Hon. Saidu Adamu is the Kaduna State Commissioner for Information and Home Affairs. In this interview with ISAIAH BENJAMIN, he affirms that the state government is making effort to address salary irregularities in the state. He explains why the state government has delayed to pay claims on the post-election violence. He also tells the state’s residents that maintaining security is a collective responsibility of both the government and the governed, among other issues.
You have manned the Ministry of Information for several years now, how has it been so far?
Well, so far so good. Being a commissioner of information is the most challenging job, not only in Nigeria but also anywhere in the world. Once you are managing information for your boss, you could always have so many issues. As you are busy closing a hole, another hole is opening. And it is normal for journalists to keep us on our toes knowing full well that they also represent the people.
It is normal to let the people understand what we are doing; so it is very normal and highly challenging, such that every morning, you don’t know what is going to happen until the morning comes. And every evening, you? would not know what is going to happen, until the evening passes. I say so because anything can happen at any time and you try not to only protect the interest of the government, but you also strive to portray the actual happenings in the government.
Some may not know what is happening in government, as such you keep on talking everyday. And it is a pleasure talking to people to make sure that things go well.
As the coordinating commissioner, would you say you have done well in your responsibility?
Well, I would not want to say that, because when you are doing something, it is not for you to say you are doing well or not. I think it is up to the people to judge whether you are doing well or not. Therefore, I think you (journalists) are some of the people to judge whether I am doing well or not, and not me.
However, just like as I have said earlier, I will keep on doing my best, because I was chosen to do this job out of the so many people who are qualified and even more capable and could possibly do better than me. But the government has the confidence that it can do it.
That is why I work day and night not only to win the confidence of the governor but also make sure that I put myself to test because I swore by the Qur’an that I will do everything possible to protect this government, and, believe me, I don’t even need anybody to advise me on what to do.????
Though Yakowa is doing very well in the discharge of his duties, however, little publicity is given to his achievements like other governors. As his information manager, what is responsible?
How do the people know that Governor Yakowa is doing very well without us telling them what the governor is doing? Therefore, saying little or not much publicity is given to his achievements is not only a wrong assertion but also mischievous. There have been several published adverts on his achievements in almost all the dailies and thousands and millions of people have seen them.
We place advertisements on what Yakowa has achieved and is still achieving. It is also being shown even on (NTA) network news and we equally sponsor so many docurity independent source of getting to know this? Or are they not reading what we have been posting on papers? We have spent thousands and millions of naira advertising the government and still people are saying that the governor is doing well but we are not doing our best.
Then I ask: how do they come to know that the governor is working whereas they have read so many things about his achievements on papers and they know we are not even paid money for it; when they have seen so many advertorials and they know it is us that pay money for? them;? when they have watched and seen so many documentary and they know it is still we that pay for those things and they are still saying we are not working. Then that is mischievous.
It was reported recently that Yakowa may relieve some of the commissioners of their duties allegedly to be on grounds that they are not living up to his expectations. To what extent is this allegation true?
I don’t know. Better still, you could ask the source from where he got the information; it could be true but, as for me, I am telling you that I am just hearing that for the first time from you.
You worked with other administrations before this present one, how can you objectively assess? the performance of Yakowa within the years under review?
I am sure you know my answer, so I do not even need to talk about it because even in your paper (LEADERSHIP) we published advertorials about Governor Yakowa’s achievements. On several occasions, we placed adverts on what Governor Yakowa is doing, like during the May Day celebration, in both local and national dailies. Therefore, I want to assure you that the governor is not just doing well, but he is doing very, very well considering the security challenges that we are facing.
Despite the security challenges that require a lot of money, to make sure that we are on top of the situation, the governor still has a lot of money relatively to do so many things that he is doing: from the road that leads from Hayin Danmani to the Kaduna 4th Bridge, and the various construction and other projects that are ongoing in all the 23 local governments; same for the road from Ikara to Soba, Zaria water works, State University.
Go to both the Kaduna town and Kafachan campus you will see that many projects are ongoing there. I can keep on naming them one after the other; they are very many projects that are being executed by Governor Yakowa. Therefore, you can imagine if we have a serene environment, and all our money is being spent on projects. I wish we had no security issues – people would have been more surprised. However, even now they are already commending the governor for his developmental strides in the state.
