Interview

Suspension: Disloyal council bosses ‘ll have themselves blamed – PDP chair 

 

In this interview with HEAD POLITICS, MUMINI ABDULKAREEM, the Kwara State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Engr Kola Shittu speaks on suspension of the Local Government chairmen, how the party is responding to the issue and position on activities of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq so far among other issues in the polity. Excerpts:

How would you react to the aftermath of your last engagement about the action of lawmakers regarding the suspension of the local government chairmen?

I think there are many people who are into lawmaking but lacks understanding of the roles of the legislature and this is very unfortunate. Among the three arms of governments, the main purpose of the legislature is to make laws for good governance and carry out oversight functions among others. I think some people misunderstood my point on the issue of suspension of the local government chairmen. The point is how did the House came about the resolution calling on the governor to suspend them for allegedly misappropriating N33bn. Where did they get their fact and what investigation did they carry out to determine how this was done. What if the allegation turned out to be false, will they reverse the suspension? I will emphasise that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is doing very well, he only acted on the lawmakers resolution who are the peoples representatives which portrays him as good governor for obeying the legislature. It would have been the other way round for him to go ahead and suspend the council bosses without the House resolution. Now, we are not saying the House of Assembly does not have right to suspend or summon any citizen but due process has to be followed. An ad-hoc committee should have been set up with a timeline and then act on their findings, but they didn’t do that, which is wrong and the speaker should note that. I am a two term national legislator and this is how it is done everywhere. That is why I said they put the cart before the horse. I must support legislative matter any day but where they are going wrong, we have to advise them.

What would you say to those alleging that your party is trying to frustrate the investigation of the affected chairmen?

I hate corruption and if any local government council chairman is found guilty of stealing people’s money, he should not only be suspended but charged to court and punished. Whether you are in PDP or APC, we are all working for the citizens. Today APC has form government in Kwara State and for those who have been asking me whether I am surprised we lost after 16 years or whether we can come back to government. The truth is we cannot rule forever. Now it’s APC’s turn and it might change tomorrow. In fact I have more friends in APC than PDP and to mention names, the elder brother to the Governor, Dr Alimi was my junior in ABU Zaria and we still remain not only friends but like each other, same with the Chief of Staff, Dr Aminu Logun who is my senior friend, he will pick my call if I phone him today despite the political differences and others like Kale Belgore and Raheem Adedoyin, we talk and are all friends. Mind you, nobody even knows tomorrow and like it happens in football, we may still find ourselves in the same party in the future. I still discuss with Senator Lola Ashiru. See, I think the younger ones should learn that there should be no fight over somebody winning election, they should just do their work and we wish them the best. I have congratulated the Governor many times and I wish him well and I think we should help him do a good job. All these young exuberant actions need to be played down especially when it comes to lawmaking. Nobody is saying that the chairmen should not be suspended if they are found to have committed the offence because that will amount to supporting corruption. I am a civil engineer of over 40 years and a contract manager that has supervised funds worth billions of naira and I have never been found wanting or taken money from any contractor or inflating contracts even as a commissioner and in the private sector.

There is presently a split among the council chairmen over their suspension and 12 of them have moved to withdraw the case against the remaining four who insisted on pursuing the suit. Why can’t the party rally all of them to agree on a position?

ALGON should not be divided in the first place and they should have liaised with the party and all the members take a common position. But this was never done because of the ambition of some individual council chairmen who I think do not know what they are doing. They decision to go to court was a collective one but suddenly some of them went back to be begging APC stalwarts to be council chairmen at all cost and became disloyal to the party despite the fact that the party tried to correct them. I don’t really know what they want. Before the Governor took over, because of our situation in Nigeria, we sensed he would want to dissolve the councils whether wrongly or rightly as it is happening everywhere and called the chairmen for discussion. That was why they went to court to pre-empt dissolution citing the Supreme Court judgment in Ekiti State. If we have a good case why should we withdraw it and the four of them who declined are very loyal to the party. We have counted the others as not being loyal. The PDP wants the case to get to logical conclusion and we have gone to court to test it so why the reversal. It is very unfortunate. It was not the APC that forced them to withdraw because we understand that those who withdrew were the ones who approached the CoS, APC chairman and other top APC stalwarts so that they can go back to be council chairmen. Do you think that can happen? I don’t think they know what they are doing. They should have waited but we are already in court and we believe the case will not be withdrawn. Those who are disloyal will blame themselves at the end of the day.

