Minister of Communications reveals how Buhari will win effortlessly in 2019

The Minister of Communications and Oyo State governorship aspirant, on the Platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Dr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, has revealed how President Buhari will win his re-election bid with ease, come 2019. In this interview with our Correspondent, Blessing James, he speaks on his achievements as minister of communications and his readiness to serve the people of Oyo State in order to take the State to another level.
What is the position of the federal government on the money being owed by MTN?
The Federal Government has reached an agreement with MTN, to pay the money within the period of three years. If you look at the sum of money involved, N330 billion naira is a single largest damages fine that I know in the world history. The federal government was convinced that if MTN pays the money at once, they are most likely going to fold up, which will mean the loss of jobs. The government had to concede that they staggered the payment over a period of 3 years. So far there is no report that they have reneged on their space for payment. You can assume that they are complying with the agreed guidelines of payment.
There are epileptic services being witnessed by the subscribers of the service providers in Nigeria. What is the panacea?
‘Epileptism’ if you permit me to coin that word, is not only regarding GSM operators but even in power. This largely relies on the availability of stable electricity. We have heard reported cases of vandalization of GSM companies by hoodlums. So there are deficiencies all along. Again, in Nigeria, we do not have sufficient connectivity; we are still working hard to see that broadband covers the entire country. I want to believe that over the last two years, there has been considerable improvement in the situation and we hope that things will continue to improve.
What is your core duty in Ministry of Communication?
Our core duty in this ministry is policy formulation on communications generally. We have six agencies which include Nigerian Communication Commission NCC, Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited NIGCOMSAT, Galaxy Backbone, Nigeria Postal Service NIPOST, National Information Technology Development NITDA and so on we make policies for all our six agencies.
Honourable, are you worried that other political parties are making inroads to Oyo State?
Oyo State’s political situation is a peculiar, but it is a redeemable case. The peculiarity in Oyo case is that we have a governor who has been in office for seven years. Unfortunately, all those that have worked for his coming into office in 2011 and 2015, 90% of them are no more with him. They have formed the unity forum. During the primaries, we were required to purchase forms and all of us in our group purchase forms. The governor’s camp did not purchase forms. It was very clear as of Sunday before the primaries congresses that they have not purchased forms. Somehow, magic happened such that the man who did not buy JAMB form was issued a letter of admission, the man who bought form, sat for exams was denied admission. Justifiably, they left in annoyance and form the unity forum. Our members in the forum constituted the larger portion of the All Progressives Congress APC in Oyo State. We left in annoyance because if this injustice is happening in the party, then they will not allow themselves to be used for any further success for the party in the future.
It is redeemable because I decided to remain in APC and I believe, that we can still fight for justice within the party. The members of the forum believed that if I get the ticket of the party, we can get all the people that left back. I am the only one remaining in the party that can bring victory to APC in 2019. The options that the party has at the national level are only two. Either I get the ticket and get everybody back or another person gets it and the party gets grounded or whatever happens after.
Are you not bordered about the defection hitting the APC?
States are different from one another. The situation we have in Kwara State for instance, when Saraki and his group left, even during his membership of the party, he was operating more like an opposition element within the APC government, unfortunately. The good thing is that the PDP he defected to, decided they were going to replace him in the APC and that was exactly what happened. If you take, for instance, the defection of Bauchi senators who defected from APC have become personnel nongrata in their constituencies. In Sokoto where the governor decided to defect, in a day 250 aides resigned and these are grassroots politicians. How is he going to survive? In Kano State, you know that it has been very difficult for Kwankwaso to go back to his constituency since he left the ruling party. If he is that popular, it will be easy for him to go and consult with his people.
If Saraki was operating as an opposition element in APC, why was he not ejected from the party before he left?
The rules are there, particularly for the members of the legislature. Anybody that is elected into an office, the procedures outlined in the constitution must be followed. The important thing is that the APC has a person in Mr. President who is loved and that is because he has distinguished himself as one leader who has no equal in the contemporary Nigerian politics. If the APC had gotten lesser personality things would have been worse than it is now.
What does 2019 hold for APC?
I see Mr. President getting easy way victory more than he did in 2015. Farmers all over the country have promised 30 million votes. In the agricultural sector more than 80 million jobs have been created.
Why has the FG not taken decisive action against killer Fulani herders as in the case of IPOB?
Fulani herders are not identifiable. IPOB must be distinguished from Fulani herders because IPOB was determined to bring about the disintegration of Nigeria. They were involved in treasonable felony and any organization involved in treasonable felony simply gets the type of treatment that IPOB got. You will never see Boko-Haram elements gathered anywhere and that is because they are always on the run. IPOB was engaged in sabotaging Nigeria’s existence as a nation.
The case of Benue State is a heavily politicized one. Before the killings by Fulani herders, there is a criminal called Gana, who is at large. He is an indigene of Benue State who has been involved in killings and as a matter of fact, was granted amnesty on three different occasions by Governor Ortom. He will come and surrender guns with his gangs, take government money only to go and regroup after three weeks. Governor Ortom decided to politicize it in order to cover up his deficiencies in the payment of workers.
What are your achievements since you assumed duty as the minister of communications?
When I was appointed, coming from the background of law, a lot of stakeholders had misgivings and they opposed my appointment. Barely one and a half years in office, had they honored me with a Fellowship of Nigeria Communication, the highest award in the communication industry. They couldn’t have done that for fun of it, neither were they forced to do so. These are operators from the private sector who were astonished by the favorable policy frameworks that transform the communications sector speedily.
Before I assumed office, there was nothing like ICT roadmap. There was nothing to guide the growth and development of ICT. When I came on board I organized a one week retreat in Ibadan where over 400 professionals were gathered to brainstorm on the way forward for Mirror of growth in ICT, and now we have ICT roadmap 2017-2020
Secondly, we have provided adequate supervision in the industry by way of regulations through the NCC, MSDA… If you take NICOMSAT which engages in satellite communication, we only have one satellite in the orbit. We evolved a policy that it must escalate to three. We have since gone into consultations with the manufacturers in China and have been able to secure 100% funding for it. In MSDA we have been able to establish ICT centers in universities and have strengthened local content policy of the federal government.
Another area we are going to have the greatest achievement is in NIPOST. we are rebranding and commercializing NIPOST. Five new companies will be established that will be in charge of different functions.
If elected as governor of Oyo States, what will you do in your first years?
The roads are in bad shape and for which government does not have money to repair will be handed over to the private sector to develop and toll them. I will revitalize the farm settlements which have been established, create new ones and get all our agricultural graduates into farm settlements. For all other graduates, I will take them through three months of entrepreneurship training and create jobs for them. The second year I will fix educational infrastructure. My plan is that within two years there must be free education at all levels. We are called progressive party we should have a semblance of Chief Awolowo’s government. We are not progressive if we are not doing anything differently from the PDP. It is uncharitable for government to be unable to pay salaries as at when due. The health sector will be revitalized. Every village will have access to health care. I will really be a servant of the people. Public office makes one a public servant. A situation where people get offices and become bosses only because they are more interested in the glamour of the office, rather than having any vision in transforming the lives of the people must change.