Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, former Governor of the old Kaduna State, leader of the Peoples Redemption
Party, PRP and chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP is arguably the country”s leading critic of the present socio-political system.
An unabashed socialist, when the bourgeoisie styled Kaduna Polo Club sent him an invitation alongside with a mallet for him to join the club as the sitting Governor, he turned down the invitation and reportedly gave the mallet to a domestic worker saying “I don’t play polo … It is the game of the rich and powerful, of neo-colonialists”.
It is not surprising that Balarabe Musa has consistently fought against the powerful influence and power brokers since his first revelation in the second republic.
Born on 21 August 1936 in Kaya, Kaduna State, the young Balarabe studied at Zaria Middle School (1947 – 1952) and at the Institute of Administration, Zaria (1952 – 1953). It is believed that he became exposed to Marxist-socialist philosophy at the Institute of Administration.
He was an accounts clerk (1953 – 1955), a school teacher (1955 – 1960) and subsequently returned to the accountancy profession holding several managerial positions between 1960 and 1976 during which period he gained additional qualifications in accountancy in the United Kingdom.
He joined the PRP led by Mallam Aminu Kano at the inception of second republic politics in 1978 and was elected the Governor of the Old Kaduna State in 1979. As Governor, he was unwavering in his determination to accomplish a socialist agenda, a fortitude that brought him into an unbroken stretch of crisis with the National Party of Nigeria, NPN dominated State House of Assembly. He indeed was unable to form a cabinet supposedly because he refused to include NPN nominees into his list of commissioners. In June 1981, he became the first and only Governor in the second republic to be impeached.
His political adventures in the fourth republic have been shadowed by constituent vitriolic against      what he describes as a degenerate capitalist hegemony he says is being weaved by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He has as such been at the frontline in the battle to checkmate the PDP. He is also the chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, a seemingly non-descript political coalition.
Alhaji Musa recently sat down with Vanguard in a revealing interview on the lessons of the past and contemporary issues. Excerpts:

By Bashir Adefaka

Seeing your abode it seems there is a common trait against materialism among the second republic governors like Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Lateef Jakande. Is there?

Well, I can’t speak for Solomon Lar even though we have something in common. In my own case I can say it has to do with my idea of life and my ideological conviction and the third reason I can say is that, when we first emerged in those days in the politics of Nigeria, we were not doing it for our self individual comforts. We were looking for service to the people and I can confidently say this of Lateef Jakande, Solomon Lar and particularly Chief Adekunle Ajasin. With these four in particular, I think it was service to the people that took the centre stage in our minds.

People’s Redemption Party, PRP held power in the old Kaduna and old Kano states just like the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN did in Western Nigeria. The UPN returned in the fourth republic in the form of AD, AC and now ACN but PRP could not sustain its position. What was responsible?

What was responsible was the survival of the remnants of ethnicity. Ethnicity remains in the South West up till today though in a more logical way. But here in the North, ethnicity has gone completely. For example there is no way you can operate on the basis of a crude conception of Hausa/Fulani Muslim here in the North. But I think in the West it is still possible to organize substantially as Action Group, UPN, AD, AC and now ACN on the basis of ethnicity. Even in the South East it has not been that possible to organize on the basis of Igbo ethnicity. But I think the South West has managed to retain that ethnic politics. Even at that, there are still a lot of oppositions that are militating against the ethnic politics among the people of the South West themselves.

For example, I know Tunji Braithwait has never contributed to ethnic politics as being practiced by his South West people; I know Falae has not contributed to that. These are very highly important figures in the South West and there are others who up till now could not associate themselves with ethnic politics.

But some, who of course are in the majority, not because of ethnicity as such but because of political strategy, they still keep and hold on to ethnic politics in the South West. But I can assure you it is only for a while and very soon it will just be like it is in the North and in other parts of the South where ethnic politics has gone for good.

Your Excellency, what is your sincere view of the ability of the new Jonathan administration to satisfactorily deliver on national transformation?

You mean the PDP Federal Government under Jonathan? There is no possibility that they will, in any way, be different from PDP government under Obasanjo and Umaru Yar”Adua. No way! In fact it may even be worse.

Why do you hold such a hard view?
Because of the relative experience of Jonathan, because of the way he split the PDP over the issue of zoning issue and also because he”s not able and he doesn”t seem to be able to do anything about the negative state of the nation; particularly this disabling level of corruption, stealing and criminal waste. You know even Obasanjo who masterminded the emergence of Jonathan as Vice President and President has already written his name off as a leader capable of correcting the negative state of the nation in particular dealing with the corruption issue.

