Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who has officially declared his
intention to contest the presidency in 2019 on the platform of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in this exclusive interview with Olawale
Olaleye and Bayo Akinloye lays out his plan to reposition the country
to realise its full potential. Atiku speaks on a wide variety of issues,
including youth unemployment, the troubled education system,
insecurity, and restructuring. Furthermore, for the first time, he
committed himself to doing just one term of four years. Excerpts:
You
officially joined the race for the PDP ticket ahead of the 2019
presidential election two weeks ago. What exactly is your agenda for
Nigeria?
My agenda is centred on jobs. That is what I have been
doing for the past 40 years. I am first and foremost an entrepreneur. A
job creator. My group of companies has a workforce of about 50,000. This
does not include the hundreds of thousands that are indirectly
employed. I believe in creating jobs, providing opportunities, being
united as one Nigeria, and securing it all with a military-industrial
complex whose raison d’être is ‘Nigeria First.’
It is a fact of
life that you cannot give what you do not have. In December of 2017, the
government-owned and operated National Bureau of Statistics officially
revealed that 7.9 million Nigerians had lost their jobs in the 21 months
immediately preceding the Buhari government. The current government
cannot create jobs because it is headed and peopled by men and women who
have never run successful businesses. They ran their own private
businesses down. So how can you expect them to run the public’s business
up? What I am assuring Nigerians is that if they elect me, I promise
them that everyone who wants to work will be given opportunities.
Even
this thing they are doing, called N-Power, is a product of their
poverty mindset. Nigerians do not need handout. Nigerians need a leg up!
Our people are not lazy. Quote me anywhere; Nigerians are the most
intelligent people on God’s planet. The reason our people are living in
poverty today is that our current leaders have a poverty mentality. I
will give you a very good example. How can I be president and criminals
will attack my people and I will tell them that the only thing I can do
is pray? Then, in that case, I should be a clergyman, not a president!
How can a leader open his mouth and tell his citizens that it is better
to give land than to die? That is as good as telling the people that
they have been conquered.
You have become the champion of
restructuring even more than Bola Tinubu, who no longer speaks of it.
President Buhari described those clamouring for restructuring as
parochial. What is your reaction to that? In addition, how do you really
plan to restructure the country if elected in 2019?
With all due
respect, it is the refusal to even discuss restructuring that is
parochial. Nigeria either restructures or it withers away. And the sad
thing is that the man who made that comment does not even know the
meaning of the word parochial. To be parochial is to have a limited
mindset incapable of seeing reason with others. Now, who is parochial
between him and those advocating restructuring?
Take something
like insecurity. The other day there were killings in Plateau State and
the President said the situation had got so bad there was nothing more
he could do than pray. Even that statement itself is a cry for
restructuring. The man is admitting that there is nothing he can do,
within the current structure, other than to pray. That means the current
structure, by his own admission, is not working.
If we
restructured and had community policing, the man would not be in such
dire straits. The Imam of Nghar village, in Barkin Ladi Local Government
Area of Plateau State saved 300 Christians by hiding them in his mosque
during the recent crisis. By that singular act, Alhaji Abdullahi
Abubakar saved 300 lives. That was a community solution to a community
challenge. Now put your thinking cap on. Imagine how much safer that
community would be if they practised community policing, which relied on
community leaders like Imam Abdullahi Abubakar?
Even in revenue
generation, I came up with the idea of matching grants when I gave a
speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as
Chatham House, on April 25, 2018. Matching grants would motivate our
states to be less dependent on federal allocation and more dependent on
internally generated revenue. Today, both the Federal Government and the
states are broke. They depend on loans to even pay salaries and in the
midst of that, someone is saying that we do not need restructuring.
Reality departed from such a fellow a while ago!
How do I plan to restructure the country if elected?
Restructuring
is a process, not an event. However, I have said it that I would
restructure Nigeria within six months of being elected. First of all, no
state will get less than what they are currently getting from the
federation account. In fact, they will get more. That is what my
initiative of matching grant is all about. I only need a constitutional
amendment if I want to take power and resources away. I do not need to
amend the constitution to give power and resources away.
