Few days
before he was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) to answer allegations of corruption against him, a former
governor of Benue State, Dr Gabriel Suswam, spoke on issues surrounding
his tenure.
How it all started and challenges encountered as the chief helmsman of Benue State
I started 16 years ago in the House of
Representatives and ended up as the chief executive of Benue State for
eight years. As human beings, we are mere mortals and bound to make
mistakes, nobody is perfect. Best is a relative term; what I consider my
best might not be the best to others, but I think I did my best for the
state as far as my eight years were concerned. I have refrained from
joining issues because, as governor, I know the heat especially in
Benue. Benue is one of the toughest states to govern because I know what
it means and for somebody who knows so much and has personal
experience, I would want the present governor of that state to operate
in peace. In-spite of the bashing, the insinuations, the insults, you
will observe that I have kept silent. It’s not that I cannot respond or
join issues but it is expected that,
after occupying such a sensitive office,
it is important to maintain that level of maturity. No amount of
provocation should make you make comments on certain things. Many
outsiders do not know how government runs, and so there are
insinuations, especially with the current situation in the country
where everyone is shouting corruption.
You will observe that the same people
shouting corruption today are those who, in the past, engaged in same
acts of corruption. Corruption is not just people taking money; it could
be moral corruption. Most time, Nigerians swing like pendulum; if
someone comes right now and takes a different approach, that is where
they will swing to. We need our country to be on the path of development
and be focused. If the genuine effort of the current leadership is
geared towards the path of development, then we should all support it.
When they talk about corruption, the
focus is on some of us who are exposed, but how about the driver you
sent to buy something for three thousand naira and he came back telling
you it was bought for five thousand naira? I believe the approach of
the current leadership is probably to start with the big fishes in
order to put fear in the smaller fishes; therefore I urge all Nigerians
to support the genuine and legitimate efforts of this administration
aimed at repositioning the country. I have no fear, but we are in a
democratic setting where the rule of law is paramount and I believe
that, in addressing those issues, following the code of conduct should
be ultimate goal in order to avoid the violation of the rights of the
citizens.
On the allegation that he left behind empty treasury for his successor
Most of the constituent parts of this
country depend on one source of revenue the federation account. Money is
shared from that account every month based on certain indices. For
some states that are cosmopolitan, they have high internally generated
revenue but such states are very few. But the bulk of the states
depend on the federation account.
There is no state that depends on the
federation account that the former governor will boast of leaving money
behind. Because, first, the money comes, you pay salaries, you do
projects; even if you are not doing project, salaries alone will consume
the money and so, when somebody says you left an empty treasury, it
amuses me because when I assumed office, I met nothing. In almost all
the states of the federation, there is no governor that left office that
will confidently boast of leaving money behind except that governor did
not execute any project. When the former governor of Borno State said
he left over N60 billion, it was local government money; no local
government project was executed in that state; the governor was just
taking the money and keeping it. Leaving money behind can be achieved
only when no projects are carried out, but then at whose expense? It
means that at the end of your tenure, you will have nothing to show for
the years of governance. Even states that I mentioned earlier that have
other source of revenue
generation, they are the highest
indebted states. Look at Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, they have high
debt profile. Benue State is the least indebted state from the record
that was published. There is no way under the circumstances we find
ourselves that any outgoing governor will talk about leaving money
behind. I was doing a lot of projects in the state some of which I
could not even complete because there was no money.
If you come in newly and you don’t
understand the nuances of government, you are bound to make such
statements. Most of such statements are intended to make you popular and
paint the outgoing administration in bad light. But, with time, after
you understand the way the system operates, you won’t be able to talk
again. I was reading in the papers sometime ago that the government of
Benue cannot pay salaries because money is not enough, and I laughed
because Governor Ortom has spent just four months in office. That is the
situation that I faced, but mine was even in the last six months of my
government and I left just salaries of four months unpaid. There are
some second term governors that currently owe workers salaries more than
what I left behind. Some of the issues the current administration is
raising are issues that are intended to reduce the outgoing
administration in the eyes of the people and paint it bad, but I have
taken all that
in good faith because I went for political office and I must also be ready to face the consequence that comes with it.
Why did your administration rely on one source of income? What happened to the agricultural potentials of the state?
I assumed office in 2007 and, if you are
familiar with Benue, you will know that the state is basically rural.
There was no way to engage in mechanized or large scale farming. One of
the factors that contributed to making agriculture viable is that there
must be free movement of goods. I decided to spend the chunk of the
money on providing roads in virtually all the zones. As you all know,
road projects are the most expensive infrastructure that you can engage
in as a government. I did a road from Katsina-Ala to Logo; Adikpo to
Ikyogen; I started a road between Vandeikya and Adikpo with 70 percent
of the work done; from Ushogo to Konshisha which is ongoing. Then I
went to Zone C and constructed a lot of roads. I embarked on water
projects. Those things are
the main drivers of agriculture and, for
you to diversify, the basic infrastructure must be on ground; we had
to lay the foundation.
The only industry in Benue then was
Benue Cement which is now Dangote Cement but was closing and opening. I
decided to bring in the Board of Internal Revenue (BIRS). But,
unfortunately, it was making noise more than what was coming in. The
highest revenue we generated was N250 million. The Chairman of the
Board kept saying he was generating N1billion; so people started
saying Suswam was sitting on N1billion.
