Senator Alex Usman Kadiri, elder statesman and stalwart of the All Progressives Congress, speaks with Demola Abimboye on the crises Nigeria has faced since the return to democratic governance in 1999.
Newswatchplus: Nigeria’s 4th Republic began in 1999. How will you assess the journey so far?
Kadiri: Our democracy has been a failure. I will use one of Shehu Shagari’s legacies as an example. The former president started and completed a bridge across River Niger at Ajaokuta in Kogi State. He also built another one for a rail line that will link Ajaokuta with Anyigba and Otukpo. That plan has been abandoned. Now, we are building a rail line to Maradi in Niger Republic whereas the ones to transport goods in Nigeria have been abandoned.
Then, look at the level of corruption in the past 24 years. I was at the Eagle Square and witnessed the primaries that produced Bola Tinubu, Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi as presidential candidates of their parties for the 2023 elections. Whoever won shared more money than the other contestants. Tinubu outspent the Federal Government. I pitied Muhammadu Buhari who sat like a lame duck.
Nyesom Wike would have won the Peoples’ Democratic, PDP, primaries but for Aminu Tambuwal who changed his mind and ensured Atiku won.
The Labour Party had no candidate until Peter Obi came. All the LP voters for Obi wanted change. They voted against the rot in the system.
Since 1999, our democratic journey has been moving from bad to worse. I always go back to Kogi where results for the last governorship elections were already written before voting and distributed to officials to read. Some of them were caught and exposed. The number of accredited voters was less than the number of people who voted.
Newswatchplus: How will you assess the country’s economic development between 1999 and now?
Kadiri: In terms of the economy, we have tried generally. But in many parts of the country like where I come from, there are no physical developments. If you go to such states like Lagos, Kaduna, Borno and Ebonyi, you will notice development. But in other states, especially South-South where they received trillions from the federation account as oil producing states, there is hardly anything to show for it. All the funds have been stashed abroad.
Corruption has really affected development. There was this Accountant General of the Federation who stole hundreds of billions of Naira. The same man was given a chieftaincy title by an Emirate in Kano State recently. How can this country develop when thieves and charlatans are riding high in the society?
Newswatchplus: What factors will you say were responsible for this rot over the years?
Kadiri: The first is the speed with which Nigerians embrace money. No matter what you tell people at rallies, no matter how bright you sound, what matters to the people is the money you leave behind after campaigns. I have seen a governorship candidate in a state who paid the people before he mounted the rostrum and only said ‘E joo o, e joo jare’ (literally meaning ‘please ooh, please ooh’) and left the stage. At the elections, he distributed money to INEC officials, security agents, etc. He won.
That has been the pattern since 1999 and has ever been on the increase. As any government comes to power, it recruits new members from among those who were left out to stop them from causing problems for the new government.
Newswatchplus: How will you describe the security situation in the country between 1999 and now?
Kadiri: I have a few friends who work in the security system and are really trying. But their efforts are not good enough. Nigeria is bleeding. In the FCT here, after 8pm, to go back home is a problem. Pray your car doesn’t break down on the road. There is insecurity everywhere today. Nigerians are living by God’s grace. Kidnappers, armed robbers, bandits have taken over every state. They attacked a church in Owo, Ondo State and slaughtered worshippers on a Sunday. I have seen a governor who sent armed men to kill people who were praying on a mat whereas he is the chief security officer of the state.
Newswatchplus: Would you have imagined this level of insecurity in 1999 when you were elected a Senator?
Kadiri: We have so much insecurity now because we allowed it. Every Nigerian is culpable. And the security men have not been able to perform to their optimum level because they are also afraid. If they catch a suspect, they find out that the powers that be are behind them.
Newswatchplus: With this gloomy picture, what can Nigeria do to improve its democracy?
Kadiri: We can’t make progress the way we are going. The system is not designed for positive change; not designed to allow voices of dissent to survive. I’ve seen all forms of government – military and democracy. I don’t have any power to choose for Nigerians. Whatever you choose, the criminals are everywhere, they will decide what happens to you. I don’t pray for military intervention but I still believe Nigeria needs a shock treatment. But when you look at the military, they are all in the pockets of the political rulers.
If we continue with what we have now, we are heading towards a one party state. What is the future of opposition parties? They win elections but are rigged out. What chance do they have when they go to the tribunal?
Newswatchplus: But an opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, won the presidential election in 2015?
Kadiri: For any opposition party to win like Buhari did in 2015, there must be a general discontent among the populace. But Nigerians today are complacent. Nobody wants to go to prison. Most families will advise their people to keep quiet. For example, I have five children. I told them all to have a good education. My first child had the best result in Law at the Abuja University and Law School. She had LLM at Leeds. All the others had second degrees in their respective fields. They worked in various places: Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company, Federal Character Commission, UBA Plc and Nigeria Stock Exchange. But in all these places, colleagues taunted them: ‘You are a son of Senator Alex Kadiri. You think your father can change this country?’ They all came back to complain to me.
