Politics Today

FORMER governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande was the first interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with Sunday Sun at his Ila-Orangun, Osun State country home, the 77-year-old astute politician spoke on issues of national interest including the anti-corruption war, the economy, insurgency and victory of the opposition over the PDP.
By Razaq Bamidele
What exactly would you say was the factor that ousted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?
When you talk of factor, it is very difficult to say this is one particular factor that caused its defeat. First and foremost, when a ruler is staying too long, people get tired of him. But when a bad ruler stays too long in office, people drive such a ruler out of power. PDP was staying for nothing. They were staying for the disadvantage of the citizens. They were staying for their own interests and people got tired of them and decided to let them go. It could not have been easy because the PDP has become an octopus in power, if not for the merger of all the major political parties. It was all the strength of the opposition that was used in pushing PDP out of power.
Going by the failure of earlier alliances to make positive impact on the former ruling party, one is compelled to ask what made the latest coming together of the opposition political parties succeed in getting results?
There had always been alliances even before the PDP came into power. But an alliance is a loose association of political parties. It is not the same as a merger. In an alliance, you keep your party with your focus, with your institution, with your manifesto and I keep mine. We are only friends for the purpose of election. There is no way in that circumstance that you don’t cross each other’s path. And things might not work out. But in a merger, you forget about your old party and you take a new party and you synchronize your own idea and policy into one manifesto and one constitution. Then you fight as a union against whatever opposition you might have. So, in a merger, you are more appropriate and always stronger than in alliances. And that is why alliances never easily succeed. But in a union, a merger can succeed.
When we started the merger, it did not look like a political party. It became a movement and the whole country accepted it.
Was the formation of the union that worked out for you this time a tea party?
Oh, no. It cannot be easy anywhere because most of the people who were trying to be stakeholders might be selfish. And selfish motives can always stand in the way of good ideas. At the beginning, it was going to be Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). The reason was, in 2011, ACN and CPC talked of a union or an alliance up to the eve of the election. As soon as the election was over, and both lost, CPC felt we should continue with discussion where we left it. And it was going to be a union of the CPC and the ACN. But good judgment told us that if we did that, the octopus PDP with a lot of money that could not be easy for anybody to count and the source of which we did not know, could be used to expand the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to become a third force. And we did not want a third force. So, we insisted on having the ANPP with us. So, it was conditioned that, with CPC, we must continue with discussion where we ended but if we must succeed in the end, we must have ANPP with us. We insisted on having the ANPP with us.
And immediately after the merger, there was a faction in the PDP called New PDP. We did not want that one too to become a third force. We quickly worked very hard to see that we got them to us. So, it was a political arithmetic the kind that not many people would assume. But as we were on the drawing board, we were seeing it and we were trying to mop up all other factors that might create a third force to see that they worked with us.
Now your party is now in power at the center, but are you aware that people out there are agitated that the promised ‘change’ is yet to manifest?
Well, you are very right. Not Nigerians alone, all human beings are impatient because life itself is not that long. And the life of a government is very, very short. The life of a government in Nigeria is only four years. So, the first month, everybody wanted change. But when we were coming to power, we promised changes around three important issues. Number one, we said we were going to confront Boko Haram or anything insurgency. We promised to bring peace back to Nigeria. And if you don’t do that first, you would not be able to do any other thing because where there is no peace, there cannot be order and there would be distraction. You would not be able to act or do anything. So, we said that, of these three issues, which one should be the first one? We discovered that we must solve the problem of insurgency first. Buhari’s first activities were concerned with how to stop the Boko Haram insurgency. And we are happy, though it was not there in one day. It started in 2009 and when something started in 2009 and somebody came in the middle of 2015 and by the end of 2015, he was able to remove the tap root of the insurgency; to me, he has done very brilliantly.
The other issue which our party said we would confront was corruption. If you don’t remove corruption, whatever you put on the table, no matter what you want to do, it would not be done well. The government we replaced voted money every day for roads. There were no roads. They were voting money every day for infrastructure, there was no infrastructure. They were voting money every day to improve the education of the people, the training of the mind of the people, it could not be seen. Two things make a country to develop, the quality of the citizenry, the level of the individual’s education in the citizenry of a country is very important. The second one is strength of the institutions. In a country like Nigeria, where some areas are fairly educated, but not properly educated, and some areas are not just educated, we have a lot of problems in putting things in proper perspectives, particularly when the constitution says federal character must be considered in making appointments.
So, in creating institutions that would be very strong and be qualitative in such a circumstance, we needed a delicate approach. And one should be very careful about it.
So, because corruption is endemic, our institutions are very weak. So, Buhari has to confront corruption. But it is unfortunate because we have a sluggish judiciary. And where the judiciary is sluggish, and a case can take 30 years to be determined, definitely the corrupt man can say, we would soon test his resolve through the sluggish judiciary. He would soon use the sluggish judiciary to test his own resolve and get him tired. And in four years, they may still be in court and by the time the President goes away, they have a way of killing the case and corruption would not go.
