Senator Salisu Matori was in the Senate between 1999 and 2003 to represent Bauchi South, he spoke with RAUF OYEWOLE on politics of oil exploration in Northern Nigeria, issues inherited by Tinubu administration and how Nigeria can explore its potential to drive development.
The Tinubu administration came to power on the mantra of ‘Renewed Hope’. Do you see any hope in this journey so far?
Well, you see, the question of assessment, people see it from different perspectives, and people are bound to hold different opinions. In my opinion, you cannot quickly give an assessment without analysing and bringing into focus the development leading to a current position, which will enable you to understand the complexities of governance. So, by and large, looking at it from one angle, you may definitely say, yes. One of the very important achievements that we have seen, in spite of all the challenges we faced, would be relative peace. Relative peace in the sense that we have gone through thick and thin to arrive at where we are today. Despite Boko Haram, despite the different kinds of terror groups that have engulfed this nation, we are still able to survive it, and hopefully we are making progress towards bringing it to the barest minimum level.
You just spoke about the issue of insecurity, Nigeria is currently experiencing a new set of terrorist groups –Lakurawa. How do you think the federal government and the sub-national government can address this issue before it gets escalated?
Frankly speaking, you see, the question of insecurity, it is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, at the risk of sounding as if one is not seeing it from the correct perspective. The situation, the development, the happenings in Nigeria today, if you look at even our neighbours around us, one way or the other, they are facing different kinds of terror groups. So, by and large, the entire World is engulfed in one form of insecurity or the other. Those of us who travel can tell you the model of this global mood, it is not what it used to be five years, ten years ago. It is unbelievable.
In places like important travel points like Heathrow, like Charles de Gaulle in France, and so many others. The current security challenges that are facing them, ours may look like a child's play, but we thank God, in spite of all this, we are able to achieve the little that we have achieved, as is being seen by some people as little. It's not. It's quite a huge monument. And we thank God, we hope it will continue, and we'll get out of the wood.
Frankly speaking, for you to arrive at a meaningful position on this issue, one has to look at it from, again as I said, from different perspectives. You must understand that whether we like it or not, whether we are in support of the current administration or not, we have to take into account the kind of difficult situation in which this particular government comes into being, particularly the economic hardship that we are now unwrapping. It is not something that started yesterday. It is something that has been incubating over a very reasonable period of time. To say more than this, I wish I could. I don't want to sound as if I'm trying to create a defense for the administration, which I'm not saying. I'm only saying my opinion and what I believe in. This administration, when they came into being, if you remember, even on the day of inauguration, the first statement, a major statement, that our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, did, was to remove the subsidy, which some people are claiming is the genesis of our current economic situation. To me, I would say no. It is a cumulative development that brings us to the current situation. And it will also take a cumulative effort to face it realistically and to face it with courage and will, determination to succeed. We will succeed. And some people have a different opinion, but this is my own opinion.
You spoke about the removal of the subsidy, do you think that the decision was timely?
Most Nigerians hold the opinion that the president should have studied the situation while being in office instead of on the day of inauguration. Many people have put it in an overzealous way. Overzealous, at the same time, blind. They just push and push and push, hoping that they would make…, I don't know what kind of gain they intend to make, whatever gain they have made it with, at a very expensive cost. Because the average Nigerian on the street may not understand the intricacies of how the economy works. So, you must understand, in this context, what is important is not to continue to lament but to look at the issue realistically and sincerely. You see, one of the major things that is bothering the politics of our nation is that in most cases, people try to bring in politics in everything they do. And when it is time to say the truth, we tend to paint it in the political mood that we want. And that will not help us. We have to look at things objectively, sincerely, honestly, and try to find the solution. Then the solution will come. But if we continue to look at it from the political perspective, as so many politicians are doing today, with regard to our current situation, it is unfortunate. It is not the right thing. All right-thinking people who really love this country will agree with me that instead of lamentation and accusation they bring in sometimes a very bitter argument which is not supposed to be on the plate. But they expect Nigerians to swallow it –hook, line, and sinker. That is not correct.
Frankly speaking, I pity this administration in many respects. I sympathize with them. I look at them as, you know, reaping what they did not sow. You cannot come and say to me that somebody, a Nigerian, who fought for election –day and night and hoped to be at a certain office, of course he is a human being. And nobody in his right senses would want to come and occupy an office simply to antagonize people. It might have happened in the history books, but in the present circumstances, in my view, it is not right. Instead of us to continue to condemn and despise various administrations who should tarry for a while. Let our politicians, let our top servants retire. Let's have all hands on deck. Let's look at this. You can look at this from different angles, including looking at it as if it is a calamity that has befallen us. What is calamity? You think to go and start accusing fingers against this, against that, that will help you? It will not. I see them talking. You do not take one thing in isolation, my brothers and sisters. We are not supposed to take things in isolation. We should take it in total and then we can do the analysis and try our best to find a solution. The solution definitely will not come overnight. It will come. That's one thing we should all believe in. You see, on many occasions I wanted to speak on this kind of topic, but one thing that frightens me mostly is that the minority vocals on any issue in this country, they always see things from their own perspective. You either see it from their perspective or they come with all kinds of accusations.
