Transformation of the banking sector was classified as one of the so-called achievements of Obasanjo. Professor Charles Soludo has beaten his chest and was paraded as someone who brought tremendous reform to the banking industry and many who were unsuspicious believed that charade and commended him for what he had done.
Actually, the banking sector was as rotten as the Obasanjo administration itself. The recapitalization and the consolidation of the banks have not changed anything. To me, the consolidation has not added any value to the banking industry. There are a lot of things Nigerians need answers to. There was this issue of the fall of the African Development Bank which investigation started and report filtered out of a shady deal but was later suppressed and we heard nothing about it again.
You see, banks spread all over this country without the businesses to sustain their activities and you see banks declaring billions of naira as profit. In general, we need to ask a lot of questions. First, where were the House of Representatives and the Senate and their Committees on Finance when all these were happening? Why was the National Assembly so friendly to Charles Soludo? Why was such a person given such accolades when all that has been on the ground was not good?
I think what is more important now is to see to it that those who contributed to the rot of the banks, including Soludo and Obasanjo, should roundly be prosecuted to send a clear message that we cannot continue like this.
WT: But don’t you think it would be unfair to Obasanjo?
Sani: (Cuts in) All these rots, as I said, began from Obasanjo’s administration. He was a man who wanted to be in the good books of the Western World. He was so addicted to figures or paper work. He was a man who was deceived by people who claimed to be the hearted men of the Western financial interest. He is a man who CVs of people who worked in the western financial institutions impressed so much. As such, he reposes so much confidence on people he called technocrat. All they have done was to deceive him for almost five years of his administration with false figures of performance of his own economic system. He is a man who wakes up in the morning but doesn’t want to know if Nigerians are happy with him but only wants to know whether he has favourable ratings in the World Bank, IMF and other western financial institutions. As such, he brought in so many people who at the end of the day, were not able to perform the magic they claimed to have.
We have seen this in what happened in the running of the administration of the FCT, Federal Ministry of Finance and other sectors of the economy like energy, power, oil and gas, among others. This is now what we are seeing in the banking sector which shows that Soludo was incapable and inept and this was demonstrated with the recent revelations.
Helpless Nigerians have always been the guinea pigs of different economic experiments by different regimes. They have also become the victims of the failure of different economic systems. We are operating in an economic system with a very vicious and rapacious ruling class who will do everything possible to protect the wealth and the economic interest of their own class colleagues. Most of these businesses that have collected such billions, you would find that they are mostly headed or run by people who are in the public service.
WT: Recently, many parts of the North were hit by the crisis that came along with the Boko Haram phenomenon and the alleged extra judicial killing of the sect’s leader. How would you react to that?
Sani: Generally, sectarian crisis in the North have been a recurrent problem right from late 1970s in the forms of inter and intra religious violence. Some are ethno-religious crises. Some of these crises are precipitated by social and economic factors which revolve round the indigene-settler problem like the ones of Zangon Kataf, Jos and other places.
The Boko Haram violence signifies the failure of governance in Nigeria. You would find that whenever the people who are behind these crises happened to be apprehended, they were never prosecuted. In one of my researches, I found that there were well over 24 to 25 commissions of inquiries that were set up right from the early 1980s to date and most of these reports were never used. In my findings in some of the states I visited, I found that most of these reports were not even opened by the government but were left in cartons to be eaten by termites. Successive governments in Nigeria have failed to meet the needs of the people hence the frequent violence.
Our intelligence network is also to share in this blame. What most of these intelligences are after is who is the journalist or activist that criticize the government so that he/she could be arrested. They are not bothered about other security threats.
As someone who has been in detention in many police cells and prisons due to our activism, we have been used to seeing extrajudicial killings by the police on a number of occasions. So the treatment of Muhammad Yusuf is one in the series of what has been happening. What we should know is that had Muhammad Yusuf been presented in court, he would have been able to tell us a number of things; his views, ideas, convictions and what he proffers. The security personnel would have been able to extract a lot of information from him; like who armed him, his source of funding, how he was able to amass his strength.
Muhammad Yusuf was leading an idea which we need to know why he was saying Boko (western education) is Haram (illegal). If you see foolishness in his strategy, at the same time you see reason to his approach… Here we are in a system which says Boko is Halal (legal) but our public education system has been destroyed. Some of the best schools that produce the best brains in the country like Barewa College, Zaria, Katsina Government College, Kings College, Lagos etcetera have been destroyed. Most of the people in power today have their offspring studying abroad and people have graduated here in the country without jobs. If Muhammad Yusuf said Boko is Haram what he is saying is that our political leaders have made it Haram in the sense that they have denied people the right to education and this is the more reason why he was able to have followers.
WT: The government recently evicted residents of a town in Niger State called Darul-Islam, how did you see that from the perspective of human rights?
Sani: There is nowhere in our constitution where somebody is allowed to evict people based on their religious views and beliefs. As a Nigerian, you have a right to go into the bush and divorce yourself from the public and stay there to have your own feelings. The action of government on this issue could be said to be baronial. They have been baron over the fact of what happened to the Boko Haram. They could be justified to say that all violent movements began from non-violence but they cannot sustain it on the point of law.
In as much as the government is desirous of protecting the lives and property of its citizens, it must be cautious in acting on false and manipulated security reports that is aimed at achieving certain motives. I can say that the action against Darul Islam people is a clear violation of their fundamental right to propagate and profess their own belief and ideas. A simple dialogue between representatives of the group and the government could have solved the problem.
If you go into a comparative analysis, you will find out that there are a lot of groups who isolate themselves from the general public. If you go, for example, on the outskirt of Kaduna along Abuja road, you will find that there is a Christian group that has their own camp there. You can’t say you want to go and evacuate them simply because they have decided to worship in isolation; they broke no law on that. If you go to Lagos – Ibadan expressway, you will have all kinds of churches even including the Guru Maharaj and they have been carrying on their activities without molestation.
WT: Did you view the coming of the USA’s Secretary of State to Nigeria as a lift to the country’s image in the international scene?
Sani: The government and the opposition in Nigeria were exaggerating the importance of the coming of Hillary Clinton without putting into cognizance a number of things. The government of Nigeria needs it for credibility. The opposition needs it to get at the government. What is most important is that the future of our country is in our hands. China and Japan are where they are today because their leaders have motivated their people and a conducive atmosphere has been created for their socio-economic and technological advancement.
People like David Mark who are critical of her should rather sit down to reflect and see the value of what she said in the interest of our country. No matter how much we try to rebrand our country, nothing will change the image of our country if things are not done right.
WT: President Yar’adua has spent more than half of his tenure; do you think the common people are feeling the positive impact of his administration?
Sani: It is painful to hear people saying yesterday is better than today. President Yar’adua has an opportunity to make this country great and he started with reversing the policies of Obasanjo’s administration and by that, he got the overwhelming support of most Nigerians. It reached a point that the process of his election was overlooked by the fact that he was acting as a progressive. As years go by, most of these things which he has reversed have returned to the statusquo, that it is simply deceptive.
For now, we can say that Umaru’s government is suffering from five is; indiscipline, incompetence, incapacity, ineptitude and inability.
