Sen. Kanti Bello is the Majority Leader of the Senate. In this no holds-barred interview with LEADERSHIP's UCHUNNA AWOM and RUTH CHOJI, the new Almuraj Hajj reveals his plans for the Hajj pilgrimage. He also gave his perspectives on the Niger Delta, deregulation, and more. Excerpts:

As the new Almuraj Hajj, what in your view are the key challenges facing pilgrims and how do you plan to tackle them?

The first thing I did was to call for the acts; I was part of the committee that drafted it. What is the responsibility of the National Hajj Commission itself? The Almural hajj plays the role of adviser; he is also the leader of the delegation, I also ask for the report of the Emir of sokoto, that of 2006, 2007 and 2008. I looked at that report to see the recommendation and the lapses. From those reports, I came to the conclusion that the critical areas are three. For accommodation, there is little or nothing I can do about it. A pilgrim going to London tomorrow will either go and buy his ticket, will know the time of departure and time of return. In the past years, the pilgrim will just prepare and go just like that. After he has finished, he will be anticipating when he will come back without an\y specific time and date. So my first task is to change that. I took a proposal to the committee that every pilgrim living Nigeria, will state to the committee the date of departure, flight number and their manifesto. And the ticket must state the date of going and the date of coming back. Because WE know the number of slots we got from Saudi Arabia, it is a very difficult task for the airlines, because they can go and come back now. But when coming back, there are limited numbers of slots that can come back because each country is giving thirty slots. For the past ten years, Nigeria can only use five flights per day from there because of so many aircrafts that are going to other countries. Now that we know, we can plan; so I gave a formula. There are five airlines that will tackle the pilgrim, I invited the state welfare board, the state Almura hajj, their secretary with the National Hajj Commission staff for a meeting. I told them that, every pilgrim will know the time of his/her departure and date of coming back. The Almural hajj will also know that this flight is leaving with so number of people at so time, to come back so sometime. This is a must this year; I made it clear to all the stakeholders. I also decided that every aircraft that is living will be signed by the Almural hajj, the airlines representative, the secretary of the State Pilgrim Welfare Board and one of the pilgrims themselves who will be appointed as a leader. So that anybody who goes late and come back early will be accountable by the leader.

Another critical area to me is the point of departure where airlines will tell you there is no aviation fuel in Minna, Yola or Lagos, so I invited the owners of aviation oil (AP and OANDO) and the carriers and we reached an agreement, probably they get the fuel on credit, and now with the crunch in the oil industry, central bank and so on, I don’t think there is an oil company that is willing to work on credit because the banks are not giving them credit anymore. They made them sign agreement that they will not fail us and even when there is a cash problem, the hajj commission will pay. I am a technocrat and I do things by planning. I now understand that every pilgrim is expected to buy his souvenirs worth forty kilograms, the airlines have assured me that if pilgrims adhere to that, then there won’t be any delay in coming back. That is problem we are facing. Some people will decide to buy two hundred kilogram’s and carry fifty kilogram hand-luggage, I have decided with my committee that from the Almural hajj downward, nobody is going to carry beyond fifty kilograms; we are going to advertise it in the paper, through radio in vernacular and local languages. If by chance a pilgrim will carry above fifty kilogram, we will carry the fifty and leave the rest for that country. People may think I am ruthless, but that is not ruthlessness, we simply must do things right. Another thing is a pilgrim will leave Mecca when he likes unless you have a schedule and your flight is ready. There will be no Nigerian that will be fighting, sleeping in the airport and looking like fools during my leadership. This are the critical areas, others will be tackle when the time comes.

What other contingency plans have you made in the event that someone does not meet up with your plan?

We have a contingency arrangement, but we are not thinking of failing, I don’t expect the aircraft to fail because there are sanctions and if they fail. We will intervene by inviting another aircraft and ensure that the schedule is met. I don’t see any reason why it should fail, the Saudi Arabia gave us a slot, then all the airlines are under one company, (Kabo Airlines). These slot has been given to it and they have shared it, so there is no reason why one of the carriers will refuse to take up its slot. Right now, I am still trying to make sure that airports will take off, Kaduna airport is still under repair, so when are they going to finish? That is the typical Nigerian attitude.

What security have you put in place for the pilgrims while there and how do you make sure they confirm to the standard of the pilgrims?

I have talked to the hajj commission and I have started talk with our ambassador in Saudi; I have already tasked him. I gave him all the security details, each pilgrim is going with his bag, if by sheer negligence or irresponsibility you decide to bring three bags, that state will be sanctioned, we are going to form a buffer zone, let me give you an example, if you have Malaysian Airline lying side by side with Nigerian carrier to pick their pilgrims, theses people will check in their passengers in two hours and leave. Nigeria will take eight hours because some selfish people will come with five bags and insist that they must be airlifted. Under my leadership, I will not allow it. I will rather leave the job. Alhandillah, I didn’t look for the job, it was given to me, I will not fail this country or Mr. President.

The Senate has assured Nigerians are going to get an amended constitution. How pessimistic are you?

