Honourable Bitrus Kaze is a former member of House of
Representatives, in this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, he speaks on the
zoning of Presidency to the North, exclusion of the North-Central,
restructuring and other issues.
Excerpt:
Sir, from all indications the two major political parties in the
country have zoned presidency to the North and most of those aspiring to
be president in 2019 are either from the North East or North West, does
it means the North Central has no presidential materials?
It
is too early to come to the conclusion that the Middle Belt has no
presidential aspirant merely because those who are indicating interest
at the moment are either from the North East or North West. I am not
aware for example that President Buhari has declared interest to contest
in 2019 but I am unable to say that he will not contest just because he
has not so indicated at the moment. From the history of Nigeria, the
Middle Beltans have more than capable hands who are qualified and ready
as always to provide leadership for Nigeria especially now that
agitations for balkanisation of the country are being renewed.
Don’t you think the North Central should be given the opportunity to present a presidential candidate in 2019?
The
Presidency of Nigeria is not a matter of chance and I am not sure the
Middle Belt will assume Nigeria’s Presidency by chance. We will slug it
out with the far North and Nigerians know better who among the two is
more tolerant, accommodating and unifying when it comes to relating with
fellow compatroits.
Quite
a lot of people are of the opinion that Nigeria runs the most expensive
democracy in the world and for this reason either the Senate or House
of Representatives should be scrapped to reduce cost, do subscribe to
this?
I
don’t believe that Nigeria runs the most expensive democracy in the
world neither do I subscribe to tampering with our bicameral National
Assembly. Just because a lot of people share particular opinion doesn’t
always justify such views. The Jews overwhelmingly opined that Christ be
crucified but His crucifixion remains unjustified. The House
overwhelmingly supported our suspension in June 2010 but the court held
that our suspension was a tyranny of the majority. Surely a majority can
be wrong. Given our military hangover, a lot of Nigerians don’t even
see the need for the legislature in the first place, therefore, whatever
is spent on the legislative arm of government amounts to waste to some
people. Democracy is comparable to education; if anyone thinks education
is too expensive let them try illiteracy. If despite our bicameral
parliament we are still struggling with the overbearing tendency of the
executive arm of government, you can be sure that a few people will
pocket Nigeria if either of the chambers of our parliament is scrapped.
We need both. Democratic rule may be expensive by nature but
undemocratic rule is even more costly. I believe that over time most
Nigerians will accommodate the legislature in their psyche when
democracy becomes more entrenched.
Those
clamouring for the restructuring of Nigeria see it as a solution to the
structural imbalance and other problems confronting the country, can
this address the problems?
A
lot of semantics have been deployed in trying to resolve the national
question. It was true federalism, then resource control and now it is
called restructuring. Anyone may disagree that the age-long clamour for
restructuring will solve Nigeria’s structural problems; surely however
that Nigeria truly needs to squarely face our national structural
imbalance now cannot be contemplated. I won my elections in 2007 with
about 110,000 votes my four opponents scored a combined vote of about
50,000. There are some Senatorial Districts where elections are won and
lost with less than 70,000 votes and there some Senatorial Districts
that are exactly the same electoral constituency as the House of
Representatives. The electoral constituencies in Nigeria was fashioned
out by the military which put some parts of this country in vintage
positions over others. For example, the North West geo-political zone is
constituted by seven states while the South East has only five states.
Kano State alone has 24 members in the House of Reps while the whole of
the South-South geo-political zone, which produces the economic livewire
of the country has 41 members. I can go on and on, we may continue to
pretend only at our national peril.
Recently,
the Federal Government posited that Nigeria is out of economic
recession, from the indices on ground, can we say the country has exited
recession?
Like
you rightly said, all the indices on ground show a worsening economic
situation. I don’t understand why after pumping billions of USD into the
economy, the exchange rate is still hovering between N360 to N370 to a
USD. To me this is false economy, what would have become of our foreign
exchange rate had government not injected these billion into the market?
Government should concentrate on the productive sectors and spend
massively on infrastructure to create jobs. What has become of the
billions recovered from treasury looters, how have the huge recovery
been reinvested?A political party may win elections by propaganda but
they cannot provide and sustain good governance by propaganda. They may
continue to claim that we are out of recession, but the masses know
better that things have changed but only for the worse.
Do you think entity called Nigeria should be renegotiated by all ethnic partners to chart a better course for the country?
Much
as Nigerians feel very strongly about their ethnic roots, I am not sure
that renegotiating Nigeria only purely on the basis of ethnicity will
sort us out. All the key issues need to be taken into account, in
addition to ethnicity, fundamental freedoms including that of religion
and fair economic competition matter a whole lot. If negotiating
Nigeria’s future is exclusively on the basis of ethnicity then those of
us who are from the minority ethnic nationalities may be losers from the
outset. The resources that have sustained Nigeria’s economy for long
have been derived from ancestral lands of ethnic minorities but the
majority ethnic nations have always deployed their numbers to force
their way. Nigeria runs a federal system more by name than in practice,
we run a powerful unitary system coated in the garb of a federal system.
What is missing to my mind is the will to pursue a true federal system
and the will is not there because what obtains favours some particular
sections of the country and they would do anything to maintain the
status quo.
Culled from ViewPoint