Obasanjo’s claim of honesty is questionable
Why we introduced constituency projects
How to tackle farmers, herders crises

Professor Daniel Saror is a former vice chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. In this exclusive interview, the former senator and governorship aspirant spoke on his foray into politics, the current administration, herdsmen/farmers clashes and many more.

You were at the Senate during the tenure of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, how was the relationship between the legislature and executive at that time?

I can speak authoritatively on this issue because I was a member of the Appropriations Committee from day one. I was also a member of the Finance Committee for eight years. In the Senate of 1999 to 2003, President Olusegun Obasanjo did not want to recognize the National Assembly as having a role to play in budget formulation or even approval. If you can remember the debate at that time was that we had no business meddling with the budget.

His budget implementation was very poor and I recall very well, we said look we were elected to the Senate before you because we were elected before the President was elected in 1999. We needed to show our constituencies that we were also there so we brought the concept of constituency projects. These projects were not supposed to be implemented by us. All that was required was that they would be included in the budget and the executive would implement them.

That was what we did. I am very proud to say that my own constituency projects when I was in the Senate were mostly water and education and I can tell you that the water project in Gungur was at my instance. The one in Jato Aka was at my instance just as the one in Vaase, including the one at Ushongo. I had boreholes in all the seven local governments, including outside. If you check the budget of those years you will see all these things. They were approved by the National Assembly and were implemented; I didn’t even know who the contractors were. Obasanjo never liked the idea.

Apart from the constituency projects, what were your other achievements at the Senate?

I must say that I did not enjoy my first tenure very much because I was not in the good books of the governor, though I was in very good committees. I had no rapport with the state. I was a member of the Appropriations Committee, Finance Committee, Education Committee, Agriculture Committee, Health and Communications. In fact I was chairman of the communications committee when GSM was introduced in August 2003. We introduced this GSM. The communications law which is now in operation was under my care; I did it almost singlehandedly with one Paul Usoro, now a Senior Advocate and the law is very good. In my second tenure, it was a lot easier. The late Alhaji Usman Albishir was the accepted leader of the ANPP; we met at the Army Officers Mess and thereafter I heard the BBC simply announced me as his deputy.

So I was deputy to him and became the Senate deputy minority leader. After a year or two there was a change in the ANPP leadership; Alhaji Usman Albishir stepped down and Senator Lawani Shuaibu stepped in as the minority leader. He had a disagreement with elements of the party and resigned as minority leader so I became the minority leader in his place. In that capacity I was a member of elections committee and a principal officer of the Senate. In terms of ranking I was the eight in hierarchy among the principal officers. I was also vice chairman of the finance committee when Senator Bob Effiong was the chairman. I was also a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee when Alhaji Maikafe Abubakar, Dan Masanin Bauchi, was the Chairman of the Appropriations committee. I served in the Education Committee throughout the eight years I was in the Senate; I also served in the Finance Committee.

What was the salary/ allowance for senators like at that time?

In terms of allowances when we first went to the Senate there was no salary structure for us; we were receiving N13, 000 per month as salary for almost a year. When the Revenue Mobilization and Physical Allocation (RMPAC) was later established they were mandated to set the salaries of lawmakers; so our salary was increased to N67, 000 per month. Up to the time I left the Senate that was what we were earning and I have a receipt to show for that. There was constituency allowance because we were supposed to have legislative aides in our constituencies and offices. My office in Katsina Ala here is still there and you can still see it on the road between Jurdaco old Hotel and the hospital, just outside. The building is still there and the staff I had were there. At the time that I left the Senate, our so called allowance was a few millions. Fortunately for the Senate or the National Assembly, after we left in 1997 and David Mark took over as Senate President, there was more money; indeed there was a lot of oil money. Again I can tell you that this excess crude account was established under us. I was a member of the Appropriation and Finance Committee when we insisted on it but it is now being abused by government and politicians. I am personally overwhelmed at the level of increase in the allocations accruing to lawmakers.

