Yar`Adua will Mess Nigeria Up Like He Did to Katsina
May 26, 2007 | posted by Nigerian Muse (Archives)
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TWO INTERVIEWS:
...He will mess up Nigeria like he did to Katsina – Yar’Adua’s former student
Lawal Ibrahim, Katsina
Yar’Adua will just be a ceremonial president – Balarabe Musa
DAILY TRUST INTERVIEW
May 25, 2007
COVER
...He will mess up Nigeria like he did to Katsina – Yar’Adua’s former student
Lawal Ibrahim, Katsina
Alhaji Kabiru Yahaya, popularly known as K.Y, is a Katsina-based pharmacist cum politician. He was a student and close associate of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in the last forty-one years. In this interview with our correspondent, Yahaya explains why he feels Yar’Adua would not make a good president for Nigeria. Excerpts:
WT: You were said to be very close to Governor Yar’Adua. What is your relationship and for how long have you known him?
Yahaya: I have known Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for forty-one years, precisely I first met him in 1966 during the days of Katsina State Student Union when he was the president. From then on our paths crossed in a number of ways including the fact that in 1976 when he just finished his National Youth Service, (NYSC), he was employed by the then Katsina College of Art, Science and Technology in Zaria to teach chemistry and I happened to be one of the students he taught chemistry that year. It was in the class and outside the chemistry that class Umaru taught me communism, because he was a rabid socialist. He was a hardcore and staunched social communist. Then we found ourselves first in different political camps, the NRC and SDP and in 1998/99 we found ourselves in the PDP and before that, K34. So I have known him for 41 years and in the five-year period between 1976 and 1981 we spent at least four hours in a week with each other.
WT: Having known him this well, what can you say about how principled he was then and what are the ideals he propagated?
Yahaya: Well, I think before 2001, because the year 2001 is actually the period when Umaru changed from what we used to know him to what we now have, he was a strong supporter of seeking the truth no matter what. He was radically opposed to corruption and the Umaru of then was a straight forward, sincere and committed Marxist. After 2001, I don’t know what got into him, may be it was the power of being a state governor, he changed slowly and actually he made new friends and 90 per cent of those that know him as Umaru the rebel, were deliberately sidelined by him in favour of his new found friends
WT: What were the changes and how did that affect the state as a whole?
Yahaya: Well, if I am to assess Umaru’s performance as a governor, giving the resources available to him and the performance on ground, not flashes of development, I will say he has performed below average and has performed below expectation. I will give you an example. In 1999 before he was sworn in as a governor we sat down and identified the problems of education in Katsina, we identified the factors responsible for the failure of our students at the various levels of education in the state. We agreed that one, no society develops beyond the level of its educational attainment. Two, we identified most of the problems and the factors responsible. Katsina then has the highest number of unqualified teachers in the country because 76.31 per cent of primary school teachers employed by the state primary education board did not have the minimum teaching qualifications. Again we identified the problems of facilities and teaching aids and we found that there was overcrowding in virtually all our educational institutions. So we proposed and accepted that there will be no further establishment of educational and health institutions until the existing ones are brought to the standard in term of manpower and equipment.
But as you might be aware by the figures released by former minister of education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili last week, Katsina came last in SSCE examination. And you see I am not surprised, because when he chose to appoint education managers for primary education, post primary and tertiary education he appointed three people who did not have the benefit of good secondary education. For primary education he brought someone who could not make two good correct sentences. So in his past four years of government it’s safe to say our education managers were illiterates or semi-literate people.
In his second coming he appointed thugs and political bandits as our education managers and the result is what we are seeing now. Less than ten per cent of those who sat for university matriculation get the minimum entry requirement to the university and 80 per cent of this 10 per cent are indigenes of the state that have gone through private schools and this is happening in a state whose governor is a teacher. I mean if he will fail in education were else will he succeed?
Secondly about the talk of transparency. I am sure you are in Katsina when he declared that all monies received by the state government will be made public and be placed on the notice boards for everyone to see. Not only that has not been done, but for eight years he ruled the state, he failed to satisfy the basic constitutional requirement of accountability by section 125(2) of the constitution which makes it mandatory for the state governments to present their annual audited account to the state Houses of Assembly. Additionally when he took over as governor, Katsina had the highest infant mortality rate in the country with a figure of 110 per one thousand in 1999. But in 2006 it rose to 130 per 1000. Now, Katsina has the highest maternal mortality rate of 150. Our immunization coverage as at 2006 was only 0.9 per cent, 51 per cent of all children aged 0 to 5 are malnourished, wasted, stunted or have one form of severe nutrition diseases or the other.
So you see instead of bringing the facilities to standard they went on a contract award jamboree. Of course the number of secondary schools were raised from 120 to about 240, but as at 2006 these 250 schools were sharing 257 qualified English teachers and 389 qualified mathematics teachers and some of these schools got 10 streams of classrooms. So what this means is that there are many schools without either English or mathematics teachers—key requirements into university entry in Nigeria and anywhere in the world.
WT: With all this at the background Yar’Adua will by May 29 be sworn in as president. What kind of president do you think he will make?