Security has been a major challenge? as you pointed out, and Kaduna State has been affected adversely in recent times; to what extent can you say Governor Yakowa is succeeding in tackling these security challenges??
Well, just as you said, 80% of? security is in the hands of the populace, hence security is the business of all. The governor or the president is not God: they can only be at one place at a time. They may not even know what is happening in their own houses or in their own bedrooms by the time they leave the bedrooms, so at times it has to be somebody who is taking care of that bedroom to make sure that things went well,? not to talk of other local governments.
We have 23 local governments and 255 wards in Kaduna State, and if the people of all these wards decide to be security conscious, then tell me how then we can’t have peace in Kaduna State. If the people of all these wards consider security as part of their responsibility, tell me how then we would not have security. If the people of all these wards consider that security is the collective responsibility and the business of all, then much can be achieved.
So for us to have optimal security, then citizens must be security conscious in whatever they do; they should be conscious of the fact that anything can happen; they should equally be conscious of whatever they do, and the kind of things they say. Whatever you are going to say you must be conscious not to say anything that will cause trouble here and there.?
In addition, you must be conscious of the fact that there could be bad elements among us; therefore, anything or action that you see from individuals that are capable of igniting trouble, you should be able to notify the police. But if people decide to fold their arms and say they are not in government as such they have no need for such action, then that is where the problems is.
Recently, civil servants in the state decried shoddy and non-payment in their salaries and the governor urged those in charge to resolve the matter quickly. As the information manager of the governor, what is the present situation?
It is true, as some couldn’t get their salaries including the commissioner of information and even his Excellency, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and the deputy governor, Alhaji Ramaran Mukhtar Yero.
The reason is the issue of biometrics and introduction of BATMIS, which the World Bank is assisting us to make sure that we know the exact number of our civil servants, and everybody collects what is their due. I am the commissioner and I am expected to be on desk, so I cannot be collecting shifting allowance and duty tour allowance.
So in a situation whereby you find out that a commissioner is collecting duty tour allowance when he/she is not supposed to, what are you supposed to do? Therefore, by the time you find a medical director, who is at the office, collecting call duty allowance, you know that there is a mistake somewhere. And when you find a nurse collecting the salary of a doctor, definitely you should know that there is a problem.
On the other hand, when you find a teacher collecting the salary of a supervisor, then you should equally know that there is a problem. By the time you input all these into the computer, naturally it will tell you that something is amiss. That is the second issue. And thirdly, some of us could not effectively pass through the biometrics. We are all expected to be captured by the computer.
Some of us filled the forms and gave them but because of the nature of our work, we even forget to go and get captured by the computer. And the computer is not like the human – it cannot fabricate things;? it is garbage in garbage out. It can only give you whatever you entered into it. In addition, for some of the civil servants, there is an annual increment. The Ministry of Finance did not capture some of them, but most of these issues have already been sorted out.
You see, naturally when there is a new programme, especially a good one for that, it is expected that we must have little problems here and there. However, we least expected that we could have problems as much as we did; hence we were thinking that they have solved almost 99% of the problems. That notwithstanding, now that we have rectified most of the issues, I want to assure you we should be able to know how many workers we have, and that every worker collects what he/she is supposed to collect.
In addition, this same biometrics assisted us to discover that somebody is using the data of a staff that died six years ago to be collecting his salary. We also found out that another name has equally collected his death benefits. Now, tell me who are the people that are doing all these? Is it not the same civil servants? You see, civil servants in Nigeria are not performing below expectation when it comes to fraud in various ministries, not only in the state but also in the federal government, too.
Now, look at the issue of the pension, that of Local and State governments in Nigeria: these are issues that we need to sit down and talk to ourselves; we need to enlighten ourselves since every civil servant is a potential pensioner. Therefore, by the time you find yourself working in the office of pensioners, you should equally bear it at the back of your mind that one day, if you are lucky, you will also become a pensioner.
