Lack of leadership responsible for crisis in my country, says Mali?s Presidential candidate

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A presidential election that was billed to take place in April this year in Mali could not hold due to a military coup d??tat that followed insurgency that arose in the Tuareg and other northern parts of the Azawad region of the country.

One of the presidential candidates in the botched election who is still positioning himself to lead the country in 2013 is the Mayor of Quelessebougou Yeah Samake who is running under the platform of the Party for Civil and Patriotic Action (PCPA). In this interview with Daily Times correspondent, Samake, a minority Mormon said he can still win the Presidential election in a country that is 95 percent Muslims citing the election that made him mayor in 2009 in which he garnered over 65 percent of total votes. He reveals his strategies for tackling the problem of Al- Qaeda and other security challenges in his country, promising to fix the country?s economy within three years if elected into office. Read:

DT: What is the drive for the transformational role you are playing in your country?

Samake: First of all, I would say the love for my country. The second thing is gratitude. Everything I am today I owe to my father and my country. That I was able to go school and get a help. So the least I can do is to give back to the community. Having said that, I love my country and I want to serve the people. I have been given so much and the least I can do is to share my knowledge in the bid to serve the people who have given me so much. So that is my drive, and I am driven to bring change with the principles of integrity and sense of service.

DT: Looking at the period you have been in politics, how much change have you brought to your people?

Samake: I have been in politics since 2009. I came as a result of frustration that the political leadership was not doing enough to bring change in the communities. So since 2009, I have come to repair the trust relationship between the people and the local leaders. When I was running for Mayor, I made a promise that I would be honest and serve them well with integrity if was elected Mayor.

After the election, I went down and talked to the citizens and made sure that they can trust and understand that their participation was required; that I could not do without their participation. So, since my election, there are a few things that I have accomplished. First of all, we made sure that the citizens put their trust in us; that their mandate was going to be used for just purposes. So there was trust between the tax payers and the city managers, including myself. How did they trust me? We ensured that every citizen can look into our accounting book and know how much money was raised from tax payment and how much money was spent; and they know where the money is going.

But also, each of the projects that we did has to have a certain impact on one community or the other. Secondly, I was able to make sure that services are provided by the staff that I manage with the utmost diligence. For example, before I was elected, villagers used to drive on the bike for 20km to come the Mayor?s office for just one birth certificate.

But at the end of the day, they go back without the birth certificate and they had to come back the next week. Now, when they come, they get the birth certificate immediately. That is just one example of all the services that we can provide at the Mayor?s office, whether it means transport, authorization to do business ? we deliver them with speed and satisfaction. And the employees who work also get paid on time. When I came in, they were six months behind salary but now, they get paid on the 25th of each month. So they have the trust and the certainty that they will be paid their salary.

Because of what we did, we went from less than 10% collection rate to about 68% the first year. We called all the representatives of the people and asked them how the money would be spent.

This is only possible because we trust in good governance that the central government trusted us with a new hospital, the first federal government high school. Now we have electricity ? the largest in all of West Africa. Now we have running water in my city. Within three year, we raised the standard of living of people. So citizens in my city now enjoy all of those privileges more than any other area. Quelessebougou is the name of my city. What I took was about 5 cities out of the 705 cities and now we are.

My country can get assess to these quality services that will lift up the standard of living of the people of my country and that is my hope and the message I carry through to the people of my country. But hopefully, in Nigeria today, local government leaders can also be inspired to focus on the people rather than on themselves because it is about the people, and once we do that, the reward is for all of us as a community, not just as a Mayor, but for every citizen to enjoy the result of good governance.

DT: You mentioned trust as one of the factors for the success you recorded in taxation. Do you think that Nigeria can replicate same?

Samake: Absolutely, Nigerians want to pay tax. Nigerians want to contribute in the process of developing Nigeria but they have to see where the contribution is going; they have to see where the impact is. That is what I tell the communities in Mali: the tax load is heavy but if you know where you are going with them, it encourages you to carry on. But in Nigeria or any other places, you have to be accountable; the citizens became accountable by paying their taxes, the leaders have to accountable by using the tax money in solving the problems of the communities. If there is a break in that cycle, there will be lack of trust.

The citizens will no longer be enthusiastic to paying taxes, even though whether you like the governor or not, it is your duty to pay your tax. But yes, people will evade taxes and say there is no use to it and when they are caught up by the law, they suffer the consequences. But in reality, the leadership is the problem. They need to inspire the people and also to make an impact on their life with tax money.

