Buhari in the South East |
Special
Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina,
Weekend, was guest on Radio Continental, 102.3 FM. Here are excerpts from the
interview posted on his Facebook page.
What do
you have to say about the Chibok schoolgirls? Any negotiation in progress with
Boko Haram?
We need
to know a little bit of what happened behind the scenes, between the last
government and some people masquerading as the leadership of Boko Haram who
wanted to get the Chibok girls released. They actually turned it into a
franchise, it became a commercial thing and they got money, possibly in
millions of dollars, only for government to discover it had been swindled. They
kept saying they could get the girls released , they could interface with Boko
Haram and they went smiling to the bank with all that money, and nothing
happened. So you should understand why this government is being careful and the
President has said the genuineness of the leadership of Boko Haram must be
determined before any negotiation takes place.
The
commendation actually goes to you and your media team, for the media chat of
President Buhari a few days ago. Arising from that chat, it is reported that
the president said that he would not grant bail to former NSA, Sambo Dasuki,
and Nnamdi Kanu of Biafra. What was in the mind of the President.
Our
president is a straight shooter, whatever is in his mind is what he tells you.
He doesn’t believe in manipulating or any form of rigmarole. What he said, was
that those people had grievous charges against them, but then, he does not
preclude bail, if there are no pending charges against them. The situation now
is when bail is granted, before that bail is perfected, those who are
prosecuting them would have come with fresh charges, which warrant their being
held further. So, that is the position, if there are no fresh charges, and
there is bail, there is no reason to hold them. But the truth is that there are
fresh charges leveled against them.
One of
the APC men has been arrested by EFCC, and that is Col Jafar Isa. What does
that mean to you?
It means
that in this corruption fight, no friend, no foe. One of the quickest ways for
President Buhari to lose confidence in anybody is for that person to be tarred
with the brush of corruption, and if proven to be true, you are on your own.
All those who have said he is selective, it is because they do not know him. We
know how much he detests corruption, and if any case is proven against anybody,
no matter how close the person is, no matter how high ranking, that person will
answer for it.
Does Mr
President actually hate Igbos?
When the
President ran for political office in 2003, who was his running mate? Dr Chuba
Okadigbo. And in 2007? Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke. If he hated Igbos would he run
with them?
That shows you the respect and the regard he has for Igbos, it was political reality that compelled him to come south-west in 2011 and in 2015. Let me tell you a story.
That shows you the respect and the regard he has for Igbos, it was political reality that compelled him to come south-west in 2011 and in 2015. Let me tell you a story.
There is
a prominent Igbo family in this country, if I mention their names you would
know them, they are very prominent in the society. They told me a story that in
the 70s, President Buhari was Minister of Petroleum, the family wanted to join
the petroleum industry and then they made a bid. By then, there were not too
many Nigerians playing in that industry, and there was a lot of scepticism from
those around the then Lt Colonel Buhari, who was Oil Minister.
They all
said they don’t believe that the company as represented by that family had the
capacity to play in the industry. This family told me that eventually, they got
to Lt Colonel Buhari, he listened to them, and asked them; ‘Are you sure you
have the capacity to do this?’ And they told him, ‘we can do it’. Then he
removed his military cap, banged it on the table and told them, ‘it is done.’
And he instructed that they give them that opportunity they wanted in the oil
industry and today that family is so big and they never forget that the then
Colonel Buhari as oil minister gave them the break they needed. They told me
that story about three weeks ago.
The next
day, when I saw the president, I told him the story. He laughed and then went
on to tell me that when people say he is against the Igbos, it baffles him,
that really he never knew that family, he just trusted the assurance they gave
him that they could play in the oil industry, and today they are very big. He
went further to say that even under PTF, so many Nigerians, including Igbos,
benefitted a lot. So there is no way you can say the man hates Igbos.
The
second Niger bridge is on the budget in 2016. Let’s recall that the last
President sometime in 2011 said that he would complete that second Niger bridge
before 2015. He didn’t even go beyond the architectural drawing, but in 2016
budget, that project is there.
On Forex
policy of CBN, and Miss Christine Lagarde of IMF talking down on Nigeria,
despite corruption allegation against her back home
If Miss
Christine Lagarde has any corruption allegation, it is not Nigeria that has
brought it against her. Nigeria has absolutely no role in that, we know what
happened to her predecessor in office, when he had issues over sexual assault
and all that. He was removed and he answered for it in court. We leave that to
them for them to handle.
But in
terms of talking down, there was no talking down at all. I was at the meeting
that she held with the President, there was absolutely no talking down, she
spoke nicely and decently, I don’t agree that she spoke down on anybody. In
fact she ended up commending the President, commending Nigeria, and she said
she wouldn’t expect to hear a knock on her door any day from Nigerians asking
for support because she has seen that Nigeria has all it takes to pull through
this rough patch that she is passing through. I wouldn’t agree with you that
she talked down on anybody, she had the right as MD of IMF to make
prescription, Nigeria has the right either to accept or reject.
When would the disability bill be signed into law?
When would the disability bill be signed into law?
This is
the second time this is coming up on this show, because I remember this
question came up the last time I was here and now that the Ministers are about
two months in office this is also something that I would bring up.