Yahaya: Well, in the first place I believe if election tribunals handle these matters as they should or as people expect them to, I don’t see the charade of April 14 and 21 called election standing. I am not a lawyer, but I am aware of what they call “substantial non compliance”. At least one important aspect of section 145(2) of the Electoral Act requires all ballot papers for election under the Electoral Act must, first be bound in a booklet and two, be serially numbered. This has not been met because the ballot papers for the presidential election were brought in loose sheet and all of them carried 0000 without serial number and this happened in all the 120,000 polling stations in Nigeria. So I believe this one is enough ground to nullify what takes place in April this year. But in the unlikely event of this thing going through, the leopard doesn’t change its spot. I don’t think Umaru will performe as a president better than he did as a state governor after all he said he will take the Katsina dream to the federal level, and you know with his governorship in Katsina we witnessed a slump of our educational standard, decline in our health indicators and the highest road construction cost of N114m per kilometre. More so he said he will continue with reform programs of Obasanjo, perhaps we should expect worse.
WT: Many people believe that Yar’Adua will be manipulated by Obasanjo. What is your view about this?
Yahaya: You see one credit you must give to Umaru Yar’Adua is that he is not a pushover. If people think Umaru will take dictations hook line and sinker from Obasanjo or anybody then they had to go back and re-think, because the Umaru I know will say ‘yes sir’, but he will politely refuse, so I don’t see him talking dictation from anybody.
WT: Why do you think so?
Yahaya: Well, I think fundamentally because of his nature, yes, he is a micro manager and they say old soldier never die. He is someone I know well. In any case I don’t see Yar’Adua taking dictations from Obasanjo. I don’t see him taking it from anybody for that matter, and I don’t think that will happen.
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©2007 Media Trust.Ltd
DAILY TRUST
COVER
Yar’Adua will just be a ceremonial president – Balarabe Musa
Balarabe Ladan & Isa Sa’idu
Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, former governor of Kaduna State, national chairman of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), says in this interview that given the flawed April presidential poll and Obasanjo’s new role in PDP, Yar’Adua would just be a puppet.
Weekly Trust: It seems despite all the protests by opposition parties, Yar’Adua would be sworn in on May 29, what do you think will happen thereafter?
Musa: If we prefer to take the risk that may destroy Nigeria by swearing in Yar’Adua, then so be it. But that is a national sabotage because the government will not be legitimate, because Nigerians did not vote for it. In fact it is even their mandate that was stolen. This may lead to so many things that only God knows what the result may be. We shouldn’t forget that it was a flawed election that led to the 1966 coup. The same thing happened in 1983 when the military took over power because of a sham election. How sure are we that the April polls are not worse than a military coup? This election can bring civil war in the country. Is civil war not worse than military rule? The April polls have the capacity to take our country into similar things that are happening in Somalia. Is military rule not better than the situation in Somalia? We are not praying for military rule because we believe that military rule will not help Nigeria. What we are saying is let there be justice through free and fair elections.
WT: You people want ING but some people say any talk about ING could give Obasanjo the chance to stay on beyond May 29. What do you have to say about that?
Musa: The issue at hand is for the survival of Nigeria which must be ensured at all cost. The issue is not whether Obasanjo will stay in power or not. If the April polls are allowed to stay there is no certainty on the country’s survival. Even if Obasanjo handed over power he is leaving behind his stooge. Obasanjo is now the PDP leader, and of recent the PDP is emphasizing on party discipline and its supremacy. In a nutshell what they are saying is that the party will dictate what the government will do, and that is to say it is Obasanjo that will tell Yar’Adua what to do because he is the PDP leader. Therefore Yar’Adua will just be a ceremonial president not an executive president. Therefore to say that the 2007 elections should be allowed so that Obasanjo would hand over power is not sensible at all. If Obasanjo goes he will leave Yar’Adua behind and Yar’Adua will do nothing on his own.
WT: Those who know Yar’Adua well say he is too independent minded to be controlled, don’t you think he will turn his back on Obasanjo after being sworn in?
Musa: Well, in rare occasions there are such examples, but it is not anybody that can do that. In fact it will be difficult for Yar’Adua to do that because he knows that he has not won the elections but was rigged in. Somebody who knows this, how can he make any impact? He knows that he can be blackmailed. Yes, charismatic and courageous people can assert themselves, but have you seen such traits in Yar’Adua? It’s true that only God knows what’s hidden, but I can tell you that to be a president is entirely different from being a governor.
WT: How feasible do you think is the proposal for ING when elections have been held and winners declared?
Musa: First of all, this is not the first time that politicians are calling for ING. Same calls were made after the 2003 elections. ING agitation is to enable the conduct of free and fair elections that will be acceptable to majority of Nigerians. The post 2003 ING agitations were not realized and that led to the sham we find ourselves today, which is worse than what happened in 2003. The injustices in the recent elections are not acceptable. And if we allow the sham to stand unchallenged only God knows what will happen in this country. The rigging of 2003 and 2007 are capable of demoralizing the people to even say that they will not vote again. That means government can not be changed through the electoral process but by other means which may be violent. That is not good for the country. This is where we are today in Nigeria. The PDP government has failed; therefore setting an ING is the only peaceful solution that is left to the country.
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