DT: With your antecedents in Mali Rising Foundation and in public service, if you become the president of Mali, how would you tackle the security challenges in your country?

Samake: First of all, leadership is, foremost, to be able to inspire a nation. The problem that is going on in Mali today is mostly leadership issue and it did not start one day. It has building up for a period of ten years or more. There has been lack of leadership and vision of our leaders. But having an understanding of why this is happening is very important.

Now, what kind of solution do we have? Mali has all of its laws in place to make sure that we have local government but Mali has not empowered local leaders. The challenges are local but now we are so deep in the issue that it has become a regional issue. It has become a threat to international stability. So, today, Mali has to reach to countries that already have the experience of solving this kind of problem. I mean countries like Nigeria that has experience of fighting Boko Haram for years.

Like Chad that has performed very well. We have to reach out to countries that experience fighting extremists and together with the international community, including the United States, making sure that mali takes the lead in this process. But my take is that we have to organize elections. We have to give the country a legitimate president that will take care of the division of power, the undue division of power.

Now, the president when elected would be the president of all of the country, and he will be able to bring in collaboration from our neighbours, the international community. We can build up an army that can kick out the extremists that can kick out Al-Qaida in the Islamic part of the Northern part of the country.

Now, what I am saying about education is the same thing I am saying about health. Mali has the resources just Nigeria but we have allocation problem.? Where does the money go?? is the issue. We have to be able to use these resources to provide these services including infant mortality, making sure that there is antenatal and post natal care and making sure that we are training doctors.

We have the human resources but we have to make sure that we empower the people. That is what I intend to do as the president of Mali: bringing people together and inspiring them to unite behind their leader, bringing out the potentials out of every citizen so that we can have a common destiny. That much needed today because Malians have not been inspired for a long time by the leadership.

The time has come when the leaders have to focus on the people. They have to have vision to take the country from one point to a higher point and that is what I intend as the president.

The specifics in a given area or region will be considered. In Mali for example, every thing is concentrated in the capital city, Bamako. All of the universities are in Bamako; all of the high paying jobs are in Bamako. Citizens are no longer compelled to stay in their regions or in their states, as you would say here. So everybody converge, all the brains drain to Bamako. There is no one left in the regions to solve the problems. We need to make sure that the human resources are transferred from the capital city to the local areas. We have to make sure that every region has its own university that will promote people with brain, people with intelligence, with the common basics to make analysis to solve specific problems in these areas. That what we need to do in Mali and we need to also build regional capacity, making sure that in the west African countries ? ECOWAS – we deepen the relationship, that it is such that countries involved in this can do business with each other.

That it is easier for Malian to fly to Mali; that it is easier for us to train among ourselves; that the Malian cotton can be sold in Nigeria; that the oil in Nigeria can be sold in Mali. So we need to make a regional integration such that we will all gain; where every country will be a support to the other country. So those are the things that will contribute to make Mali better than to make our neighbours better countries.

DT: One of your campaign promises is that you won?t take foreign aid as the president of Mali because Mali has a lot of natural resources. How would you intend to go about that, considering that the western nations do not take kindly to such position?

Samake: You know, we should break away from the patronage of the West. We as Africans should rise to such a level where we will look in the eyes of our partners as equals. As an African leader, as a leader, my first interest is the national interest of Mali. I can?t cut a deal with any country where Mali loses; my focus is you win, I win.

Your country wins and my country wins. We are fifty-fifty at the most. If there is a balance, that should be Mali with 51%. That should be the true behavior of a true leader ? to protect the best interest of your people. Mali has been on foreign aid for the past fifty years. It has not solved our problems but deepened them. We have been dependent and it has not brought out the power from within. If we have that power, we cannot seek solutions to our problems from the outside. Our problems should be solved from within. That is only when the solution is sustainable.

That is why as a leader, I will take three years to build for Mali a less dependent economy. By the end of the five year term, I will make Mali a nondependent economy, given that Mali is so blessed with natural resources. Mali is blessed with human resources too and if we develop this, we should not be in the borrowing money from a foreign country with high interest rate. That would mean passing debt on to generations along the line. It is not right and should not be done. We should rely on our own self. First, any help that will come on top that would be help and anything else is aid and it has not been useful for Africa; it has not been useful for Mali.

DT: Mali, like many African countries has problem of allocation of resources despite the abundance of natural resources. What steps are you going to take to ensure that the people of your country benefit maximally from the resources?

