Date: 2011-06-03

Protege of the Oloye and ex Kwara State governor, Alhaji Mohammed Sha'aba Lafiagi is currently the senator-elect for Kwara North Senatorial District. In this interview with newsmen in Ilorin, he explains his parliamentary mission, indicating that ending the problem of unemployment in the country would be his legislative priority, amongst other issues. ABDULLAHI OLESIN was there for LEADERSHIP. Excerpts:

The National Assembly is a larger political theatre than Kwara State you governed previously. Who really is Sha'aba Lafiagi?

I am Mohammed Sha'aba Lafiagi, former governor of Kwara State and newly elected senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from Kwara North Senatorial district. Before becoming governor, I had worked for Northern Nigeria government. When the country was broken to 12 states, I was transferred to North-West State and was deployed to Sokoto State where I served for 13 years and later joined the University of Ibadan to read Economics. I also proceeded to the University of Wisconsin where obtained a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics.

I have served as Secretary, Rural Electrification Board in the North-West State. When I came down to Kwara State, I became the Secretary of the State Rural Electrification Board and the later Secretary of the Agricultural Rural Development Cooperation, Deputy General Manager, Nigeria Sugar Company Bacita and later, General Manager of the firm. I proceeded from there to the Constituent Assembly to write the 1989 constitution and from there, I came down to contest for governor under the platform of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP) and won.

Let's look at your foray into the national parliament. How did you emerge the senator-elect representing Kwara North?

My emergence was quite interesting because for over two and half years ago, our political leader in the state, Dr. Olusola Saraki had insisted that I must contest as the Senator for Kwara North and when the time came, I went for the Primaries and won. I proceeded from there to contest the election proper and also won the race.

What is your mission to the Senate?

Let me first observe that our national parliament can actually fast-track positive socio-economic and political change. On my mission, I would like to contribute in the areas required most importantly and most urgently-unemployment. This is because there is a huge unemployment among our youths. Some have graduated for the past three to four years without job. I would like to see what I can do to improve on this.

Also, the idea of massive dumping of imported materials into the Nigerian market is not a good idea. Nigeria has no reasons for importing rice massively from Thailand as well as fruit juice. There are lots of ways by which we can encourage our local producers by patronizing their products and this will go a long way in providing employment opportunities for our youths.

A lot of our industries have also closed down or not functioning to the expected standard. We need to work seriously on this too so as to generate more employment for our people.
I observed that there is high level of poverty in this country; all we need to contribute to make life more meaningful to our people is very easy and small and I believe something needs to be done. I intend to put in place small-scale business for the people in my senatorial district so as to ensure that they also benefit from the dividends of democracy.
On health care delivery, particularly the informal sector where over 70 percent of our people are financially in adequate, I would want the health care insurance to cover this and I believe it will go a long way to assist our people.

Kwara North is known for its backwardness, particularly in the area of good roads. The road network is terribly bad and I want to make sure I try my possible best to address this, of course in conjunction with my colleagues in the senate and the ministry directly responsible for it.

These are areas that need urgent attention and some other things. Nigeria has capacity to produce rice for West African Sub-Region I have been into agriculture for a very long time. I headed Bacita Sugar Company for eight years and this is a company with 10,000 hectares of land for sugar cane plantation. Also, with my experience in Agricultural Rural Development Cooperation, I know how much work was done to produce rice at the Shonga Commercial Farm.

When you look at River Benue right from its take off point in Taraba down to the Niger-Delta, these are fertile lands suitable for producing rice and other commodities. When you look at River Niger right from its entry point into Nigeria up to the Niger-Delta, both side of the river are also fertile and suitable land for cultivating rice easy and at a cheaper rate. I believe this will go a long way in providing our people with means of livelihood, employment opportunities, as well as promoting our economic value. We have no reason whatsoever for importing rice into this country, by so doing we are killing our farmers, killing our agricultural system and killing our economic activities at large.

What's your assessment of INEC's performance in the last polls?
The performance of INEC has showed itself clearly. All it did was to inch up the bar by demonstrating to us that this country has people that are capable of holding public offices. Yet there were hitches at the initial stage which is expected but you need to back and plan so as to ensure that we correct the mistakes for the success of the system.

The sincere and transparent ways in which the chairman and other Resident Commissioners of INEC handled the election really deserves commendation. Nigerians are proud of INEC for the job well done because they have demonstrated to us that we should hope for a better Nigeria.

Of course there were mistakes here and there but we need to learn from this ahead of the next general elections and in some other states where election would be holding in 2012.
Jega and his team have really done well and need to be commended because have witnessed so many elections before this recent ones.

During the era when the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello and Azikwe were the major players, elections were held among various political parties and you will agree with me that the parties involved demonstrated their strengths in the areas they have supporters. For example, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) won some seats in the South-Western States while Action Group (AG) of Obafemi Awolowo gained prominence in some parts of coal states in the South-South region. The National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) of Nnamdi Azikwe also performed very well in some parts of the Northern and Western States.

I think this is the kind of election conducted by the INEC where people are elected based on their electoral values and credentials and not necessarily using the power of incumbency as a governor to seek re-election into the office.

People have been allowed to vote for candidates of their choice without fear or favour. There is also one thing common to Nigerians, we don't allow a system to mature before terminating it and changing its leadership. I want Nigerian to help in sustaining INEC so as to improve on the mistakes made and give us more credible election in the nearest future.