In this interview with Salisu Ibrahim, one time Kano State governor and now chairman, Senate Committee on States and Local Governments, Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya bares his mind on many interesting and contentious issues – gay marriage, neglect of Nigerian border communities and renewed efforts to completely remove fuel subsidy.
How did the Senate handle that contentious issue?
We treated the bill appropriately. We said it is totally prohibited and we will never tolerate it in the country because the two major religions in the country – Christianity and Islam are totally opposed to it, and? for anybody to even propose it, that will never be acceptable. We certainly made it very clear in the act that whoever has any association in the name of gay rights would be jailed for 14 years without any option of fine. Secondly, for gay associations, anybody found to have associated himself with it would attract 10 years jail term without an option of fine. Our two major religions not only prohibited gay marriage or gay association but even stipulated penalties that whoever is found committing such offences should be killed out rightly.? In Islam, the penalty is that whoever is caught committing homosexuality should be taken to the highest mountain in town and strangulated from
there and the ground should be lacerated with gravels before he is pushed to die. The issue is that whoever is found committing homosexuality must be killed without any option. Even our traditional culture does not allow same sex marriage. Therefore, we do not care about what the West may feel about this. We rather care about our religion and our culture. We know we are facing tremendous pressure from some Western Countries particularly British Government over our stand on this issue, saying they will withdraw all financial aid to our country. But we are not interested about their threats. Whatever they will say let them continue saying it. In reality, I doubt if we even need their aid. More fundamental to us is our religion and culture.
Already, we have passed the bill into law so their threat will never deter us. No country should blackmail us or get us to deviate from on our own culture. If you go to Malaysia or Saudi Arabia you have to accept whatever capital punishment they have. You cannot just commit theft and then complain to the judge that you are a Nigerian; that? you should be taken back to your country for punishment because you don’t want your hand to be cut off. Your hand must be cut off because you commit the offence there.? We believe even with the extensive pressure on our country from the West, we will continue to live the way we are. We expect the President to sign it into law but in the event he refuses to sign the bill into law, then we will find a way to veto it.??
Many Nigerians have commended us for taking this bold stance and we don’t have any fear serving our people. I’m sure with the act in place nobody will go ahead and have any association or contract same sex marriage in this country. Our culture is against it and our religions are equally opposed to it totally.
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The governors are in a way bringing back the issue of fuel subsidy by threatening to take the federal government to court over deductions from their statutory allocations to finance the partial subsidy in place.? What is your take about fuel subsidy?
The issue of fuel subsidy is the issue that concerns most Nigerians. So many people expressed anger at government’s plan to withdraw the subsidy earlier in the year, and that informs why the Senate worked hard to prevent it. We will not allow it because it will increase hardship on our people. When you increase fuel money you are in a way increasing hardship on our people and as the representatives of our people we will not accept it.
We don’t know why some governors are still so much interested in removing subsidy. Even from ordinary analysis, when you remove the subsidy the prices of goods and services are going to be jerked up. So, who is going suffer from it? Definitely it is the poor people? That is why we vehemently opposed it and there is no way we will accept any contrary position on this issue. Up to today, government has not told us how much money is being spent on subsidy. No records, nothing.
So? surely, at our own end, we will not agree to it, because it will bring hardship to our people. Nigerians should learn lessons from what is happening in the Arab world. Are those pushing for the withdrawal of fuel subsidy interested in bringing revolution to our country? What happened in Cairo, Egypt and Libya and a host of other countries are enough for the people to look into and appreciate the lessons in them. Look at Libya, look at Yemen, Look at Syria. All these countries have problems. So if you still have people thinking what remains of subsidy must be removed then you are inviting chaos.
The way I see it, instead of bringing things that will increase peoples’ hardship why not work hard on things that will bring comfort to them?
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Let us now talk about the Senate Committee on States and Local Government which you are the chairman. What are the challenges and how are you tackling them?
In fact there should be better working relationship between the federal government and the state governments. You know we are in charge of boundary issues and my committee has done a lot of work in that area. We feel our border towns should have development centres, because we have come to realise that in some local governments there is multiplicity of projects done by either the state or the federal governments and we feel there should be harmony and cooperation between the two arms of government. There should be a joint budget that would be tackling such common problems in our border towns so as to minimise their harsh conditions and avoid duplication of projects in the same environment. It doesn’t make any sense. When I was the governor of Kano State in 1992, what we did was to make sure that there is harmony between the state and the local governments. Whenever there is need for project in an area we make sure that there is no duplication and
any local government that fails to perform we remove its leadership. We were able to remove chairmen of two local government councils in our time. The autonomy is good but we have to make sure that there is harmony between the two arms. On the issue of border, we have 23 borders in the country bordering Cameroun, Niger, and Togo and so on. We have over 2,000 villages and regrettably these villages have been neglected by the government. It is easy for criminals to come to our border towns and mess our people up and cross back to their countries. The communities are facing serious hardship. There is a community in Borno State, called Banki. In this town even the village head taps light from the Cameroun to his house. This is shameful to Nigeria and is very unfortunate. We are a big nation, we have resources but we are tapping light from Cameroun. This is sad and will not be allowed to continue. Secondly, in some other areas if you want cold water, you have to cross
over to the other country to get it and then come back to Nigeria inside harsh sun and drink your cold water. What kind of treatment are we giving our people? This is very unfortunate.
There is another village called Kwara where children have to cross the river and then attend a school and come back to Nigeria.
How can you subject your children to this kind of life while the country can afford to give them quality education? That’s how we lost Bakassi. People in Bakassi love Nigeria but this neglect made them to be reluctant about the country. If we are not careful there is also another town in either Cross Rivers or Osun states that we may likely lose to Cameroun because of this type of neglect. Because there is prospect of getting oil in that area and we have not done much for the area in terms of development. People in this area are more affiliated to Cameroun than to Nigeria. What we are planning now to halt these problems is to ensure the establishment of development areas in these places that can address their teething development issues so that they will feel they are more Nigerians than Cameroonians.
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One major complain about most members of the National Assembly is that of neglect for their constituencies. How are you impacting on your constituency?
We thank Almighty Allah that so far we have done a lot for our people and we will continue to do more. In the last four years I was able to drill a lot of boreholes in my constituency. I was able to build many blocks of class rooms. I was able to build computer centers. I built 210 classrooms blocks in Kano State. Each local government in Kano State I was able to build three classes plus principal’s office, toilets, and a store. All these classrooms were well constructed and to the Glory of God we will continue to do lots more for the people. In my own constituency we have constructed six classes in each local government and that is how we think one should impact on the people by identifying their needs and addressing them. We constructed health centers in almost all the local governments in my constituency. I have even crossed over to Kano Central and did a lot services there. I also drilled 115 solar-powered boreholes and so many hand pumps.
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You were elected Governor of Kano State in 1992 and now you are a Senator. What experience do you cherish most between the two?
I would rather seek for senatorial seat than contest for re-election as governor. I know the governor has executive powers while a legislator has to do a lot of lobbying but I prefer that than to go for gubernatorial re-election. Here, I find time for myself and for my family and as well impact positively on the people. Quote me any where, I would rather go for the senate than the governorship position.