Electorate Needs Scorecard To Measure Performance of Politicians – Mohammed Dauda
By Taiwo Ogunniyi
Mohammed Dauda is a philanthropist of note in Kwara State. In an Interview with Taiwo Ogunniyi, bares out his mind on sundry issues, and his assessment of the Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s administration in Kwara state.
You are a philanthropist of note, though some people are insinuating that you were doing this because of politics, what’s your reaction to this?
No, politics is not involved in this matter of philanthropy I do, though I had the first appearance in politics in 2014 before I later backed down. This was because the party (PDP) in Kwara state decided to go by zoning at the last minute and they said it wasn’t the turn of my constituency. So, I decided to pull out for peace to reign. And even since then, not a few people have been calling me to contest one position or another. Recently too, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) gave me a slot to run as its candidate for the Kwara Central Senatorial District, but I declined. I need to make sure that the terrain is clear. Also, I’m not into money politics because I don’t have one. I think people are missing up humanitarian gesture and kindness, they are taking it too far into politics. I have the right to contest any post as other Nigerians do. Politics is for everybody, whether poor or rich. If people don’t take right decisions, particularly by participating in politics and the electoral process, we will end up having all manner of people as our leaders. It is, therefore, better to fight within a circle rather than fighting outside it because you will never have necessary details if you choose the latter, you will never know what goes out or comes in. We are all political animals and even my religion, Islam, supports that you have to make sure you have the right people with the fear of God as leaders, not people who will only enrich themselves to the detriment of the populace. So, how can this be realised if people refuse to participate in the political process? The truth is that it is unrealisable.
What then is really your interest in politics?
As I had earlier said, we are all political animals. A wise man who knows he has anything to contribute is supposed to go into politics, but unfortunately in Nigeria the terrain is not that clear, it is money politics we do where people don’t ask how and where you get your wealth from, where some people just come and spray money and declare interest to contest and people follow them stupidly without asking questions. So, if you end up choosing mediocre people as leaders, what do you expect to get back? Nothing good, but only predators, who will feed fat on the people as a prey and milk them dry. We need to get the policies right, we need to get the right sense of mind, for the populace whether poor or rich, you need to have the right sense of mind and people who are coming out to contest should be able to defend the sovereignty of the state and think about the welfare of the populace. It is unfortunate that these people leading us travel abroad, they see a lot of development there, but rather than replicating the good things they see over there at home, they carry the money out of the shores of the country and be living big with their immediate families. That is not life, because if they are not accountable here, they are going to be accountable to God who created them.
As a philanthropist, what actually motivated you into doing this?
That is one of the admonitions of my faith, Islam. You have to give back to the society, particularly the downtrodden, out of what Allah has endowed you with. I have also learnt a lot from my parents who have inculcated in me the art of giving. I realised early enough that there is no point accumulating wealth in life without giving back to people. And if you refuse to help other people, you will be creating more problems for yourself and even your own family. For the sake of God, everything you have does not belong to you alone, but to everybody. So, do your best and make sure that you share what you have with others to engender peace, stability and progress in the society.
Can you share with us certain things you have done in this wise for the people?
Yes, like I said earlier, it is the way of God and the way of life for some of us. In Islam, nothing belongs to you, everything belongs to God. So, we try to see how much we can do to help people, how much we can assist, how much we can give back. Don’t live in affluence when your people are living in penury. In this regard, we have done so much in our own little way to be of help to people. Normally, we pay school fees, we buy JAMB forms, we buy NECO forms, we buy GCE forms, all for students. We give the less privileged widows financial support to enhance their businesses to make sure that they can catch up with life. From our little support, a lot of people have been able to go to school; a lot of people have been able to do their WAEC; a lot of people have been able to secure jobs; some old women have been able to do petty businesses and keep their families going; and we have sunk boreholes in some communities from the little God has endowed us with.
Do you have a registered Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) that is carrying this out for you?
Yes, we have a registered organisation. We call it Alhaji Dauda Okoh Okekere Endowment Foundation (ADOOEF), which is my father’s name. We did that to ensure that things are properly organised. For now, our focus is on the four local government areas of the Ilorin Emirate, but with time, we will go outside of that area. It is all for the sake of Allah because we will be accountable for whatever opportunity He has given us in life. We do that just to assist and ensure that the less privileged can go to school. And to also get the boys off the streets and get the widows busy rather than begging. What we are doing has nothing to do with who you know and who you don’t know. There are criteria and levels of opportunities created for all. This is something we have been doing for over 20 years and God has been kind to us. There is no point living large when your people are suffering and can’t make ends meet. I want everybody to live a comfortable life in as much as God has assisted me in my own little way.
What is your assessment of the performance of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s administration in the last three and half years?
It is a bit dicey and tough. We leave that to Kwarans to judge and determine the performance of the incumbent Governor. I will not like to speak much about that, but I will ask them to create a scorecard in terms of infrastructure, in terms of health, in terns of education, in terns of creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive, in terns of opportunities for students to go to school, in terns of provision of potable water which has been a major issue in the state, in terms of creating opportunities to revive the moribund companies, in terms of making Kwara a hub of businesses. Fortunately, Kwara is well located in the centre between the North and South with a lot of opportunities. Today, I can tell you there are no businesses in Kwara. Coca-cola has left the state. Where is Kwara Paper Converter and so on? There is the need to create a hub that will make Kwara to benefit immensely. In terns of agriculture, we have a lot of land. If you go to Asa local government area, there is a large expanse of land, but nothing is happening there. People can’t even do mechanised farming. We need to create more sources of income, increase our IGR. There is the need to look for bigger opportunities. Kwara is endowed, Kwara is blessed. However, the Governor is trying in his own way. There is, however, the need to create more opportunities, create more awareness and talk to the technocrats because the Governor cannot do it alone. Kwara has a lot of technocrats, within and outside the state, who are well exposed and leading lights in their own rights. There is the need to bring them home and make them to perform, he (Governor) can’t do it alone because he doesn’t even know it alone. Let the Governor, if he is lucky to come back, tap into the technocrats, he should call and bring home all Kwarans both at home and abroad who have acquired and demonstrated skills so that we can turn Kwara to a bigger economic hub for this country.
