Alhaji Gambo Magaji, is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC and a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT. A key associate of the president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), Magaji, was at one time the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the now defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, and played an active role in the merger of the three political parties that culminated in the emergence of the APC. Continue..
In this interview, Magaji speaks on how Buhari can bring about the needed change in Nigeria and give Nigerians a new lease of life.
Excerpts: By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North
How do you feel after your party’s victory?
Indeed, we are happy that our great party won the election because the desire of any politician is to win election and form the government in order to render quality service to the people. I am equally elated over our victory because it shows that Nigerians appreciate our party and its manifesto as well as our candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, a man well loved by many and seen as the face of integrity and good governance in Nigeria.
But given the myriad of challenges currently confronting the nation, do you think that Buhari can bring about the needed change in the country?
Well, before I say anything I want to appeal to Nigerians that they should give Buhari time because he cannot do everything at a go and he cannot also meet the aspirations of Nigerians at the same time.
The reasons are obvious. Firstly, Buhari, who is inheriting an empty treasury from the outgoing administration, is also coming at a time when the price of oil is at the lowest with a lot of controversies surrounding the resources of the country that cannot be accounted for.
For instance, the $20 billion saga, the issue of non-remittance of oil proceeds to the Federation Account, the issue of waivers which has really affected the custom duties we are supposed to collect and other taxes which have robbed the nation of huge revenue.
So, in a nut shell, Buhari is inheriting an empty treasury and he should be given time to sort out the leakages in our revenue sector. Buhari should look into the issue of the $20 billion he said he was going to look into because Jonathan as a president empanelled a forensic audit and the auditors came out with a report which to me is indicting the government and that means that the money is somewhere and it needs to be looked into.
It is my belief that if serious planning is done by the new government things should take shape within six months to one year. But I would advise that things that are very urgent and dear to the hearts of Nigerians could be done within his first 100 days in office. One of these urgent matters, to my mind, is that security.
Then the issue of lingering problems in our tertiary and health institutions should also be addressed once and for all to give Nigerians a breathing space in those vital areas of life.
What particular issue in the tertiary education should the government address immediately?
Look, there are so many issues to be tackled in order that our tertiary education can move forward. I tell you the incessant strikes and closure of universities and allied institutions do not argue well for this country and something urgent needs to be done about it.
As we speak university and some polytechnic teachers are still threatening to go on strike over unpaid salaries and allowances and this is adversely affecting the smooth running of the system forcing the big men to send their children abroad while those of the poor suffer here. Being a man of the people, Buhari should look into these things and put an end to incessant strikes in the education system.
What do you think should be done for the North East which has been shattered by unending insecurity?
The North East situation is a calamity and a shame on the Nigerian government. This thing started 2001 when the Boko Haram members were known as Talibans in Yobe State.
Sometime later, these elements were routed out of Yobe and some persons arrested for sponsoring the training of the Talibans in Mali but nothing was done about it.
It is only in this country where you have a problem and you have all the security operatives around but none is interested to look into issues or even to learn lessons from what had happened. In1984 we had Maitasine sect in this country and immediately it put under control, nobody went back to look into it and also tried to learn lessons from it and see what can be done when such things bring up their ugly heads again. Yes if they had stop what led to Maitasine, Boko Haram would not have surfaced. The terrorist groups would not have been operating with ease in the country. Honestly what is required by Buhari’s government would not be like what Jonathan did by allocating only N2 billion naira in 2014 budget which is less than what he gave to Nollywood. As we speak, nobody knows if the money has been released or not. What Buhari needs to do is like what we call the marshal plan of civil war. A special institution should be created to look into this issue properly, rehabilitate them, rebuild schools, rebuild hospitals, rebuild infrastructure, create jobs and at the same time bring a lot of social psychologists around to assist these people to recover from their trauma.
The president needs to do that at least for those people and for the rest of the country once he settles down. He should look into the issue of unemployment seriously because it is a very serious issue. You can see the shameful thing which happened at the National Stadium here in Abuja where people were killed in the name of immigration recruitment and the whole thing ended up as a scam and because of the nonchalant and non-co-operative attitude of the government of the day those innocent lives were lost for nothing.
In the allocation of offices the issue of zoning has come into play and it is a bit discomforting because some people have threatened in the national assembly that if the zoning formula is not properly handled it could lead to implosion in the party. What do you think about zoning in APC?
Someone asked me a similar question about two weeks ago and what I told him is that; firstly, zoning will be done by APC in such a way that nobody is short changed and in doing that too APC will look into the electoral value of the zones.
Are you then suggesting that the party should use electoral value in allocating offices?
Yes because if you don’t do it how do you compensate those who elected you? For instance, North West where the President came from gave him 7,115,190 votes followed by the North East, which gave him votes despite the violence and crises that had caused a lot of dislocation in the zone.
The South West, North Central and South South and South East followed in that order in giving votes to the president and his party.
If you look into all these things and the issue of members of the National Assembly then once put all these things into consideration then you can come up with a formula for everybody because honestly it will not be fair not to recognise and do something for those states or region who gave you their all.
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