Samake: Well, you stated it very well. The cause of the problems is the not the natural resources but the allocation revenues from them. That is the use of revenue of oil, gold and cotton. How do we allocate these resources? Do you keep the money in the hands of the elite or do you distribute the moneys such that you build infrastructure and meet the basic needs of the people. Once you build a middle class, you solve the problem because the people will be comfortable and they will have no need for conflict. But once there is injustice in the use of those revenues, then, your source of conflict.

In Mali, what I want to do have a government that has accountability, to make sure that there is transparency in the government; that government is no longer a mystery and it is transparent for everyone to understand how things are being done. That is a simple process but it takes a very strong political will and that political will only come from the first leader of the country which is the president. That is the kind of president I will be for Mali; that is the kind of leader I will be for Africa. That is the kind of requirement, the kind of standard I will set in the African Union.

DT: Your campaign slogan also talks about a new dawn for Mali. Can you outline what you will do to ensure that the people rally around you?

Samake: That is a difficult issue. There is a long standing of lack of leadership for years. So you don?t come with a magic wand overnight and say ?disappear!? and all the problems are gone. It takes hard work, and most importantly, it takes inspiration. You have to set yourself as a leader who genuinely wants to solve the problems of his country and not take advantage of the opportunity to serve. Once there is a trust relationship that you have established, just the same way that I have established that in the local level, I believe that the higher level will have the requirement. But in terms of policy, what I need is to promote decentralization. My campaign is a new dawn for Mali.

It based on the fact that Malians in every village, in every house will be inspired to take his own break to the construction of the national edifice. How do we do this? By making sure that the control, the participation, the monitoring of the local citizens are all pushed in the hands of mayors, like governors, who will play a more important role in the development of the local people because they are closer to them. They see their needs and are also so close and more responsive to these people. For example, if a mayor does not enact better education policies in his local area, the citizens know where to find him.

But if it were the minister of education in the capital city, farmers cannot reach him because he is out of reach and out of touch. He does not understand the suffering and he does not have a stake, a personal stake in the quality of education in the local area because he is so removed from it that he is not accountable. That is why my primary will plan is to have the political will for the decentralization of the country. But I have seen it fail because it is not supported by the current president.? So what we do is to empower local leaders and make sure that the resources are transferred to make sure that we de-concentrate the public service so that the people with high skills will not be found in the capital city but they will also be found the local areas.

?You don?t need to be in Bamako. See a Nigerian, we have that tendency in you; if you are in Abuja, you get all the services you need in Abuja and if you are from Kano, you also get all the services there. If you are from Lagos you also get the services you need there. But in Mali, if you want to get anything today, you have to go to Bamako, even an education. The citizens have to come to Bamako for university. The only university in the whole of the country is in Bamako. How many universities are here in Nigeria? At least every state has one university. So we have to take those measures, making sure that the government is in process and accountable to the citizens and more responsible.

DT: You were elected on the platform of the URD as a Mayor and now you are running for the president under a different platform, Party for Civic and Patriotic Action Party (PCPA). Could you be seen as an inconsistent politician?

Samake: You know, the reason why I did not go with the URD is a popular statement. In the country where there is a political freedom, where are free to choose what we believe is the best for us and the country; the simple reason why I did not stay with the URD is that I did not believe that they have a natural candidate. In fact, there was no competition in the party as for who would be the party?s nominee for the president. The candidate is someone I will not vote for because of the qualities he does not embody, the qualities I need in a leader and I said this in a public statement. He was very unpopular and he was a public uproar that I would come bluntly and say that I would support the candidacy of this gentleman because of his antecedents, because of his role in previous governments. I have a clear reason but I didn?t go to any other political party. I created a political party where like-minded people, people who believe that we should be more transparent, people who believe that we should decentralize the government, people who believe that public service is for the common good and not for the individual person?s gain. That is the reason why I left.

Proudly, I left the political party and I have never felt remorse. I had the opportunity recently right before the coup, the candidate for the URD, and he was very angry of the statement I made and I said that I was not there to make apology for what I said. That if he wanted to talk about what I said that it should be after the elections. I stand behind what I said because that was what I believe in because the party did not give me the platform to thrive as a human being and to apply my burning desire to solve the problems of my country. That was why I left the political party and set up a new one where so many people who have also left the political party have come to join us. It has given us the opportunity where we now have so many mayors who have come to join the political party and they are the ones in contact with the electorate, with the common people. It gave us an incredible standing in the country and I do hope that the elections, be it the presidential or the mayors? elections, that this party will be a beacon of hope. That is not just for today, it is a long term measure to make sure that the citizen participate in the political process.

