Presidential candidate of Action Alliance (AA), Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd), a former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late General Sanni Abacha, explains why the growth of Nigeria is retarded, and his ‘wrongful’ arrests and detention for many years as well as the anti-graft war, among other issues, during a Channels TV interview tagged ‘Political Paradigm’ monitored by Deborah Onyofufeke

President Muhammadu Buhari recently presented a budget of N20.15trn to the Nationally Assembly and if you become president in 2023 that is the budget you will be working with, what are your thoughts on it?

Numerous things come to mind. First of all, I have been following this country for decades and looking at the numerous genesis that is retarding Nigeria, some of the issues some of us will come up with might not be palatable to the ears of some, but it is definitely in the best interest of Nigeria. If you are seeking governance, realism, truths, or facts in your hands are what you should seem to work with for the common good of Nigerians. There is something called dirty budget politics, in countries earmarked to either be retarded or be destroyed. Looking at the journey so far, there are numerous things people have not been talking about and in Nigeria, it is as if Nigeria has been targeted for decades never to grow. We shall examine the contents, figures, and implementation. Here, I have seen and listened to the summary, we are still studying it but to me, there’s so much to be desired and when the time comes, God almighty bestow upon us the opportunity to preside over Nigeria. We would be very scientific, and prudent, we will also be seen to be very strategic in looking at the budget. You know, budget, anticipator mergers from the capital, and recurrent expenditure are numerous. Politics involved. If you take, for example, the 2022 budget, if you look at it from January to this year in retrospect and the performance of the budget, you have so many big question marks, from the institutions that you have and then from what is earmarked for Nigeria, we have a lot of big question marks. So, it’s been decades and decades past and for us, this country deserves much more in terms of budget implementation. It is one very hard nut to break but we have the know-how. We look at some duplications and what’s in spending, we look at figures that never add up and we look at the foolishness with which the executive arm of government is in most cases abused. Where misrepresentation of facts and figures are presented; where the performance of budget is given in terms of percentages, if it is given in quarter A when quarter B comes and you add it up, you might not end up seeing the same thing. So, when you have been particular in looking at it with Eagle eyes, you will be able to know, what the budget was meant for, its consumption, preparation, and to the stage of implementation that lies ahead load for us to understand and to know that there are games. Once we come, we shall not continue with what we meet. There are things we know and there are things we bring to the fore.

You know the implementation of the budget as you mentioned is quite important. If you look at the 2023 proposed budget, capital expenditures are just about N5trn and the budget has a deficit of N11trn, would you borrow to fund these budgets?
No, I will not borrow.

So, how would you get the finances?
First, the previous budget, in our investigations looking at it in retrospect, as presented to us, duplications and waste. Waste of resources, waste in terms of servicing structures, that are duplicated from numerous ministries, and these are the ones managing the economy, they are in the major ministries, and there are numerous of such that are there. Some came to the fore when the MDGs and the rest were created, so, it became an avenue where budgets were meant for tiny little cells of four to five people, you will see 80, 50, 90, a 100 plus billions being budgeted for those, but if you sit down and look at what it is budgeted for, you can understand the colossal waste going on and people are enjoying it. Keep that aside, the issue of wealth creation from outside Nigeria is something new to Nigerians mainstream in government investing and understanding in governance. The issue of also curtailing waste and creating resources from home. Let me give you an example. God has blessed us with gas, also in the process of taking it. Your environment is being by the day destroyed, this destruction, this seeming death, if you sit down and look at the international market if you bother to do your investigation in knowing what it is at the international scene has been numerous openings in the world, who are desirous of what you consider as debts. You take 11 per cent of your gas deposit, the small one, we are not talking about the major 3.176 trillion. No, from what you have alone, for you to be able to augment, get your structures adjusted, get people to be accountable, and get institutions to be functional, you can draw from a certain Arithmetic that we have done, 11 per cent of what you have is going to create $201bn. As of June this year, every state can boast of itself in all the industries you have an unemployment issue can be a bygone thing because what we are talking about is making Nigeria productive to be seen to be exporting rather than importing and we have what it takes to be the world market.

Is that like a long-term goal?
No

With regards to funding this 2023 budget which you say that you will not borrow for, where will you get the funding in such a short while?

I have just told you about 11 per cent of something that is already here, the market is already there, it is a matter of negotiation. In terms of weeks, it is done. You remember we are also going to curtail so much from the west that we knew of from the previous budget, add it all up together then definitely, we are going to have resources to utilise in pulling Nigeria pending when the international negotiations are done. Between one month to two months.

