PDP has turned Nigerians to beggars –Kaka
MAY 4, 2013
| credits:
In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Adegbenga Kaka (ACN, Ogun East), speaks on the All Progressives Congress, opposition politics and Nigeria’s rice initiative
Your party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, is joining other opposition parties to form the All Progressives Congress. Do you think this is the right way to go?
Of course, it is the most sensible thing to do in view of the fact that the proliferation and fragmentation of parties actually made the Peoples Democratic Party look larger than life, making it appear as if all the rot that is happening in the society is normal because you don’t have a very solid alternative. So, the coming together of these opposition parties is bound to provide Nigerians with a clear choice and credible alternative to what we have now.
The South-West made its mark in opposition politics before it came to the mainstream during the Olusegun Obasanjo years. Do you see the region moving towards the centre again?
I want to let you know that at no time did the South-West join the so-called main stream. Obasanjo came with his rigging plan and he rigged elections. The people were not happy about what happened. They knew they did not vote for the PDP, for them to be talking about being in the main stream is unnecessary deceit. When you look at it, what they call the mainstream is not dignifying; so, we are proud to stand by what is just, we are proud as a race to call a spade a spade at any point in time and of course, raise our heads high while others are losing their own for the sake of ethnicity and other pecuniary gains. We believe things must be done right and that is what we stand for. Whether we find ourselves in the opposition or the ruling party, it makes no difference to us, what is important to us is instituting good governance.
The PDP has accused your party of being a one-man dictatorship. How do you respond to this?
That is what I can call senseless talk. One, nobody oppresses you and gets away with it without your consent. So, if one man, according to their perception, is the one dictating, that means that the people give him their consent. That means he must be doing what is right. You will agree with me that it is possible for a single head to be better than 10 bad heads; so, even in the termite kingdom which is the most organised, you have the queen termite, you have the soldiers, you have the workers and they all have their duties and responsibilities. There is nothing wrong with the ACN; if anything, they (PDP) are worse off. A situation where you cannot identify who is the leader, you cannot identify who is at the apex of the organisation, breads chaos.
Looking at 2015, the PDP is said to be so much on ground that it seems nearly impossible to dislodge it.
Which party? PDP? Who is saying it is so much on ground? It is so much on ground as rubbish and what do you do with rubbish? You get rid of rubbish. Because they are so much on ground they have turned the nation to a country of beggars, into an insecure nation, into a nation that cannot command respect outside its shores, then the best thing for you is to discard that party; that is what the people are asking for and that is what we are providing, a credible alternative.
Do you subscribe to the idea that states should be allowed to create local government areas?
Well, it is neither here nor there. Those who are at the helm of affairs in the states, one thing is for them to follow what is in the constitution, but it is the violation of the constitution that is creating problems. The constitution vests the existence, the establishment and control of the local governments in the various state administrations but unfortunately, many of the governors decide to do what is not okay. Assuming they are doing what is right, but since they are not doing what is right, granting local governments autonomy will be good. It will be good to the extent that whosoever is at the helm of affair and is not performing, since he is the closest to the grass roots, the people will rise against him and demand their rights and they will refuse to back down.
What is your take on the issue of fiscal federalism?
Fiscal federalism is the right thing to do. If we say we are operating a federal system of government, then there is no reason why states should not be allowed to develop and grow according to the peculiarities of their states. We are just coming from Kebbi and Zamfara states and agriculture is about their main stay there. If they decide that the bulk of their money be spent on agriculture, so be it. If they decide otherwise, so be it, so that we can stop pretending as if we are still under the military; as if the Federal Government that is far removed from the people should continue to dictate what happens in the states. Sincerely speaking, there is no part of the country that is not endowed with resources, let them harness the resources. Let us give them adequate part of the resources that they can use to develop at their own pace. It is by so doing that we can say we are operating a true federal system of governance.
With what you saw in Kebbi and Zamfara states in terms of paddy rice farming, does Nigeria have any excuse to continue the importation of rice?
Nigeria has no business at all importing rice into this country. In the first instance, the rice we are importing is generating foreign exchange and employment opportunities for the exporting countries while our local farmers remain under-patronised and exposed to the worst form of deprivation and poverty. We are also wasting our foreign reserves and our aging farming population, who find it very difficult to compete because of infrastructural challenges we are contending with as a nation. When we consider what we saw in Kebbi and Zamfara, just two states out of many states that are producing rice, I am convinced without any reasonable doubt that with the necessary infrastructure, with the necessary processing technology, we can be self-sufficient in rice production and even be a net exporter of rice in the next couple of years. If you look at it again, we have the challenges of insecurity everywhere. With the little money being used by the two state governments we visited, if the money being used to maintain security in volatile areas of the North was channelled into these areas to generate employment opportunities through farming, I am sure we wouldn’t be having the security challenges we are having. Beyond that one, you will see that millions of people are employed, we saw them working; we saw that it is possible to have three crops of rice in a year. The soil is fertile, the minister was able to ensure that the fertiliser middlemen were removed; the input middlemen were also chased away. Inputs including fertiliser get to the farmers directly. If all these variables are put in place, you will see that the people will produce more, productivity will be enhanced and at the end of the day, we will be food-sufficient.
The challenges we’ve always had are post-harvest losses and the subsistence nature of our farming. What can we do to solve these problems?
Sincerely speaking, we should be able to get combined harvesters for these poor rural farmers; we should be able to ensure that all the road networks in these areas are in good condition. Take Kebbi for example, instead of concentrating in the urban centres, let them go to all those farming communities in the rural areas, make them habitable, more people will be encouraged to go back and we will be reducing the pressure on urban centres. Creation of urban slums will be reduced; joblessness in the urban centres will also be reduced because the basic necessities of life they are looking for would have been provided. If we get combined harvesters and we have the processing machines located very close to where the farms are and we improve the transportation process, I am sure the post-harvest losses will be reduced. Then the process of storage, I think the Federal Government is trying by installing and operating the strategic grains reserves. If it is not well spread enough, we should do more to prepare to absolve the excess. Our farmers are not lazy, if we can guarantee the price of their products and develop the capacity to absolve their excess harvests, they will increase production. As you may be aware, we now have improved variety of seeds that improve yield.
No comments:
Post a Comment