We must not push Buhari to trample law in corruption fight — Joe Momoh
Idi Joe Momoh is a chieftain of the APC from Kogi State who was in diaspora for many years, returning ahead of the 2015 general elections. In this interview, he defends President Buhari’s approach to the anti-corruption fight. He also spoke on the allegat
The Abdulrasheed Mainagate is seen as the greatest embarrassment for the Buhari administration. Do you agree?
Absolutely not. It is more a can of worms, just like there have been in other places that Buhari is pursuing in a diligent and responsible manner. We need to thumbs up for him. Don’t forget that he came through a lot to become what he is today - from military dictatorship to a born-again democrat is the transition he has made. He is a just and considerate leader. Nobody can take that away from him.
Nigeria has never gotten a golden moment as this. We have somebody that is upright and fighting corruption; evolving solutions to problems that have bedevilled us for very long.
Now we can think about other problems of Nigeria without necessarily dwelling on corruption and insurgency. To go quickly to the issue of Maina, Buhari was not in the country when this issue boiled over, he returned, he heard, he acted.
How did he act?
Well, he did say that Maina should not be in service.
The worry is that there are other people who are part of the alleged dirty game. Why the delay in bringing them to book?
That was where I was coming to. We must now wait and see the president’s next move. We should not underestimate the information that PMB has on this issue of Maina. For goodness sake, he’s the president of Nigeria and he has access to information beyond you and me. Now, if he says he is going to do something about it, it behoves us to wait and see. He may have a very good approach to this can of worms, which requires some background work. I think the president has acted well; we should allow him and also watch out for his next move.
Maina has opened a can of worms, there’re loads of things behind it which we don’t know, and we should not be in a hurry to try Maina based on the open press opinion.
Nigerians are getting agitated that the president is sleeping on many files and time is going…
Why should they get agitated? They should be glad they have a president who has access to information; some of these things bother on security. Maina could be more than you and I are seeing. Look, let’s be confident in the knowledge that we have an upright and just man in that position who would surely resolve this thing at the right time. I think the president has something up his sleeves and we should wait and watch for his next move.
There’re discordant tunes in Kogi at present in respect of the way Governor Yahaya Bello is having problems with almost everyone. Where exactly does the problem lie?
You need to understand it from a deeper perspective and I would try to approach it from the Igala perspective because I’m an Igalaman. We’re said to have monopolised the position of governor. We’re obviously and factually the most populated single ethnic nation within Kogi State. But, one thing we must not forget is that the Igalas have been there; they’ve been governor three, four times and have seen it all. At the moment, we’re very contented to have non-Igalas to be governor because we’ve learnt one thing and it’s very clear to us. The fact of an Igalaman being the governor has nothing to do with changing the socioeconomic fortune of the individual, whether he is Igala or nonIgala. So, what you’re witnessing is that the Igalas have conquered lamentation; we’re not lamenting not having an Igalaman in government house because we know it wouldn’t make a difference; rather, we’ve moved on.
The Igalas want economic power, that’s much more important to us than political power. So whether the Oku is governor tomorrow, they can be rest assured that the Igalas are not losing any sleep about it, we’ve moved on. That’s my generation of Igalas, that’s our approach and that’s how we think.
Some people close to the governor are suspicious that leaders of other ethnic extractions are not in tune with what the governor is doing simply because he’s not one of their own. What’s your take on this?
Unfortunately that’s a wild imagination that has no truth and no foundation. They need to talk one on one with some of us, to understand that we bear no grudge; we just want to see someone who can come and change the socioeconomic fortunes of people; improve people’s condition of living. We want somebody to turn or make the differences but very unfortunately, the only industry we have
If you were to advise the governor in few sentences on the way forward to solve the lingering acrimony, what would you tell him?
Getting paid salaries is the right of workers; the government has no business delaying, not to talk of withholding, or owing salaries. There should not be any excuse for not paying salaries. Pay salaries and continue to do whatever you want to do - weed, cut the civil service if that’s what you want to do - but you must continue to pay wages. The workers deserve their wages.
You came back at the instance of late Prince Abubakar Audu, what were his plans?
Specifically, Abubakar Audu’s plan was based on agriculture and industry. He wanted within the first two years of his third and last coming as governor of Kogi State to convert the Benue-Niger Basin into an agricultural, mechanized, modern farm cooperatives, a central pillar to agricultural development. Also, he wanted to put 50 purpose built industrial parks and bring in a battery of foreign investors and lease them out.
Do you think Governor Bello has picked up from there?
I do not know if Bello knows about these plans, but I did try to approach him through his contacts with the aqua-cultural component of late Audu’s plan. But I cannot say if Bello is building on an APC manifesto or not.