Former vice president and a national leader of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, spoke to journalists during the recent public presentation of a book titled: We Are All Biafrans, authored by Chido Onumah in Abuja.  ADAMU ABUH was there.

Country’s interest is paramount

In my 25 years in politics, the moment somebody indicates interest to join politics, the next thing to cross his mind is an elective or appointive office. When the late Shehu Yar’Adua recruited us into politics, our main objective then was to kick the military out of governance and bring in democracy. Nobody ever thought of contesting for an office until when things changed.

Why states are dependent on federal allocations

Let me start with our history immediately after the civil war, when the Eastern part of this country declared independence. The first thing General Yakubu Gowon did was to create states to counter the move by the Southeast and other parts of the country. Subsequent creation of states was not based on realistic ability of those states to take care of their affairs. It became more or less individual wish by various top military rulers, who just sat down to create states to suit their personal interests.

Incidentally, there was enough money to share then and that was how we found ourselves in what we are seeing now. Since we are no longer under military regime, it is high time we reviewed and restructure our country to make it workable.

For me, I did not see any problem in it, because as a product of the defunct northern Nigeria, from the beginning of my primary school to the university, I was not even aware of the northern Nigeria government, but only aware of my native authority paying my school fees, building schools, hospitals and doing everything. It was while I was in the university that I realised that there was northern Nigeria government. The money was not coming from oil then, but from taxation only. I remember very well that we paid for bicycle license, radio tax and whatever anybody possessed that was taxable. However, the moment we started getting oil revenues, all taxations disappeared just like that.

Appropriate response to the militancy in the Niger Delta

I think the approach to the Niger Delta militancy crisis should be stick and carrot approach. During our administration, we prepared a master plan for the development of Niger Delta and we were ready to implement it, but for the fact that political exigencies at that time diverted it. When I ran for the president in 2007, I had a two-week retreat where I invited most of the stakeholders from Niger Delta. We came up with policy on Niger Delta to create the ministry of Niger Delta, provide amnesty, and create what we called then coast guard and other number of policy issues.

Unfortunately, I did not become the president, late Umaru Yar’Adua became the president and he took part of it. The creation of the ministry of Niger Delta was not his baby, because he never prepared to be president anyway, I was.

But where he got it wrong was that the ministry of Niger Delta was to be charged with the responsibility of implementing the master plan we produced. Secondly, the ministry should have been sited in the Niger Delta, not in Abuja.

If you recall, when the FCT (Federal Capital Territory) was created in 1975, they were immediately asked to move to Abuja. It was bushy then, but that forced them to develop Abuja to what it is today. The ministry of Niger Delta should have been located in the Niger Delta, so that they could implement that master plan.

If I have the opportunity now that the price of oil is dropping, I will sell 10 percent of NNPC to give me not less than $20bn, which I will pump into infrastructural development in the Niger Delta. We really need to pump a lot of money for over a period of time and we would have given the ministry of Niger Delta the mandate, within 10 to 15 years to implement the master plan.

However, we will always end up in accidental leadership in this country. So, let us hope that we will elect the right people one day to sort out these problems.

On the right strategy to develop the northeast

Quite frankly, the situation in the northeast requires national and international intervention, but it is not the same with the situation in the Niger Delta. They are totally different scenarios. The national and international intervention is needed to restore the infrastructure that has been destroyed.

There was an existing infrastructure in the northeast, ranging from roads, bridges, schools, hospitals to police stations. We must enumerate them to know how much it will cost to rebuild those schools and infrastructures. I don’t think we need a permanent institution or body. Once you rebuild, the rest should be left for the states and local governments to continue with the business of governance.

On recurring herdsmen farmers clash

In 2013, I commissioned a foreign company to carry out a feasibility study on livestock industry in this country. The result of the study was that 95 percent of the livestock population is situated in the north, with only five per cent in the southern part of the country. We can see that the greater problem is in the north. In the defunct northern government, we used to have grazing reserves designated in every province of the north. We used to have water and every other thing provided for the cattle in the reserve.

During dry season, the animals are moved to the grazing reserves. However, after studying the feasibility report, I came up with the idea that if 95 percent of the livestock population in this country is situated in the north, let me build industry that can provide livestock feeds. The breeders will make money and resolve the herdsmen problem. I have come to realise that this problem has different peculiarities in various parts of the country. We never heard of herdsmen going to the southeast before, not until the disappearance of the grazing reserves in the north.

Recently, I was in Sokoto and I met with the governor of Zamfara State. I asked him how he is dealing with the herdsmen problem. He gave me a historical perspective, which is completely different from my own. I have lost about 300 herds of cattle to the rustlers. I followed them even up to Cameroon Republic and Central Africa Republic to recover them but could not. So, I lost them and from my part of the country, no matter how much you have, the first thing they ask when you die is how many cattle you left behind. I have more than 1000 herds of cattle and they took away 300.

In the past, Fulani herdsmen used to take cattle to the South for their parents, but when they get there, they got entangled with the southern youths, sold the cattle and took to womanizing and drinking. They would move back to Zamfara State and started cattle rustling. Every part of the country has its own perspective about cattle rustlers. In some parts, they have lived together for hundreds of years without problems. Again, we come back to the same economic challenges facing the country. We have a leadership that is not prepared to learn from the past and a leadership that is also not prepared to lead.

Getting Nigeria out of economic crisis

Before I became the vice president, I was a civil servant and businessman after retirement, before venturing into politics. I look at things from the private sector perspective. When I worked six months as vice president; I told Mr. President that I wanted vacation, because in my previous job, I use to go on vacation every three months. On the issue of the economy, of course, this government met the economy in a terribly bad shape.

I think that the government is trying to really get the economy back on track. Before the election, the president made five promises, fight against corruption, Boko Haram, creating jobs, the economy and unemployment. He is just one year out of the four-year tenure. Within one year, he has satisfactorily dealt with Boko Haram; he is dealing with corruption. So, if we take two out of five in one year, we should give him a pass mark. Let us give him time to also tackle the economy, unemployment and power.

Let me again say that power is very tricky. I had disagreement with my president in 2003, because I told him that we should go for hydropower stations, but he insisted on gas stations. I told him that gas would not work in the next 10 to 15 years, because they will blow up the pipes unless he resolves restiveness in the Niger Delta. He refused to listen to me and continued. Even subsequent administrations continued and 16 to 17 years after, we are still not there with power from gas.

We will not get it unless and until we resolve the Niger Delta issue. What do we do now, go back to hydro, solar and whatever source of energy, obtained in any other parts of the country, use it and in long time develop gas. Anyone thinking that we are going to get power from gas should have a rethink. If my boss had agreed with me in 2002/2003 based on recommendations of international consultants, we would have been self-sufficient in power by 2005 if we had gone for Coptic power stations. I had refused to serve in the power committee and that was why nobody called me when there was power probe on it. I have not changed my position and I have not seen anything to make me change.