President of Middle Belt Forum, MBF, Dr. Pogu Bitrus has weighed in on the controversy trailing the actual monthly salaries of the Nigerian senators, insisting that the upper legislative lawmakers should be sanctioned for collecting above what was fixed by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, an agency charged with the responsibility of determining the salaries of public servants in Nigeria.
In this interview with Newspot, he speaks on the recent nationwide hunger protest, and the call for Nigeria’s disintegration by a northern elder, Prof Ango Abdullahi, among other issues
The back and forth argument about the actual salaries of the senators has been raging for some days now. While the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, said each senator earns N1.06 million, a senator from Kano has said he earns N21 million monthly as a senator; what is your take on that?
The senators are defiant of what the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has prescribed for them. It means they are in disobedience to the laws of the country that established the RMAFC, which fixes the salaries, allowances and emoluments of public servants in Nigeria.
The issue here is that we have a defiant national assembly that is operating as a country different from ours. They have to be sanctioned. It is up to the Nigerian people to rise and insist that what the RMAFC has fixed has to be complied with and whatever is necessary has to be done.
Unfortunately, our system of government is responsible for this kind of stupidity. We are running a system where we have a president that allows members of the national assembly to do whatever they feel like doing just because he wants to survive, and that is what has resulted in this.
And this brings us back to what we have been saying that the constitution we are operating is deficient and not good for this country. We need to go back to what is going to work for our common good where people in office will not continue to loot the country. I am not an advocate of a parliamentary system of government but because of what is happening, I believe that is a better system for us, and the checks and balances that are necessary have to be put in place before we get there.
I am, therefore, submitting that we should go back to the 1963 constitution, improve it with the 2014 confab report and come out with a good constitution that will serve Nigerians, so that such things will cease to happen. People are just struggling to go to the office to chop money, not to serve the people. Whatever has happened, it will be difficult to use a defective law system to keep a check on them or to sanction anybody at the moment, and all that boils down to the fact that we need a constitution that will work for all of us.
Although the counter subversion bill initiated by the Speaker of the House of Reps has been withdrawn, what was your reaction when the bill was presented and now that it has been withdrawn, what are your thoughts about the whole thing?
They have seen or realised that the bill is not good and they have seen the reactions and responses of Nigerians, so it has been withdrawn and since it has been withdrawn, let us allow the sleeping dog lie. The issue is that it is not good for Nigeria and Nigerians have spoken and they have seen reasons to withdraw it and they have done that.
Some Nigerians are praising the Speaker because we have had situations in the past where bills that were kicked against and resisted by Nigerians were passed and eventually became laws; what do you think?
If they are praising the Speaker for withdrawing the bill, they are just saying that we have a speaker who listens to his people. All we are saying is that that is the way things should happen. When something is deficient, bad and unacceptable, they should not do it because they are representing the people and that is it. But something which is bad and has been withdrawn, we should not waste our time talking about it.
The House of Representative Committees on Petroleum (Midstream and Downstream), has been enmeshed in allegations of financial misconduct, which has led to the dissolution of the joint committee by the Speaker. Some Nigerians are calling for the probe of the committee, do you agree with the call?
Any act of corruption should be probed and those involved sanctioned appropriately. What is killing us in this country is corruption. If you have been listening to Okoi Obono-Obla in his interviews, you will know that this country stinks to high heaven and it is because we are not yet a nation. When you have a nation; a people who work, think and build together, everything will work fine, but we have people who are not interested in the country because they don’t believe in it.
It is just a geographical expression as far as they are concerned; so when they have opportunity, they loot as much as they can because they feel they are taking away from something which they don’t subscribe to. So, the whole thing boils down to the constitution. Suppose, we are following what we had going by the 1963 constitution where the regions were generating their revenues and paying to the centre, will somebody from the Niger Delta want to steal from his own pocket? He will definitely not. But those people stealing either from the north or elsewhere feel they want to take their own share from this thing because they have no sense of belonging.
So, the problem is that we have a deficient system which we have to correct and we are praying that this president will have the guts to say let’s go back and start from there. And that constitution doesn’t require the national assembly to effect a change; a constituent assembly can just sit down and make the necessary changes and address the plurality of Nigeria using the 2014 confab report and then bring out a constitution that will help all of us, so that if I am in my place, I will not feel that I should steal my own thing. This is because I will generate the revenue from my place, pay into the federal purse what I need to pay and use our money for our development. This is what we are working for and this is what we are praying that the government does so that such miscreants who go about looting, stealing and engaging in all kinds of corrupt practices can be brought to book if they want to steal from their own pocket. It is because people don’t believe in Nigeria that they do what they are doing.
What lessons do you think that the government and Nigerians could learn from the recent nationwide hunger protest that lasted from August 1 to 10?
A protest is a protest; people are allowed to protest against anything that they think is not right. The unfortunate thing is that in the north, it went beyond protest into looting, arson and other destructive tendencies. And you ask yourself why it was so in the north. Is it that the north is more aggrieved than other parts of the country? That is one lesson we need to learn from the protest.
The issue here is yes, there are many things that we heard flying around that some people even went as far as trying to sponsor or have sponsored others to do one thing or the other with the intention of pulling down the government. That is quite unfortunate, but we have struggled to get thus far with our democracy. I was not a supporter of President Tinubu; I worked for Peter Obi but today, Tinubu is the president of Nigeria. There are many things that he has done or is doing which to me are good.
For example, it appears the security forces have some free hands and they are dealing with the insurgents and that is a very good thing. On the economic front, I believe he has made so many mistakes, maybe because he has a wrong team advising him or he is over ambitious into taking decisions that have brought us into these economic problems we are facing.
People can protest but when protests get into the kind of situation that we have seen, especially in places like Yobe and Jigawa where they burnt people’s houses, including spouses of politicians, it becomes worrisome. Yobe’s protests have not been reported as I saw it but it is one of the worst in terms of arson and burning of secretariats and other places. So, the lesson is that we should not allow protest to degenerate to this level anymore.
When people start complaining, let the government give a hearing ear and let us resolve things on the table and not allow people to go into a protest situation, because it will certainly be hijacked, and replacing the damaged property is not an easy thing. In Gombe State, the protest was more against the governor than against the president, and all sorts of things have happened. So, let us learn that we need to address situations through dialogue before they escalate into protests.
A notable northern elder, Prof Ango Adullahia in a recent interview suggested that it is time for ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria to look into the 1914 amalgamation charter and consider dissolving the union since various ethnic nationalities have not been able to achieve unity after over 100 years of being together; what is your take?
We have looked at the situation but our position as people of the Middle Belt is that we are not part of the north that he is advocating to break off. We are saying that as far as we are concerned, we are Nigerians and we will stay where we are. If they want to go, they are free to go. We are together because of the Indirect Rule.
But for the Indirect Rule, we would have been different entities. There is a map of 1910, which indicated areas that were neither occupied by the caliphate nor the sultanate of Borno; and they constitute the Middle Belt. So, we are saying that if they want to go, it is their business but we are Nigerians and we will stay here with other people who believe in this country. We have already responded to that earlier.
Share your story or advertise with us: Whatsapp: +2347068606071 Email: info@newspotng.com
