Ayo Opadokun is the Convener of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER). In this interview with MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE, he explains why the government should restore confidence in the people and tackle other urgent challenges facing the country.
The Buhari administration has been criticised for non-performance. What is your assessment?
I sympathise with Nigerians in the circumstance we find ourselves. I believe that people have good reasons to be unhappy with the situation. But, I also understand from my knowledge that, as at the time President Muhammadu Buhari took over power, the economy had already degenerated. Perhaps, if the last administration had remained in power for another six months, only God know what could have happened. As for President Muhammadu Buhari and state of the economy, it is a fact that the measures being put in place have not yielded immediate positive dividends. I think the government recognises this fact and sympathise with Nigerian people, who are clamouring for a better deal. Therefore, economically, I think they need to think outside the box, to rescue the situation. But, the fundamentals are not within the control of the Buhari administration. It was not the administration that instigated the agitation of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) that brought the only means of foreign exchange of the nation to the lowest ebb. When they broke pipes, they made it impossible and difficult for the economy to proceed as it ought to be. If that is the major means of the earning of our foreign exchange, the consequence could only be imagined. To make matters worse, Nigeria operates a money economy, as a result of the dubious, irresponsible and criminally-minded economic policies of past administrations. Nigeria was only exporting crude oil, which is responsible for over 80 per cent of its earnings. The price is controlled by the international market and whatever happened is due to market forces, which Nigeria could not determine.
What is your assessment of Buhari?
The Buhari we used to know as military Head of State is not the same Buhari of today. One can understand that there is a difference in age when he first came on board in December 1983 and he came back 2015. So, one can understand the gap. My first impressiion, from all that I have seen, is that perhaps he is no more in control of his government. What has happened over the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is an indication that perhaps President Muhammadu Buhari is no more in control of his administration and that he heads a divided Presidency. We are all being treated as non-entity as a result of the disastrous consequence we had in the rejection the nomination of Magu by the Senate, in respect of one panel headed by the Attorney General of Federation (AGF). What this means is that Buhari did not do enough background check on Magu before he nominated him. That is an indictment on his leadership. Secondly, it does not helped his image that the Presidency sent a name to the Senate and yet another arm of the Presidency went ahead to write very pretentious and dubious report on the nominee of the President. They should not imagine that some of us are fools; the AGF is part of the divided Presidency and you are asking him to the report of your divided Presidency. That is one part of the story. Again, when I look at the way President Muhammadu Buhari has handled security matters so far and people are being beheaded, people are being killed massively, it leaves much to be desired. They say the perpetrators are herdsmen. In some instances, like in Benue, Adamawa, Taraba and Kaduna, it is like ethnic cleansing. They will set fire to the homes of the indigenous owners, when they try to escape they shot and kill them or slaughter them like fowls. They carried out this heinous act for many months until the belated action of the General Officer Commanding the First Division of the Army, who came to the rescue of the people of Southern Zaria. They have been telling us that they are on top of the situation. The most important function of government in any modern state is the protection of lives and properties. If it get to a situation where people had to resort to self-help, then government must have lost value. There is no doubt we have had a raw deal with the Nigerian Army generally, when they are not there directly, it is their agents, accolades, loyalists that they have sponsored. So, they are still in control and have done so much damage to our country.
The President’s anti-corruption stance has been criticised as one-sided. Where did government get it wrong?
Let President Muhammadu Buhari be reminded that the only worthy consideration he presently enjoys from both the international and the domestic scene is the significant view that he has committed himself to fight corruption as a marathon runner, rather than a relay-racer. No doubt, his government’s economic policy measures have not produced expected positive results. We remain within the bracket of war-ravaged areas of the world, in spite of our being the 8th largest exporter of crude oil for almost 25 years. We exported averagely two million barrels per day at $100 per barrel. Yet, Nigeria’s human development index statistics and our gross domestic product (GDP) analysis is within that of countries like Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, Congo etc. Thus, Buhari should appreciate that throwing out Magu, the leader of the anti-graft agency, the EFCC, to be so humiliated by the Senate leadership cadre whose membership are being prosecuted for criminal offences by the EFCC is counter-productive and unhelpful to his (the President’s) image.
Buhari gave many former governors and other politically-exposed persons an undeserved platform to vent their anger against a productive public officer. Who else will want to be so vilified for helping Nigeria to tackle the menace that corruption has caused all of us. That the Nigerian state cannot provide any commensurate social services and infrastructure is because of corruption.
The resurgence of herdsmen mayhem in Adamawa,Taraba, Benue and Kaduna states and the insensitive silence of Mr. President is so worrisome that many constituents that we mobilised to vote for change from the then ruinous state of the nation under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are already questioning the genuineness of our theme messages. We are reminded that the herdsmen perhaps have the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari who in 2001/2002 visited the late Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo State to plead for the governor’s intervention on behalf of the Fulani herdsmen, who were being forced to appreciate that it was unacceptable for any group to continue to behave as outlaws, destroying other people’s economic means of livelihood in their native environment to satisfy their over-reaching misconduct as they treat others.
Furthermore, that the people of Southern Kaduna have been so in humanly-treated in the manner suggestive of possible ethnic cleansing agenda is eternally reprehensible and pregnant of dubious intention. And except, for the sane and lonely voice of the respected Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, senior government officials have exposed themselves to ridicule as lacking moral fibre befitting of their respected offices. The President should tell Nigerians why he kept silent and did nothing concrete till his recent feeble effort after the natives’ prolonged appeals for protection in their homeland was ignored. Is it that the Nigerian security and intelligence agencies have remained grossly incapable of providing him with actionable intelligence to prevent the unfortunate mayhem of several human decapitations, arson on people’s homes to drive them out of their native homes? That even law enforcement agents are being decapitated along with bloody civilians is traumatic and symptomatic of Nigeria’s return to the state of nature; that is terribly brutish.
How can government prevent religious crisis in the north?
The President should remember that Nigerian Christians are not a minority, neither are they inferior Nigerians. The APC will in a while from now need the votes of both Christians and Muslims to have a majority. The dubious claims that the crises in Kaduna have no religious connotations cannot stand the test of any credibility. The promoters of that sing-song are unfit for public offices they occupy.
President Muhammadu Buhari should help himself by bringing close to himself those who can be honest to advise him properly that the state of the nation is precarious, not just because of his own recent mis-directions, but with accumulated misadventure of governance under President Jonathan.
This is the time to critically accept the fact that national restructuring has become a compelling necessity. Nigeria secured its independence in 1960 under a federal constitutional arrangement. Retired Justice Dahiru Mustafa, former Chief Justice of Nigeria’s honest advice in Abeokuta last year during Alhaji Alani Bankole’s birthday lecture that Nigeria is more divided today than it was in 1960 and that it was imperative for Nigeria to sit together to renegotiate our terms of mutual co-existence is a just, responsible and patriotic advice. President’s usual feeling that the civil war has finalised our national misgivings is inconsistent with current realities. Self determination is the anthem of this millennium. Those who selfishly question the fides of those campaigning for the restructuring of this currently warped, skewed and lopsided configuration are no more patriotic. That some of them are beneficiaries of the dubious advantages manipulated for them by Britain, the hegemonic colonial overlord. We should stop denigrating MASSOB,IPOB, Niger Delta Avenger, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) etc, the country need to sit down to review their agitations.
The Nation