Senator Adegbenga Kaka, in this interview with Correspondent, Segun Adeleye, takes a swipe at the Federal Government and the Nigerian Immigration Service for the death of young Nigerians at the recent tragic recruitment exercise. He also speaks on other issues. Excerpts:
What is your reaction to the recent unfortunate NIS recruitment exercise vis-à-vis the stark reality of high rate of unemployment in the country?
The government did not just wake up to discover that there was mass unemployment in Nigeria. It has been with us for decades and, rather than abating, it has continued to rise. Unfortunately, the incident that happened was not the first; it happened before. Up till now, people responsible for the incident have not been apprehended or questioned. I believe we don’t have any reason for our citizens, especially the young graduates, to be jobless. We can say that unemployment rate has risen to 30% in Nigeria, but with vast arable land, with a lot of petrol dollars accruing to this nation, our people must not be going through this hardship, at all.
Mind you, in 1999 when democracy returned to Nigeria, the price of crude was between nine and ten dollars per barrel and, under Obasanjo, it rose to between 140 and 150 dollars per barrel. That is a lot of money and enough capital to rejuvenate our economy and diversify our economy, but we failed woefully. Electricity which is the engine room for moving the economy forward is totally in comatose. The nation just wasted the lives of innocent and young graduates unnecessarily. I heard that the presidency said it would set up a committee to investigate the incident. I feel there is no need for that since those responsible are obvious. Those who precipitated the untimely death are known, those who are at the background – the comptroller-general of NIS is there, the minister is there and, of course, the buck stops at Mr. President’s table.
So, if by now you want to use our money to investigate what is known to the whole world, I think that is not fair at all. If heads are not already rolling via the Minister, I think the president should show the Minister the way out. And if Mr. President is not going to act as he used to do, we should consider asking the President to quit! That is where we are today.
This is not the issue of Boko Haram where we used to hear ministers are there, legislators are there, yet nobody has been apprehended. We were told Boko Haram people are not ghosts, yet people are being slaughtered. The Fulani herdsmen and the pastoralists are also killing one another and we have been treating them like ghosts. 100 are killed today, 150 are slaughtered tomorrow. In fact, within a week, about 350 people were massacred. This is unacceptable; we don’t value human lives. We did not create these lives and God entrusts their safe-keep on us.
Still on unemployment, with the gargantuan money at our disposal, there is no cause to have unemployment in this country, there is no cause for this country to be poor if billions of naira are being stolen right, left, and centre, from pension fund to fuel subsidy and aviation money. I believe that all our young graduates have certificates, they paid before they could acquire them; they must be able to use these certificates as collateral to get loans, which are payable, for them to take off.
The money being squandered here and there must be used to create jobs. Any graduate with his or surety should be able to get interest free loan and, within three years, become employers of labour. That is the only sane way to solve our problems. For example, agriculture is there to be explored. All our civil servants in various offices from the local, state and federal governments, rather than sitting down in the comfort zones of their offices, should give us business plans for every crop, every animal production, and use internet facilities to distribute them free of charge. This is because most of these graduates don’t know how to write business plans and feasibility study that will be even acceptable to the banks. Therefore, nobody who is involved in the recruitment fiasco should be spared so that it can serve as deterrence to others who have lopsidedness tendencies in the country.
In January this year, APC in Ogun State experienced internal wrangling which practically polarized the party into two camps. Can you say normalcy has finally returned to the party?
I will not say all is well with the party in my state, because I will not deceive myself. All is far from being well. We are praying and hoping all will be well. People may be deluding themselves that there is peace because the elders in the party said we should maintain peace. There is no way we can maintain peace at all cost.
As far as we are concerned, we have a constitution guiding our behaviour, both as a nation and as a party. And whoever attempts to flout it – we will need to expunge such a person.
Yes, peace of the graveyard, it may be. As far as I know, the constitution says there should be interim executives. There is interim executive at the national level of APC and we are supposed to do the same in all the states of the federation. In some states, they are working, in Ogun State, we elected three, the remaining two are to be filled by a section, they refused to do it and they are running the party as a sole administration.
We will say no to this kind of oppression, and we will not surrender to any act capable of undermining what some people laboured and died for. Such elements, I think, should be shown the way out if they are not ready to abide by the tenets of the party.
Are these the reasons the party congress has not been held?
Well, the congress of the party was supposed to have been held last (penultimate) Saturday but I am sure there are logistics which the leadership of the party at the national level is working out. I am sure at the interim national executive meeting, to be held very soon, they will work out all grey areas and they will give us a definite date for the congress.
So, with no pronouncement yet from the national leadership, you must be hearing that some people have been parading a list of positions, they have done zoning. Who gave them the authority to do so? If I, as the secretary of the interim exco in Ogun State, do not know anything about any zoning, then they are joking. By the grace of God, congress will hold and winners will emerge, and everybody will abide by the outcome. Anything short of that is invalid.
source: daily independence
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