Former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in Niger State, Jonathan Vatsa believes that there should be power shift to the Southern part of the country in 2023. In this interview in Minna, Vatsa spoke on a wide range of issues including the marginalisation of Niger State by President Buhari, the 2023 presidency and what Nigerians should expect from the newly inaugurated Ministers.
After much waiting games, the President has eventually inaugurated his cabinet; what should Nigerians expect from this cabinet?
A lot, I mean a lot because the time for blame games are over; there are no more excuses this time. Nigerians should expect the change that they were promised. Nigerians should expect something very positive from this cabinet, more so that about six of them or more are coming to continue from where they stopped. These are people like Fashola, Amaechi, Lai Mohammed, the woman in finance and a host of others.
And again, someone like Fashola who was overloaded with three key important ministries will now be overseeing only works and housing which to me, is a good development for the system.
Apart from the returning ministers, what is your assessment of the new crop of ministers in the cabinet.
Honestly, I have confidence in the new crop of ministers, even though there is enormous work before them but I think with the marching orders that the President gave them and the experience from the two days retreat, they should be able to live up to expectation. Like I said earlier, there are no more excuses, Nigerians will not listen to any further excuses. There are a lot of things to be done, the roads are bad, the electricity is not there and these things are very key to the economy. These are the issues, so the ministers have a big challenge before them, the next 100 days or one year will be crucial for them. They have no choice than to deliver in their various responsibilities.
The president during the inauguration of the minsters, announced the creation of additional ministries, do you think this is necessary in view of the cry for lack of fund by the government?
Yes, to me I think it is necessary because when you overload one person with two to three ministries like we saw in Fashola managing works, power and housing, it is not healthy for the system because some areas will definitely suffer and that will slow down development. The creation of additional ministries will make things much easier and it will speed up development in those sectors.
I think what Mr. President is after is that he wants results, he wants to leave the country better than he met it. He had only four years to make the difference and he needs more hands, so I think it is a good development.
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Mr. President during the retreat, directed the ministers to always go through the Chief of Staff Abba Kyari if they want to see him, do you think that directive is healthy for the system?
It is a very, very bad development and unhealthy for the system in my own opinion.
It’s like subjecting a constitutionally recognized office to an unconstitutionally recognized one. The office of Chief of Staff is not recognized by the constitution of Nigeria, but the office of the minister is recognized by the constitution; so, when you said ministers should go through the chief of staff before seeing you, to me, it is an aberration. When your Ministers who are your foot soldiers do not have direct access to you as a president, then there will be disconnect and the system will surely run into problem, that is one; the second thing is that, it is an open secret that some of these ministers were very instrumental to Mr. President’s victory during the first and the second term; today, you said they cannot have access to you in the cost of discharging their duties, that is bad; thirdly, some of these ministers were former governors who successfully governed their states for eight years and today, because they are ministers, they must go through your chief of staff before seeing you.
The implication of this directive is that if the chief of staff does not like your face as a minister, no matter how serious the matter which you want to see Mr. President for, you can’t be allowed to see him.
Some states are grumbling that going by the portfolio assigned to the Ministers, they have not been adequately compensated commensurable to their contributions to the party’s victory at the poll, do you think they are right.
I think Niger State is one of such states that feel shortchanged, and I strongly believe that we have been deliberately marginalised in view of our contributions to the success of the party. For the second time, we are given junior minister, that is minister of state despite the sacrifices we made for the success of the party at the state and at the national level; so for equity and fairness, Niger State deserves a senior minister.
For instance, we worked tirelessly in 2015 and overwhelmingly delivered the state at all levels in the elections but unfortunately, the only thing we got for our efforts was junior ministers. In 2019, we repeated the same feat and gave Mr. President overwhelming victory and again we are being given junior minister.
In 2015, Bawa Buhari was given minister of state for solid mineral resources and now in 2019, Ambassador Zubairu Dada has been asked to take ministry of state for foreign affairs.
It beats my imagination that a non-APC state that contributed little or nothing to the party during the elections is being rewarded with two ministerial slots. Even some APC states that did not perform like Niger State in the elections were rewarded with senior minister position.
We felt shortchanged as a state because hard work was not rewarded, and above all, equity, justice and fair play were over looked in the allocation of ministerial portfolios by Mr. President.
Don’t you think that the internal wrangling in the party at the state over the choice of ministerial nominee must have given the President the impression that your house was not together, hence, he treated you the way he did?
No, I don’t think so because was there any internal wrangling in the party in 2015 when we were given junior minister for our efforts. Internal wrangling in a party is part of the politics; it is normal, it is not something strange. In politics, there must be agreement and disagreement; you agree to disagree. The truth is that Niger State has not been treated fairly by Mr. President because the state has not benefited anything from the Federal Government since 2015.
Let me give you an instance, in 2015 when he won the election, Niger State paid him a visit in Kaduna and he told us that agriculture was going to be his priority, and that Niger State being an agrarian state, will get Federal Government’s attention, but up till today, nothing has happened; we are still waiting.
Again when Abuja airport was to be closed down for repairs, Niger State approached the Federal Government for its airport to be used because of the state proximity to Abuja but the Federal Government opted for Kaduna despite the insecurity in Kaduna and the notorious and dangerous nature of Abuja-Kaduna road. We were denied that opportunity to upgrade our airport.
Again, Niger State played host to the highest number of federal roads in the country today, but these roads are all in a terrible state, and yet no attention from the Federal Government.
As the publicity secretary of the party in the state in the runoff to 2015 general elections, I knew the promise we made to the people, I knew what we told the people to be able to convince them to vote for the party but can we confidently say today that those promises have been fulfilled.
Some Politicians are already talking about 2023 and heating the polity, do you think that this is necessary now when political appointees have not even settled down in their offices.
You see politicians, including myself are the most crazy people. You have not finished eating what is in your mouth, you are already asking for more, is that not craziness. My take on this, is that those who are already heating the polity for 2023 do not mean well for the government and APC as a party. This is the time to support the governors at the state level; this is the time to support Mr. President at the federal level for the good of Nigerians and by extension, the party, instead of causing distraction here and there. Those who are already talking about 2023 know why they are doing so, they don’t mean well for Nigerians and the party.
One thing I know is that some people feed on crisis and therefore they don’t want the system to work, but my advice to them is that they should even pray to be alive till 2023.
There are already agitations and clamour for power shift to the South in 2023 while some elements in the North are saying the North can still retain power beyond 2023 because according to them, zoning is not constitutional, where do you stand on this?
Power sharing is not in the constitution of Nigeria; it is just party arrangements for equity, justice and fairness. When we talk of rotation, it is because we want to be fair to everybody so that there won’t be agitation and peace will reign in Nigeria but if you think it is right for the President to remain in the North, the Senate President and the speaker of House of Representatives to remain in the North, all the security architecture to remain in the North and still expect peace in Nigeria, then so it be. We should not take other section of this country for granted because you think you have the population. If you think that because of the lack of trust and unity between the South West and South East/South South, you can monopolise power, I can assure you that one day, monkey will go to the market and it will not come back. Let us not do anything that will change the beautiful name called Nigeria for any selfish reason.
To me, the power must return to the South in 2023 so that we can still keep the name called Nigeria for our children. No section of this country should think that it has the monopoly of power. Those elements who are saying that North can retain power beyond 2023 all have where to go with their families when it starts. Is it in this country where we are seeing a system of winner takes all that you are saying power should not rotate; it amounts to laying a landmine which the explosion can consume all of us.(The Sun, Nigeria)
