Emmanuel Aziken
10 November 2008
interview
Senator Adamu Aliero was probably acting out a script from his political science education when he engineered the collapse of the opposition in the Northwest into the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2007.
For a man who canvasses a strong opposition as a rudimentary need for a virile democracy, such is the irony with Senator Aliero. As a governor on the platform of the ANPP, he was known for his very healthy relationship with former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, then of the PDP.
Born in Aliero, Aliero Local Government Area of Kebbi State, the young Adamu had his primary education at Aliero and subsequently had his secondary education at the nearby Government Secondary School, Koko.
Aliero attended the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from 1977 to 1980, where he obtained a degree in Political Science.
Following a civil service career, first at the College of Education, Sokoto, and subsequently at the Customs from 1981, Aliero retired into a life of business and politics.
In 1997, he was elected to the Senate on the platform of the United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP, but following the cancellation of the elections, Aliero contested and won the office of governor of Kebbi State in 1999. He easily won his re-election in 2003 before turning his attention to the Senate where he first began his political odyssey.
In this interview with Vanguard's Emmanuel Aziken, Aliero enunciates on his legacy in Kebbi State, the political configuration that stimulated the mass decampment from the ANPP to the PDP in 2007 and speaks on his friends, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar. Excerpts:
As a former governor and now a Senator, what's your experience like transiting from the executive to the legislative branch of government?
These are two different experiences. As a governor, you are the chief executive of the state, you are the chief security officer of the state and you are in charge of the state, which is your constituency. You are concerned with the welfare and well being of the people of the state and you are concerned with the security in the state. You are also concerned with the development and the progress and prosperity of the people who elected you.
But, as a Senator, you are more or less a lawmaker and the whole nation is your constituency and you make laws for the good governance of the country and, in doing so, you learn a lot from the different sections of the country and it makes you a better Nigerian. The Senate, I always say, is a mini Nigeria, it represents people of different social and economic backgrounds.
Was it really your life ambition to be a governor, Senator or a Customs officer?
My ambition in life is always to put smiles on people's faces, make life better for fellow human beings. It doesn't matter whether one is a senator, a governor or a businessman, as long as you have the interest of the people at heart, that is always my driving force. I always try to advance the course of humanity regardless of the situation I find myself.
Do you miss the trappings of office of a governor?
No, not at all. As a governor, I never allowed that office to get into my head, I related very well with the ordinary folks when I was in office and on getting out of office, I didn't find it difficult to adjust because I am used to that kind of life and it is that same kind of life I am living up till now. There is no difference whatsoever. I never got carried away by the paraphernalia of the office, instead, I tended to ignore such paraphernalia and live like a common person.
I did drive myself as a governor, I came out to visit people without security, I travelled even abroad without escort and the same thing applies now. Even though, as a former governor and as a senator, I still have security, but, sometimes, I just move on my own, I never allowed the situation to control me.
In your own perspective, what legacy do you think the ordinary man in Kebbi would associate with the eight years of your administration?
Eight years as governor of Kebbi State I left a lot of legacies behind. To start with, I met that state virtually in a comatose situation. All aspects of human endeavour were at their lowest ebb and I drew a plan because I came with a mission and a vision on how to improve on the welfare and well being of the people of Kebbi State.
I started with education and I did a lot in that sector, rehabilitation, reconstruction, building more secondary schools, recruitment of teachers, expanding the capacities of the schools I met, building tertiary institutions and even including a university of science and technology which was unthinkable in 1999 because Kebbi State could not even fill its own admission quota in the universities.
By the time I came in, only 5% of the students who sat for the SCCE passed, that is, out of maybe 1,000 persons who sat for the exam, not more than 50 persons passed. But now, you have as high as 80% to 85% passing because of what we have done. We have really revamped and rejuvenated education sector in Kebbi State to the extent that we have restored the confidence of parents and the students to be in school at all times.
If you talk of rural development, I built a number of roads in Kebbi State and even federal roads that were in serious degree of dilapidation, I decided to rehabilitate all of them to the extent that we had an agreement with the Federal Government to reimburse the state on whatever amount we spent.
I provided water to well over 2,500 communities in Kebbi State and this includes boreholes, urban water supply, hand pumps.
By the time I left office, I had on record over 700 towns and villages that were connected to the national electricity grid. When I came in, only about 18 towns had electricity but by the time I left, over 700 were connected to the national grid.
In healthcare, we did a lot by rebuilding the hospitals I met because they too were in bad shape. We had to renovate them, re-equip them by buying modern equipment for diagnosis, we equipped them with x-ray machines, scanners and other diagnostic equipment that were second to none in the country. We even recruited specialists in various medical fields such as gynecology, urology, endocrinology, radiology, cardiology, among others.
