CORRUPTION DROVE ME OUT OF PDP – BELLO

Kanti Bello, an engineer, represented Katsina North Senatorial District (between 2003 and 2011) in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, first as member of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and later as member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). His membership of the ruling PDP paved the way for him to become the Senate Chief Whip in the 6th National Assembly. However, he is now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and in this interview Bello explained why he left the PDP. He also spoke on other issues. Excerpts:

You left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to join the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), now part of the All Progressives Congress (APC), evidently in search of a formidable front to tackle the ruling PDP, especially in 2015. How really prepared is the APC to displace the PDP?

You see, preparation is dynamic. It is a continuous process. Now, APC is a party. We have four major parties now together as a big family. Now, it is at the infant stage, and it must be nurtured into a full grown person. We are now in the process of nursing the infant because, as of today, of course, I want to be a member of APC, but I am not yet registered. We are just in the process of trying to start registration. And, you see, some of these steps we have taken will determine the seriousness and honesty of purpose of APC. But there is an interim management, some of them as members unfortunately have their own personal interests beyond the honour given to them to nurture the party. Because it is funny for a very senior member in the interim management trying to use his position to become the governor of a state. I think it is very unfortunate, because this is a betrayal of trust. But it doesn’t matter. Nobody is against anybody’s ambition. But everything has to be done with sincerity, so that a level playing ground is given to the people. Politics is about national interest for some of us. And that national interest sometimes gets interwoven into personal interest.  So, my advice to the interim management is – I keep appealing to them – that whatever happens, under whatever circumstances, they should be above board. We must, in all sincerity and honesty, create a structure in the party that is going to withstand the test of time. It must be based on honesty, fairness – beyond what has been happening in PDP. So, I have hope. And not even me. Nigerians have hope, and APC is to bring the hope. But APC must be based and built on honesty; focused, sincere and purposeful leadership;  a level playing ground for everybody so that everybody will feel they belong. And under no circumstances should there be short corners, trying to play under the table. We should be open. We should be honest. And anybody giving responsibility or leadership position under an interim management, nobody elected you, then you must be above board and live up to the expectation of the people. If you cannot do it, it is only honourable for you to resign and pursue your personal ambition.

In very clear terms, what are the things you have noticed so far in the activities of the interim management committee of APC which have prompted your observations? 

I happen to come from Katsina State and, unfortunately, the leader from Katsina, somebody who was given Deputy National Chairman, North –

Who is the person?

Aminu Masari.

The former Speaker of the House of Representatives?

Yes, the former speaker. I am not accusing him. He has every right to aspire for anything. But, please, let him do it with caution. Let him do it with honesty. Because it is a position of responsibility given to him and he should be fair. I say this because there are a lot of reports coming to me, and some of his utterances that I find to be disgusting. I cannot talk bad about him. He is still a colleague. You see, this type of thing is what has created problems up till now in Katsina that there is faction. And he is in the minority group. You know, there have always been court rulings. Some people stood for election and other people were given. We don’t want a repeat of that. So, for goodness sake, let’s not start anything that will cause problem. And this, my advice, is not even for him alone. It is for the entire APC. Everybody should be given a level playing field. Look, this country is in dire need of this party, the APC. The country is in dire need of collective responsible leadership. And we must live above board if we are given responsibilities. That is my advice.

Can one infer that you are not pleased with the interim leadership of the party so far?

Generally, I have no quarrel with most of them or almost all of them, even Masari himself. But I expect him to perform even if he has interest, personal interest; it should not overshadow his work. It is unfortunate some of the things we have been hearing. But I don’t want to comment on it. He is still my friend. And I expect him to be a gentleman and play according to the rule, because anything that is going to be hanky-panky will not be accepted at all by the people of this country. And I really mean it. People have hope in APC. People love APC. People feel that we need to change PDP for the better. But it has to be with all honesty, sincerity, a level-playing field for the right people to emerge.

It does seem that the major objective of the APC is to unseat the PDP, but the fact remains that most of the members promoting the APC, including you, were at one time or another members of this same PDP. This, in a way, creates fear in the minds of Nigerians that perhaps the APC may not be different from the PDP. What do you think of this observation?

