28042019 - No delaying minimum wage, go ahead and pay, FG tells MDAs, states, others

PAGE 24 – SUNDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 28, 2019
In fact, we now
have leaders who
are thieves and
have infected
Nigerians to the
level that virtually
every Nigerian is a
thief except two
sets of people
What is your opinion on the
differences between
northern governors and
northern elders over who
becomes the next Senate President?
There is nothing unusual about it, it
happened in 2015; secondly, the politics in
the country has been debased to the level
where the deciding factor is not the welfare
of the people or the development of the
country but selfish interest. So why should
this be surprising when everybody is
concerned about himself first? What do you
expect from animals in the bush? That is what
we are experiencing now! The disabling level
of corruption, stealing and wasting of the
nation’s resources has destroyed every value
in the country! When money and power are
the deciding factors in our politics, how do
you expect anything to be orderly? We got
what we asked for. We asked for it because
many voted not based on principle but on the
basis of money. In the 2019 general elections,
we saw the worst we had ever seen in the
form of scientific rigging. We saw it now more
than we ever saw before. After the 2019
elections, we even saw something more
scientific in voting which led to mere writing
of results. This is the worst we ever saw since
1950.
So what are elder statesmen doing to save
the situation?
It is not a question of elder statesmen, it is a
question of the social, economic and political
system of the country and the political
leadership the system has produced. The
system and political leadership are based on
selfish interest first, public interest second;
that is what is happening today!
But is this the Nigeria our heroes past
foresaw during the pre-independence
struggle?
Absolutely not! Even in 1950 when party
politics started, money was not the deciding
factor of elections and politics but now things
have changed. Money is presently the
deciding factor of everything. In fact, we now
have leaders who are thieves and have
infected Nigerians to the level that virtually
every Nigerian is a thief except two sets of
people. The first set include those who never
had the chance to steal at all, while the second
set include those few people who, by nature,
would rather die than steal. These two sets of
people still exist in Nigeria, they are, however,
the exception and their population is 000.1
percent. So we expect the worst to happen in
Nigeria but it is a question of when? When
the nation was being prepared for
independence in 1956, people of good minds
asked how it will happen, but nobody
believed them; nobody believed that those
leaders of 1966 would not live forever and it
was a sin to even say something would
happen and they would leave office but it
happened! And what was not expected
happened in 1966. Now we are destroying
ourselves and, still, we want peace. It is not
impossible because you have to work for
peace before it exists!
How do you juxtapose this with the
staggering insecurity that is ravaging our
You are talking
• ‘People are wasting their time talking about in
• Says God cannot be deceived by those who pra
By Olayinka Ajayi
Alhaji Balarabe Musa, an activist and a former governor of old Kaduna State, speaks
on issues in the polity. Excerpts:
country after the general elections?
The consequences (of general elections) are
enormous and they include insecurity.
Recently, a Minister of the Federal Republic
•Alhaji Balarabe Musa
Balarabe attacks Yoruba
N-Delta on restructuring
of Nigeria accused some traditional rulers of
conniving with Boko Haram, herdsmen and
other criminals, but what did the Federal
Government do about it? Has the government
taken any step towards addressing this
allegation in an open way? This government
will not do anything until it faces a balance of
terror against it by which time it might be too