Anti-corruption campaign facing serious opposition – Rep Akpatason
How will you evaluate the performance of Governor Godwin Obaseki so far, considering his electoral promises?
Obaseki has done so well. He has broken record and keeps setting the space for economic growth of Edo State. In terms of infrastructural development, you can see road networks going on across the state. He has surpassed our expectations in the area of attracting businesses to the state, agriculture and other things. He has set an agenda that I think will move the economy of the state to a level where no one has expected. In the area of employment, he has come up with unique strategy of engaging the youths in revenue generation and other economic activities that are adding value. He gave a target of 200,000 jobs to be created and I am sure within four years, he will exceed that figure because he has started so well.
The most interesting thing about his administration is that he has a clear direction. And as governor, you need to have a programme and deploy resources (material and human) in a very organised manner toward actualising such plan. I can tell you that he has done the needful to ensure that the plans are actualised.
He started from a good foundation because the past government did so much. People are happy with him, especially the people of Akoko-Edo who have never had it so good in the past governments. We will continue to give him the needed support.
Some governors were reported to have thrown their weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s purported second term bid at the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. As a party member, what is your take on this?
I am not aware of any such endorsement at the NEC meeting of our party. I am aware that at that meeting, the party unanimously passed a vote of confidence on the president, if that is what people considered as endorsement, fine. If you ask me, I think he has done so well to deserve such consideration. But the APC, being a democratic party, will consider what is good for the unity, strength and stability of the party in deciding who gets the party's mandate in the coming election. In the 2014 exercise, the party's primary contributed to the overwhelming support it enjoyed during the elections. We had the most transparent primary. President Buhari contested and won. The Peter Akpatason is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Akoko-Edo federal constituency in the House of Representatives. In this interview, he speaks on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption fight and the ruling party’s chances in 2019 among other critical issues. party will consider all this while deciding how to go about the primary.
There are purported clandestine moves by some party members who are trying to remove the National Chairman of the APC who is also from Edo State. Are you comfortable with this?
I have not been approached by any person. So, I am not aware of such move. And since it has remained clandestine with no evidence or fact to buttress it, I don't want to comment on that. However, we need to strengthen the party. We need peace and unity to grow the party and be able to confront the challenge of governance. So, we have to focus on how to deliver dividends to the people rather than getting enmeshed in squabble that will not help anybody.
Considering where we are coming from in terms of corruption and the allegation that the Federal Government only focuses its attention on the opposition, what is your take on President Buhari's anticorruption fight?
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) who was sacked, is he in opposition? The people saying that anti-corruption fight is targeted at the opposition are just lazy liars who do not want to reason and be objective. Now, who were the people in power in the past 16 years before this government came on board? Will they go after people who have not been in power? So, majority of those fingered are those who have been in government. These are people who have access to public funds but mismanaged the funds. Some of them who have crossed over to other parties are facing similar challenges. It is where you have the bulk of the people that the focus would be.
The government is doing the right thing. But we have a very formidable opposition to the anti-corruption campaign and this is what people should focus on. We have people who are very rich and most of them, through fraudulent means, they have acquired enormous means. They control the press, the masses and lots of other things because of their ill-gotten wealth. They are using it to undermine what the president is doing.
We need to support the president to succeed in the fight. He is doing so well as far as I am concerned. We have a judicial system and the law that has stated clearly how things should be done. He is no longer General Buhari who had the fiat to make things happen. Now, he is President Buhari, a democratically elected president, who must follow due process in whatever he is doing. Now, if people have been investigated and taken to court, but they are in court for two years, then how do you blame the president for that?
Mr President has clearly made a point that he is not after any particular person, but that corruption must be fought and won. And he is doing that clearly by dealing with people who are even close to him. A lot of presidents would have found it difficult to do what the President has done to the SGF.
The way he is tackling corruption, who else has ever done it? How many people will have the courage to do what Buhari is doing.
Why has the altercation between the executive and legislative arms of government continued despite the fact that the APC controls both Senate and House of Representatives?
The efficacy of a piece of legislature is not determined by the haste with which it was passed but the depth and thoroughness of work done. People should not just rush into conclusion that when people follow due process, there are issues in the party. Secondly, the beauty of democracy lies in the separation of power and checks and balances. We are not supposed to be rubber stamp to the executive arm of government. We ought to check them and they also have a way of checking us. That is in the interest of the Nigerians. If you have a situation when you have an unholy alliance between the legislature and the executive, it is probably because of a sort of patronage between the two parties, which in most cases, is counter-productive to development.
So, I don't see anything wrong in what is happening between the executive and the legislature. It is healthy for our development and democracy. It is only when people are unnecessarily antagonistic for personal reasons that it is harmful to our democracy. But when it is objective and people ensure that the right thing is done, even if it seems to have slowed down the pace of getting things done in the end, it is good for the country because the end justifies the means.
APC has been in power for barely two years now. The party members are clamouring for stomach infrastructure which has been the order in the past. Is this healthy for our democracy?
I don't think it is our members but Nigerians who are clamouring for stomach infrastructure. Personally, we should focus on more concrete issues like physical infrastructure. But I will be deceiving you if I said there is no need for stomach infrastructure now. Presently, there is hunger in the country and this is not because the party is not doing well. We have salvaged the country because we were at the threshold of total collapse with the state of economy the APC inherited. And because the government is also confronting corruption, lots of people are trying to sabotage the government in one way or the other. That is affecting the economy.
A former minister of Finance and Coordinator of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, clearly made the point that the economy was in recession before the APC took over. But some people were not honest enough to give out honest statistics. They sugarcoated the situation for people to believe that the economy was doing well, when it was not. I am aware that foreign exchange was flown in because oil price was still good and the NNPC and the CBN were still able to manage dollar/ naira exchange value through artificial value manipulation to give the impression that all was well when it is not. But Buhari was honest enough to give the right information to the people and the situation became clear to everybody. We are actually in a very difficult situation. But this government has been able to take Nigeria out of the worse situation.
We have not got the best yet. But we are heading there. From all economic indices available, it was clear we are moving in the right direction. It takes more than two to four years to fix a battered economy by people who had the opportunity, but failed to utilise it. You can't blame a president or a party that was in power for just two years for the woes of a country that was mismanaged for 16 years.
In your assessment as a lawmaker, are we out of recession?
Statistically, we are out. But in terms of translating it to standard of living and employment, we are still in a difficult situation. If you look at the major indices used globally to determine whether a country is out or not, we are out because there is growth and no longer in negative level.
What kind of advice do you have for the president and the APC as we approach 2019?
I am convinced that the APC will win the 2019 election because it is a party to beat. Other parties shouting to come back know that they don't deserve to come back. And with what the president is doing now, well-meaning Nigerians are appreciating him and lots of people, who will see no other option to fixing Nigeria’s economy, will vote the APC for another four years.