DT: One of the challenges of running under a new platform is the possibility of building the party first. How do you rate your chances of emerging the president of your country?

Samake: (laughs) I tell you what: you call it challenges but I call it opportunity. Yes, there are challenges of being in a new party, but they are also opportunities especially in a political climate like Mali where most of the existing political parties are seen to be associated with corruption. They have a track record, even the followers of the political parties are not proud of their record. That is why we are where we are today. Our country is collapsing because of lack of leadership. They are accountable for the state of our country today. So, it is not the most appealing thing today to be from an old platform. That is why I have said this clearly that this is an opportunity for me and the PCPA to rise as a new platform and be able to elect the next president of the country.

DT: Mali of the 19th century was known as one of the hubs of West Africa for tourist attraction. What plan do you have to bring Mali back to that status as a center of education and tourism?

Samake: Well, it is not a matter of bring Mali back; it is a matter of setting Mali up objectively. We need to set Mali up as one of the leading countries with all the exciting tourist attractions. Malian government needs to promote Mali as a destination. We need to promote Mali to Nigerians; we need to promote Mali to Europeans. We need to promote Mali to the Americans. The only tourists coming to Mali extensively are Europeans, Chinese, Asians, etc. All of these need to be attracted to Mali. People should be made to be aware of the specific tourist sites in Mali and we can create jobs. When tourism is booming, we can create jobs and build hotels. Mali has unemployment rate of up to 30% and tourism can provide easy jobs to the teaming youths of Mali.

But there is a lot you can do for Mali not only in terms of tourism but in terms of educating the force, making sure that we are competitive in the global market. Mali has a strategic location even though we are a landlord country with a lot of opportunities. We are located centrally in West Africa where if you produce in Mali you can easily distribute to the seven countries surrounding us and far beyond. You can reach a much larger market, being in Mali. If though you are not based in Nigeria, you can reach a lot of consumers in Nigeria. So what I am trying to do as a president is something that has not been done before. I am looking at how all of those European countries are very aggressive; how all of those American states are paying aggressive attention to getting tourist to come into their states because it brings a lot of money and creates jobs.

DT: When you were at Mali Rising Foundation, you were able to raise about five million CFA francs, equivalent to US$100,000 from external sources and it was not stated as a loan. Would you replicate this if you win the elections?

Samake: That is part of my platform, to ensure that Mali is an environment that safe for people to come and invest; to create a situation where Nigerians and others feel compelled and safe to come to Mali and invest knowing that the money they invest in Mali is protected. If we do that, we would have commended direct foreign investment into Mali which will make up our economic growth. We have to grow our economy and we have to do this by making sure that we build infrastructure, making sure that the market is protected; making that when you buy something and I say that this is a brand new telephone and after buying it and you find out that it is not a brand new telephone, you should get your money back and the people who sold an old telephone for the price of a new telephone should have justice behind them.

That is the environment I want to create in Mali, making sure that it is a safe place for investors from within and outside, from Africa, Europe or America; making sure that the people are not sitting down expecting government to do everything for them. But we will make sure that people get a job; that people come to Mali to invest. And on education too, education is not just a matter of the state; it is also a matter of the citizens and the communities because it affects them. So, these are the things that we promote. Yes, I have brought a lot of opportunities to my community but the particular incident that you mentioned now is what I cannot remember.

Yes, in the Mali Rising Foundation, I have done a number of things for my people. Through that, I was able to build 15 schools in Mali. I have given several scholarships to more than 30 people now who went to school in America. I was also able to sign agreements with four universities in America and Mali. So I have done a lot of things not only for my community. In all of the 15 schools, 6 are in my district. Many are somewhere else in the country and before the end of the year, I hope to able to build another two schools. I help the community as much as I can. I do my part in providing services, bringing investors into the country. I will continue to do this whether I am the elected president or not. Mali is my own country and it is my responsibility to help solve the problems of Mali.

DT: Can you tell us about some cultural festivals or historic sites in Mali that can truly make the country a true tourist destination in Africa?

Samake: What we are doing now is not really promoting Mali as a destination. Imagine Mali is the world capital of music today. There is no country today in the world that is as well-known as Mali in music. That is an incredible job but you don?t know this because no one told you. New York Time wrote an article about Mali. People from York now come to Mali for festivals. Yes we have big music festivals in Mali. We have festivals on the Niger and Timbuktu. We have festivals in Sikasou and we have the quarry festival in cedi.

