage them to give the President a second chance going forward, especially given the fact that your party could benefit from this situation in 2019?

First of all, 2019 is way down the road. We are still at a time when all hands must be on deck supporting the on-going task of national reconstruction. Majority of Nigerians saw that the ship of state was drifting apart dangerously and decided to entrust their lives and future into the hands of a man they know possesses the track record to fight corruption and secure their lives. That man was found in President Muhammadu Buhari and that is what we are getting. Gone is the fake lifestyle of the past. Gone are the free funds. Gone are days when mediocrity is celebrated over meritocracy. Now is the time to task our brain, gird our loins and work hard for every penny. We must earn every kobo you make. Welcome to reality Nigeria; not the superfluous imaginary Nigeria of the immediate past.

For me, I have always made a case against party affiliations or political correctness in the face of national interest. That is what is playing out in the United States of America. Despite the bitter campaigns and divisions, the government and the people are closing ranks behind the President-Elect to ensure a successful transition because they value democratic ethos. Before being identified as party men, we are first of all citizens of a country. As a Nigerian and a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I am prepared to give anything for the good of my country.

And if speaking the truth will make me to incur the wrath of some people, I really do not mind. As leaders, what we need to come to the table with is an altruistic patriotic spirit and not a set of values that we cannot even uphold or defend because they are contrived to further selfish interest. Let us move from being mere political gladiators to compassionate servant-leaders.

Truth is: if we say we love our country, then we must support the current administration till the end of its mandate. When it is time for elections and campaigns, we would go back to the electorate and put our score cards before them. If they are satisfied with us, they would return us. If not, they would reject us. A party, like a parent, could have many children. Some could be level-headed, brilliant and successful.

Others could be dull, poor and unsuccessful. The parent gave birth to them and gave them the same training.

But, they are not equally successful owing to factors beyond the control of the parent. That is why the Yoruba would say “Alagemo ti bi mo e, ai le mojo ku s’owo e” which means that your parents have given birth to you and given you all the training they could give, but you are solely responsible for your choices and their attendant consequences. The same PDP that produced the ex-President Jonathan administration was the same PDP that produced the government of our father, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua that we still remember till date for so many good initiatives.