By Omoniyi Salaudeen
After a prolonged legal battle with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the contentions surrounding the procedure for his nomination, Senator Rufai Hanga recently got his Certificate of Return on the orders of the Supreme Court.
He will be representing Kano Central Senatorial District on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 10th National Assembly.
In this interview, he barred his mind about the ongoing scheming for the position of the Senate Present, the mistakes of the current leadership, as well as the downside of the Buhari administration, among other sundry issues.
The scheming for Senate President is getting more and more intense. Who do you think is the right person for the job and from which zone?
One, I cannot say who will be the right person. Two, I cannot say from which zone the man will emerge, but I can predict where the majority party will want the Senate President to come from. My prediction is based on equality and balance of opportunities. I think they may want the Senate President to come from the Southeast or South-south because we have the President-elect from the Southwest, the Vice president-elect from the Northeast. I think the right thing is to take the Senate President to the Southeast or South-south and then bring the Speaker to the Northwest for balancing. That is my thinking. But from what is happening now, there are contenders from all other geo-political zones. There are contenders from the Northeast; there are contenders from the Southeast, from the South-south and all over the place. Going by the precedence of the party or the government’s anointing, somebody from the Southeast or South-south might emerge. But if we go by the precedence of the National Assembly, where the government or the majority party has an interest, and the members have a different opinion, then maybe you can see somebody from another zone emerging. This is what I see because all of the contenders are reaching out, giving reasons they should be supported. You can’t know the best until somebody gets there and begins to act. Just as we all thought that Muhammadu Buhari will be a good president, but when he got there everybody was disappointed. So, you can’t judge somebody from outside until he is there on the seat. It is then you can see the kind of Senate President he will be. There are some people that are very loquacious, very powerful and exerting, but when they get to the seat of Senate President, they become a rubber stamp, dancing to the tune of the government. I don’t expect the lawmakers to be fighting the government, but we expect them to be fair and to guide the government to do the right thing. They have to take side with the people who elected them, but some of the past Speakers and Senate Presidents did not act like that. They became a disappointment. I hope we don’t have a repeat of that experience this time around. We preach the gospel of being a good leader.
To avoiding the pitfalls of the past, how are you Senators working together to ensure that the executive does not impose any candidate on you regardless of which zone is entitled to produce the next Senate President?
What happened during this Buhari regime has taught all Nigerians a big lesson. As I earlier told you, people thought Buhari would be a good president, but he turned out to be a different thing. This time around, I know Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not be a kind of person who will want to anoint a surrogate, who knows nothing or somebody who will be licking his boots. I am sure he wouldn’t want to do that because he’s shown from his previous undertakings that he is a kind of person who has the capacity to select the right people to do the right thing. I am sure he wouldn’t want to anoint somebody who lacks capacity to do the right thing. If he is going to anoint anybody, I know he will anoint somebody who has the competence to lead. I am sure Asiwaju will not want to shame himself by doing anything that will lead to a disappointment. On the part of the senators, with the cream of people that I have seen elected to come into the National Assembly, there will be a difference from the people that are there currently. Most of the current members are yes-men of their governors. They are there not because they are competent, but because of the anointing of their governors. This time around, I have seen a lot of seasoned politicians coming in as lawmakers. For example, all elected lawmakers from Kano are seasoned politicians. By saying this, I am not trying to beat our drum. My colleague from Kano South Senatorial District is somebody who has been in the National Assembly for three terms in the House of Representatives. He was in the leadership for two terms. Certainly, you will expect experience from that man. Even after his two-term leadership position, he was appointed as liaison officer to the House of Representatives. I was also in the National Assembly as a member of the House of Representatives and as a Senator. On the two occasions, I was committee chairman in both cases. And then, I came to lead a party at the national level. So, naturally you will expect experience from me. The 8th National Assembly was fairly good because they had a very strong leader in Senator Bukola Saraki. But this one is a very big disappointment. Everywhere, people are talking about it. This is a big lesson for us and for the party. We should not impose anybody simply because he is a yes-man of the chairman. We should put somebody who is competent because he is going to be the ambassador of the party. Whatever he does will be a reflection of the party.
For the first time, the 10th National Assembly is going to be a kind of rainbow coalition. How are you going to work together in synergy to ensure good governance in spite of differences in your political affiliations?