Therefore, there is no point for you to enrich yourself with the little amount that is given to somebody who relies solely on that money to make his/her small living, because it is expected that, by the time you are over 60, you should honourably sit down and enjoy your pension, even though it might not be enough for you.? But you see, it becomes painful to discover that somebody who will also become a pensioner one day is sitting and living large on other people’s money.
Has the government found anyone wanting in the case of pension fraud in the state? And has any person been sanctioned in that respect???
Yes, the commissioner of finance is seriously working on that, and if eventually any one is found guilty, I am assuring you that they will sing a song and dance to the rhythm of their own drum.
The trains and functional railways inherited by this administration seem not to be working any longer; what is responsible?
You see, it is working. What happened was just that, if you could recall, lately the federal government decided to rehabilitate all the railway networks in Nigeria and to effectively reintroduce the railway transportation. Now, if you look at our road networks across the country, they are in a very bad situation with so many potholes all over, because so many vehicles, such as trailers, lorries and others which ought not to have been using such roads are using it.?
Most of our goods are transported via such vehicles and through the roads. Supposing the railways are in good shape, these goods should have been transported via the rail. That is why the death of the railway transportation in Nigeria has contributed in no small measure to the worrisome state of our bad roads.
So, the federal government decided to re-introduce the railways and, therefore, it gave a contract that all the railway networks in Nigeria be rehabilitated, so that railway transportation could start effectively in the nation again. With these developments, naturally we have to stop our own local services to pave way for the railway rehabilitation services; hence we have to give way for the original owners of the railway to put them in good condition as instructed before we resume services to our people.
However, I can assure you that in no distant time from now we will commence operation because they are almost done with the railway rehabilitation.
Recently, SIECOM released the timetable for the local government elections in the state; as a PDP stakeholder, how prepared is your party for the election??
We are highly prepared in all the local governments. We have our party leaders and we expect that they work in unity with the interim council chairmen. All the stakeholders from their respective local governments, state and federal legislature as well as every other person that could be instrumental to the victory of their party – we expect that they work together and forget their differences to defeat other candidates from any other party. We are working, and be rest assured that the best will be out.
Do you see Yakowa re-contesting in 2015?
Well, 2015 is still a distance from now and it is in the hands of God. However, even if it is tomorrow, it is also in the hand of God. When the time comes, God will decide for us.
The committee set up to ease the sufferings of victims of the post-election violence is rather busy revisiting investigations done even before their appointment instead of assisting the victims with the well over N300m released by the state government; do you think that is a right step in the right direction?
No, we are not reviewing anything; all we doing is to ascertain what was submitted. For instance, in a place where it was reported in the papers that about a thousand buildings were affected and we went there to discover that it was only fifty buildings that were affected, are you saying we should go ahead and do the payment that is on the papers for such a situation?
But don’t you see it as duplication of effort since money was spent to accomplish the first assignment?
It is not duplication of effort; it is public fund and public fund must be managed the way it should be. We discovered many irregularities. Some of the records that were given to them were actually not true. Some of them went on their own to lay claims and now that the government is further assessing those claims before payment.
You will find out that some of the reports given to us are not true. In that case, are you now saying that we should go ahead and pay even when we know that some of those documents, records and claims given to us are not true? You see, simply because we heard that a committee has been set up to investigate the post-election violence and possibly assist victims, they decided to go and tell lies by giving their names as victims, and now we have found out that such claims are not true.
So we have now decided that those that are truly affected are those that will really get the assistance from the government. For instance, in Kafachan, the document reported that so many houses were affected, but when the committee went there, it was found out that only 30% of what was reported was true.
In such an instance, are you now saying we should go ahead and pay even those that were not affected? You know the deputy governor, Alhaji Ramaran Yero, is an upright man; therefore I was not surprised when Governor Yakowa decided to make him the chairman of the committee and now he is doing a very good job, hence? he is not only helping the State government but also the victims.?
Those that are truly affected whose names are not there can now come up if they have a true, genuine and can confirm their case can come up and they will be paid because we are not compensating anybody, we are only assisting some of those victims that are part of us.
W hat is your advice to the people of Kaduna State???
They should realise that the state belong to all of us. Again we should all know that security is the duty of all.