Governor Bukola Saraki has led the Nigerian Governors Forum since 2007, becoming the longest serving chairman of the forum. In this interview with some journalists in Abuja at the weekend, Saraki who will be inaugurated as Senator in June speaks in retrospect about his leadership of the forum and other issues. Excerpts:
Being the longest serving chairman of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum, what did you meet on ground and what legacy are you leaving behind?
I think over the last few years, the governors’ forum has focussed on national integration and unity, trying to bring all the states together irrespective of party differences, and putting Nigeria first at all times.
We have tried to intervene in areas that would make life better for Nigerians in many sectors. Talk about power, security issues; you talk about where there have been religious crises and issues of dispute, we’ve been able to fashion out solutions. Also, one important thing is the State Peer Review Mechanism that was launched a couple of years ago. I will say that is one of the legacies we will be leaving behind. We now have a mechanism where we can refer to best practices among the states. It will bring about good governance in the states. We have partnership with development agencies and yesterday (Thursday) at the dinner we all heard a lot of commendations for the states.
Definitely in the last four years we have seen a more focus-driven, performance-driven group of governors in the forum. So I’m grateful that I’m leaving the forum better than I met it. Now there is more collaboration among the governors and I think the country is better off for it. Again the level of attendance at the forum’s meetings is high. I know that attendance averaged about 80 per cent. It therefore shows a serious organization. So if one has been able to lead the forum to that stage I think I will give thanks to Almighty God.
Before your emergence as the chairman, the forum was more of a weakling. What challenge did this pose to you?
We didn’t see it like that. What I can remember is that people weren’t turning up for meetings. People didn’t take it serious. So when I came on board, we said let it be issue oriented; let there be value for attending the meetings and any time there was an issue confronting the country, we put heads together.
You will recall the issue of the electoral law. At the time the National Assembly members were going in one direction, we felt that the law was not democratic enough so we quickly met and that kind of pressure allowed some reviews.
Look at polio, Bill Gates will tell you he has been coming to Nigeria for years and pumping money into the fight against polio but when he collaborated with the state governors, for the first, we see ourselves closer to eradicating polio in the country. What I did was to ensure that our meetings were issues driven. We used to have opportunities to invite heads of the MDG, UBEC and ask ourselves, how can we meet the Millennium Development Goal targets? How can we improve on issue of primary education? There were times that many states could not take their money at SUBEB. What was the reason for it? Was it administrative? So we asked what we could do to try and improve that. But inasmuch as we take credit, we must also give credit to the leadership of the country at that particular time.
Yes, we’ve done so much as a forum but I think we must give credit to the former president and, Yar’adua, and President Jonathan as well as the vice presidents. Don’t forget when President Jonathan was Vice President, he was the chairman of the Economic Council and now we have Arch Namadi Sambo. They have all played key roles in ensuring collaboration. Today states and Federal Government do not see themselves as people fighting for space. It is not about that. It is about how do we work together? For example, you will all remember when the states decided to contribute $5 billion to the power sector at the Federal Government level; that effort came from this kind of collaboration. And it is because we became more focussed, more issue driven. This is why our voice became louder and more relevant. Also, there is respect amongst ourselves, whether you are ACN, ANPP of any party, once you are in the forum, we all have equal rights. Most of the decisions you see us taking were agreed across party lines.
There was a time you survived a coup plot, so to say (laughs). When you heard about it how did you react? And now that you will cease to be the chairman of the forum, how will your successor emerge and when?
As you know that time I was contesting for president on the PDP platform. So you expect politics to come in. But I think at the end of the day the kind of forum we set up preferred pushing for democracy, rule of law, due process. What happened showed the maturity of the forum. It showed that the forum has arrived because in the past those kinds of activities would have been successful. But members of the forum said ‘no we as the governors forum; we are the ones advocating for good governance, democracy, due process, so how can we forget that this will be a dent to the forum. If we had gone by a meeting somewhere that did not follow due process, how could we have claimed credibility? So I think it was a turning point.
Immediately after that, we set up a committee… In the past we never really had defined rules and procedures. For example, if the chairman wants to contest for a position, does he resign or stay? We didn’t have those kinds of guidelines. But even without that we knew what was right. It was not right for a group of people to sit down and just say, ‘oh you are no longer chairman, this is the chairman.’ So what happened shows the respect and confidence one enjoyed among other colleagues. But more importantly it shows us how governors see the forum as a platform to defend democracy and due process. Talking about issue of successor, well, we have a process. Within the next week, a successor will likely emerge to take the forum to the next level.
When exactly is the forum meeting for this sir?
You know this is a very busy time for everybody. We thought we will be able to do a meeting this period of our retreat but we have been very busy so we have not been able to do it. We had a valedictory session on Monday in Ilorin. I don’t know whether time would permit us to do it. We have another meeting with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday (today), may be during that meeting, if we have time. But we will try and find time to elect a successor.
People are saying that since PDP has majority governors they are not likely to concede the chairmanship of the forum to the opposition. Is there hope that a governor from the opposition would succeed you?
There is nothing in our guidelines for election that says it must be PDP. The only thing it says is that if the chairman comes from party ‘A’, we should take the vice from another party. It is very clear; there is no where our rules say it must come from the ruling party.
Do you have a candidate?
No I don’t
And there is no ranking?
Noooo, (laughs) we don’t have ranking.
By May 29 you will be rounding off your second term as governor of Kwara State and moving to the Senate. What would you say are the major legacies you are leaving behind and what areas would you want your successor to look at?
I don’t know where to start (laughs). I will summarise by saying that I believe I am leaving Kwara better than the Kwara I met in 2003. I believe that an average Kwaran today, whether in the opposition or our supporter will tell you that in the last eight years the Bukola Saraki administration has worked for the people of Kwara State. The state has witnessed great infrastructural development. If you go to the educational sector, the achievements we have made are great. If you look at indices like enrolment at the primary school level, the level of pass in WAEC, you will notice great improvements.
Then if you look at exam malpractice indices, you will see that it has dropped. We have set up the Kwara State University that is collaborating with international institutions like MIT. You look at the Aviation College that Mr President commissioned three days ago. I think it is probably the best today in the West African sub-region. Today the commercial agriculture policy of the Federal Government is based on what we are doing in Kwara State. A month ago, the Federal Government signed what we call the diary developmental plan policy based on what we doing in Kwara State. We’ve been able to show that commercial agricultural farm can work in Nigeria.
We have made great impact on employment and commercial activities in the state. If you look at the state in 2003 and what we have in 2011, I think, by and large, there are things you can point at.
My hope is that the incoming government will continue from where we stopped in the area of agriculture, providing employment through agric and agro allied industry. We’ve reformed the civil service to ensure it is based on efficiency and performance. When I came in, I remember people used to lobby to become permanent secretaries. But in the last five years, we brought in a consulting agency. Once you apply, you go and do your exams. This has made the civil service more efficient and performance based.
Then of course, very few states are doing what we are doing in the power sector. Very few states are seeing 18 to 20 hours of power supply. In the last 20 years nobody opens their taps in Ilorin metropolis. It had always been boreholes. But for the first time the president would be commissioning the Ansa Dam.
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