One, the whole minority parties are coming together to form a bloc. Two, we are not coming to the National Assembly to fight for an election. We have all fought for our elections and won. What is left is for us is to come together to see how to move the country forward. That is what will form the basis of our maturity or immaturity. If we in the minority, begin to behave as if we are different simply because we do not belong to the majority, that will be immaturity. All the parties have the trust of the people and that is why they elected us as lawmakers. So, we all have to come together and work in synergy to make sure that our people enjoy the advantage of this new government. We cannot allow what happened during the previous assembly to happen again this time. In this case, we have advantage of number in the sense that the majority is very slight. If we can get somebody like Saraki from the minority, we can get him to be the Senate President by getting a few people to ally with the minority. Those that are not favoured from the majority can join forces with the minority to elect the Senate President. It is politics; anything is possible.
There is a report in the media that the presidential candidate of your party-New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, is romancing with the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Would you say that the insinuation about his alleged plan to defect to the APC is real or imaginary?
I don’t want to tell you whether it is real or imaginary. I just want to tell you that our leader is a national leader, our leader is a man of the people, our leader is civilized and responsible. So, you don’t expect him to start antagonizing the president-elect. I don’t know what people expect. They are taking us back to the primitive days. It is primitive for anybody to question why our leader is interacting with Asiwaju, Peter Obi or Atiku. He can interact with anybody because he is a person who doesn’t close his doors to anybody. He is a misunderstood person in this country, but I am happy in this context because many people can now understand him better. This is a very patient and responsible man. He is so much patient and responsible in such a way that you can do a lot of things and he will let get away with it. But you can’t play with him when it comes to public work. He is a very meticulous person. This is the beginning of the journey not the end as some people have thought. People said it when we started the party that his political career had finished and that he would be retired, but it is all those who said so that are now retired. So, he can go and interact with anybody because he is a public figure. If there is anything he can offer to the people, let it be. What is worrying us in this country is ignorance. Most of the people that are bringing up this matter are illiterate or ignorant because you can have a PhD and still remain an illiterate. If for meeting Asiwaju they think that he wants to dump the party, so be it. If doing so is in the interest of the people, what is wrong in that? Most of the people who are bringing up this issue are ignorant.
What would be your final assessment of this outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari?
Since this government came in, they have not done anything for the benefit of the people. They are a disappointment. Everybody had high expectation that this government would be better because so many people believed that Buhari would be a dynamic president, but unfortunately he is not. So many things have happened unchecked which has exposed his incapacity. I once advised him to create a monitoring department. If people know that they are being monitored, they will wake up to their responsibility. But he never did. People did so many wrong things so much that his incapacity and incapability were exposed. They told him that Mambila power project was 60 per cent completed and he came and said it to the public. But when a new minister for power went there, he saw that the place was barren. He told him that what was said previously was a lie and that the site was completely bushy. I don’t know what they told him that he sacked the minister. I would have wished he promoted him, but he chose to expose his own incapacity by dismissing the minister. The manner with which he dismissed him was a manifest failure of the government. It exposes his incapacity and incapability. The man exposed them because he felt they humiliated Buhari by telling him lies that the project was 60 per cent completed. That alone is a testimony of the failure of Buhari’s government. The atrocities they committed and all the lootings you will hear them when the new government comes in. You will hear the exposure when Tinubu takes over the government. God is great; most of the people who committed these atrocities were the same people who tried to stop Asiwaju from being the president. Asiwaju had to fight them tooth and nail to get elected because he has the spread and God likes Nigeria and Nigerians. I am sure he will not forget the trauma they caused him and the antagonism and the hatred they showed him. If somebody tries to kill you and you manage to survive, will you allow him to survive? The movement you grab him, you won’t let him go because if he comes back he will finish you. There are records to show the atrocities these people committed. If the exposure comes out and nothing happens, he will not last long in government.
What is your agenda for the people of your senatorial district now that you are coming back to the National Assembly?
Nobody ever won my senatorial district twice. I am the only person who won my senatorial district the second time. And I am sure my people were satisfied with what I did in the previous assembly, they were happy with me. They said it. That is why they all came out overwhelmingly to vote for me. That is why I have the highest votes in the country. My vote alone is equivalent of three states put together. Naturally, my agenda is to double what I did in the previous National Assembly. I will represent them well, I will always go back to them every fortnight to consult with them, sit with them and interface with my constituency. I will make sure I participate in the appropriation to make sure what they want is reflected in the national budget. I will make sure I pursue all they have missed from the national cake. That is what I am determined to do.