The new administration has come in; they
have been investigating; they discovered that there was nothing like
that. It was basically payee. When you remove civil servants pay as you
earn, because the money is not enough, you remove it on paper and it
remains on paper that it is reduce but you use it in paying their
salaries. It is not going to the coffers as revenue but it is reported
as revenue and that one was like about 600 to 700 million a month and
when you add what he was generating, 150 million or 250 million a
month, he will say he was generating 1billion. It was all lies, Benue
had never at anytime generated up to 400million a month. It was not
possible for you to generate money that will complement what we were
receiving from the federation account. The government is probing me and
investigating; they will discover that it is impracticable.
Throughout my period as governor, with
all the efforts we put in, the highest we generated in a month was
N250million and it was because Dangote paid some money from the
factory. On the issue of diversification, the current administration can
leverage on that because some of the basics are there; I put good
roads in place where roads never existed, electricity where it never
existed, water and, since government is a continuum, we are building
blocks.
On whether he will lend his voice in support of the incumbent governor when the need arises
Let me answer that by saying that I did
what has never been done in the state before. I called Governor Samuel
Ortom to congratulate him when he won the election. When I took over
government, nobody bought any official car for me but I bought official
cars for Ortom. I left some of the vehicles I was using for him, took
him on official tour of the state and told him that anytime he needs me
on anything, he should not hesitate to call me. From my disposition,
you will know that anytime he needs my advice on anything, I will be
there, not minding his hostile disposition to me. My interest is that
Benue should move forward. I know the consequence of political
leadership when things turn the other way and I am ready to face the
consequence that comes with leadership. What is of interest now are the
Benue people. When I went
to take a deserved rest, they said I
ran away. I am here to answer any questions from the probe committee
and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
On the probe committee
As human beings, our approach to issues
differ and also depends on different backgrounds and what we intend to
achieve. My approach to life generally is that life is very short; so
why create problems when you can avoid them. When I came in, I met
several issues on ground but I felt that there was no basis for me to
start emphasizing on them because the people voted for me not to come
and start saying that the outgoing governor has done this and that, they
voted for me because I promised that I was going to come and make a
difference and I concentrated on that right from day one and I avoided
situations that will create unnecessary conflict in the state. The
approach of the current leadership is totally different; so you can’t
compare two different people with different approaches. I have no
quarrel with the probe, the outcome will determine how events will
unfold. I won’t be in the position to say they are setting a bad
precedent, whether bad or
good, it depends on who is setting the precedent.
You started governance with zeal but later derailed. What happened?
Leadership in modern world is in the
hands of young men because you have the power, energy and the intellect,
but, in this part of the country, when you are a young leader, people
tend to draw you back. I went all out when I assumed office and decided
to address the issue of infrastructure. When I started building the walk
ways, a lot of people did not understand what I was doing. They said I
was narrowing the roads because they didn’t understand it and you won’t
blame them because most of them had never seen that before. I did that
because there were a lot of motorcycle and pedestrian accidents. I was
at the same time building rural roads and three major water works. No
state government that started in 2007 and later in 2015 did that. I did
that in the first four years.
All of us know what happened in 2007. I
won the election but I was in court for four years. The intention was to
distract me; it was either I forged results, or people claiming their
mandate, “mandate groups”. I finished the one of forging certificate,
they moved to another. Whether you like it not, there is no way such
issues will arise that you will not be distracted. I attended Government
Secondary School, Makurdi and fifteen of us had the best result. I went
to SBS and out of fifteen points I got ten; that was why I was admitted
to read law in the University of Lagos. After UNILAG, I did my first
masters degree in University of Abuja, second masters degree in law at
the University of Jos. I started my PHD before I became governor. I
didn’t go to Toronto, the intention was to distract me. I was in court
for four years and the case ended when I was leaving office.
When I assumed office, to motivate civil
servants; I increased their salary because Permanent Secretaries were
receiving about N45, 000, Directors N26, 000. But by the time I was
leaving office, Permanent Secretaries were receiving N400,000 and
Directors N300,000 every month. Then they brought in the issue of
national salary increase and you will also recall the teachers twenty
seven and half percent. All of these increases came in while the
federation account indices had not changed. When I assumed office, the
wage bill of civil servants in the state was between 400 and 700
million a month, the one for teachers was 400 million while the wagebill
for local governments was in the region of 700. But at the time I was
leaving, the local governments wagebill was N3 billion while that of the
state was between 2.7 and 2.9 billion a month.
And so, all the money we were getting
during my second tenure was going into recurrent expenditure and, under
such circumstance, there was nothing I could do. Throughout my eight
years I borrowed N17.5 billion, made up of 13 billion bonds and N4.5
billion to enable me complete the projects I started. There was no
derailment, it was just that the funding we had before was no longer
there.
On why he is challenging the probe panel set up by Ortom to probe him? Will it not be interpreted that he is guilty?
When you set up a biased panel, why
won’t I go to court? Look at the members of that panel, are they not all
APC members? Apart from the judge, every other member of that panel is
an APC member; so do you believe I will get justice from such a probe? I
believe that it is only when I go to court that I will get justice.
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