Let me
give you an example. There are several federal government-owned assets
and projects wasting away in Lagos and other states. I do not need a
constitutional amendment to call the Lagos State government or
governments of the other states and say take over these assets and
projects and whatever monies they generate. I do not need a
constitutional amendment to transfer universities from the Federal
Government to the state government. I only need an Executive Order.
Ditto for returning schools to the missions and religious organisations,
which once owned them. The most vital part of restructuring is the
devolution of powers, not the accumulation of powers and it is easier to
give powers away than to take them from the federating units.
As
you know, restructuring is not particularly popular among the northern
elite. How are you going to convince them that this is the best way to
realise Nigeria’s economic and human capital potentials?
That is a
myth. Unfortunately, this presumption has discouraged many true
proponents of restructuring. Those who perpetuate this falsehood are
attempting to rewrite history. Let me tell you, when General Aguiyi
Ironsi came up with the controversial Unification of Assets Decree No.
34 of 1966, it was not the West or Midwest that resisted it. It was not
the East. It was the North that rejected it and for good reason.
Northern Nigeria is capable of feeding not just the whole of Nigeria,
but the whole of Africa. That was why the Sardauna was so happy with the
discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the East. He was not
threatened by it. He was overjoyed. His vision was that the North would
grow more food that the other regions would be in a better position to
buy. Is that not genius? Does that sound like someone who would be
against restructuring?
I was shocked to find out that
Nigerians spend a billion dollars to educate their children in Ghana
every year. When you add the cost of educating their wards in Europe and
America, you are looking at a further $1 billion. I am assuring you
that if we invest in our education sector and make it as good as Ghana’s
and definitely even better, that $2 billion will no longer leave
Nigeria. It will circulate internally and boost the quality of our
education and the value of our Naira.
Recently, you were said to
have promised to devote 21 per cent of your national budget to
education. Tell us, how you will do this because we actually need a
concrete plan of action and specificity in this regard?
Yes, I did
make that commitment and I make it here again. I pledge that if I am
chosen by my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, to be its presidential
candidate, and if I am subsequently elected as the President by
Nigerians, I will go above and beyond the United Nations’
recommendations and ensure that a minimum of 21 per cent of the federal
budget is devoted to education. Beyond that, I will reserve 10 per cent
of that amount to further and continuous education for our public school
teachers. Nigeria’s education sector must progress from creating job
seekers. We must train our teachers to train our children to be job
creators as well.
As for the specifics, for the last 10 years,
Nigeria has budgeted the equivalent of $30 billion at the federal level,
give or take. Twenty-one per cent of that is about $6.5 billion. I
already mentioned to you that if elected as the president, I would sit
with the heads of the legislature and the judiciary for the purpose of
coming to an agreement on how we can scale down our overheads.
On
the side of the executive, there are so many things we can cut down on.
Recently, I wanted to go to Azerbaijan and I found out that they don’t
have an embassy in Nigeria or any other country near Nigeria. To get a
visa, you apply online to their foreign office.
Nigeria maintains
literally hundreds of embassies and foreign missions in multiple nations
that we really do not need. We can close down two-thirds of these
missions and have one embassy service as many as four nations in the
geographic vicinity. We can use technology to provide consular services.
In
2018, we budgeted N63 billion for recurrent expenditure in foreign
affairs. Under an Atiku presidency, we would spend only a quarter of
that. The rest will go to education.
In the same budget, we are
spending N1 trillion paying salaries for our military and paramilitary
officers and men, and less than half of that paying salaries in the
education sector. As an educator, I see the problem immediately. The
less you spend on education the more you have to spend on security. The
more you spend on education the less you have to spend on security. It
is interconnected. We are having to spend so much on defence because
over the years we have not invested enough in education. Beginning from
my first year, I will reverse that. The money will be re-channelled to
education.
In the 2018 budget, we have N112 billion going to the
Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. To do what?
Award grass cutter contracts? Under an Atiku administration, whoever is
the Secretary to the Government of the Federation just has to find a
way to manage 10 per cent of that money. The rest will go to education. I
am serious about this. This is not rhetoric. I have achieved it in my
private capacity as an educator and if given the chance, I will
replicate it in Nigeria’s public sector.
