Senator Abba Ali , who represented
Katsina/ Dutsinma senatorial district
under the defunct National Party of
Nigeria from 1979 to 1983 , is a
childhood friend of President
Muhammadu Buhari . He tells OLAIDE
OYELUDE that only Buhari has what it
takes to tackle corruption in the
country
W hat informed the decision of your
former classmates to visit President
Muhammadu Buhari, in Daura during
the Sallah break?
That visit was not the first time that
our 1953 class made to the President.
In fact, we have always been together
right from our school days . I thank
God that our colleagues who visited
him during the Sallah day were even
more compared to the number that
visited him last year . An occasion like
that gives us the opportunity to
reminiscence , remember the old good
days and inquire about current
developments concerning our
individual families. We also use such
occasions to exchange ideas and
suggestions on the way forward for
the country . One thing about President
Buhari is that he remembers and calls
us by our first names . We have always
been together since 1975 , we muted
the idea of coming together twice in a
year, that is , during Christmas and
Eid- El - Kabir celebrations. I could
recollect vividly , about seven of us
during one of such occasions held at
our Alma Mata in 1983, had to eat
with our bare hands inside a big tray
because all the cutleries and plates had
been used to serve our guests . The
seven of us who ate the food parked in
the tray included President Buhari; the
late General Shehu Yar’Adua ; retired
President of the Court of Appeal ,
Umoru Abdullahi; the late Isiaka
Yusufu; the late Fatau Abdullahi; the
late Grand Khadi Aminu Ibrahim , and
I. We ate with our bare hands from
that big tray and we enjoyed it as it
reflected the bond of friendship among
us. We have several interesting outings
like that.
Can you recollect the type of
extracurricular activities that you
engaged in during your school days?
We used to converge on the ‘ removed
class’, as it was then known during the
colonial days . The class was like a
preparatory class from where you
proceed to class 1 , then class 2 and
depending on the decision of the
school authorities , one may later be
sent to either a college or a teacher
training school . Naturally , at the
‘removed class’ , we used to do a lot of
things together like the morning
devotion and sports . I was very good
in football and hockey then , just like
the President. So we played football
and hockey together most of the time .
We naturally became friends and the
friendship has blossomed in the last 63
years because we were interacting on
daily basis except during holidays .
What gives me joy is that President
Buhari never forgets or abandons his
friends . He always inquires about us
and such action gives one the honour
and joy that despite the heavy burden
on his shoulder as the number one
citizen of the country , he did not lose
touch with his childhood friends . He
listens to them , and does not toy with
suggestions that they offer him. He is
somebody who listens and heeds
advice .
Do you think President Buhari should
resign on health grounds ?
President Buhari is hale and hearty ; let
me first clear that impression on his
health. Those urging him to resign on
health ground have forgotten that God
is the creator of mankind and he has
the final say on when one will die . I
have seen an old man in Katsina here
who was in coma for four months , yet
the old man thereafter lived for
another eight years before he
eventually died. I have also seen a
situation where a man was seen today
in good health and died the following
day not as a result of accident but
normal natural death . That is God for
you. So, those saying President Buhari
should resign on health grounds are
going beyond their limits. They are
not God and they are playing God by
saying so . Only God knows beyond
anybody .
What about the clamour for his second
term in office being canvassed by some
of his admirers and party men?
President Buhari should go for a
second term in office . He has started
a good job which is acknowledged both
within the country and globally and it
is better he contests again for a second
term in office so that he can finish the
good job he has started . Everybody
knows that this man is not out to
accumulate wealth but to put Nigeria
in its appropriate place in the comity
of nations . This man is out to see that
Nigeria is great again . And he has
been doing all within his powers to
achieve this. He realises that no
country can be great with corruption .
So he is fighting it with zeal and he is
also tackling insurgency and all forms
of criminality. He knows that Nigeria
needs good infrastructural
development and he is pursuing this.
Look at the Mambilla power project
that has been abandoned. He has
resuscitated it. There are other
projects being embarked upon by his
government to ensure that the
Nigerian youths are no longer jobless .
So, I strongly support the call for his
second term in office. By the time his
second term ends, he would have laid
a very solid foundation for whoever
that is coming after him to leverage
on. God, in his own wisdom , made
President Muhammadu Buhari to be
above board compared to his fellow
politicians. We are prepared to
support him to ensure that his second
term bid succeeds and I believe that
President Buhari will succeed while his
detractors will fail .
Are you saying that Buhari is the only
incorruptible politician who can lead the
country and fight corruption?
Based on my experience in politics
and with my age , I am saying it with
all seriousness that I have not seen
anybody among the current crop of
politicians in the country who has a
good intention like President Buhari .
Many of them have amassed enormous
wealth meant to take care of their
people. Many are still stealing blindly .
President Buhari stands out among the
current political class in Nigeria . I will
rather encourage him to go for a
second term so that there will be
sanity in the political sphere .
Are you saying that the institutions that
should act as checks are not
strengthened enough to tackle executive
recklessness ?
Nigeria’ s greatest problems as of today
are the National Assembly and the
judiciary. The whole problem revolves
round corruption which President
Buhari is tackling with all his energy .
The National Assembly members are
supposed to make laws and ensure
checks and balances on government
spending but the federal lawmakers
have become contractors handling
constituency project which was not
supposed to be their responsibilities.
Their job is to make good laws and
carry out oversight functions to ensure
prudent management of the nation’s
resources. When we were at the senate
and government allocated the 1004
estate (in Lagos) for us as our
accommodation, we asked government
to direct the Ministry of Works and
Housing to carry out necessary
renovation and fittings there. We did
not say that we will carry out the
exercise by ourselves . Ordinarily ,
when you are a lawmaker , your
primary job is to make laws and not to
chase contracts. When I was the
Chairman of the National Research
Institute of Chemical Technology ,
Zaria, the institute’s budget was
passed but the National Assembly then,
ensured that money was not allocated
to the institute until the end of the
year simply because we did not offer
bribe to anybody . I was also, the
Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Works and Housing during the second
republic, our committee did not
demand money from anybody to have
bills passed . Instead, we did our job
with all sense of patriotism and
concern for the poor people. And as
everybody can see too , President
Buhari has started to sanitise the
judiciary. The bane of the country is
corruption and it is only someone with
the character of President Buhari who
can tackle the problem headlong .
What is your view on the current
controversy surrounding the clamour for
the restructuring of Nigeria ?
Those clamouring for the restructuring
of Nigeria are not being sincere . We
have a constitution in Nigeria and the
constitution is explicit enough on
virtually all issues concerning us. I
won ’t subscribe to the call for the
restructuring of Nigeria . Nigeria is a
project which all of us must allow to
succeed.