But then, dealing with corruption is a fundamental issue in the governance of Nigeria because this level of corruption has made it impossible for government to function. And this is because all money set aside for the care of the people and for the development of the country is stolen with impunity!

I hope that one day an informed writer will have the courage to research into how Nigerians leaders have stolen public funds. I mean do it in a way that will give out a list of Nigerian members of the executive, Nigerian members of the legislature, Nigerian members of the judiciary and those they have appointed, who either have been found to be corrupt or have been alleged to be corrupt. This information is very important to show the type of leaders we have had in Nigeria since the Second Republic. Whoever wants to do this job, all he needs to do is to go to the record because all the allegations have been filed in court.

*Balarabe Musa

The latest of course is that of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives including his predecessor.

But you know this has been going on: allegations against President, allegations against Senate President, against House of Representatives” Speaker, allegations against (laughs) Chief Justice of the country and so many other leaders at Federal and state levels. It is not impossible to compile these lists and make them available to the public. Particularly now, with the new Freedom of Information (FOI) Act you can get information about allegations filed in courts or allegations made against anybody.

I mean with the FOI Act now in place, you can find all the allegations made against Obasanjo even the proof of the credibility of those allegations you can even find. With this done, Nigerians will know a lot even if they are unable to do anything about it, but it will surely prove definitely that Nigerians have been ruled by thieves since the Second Republic.

You earlier talked about the inability of President Jonathan to do anything about the negative state of the nation. Is that the reason for security problems the nation is now facing?

No. The security challenge and so many negative aspects of Nigeria principally arise from the socio-economic system controlling all developments in the country, which is based on self interest as opposed to public interest. That is directly responsible for the bankrupt government economic policy of privatization which is opposed to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria. Which also, like I said before, is directly responsible for the disabling level of corruption, stealing and criminal waste of our resources.

Now, the system inevitably means so much suffering for the Nigerian people, means so much retardation in the progress of the country and it has produced political leaders that have sustained this negative state of the nation for one purpose: their own self enrichment with the resources of the country at the expense of the people! It is so mindless and undermines the possibility for progressive development in the country!

I will give one latest example of the bankruptcy of the system and its irrelevance and also the bankruptcy and irrelevance of the leaders it has produced. And the latest proof of that is this issue of minimum wage.

There is no way this country can progress at all, as long as we continue with this “Slave Wage” (they call minimum wage). At the moment, the minimum wage agreed upon between the representatives of the workers, NLC, and the government is a slave wage! As a worker, you know that N18,000 a month in Nigeria is a slave wage. An average worker has a family of at least three. How is it possible to maintain family of three with N18,000 a month? And even this amount does not go round as some governments are saying they can”t pay N18,000 a month.

We made an estimate of a living minimum wage that a worker should earn to live comfortably and we arrived at N60,000 per month. NLC arrived at about N52,000 per month. But when they went to negotiate with the government, they agreed with the government on N18,000 a month. Why did they agree on this rate when they knew it was a slave wage? Why couldn”t they insist on the minimum of N60,000 a month in the first place? Is it not agreed by everybody in the world that the worker is the producer of the goods and services …… is there any element in production that is more important than the worker? And if you can”t pay the worker his due pay, how do you expect him to bring out the best of him to work? America went to the extent of fighting a civil war to stop slavery because; even American capitalists realized that maintaining slavery is not good for economy.

But what is happening with the Nigerian leaders, both government and the NLC? Let”s forget the moral aspect they are saying that a country can progress with slave wage. Even Nigeria cannot survive with a slave wage like N18,000 a month.

So, I don”t see how we can see any form of progress, any form of stability in Nigeria particularly at this level of our existence without a revolution, which will return us at least to the pre-Second Republic position whereby government played the leading role in the economy to ensure social justice, equality, the dignity of the human person and progressive development of the country! And this is the time we should embark on this (revolution) by any means. You could remember just a few weeks ago, the Federal Government admitted that all the privatized businesses undertaken (so far) have failed to perform. All of them!

Now in Nigeria, in spite of our 50 years of existence as an independent nation, can you point out a single private enterprise that has survived in a condition whereby it can compete with other enterprises in the world? Point to a single one in spite of our 50 years in existence! We can”t even compete with Ghana, talk less of the world, and yet we are still talking of privatization…….