Yes, you are right. Take myself, for example: I was in PDP, but originally – I hope you remember – I was in the ANPP. Because I call myself a practical realist, I always go to where people want as much as possible. I don’t go against the people’s wish. The people of this country want to effect a change. But, as you rightly pointed out, majority of us, a lot of us have been in PDP in one way or the other. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari has been in for eleven years. I was in PDP for, say, five years. But all these are irrelevant. What is relevant is that there will be a focus, and that focus is that we want a change. We want to remove the cancer which has been destroying the country. We need to remove it because of its atrocities. We need to remove this government. But to remove that cancer, we need good surgeons and not quacks. And you see, the funny part of it is that good surgeon in politics is who is popular. Who people trust. Who people accept. And you can only know that if you go through the democratic means of free and fair process. Because what we have been talking about PDP is about not having a free and fair process. But where somebody is trying to hijack the process and not make it free and fair, then it means from the very beginning there is distortion. But let me tell you, it is not how many years you spent in PDP, but how good you are. Are you really a patriotic person? Or, are you into the system because you want position? Because I believe some people were in PDP because they wanted positions not because they wanted to make any significant impact in the system. Look, I left PDP on my own. I had no quarrel with anybody, and I joined CPC. Originally, mark you, I was in ANPP. I was among those people who invited General Muhammadu Buhari to come and join politics because I believe he is a good man to be able to help change the country. But unfortunately after I spent four years as a Senator under ANPP, some people went and tell lies against me. And unfortunately there was a misunderstanding between me and Buhari at that time. And I am not hiding this. Because of that misunderstanding, I didn’t want to quarrel with people and I left. And Umaru invited me. And mark you, we had been in politics together.

You mean the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua?

Yes, we were in SDP together. So, when he invited me, naturally, I didn’t want to be quarrelling, I joined the PDP. I can assure you that if Umaru had been alive, with what I know that guy wanted to do – may his soul rest in peace – with what I know, he was a patriotic person and he loved this country. He was not corrupt; no matter what anybody would say, Umaru was not corrupt. And he has good intentions. Unfortunately, he gave up the ghost as a result of ill-health. So, after he passed away, Jonathan took over. I had no quarrel with him. There is no personal quarrel between me and Jonathan. But after taking over, the way he said he wanted to contest in 2011, I think it was not fair, because there is a constitution of the party which actually recognizes rotation. But then, nobody wanted to listen. I shouted my head off, but nobody wanted to listen. At the end of the day, he contested. I was in the party; I tried to help him because I was in the party then. After everything was finished, within a year, I came to realize that there were a lot of dangers on the way, with the level of corruption that then surfaced in the system. And we moved from one corruption to another. I thought this country could not afford that kind of situation. We have children. We have to leave good legacy and a good country behind. Based on that, I decided to opt out of the PDP. I joined the CPC with the hope that we will merge into a bigger party so that Nigerians would be given the opportunity to have people who can help change the situation in the country, in the interest of the masses. We have sunk so low, so low that even our moral values are no longer there. It is only in this country that somebody would sit down, take government money to purchase N250 million vehicles. Under normal circumstances, do you have to talk after this thing was discovered before the person resigns? The President doesn’t even have to talk to the person; you would have resigned. I am talking about this Oduahgate. We have gone so deep in corruption that the President didn’t care to sack her. She didn’t bother to go herself. This is how bad and how deep we have sunk. So, if they say you have stolen N2b or N5b, it is just like given you honour like OFR. Nobody bothers anymore. No country can survive with this type of immorality and the serious corruption in Nigeria. Honestly, we need a change. And this crusade, that is why I say it should be based on honesty for those who have been given the responsibility to start the process of bringing about the change. The party was formed and people were selected. This interim management, they should be honest, please, for goodness’ sake. Whatever is their ambition they should put it aside and be honest so that we can have a solid foundation. Everybody knows what is fairness. If you have a small faction of a party and there are five positions and you decide to collect the whole positions because you are in a position of Deputy National Chairman, is that fairness? You left the other factions that have a lot more people than you without anything. Is it fair? And then since you became the leader you have not tried to merge the two factions. Up till now, Katsina is in court. And it will reach the Supreme Court. What type of nonsense is this? So, I am not trying to become so naïve and narrow my thinking only towards Katsina, but I am giving a typical example of what is happening, which has to be corrected.