We went to Egypt to recruit a number of doctors, particularly where we could not get qualified Nigerians to take care of the sector. We even built a school of nursing and midwifery which is now one of the best in the country. We equipped it to the extent that the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria even decided to make it a degree awarding institution because of the quality of equipment and the quality of teachers we had in that institution.
Besides transiting from the executive to the legislature, you have also moved from the ANPP to the PDP. What informed this decision?
As far back as 2005, 2006, there had been a clamour for power shift and the northern governors were in the forefront of the power shift. Our own zone happened to be the zone that constituted the biggest opposition and, luckily for us, we had a presidential candidate who wanted our support. We agitated for this power shift and now we have it and one of us, by then governor, was nominated to stand for election and we all decided to close ranks and support him.
When we were approached, we had to sit and discuss with our people and, luckily, they saw reason in what we told them and they all decided to support us collectively and we moved en masse into PDP. It was not only in Kebbi, this also included Sokoto because, historically, the two states had always been together politically.
In the days of NPC, we were together, in the days of NPN, we were together. In the days of NRC, we were together, in the days of APP, we were together, in the days of ANPP, we were together and now we are in PDP and we are still together. So, what God has put together.
But you had the prospects of Muhammadu Buhari from the Northwest as your presidential candidate?
ANPP by then had no leadership. ANPP was bedeviled with a problem of leadership, it was never straightforward and it was never reliable and, today, as I am talking to you, the main problem of ANPP is leadership. I am happy that Gen. Buhari has realised it now.
So, if you are confronted with that kind of problem the best thing to do is to opt for an alternative and I found PDP to be a better political party.
Better?
Yes. In terms of leadership, organizstion and structure of the political party, PDP is by far better than the ANPP. In terms of focus, direction, quality of leadership, in everything, PDP is better than ANPP. ANPP, to be honest with you, is a party that is fighting against itself. Today, you will hear one section of the party in support of the government of national unity, tomorrow you will hear another section of the party dissociating itself from the government of national unity to the extent that you wouldn't know who exactly is in charge. That is the kind of situation we have in ANPP.
But, it is insinuated that it is governors like you who instigated the crisis. That you didn't come out to support Buhari, especially in 2003?
No, we supported Buhari.
But you did not support him with your heart?
With everything we had. Maybe you don't know what happened in 2003. It was the governors in ANPP who gave Gen. Buhari massive support. He came newly and we found in him good qualities of leadership and we all decided to support him. To be honest with you, Buhari is a good leader and, up till tomorrow, I still believe that Buhari is a good leader, but, unfortunately, the party which is the vehicle which he should use to realise that ambition is not good because of the bad leadership.
Considering the good leadership qualities in him, what would you advise him to do?
Let him embrace PDP like some of us did. I am sure that if he comes to PDP, he will be welcomed.
How did you support him in 2003?
I supported him with everything. We mobilised all the people in the state, we mobilised resources, we moved around the whole country just as he did and all the ANPP governors gave their full support to Buhari in 2003. It was evident, even in the result of the election. In my state, he scored more than 75% of the total votes, same thing in Sokoto and Zamfara States. The evidence of massive support of ANPP governors was really apparent.
Have you heard it that even though you were in ANPP, your heart was really in PDP with your friend, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar?
Friendship apart, I was an ANPP man to the core. It doesn't mean that if you were in ANPP that you could not have friends in PDP. My own politics is not like cutting relationships simply because of political differences, no. I still maintain that relationship, even if we fight during election. After election, we should reconcile and come to our normal relationship and that is exactly what we did with Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.
He was in my state and campaigned against my party, but, after the election, we continued our relationship as friends and, up till now, we are still friends and nothing can stop that friendship because our friendship predated politics. So, nothing should happen to spoil that relationship.
Is that why you joined him to eat the PDP victory cake in 2003?
I explained to the press (how I came about eating that victory cake with PDP) and I don't want to talk about the cake anymore.
But how sweet was the cake?
(Laughs) I don't want to talk about that PDP cake, I have spoken on it at length and I don't want to, it is forgone.
You are close to Atiku and Buhari. How would you assess their capacities for leadership?
It is not my responsibility to start assessing Atiku and Buhari. It is for the electorate to decide and time will come when they will do the assessment.
Is it true that Obasanjo used the EFCC to coerce you into joining the PDP?
No, no, no. My movement into PDP was voluntary and if there had been any element of coercion, I wouldn't have joined the PDP. I joined the PDP on my own volition, there was no compulsion whatsoever and I negotiated on my own terms, favourable terms for that matter, for both Sokoto and Kebbi before I went into PDP.