Allow me to take you to something else that’s contained in the budget, the ASUU issue, the President has proposed N470bn, in the 2023 budget, but he goes further to say that the government cannot alone fund education and he believes that we should find more lasting ways to address this issue once and for all, do you have an idea how that can be solved?

I have. Let me give you a little example, some of the things bedevilling Nigeria today is security. The insecurity in Nigeria is not borne out of social problems only, then the question now is, for example, why Boko Haram? Who created Boko Haram? When was it created? It will be 22 years plus today, from 1st November 1999. What was the reason? Solid mineral resources. What is there? Precious stones? One of the most precious stones on earth. What is the quantity in Nigeria? Where is it located? Is the market available? The fact that you have precious stones in your land, you have enough money. Let’s assume Boko Haram has for 22 years, there are countries involved. I’m being bold to say so. There are countries involved who created Boko Haram and diverted the attention of Nigerians and the leadership of Nigeria, inflicted maximum punishment in killing men, women, Muslims, and Christians, putting all the bombs, from all the records we have seen so far, shamefully, but I tell you, the aim of it is to take our resources and I have evidence to show. We’ve been there, we’ve been to the Francophone countries between our borders and we know how these things are laid, between our borders, looking at Borno State, looking at Bauchi, looking at part of Yobe state, looking at Adamawa, looking at Gombe. Now, looking at Nigeria from the francophone countries, Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria, for example in that plank, the 1, 864 kilometres borders, you will be able to examine the happenings here, the stories created and the happenings from the other end and the movement in terms of excavation. That is a colossal amount of money in hundreds and hundreds and billions of dollars. Yet here we are, we don’t have, we even seek to avenge to look for money to run an operation for us to bring security from where resources of Nigeria are taken away. It’s for example, they are taking away a hundred and you are busy looking for a kobo to be able to maintain yourself when you have hundreds of that going away. So, this aside, the fact that we have also taken the pains to go around the world to know, these precious resources have a market and in the international market, there are numerous buyers. Bilateral or a diplomatic economic movement or energy that can bring resources to you in your country. Nigeria ought not to be where it is. Let’s assume the precious stone, the rare stones have already finished, look at the global business games going on today, look at the richest man on earth, what is his background? Lithium. In all 19 northern states, you have lithium. There are six, or seven states, where you have lithium, and the market is readily available. Let’s take one of the poorest states, Kebbi. The worth of what is known to be in Kebbi State is $318bn as of today’s price. $318bn worth is deposited in Kebbi State. They don’t have any economic plan, they have nothing to fall back on other than agriculture.

So, this is a sub-national problem more than a federal problem, isn’t it?
Yes. That is why I always say, we don’t know who we are, we don’t know what we have. And then today, we cannot say I’m running a country on a daily routine or yearly routine. Where are our economic targets? What do we want to achieve? From now to 50 years, what is Nigeria’s direction? The compass shows nothing other than daily routine. There is nothing as damaging as retarding a country to seeing itself from a budget that comes year by year. It means you have subjected yourself to those who initiated the doctoring and concept of what is called dirty budget politics. Dirty budget politics is a weapon.

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What is the lasting solution to funding education beyond the Federal government?
All I am telling you is revenue, and wealth creation from home. Wealth creation to augment that. From what Kebbi state alone has if you can say from what all the states have, all the 19 northern states have a deposit of that. So, you can now sit down and have an agreement in the same way we’ve had before oil. Adding a quarter to take care of a particular issue, from all our productions by the day, dedicate this amount to that. You by now as a country own strategic terms. We are supposed to be looking at our dedication to how to handle this plan. We have all it takes to be. Have the money, have a dedicated account, and be involved in international trades, as the nation is evolving, you are making more money than that. For example, ASUU in itself is established, you cannot do without them. The question is if it is the body that you care for, why can’t you give them oil allocations? Why can’t you give them mining allocations? The account is to be monitored, dedicated, and controlled by the government. The amount coming from there, the excesses coming from ASUU, you will do. Part of it, you will now do to manage your economy. There are 10 million and 10 ways to do it. Tying yourself to yesterday’s routines because it was introduced by whatever previous government before to say that unless you do it this way, nothing works.

