Balewa Conceived Idea Of Dredging River Niger – Yakasai

Alhaji Tanko Yakasai can be described as one of the few men who has seen it all in the Nigerian political arena having been in the game since pre-independence. In this interview with ABUBAKAR SALIHI, the former presidential adviser in the Second Republic went down memory lane on how politics was played in the early days of independent Nigeria and what obtains today

Having taken part in the struggle for the independence of Nigeria, can you share your experience with us?

During the struggle for independence, we were committed to make whatever sacrifice was needed for us to achieve independence. Good people of Nigeria and political leaders in particular from all part of the country made enormous sacrifice in order to realize our objectives of getting the country free. I said, to some extent we are satisfied that we have now seen the result of our effort that the country is not under subjugation of any foreign power that we are in control of our affairs. Whether we are now doing it in the wrong or right way is different matter.

 

You must have had objective/ vision for Nigeria’s self-governance, looking at the 53 years we spent as independent nation have those set objectives been achieved?

Yes, to some extent. That by and large we could have achieved far better than what we have achieved so far. If we compare Nigeria with those countries that were at same level with us before independence, one will see how much they were able to achieve within the period in question. We feel certainly we could have achieved more than what we have achieved so far. Compare the achievements of Nigeria with countries like India, Brazil, Malaysia, Singapore and rest of them, we were at the same level with them at the time of independence but they are now far ahead of Nigeria because they have committed leadership. They also have an enduring democracy. What is really disappointing is that the way we started after independence is not the way that we ended up today.

When we became independent, we have our prime minister as the leader of the government at the center; he had quite a number of programmes in the transformation of Nigeria into a highly developed country. We can take a few examples, he initiated the construction of Kainji dam which the purpose was to generate power and also provide for irrigation. It was conceived to be completed in three stages which the late prime minister was able to complete the first stage and till today after decades we have not moved an inch from where he left. When the dam was constructed, irrigation programme was introduced at Kainji. The purpose then was to see which crops could we grow in Nigeria and the hope was that after identifying the crops that will be able to irrigate in the country, then irrigation farming will be spread all over the country.

He awarded contract for the study of our water resources; Netherland company was awarded contract to survey water resources potential and also make recommendations for nationwide irrigation programme. The company carried out the assignment and submitted their report, unfortunately at the time when prime minister is thinking of implementing the programme-he was assassinated. That terminated the programme, otherwise we could have been producing through irrigation as much crops during the rainy period and that will make ordinary farmer a well to do throughout rainy time. We will also be able to produce crops that will be enough to feed the nation, export and cash crop. But we were not able to achieve that because of the truncation of democratic process.

Again, around the time the prime minister was assassinated he had just commissioned the first phase of railway extension in the country. The railway was taken from Plateau to Bauchi to Gombe and to Maiduguri and the second phase was from Zamfara to Sokoto and from Zamfara to Katsina. In the other region, the railway was to be taken from Enugu to Calabar and other areas in the region. In fact, there was a plan that the entire country will be networked in the railway system so that goods and services will be moved quickly and cheaply. I have been to some part of Egypt and I saw how much goods were carried by train in large quantity and at cheaper rate. I took a train in Egypt to survey whether I could see anybody who is not gainfully engaged, surprising I could not see any at railway stations or Motor Park doing nothing.

Abubakar Tafawa also conceived the idea of dredging River Niger. Ocean going ships will be able to come all the way to not only Lokoja but also as far as to Yawuri to bring goods to Yawuri and also export our goods to outside world. Also in addition conceived the idea of TransSaharan route that will provide for double carriage way from here to Libya to Algeria and the idea is that if you can bring in goods from Mediterranean Sea to Nigeria it will come half at a price as we are now paying. If one take a look at a map and see how a ship goes round before coming to Lagos and PortHarcout and see how it will go to Libya or Algeria from Asia or Europe, you find that the journey is very much shorter. Most of the cost of the goods that we are now buying is gone for the payment of transportation of goods from the countries of import.

 

As one of those who took part in the struggle for Nigeria’s independence, how would you access our pre- independence politics/politicians and what we have today?

Politicians of pre independence were committed to their ideology. Everybody was doing it like a religion. Nobody was doing anything for his own sake. For example, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was elected member house of representative in 1951 and he moved from ordinary member to minister of transport and was later the prime minister and the whole country was under him. Surulere was a massive area and was developed under his care, while Victoria Island was part of the Lagos lagoon and it was reclaimed by bringing sand to fill and then plot were allocated. With all these developments, Sir, Abubakar died without a single house of his own. He hasn’t invested anywhere in the country, same applied to Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna. He ruled the biggest region of the then northern region, so also Michael Okpara. The approach was to serve the country not selfish interest as its now.

 

Balewa Conceived Idea Of Dredging River Niger – Yakasai