Today, all my children have migrated. My daughter is now stuck in the UK. She works for Tony Blair’s law firm. Yet, over there, colleagues keep taunting her: ‘You are working. Why not go back to your country to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN?’
Newswatchplus: Election violence has been rampant over the years: members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, have even been killed in Bauchi. Why couldn’t these be forestalled?
Kadiri: There is no smoke without fire. Those killed in election violence across the country must have soiled their hands. But bad human beings are now in charge of our country. They buy AK47 rifles for thugs. I sat and watched elections in Kogi State in 2019 and saw helicopters shooting at voters on the ground. How many Nigerian politicians have power to hire helicopters and get permission to fly on a day movement was restricted? Nigeria is in the hands of such people.
Newswatchplus: As an elder statesman, why didn’t you intervene to correct some of these things?
Kadiri: Before the last election, I tried to reach the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, through many people – Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, Biodun Faleke, Tanko Yakassai – not for favours but to ask vital questions. As we speak, none of them fulfilled their promises to let me see him.
Also, I met Bulama, a former commissioner in Borno, in order to see Kashim Shettima. He promised to fix it and made contacts with them. But the feedback was that nobody wanted Alex’s trouble.
On the rail bridge at Ajaokuta I earlier mentioned, I met Rotimi Amaechi but he retorted that my Igala brother, Abdullahi Ibrahim, was Transport Minister under Buhari’s military regime? I understood his message. But I still told him that wouldn’t it be more appropriate to extend rail through Ajaokuta to Anyigba and Otukpo that Shagari had in mind instead of building a railway to Maradi in Niger Republic? He said “my brother, you can leave.”
Amaechi was even asking someone who was with us who tried to intervene if he knew me well; if he didn’t read my views in the papers and if he wanted my troubles? That is their attitude. Those in power don’t want to have anything to do with people like me.
Newswatchplus: Let’s talk about our political parties. How do you see the proliferation from three in 1999 to 74 in 2020 and 18 today?
Kadiri: That is not a problem. In other countries, they have many parties but the electorates choose two. In the UK and US, people have settled for two. Nigerians can reduce these parties to two or three based on their pattern of voting and winning during elections.
Newswatchplus: What about ideology or principle? Can you classify the parties as capitalists or leftists?
Kadiri: Nigeria’s political parties from day one, irrespective of their number today, lacked ideology; the politicians lacked focus. What they have run after was to grab power and party men lined their pockets as soon as they were appointed into offices. No party or leader tolerated deviants or internal critics.
We don’t have ideology in Nigeria’s politics. Look at Ifeanyi Ubah who won election into the Senate on the platform of the Young People’s Party, YPP. But because of threats from the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, over his indebtedness to some banks, he dumped his party and joined the APC. His sins have been forgiven.
In other climes, politicians are steadfast. Look at what just happened in Holland where an ultra-right man proclaimed that he would chase away all black people. He did not mind the possible backlash. He didn’t dump his idea. He won.
Newswatchplus: Would you say the inability to streamline the number of parties has negatively affected democratic governance?
Kadiri: No. People are migrating to those smaller parties because they are tired of being suffocated in the big ones even though they know that their new parties won’t make any difference. They are disgruntled.
Newswatchplus: Still on how to deepen democracy. What will you advise?
Kadiri: Our democracy cannot be better. We need a shock or traumatic treatment. I am not asking for a military coup because the military boys will appoint only their boys with their idiosyncrasies. People are more interested in their pockets. An economic expert was invited to a TV station the other day to discuss the 2024 budget. Within five sentences, he had called “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” five times. The rot must stop.
Newswatchplus: Election petitions have often dragged endlessly and in many cases justice miscarried. Would you say lawyers have failed or helped our democracy thus far?
Kadiri: They are doing their work. They try to outsmart one another and do everything to win cases. So, they cut corners. Those in power are aware of this; so they go for the smartest and richest lawyers to manage their cases. In Nigeria, cases are being managed, not tried in the courts.
Newswatchplus: Are we really running a three-tier system of government because the Local Governments have been sidelined?
Kadiri: The Local Governments have not been sidelined but have allowed themselves to be subsumed in the affairs of the state. In Kogi, for instance, the LGs have not functioned properly in the last eight years.
Newswatchplus: Are Governors the only obstacles to effective local government administration?
Kadiri: They are the emperors. The Federal Government does monthly allocation to the Local Governments. But ask any LG Chairman what gets to him. Maybe in the South West, no Governor sits on LG allocations but in many states, LG Chairmen get barely 10 percent of monthly FAAC allocation.