Year round, you will find in Mali a festival that is attractive for tourism. On top of that, Mali has the greatest number of world heritage sites than a country that is as big as Nigeria. We have Tata of Sikasou; the war force of the Cedi area. We have the Dogon County that has its own cosmogony and people come to learn their way of life.

They have now introduced a lot of new cultures and all of this is attractive. In Timbuktu we have the world?s ancient manuscript and the sand quarry university and the sand dunes where people come all the way into the Sahara Desert. All of this is attractive site in the diversity of the country and make Mali an incredible destination. So those are the things that we should promote. In my own area as a mayor I have the Jimo festival which is a cultural festival based on traditional music and we also have the quarry festival which is the promotion of people who come to see the future. For one week, people come from all over the world for this festival. Mali is very rich and diverse and has some cultural festivals but well known all over the world as the world?s capital for music.

DT: Mr. Mayor, Mali is predominantly Islam and if you win the election, you will go down in history as the first Mormon to rule the country…

Samake: (cuts in) Truly, if I win the election, I will become the first non-Muslim president. But beyond that, I am not running for president as a Mormon or a religious person, I am running because I love my country and I know, more than anybody I know, that I can solve the problems of our country. The people of Mali have seen this: I have been elected Mayor of an area that is 95% Muslim.

I am not bringing any religion into the city life. Religion is out of governance; I will serve the people with moral integrity. The people of Mali want a strong leader that has high sense of service. So, I am not running as a religious leader, my intention is to serve my people and I believe that despite our religious and ethnic differences ? we should not focus on the differences, we should focus on who can do what for the country. I am not running on the hope that I am going to be the first Mormon president of any country or that I will be the only Mormon running for president in Mali that is about 95% Muslim.

DT: The aviation sector in your country is largely under developed, what are you going to do about it when you become president?

Samake: Well, the sector is very close to every other sector of business and it remains unexplored. With very little connection to the rest of Africa, we want to make sure that Mali connects to every major capital city in Africa. It is very important for us to connect to other countries and have direct flights to those places ? from the United States to Europe ? but we should first of all open opportunities to business among ourselves as Africans.

So, Mali needs to promote that and make sure that it is much easier for investors to come and invest in the air transportation. Right now, Mali has a very weak air transportation system. For example, you can?t even fly directly to Abuja from Mali. I will be going home but I have to first of all get a flight from Lagos to Cotonou and then Mali. It wastes time. This is supposed to be the fastest means of transportation. From here to Mali should not take me more than two hours but now I have to do about ten hours and it is a waste of time.

We need to change that. It is not only Mali; we need to work with other African countries so that we can go from one capital city to another with much more ease. So the business area is wide open to people. We have some challenges: we are not providing insurance for airline companies in Mali and that is probably one of the reasons ? and may be due to the crisis ? Mali is not doing well in the air transport sector.

DT: Can you relive the experiences of your childhood?

Samake:I have 17 loving brothers and sisters. It is amazing and there is nothing like it. I am a man of love in my family and my father was a visionary person. He educated us in a way that our closeness to each is unbelievable. Today, I feel happy when I visit my brothers and we talk and they say that they see the change in me and we talk about every other thing. We trust each other. I grew up competing for attention ? you know, 18 kids all trying to get attention. It is a fair competition to get your parents attention and all those things contribute to making you whom you are. I lived with a very loving mother.

I was the closest to my mother. We had very connecting relationship that all my siblings were jealous of the way my mum treated me. But I knew what my mum wanted and what she liked and I was always there. We shared things I could not share with my dad or any of my siblings. Mum knew everything about me. And when my mum died, all my siblings were so sad; but on top of that, they were worried about me because they knew who she represented for me.

And I do have that soft part of me that comes from my closeness with my mother and I have that kind of relationship with most women in my life. I connect very easily with women. I do understand them because I grew up with my mum who had some difficult times that most people had difficulty understanding. She lived in polygamy and I know her true feelings about polygamy more than any other person. So, there have been a lot of special moments. Looking back, I think that I had a credible childhood.

It was difficult at times, yes, but it helps shape who you are. If you look at my modest beginning to where I am today, I should be the most grateful and I should also open up the same opportunity that I had been opened to. And that is what I have been doing ? serving others because I have been given so much that I can only express my gratitude only by doing something for others. My life now has been built around service through the foundation, the public service as a Mayor; it has truly been an incredible journey that I will not trade for anything.

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