That is what the PDP is. PDP does not believe in a leading role for the state in the economy. They don”t even believe in a competitive role between private enterprise and the government.

The North once lived on cotton and groundnut and the West on cocoa. Now that we jettisoned all that for oil money, things have gone worse. How do we get out of the problem?

You are now talking about the consequences of a government being based on the leading role of the private sector as opposed to the leading role of the public sector. You are also talking about true federalism. Let me tell you here that the clamour for true federalism comes as a result of the failure of government. Look, the British are not the same people just as Nigerians are. They are made up of the Scottish, the Wales, the Irish and, now, even foreigners who originated from other countries. America is the same; Germany is the same; France is the same and so many other countries are the same. Why are they not talking of true federalism?

Look, those other societies are not talking of true federalism because their governments are performing! They are working. These are secondary issues. They don”t talk about religious differences yet they are there. Even the fundamental issues like class differences are not much talked about in those countries because the governments there have the common sense to know that, in spite of the injustice of the system, they should from time to time apply safety boots to stop explosion!

There are social workers in all these countries so that even though they are ruled by capitalism, it does not drive them to the position of revolting against their governments. Because the governments are performing, that is why they can tolerate. But here in Nigeria, we are living under intolerable condition in spite of the wealth. In spite of what the Nigerian worker is called upon to do for the progress of the country, he is irrelevant to those in power.

The demand for true federalism arises from the fact that the government does not work. The Constitution of the country, which is the fundamental law, says that the purpose of the government to cater for the welfare and security of the people. Does the government in Nigeria provide for that? It doesn”t in any sense.

The CNPP you chair was set to ensure formidable opposition to the PDP government……

(cuts in) No. You are wrong. CNPP is Conference of Nigerian Political Parties. It is the umbrella organization for all registered political parties and political parties seeking for registration. It came about in 2002 at a meeting of INEC and all the six registered political parties at that time and the over 20 political parties seeking for registration.

It arose because it was quite clear that INEC was being forced by Obasanjo to deregister even the five political parties that were registered together with PDP and to refuse registration to the over 20 associations that were seeking for registration.

At the heat of argument between the political parties and INEC, even PDP delegation to that meeting, under the leadership of Adamu Ciroma, appealed to INEC to reconsider their position to deregister those other political parties and refusal to register others. It went to the extent that Adamu Ciroma, who was leading the PDP delegation suggested that all political parties that had been registered and those that were seeking registration, should each provide a lawyer to sit with the lawyers of INEC to see the constitutionality of the positions of both INEC, the political parties and the political associations. INEC refused.

There and then at that meeting, the late Gani Fawehinmi proposed the formation of CNPP and he was supported by me and Arthur Nwankwo; that is the record of the evidence there (pointing to a photo taken during the meeting) and we agreed to establish Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, for the purpose of protecting political parties and political associations from the machinations of government and the electoral body.

So, CNPP was never meant to be an opposition group. It looks like an opposition group simply because of its feeling about the bankruptcy and attitude of PDP.

When you compare the First and Second Republics with what you have now what is your judgment?

With the bankruptcy and irrelevance of the present it is so much that it will be a distortion of the reality if you compare it with the First or Second Republic even though the social class in control of power in the First Republic, for instance, remains the same as the one controlling government now. In spite of that, the differences being that, the political leaders in control of government in the First Republic were more credible, they were more responsible, they were more morally sound and they were highly patriotic than those in control of government are today.

Where you could regard the leaders of the First Republic as conservative, there is no way of describing the leaders today other than thieves and the evidence is there. Can you imagine what is happening now in politics continuing if Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Zik, Aminu Kano and Tarka have been with us today?

They wouldn”t have tolerated this disabling level of corruption, stealing and waste! We would have by now built a nation; even if it would remain a capitalist country, it would have still worked better than say, for instance, Italy even Germany, even Britain with the exception of America, because America would still have been as the strongest as it is now.

In short, Nigeria would have been at least one of the seven most developed nations in the world if these leaders (Awolowo, Zik, Aminu Kano etc) had been with us, despite their conflicting political positions. In terms of social class they are the same and there is no difference between Awolowo, Sardauna Ahmadu Bello and Zik; they represent the same social class. They were morally based, they were patriotic, there was a standard that they would not allow themselves to fall below.