Another thing is that Buhari too should be very careful because when corruption fights back, it can be very devastating. So, in doing all these things, you have to balance many things. And you cannot rush into it. That is why it appears the impatience of the people needs to be managed. And we need an institution like the press to assist in managing this by emphasizing that corruption is a very delicate thing to confront. And it requires some tact and time. Therefore, the change cannot be immediate. And until you kill corruption the change being expected cannot happen. You will spend a lot of money on electricity, the next month, you produce less than before you started spending money on it because corruption has taken away the money you put into it. So, if corruption is not fought, the ordinary people can never have the benefit of good government. That is why it appears Buhari concentrates now on fighting corruption.
The third thing we have promised is employment. We said we are going to confront unemployment. Unless we remove corruption, unless we remove insurgency, it would be very difficult to create jobs because factories would not be able to work and government cannot give jobs to everybody. You have to create an atmosphere that would allow industries to grow and absorb the unemployed. So, those three are inter-twined. They are so inter-twined and so difficult to confront that we need some time before it can start fruition and before their effects can be seen by the people. I think that far, I can say, but many people are impatient to see all those things we never promised. I hear people say and write many things in the papers that Buhari has not done this or that which we never promised at all and which are merely in the assumption of the people. We cannot take them along. And unless we are focused and we limit ourselves to those three, we would not be able to get there.
Can we blame the downturn of the economy for the sluggishness of the incumbent administration in power?
Yes, the downturn of the economy is there and the PDP government never created any platform for the economy to thrive in this country. So, when we came in, we inherited only a single product economy. An economy that depends solely on crude oil. And as we were coming in, the demand for crude oil was disappearing and the price of crude oil was falling. So, the downturn of economy would be there. And to diversify is not a matter of six months. Diversification can take 10 to 20 years. So, we cannot put the blame of the downturn of the economy on Buhari’s administration.
With the scenario you just painted about the evil effects of corruption on any nation, do you subscribe to the idea of setting the rule of law aside as being canvassed by some people to fast-track cases against the indicted corrupt persons?
I don’t know what such people mean. When you talk of the rule of law, it depends on the extent or the wisdom behind the law in place. I say that because in the Nigerian Constitution, if you kill a person, you must be detained until your innocence is proved beyond reasonable doubt. A corrupt man has killed numerous people. So, a corrupt person is a murderer. Take for instance, you take money to buy arms to fight Boko Haram and you steal it though for selfish reason. In the process, numerous people have been killed by Boko Haram. Some people linked to that corruption are murderers. Our constitution says that murderers must not be let off the hook until the judgment is passed. So, what do you mean by the rule of law? It’s a matter of interpretation. You can say the man who used cutlass to kill is direct. One who used corruption to kill is indirect. Killing is killing. So, a corrupt man is a murderer. And corruption is a killer. It is a time bomb.
So, if a man is troubled and you cannot prove that the money in his hands, he never had it corruptly, he should remain in detention because he is already a murderer. And our constitution says a murderer must be detained. So, I don’t know what the people mean about removing the rule of law or keeping the rule of law. It is a matter of interpretation. In some countries of the world including China and in some other places, they kill corrupt people. The penalty for corruption is the gallows. It is capital punishment. If we don’t want to do that, I would not preach we should for a reason. When we impose capital punishment for armed robbery, robbers became more deadly. Before, they threatened you with arms, took your money and left you alive. But when you say we should kill armed robbers, they started killing you before taking your money. So that corruption will not start killing us, I do not support that corrupt persons be killed at this stage of our development. But I would think that a corrupt person is a murderer. And all murderers must always be kept and detained until their cases are treated. I know that there could be an insincere government that would tell a lie to say somebody is corrupt. It has been done to me before. A governor just went out and declared me wanted and said that I stole money on Bola Ige House and he didn’t know where I took the money, he didn’t know where I kept it and he could not prove anything. But he was looking for me. I sincerely refused to answer. I told the police if they were bold enough, they should come to arrest me in my house. They declared me wanted, they did not come to my house. But in a case where you go to the Central Bank of Nigeria to take money, you signed for it, and you did not spend the money for the purpose you took the money, definitely, what is your argument? You don’t deny taking the money. And the money is meant to save lives. And you don’t spend the money for saving life. And lives were lost. You are a murderer. And you have no argument. You don’t have a reason to ask for a bail from any court of law. That is the way I look at it.
But don’t you think that the anti-graft war is taking too much of time that can be utilized on governance?
