I’m hoping that the general climate will be more and more conducive to performance. Unfortunately, the administration came on at the same time when oil price crashed. No matter what government’s goodwill was, it was not able to perform optimally

the president for appointment and he was allegedly rejected on the basis of a report that came from DSS, for those of us who are not part of the kitchen cabinet, it is difficult to understand. The DSS is directly under Mr. President and he would not suggest or propose anybody as the leader of this very important aspect of his own policy, if he’s not clear that the person has no skeletons in his cupboard.

The Senate says the constitution gave them the prerogative to reject or accept him. The lawyers cannot seem to agree on whether the President can let him continue. While lawyers are arguing, I am confounded. It is no secret that the top level of the Senate has issues with EFCC. In other climes, anybody with EFCC issues shouldn’t even be in Senate let alone be its president. But in Nigeria they go to court for corruption cases and then return to their seats in Senate. Some things are wrong and these are the things slowing down the pace.

Some Nigerians say in the two years this Senate has been in office, they can’t point out to anything tangible that was done.

I don’t agree. They’ve spent some time putting together bills, some of which have been passed. My question is how relevant are these to the everyday concerns of Nigerians? My fear is that they’ve been dealing with all kinds of irrelevant things. What makes Nigerians generally disenchanted is the credibility of the people there. When the Magu issue got to where it is, I wondered why Mr. President would insist on keeping him. There are about 100 senators and on this matter; we didn’t see a real split of opinion among them. They all seemed to agree. On the one hand it surprised me and on another it troubles me. They ought to be able to explain to Nigerians what is happening or has happened.

If you are to advise the president, would you encourage him to run in 2019?

It depends on what state he is in. If he’s in the present state that he’s in and I’m his friend, I would tell him, health first. But we don’t know what will happen in 2019. If he’s hale and hearty, and he has only one term and wants to go on another believing he can run the country – well, having shown what he has efficiently done this term, then I have no problem advising him to contest. It will also depend on what alternatives we have.