A former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Abiodun Aluko, a surveyor, in this interview with ABIODUN NEJO, examines the country’s political system, causes of friction between governors and their deputies and a number of other national issues
What do you think is the problem with politicians in Nigeria?
It is the system. Being a politician is to render service to the community. But before you can render service, you must have had some expertise, knowledge and experience garnered over the years. The problem is with politics in Nigeria, not politicians. Politics is made too attractive and too sumptuous and there is this issue of joblessness. Nobody really wants to look for jobs anymore. Even as a fresh graduate or a school certificate holder, you can contest as a councillor; and your basic salary per month as a councillor is in the region of N500, 000. Your wife is entitled to allowances; you have a PA that gets allowances. And at the end of the day, in a month, a councillor’s take-home can be up to a million naira, which a permanent secretary, who has put 25 to 30 years into service after a university degree, does not earn. When you make a feeble attempt to get a job and cannot get one, the next thing is you go into politics. It is only in Nigeria that somebody will introduce himself as a politician as if that is his profession or career. Because there is so much money in it, everybody wants to be a politician. Fortunately for them, the Nigerian financial system in the public service is so loose that public office holders have unfettered access to public funds. As a local government chairman, you can call your secretary or treasurer that you need N1m for the weekend. You now come back with some fake receipts for retirement on Monday. As a governor, you can ask for N100m from the accountant general. He dare not ask what you need it for. The system is so loose that as a graduate or a professional, you toil day and night, but your colleague, who has gone into politics, will become a multi-millionaire, building mansions, riding exotic cars while you are in the rain and sun and you get peanuts for your efforts. Ninety per cent of the people who are into politics in Nigeria are there for the monetary gains, not to render service because most of them have nothing to render. Somebody, who has never worked in his life either as an employee or an employer, what service can he render?
What is the way out?
The way out is to have the remunerations of political office holders regulated like that of the civil servants. If you are going in as a councillor, maybe you enter on grade level 8; that is going to discourage a lot of people. They would know that being in that office does not confer any special privilege on you. As it is now, there is no local government chairman that goes home with less than N5m monthly. If it is regulated, a lot of people will run back. As a governor, your salary should be regulated. I do not know how the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission came about the salary scale for political office holders. If a civil servant can put in 40 hours in a week, a senator who works only three days in a week goes home with N40m in a month and you who have been on the job for over 25 years even as a permanent secretary, your take-home is far less than a million naira. If you know that as a House of Assembly member, your maximum pay in a month is not more than N500,000, as a House of Representatives member, it is not more than one million and as a senator, it is not more than N1.5m, it is only those who are ready to serve that will go there.
What advice do you have for President Muhammadu Buhari in the choice of ministers?
He should appoint people who already have the requisite skills and knowledge into various positions. You should be made a minister in a ministry that is relevant to your calling. You should not make somebody, who has no knowledge of engineering, a minister in a high profile ministry like works. I will advise the President now that he is putting up his cabinet, anybody he wants to appoint should be a professional in the ministry he is taking him to. Appointed ministers should be able to add value to the system. They should be able to sit down on their own and think out solutions to the problems in their ministries and not just depend on what their officers tell him.
Some people have said the country’s presidential system of government is too expensive and they are calling for a return to the parliamentary system. Do you subscribe to this?
Yes, it is too expensive. We have the parliamentary and the presidential systems. There are some countries that mix both. But based on our political history and culture, I would believe that the parliamentary is better for us at this stage. In the parliamentary, you go in as a legislator. It is from there that they appoint you as a prime minister or premier. You are first and foremost a legislator. It is your colleagues who will appoint you premier or prime minister and they have the control over you. Once you misbehave, they pass a vote of no confidence in you on the floor of the legislature and you are out of office. Unlike when you become governor or president; you know that hardly, no matter the level of misbehaviour, can you be kicked out once you are in a position to settle the legislators.
The issue of the executive governor, the president that has all the powers all alone is another thing. Some people would have misused it because not everybody can take criticism in good faith. In most instances, most of the people who go into offices do not go there to render service. When you have no idea of how to run a government, you would want to be seen to be performing and you turn yourself into a dictator.
What are your thoughts on the country’s strong centre and the clamour for restructuring in some quarters?
It is either we are running a federal system or not. The federal system does not give room for a very strong centre; it is the cooperation of the various federating units. If we want to run a unitary system of government, let us know we are running a unitary system of government which was introduced by the military in 1966 when they took over. Nigeria was before then operating a parliamentary federating system, all the various regions had their own autonomy; they were controlling their economies, rendering returns to the centre between 1960 and 1966. It was when Gen Aguiyi Ironsi came that he introduced the unitary system, which the drafters of the Nigerian constitution thereafter brought into the constitution.