If there was any element of coercion, I wouldn't have sat down with the President, the presidential candidate, the party chairman, the chairman board of trustees, the secretary of the party to negotiate with them. I was never blackmailed by President Obasanjo on any issue.
I had an excellent relationship with him and virtually all the terms and conditions I gave, they agreed on them and that is why we joined. If they had not agreed, I would have remained in ANPP and I would have won my election.
It was opponents and adversaries that were suggesting that I was coerced, far from that. There is no truth in that assertion. We joined PDP on our own terms and conditions and virtually 85% of my supporters moved with me to PDP because we explained to them the conditions under which we should go in and they agreed.
Number one, we had one of our own who emerged as presidential candidate and he desired our support and we supported him.
Number two, we were fed up with the politics of opposition. From 1999 to 2007, we were in opposition and now we had opportunity to move into the centre and we felt that we should grab that opportunity to be in the centre stage where we can sit and decide for ourselves. This is one of the reasons why we joined PDP. Whatever else anybody tells you is his own kettle of fish.
What role did you play in negotiating Sokoto State into the PDP?
I was the prominent person in both the negotiation for Kebbi and Sokoto. The PDP was not in existence in both Kebbi and Sokoto, and if they wanted us to join the PDP, we should have the governorship slots. For us, the governorship slots were non-negotiable. We made it very clear. We negotiated for the Senate seats and, in Kebbi, we got three and, in Sokoto, I think we got two.
For the House of Representatives, we were generous enough and we gave the old PDP some seats and in the House of Assembly, in Kebbi, we took more than two-thirds, in Sokoto, I think they shared them. However, we thank God now, we are one political party and you hardly hear of old PDP or ANPP, and we are now forging ahead as one indivisible political party with a common sense of purpose.
You could have some disagreements here and there, but such disagreements are minor and I know that, with time, they will be forgotten, we will overcome them.
As a trained political scientist, how do you see the role of the opposition in the polity? Opposition plays a very important role in the polity. Without opposition, democracy will be weakened and the ruling party will just be governing without knowing when they make mistakes. The opposition is always there to wake the ruling party in cases of mistakes, of non performance, of anything, the opposition party is always there.
I can even advocate for a very strong opposition because it helps a lot in nurturing democracy, particularly in a developing country, otherwise, we could end up having one omnibus political party that may turn into a dictatorship if we have a weak opposition. So, we need a virile and strong opposition in order to sustain and nurture our democracy.
Would you then agree that you, Senator Aliero, have contributed to weakening the polity by collapsing the opposition in the Northwest into the PDP?
It doesn't mean that if we move into the PDP, that there would be no opposition. I remember the Action Congress is there, the ANPP is there. What do you talk about AD in 2003 when they massively decided to support the PDP, were they not weakening democracy? Is it our own movement that has weakened democracy?
If it happened before, should it happen again? Are you not worried that there is no opposition in the country?
Who told you that there is no opposition in the country? ANPP is there.
Is there opposition in Kebbi State?
We have opposition in Kebbi, sure. We have the ANPP, we have em, what do you call the other party?
You can't remember them, that means there are none!
What we did in Kebbi was what the people of Kebbi wanted. We moved them from opposition party into the mainstream politics, the right place where they should have been right from the beginning. What matters most is the interest of the people. There is no point for you to remain in the opposition when your people don't want it. Opposition for what?
How would you describe the legacy of then President Obasanjo?
He tried to make sure that Nigeria remained a united nation. Whatever you say, you will have to commend Obasanjo for that. Number two, the reforms in the banking sector - we know what our banks were like in the eighties and nineties and you know what they are today. We know what happened when so many depositors lost their money but thank God now the banking sector has been reformed in such a way that people now have confidence in the banking institutions.
Take telecommunications for example, even though it is a worldwide thing but it happened during Obasanjo's time.
Formerly, if you were in Port-Harcourt and you want to call Lagos you will spend more than three hours but now you can stay in one of the remotest villages in Nigeria and you can call any part of the world without any headache and these things happened under Obasanjo.
Of course, our farmers will never forget what happened under Obasanjo. Before he came in, there was virtually no fertilizer being supplied by the Federal Government. But during the campaign period, I think it was in Jigawa that he promised that the Federal Government will supply fertilizers and immediately after his inauguration, the government started supplying agric inputs, fertilizers and so on to farmers. These are some of the enduring legacies he left behind.
