Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, a former member of the House of Representatives, is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture. In this interview with GEORGE OJI, he speaks on why Taraba State governor, Danfulani Suntai still remains as the chief executive officer of the state and the future of the North. Excerpts:
Taraba State used to be a relatively peaceful state but recently, the situation has changed for the worse. What went wrong?
We have our challenges just like other states. Yes, we have had relative peace, particularly in the last six years since Danbaba Suntai came on board; communal clashes had been reduced to very tolerant level. The event that happened of recent is quite regrettable and I can assure you that the acting governor who is holding forth for Governor Suntai is doing his best to ensure it does not happen again, he has set up a commission of inquiry and he is looking at all possible avenues to ensure that it does not happen again. It is quite unfortunate.
The North appears to be opposed to the reelection bid of President Jonathan?
I don't know about that. Why I said I do not know about that is because I prefer to submit to the will of God. When the time comes and when you are there, then you can assess and discus the issue of the day. But when you are not there, and you try to jump the gun, I cannot play God, you never can tell, will the world be the same in 2015?
Governor Suntai has been out for more than six months following his accident in a plane crash, don't you feel it is time for the deputy governor to be sworn in as the substantive governor?
Is that what the law says? Do you know what the constitution says? What the constitution says is once the governor is absent for more than three weeks, the deputy governor assumes the position of acting governor. And as acting governor, he does virtually everything the governor does.
The law does not tell us the specific time when the governor is not there that the acting governor become a substantive governor. If the governor is away for a treatment, which is understandable and no provision is made about the governor not returning, except if you are saying that the National Assembly should make a law that once the governor is away for one month let him be removed as governor.
But is there any specific duty that the governor performs that the acting governor cannot perform? Or are you trying to politicise the governor's sickness and take the position of the opposition?
Do you see the coming together of opposition parties posing a threat to the PDP in Taraba State?
Not at all. God is the final decider of tomorrow. So, I would not say this is what is definitely going to happen but I can assure you that Taraba is a PDP state and it remains a PDP state. As a Christian, the ways of God are different from our ways and it is only God that gives power and it is He alone that takes power from somebody. So, I don't want to speak as if I am God; that will be blasphemy.
How do you see the agitation by the minorities in the North for power next time around?
I think since the days of the late Sarduana, the North has been monolithic and what the late Sarduana and his co-travellers then did was to ensure that everybody in the North was treated as one and they carried virtually everybody along.
So, I don't think that when they say that a minority should be president, somebody in the North will oppose that, and if somebody does, he is doing it at the risk of monolithic North as established by the late Sarduana, because we are seen to be one and of one family.
That is my position. And I also believe that you can only practicalise that spirit of brotherhood so that somebody can see it on the table. I quite agree that yes, we should speak with one voice and as one family. With the incessant in-road made by other politicians outside of the North to divide the North, the only agenda left for the North is to ensure that the North returns to its monolithic status.
And how do we do it, is left for the politicians.
As the chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, what are the challenges your committee is faced with?
One of the major challenges among others can be traced to the insufficiency of funds to the agriculture sector, and having identified that, we as a parliament thought it wise to interface with the executive so that we can address this challenge and as I speak, we have agreed to schedule a meeting with Mr. President, both committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives. When we do this, I am sure we will have an agreed position on how to tackle this major challenge of funding.
If we are going to tackle the problem of agriculture frontally, then we need some huge funding to do that. Then we will go back to plan B. Since we cannot access the funds, let all hands be on deck, the private sector must come on board and not to leave it to government alone.
Are the policies in place attractive enough for private participation in agriculture?
There is enabling environment for private individuals to come in and invest in agriculture; there is no legislation banning individuals from investing in agriculture. As far as I am concerned the atmosphere is conducive enough for private investors to come in and invest in agriculture.
Before now, rural farmers used to benefit tremendously from the research efforts of the research institutes, but the situation appears to be different now.
The research institutes have been neglected over the years and not so much is being heard about the outcome of the researches being conducted because they are not being sufficiently funded and this is one of the areas we have been having problems with the executive. We expect a more proactive approach to attending to research institutes because the institutes should be our main focus.
What of your over-sighting responsibilities?
We have virtually visited all the major agencies under the agric ministries; we have visited all the research institutes across the countries and other agencies associated with promoting agriculture in the country. The bottom line of our observations is that they need more funding, which brings us back to where we are.
As it affects the research institutes, we realised that their problems are more demanding and urgent and we try to introduce some palliatives measures while dealing with the 2013 budget but they are very minimal and have not gone far in addressing their problems.
The problem of abandoned silos for the storing of grains is a persisting issue, did you encounter this during your oversight?
Quite a number of silos were awarded for construction, but not all have been completed and we are trusting God that the ministry will continue where the previous administration stopped but I can't remember one that is completely functional now.
What's your take on the position that the Ministry of Agriculture and its huge bureaucracies of farming given that the real farming does not take place in Abuja but at the states and local government?
I think that is not correct, because I cannot remember any country in the world where the business of agriculture is not coordinated from the centre of the country. This is opinion of some people and they are free to express such views, but I don't personally believe in that view.
We have a large army of unemployed youths, how can agriculture come to the rescue?
Agriculture has been the mainstay of our economy, providing a lot of employment across the country before oil took over and I think that if we had allowed agriculture to progress at the level we started, the story would have been different as it affects unemployment in the country. It is the highest employment generating sector in the country now.
How can the agric sector which has been neglected be refocused so that it can take its natural pride of place?
Certainly one day the oil will not be there. I had stated that if we concentrated in sustaining the progress we made in the sector, the story would have been different. We got carried away by the oil economy which had produced an atmosphere that has created laziness in the minds of most of our youths, everybody wants quick money, everybody wants to be rich in a twinkle of an eye.
Most of the countries now have oil but the main emphasis is shifting from the oil we all know to an alternative oil. So, you don't say because you have oil and any other person must go along with you, it doesn't really make sense.
What we should do is to intensify our commitment to the agricultural sector. In 2003, the African Union met in Moputu and under one of the agencies (Action Committee for Agricultural Development in Africa) agreed that all the African countries should commit a substantial segment of their budget, not less than 10 per cent to agriculture, to promote the sector.
Since that declaration was made, only a few African countries have complied and we believe that Nigeria being the giant of Africa and if we are taking the lead, should have set a good example having been a signatory to that charter. But as I speak to you we have only had about only four per cent of our national budget committed to agriculture.
National Mirror