Last week, Kaduna Senator, Mallam Shehu Sani stormed Lagos for 2 days. Before he left, he spoke to newsmen about his activities at the Senate and his recent utterances concerning how much Senators earn as salary and constituency allowance. Below are excerpts of the explosive interview.
You’ve been a Senator now for about 3 and a half years. What has the experience been?
Its been very challenging, in the sense that one transited from Civil right activism into politics.
What’s the difference?
In Civil rights, you are being driven by principles, ideas, ideals and standards. In Politics, you are conditioned to operate within an environment of people who you may not share the same thinking, thoughts and views on issues.
So, you have to accommodate divergent opinion and sometimes you have to make compromises to achieves what you want to achieve. It is a moment, in life that most times, you feel imprisoned, I feel imprisoned because there are some etiquettes and some set of rules in politics that in most cases, runs contrary to ones conscience and ones beliefs. It was easier as an activist to outrightly condemn issues and to maintain a rigid and consistent position on some certain things.
As a politician and as one who is representing a people you have to gange their mood and look at what is of importance and what truly represents their own iterest before you say anything and do anything. Those are some of the fundamental issues we face as a people and the stage we are now.
A few days back, you dropped a bombshell, when you revealed the salary and emoluments of Senators. What made you do that?
I don’t want to overflog that very issue in the sense that I have said what I will say. I didn’t say it with the intention of inciting anybody against the Senate or destroying their reputation or integrity. They are all accomplished men.
They are people who have achieved a lot in life. But I feel deeply pained when both the institution and personalities inside the Senate have been systematically maligned and defamed because of this culture of secrecy.
What I said may hurt, but it will eventually heal and will give the country a new sense of direction in the way and manner people view legislators.
At the time you said it, what made you think it was the proper thing to do?
Well, I think you should be very much conscious of my own political baground as an activist and one who believes that policy should be driven by conscience and ideas and that the most previous of all assets is ones Integrity and dignity and honour.
I spoke to remove the cobwebs and also to remove the stains which over the years had seriously ended our credibility and also questions our character as paliamentarians. It was something difficult for those before us to say and it is certainly going to be difficult for those after us to say. But somebody needs to set a precedence for which I did.
There has been so much controversy around how Gov. El-Rufai runs Kaduna State. You and other politicians have had issues with him. Whats your reading of the whole situation?
The fundamental issues in Kaduna State simply has to do with the fact that we are faced with problems within our party and it si one of so many problems being faced by the party, nationwide. It is also part of the problems that ought to have been addressed earlier. No one could have done it better than President Muhammadu Buhari himself.
But it was allowed to fester. In Kaduna we have a governor who is intolerant to to criticism, intolerant to public opinion, he believes what he says and do is right. He has no respect for the President. He has no respect for critical views.
He, in every possible way, thinks that he can do any thing and get away with it. As far as we are concerned. We have a normal duty to speak up when things are not right. I have suffered a lot in the last 3 years.
How do you mean?
My office was attacked more than 11 times by things and I was personally been targeted when we were holding a press conference. My party was engineered to suspend me at the local level which holds no water at the national level. It was illegal. All sorts of things were done to create problems for me. Thankfully, our people have always stood by me and we keep on moving ahead in what we do.
The last major incident was the demolition of the party office of your faction. How was that resolved?
That has not been resolved in the sense that action was been talking. It had to do with the suspension of the governor himself and he saw new office as a challenge to his authority in the party.
The destruction of that party will continue to serve as a historical example of political intolerance in Nigeria and the failure of APC to address some of these fundamental challenges.
Why do you think the governor has been proving difficult?
If you check his history and his antecedents you will understand why. We are in an internet age. You can go back and read up on him. What are his behaviours? What was relationship with past leaders before their relationship went sour. These are all issues before the public.
At any point in time were you close to him, did you have any relationship with him?
Of course yes. We are together as members of the APC but Gov. El-Rufai never supported me for the primaries. For the primaries he supported my opponent.
After I won he also didn’t show interest in us working together. And for that very reason, the foundation for this problem was set. Attempts by the national body to bring peace was sabotaged, consistently. But now the Tinubu committee has been set up and it has started work.
Do you think the Tinubu Committee can come up with a lasting solution for the Kaduna crisis?
It is not about Kaduna crisis alone. There are crisis in Kano, Bauchi, Rivers, Kogi States. He has a Herculean tasks. Whether he will achieve peace or not will be dependent on the antagonistic side.
“What I said about the salary of Senators may hurt, but it will eventually heal and will give the country a new sense of direction in the way and manner people view legislators”
Whether all of them have agreed. If one agrees with Tinubus recommendations and the other person does not agree or refuse to comply with it certainly there will be no peace.
“ Gov El-Rufai never supported me for the primaries. For the primaries he supported my opponent. After I won he also didn’t show interest in us working together. And for that very reason, the foundation for this problem was set”
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