Does this go to say, you stand with ASUU and you fault the federal government’s handling of the situation especially with the recent registration of new education bodies to sort of counter ASUU and the compulsion, especially from the federal government that took ASUU to court to return to the classrooms?
Leadership provision is called sacrifice, it is not that funfair. When the whole world, the whole country, you as a leader have no right to now present your anger or promote your desire or ego to the fore. You are a manager, a provider, the touch bearer that beams flashes of light against obstacles laid against the country. You are to carry all along, you have the patience, you have the qualities, you have the ability and the capacity, that’s why you are given but if you turn around to behave like those you are leading, then, it shows that you are not fit to be there. All I am saying is, the institutions or the ministries responsible for this should understand. Doing in-depth homework is incumbent upon them. If you cannot do in-depth homework to carry people along, you are misrepresenting the government. If ASSU, also, on the other hand, don’t have anybody who interacts with them, that’s failure number one. If ASUU is also one-way traffic from the hardship they see, then that is to say there are no gaps of interactions between themselves and to say there are no gaps of interaction between themselves and the ministry of education. The Ministry of Labour and are supposed to have synergy before meeting together. In any matter in life, take note of this, there is one point called a common ground, And in national interest from patriotism, there are some certain percentages of agreement. You will see agree, and disperse intellectually, God gives you the mind to sit down and assume the totality of who you are and what you have. Some solutions are in abundance. That’s why I am worried. Why must you be seen to be stereotyped, to copy past things? A government that is not ready to create wealth that is not ready to be innovative is not a government that is going to be able to provide.

It seems you have spent a great percentage of your time during this campaign to change the narrative about yourself as Nigerians have a perception of you based on your history with the late Head of State Gen. Sanni Abacha and as you try to transition from the military to civilian rule, are you concerned about how you are perceived going into the election?
I’m not concerned. Ask me why?

Why?
I’m a victim of the perception or effect of propaganda over some time. The me that you see is the same me that was. My record, I have served in Nigeria, and we created numerous things for Nigeria and record speaks. I suffered from propaganda for 15 years, both torture, and trying to just call me a bad name. In the essence was for me not to survive. You know two years ago in the year 2019, that was when we discovered last that there were 18 attempts to kill me approved. As of 2013 when I am out I was aware of 11 attempts with the authority to kill me because the essence of the game then was every blessed day, papers were paid, magazines, whatever they write in the evening, by morning, radio and television will echo just to give me that bad name so that there will justification in killing me. Many events happened, but I have not talked about them yet. The name they gave me is different and the me that was is me that is my background speaks for itself in terms of building this country from my grand grandparents, what they did to Nigeria, and what we are doing in building. Nigeria up. So, power comes from God almighty. Power comes from God Almighty and it’s determined by God almighty. Everybody has his individual and collective destiny, if it is incumbent upon us, we are sure, we know who we are, we are facing people with that sincere and clear minds, to provide leadership that is different because we are going to demarcate from numerous routines in Nigeria.

You have a lot of negatives attached to your name and I think going into the elections, you have a lot of work to do. I say this because attached to your name are murder allegations, which will include former Vice President Olusegun Obasanjo, and then there are also drug trafficking allegations. How do you intend to address some of these things because you say you are the victim?

First of all, regarding the issue of murder, I faced 14 judges in 15 years and that has been cleared and there’s no iota of truth in it. People were contracted, the like of Rogers, and one Abdul Katakwo, were paid money and taught what to say. He confessed that in a court of law. The fact the media were denied capture that is another thing but we have the court documents in our hands. All we are waiting for is for the Supreme Court to now give a certain rule so that we now unveil all these for the world to see. It was a calculated game to tarnish our names just to kill us. But why were they ready to kill me? It’s simply because of what I know. I found myself in a position where I refused to compromise Nigeria and that refusal to compromise presented me as an enemy. I’m the last person that will compromise Nigeria’s well-being or welfare. That aside, the issue of drugs, nobody ever alleged anything to do with drugs in my life. There was a magazine called Razor magazine at a particular point in time, in 1999 after Abacha died, some people who believed that I refused them to take Nigeria’s money after handing them over To Abacha’s government now went to Razor magazine and rated me as the sixth richest African with $600bn. Does that make sense? But it was in that magazine and they said he must be trafficking in drugs otherwise he cannot be the 6th richest African. I don’t have money, I have never stolen N10. I challenged two governments. I challenged Gen Abdusalami Abubakar’s government, I challenged Olusegun Obasanjo’s government on that, they searched, I was ransacked, bigger international investigative agencies, and police, my eyes, and thumbprint were taken around but they saw nothing but rather than telling the whole world my clean bill record, they still kept it aside. So, the disservice that they have done, and the fact that I am alive, I thank God almighty. The fact that God almighty has allowed me to come to the fore myself, is a big blessing that I am thankful to God almighty for

You know this is a sensitive matter to be careful about as we move closer to the election because the perception, the narrative that was pushed out there was that you were a man to be feared and while you try to clear that up, there are also allegations of coup attempts. Why should Nigeria trust you with their democracy if there are allegations of coup attempts on you?