There have been problems here and there, particularly in the power sector, so much money has been sunk but no appreciable result has been achieved. Under the transportation sector, the story is equally lamentable as so much money has been sunk and our roads are still bad. So, it wasn't a complete failure, he did his best and President Yar'Adua is in the saddle of leadership and will continue with where he left.
But do you agree that President Yar'Adua is too slow?
It is better to slow down than to be too fast because, if you are too fast, you could make mistakes that will cause a lot of damage to the system. Like what we did under the power sector was done in so much in a hurry. We went and imported turbines, which arrived and, from what we heard, there was no design, there was no gas that can power these turbines, they were imported and dumped in a particular place.
Oil companies were invited to provide gas and they said that it will take them a minimum of about three to four years before they can lay gas pipelines that can link these pipelines.
President Umaru Yar'Adua promised to declare state of emergency after his election. After his inauguration, he wanted to declare state of emergency but look at the parameters, they were so bad. You have to get all the fundamentals right. Number one, where is he going to source the money? How will he get the gas that will power these turbines that were imported. How will he award contracts for the construction of additional hydro-electric power stations in the country?
A number of former governors seem to be having problems with their successors in office. What is your relationship with the present governor of Kebbi State?
There is no problem between myself and the present governor of Kebbi State. There is understanding and good working relationship.
The former governors who stepped into the Senate allegedly clubbed together to oppose the election of Senator Mark as Senate President. What was your wisdom in doing that?
I am not aware of that. People are just saying things based on their own idiosyncrasies. It is not true. There was election of a Senate president and some of the former governors certainly supported Akume based on their own relationship with Akume, not because they don't like David Mark. But we have put that behind us and we have a Senate President and he is carrying everybody along. Simply because they supported Akume does not mean that there is division, we have forgotten that, we are moving ahead and there are no problems whatsoever.
How do you assess the leadership qualities of Senator David Mark?
The quality of leadership is okay. He is leading the Senate properly and most Senators have testified to that. There may be complains here and there, but, by and large, I think he has provided good leadership to the Senate.
You are vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Education. How do you assess the country's educational system?
We have a lot of problems. Quite honestly, we spent over one year deliberating on these problems and, everyday, we keep lamenting on the problem of education in Nigeria. The problem is so enormous that even if you take the whole money that Nigeria has and invest in education, it will not solve the problem because there is so much rot and decay in the sector that it will take a number of years to revive that sector.
Apart from the issue of chronic underfunding, there are other very important and significant factors that are affecting the education sector in the country. The issue of brain drain - so many professors in Nigeria, highly qualified manpower are now leaving the academic sector in Nigeria to overseas, all looking for greener pastures. The salary here is very poor and, immediately they leave here, they earn four to five times the salary they earn here with better conditions of service.
The chronic underfunding that I talk about has made it impossible for universities to expand. The academic curricula is archaic and outdated. The syllabus we used thirty years ago is the same syllabus that is being taught today. Education is dynamic, it is progressive and you keep on updating.
Information technology is very limited in the universities and is taught mostly at the consultancy offices of the universities. Very few universities offer information technology.
In most universities, there is what we call the collapse of facilities, water, electricity, good roads are virtually non existent in most of the universities. Students suffer a lot to get water, lecturers suffer a lot to get water. Sewage system is also not available in most Nigerian universities. We have gone round and we have seen the decay, it is really very, very sad when you go to these universities.
The problem of cultism is another very serious problem that is affecting the quality of education given to our children in Nigeria today.
What is your opinion on the state of transportation in the country today?
The problem of transportation in Nigeria cannot be solved simply by rehabilitating the roads in the country. Even if you do it on yearly basis, the problem will still persist unless you have a railway system being restored in the country. Haulage of heavy duty goods are normally done by railway and, in most countries, this is the common practice, but in Nigeria, the railway has collapsed and goods are now being transported by roads.
Even if you rehabilitate this particular road today, give it about two, three months, it will start developing potholes simply because of the heavy trucks that ply the road and this is why virtually all Nigerian roads can hardly last more than two to three years even if they have regular maintenance. So, the alternative is to have railway all over the country.
Lastly, could you as a Senator of the Federal Republic give a word to your constituents in Kebbi Central, Kebbi State and Nigerians?
The people of Kebbi State have elected me as a Senator and I am very pleased for the honour done to me for giving me that opportunity to represent them in the Senate and I am doing my very best to represent them and protect their interest in the Senate.
For Nigerians, we are doing our very best to move this nation forward. As the Senate president said, we would do our very best to assist Mr. President by making laws that will make him to govern the country with relative ease and we will collaborate with the executive branch to make sure that the seven point agenda are achieved to the betterment of our country. This we will do with the support and cooperation of all Nigerians.
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