Very positive, I am a member of the steering committee of the constitutional review. We have taken a firm decision. The previous amendment which I participated in as a member representing Katsina; we know why it failed, and we know it was design to fail because they were only interested in tenure elongation. All others were a camouflage. We ended up with one hundred and twenty items that were amended. some of them were simple while others were very controversial, constitutional amendment is a continues process, go to the united states, it is the same, some last for ten years, twenty years, the most important thing is to look for what Nigerians want, and some of us are of the opinion that the foundation of any democratic government is a reasonable, acceptable, credible and honest election.  I know that the opposition are being cheeky or funny. I have been a member of the opposition before. To have credible elections, you need to mobilize. It is the PDP that are mobilizing the people; the opposition are not doing it. What they want is for the constitution to be amended in such a way that they will be handed power. Nonetheless, there is so much propaganda, that has been fed to Nigerians that, no election is free and fair. Nigerians believe that all elections have been rigged because you the media have already convinced them that that is the case. We the representatives of the people must make sure that elections are accepted even by the media. So the first task is to amend the one that effects election, it is on that bases that we had a meeting in Kaduna. This is the most important item, other items alike the land acts are so small, it is just a process of making land easy for Nigerians, we read the Uwais report and decided to listen to him. Before he talked, we invited a lawyer to come and explain to us the process of constitutional amendments, and that lecture enlighten me especially in areas where once you get the two third majority then the bill is passed. But he said no, the president has to accent to it. If he doesn’t, the bill comes back to us again...

But does he have the right to reject what the two third of the senators have accepted?

I used to think so initially, but I learnt at that conference that he can reject it. After we spoke with, all the people saying we should learn from Ghana and so on, we invited the chairman of Ghana’s electoral commission. Of course our own electoral chairman was not happy that we did not invite him. We all know how Nigerians regard our INEC chairman, and we would unwise to invite him first. You know what the opposition will say, though he is not happy about it, but we are working in the interest of Nigerians, not him. So these people came and lectured us. But I have one fundamental question and I keep asking it, I asked Uwais, I asked the Ghana’s chairman. Falea was there, Tinubu was there and both presented a paper, PDP did not present any paper which surprised me. But it doesn’t matter we are PDP, though we are first Nigerians before PDP, we would do things in the best interest of this country but we are not going to be stampeded by the opposition. My question was, Justice Uwais said we should expel the state independence body, we are all know that, where there is a government of ANPP, they will win all the councilors, and the ordinary Nigerian is more concerned with his councilor than his senator; they want the see the person they know who has been good to them. All the opposition said was because of the federation we do not agree. Is federation a license for irresponsibility? So what these people are saying is, let us do what we like in our state, they are not concerned with the masses. That is why they are afraid of the president to elect the national chairman of INEC, so it is the view of the opposition that because of the federation, state INEC should be left there. There is no patriotism in what the opposition are saying. I asked Uwais another question which he didn’t give me a satisfactory answer. This was on  why they recommended the lawyers and labor union as part of the people that will nominate the INEC chairman; why not Engineers? And he said these are the vocal people that are always shouting, so we put them there. So is being vocal a right? Supposing they are vocal in abusing people, is it enough reason to be nominated? When the opposition came, I asked Falae the same question; off course he didn’t answer me. You know what? The opposition wants to cheat during the elections, the so-called labor is a political party; they don’t want Nigerians to trust the president or the PDP. Why should the journalist who talks too much nominate? So I disagree with that aspect. When we come back from public hearing, I want the people to debate it.

It’s not as if there is a gang-up against the PDP

There is definitely a gang-up against the PDP; this thing is not done out of patriotism. It is being done with deliberate intention for the opposition to have an advantage. WE WANT THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE ON ADVANTAEG NOT ANY PARTICULAR GROUP.

Do you believe in deregulation?

In my views, the general idea is in the new petroleum bill. I remember had to take up my colleagues when they tried to bring sectional sentiments into the whole thing. Because I am a nationalist, before they regulate, there are certain things that ought to have been done. In my opinion, what is happening to our refineries, if we are really producing oil, there will be no transportation cost to take it overseas and refine it. If you are doing it here, it is bound to be cheaper. If you are running a factory here, there are certain parameters that should be put in place before subsidy is removed. Kaduna refinery is supposed to pass the oil to Gombe,  Gusau but theses thing is not being done. Now that the Niger Delta have dropped their weapons and the president I carrying everybody along, as a measure against sabotage, why don’t we employ people per kilometer to guide this pipelines; buy them the bicycle they can be using to patrol that place; pay them ten thousand naira every month. Why the security is not doing it is because they are not being specified to do it. Now that the Niger Delta has been stabilized, I believe we can provide this power. You see I don’t like the idea of six thousand mega watts; we should be generating ten to twenty thousand mega watts by now. I think with the caliber of people helping the president he should be able to generate it.

What do you think should be the sustainable course to peace in the Niger Delta?

If the amnesty is based on dolling out money, then it won’t last; but if you train them and create jobs for them, then it can be sustained. Do you realize that there are more companies in the Niger/delta than other places? There is NAFCON in the south, is it functioning? We have two refineries in the Niger Delta. Are they functioning? the Aladja company, the smelting company, I can name them, and all those companies if functioning can employ over two thousand youth each. These companies should be resuscitated, and then there should be massive construction like it was done in Europe.