Why Nigeria Situation May Remain The Same Or Even Worse– Shekarau

A former Governor of Kano State, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, has said only a courageous leader can champion the course of the Constitution amendment and succeed.

He said the situation will remain the same or even worse if Nigerians believe that the current 469 members of the National Assembly with 103 standing committees with their retinue can make a change.

Shekarau who was a guest speaker at the 12th Annual Symposium of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), B-Zone, held at De-Distinguished Hall, Ido-Osun via Osogbo, Osun State, on Saturday.

Speaking on “Navigating Nigeria’s Democratic Path Through Constructive Review,” Shekarau said, “Without changing the structural setup, there is no way you can reduce the cost of government.”

He said, “The democracy imposed on us by the military is too costly and too expensive.

“Having been to the National Assembly, I’ve seen the waste which I’m bold to say is my opinion, we do not need two chambers with 469 people. In the Senate, there are 73 committees. Each committee is to supervise about 30 ministries of government agencies. The minimum any Senator will belong to five committees. Some have seven and some have eight.

“Also, in the House of Representatives, they have 130 committees. The same kind of nomenclature in the Senate. If a budget defense is done in the education. The ministry will come to the Senate Committee on Education with bulky papers to defend the budget. The next day, they will move to the House Committee on Education in the House of Representatives to do the same thing with all the bulky papers. Each of the committees has a minimum of seven staff at the secretariat. Every senator and rep member has the entitlement of employing five staff to work for them.
unless we get a Godly-minded leader. You can see many people agitating for a cut in the cost of government. Without changing the structural setup, there is no way you can reduce the cost of government.

“We have over 500 parastatals under the federal government, duplication. For example, what is EFCC, ICPC, and Code of Conduct are doing differently? They are just duplicating.

“The Orosanye report was constituted by Jonathan. Jonathan himself was unable to implement the reports. Buhari came, but he was unable to implement the report and I doubt if Tinubu will be able to do it because once you are there, you are intimidated by the coworkers and political party. If you are to reduce them, you are reducing the number of Chief Executives, you are reducing the number of boards and parastatals.

“Put political party aside, this government has increased the number of ministries, what for? What is the road safety doing that a traffic department of the police is not doing? The SSS was a special arm of the police. Up till today, the investigative unit of the police doesn’t wear a uniform. The DSS is supposed to be hidden, but today, it is branded in the jacket they wear wherever they go. When you expose yourself, what intelligence are you going to get?

“Unfortunately, I’m going not praying for a military takeover. The worst democratic government is worse than the military. It was the military that brought us to where we are today.

“It will take a lot of time to amend the constitution. Who is to amend it? The amendment begins with the national assembly. Do you think 469 of them will sit down and say cancel two chambers and reduce it to one chamber?

“We need a courageous political leader to take it up. I’m looking for a president who will do that. In the Ministry of Education where I was a Minister, we have 23 parastatals. NUC is one with hundreds of universities. It is a big job to supervise NUC alone with 16 departments. The worst of all, sometimes like the past government, you bring in somebody who does not know anything about the classroom apart from him being in school, having no idea of anything about education for eight years. Adamu was my very close friend. After leaving office, he confessed. It is like apologizing to Nigerians. He said, “I was not an educationist.” So we are not putting a round peg in a round hole. Taking a medical doctor to the Ministry of Labour like Ngige who ended up abusing everybody. There is no idea of negotiation, no idea of what labour means. The Prophet warned against putting people where they don’t know.

“Within two years, I cleared over 20 years of backlog of pensions and I left over N5 billion in the coffers of the state government in Kano. Within one year, my successor squandered everything and today, we are back to square one.

“So, the electorate should be ready to elect the right leaders. If you don’t get correct leaders, leaders that represent the people, if your way is wrong, when you get there, God will not help you,” Shekarau said.

The Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Mutiu Agboke, commended the MSSN for organizing the symposium, saying that government should not end with voting.

“It is an opportunity for us to come and discuss. For example, after you’ve elected people, other challenges and responsibilities must be analyzed.

“There is a need for this kind of conversation to continue. You can hear the lecturer telling people that. Nothing stops you from voting because some people believe that it is ungodly to participate in the electoral process,” Agboke said.

The Zonal Amir of MSSN, B-Zone, Qaasim Odedeji, explained that the theme: Reshaping the Past for the Future,” was carefully chosen to remind the political officeholders of the need to govern with justice and fairness.

“However, one important thing the president must know is that people are groaning as a result of dual policies of removal of fuel subsidy and naira devaluation. Worst still, no workable effort on the ground yet to ameliorate the situation. I want to therefore call on the President to as a matter of urgency fee the purse of masses and do something urgently beyond rhetoric of palliative that goes nowhere,” Odedeji added.