I have seen some people who genuinely, sincerely, to me, they offer or they try to offer suggestions which everybody is free to do. But instead of people to give good faith, it is taken in a different perspective, you see. So, I will use this opportunity to appeal to fellow Nigerians to understand that it is not all good. So, as I was saying to you, the earlier we, as a nation, start to reorient ourselves, the help, of course, of the authorities, to understand and agree that the task of a nation building is a collective responsibility. Particularly, we appeal to our elites and the intelligentsia, the academicians who, unfortunately, they are not doing enough. We should all come hand on deck, try to keep away from narrow perspectives, looking at issues. As I said earlier, every single issue in our land, people try to give a different, if they don't give a political connotation, they give a religious connotation, they give a regional connotation, all kinds of connotations. That will not help us. Please, ladies and gentlemen of Nigeria, let us come and salvage our nation through constructive criticism, which all democracies of the world, the true democracies of the world, so to speak, would be happy to hear.
But if you choose to criticize and attack at the same time, you are not doing enough. You won't understand that the previous administration that has just left office was 8 years on the seat. And all the mistakes, all the things that have been made from that period, people tend to cast it aside because it does not serve their interests. That's not fair.
You were elected as a senator between 1999 and 2003, do you think members of the National Assembly are doing enough now to cut down the cost of governance?
You see, it is very unfortunate. This is an intricate issue. It is something that is not one single item. It's a collection of so many several issues that have, you know, get collected into one bus. Take, for example, if you look at it from the purely financial aspect, then you ask yourself, how did that come into being? How did it come into being, in my opinion, because when we came into office, the situation was completely different. I can vouch for my colleagues. We all came to serve Nigeria. We all come to salvage what was destroyed. We all came with the full intention of making sacrifices. That was our intention. That is what we intended. That's what we wanted to do. And I will give you an example. My salary as a senator was N13,000. That's what we started. And then later on, let me tell you, at the end (in 2003) the highest we were receiving was good allowances for the driver, the security man, because at that time we did not carry about policemen with guns and everything. No. What are we afraid of? That is how it was then. By the time we were leaving office, all the allowances, everything was N700,000, with about 11 staff to pay. And yet, some analysts said we have performed excellently at that time. So, I am not casting any assertion on the current legislature, but I am only telling you a historical fact, I am looking at it from a historical perspective.
What is your perception about the recently created regional development commissions?
Well, it depends on how we look at it.
Sometimes the various governments themselves say something and then in the next five minutes they forget about it. So they are suffering from a kind of dementia, so to speak. In the sense that everybody should try to look at these things. Take, for example, since I came into the Senate, one of my preoccupations, one of the major programmes that I set myself to achieve was the Coastal Oil Exploration in what we call Inland Frontiers. And in these Inland Frontiers here in the Northeast, we have the Chad Basin and Kolmani River. We did everything humanly possible. They have a different scope of dementia, so to speak. It was here when President Buhari came twice to Kolmani River. He did the launching and then he did the commissioning of the different wells that have been drilled. And they told the gathering that before the end of the year (2022), we are going to have three industries. We are going to have three industries. One is going to be a modular refinery to utilize the crude from that place. By doing so, at least the Northeast part of the country will have an easier and greater form of energy.
The second one is the fertilizer industry. This is not coming from me. And the next was chemical energy. He said that energy will be available, will be very cheap, and then deforestation will be reduced to the barest minimum because alternative energy is provided. This is coming from our President, President of the Federal Republic. Can you imagine that? Unfortunately, that issue is not taken. You see, in the next few months, 20 months, this is what they said. And it was not done. So, you see, if the abundant resources that Almighty God has given this nation, each and every local government of this country, God has given us something. When people are talking sometimes, you don't blame them because they are speaking their mind. Look at our youth, how they are roaming the streets. Roaming all over. And we speak about unemployment. God has given us employment. We refuse to take it or we don't utilize it. That's how it is. The authorities, in the name of God, let them try and rethink, rethink and act in the proper perspective. By doing so, we'll do a lot, we'll reduce the unemployment level, we'll reduce the crime rate, we'll reduce quite a lot of things. But, unfortunately, one major thing that is baffling any right-thinking person is that we are so greedy people, so greedy. Everybody wants to do this, wants to do that. And you have to produce if you are interested in consumption.
In our case, unfortunately, because of the orientation we have, we are talking of consumption, not production. They say eat what you produce and produce what you eat. We don't look at that policy at all. We are always talking of, you have to become a commissioner in the local government, so we must come and eat. That tendency must stop. We must work hard and create the necessary wealth for our teeming population. Look at our population, it has grown to an unprecedented level. What are we doing? What are we going to do with these youth people, who are roaming the streets? If we don't stop it now, you may end up with a very serious problem in the future. And the only way you would do it, in my view, I'm not an economist, but I heard economists speaking from time to time, let us create an atmosphere where our youth will be gainfully employed. They have an answer, if the ear is listening, so the whole rest of the body can escape.
Let us look at, not today, not tomorrow alone, let us look at what will happen in the next 10 years, in the next 5 years, in the next 15 years also. Then we must create something that will benefit our teeming population. They say to go into agriculture, I'm a farmer, I have a farm, I know what it is. They speak the whole thing from A to Z, and end up on television.
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