You once said you were going to contest the governorship election in 2015. Now that your party, the CPC, has joined other parties to form APC, do you still have the intention of contesting?

I have never said that I wanted to contest. I keep saying it that people wanted me, not me wanting, to contest. And it is not even for governorship. If my people decide that the best place for me is councillorship, I will accept. And let me tell you, I am not desperate. This is the beauty of it. I am not desperate for any position. I am only desperate to see that Nigeria is changed for the betterment of the populace. If it is God’s wish that I should contest, not even contest, to win, I don’t want to be contesting governorship of Katsina State. If people decided that I should run for it, I want to win so that I can change things. Even if it is not me, whoever emerges through due process, I will help him, including the Presidency. I hope you understand. I am not desperate for anything. But it will depend on the people’s wish. If the people say this is what they want, then I will pursue it for them.

Do you think the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can be trusted to give the country a credible election in 2015, given the way it conducted the recent governorship election in Anambra?

This country is in trouble. The only hope we have is that people should be given the opportunity to decide what they want. And even that hope is being dashed. Look, INEC as it is today – a lot of us lost confidence in it a long time ago. It is only confirmed to us that this institution under Jega cannot meet the people’s expectations, come 2015. Ordinarily, my feeling is that Jega should have resigned, as a leader, and you are now telling us that some people compromised. You should take responsibility for the misconduct of your subordinates. In just one state with a voting population of just 1.7 million, you are having these problems, if you look at it only about some 400, 000 people voted, which is less than 25%. And over 100,000 votes were said to have been canceled. Is it really a good thing to say that you were elected as a governor with a vote of about 20 percent? And in spite of that number, there was evidence that rigging took place in some areas. And I was surprised the electoral officer in one of these local government areas where there was controversies came out spoke clearly, and he didn’t hide his feelings. He told everybody who was there – I saw this in the papers – that some directors, even from the national headquarters of INEC, were involved. He said that he was not alone. So, if the rot had reached that level in INEC, I think the whole INEC should be disbanded. I don’t believe there are no honest and credible Nigerians. I believe there are some. It is going to be difficult to get. But we can get some people who are really honest and who want to salvage this country, because that is the only solution to the challenge of having credible elections. Once we don’t have it, with this mess that is going on, then where are we heading to? May God help this country!

The President has suspended the presentation of the 2014 budget to the National Assembly for the second time. How do you see the development? Is it really a healthy development for the economic growth of this country?  

It is not. But the truth of the matter is that I don’t believe that it is truly the question of benchmark. I have been a legislature for so many years. And each budget is based on a certain benchmark. And each time a benchmark is set by government you will find that it is a lower benchmark, because they want excess crude and they use the money anyhow. I think the House should put a little bit higher benchmark. You put a benchmark of $79 per barrel, you find that the average you are selling is a $100 per barrel. Where is the $20 per barrel which has not been budgeted? It is supposed to be put as a sort of excess crude. It is supposed to be put in the consolidated fund so that we can use it for next year or whatever to budget again. But it is not done. Somebody will squander it somehow. In any case, with the experience I have, benchmark should not stop the presentation of budgets. Because government will present its budget based on its own benchmark. And then, the national assembly will look at that benchmark, agree with it or raise it up. We have been raising benchmarks, and then reverse the budget, based on the reversed benchmark if it goes higher, because the National Assembly has never brought the benchmark lower. We always take it higher. And then we reverse the budget according to our own benchmark, and then pass it and send it to Mr. President. That is the normal way of doing it. So, if there is no agreement on benchmark, it is not supposed to stop budget presentation. It will come to be agreed upon after the budget has been presented.

Source: Daily Independent