‘No Beggar In Nupe Street, Nigeria Not World’s Poverty Capital – Former Niger Governor, Babangida Aliyu Says
Former Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, has said his country home in Nupe land has no street beggars, and rejected claims that Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world.
Aliyu, who spoke at the National Spokespersons Summit organised by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations on Tuesday in Abuja said Nigeria has had negative narratives “that if we do not get rid of them, or we do not find a way to neutralise them, they will keep on stopping or infringing on whatever positive things that we are going to do.”
He queried the value system in the country asking if it’s “true that we never had value as a country? We might have had values as a community, maybe as a tribe to say.
“Honestly, I can tell you this from Niger State, I have not seen a beggar from the Nupe speaking area of Niger State, a beggar sitting on the street begging ditto Yoruba.
“So you see, it means that at the sublevel, we have some values but that has not transcended to be a national value. Sometimes, we say we have values for the respect of elders, values for honesty and co. If we have values for honesty, we will not be where we are as a country today,” he argued.
Going down memory lane, the former governor explained that, “Since the civil war or the coup of 1966, many people don’t look at the real reason for the coup of 1966 because of the mistake of the coup plotters.
“Whether by mistake or design, people tend to see it as either regional or tribal. But look at the election of 1965, and the way it was in the western region. And look at how NCNC won the election in the western region, and in one day, Action Group bought over all the delegates of NCNC which forced ZIK to go back to his region.
“So from that time to civil war, to Boko Haram, to kidnapping for ransom, to kidnapping for rituals and others, what have we been doing as a people?
“Not only the government’s work. We have so many institutions on the ground that we are underutilised. The institutions cannot challenge anybody anymore but give them assignments, you are paying them salaries and they have intelligence gathering instruments because in every village, in every hamlet, they have a representative and these are the things you can bring out for people to know.”
Nigeria Not Poverty Capital Of The World
The strong member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) argued that Nigeria certainly is not the poverty capital of the world.
On the contrary, he argued that the country has failed to properly harness its wealth for the benefit of all.
“Is it true that we are the capital of poverty? I don’t think so,” he responded emphatically, positing that “I think what we have been doing was not harnessing our wealth properly to the extent that people can see. That is why I don’t blame anyone who goes to mortgage his four years for N200 or for two years for a sachet of indomie.
“Why? Because many of our elected leaders never go back or even if they do they only go to show off.
“Some people say give me, I won’t see you again. This narrative says we must find a way to make it and the only way to make it is to force those elected people to go back to their constituencies,” he said.
As a way to test the feelings of the people about elected leaders, he suggested that he would love senators to “either by motion or by bill, to have at least 30 days, where Senators and the members of House of Representatives “would be forced to go back to their constituencies and to come back with a report.
“It is very important. Many of them don’t go back. And if they do, they see the people they think matter the most and they leave the common people.
“There is a personal relationship between the leaders and the led. We need to bridge that gap for our narrative to really fit,” he stated.
Nigeria Not World’s Most Corrupt Country
The former Niger Governor asked, “Are we the most corrupt nation?
I don’t think so. I think when people were defining corruption, they didn’t look at us.
“If in Nigeria, we are our brother’s keepers; If in Nigeria, you can go to a friend and give him something without expecting anything in return, that may not necessarily mean corruption.
“If by coincidence, Malagi (Mohammed Idris Malagi – Hon Minister of Information and National Orientation) was not a minister. If we have met, either I give him or he gives me, and now that he is minister, that cannot be classified as corruption.
“So, we must redefine what we mean. And we are not fighting corruption to deter others. We have turned it into a media circus.
“Do we need to go the Chinese way? Chinese, they shoot and it doesn’t take time. Many of these corrupt cases take seven years, 11 years before they finish or they finish and go back and yet on technicalities, many people get through.
“We need to fight corruption properly so that people will be deterred from doing it, otherwise again, our narratives, no matter how it comes, will be tinted by what we do,” he added.
No Relationship Between Monetary And Fiscal Policies
He argued that, “There seems to be a dysfunctional relationship between fiscal and monetary policies. For some time now, many people felt that the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) was doing both fiscal and monetary policies.
“Those of us who worked in the service, know that the Ministry of Finance is in charge of fiscal while the CBN is in charge of monetary policies but there was a symbiotic relationship between the two to make sure that the two are in tandem.
“I think we need to get back to that but I am happy that the new policies coming from the CBN now are beginning to show some results.
“Please let the results show and be very steady, then we can change the narratives,” he stated.
‘Elites Have Allowed Dollars To Be Their Prison, Tribalism To Take Over’
The former governor further said, “Our elites, all of us here are elites whether you agree or not you are privileged – you went to school, some by government’s money. Me, from class one to primary one to University, I had it free.
“My father didn’t pay a Kobo . So, I owe something to the people of Nigeria to give back.
“The elites, we must come together. We have allowed the dollar to be our prison, we have allowed tribalism to take over.”
While urging the elites to unite, he explained that, “I may be Hausa,Gwari, Nupe but believe me, when I am hungry, I am hungry, if you slap me, I will feel the pain. So let us unite and make Nigeria.
“Any country that you see that we describe as developed, is because the elites have come together, have an understanding and know what to do when issues come up.
“But if we go our separate ways, the way we do, we only unite when it is corruption, but in every other thing, we begin to talk differently, it is not nice,” he stated.
Reduce The Power At The Centre
“Whether we like it or not, we still need to discuss. Whether you want to call it restructuring, redirection or like those of us in the middle, devolution of power, something must happen.
“The Federal Government has become convoluted and bloody and that is why the competition for the centre has become very intense, too much money, too much wastage and everybody wants to be president, senate president or speaker.
“I just discovered, every speaker wants to be president. I don’t know what is happening in the National Assembly. The former and any speaker that served there wants to be president which is good, but reduce the strength of the centre.
Parliamentary Or Presidential Or Mixed?
The PDP strongman said he has been monitoring the argument by some federal lawmakers who have been canvassing that Nigeria returns to the parliamentary system of government.
According to him, the problem of the country does not lie in what form of government it practises but the players.
“Some members of the House of Representatives are going around canvassing for a return to the parliamentary system. And I said to them, please go back to our own history.
“One, we imported the presidential system, we forgot to import the political culture to support the presidential system.
“The parliamentary system that is in Britain today, they don’t have a written constitution, but they have developed the political culture to sustain it, do we have that?
“Was that not the cause of our initial problem? So you go to France, the hybrid presidential plus parliamentary system. Yes, it is working but they are still facing some problems too.
“But the parliamentary party, go to Italy, you could have three governments in one year. Can Nigeria afford such a situation?
“We need to sit down and look at things properly, not from jumping from one to the other. Look at political culture, look at your history, even NIPR, look at your history from 1930 to 1960, indeed to 1990, you will be able to come up with better things,” he added.
