Don’t Blame North For It’s Poverty – Sen. Yar’Adua

Senator Abubakar Sadiq Yaradua represents Katsina Central in the Senate. In this interview with RUTH CHOJI, the lawmaker states that the mafia that controls the maritime sector is more powerful than government. He also holds that the north should not be blamed for its poverty and speaks on other topical issues.
As a member of the Senate Committee on Marine Sector, what will it take to bring it up to world standard?
There are lots of problems and it will take the sacrifice of our leaders if they will do the right thing. Unfortunately our leaders are not interested in doing the right thing. There is a mafia that controls maritime affairs in this country and that mafia from the look of things is stronger than government. So it is going to be very difficult excerpt if there is a change of direction in the leadership of this country. It is not peculiar to the marine sector; other sectors too are in dire need of total overhauling.
This led us to the issue of the onshore/ off shore dichotomy, would you support a review of that law
Yes, I will because it is discriminatory, even by international standards. It is an open secret that when an oil well is left some kilometers from the water, then no state can claim it; it belongs to the whole nation. These oil wells are in deep sea and that is the continental shelf of Nigeria. How can someone claim that because he is nearer to it? I think it is something that should be reviewed; we need to really look at the on shore/of shore dichotomy so that every Nigeria will have a sense of belonging.
Why is passage of the PIB being delayed?
I wouldn’t know because I am not a member of the principal officers and I don’t think it is being delayed. I think members are looking at it clearly to make sure it is what Nigerians really want. I am sure it will pass its second reading soon.
A prominent governor from the north recently stated that legislators are more powerful than the executive, do you agree with him?
I don’t think so, he knows that power belong to them, and the executive are the most powerful people in the polity.
There have been mixed reactions on the proposed plan by the federal government to celebrate the centenary, what is your take on this?
It is a very difficult question because I don’t want government spending money without any justification, especially when it will not have any impact on the generality of Nigerians. But if it is celebrated to strengthen our unity and to remind Nigerians that we have come a long way, as a nation, then why not? But not in an elaborate manner like it is being proposed.
Do you think the celebration will strengthen our unity as a nation?
If certain things that are symbols of the amalgamation that will be brought out, then it is okay. If the celebration will be done to educate young Nigerians on how the country was united and the benefits, then it is okay.
But do you foresee Nigerian remaining as one with all the issue we have on ground?
Yes I do. These are problems that confront any nation; it is not peculiar to us. If you go to any developed country, there are stages of development when they were like us. Look at the history of England for example, they were lots of killing, robbery and all this and they were able to surmount them.
For Nigeria, it is just that the government has not lived up to expectations and the yearning of the citizen. There are no jobs, there is no security and infrastructure is crumbling. But this does not to mean that the country has not moved forward; we have moved forward, but we could have done better if we had a good leadership over the years.
Are you worried about the spate of insecurity in the nation, particularly in the north?
Well, this issue like unemployment, security of lives and properties must be critically look into; we must also tackle corruption and make sure that stealing by government officials has to stop.
When you mention our leaders, it is common knowledge that the north has ruled this country more than other regions. With the current crises in the north, don’t you think this is an indictment on the part of northern elites that they didn’t provide most of these basic amenities for its people?
I don’t think it is a matter of north or south. You cannot convince me that the north should be blamed. It is a matter of the individual, not the whole region. The northern head of states were not ruling a lone, it was collective leadership and it is about them not addressing the issues that affect the whole of the nation, not just the north.
I don’t like to go into this oligarchic way of looking at things; Nigerians leaders have failed Nigerians. Those who rule the nation from the north were not leaders of the north, they were leaders of Nigeria, whether northerners or southerners, they have all failed Nigerians.
As a member of the committee on Niger/Delta, how will you compare development there and the north considering the huge funds injected into the region
There is absolutely no development in the Niger Delta; all the allocation given to them was not sufficiently utilised by their leaders, by their governors. It is only few of them that are doing some little amount of work. It is the same with the north, west and east.
Some Nigerians were aggrieved that huge sums were allocated to the Niger/Delta region in the budget, knowing this, why did northern legislators allow the budget to be passed?
I and some few people are looking at the budget in term of regional allocation. Of course from our preliminary investigation, it shows that emphasis was laid towards the Niger/Delta region and it gives me a lot of concern. Even when you look at the population of the Niger/Delta and the north, you will see that they cannot be compared. I didn’t know this when we passed the budget until the issues were raised and some of us decided to take a critical look at the budget. When the federal government presents a budget, it will not say, this is for Niger/Delta and this is for South/east.
What it does is to lump everything together and we don’t go to the ministry and start looking for where projects are sited or whether they ought to be in Niger/Delta or North/east. It would be a very tedious thing to do. But I believe that if truly, more funds were injected to the Niger/Delta at the detriment of other parts of the country, then it is bad and the National Assembly shouldn’t have approved it. I was very keen in the passage of the budget, because we wanted to for the first time passed it before the year run out. No budget has been passed before the year ran out in the history of our nascent democracy.
As a member of the committee on drugs, narcotics and financial crime, what is being done about the influx of drugs across border and Nigerians wallowing in prisons abroad?
The committee cannot do anything about it; beside this people definitely did break the laws of other lands. I think they should be allowed to face the laws of the land. If they are released and brought back, you know how our judiciary behaves. When they come back here, they will bribe them and will bribe their way out of their crime. But if there are innocent Nigerians in foreign prisons, I think we should try and get them out and bring them home.
But if you leave the shore of Nigeria, I don’t see why anybody should come to their aid because they are not only committing a crime against that nation, but against Nigeria too because anywhere a Nigerian presents his passport, the first impression is that, he is a criminal or a drug baron. So they are doing harm to all Nigerians, not just to those nations.
Now that you mentioned the judiciary, two senators and eight members of House of Reps elections were annulled by the Federal High Court, what is your perception about that judgment and the judiciary as a whole?
I don’t want to go into that because the matter is in the Appeal Court, I am one of those affected and I cannot comment on it now.
Will you say being in the National Assembly has afforded you the opportunity to impact the lives of your people?
This is not my first time of coming here, I was in the House for eight years and I did quite a lot.
We did quite a lot for them in terms of health care delivery; there is an orphanage in Kaita town and so many projects.