Momoh Yusuf Obaro is an aspiring senator from Kogi Central Senatorial District.
He speaks to TOPE SUNDAY on his plan to tackle hunger in his constituency, the gale of defection hitting his party –the APC, and also the chances of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019
In one of your write-ups, you made a case for the establishment of ‘Truth Commission.’ But over three years down the line, would you say the fight against corruption by the APCled government is hugely a success? I would say the fight against corruption is a success, but hugely, I wouldn’t know.
Why I said the fight against corruption is a success is that this government has been able to demonstrate and expose the extent at which corruption has engrained in our system.
Before now, people did not know that some people would just take away about $2.3 billion, and I am sure that Nigerians are shocked, and many of us have not yet recovered from the shock of many revelations about corruption activities that have taken place in this country.
So, this exposition on the extent to which corruption has entrenched in our system is a success.
What is now left undone is what I call(ed) the intellectual backup or modality that we need to build to put a final dead end to corruption.
By this, I mean we need to get people do research on why people in both high and lower places have corrupt tendencies.
Now, we are saying young people should be allowed in governance, but our research has shown that their quest to serve is to put their hands in government’s finances.
Also, I think we need to ask all universities in Nigeria to research into why our people have high corrupt tendencies.
The other issue that is also encouraging corruption is the economic condition of our people.
When you go to villages, you will know that the economic situation of our people is a disaster.
So, in a situation like this, people’s energy for anything that is good is drained and they would take anything that is given to them.
Unfortunately, politicians take this advantage to influence the electorate and give them N2000 each, an amount can’t buy a good lunch.
People should vote according to their conscience, but by collecting money, would they vote according to their conscience? We should come up with good policy and legislation against corruption.
Also, we should have a system that will track people’s income.
Also in that piece, you recalled visiting a friend in one of the federal ministries, where 75 percent of contracts were awarded to the top three namely; ministers and permanent secretaries getting 75 percent, 20 percent to the directors; and 5 percent for the public to scramble over.
APC came to power on the mantra of change.
Has anything changed in that regard? I wish I had the experiment I had before to answer this question; but I don’t have it now.
But observing, yes some changes have been made because since APC came on board in 2015, it has been following the due process.
Ministries now advertise contracts and people will apply for it.
There is a small change, and I must say this issue we are dealing with is a comprehensive and complicated one.
We have a culture in this country that once you are given a position, you see it as your own way of sharing from the national cake.
No, but it should be seen as a way of rendering services to the people.
Still on your book, ‘My Thoughts,’ you suggested that broadband should be used to track corrupt tendencies.
But is that not utopian?Again, you may be correct if you say that my ideas are utopian.
I think these are some of the things existing in some of the countries we have, even in Africa, you can’t believe that.
I attended a conference way back in 2005, in one of the African countries and we were talking about the level of digitalisation in its government system and to know about the percentage of paper work.
But this particular country said, it was about 80 percent digitalised.
I was shocked and kept quiet, and I was looking at Nigeria because we call ourselves all sorts of big names, but the level of digitalisation is so low.
This is the starting point.
Broadband alone can’t solve the problem, because there are simple things that people are doing.
For instance, streets are named and houses are numbered; these are the basic data that most nations build on.
But except Abuja, houses in other major towns are not properly numbers, and without basic data, even the most effective broad band may not work.
One of the things I would do if I succeed in getting to the National Assembly is to drive the issue of getting a correct data.
Like in the UK where I live, houses are numbered, streets are named.
This allows for easy identification.
But here in Nigeria, the case is in the opposite.
Like I coined it ‘the future wealth is in the data and not oil.
Data gathering and definition is the first step before buying gadgets; gadgets without data would be useless.
These were what I was thinking when I put those ideas together.
At the National Assembly, your party, APC is scheming to unseat the Senate leadership.
Do you think we need this at the current level of our development? No and may be, I would also say yes.
The National Assembly is meant to make law, but what has the current Assembly achieved? If all they do now is to pass appropriation, we may ask them to stay at home and pass the appropriation.
It’s quite unfortunate, the current National Assembly has turned itself to a kind of self-surviving.
The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki is somebody I admire and I can say I contributed to his campaign when he wanted to become the governor of Kwara state.
But there was a time I did a personal memo to him to say that if I were him having so much accusation against me, I would have stepped aside and clear my name.
That would make a lot of sense.
He should have saved himself all these distractions of today.
Assets Declaration case (though he has been cleared by the Supreme Court), the following day, Offa Robbery allegation.
If he truly loves democracy, he should step aside, clear all the issues and come back.
Also, on the issue of defection, people are saying it that nobody has done it before, but there is a Supreme Court judgment that says that once you cross over to the other party, you should relinquish your position.
These are basic laws we must embrace.
Again, listening to you on Youtube, you painted a picture of a woman, who lost her roof to rainstorm and another children begging for food.
How do you intend to solve this pervasive hunger in the land? If I get to the Senate, I intend to mobilise the Senate to invest N10 billion in my Senatorial district.
We can’t solve the issue of hunger and poverty by giving handouts, but we have to make the people to be productive.
Where would the fund be sourced from? There are a lot of monies flying around in the Senate, and I intend to source this fund from the constituency allowance and through my friends in the government and also invite my international contacts for this project.
It is my deliberate policy, which I intend to go for if elected as a Senator.
Also, I intend to give my people the business skills, though they already have it, but to let them know its importance.
For instance in my area, majority of our men are farmers, while our women are traders.
Also, there are a lot farmlands that are not being put to use.
We can clear those farmlands, and give it to the people to farm on, and at the same time, establish an industry to evacuate all the farm produce.
I don’t think this is a rocket science, it can be done through deliberate policy by somebody who is committed.
This, will however, transform people from no job to production.
If I intervene and it becomes very successful, I would expect my fellow colleagues to replicate same in their constituencies, and before we know what is going, the issue of hunger and poverty would have been addressed.
Similarly, I intend to initiate a bill called: “Community Development Fund”.
There are communities in the 774 Local Governments that we have in the country, and they have been neglected over the years.
What chance does President Muhammadu Buhari have in 2019, going by the gale of defections hitting your party? I would say that President Buhari has a good chance.
He has something that other politicians can only dream about; the ordinary people trust him.
And every politician wants that kind of trust but most of us don’t have it.
I don’t have it, and I wish I had it.
I believe that is what is working for him.
Of course, the elite that the president has ruffled their feathers are really crying.
Imagine, people who had a lot of money before, but had been made to make some refunds, would make some noise.
If the president had had some members of his executive and the legislature, and even among the governors who had keyed into his programme and policies, we would have made a lot of progress.