What operates in Nigeria is not a true federal system, but for us to get a system that will work effectively for all the various parts of Nigeria, we should all sit down, talk and agree by way of constitutional review. Although attempts had been made, I know that after a little here, a little there, we will arrive at a model that is suitable for our multi-ethnic setting. We need a type of government that will accommodate all ethnic groups in the country.
What kind of model would you suggest for Nigeria?
I will suggest the South African model. South Africa has a president, but the president emerges through the legislature. He does not go about campaigning to be president; it is the party. For instance, during the National Assembly elections in Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress had the majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The APC should be called upon to form the government and the party will produce a candidate for the position which they would vote for among themselves in the National Assembly. If it is Buhari that they agreed should be the president, they put him there. And if they feel Buhari is not doing well, those that put him there will recall him. It is simple. That is South African model. It is going to keep you on your toes because you know that you are not the alpha and omega. You are there at the pleasure of your party and that of the legislature. That model will be better for us because we are spending too much money on elections in Nigeria and that is taking a toll on our economy.
The general insecurity in the country is a source of concern to Nigerians. What is your view on this?
We are all worried. It is fallout of the collapse of the economy. We have more than five million university graduates all over Nigeria roaming the streets. Even if they cannot find government jobs, they should be able to provide jobs for themselves. The foundation of Boko Haram was laid a long time ago in the North through the almajiri system. Only a few people would go to school; the children would go about with plates begging. When they grow up, they would want to marry, want to live decent lives whereas they have no job and training. Anybody can come around to recruit and brainwash them into believing that they are fighting for God. It is the poverty and joblessness that have laid the foundation for this insecurity. If you listen to the narration of the police when they arrest kidnappers, you realise it is serious networking. They would kidnap somebody in Ado Ekiti; the ransom will be paid in Lokoja and the victim will be released in Imo State. This insecurity thing did not just start overnight. We have left undone what we ought to have done. We have not prepared a good future for our children. If you don’t have a job and you are already 16 to18 years old, you are no more under parental care; you have to fend for yourself.
What is the way out?
It is for the government to create a conducive environment that would discourage people from going into crime. Then, you step up efforts at combating crime. Employ more policemen and security men and let anybody who is into crime or who wants to go into crime know that they cannot get away with it. All over the world, human beings are the same in the aspect of criminal tendencies in the heart. In the US, UK, Russia and everywhere, there are criminals all over the place. But in the US or UK, you know that you cannot get away with it. If you steal or kill, in a matter of days, they will find you wherever you are hiding and you are going to face the law. In China, if you steal, they cut off your head. But here, people believe they can get away with stealing. You cannot be easily caught because the technology is not there and even if you are caught and taken to the police station, you can get your bail with ease once you are able to settle. When you are taken to court, it may take 10 years before justice will be done. There are so many people who are awaiting trial in various prisons who have been there for years not tried and not convicted. There should be special courts for some cases. Criminal justice administration should be handled like election petitions tribunal where there are stipulated periods, but what we have are cases dragging for 10 to 20 years. Society has a role to play; the government has a role to play. Parents should ensure they do not have children they cannot cater for. Somebody who has no sustainable means of livelihood should not give birth to children they cannot train. The churches and mosques have their own role to play in moulding the minds of the youth, dissuading them from going into crime.
Just like the case when you were deputy governor, there were crises of confidence between governors and their deputies. What do you think was responsible?
Most governors do not see the need for the position of the deputy governor and the Nigerian Constitution has not helped matters. The constitution only says there shall be deputy governors for the states. That is all. No responsibilities attached. No functions unlike the vice president who is the chairman of the National Economic Council; who is in charge of privatisation and any other responsibility that the president may allocate to him. The deputy governor is at the pleasure of the governor. Most governors are suspicious of their deputies believing that their deputies may be digging holes around them so that they can take over their positions.
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The governor believes he is the person elected into office and that the deputy is just a handbag. He sees the deputy as an irritant. Those who love their deputy governors make them commissioners – deputy governor supervising a ministry so that they will not be idle. You as deputy governor, you see what is happening in government; everything is done behind you; you are not consulted in appointments and award of contracts. Even a chief of staff or the Secretary to the State Government has more powers and knows of what is happening in government more than the deputy governor.
We have many deputy governors who have little or nothing to do. There cannot but be conflicts and crises. When we have a deputy governor that is trying to show that he has ideas, his governor will rubbish him and his ideas because no governor wants to see his deputy shining. That was my problem with my former boss, Mr Ayodele Fayose, at that time. By nature, he is a very restless person; he is not the type who will sit in the office from 8 am to 6 pm working. He is a street guy. He goes to the streets, markets and the rest and when government and international agencies came to visit, all of them would come to the deputy governor’s office because they couldn’t meet the governor on the seat. When the news would be read later in the day that the deputy governor received this or that, the governor became uncomfortable. And at the executive council meeting, when you proffer alternative solutions, of course, the two of you would always be on a collision course. He will make sure that you are sidetracked.