Is the party contemplating any action against them?

We are going to write them for a meeting and we know how to handle such issue, which is not for public discussion. You cannot force anybody if any of them say they are going to APC. But we are on top of the situation and the issues will be handled appropriately at the right time.
But there is the insinuation that their action has to do with lack of money to prosecute the assignment?
They have not approach or discussed that with the party. They are deciding on their own and that is all false.

On the alleged certificate forgery issue, the party made a weighty allegation against WAEC, what is really your argument and position?

Our national body has written a petition to WAEC office in Ghana over the issue pointing out their observations and we are waiting for their reaction because the level of the man who came to represent the examination body at the tribunal is too low. Our accusation of unholy relationship is not out of place and the important thing is for the court to deliver justice. The certificate issue is already on and it is left for the court to decide.

As an opposition party, how will you react to the action of the Governor so far?

Our democracy is growing and the practitioners have not really gotten it right, maybe because we are third world country. The way we play opposition in Nigeria is like one should be fighting anybody that defeats him which is unfortunate. Our party’s engagement going forward is to provide constructive criticism of the ruling APC and where they are doing very well, we will praise them and will shout where otherwise for them to do it very well for the citizen to enjoy the dividends of democracy. To us now, governor Abdulrazaq is doing very well in some areas like completion of ongoing projects, the release of about N350m for the completion of the State secretariat, some ongoing roads earmarked for completion among others. I praise him for that and not surprise because he is from the private sector. He has shown a good example that he is working and we can see it. But some people who felt PDP have done them wrong in the past feel this is the time to retaliate which is wrong because the PDP might win again tomorrow. I don’t believe Governor Abdulrazaq is of the opinion that former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed left the state in a mess, that is the summation of his Press Secretary because that is not the way to go. The proper thing is to appreciate what he met on ground and correct them to move on. The Governor will not be there forever. It was during the last sixteen years that Bukola Saraki set up KWASU which is serving the state and its citizens now. He also laid the foundation of new Kwara during his tenure and those coming behind should build on it. He couldn’t have done everything; Governor Abdulrazaq should do his best for others coming after to continue to build on the good thing he will leave behind. Many of our politicians because of lack of understanding and education which transcends beyond having a formal schooling don’t understand politics. I think the press has a huge role to play to ensure it is well appreciated and played. Those who are expecting me to be insulting the ruling government in the media will be disappointed because we will only be talking on policies. We give kudos to the governor for the good things he has done because the citizens will enjoy it, we are not fighting with anybody.

Some supporters of the PDP are of the view that the former Governor, Bukola Saraki is being deliberately witch-hunted by some actions of the government, what is your view to this?

Like which action?
The Alimi lodge issue for instance and the insinuation among some of the APC leaders that Saraki has been responsible for the inability of the last government to pay salaries
I don’t think those who are saying the former Senate President was responsible have any evidence on that. They were only using such narrative to whip up sentiment. There is no basis for that. On the issue of the Alimi lodge, I understand the government at a time sold government properties to people which followed due process. There is nothing wrong for this government to look into such sales and whoever bought out of it should show evidence of purchase. It was not done secretly and government policy allowed it at that time. Such is even practised at the federal level. But if this government decides to discontinue with the policy, fine but it doesn’t mean the policy is wrong. These are straight forward things. I think it is better to focus on how the citizens should enjoy dividends of democracy. Nobody is perfect and we should stop blaming previous government whether at the state and federal levels.

Message

We should not confuse the citizens with rumours but encourage any government in power to do well and stop attacking personalities. Personal disagreement should not be elevated to governance and people should support Governor Abdulrazaq to do well. His aides should stop misleading him to carry out actions that are not supposed to be like the House of Assembly did. That was not necessary and they were too much in a hurry. Otherwise they will be putting the government in disrepute. I also want to advice all politicians that we are all friends and can find ourselves in the same party tomorrow as it is happening in Nigeria. There should not be room for retaliation rather to provide good governance and encourage those at the helms of affairs to do well.

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