Prison experience should be made mandatory for public office holders -Bafarawa

You were recently arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after a meeting of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) over allegations of financial misappropriation. You were subsequently detained, arraigned before a Sokoto High Court, remanded in prison custody before you were released on bail. Did all this come to you as a surprise? […]

You were recently arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after a meeting of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) over allegations of financial misappropriation. You were subsequently detained, arraigned before a Sokoto High Court, remanded in prison custody before you were released on bail. Did all this come to you as a surprise?

Honestly speaking, it didn’t come to me as a surprise. This is because I knew there was a long time plan to arrest me. Therefore, all these things that happened to me recently didn’t come to me as a surprise at all. I had foreseen something like that coming long time ago. It was something that was premeditated and planned for by some people for a long time.

Most of the former governors arrested by the EFCC were arraigned in Abuja or Lagos. Did it come to you as a surprise that you were treated differently; as you were arrested in Abuja but about arraigned in Sokoto, your home state, were you served as governor for eight years?

You see, it is good that many people are making these observations. But as far as I am concerned, I am not bothered  about the place I was arraigned. Where I was arraigned doesn’t matter because I firmly believe that the truth would definitely come out.

Can you relate to us some of your experiences in prison?    

You see, I take whatever happened to me as work of the Almighty. I live a normal life wherever I find myself. I didn’t find it any difficult. I was very comfortable. I was actually comforted by the fact that I didn’t commit any offence. I therefore didn’t find it difficult to adapt to the condition I found myself in.

How did you feel when hundreds of your supporters thronged to the prison for a solidarity visit?

First, I was touched because I couldn’t believe the number of people that came to see me in prison. Secondly, it was a sort of reassurance that the Almighty is on my side. I felt also very happy by the way and manner our people behaved, particularly how they physically came to keep in touch with me.  I was very much elated by the level of support demonstrated to me by the people of Sokoto and the country at large towards my arrest and detention.

Did your arrest and detention dampened your political morale particularly at the national level where you are currently joining forces with other opposition leaders like the two-term presidential candidate of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) General Muhammadu Buhari and the former vice president and Action Congress (AC’s) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to provide a formidable platform that would enable Nigerians to wrestle power  from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011 general elections?

You see, I am not in politics to make money. I am in politics to ensure changes in the lives of the electorate. Therefore, whatever challenges and persecution I encounter would only encourage me to continue with the struggle. What has happened to me would never discourage me from our current struggle of enthroning good governance and responsive leadership in the country. What we are fighting for now is to restore democracy and justice for all in the country. I am neither discouraged nor scared in what I am doing. In fact, I can only say that this development has further emboldened me to continue with the struggle.

The person allegedly behind your current travails is somebody you brought into politics. How do you feel being treated this way by someone you groomed politically?

Well, it doesn’t matter. I believe the Almighty is there to judge between me and whoever has a hand in this. As far as I am concerned, I don’t blame anybody. Whatever anybody has done, that is his own business. All I know is that the truth will surely come out.  You may recall that I am the very person that took this matter to EFCC. But, at the end of the day I became the accused. And up till now, my questions have not been answered. The EFCC has not replied the letter I wrote to them officially. I am glad that the matter is now in court. I am also appealing to the press to follow the case to its conclusion and see whether I am a criminal or not. I am assuring you that any time the court fixes a date for me to appear, I will appear so that justice will prevail.

Specifically speaking, was there any lesson you learnt while you were remanded in prison?

The condition in prison is very sympathetic. It is only while you are in prison that you will come across a person being imprisoned for over four years simply because he couldn’t afford to pay a fine of N15,000. My experience is such that it is good for people like me to be visiting prisons so that we would be more determined in changing the lives of the people in this country.

Honestly speaking, it is my view that a provision should be made in the current constitutional review that whoever is vying for elective office as governor or what have you should be made to stay in prison for at least one week so that he will a have a feeling of life inside prison. Also, even graduates of tertiary institutions and universities should be made to have a short stay inside prison as part of their one-year mandatory national service so that they could have the feelings of life inside prison. This experience, I believe, would help them in administering their offices in whatever positions they found themselves.