What is governance? The foundation and essence of good government is killing corruption. If he can deal with corruption, things will take shape and money would be spent on the purpose it is meant. There would be growth of industries and there would be employment. What do you want in governance than to get your children to go to school and to get good education? His fighting corruption never stops schools. His fighting corruption never stops building roads. His fighting corruption never stops anything. So, what is governance? Governance is lack of corruption. When you talk of good governance, there would be no corruption. In any polity where there is corruption, definitely you cannot govern. So, I don’t separate government from removal of corruption because good governance is removal of corruption. And that is what Buhari is doing. He is governing. It does not stop the hospital from running. It does not stop schools from running. It does not stop the roads from being mended. It does not stop anything. He put a budget before the National Assembly. And as soon as that budget is approved, even before it is approved, the law says you can be spending the limit of what you spent last year. Once the budget is before the National Assembly, you can be spending to the limit of, maybe a percentage of what you spent last year. So, governance never stops. And corruption is being fought and must be fought.
But I am afraid, corruption is a giant fighter. I am afraid corrupt people are grouping already and they are in everybody’s home. And by the time they fight back, it might be more dangerous than Boko Haram.
Are you comfortable that the crisis that rocked the National Assembly at inception would not create cracks in the wall of the APC?
The crisis never rocked the National Assembly. The crisis rocked the party because the party stands for a position. They conducted the primary on who should be in the leadership of the National Assembly. That is what the law says. That is what good governance says. That is what democracy says. But some indisciplined members of the party hijacked the party’s National Assembly against the constitution of the party. Until that indiscipline is punished, I don’t see the party being strong. I wont say we have seen the end of the crisis. I am one of the leaders and I will not say we have seen the end. We haven’t seen the end. Until that indiscipline is punished, we would not get over it.
Coming down to Osun State, with your outstanding performance while in office as governor that remains a reference point till date, why and how did you lose your second term bid?
Corruption fought me devastatingly. Corruption fought me devastatingly because the people in Osun State, particularly the civil servants regretted that I built that edifice (state secretariat) in two years. They were worried. It has never been done and they did not want it to be done. And they did everything to prevent me from doing it. Before me, the contract for the road at Okefia that passes through Olaiya Petrol Station was awarded in 1978 and it was not finished until I came. They were awarding, re-awarding and re-awarding the contract and they were putting in money. When they awarded, they would put mobilization and the contractor would go away.
They would re-negotiate; they would come again and so on. When I came, I closed my eyes and said this road must be completed. I awarded it to the military, the Engineering Corps in Ede, because people did not want that job done. And they could go and fight the soldiers if they liked. In less than six months, the road was done. It was painful to those who were using that road to steal government money. So, the governments, before I came, did not start and finish any job. They would always start, do a bit and start negotiating again to make it costlier. I did not allow it. When I came, I insisted there would be no mobilization to the contractors. There would be no revision of price. All the roads I built, I didn’t mobilize, I did not review the price. But when you do a percentage of the work, I pay you. When you do another percentage, I pay you. So, by the time you cannot do again, I would not lose any money. And you go away. That was my system at that time in building roads, houses and in doing any contract. I didn’t pay contractors in advance. If you can go to the bank and borrow money, and bribe people with that, I don’t care. But I would not give you government money as bribe because I hold it in trust. That was painful to most people. And they were not happy that I was stingy with government money. Yes, if it is my money, I can be free with it. But this is government money, I shouldn’t be frivolous with it. And that didn’t go down well with the people.
I know if the election was run in proper way, majority of the common men wanted me back and they waited for me. But the election was rigged. So, I enjoyed it, I was happy because of my policy that I did what I had to do within the specified time I had. My not having a second term was not an issue at all. I knew when I was being given the mandate, it was for four years and I planned for four years. In the second term, if I came again, I would have done a different thing.
Are you saying your defeat had nothing to do with the issue of the sacked teachers?
Those people who said it was because I sacked the teachers never knew the details. By the grace of God I will write a memoir and I will include the relationship between me and the teachers. But you will agree with me and I am saying it to you today. When I became governor, there were schools without pupils but there were teachers. There was one particular school where there was no single pupil but there were 14 teachers. But the teachers there used the place for those who were retaking their West African School Certificate Examination.
And after that examination, there would be no pupils again. And I kept on paying salaries for 14 teachers that were doing nothing for four years. And that is one extreme. There were other haphazard situations in the state. I went to one school where there was only one mathematician. And he was the headmaster of the school. And by the practice, the headmaster doesn’t teach. Then I asked, who then teaches Mathematics in this school? No Mathematics teacher but there were 16 teachers of Physical Education in that school and I said how come? It was corruption. Some of these teachers were either relations of the civil servants or wives of big men so that they would not go far from them so they put them in city schools.
So, we had a problem. By the time I was coming in, not up to two percent of the pupils were passing WASC in Osun State. And when I say two percent, all those pupils that were passing belonged to private schools like the Catholic schools or other private schools in the state. One day, the Catholic Bishop sat down with me and explained to me that his own teachers were not as experienced as my teachers and that his own teachers were not earning as much as my teachers. But he was getting results in his schools while I was not getting results in my own schools! And that my schools should be looked into and I looked into the schools. And I discovered that there were numerous teachers that were not useful. So, I started sacking those teachers that were not useful and employing teachers that could be useful for me.

Sun