Please
lead us into the privacy of the President.How does the President carry the
enormous problem of this nation? How true is the statement that the only thing
he is doing now is fighting corruption, neglecting issue of economy, infrastructure
and welfare of citizenry?
I would
like to begin by saying that corruption is central to every other thing in this
country. If we want to talk about the economy, education, health care, if all
the funds we would need to address these are squirreled away, how then do we
address them? Fighting corruption is central to Nigeria’s development,
therefore the President has taken it as one of the key things that his
administration would do. But then, that doesn’t mean that corruption is the
only thing he is fighting, you need to see the man’s schedule. He gets to the
office in the morning about 9 a.m, the first thing he has required us to do is
get the highlights of newspapers ready for him, and so before he comes in, we
have reviewed the newspapers, we have done all the highlights and that is the
first thing he looks at. Then he begins to attend to all the other things lined
out for him. Across all the sectors, ministers and directors of agencies are
meeting with him. He is a hard worker and at 73, I wonder how he does it.
He does
that till early evening, when he then retires home to have a late lunch and a
rest, and then in the early evening he takes on people that have been scheduled
to meet him, if there are. One thing about this President is that as much as
possible, you don’t get to his house and see a market. I was told that in the
last dispensation the place would still be a beehive of activities as late as 2
a.m. But this man is methodical, he plans his days and in the process he is
able to attend to much more. All the sectors are receiving attention, I can
assure you.
Funding
the real sector is going to be very important in getting diversification, in
getting the economy back on track. What about our developmental banks?
Talking
of the real sector I know of BOI because, I engage with them, the MD, the
corporate affairs people, we spoke two days ago and they have this programme on
television which I follow. I think BOI is doing well and they have to be
further empowered to do more. Talking of Treasury Single Account (TSA) it is
work in progress, the rough edges are being smoothened. You heard the President
on National Media Chat saying that about N1. 5 trillion has been harnessed into
TSA. If you don’t harness this money, how do you use it? Now that that money is
there, that is when we can talk of using it for the real sector.
What is
the plan of the government on state police?
I know
that the APC had some promises in that respect, don’t forget that APC promised
to look at our federation, and re-tune it, rework it, and part of the promises
was to look into state police.
The
Nigerian Labour Congress is threatening to call out Nigerians to embark on
strike, the reason is based on subsidy removal, which was alleged would bring
untold hardship to common Nigerians. Could you shed light on this issue?
What
hardship can be greater than what Nigerians passed through in the past four-
six weeks, queueing endlessly to buy petrol and at the end of the day buying it
at N200, N250, N300 per litre; what hardship can be greater than that? On the
flip-side, what we are entering into now is something that would make life a
lot easier for Nigerians, getting petrol, making sure that the supply is
sustained because with crude oil prices down, why should Nigerians pay so high
for refined petrol?
That is
what government is doing. Now that crude prices are down, this is the
opportunity to arrive at appropriate prices for refined petrol, that is why we
now have N86 from NNPC, N86.5 from other marketers, and it has also been said
that this would be subject to review every quarter. That means if oil prices
inch up again, it would affect how much we buy petrol. Labour, I am sure will
look at the matter again, and know that it would be better that Nigerians get
petrol at clearly affordable prices, reacting to prices of crude oil, rather
than a subsidy regime that is fraught with so much corruption.
What are
the foreign policy plans of this administration?
We just
had a minister of foreign affairs, who is settling down. The Ministers would just
be two months in office soon. Economic diplomacy is very important for us. We
know that we have engaged with the West, we have also gone East; China for
instance is doing a lot of with us. Economic diplomacy is very important for
Nigerians at this time, because like the President says, no country in the
world can afford to stand alone again.
Even
President Obama said it at the UN General Assembly last September, no country
in the world can afford to stand alone again because the things that unite the
world now are economy and security. No country can afford to do it alone, so
Nigeria’s foreign policy would also be conditioned by that.
Restructuring
our federalism, what is the President approach to it?
As I said
earlier, restructuring the federation is part of the promises the APC made when
it campaigned, but you would also agree that it is not a one man show; it is
not the President that would say, this is the way to do it. No, It has to be a
deliberate policy, starting from the party, to the national assembly and then
it becomes law and all that. It is not the President that would direct it.
We want
to bring five members of this parliament to Aso Rock, I mean people who call in
on this radio, and present our needs to the president.
I assure
you that it can be done. I will raise it with the President
Most
business people are having problems funding their transactions. What is being
done in terms of bridging this?
It is not
targeted at anybody. It is a policy from the Central Bank. During the
Presidential Media Chat, the President promised that he would get the CBN
governor to look at the matter again. He said it openly and publicly. But one
thing about economic downturn and revival is that it is not at the snap of a
finger, economies don’t collapse in a flash, it is a gradual thing. So you
can’t expect that it’s going to be by the snap of the finger, and the economy
is revived again. It has to be rebuilt, the foundation has to be relaid, that
is what this government is doing, and with a government that is serious and
focussed like this one, we would get there. All of us have to be patient to get
there.
FOR MORE STORIES VISIT
CKN NEWS SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:
Twitter: @CKNNigeria
Facebook: CKNNigeria
CKN NEWS Hotline:
08080054001
Whatsapp: 08099677755
BBM : 2BE329DF
Website: www.cknnigeria.com
Tags
Columnists