I tell you this, the late Gani Fawehinmi when he was alive, and the late Dr Frederick Fashehu were sold the idea to believe that I was in prison and even in that prison only a dove of us were in the worst section. We were allowed to see only five people in a day with a picture, with addresses, telephone numbers, and location of the person, signing and thumb printing and giving copies to SSS and all other security agencies. These were the only ones we were entitled to but the worst arm robber in that prison was entitled to as many visitors as time permitted. We don’t have all the services we render to Nigeria. The essence is to keep people away from us. So with all the restrictions while we were there, allowing people to see us with difficulties including our families and lawyers because in list cases, the court has allowed our lawyers to have access to us. Even lawyers had restrictions on coming to see us. There are many SANs involved. I know how much they suffered to have access to us, to talk to us on our right. Yet it was in such a situation that they said some of us were planning a coup. I was just arrested. I faced a panel. One time, I was charged for 15 years, and one time I was charged for coup five times in one of the sittings I looked at the panel and asked one of them who are those staging coups? What are the names of the spirit? Because there was a time I was underground on solitary detention in Nigeria, most the newspapers and magazines have written that I was staging a coup and I was brought before a panel. To cut it short, the members of this particular one I am talking about, one by one, exonerated themselves and told me they were told to incriminate me. These are senior people in society today. So, it was okay for them to retard me, and tarnish my image and they have done it. How is a coup conceived? How is a coup done? They have done it and people believed what they saw so, at the end of the day, I am here. If I were to be afraid, if there were to be any iota of me being involved in a coup yesterday or the drugs you talked about yesterday, how come I’m here? How come I go to Nigeria from north to South everywhere for free? I drive myself alone. I go everywhere alone. There’s nobody who will tell how I have cheated him.

Have you gone past whatever you went through for 15yrs? Have you healed from it?

Healing from it? It takes a long time too. The fact that I was the firstborn of my parents and the fact that we are not at war, and the fact that Nigeria was not divided, in 15yrs, a southern military officer being treated like an animal every day on chains. Hands, legs, and neck. I was in solitary detention for 5yrs 2months, and my parents were only allowed to see me twice in 15yrs when I finally got my freedom God willing, I came and met an empty home they were not there. Do you know the pains of that? I’m their best friend. Do you know what this psychological impact has? Yet, we always look unto God Almighty in what we say and what we do. And I have forgiven those who did. Ask me why?

Why?

Every person in life, either you know or you don’t know it, you are on trial. If you are on freedom, you are on trial. If you lost freedom, you are on trial, if you are a rich man you are on trial, if you are a poor person, you are on trial, if you are a leader, you are on trial, if you are being led, you are on trial. Any single thing. You are questioning me here, you are on trial. Why? Because you have the initiative here. I’m on trial because I am responding to your questions and that is life. So, the fact that it is God who permitted the trial in itself, I look unto God. I don’t know what he desires to achieve, but I know what he wants to do with me so, all I have to do is turn on to God alone but those who persecuted me themselves, I wish and I pray, they now have the opportunity to come to the fore. Look at themselves, look at their ages, and look at what they have done, knowing fully well that I have forgiven them. I want them to come to the fore and tell the world the truth. That’s all.

Will that help with your healing process?

Not my healing process, it will educate Nigerians.

But have you healed?

I am because I trust in God Almighty.

Here’s why I ask the question about healing. Should you become President in 2023, Nigerians would like to know where the line will be drawn between fighting perhaps those who are involved in corrupt practices and vengeance

No. For me, the very moment I stepped out of prison, the media who covered my stepping out of prison, the prison staff, family, and numerous well-wishers knew the first thing I did. I stopped, I prayed for those who persecuted me, those who wrote all the lies against me, and those who subjected me to punishment. Those who believed that their punishment also will not allow me to be a normal person because of the nature of the punishment.