Sen. Muhammed Muhammed represented Bauchi central in the 6th senate. In this encounter with Ruth Choji, he alleged that there are a lot of PDP appointees in sensitive position in government whose loyalty is in doubt.

Are you worried with the dimension Nigerian economy is taking?

The situation should be a source of concern for every well-meaning Nigerian, especially the amount of damage done and the amount of revelation coming out but we are praying hard that the APC government under Buhari will be able to handle the situation successful. The damage was too much. Very highly placed persons who you thought will never place their hands in such things are being investigated and some of the revelations coming out is disturbing. We hope the government will be firm like the president has said that whoever is involved will be dealt with.

But from the way the government is handling the situation, it is like they didn’t have any plan on ground before coming in…

No, the president is capable, the only thing is that, up till now, there are a lot of PDP appointees in sensitive positions in government and you can never be sure of their loyalty. There are some sectors that the government has not touched and there are people who have soiled their hands and are still on the seat, if something is not done, they will keep frustrating the government efforts.

The minister of state for petroleum has said they are in the process of unbundling the NNPC, what is your take on this

I think the government has to make up its mind. You hear different stories. I don’t like the word unbundling even though it came with the NNPC, but they changed it to reorganization. Unless government makes up it mind, it does matter whether you have a hundred, thirty or three organization, the most important thing is to have genuine people that will run the organization. Now we are hearing that NNPC is going to handle fuel import, which will be another disaster. If you can’t do it, why don’t you open it and leave it to those who are doing the business. Once you bring that into the plate of the NNPC, then you create more problems. The best thing is gradually to deregulate the system and allow market forces to take over. All you need to do is check corruption. For example, if all these prices are being fix by NNPC , if one is buying on his own, it will be cheaper, then the prices being quoted with the landed product will come down. The problem, with Nigeria is that, anybody you give responsibility will grab more than his share.

The government said it has withdrawn subsidy, do you think it will impact the oil sector in anyway?

Virtually subsidy has already been removed, if this is the case, why don’t you let the people sell on their own? I think it is better to allow the private sector to import, just like it happened to diesel. Now you can work to any filling station and buy diesel. Let petroleum too be the same.

Are you in support of calls to devalue the Naira?

No I am not In support because devaluing the naira is not the solution because like Mr. president has said, it will not increase our foreign exchange earnings, then what is the benefit? We have over 27 billion in reserve. Supposing you devalue it now and demand outweighs supply, after six months, you will come back to the same situation, do you have to be devaluing every six months? The issue at stake is that many people are taking Nigeria for a ride. There are so many leakages in our foreign exchange. What we need to do is check it, even respectable organizations are inflating their raw materials prices. So what the CBN needs to do is make sure that only those who require the material are given foreign exchange. It is the question of managing the scarce foreign exchange we have and channeling it in the right area. But now when you go to the market, you will see all manner of rubbish from different parts of the world. Furniture, food, clothes, we don’t need all these things now that we are restricting the economy. So we need sincere, dedicated, trusted management. I was reading recently that many of the people in the CBN have bureau de change.

Supposing you are given the opportunity to formulate a template on how to revive the economy, what will it be?

First, we have to stop importing rubbish and then you safe foreign exchange. You have to improve local production of foodstuff and other items that will take away your dependence on foreign change. I don’t believe that Nigeria should be importing lots of food. We have to stop spending our foreign change on rubbish like vehicles, luxury items, aircraft,furniture and the rest. You have to look at critically areas of the economy that is consuming foreign exchange. When you do that, you will know how to control it. The utterances of the minister of agriculture looks like we are no longer going to rely on rain feed products. We will have to use all the water resources at our disposal to farm and produce things.

Power has gone down to as low as 2,500 megawatts, some have pointed accusing fingers at saboteurs, but what is your take on this

Like I said, so many appointees of the former administration are in strategic position, as soon as they are flushed out, the better. Naturally these people have sympathy with their bosses that put them there, so they won’t want APC to succeed. So it is up to government to flush them out. Then there is the sabotage of the Niger/delta through vandalisation. I am happy that the president is determined to see that something is done. I also thing that power should not be mix with anything. It is so vital to the survival of the economy and it is a full time job for any human being. You cannot over load him. You cannot be thinking of energy and pot holes on the roads at the same time. They should have left it to capable hands. Works can be merged with other things but power must be left alone.

Coming back to the senate, the senate president has been asked to step down pending the outcome of his case with CCB.do you support this call?

It is politics. Politicians have a way of presenting things. This issue affecting the senate president dates back to when he was a governor. I believe it is not weighty enough for him to step aside. You know in our laws, you are not guilty until proven by a credible court of law. If you asked Saraki to step down now, then a lot serious issue will come up and so many things will be affected because whoever will be in acting position will not have the weight or charisma to carry everybody along. I believe it is better he continues until he is proven guilty

Are you not worried that the party has not come out to say anything on the issue?

It is a judicial matter so, I don’t think the party has anything to add. It is in the court, the party cannot do anything about it. If he himself thinks with this challenge let me step down, then fine. But I will urge those running the system not to take us or clog us backward because the way the system is going, there can be delay.

But do you think the president will succeed in his on-going fight against corruption

He is determine to succeed. The interesting thing about it is that nobody will like to see his father being arraigned or called a thief. If some of them are jailed, others will take a cue. If you look at the system, since 1999, some people have been in court or the file of the EFCC for 10-15 years and they are still there, walking free. If you don’t tackle corruption now, then you will be tying and other will be losing the robe. It is important that every Nigerian support Mr. President on his fight against corruption. I am happy that even religion organization are coming out to give this kind of support because they know it is in the interest of all Nigerians.

The fight between Fulani herdsmen and farmers has led to loss of lives and properties. What is the way out?

It is very unfortunate. One is not quite sure because we have two categories of fulanis, the local ones who live in the villages with the people, they have their huts, they bring local milk to local market, they are neighbors with farmers. Those ones, one can say they have no problem because it can be managed. They sometimes send their children to rear the herds and before you know it, they will stray into people’s farm and eat or destroy the crops. The local authorities can handle that but the more disturbing ones are those we don’t have any place to stay. They roam about and in some cases, some of them are not Nigerians. Some come from other countries. They are the deadly ones, they are heavily armed and are very deadly. I think the federal government can handle the issue by bringing all involved to a round table, by providing grazing facilities for them, there could be a demarcation line for them. There used to be a part for the cows right from Maiduguri to Lagos. But now most of it has been taken over by farmers and development. So government must bring sanity into the situation.

The government has said they will register all the herdsmen to make it easier for them to monitor them. do you think this will help in anyway

They are not static. In the raining season, they move northward. As the dry season comes, they move southward. In the past, they were not going to Lagos and the rest because of tse-tse fly but now they go to Lagos. So even if you provide grazing reserve, they might not be able to stay put. It is a question of providing them rules and regulations they will be made to comply with.


http://leadership.ng/features/514720/pdp-loyalists-sabotaging-buharis-govt-muhammad


APC will soon blame Devil for the Fuel Scarcity

CPC blaming nPDP members now.


Very soon the CPC faction of the APC will castigate the ACN faction.


Power has returned to the north,


Tinubu your final disgrace by the north still dey do press up!

what goes around comes around

Too many lies muhammed in apc

Is he saying that one party state is the solution?