APC’ll Mobilise The Best To Save Nigeria – Kaka By: Ruth Choji on November 28, 2013 - 2:43am Senator Gbenga Kaka represents Ogun East senatorial district at the senate. In this interview with Ruth Choji, the lawmaker speaks on the neglect of the agricultural sector, the proposed netional conference and other issues. As a member of committee on agriculture, there have been reports of a looming food crisis; what has been done to check this threat? We are unserious as a nation not to realize that agriculture is life and if we get it right, there will be no need to spend much on health either curative or preventive. Food is medicinal; all we needed to do is put in a percentage in our budget and inject it into agriculture so that we will lay a template for a good system. But right now, every year, we keep seeing very little being given to agriculture. This thing has been diagnosed and identified since 2003 when the entire African countries came together in Maputo and resolved that African countries to get out of hunger borderline, they must devote ten percent of their budget to agriculture and their after scale it down. But now, our allocation to agriculture has been hovering below ten percent, forgetting that apart from food that is essential to human existence, it also creates employment. 70% of employment opportunity resides with agriculture and yet, it is neglected from the rural areas to the local government and state. We are getting our priority wrong. So what we are saying is that, even if it is only 2years that we inject money into it, we will do something. What is the way out of this neglect? All we do is presenting templates and blueprints, but when it comes to implementation, we shun it. No template can come to reality unless it is backed with money. We have the money, the land is there, fertile and the human resources, now what we lack is management. Let us go back to embrace dignity in labor, people don’t want to work again. With our oil money above hundred dollars per dollar, we need to invest it in agriculture. We also need to change our school curriculum to accommodate agriculture. Let it be a core subject so that in the absence of job after graduation. We have the undeveloped agricultural bank, we also have the central bank guarantee scheme and various departments created to handle agriculture, but there are no monies to fund them. In the current year, one billion is expected to be injected in the budget for bank of industry as loan to farmers. I can tell you that, not up to three hundred million has been disbursed. So if that is what they are talking about, we need to go back. Now back to the state and local government committee, Nigerians are still wondering why the senate struck out the local government autonomy clause? We are talking about democracy; some of us backed the autonomy, but we needed two third. Those who believe that the autonomy must not be granted because we are not yet ripe, for us, we have our reasons, but those who believe it shouldn’t be granted have upper hand, but it is not the end of it because the House of Reps supported it. But are there plans to reform the local government laws, especially seeing how the state governors manage them? There must be reform because what we have right now is still a form of military governance that is happening in the country whereby the constitution provides that it is the state house of assembly that has responsibility and management of local government. The existence and funding resides in state house of assembly, but unfortunately the federal and state governments continue to meddle in the affairs of the LG, they want to swallow them completely. Unfortunately when there was attempt to reform the LG acts under Obasanjo, the unitarised system under the so called local government service commission, if we say we are talking about autonomy, it should be total, every worker in the LG should start and earn their career in the LG where they started, not that one will destroy one and be transferred to another and the executive chairman as they are called, must have absolute authority of the administration of the local government not that they will be controlled by proxy or by local government service commission, by extension the governor who has his own responsibility. I am not saying they are not related, but there should be mutual respect, not that the governor will be the one to nominate the chairman, councilor and the rest. There was an outcry over the poor level of implementation of the 2013 budget and yet National Assembly is willing to let the president present the 2014 budget, what is really happening? The annual budget has been turned into a mere ritual which is rather unfortunate. What is happening is that, when we budget, we set target and we are expected to meet the target. If it is not being met, we should be able to convincingly give reasons why they are not being met. I expected that what should come first before the presentation of budget is the achievement for the previous year juxtapose side by side with the one of the preceding year and place the coming year side by side. But what we have is the envelope scheme which effects a lot of things that are time bound, things like agriculture that everything concluded before the raining season, but what we have is that the money is held until the raining season is passes before it is released. We know that road construction is always beer during rainy seasons, but government will award contracts for road construction in the peak of rainy seasons that contracts will be awarded or funds released; that is an awkward time. Budget is not an issue of enveloping but prioritization. We don’t get our priority right. We expect accountability; let’s see how you spend everything. I see the presentation as another expedition for us. We have problem which is the supervision by the executive, it gives room for corruption. I don’t know how effective an MDA in Abuja can supervise what is going in the 36 states of the federation; it is not feasible, and that is why we keep saying that, there is a need to decentralize. Give more responsibility to state and local government, which is the only way we can deliver the dividend of democracy without giving room for wastage. APC has been trying to woo the ‘rebelling governors ‘from the PDP, is this healthy for our democracy? There is what we call dialectical principles that the two major parties like the PDP and APC; there are bad hands in PDP and APC, so also we have good hands in both. We want to bring the best together to form a strong opposition to the decadent governance we have so that we can move this country forward. Are you saying these seven governors are the best? I am not saying they are the best, but for standing up to the established system of corruption, the system of inefficiency and tyranny, we want to join hands to remove this government. Go to the state of some of these seven and you will see that they are like progressives too, which is why we want them to come and join us to remove these nation wreckers. But Nigerians are becoming apprehensive towards 2015 with what is going on now? Of course it is natural to be a bit apprehensive, but hope is constant. I can assure you that APC is fully prepared and we intend to bring in the best, people with experience, not dead wood as we have in the other party but people who are ready to work for the growth of this country. What is your take on the proposed National Conference? It is a welcome development because the alternative to war-war is jaw-jaw. Since we have a situation in the country where we do not understand ourselves, where things are not going on as expected, we need to talk. We have been in the vanguard of this call for National Conference.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 09:23:41 +0000
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