Honourable Solomon Bulus Maren is the member representing Mangu/Bokkos Federal Constituency of Plateau State in the House of Representatives. He spoke to correspondents JIDAUNA YANUNG AND DORCAS PANKYES on the state of the Nation. EXCERPTS:
WHAT is your view on the state of the nation under the All Progressive Congress (APC) would you say they have delivered on their promises?
Well, if you said on the state of the nation and Nigeria in the hands of APC, I will say everybody in Nigeria knows that they have not deliver, you all know that they have turned Nigeria into more crises thank they met it.
You know also that the APC Government crushed our economy, devalued the naira by almost a hundred and thirty or twenty percent which has today brought a lot of hardship to Nigerians.
The APC government have also succeeded in trippling corruption in this country and that is why you discover that there is no sector that is functioning well. If you look at the rate of borrowing the APC government have borrowed, over 30 trillion in the last six and half years and there is no physical infrastructure on ground to show for it.
Contract for road constructions are being inflated, pricing of everything is being doubled. Look at the Nigeria railway project, according to a submission by the African Development Bank, it is almost a hundred and fifty times the cost so with these you can agree with me that they have slumped the country more into economic depression and has also made people suffer more than ever before, with these, one can say the APC government has failed the people worfully it is very unfortunate at this time of our life that while other countries are celebrating their successes we are busy regretting our falls. It is very unfortunate.
I was reading something yesterday that a scientist in the United States has just developed a telescope that is to go into the sun and take record of stars and the earth itself. So can you imagine this, a lot of countries and its citizenry are celebrating their innovations and progress, we are here lamenting and people are languishing in abject poverty, no food, no security, all farmers have abandoned their farms and run away for their safety, everybody is now crowded in the cities and the question is where are the production people of this country? So this is what the APC government have been able to do, we have just one hundred and sixty kilometer from Abuja to Kaduna express way but yet this kidnappers or bandits has held this 160 Kilometer road to ransom for more than 6 years now and we have more than 8,000 Kilometer of boarders so it can not protect just 160 Kilometer of road then what do you think will happen in the case of 8,000 boarders? So I think it is the failure of the government to protect the lives of the people within the Abuja Kaduna road.
The president should admit that he has failed to protect Nigerians and also in so many directions too, infact all the APC people should own up to the fact that they have failed the country, for 6 and half years now the APC government has nothing to show. They have not even compleed the projects they met on ground talkless of embarking on new ones. So there is more to it than what Nigerians are seeing so this government should wake up from their slumber and salvage the country that is why there is no peace, no security anywhere.
So if there is improvement in these areas, there will be improvement in our security networks, and all other sectors, a lot of things have gone wrong in Nigeria today, even businesses have wound down as a result of what is happening today. So there is need for all hands to be on deck in order to salvage the situation. Nigerians should know that it is time to do the needful when the time comes.
When President Obsanjo came into power in 1999, within a short period of time he was able to secure debt forgiveness for Nigeria in the Paris Club so in comparison what has this government gotten for Nigeria? Look at the way and manner President Goodluck Jonathan handled the Ebola case, and even the Corona virus in our country so I think Nigerians should tell themselves the truth so all hands should be on deck to ensure that everything change for good, so that the lives of common Nigerians will improve. I am of the opinion that we should all look at the state of the nation and bring sanity to the nation. Again for close to seven years now the President has not signed any electoral amendment that was sent to him by the National Assembly. So Nigerians should also take note of that.
What is your take or view subsidy on the proposed removal of fuel subsidy and the proposed N5000 palliative?
You see, you cannot collect tax from me and ask me to pay more tax and say I will give you something out of it, that means you have not helped me.
Quite sure we understand that subsidy anywhere in the world has brought down economies, that is the reality of it. Subsidy most especially on petroleum products at a time that the world is turning into green energy fuel subsidy will make fuel more cheaper and people will be burning more of it. Just recently my friend was telling me that he met a fellow man (a Sudanese) at the airport and asked him whether he is a Nigerian and he said yes, then the Sudanese said,
“I learnt that fuel is very cheap in Nigeria and that he wants to buy it and take it to Sudan and sell it. So my friend now ask him how much will you pay for transport and how much will you sell it by the time it gets there and he will still make gain. So what I am saying here is that the fuel subsidy will be an advantage not only to Nigerians but the whole of Africa so subsidy at a point is not too good but government should work on the economy to ensure that the people are enriched. So everything that has advantage must have disadvantages so in other words it is going to make life harder for Nigerians. The Naira has been devalued. A dollar was about 1 hundred and Seventy five naira when this present administration took over. So this present administration should work on the economy before the fuel subsidy so that the Naira would be strengthened there by Nigerians will pay less for that fuel if the subsidy is removed. But as long as the economy is down, people have lost businesses, entrepreneur are out of business, most of businesses has closed down so why are we taking about removing subsidy when all this things have crumbled Government should address these things before talking about removing fuel subsidy if not they just want to add more problems for Nigerians because only few peoples can afford it.
Nigeria’s debt profile has risen to about 40 trillion, do you think the nation can sustain this?
Already the 30 trillion we had before, we can not sustain it talkless of N40 trillion, because our debt repayment as at the last budget was 2.85 trillion (that is debt servicing) what then is the value of our capital project in this country?
It is very very sad, then question is, where are we going? If you are servicing debt at 2.85 trillion annually and your annual capital budget is not more than 1 trillion then where do we go? Just like I said, the level of corruption in the country is too high, it is extremely high because of these antecedent. So we are hoping that things will get better and the country will come out of these things but the president must take care of the people first because they are the ones that have the power and they give it to whom they want to give at anytime and they give it to whom they want to give at anytime. So the will of the people should not be tested.
Despite all these things, what is your advice to Nigerians?
Well, my message to Nigerians is to remain calm and focused. We must pay loyalty to our country. We must subject ourselves to the laws of our land, we must know that we have no other country but Nigeria so if we destroy it , we will have no other place to go, the present generation, the future generation should maintain the peace and security of the country, I wish Nigerians happy 2022 a head and hope that 2022 will bring hope and blessings to the country.
To the people of your constituency, what message do you have for them?
Well, like I said the people of my constituency should expect more dividends of democracy in the coming year. I have already penciled down a lot of development projects for them in the 2021 year. I have planned to touch their lives once more in the area of health, education infrastructural developments agriculture and welfare among others.
I also want to use this medium and call on my people to remain calm, law abiding, be their brothers keeper, live in peace with one another and also join hands with the state government in its peace effort as well as be security conscious.