But there are some projects being executed by this administration that when completed, will boost the economy of the state and provide employment for the teeming youths, what’s your take on this?
That’s good, but have they done both evaluation and business risk, have they done what is called SWOT analysis to know the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats or Gap analysis to know people’s needs and fix them? There is supposed to be a scorecard to measure political office holders. You don’t just venture into a project. Some projects are too gigantic, while some will never generate any revenue. Since democracy is government for the people by the people, you should think of what value to be added to your people, you need to understand what their problems are, you need to understand what the people need, you need to understand how to elevate them. If you are doing roads, you are doing interlocking that leads into a compound, what revenue are you going to make out of it. You don’t create roads in-between compounds, you create roads that will lead to farmlands that will reduce the cost of crop production, thereby enhancing proper feeding that will increase life expectancy. I advise that the Governor should be focused, he should be able to do value addition, create an enabling environment, create security, make sure Kwara is safe.
Presidential campaigns have largely been characterised by name calling and character assassination, what is your take on this?
I am pained that the presidential campaigns, which should have been issues based, have been characterised by abuses and character assassination. It is nauseating and condemnable. This is not our expectations at all. However, as for the state of the nation, I sympathise with Nigeria and every Nigerian for so many reasons. Where political parties are not ideological based and politicians are just jumping from one party to another, PDP to APC today and Labour Party to APC tomorrow and vice versa, is a crazy idea. When you look at the age sentiment, people that are 80, 75 or 65 wanting to be President, 65 is even tolerable, they are the ones making decisions for our future, these are people who made money from the system that you never asked where they got their wealth from. Why are they spending money to fool us again? Unfortunately, the instruments of electioneering process lie on the party structure that presented these people to us. So, Nigerians, what can we do? I can only suggest to Nigerians, let’s look for the best out of the worst set of people we are having. Certainly, these people cannot engage in any issue-based discussion apart from abusing one another. They know themselves, they are friends. They put this country in the quagmire we are in today, and all they are after is to protect their investments and loot and continue to remain in power to lord it over us. I swear, I don’t see any leader among all of the presidential candidates, but we have no choice, we want to go to the poll to choose from among them. But Nigerians should check all of them, ask them relevant questions, bring them to book. We are lucky in this country when people like us were young, we were better off with youthful leaders then. Gowon is still alive, Obasanjo is still alive, Babangida is still alive, AbdulSalam is still alive, we need to bring all of these people to a roundtable because when they were ruling this country all of them were less than 40 years of age, some were even below 30. How then did we get to this sorry pass, how did we start making criminals to become our leaders, how did Nigeria get to the point of worshipping money? One day, if care is not taken, if they push us to the wall, they are going to see the reaction from Nigerians. Though Nigerians are very docile, calm, and tolerant, I believe it will not continue like this. In Engineering, there is something we call the fraction point, when you pass your endurance limit you are going to a fraction point and you are going to break, but I pray we don’t get to that point. However, we should realise that by today we can’t break and we must not break. I will like to appeal to all our religious leaders to be more committed to the way of the Lord and that will guide their followers too and people will know that there are consequences for everything they do outside the way of the Lord. I wish Nigeria peaceful elections, if it will ever hold, and God will give us better leaders that will think more about the country and the people.
Do you entertain any fear about the 2023 elections?
My fear is if that election will hold. INEC has guidelines, but see what happened in Osun state despite the BVAS, see what is happening with the contestants that are not discussing ideology based issues, they are busy challenging and attacking one another, heating up the polity. Is that the kind of leadership we want to put in place? They don’t analyse all the risk values. One major risk in Nigeria is Security and another is thuggery. The safety of the people during electioneering process is another issue. How much have we done to cut away from money politics, what have we done to check the credentials and integrity of the contestants? I wish Nigeria luck and pray to God to give the country better leaders and to make some of us to have the courage and the wherewithal to come out and contest, if Nigeria could do away with money politics
What is your assessment of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)?
INEC has significantly improved on its rating, but they still need to do a complete serious evaluation and conduct mock tests before they go live so that we don’t have excuses, so that we don’t have to spend more money on judiciary cases, so that we don’t have unnecessarily delay in getting the right leadership at the right time and the right point.
What is your advice to the youths who are always being used for thuggery by the politicians?
My advice to the youths is that they should know that the so called godfathers employing them for thuggery don’t mean well for them. At least they too have children, why can’t they use their own children for that purpose? The youths need to realise that the self appointed godfathers also came to power as youths. In fact, some of them became ambassadors early in life and today they still want to rule. This is the opportunity for Nigerian youths to ask questions. The youths should make sure that they vote wisely and also talk to their parents, who are less exposed, to.be circumspect and let them know what type of leadership Nigeria needs now. Youths have the numerical strength and should try to take charge and take their destiny in their own hands this time around. Today, when people graduate they go for their Masters, they go for PhD because they don’t have job and no where to acquire experience, while every company will tell them that they need not less than five years experience before they can be employed. Their parents took loan to send them to school and right now their parents are still feeding them. So, when are they going to become adults, when are they going to take rightful positions? Parents should look at this and negotiate rightful positions for them in the next dispensation. For the Nigerian populace, they should continue to pray and do away with money politics which is destroying our country.
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