Nigeria nationalised
education in 1975 and that has been the root of the crisis in the
education sector. How would you resolve that particular issue of
centralised control of education that has destroyed the educational
system? Would you allow states to have total control over education,
limiting federal intervention to the barest level? And how would you use
the increased budgetary allocation to education you have proposed to
ensure our education is more relevant to the economic and scientific
growth of the country?
I believe I answered the first part of
your question when I said I would use Executive Orders to devolve some
powers. To be more specific, by Executive Order, the President can hand
over universities to the states in which they are located. By Executive
Order, the President can also hand over all unity secondary schools to
the states in which they are located. Where these schools were taken
over by the Federal Government from religious bodies and missions, they
should be returned to such religious bodies and missions.
As to
the second part of your question, the bulk of the 21 per cent sectorial
allocation will not go towards paying salaries, as is currently the
case. Almost half will go towards infrastructure and capacity building. I
will set up a fund for the compulsory training and continuous education
of all Nigerian teachers. I will issue an Executive Order mandating
that all Nigerian schools must be WiFi-equipped at federal government
expense. We will work with the private sector to take in students as
interns so that they can learn on the job during their holidays and the
federal government will be responsible for paying these students a
learning bursary.
Our research and development agencies will be
retooled. They must deliver. How could the Buhari administration be
considering importing grass from Brazil when we have research agencies
like the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, and the
non-government owned International Institute of Tropical Agriculture,
Ibadan? I would order our research agencies to work with fully
Nigerian-owned businesses, like Innoson Motors. Because of the immense
successes we have had at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, I
know that Nigeria as a whole can have similar successes.
Are you
going to devolve responsibilities for education to the states? And how
will you engender competition among the states to ensure that the
educational system is merit-driven?
I already answered this
question and in some detail too. As to the second part of your question,
the federal government will retain ministries and agencies, like the
ministry of education and the National Universities Commission and other
agencies for other levels of education to ensure that minimal national
standards are in force in institutions. As long as these institutions
maintain these standards, the federal government will continue to
intervene in those institutions through the initiatives I already
outlined.
Some people are worried about your age. Many also say
that you don’t have the cult-like followership that Buhari has, to be
able to win the election. The belief is that even though you have
national support, winning the presidential election is still going to be
a tall order. What is your reaction to this?
How old am I versus
the incumbent? I know when I was born. This is my exact age. I do not
have a football age. But the issue is even beyond age. It is about
fitness. I am fit. I am ready to publish my medical records and I
challenge all those who are running, including the incumbent, to give
that same assurance. As to the cult-like following, yes, you are right, I
am not a cultist, nor will I ever be. The history of the human race has
shown that personality cults do more harm than good. But if this cult
is so powerful, how come it could not help elect Muhammadu Buhari in
2003, 2007 and 2011? How come Nasir el-Rufai, my former protégé, said on
October 4, 2010 that Buhari is ‘perpetually unelectable’?
The truth,
which you and I know, is that without the support of Bola Tinubu,
Buhari would not have been elected as the President, his cult
followership notwithstanding.
Some have also said that your
chances of being president would be enhanced if you commit to only one
term so that you will be the bridge between the old and the future.
Would you commit to one term only?
Of course, I would! I have said
this before on my own initiative. I believe in it. If I am elected as
the President in 2019, I give an undertaking that I would only do one
term.
Having said that, let me remind Nigerians that Buhari also
gave such an undertaking in 2011, but he is not living up to it today.
My own case will be different. I am prepared to sign an undertaking to
do only one term.
Are you not just saying this to get the ticket
and, ultimately, get elected after which you would feel no obligation to
honour your words? But how do you make us believe you, since Buhari, as
you have said, failed to honour his own 2011 pledge?
I am not
Muhammadu Buhari. I do not make promises I cannot keep. I am assuring
Nigerians that I will keep this promise. I am making it out here in the
open. I am willing to sign a written document. If you or any other
Nigerian can come up with an iron-clad legal document that binds me, I
am willing to publicly commit to it
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