Was there anything like budget padding during your time?

I didn’t see it as budget padding, but I was critical. Civil servants have a lot to do with what we call budget padding because they are the ones who put things in the budget. They are the implementers of the budget. I agree that politicians also do the same, but I can assure you that as an individual, I never put anything in the budget. What is called padding is the difference between what is real and what is contained in the budget.

You were among those who clamoured for change; will you say the APC government has delivered that change?

I remember when General Muhammadu Buhari was an aspirant of the ANPP in 2003, I was chairman of the committee at the Eagle Square for his nomination. If you were watching television I was in the rain throughout that night until the process was over and he emerged as the candidate of the ANPP. I believe in him; I believe he has a basic concept of transparency and equity and I have always supported him. I supported him again in 2011 and when he was contesting again in 2015. Of course there was a merger of three parties; CAN, APC and ANPP. I recall that I was at the Eagle Square when the ANPP was dissolved to become part of APC. I was nominated to be there by then ANPP Chairman, Dr. Ogbonanya Onu.

Our group went to Gusau for a meeting but I didn’t go there; I came to Abuja. The Peoples Democratic party (PDP) under Obasanjo and under Yar’adua and Jonathan was a sorry story. I don’t want to talk evil about anybody but even Obasanjo’s claim of honesty and all that is questionable. He brought this idea of third term and Kenneth Nnamani was living two houses away from me in Abuja and we knew what was happening. I saw money being carted around at night to people. I was personally offered a lot of money in order to support third term which I refused to take. So he was not honest when he said if he had wanted third term God would have given him. We rejected it. I even went back to the Tor Tiv and told him the plan and he said don’t accept it and I did not accept it. So then came Yar’ adua. Obasanjo knew Yar’adua was not well but he single handedly installed him as president. The rest is history. By the time Jonathan came on board, he was not a strong character. The PDP governors were unreasonably rich or had access to money and could intimidate him.

They, indeed, intimidated him on many fronts and he failed to ensure accountability for the money he was doling out to the governors. So a lot of stealing was going on; literally looting and there was nothing anybody could do. It was from top to bottom; even the Army was involved. I remember as a principal officer we were to be briefed on the security situation at the ECOWAS Secretariat. Late General Victor Malu was the Chief of Army Staff and he told us that the Nigerian Air force could not fight anything because there was no operational equipment. Now with what Buhari has uncovered, the misuse of army money that you saw (it was published); people collecting hundreds of millions on a monthly basis to buy equipment that were never bought or refurbished, equipment that were bought without functional value. These are the sort of things that caused a lot of trauma to Nigerians. Unfortunately, Buhari is also very slow. He has failed to seize on the anger and desire by many Nigerians in 2015 for a real change. I don’t know what his problem is but he has not been able to move fast enough. I can sympathize with him on his health ground; he still commands a lot of respect but his government is not as popular now as it was then because people can’t see the change that he promised them in many areas. I think if they want to win again they have a lot of work to do to convince Nigerians that they are really determined to take Nigeria to the next level.

What is your assessment of the fight against Boko Haram and other emerging security challenges like the farmers/herders crises, especially in Benue?

I am not a security person; I am a lecturer but I feel that Nigeria has not done well regarding the Boko Haram issue. When Boko Haram started and we who are non-Muslims were concerned that this thing was going to affect us adversely many of our Muslim brothers didn’t feel concerned enough; they just turned a blind eye until it started to hit them. Now we are all victims. When Boko Haram was burning thousands of churches in the North-East I didn’t hear anybody shout against it until they started burning their villages and so on. Boko Haram is an evil design by whomever to forcefully Islamize people in the wrong way. The normal Islam that we know is a peaceful religion. You won’t believe that most of my friends are Muslims. My own driver of more than twenty years is a Muslims and we are like brothers.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/professor-daniel-saror-speaks-on-2019-buhari-has-a-lot-to-do-to-win-second-term.html