…$29bn loan a new corruption cover- up
Former governor of old Kaduna state, farmer and elder statesman, ALHAJI BALARABE MUSA recently spoke on the state of the nation. He dwelt on far reaching national issues that bother on politics, the economy, etc. The astute politician spoke to our Kaduna correspondent, Bashir Bello and declared that the APC government under President Muhamadu Buhari was incompetent and a fascist. He also stated that the request for a $29billion loan was another way of continuing corruption by the APC administration. EXCERPTS:
THE ONDO gubernatorial election was just concluded with the All Progressives Congress, APC carrying the day, don’t you think the gale of victory by the majority party which controls the central government and a number of states nationwide will make the country a one party state? Not so much. This is because the People’s Democratic Party, PDP is a strong opposition and there are other members of the opposition. And the citizenship in Nigeria is so complex that there cannot be a one party state without a dictator. Like a military dictator, who can push on Nigerians? For instance when General Ibrahim Babangida formed two party states, the idea was anyone who most play partisan politics must be in one of the two political parties or keep out of partisan politics. So without Dictatorship there cannot be a one party system in Nigeria because the situation is so close that the consensus for one party is not possible. What is your assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration so far? Well, I’m not hopeful. I don’t think the government can deal with the negative. There have not been initiatives and the problems have overwhelmed them that they cannot make it. And we are facing treason. Presently they are facing treasicm. And the levels of poverty, hunger, unemployment, stealing of public funds at the means of implementing the projects are the crux of that. All these are the negative state of the nation. For instance, look at the government been unable to recover the stolen funds, unable to collect the money or even mention names from which those stolen funds were identified, unable to account for them. So in every respect, their ability to perform is negative. We are just waiting for what can happen. We hope that it will not be too bad. But definitely the situation is not okay and we cannot continue the way we are now. Something must happen. So how do you assess this government and that of former President Goodluck Jonathan? because in the case of former President Goodluck Jonathan, we were facing just incompetence but in this case we are facing both incompetence and fascism. Forcing people to do what the government wants and the government hates the people protest against the government, like the Shi’ites have done. They risk mindless loss of lives. The level of fascism we are facing now is more than during former President Obasanjo Obasanjo exercises that level of fascism in dealing with the AD. The problem he faced because that of Obasanjo was mixed with some level of intellectualism. But this one of president Muhammadud Buhari is raw fascism like what happens to the Muslim brotherhood. They confront government officials and they were dealt with instantly. Like what happened in Zaria and Kano, dictatorship by force of arm. So in the case of Jonathan we were facing raw incompetence without intelligence. In the case of the APC government now, we are facing raw fascism while that of Obasanjo was fascism mixed with intellectualism. What do you make out of the $29bn loan? I think it is a cover up. It is another way of continuing the corruption in the system. Just corrruption in another way. We believe that the government has failed to articulate the need for the loan because there are many things they are trying to cover up. Secondly, we are reasonably informed that the government can do more to get the $30bn required from the recovered missing funds. Why not collect those looted funds instead of taking these loans, thereby returning us to the debt slavery we suffered under Obasanjo. The debt we reduced even though it was doubtful, we repaid and got away from slavery, now, they are returning us to debt slavery in another way and with less intelligence. Because you are now asking for authority to raise foreign loan without articulating for instance, what is the state of our loan position now. What is the loan going to be made up of? There are allegations that government has recovered loots amounting to more than the $30bn. Why not get the money to balance the budget from that recovered loot? So many questions, which is again incompetence, cover up and even continuation with corruption in other way. Is the North looking beyond Buhari as alternative for 2019? Every region contending for power in Nigeria is doing the same and not just the north.