Follow Us on Google
•FIRS partnership with France shouldn’t be allowed •Servicing debt with 27% of national budget unthinkable
The President of the Middle Belt Form (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu has said that the disparities in ways in which people are treated have continued to breed hatred and suspicions among various groups in the country. He noted that while Nnamdi Kanu was jailed for life, a Boko Haram terrorist was jailed for only 20 years, stressing that such disparities affect the psyche and psychology of people.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the MBF president, warned of the negative consequences of servicing the nation’s debt with a big chunk of the national budget.
How can you describe Nigeria in 2025?
It has been a challenging year. Challenging in the sense that insurgency continued to the extent that some communities felt serious dislocation and destabilisation, leading to the pronouncement by President Trump. That is 2025, with regards to insecurity.
In terms of the economy, God blessed us so much that we produce a lot of food in spite of all the challenges, and the price of foodstuff has actually gone down in 2025 as compared to 2024.
Looking at the polity, it has been a year of confusion. Now, first of all, we have the emergence of the coalition, which has been awaited for a long time. But looking at it carefully, it’s the same old wine in a new wine skin. It is the same people, with the exception of Peter Obi, who were responsible for the destabilisation in 2014. They are the same people who bolted out now and went to constitute a new platform with some other few additions. So it’s not a new thing. And there are characters who are known to do things their own way, and then claim to be working for Nigerians, while it is all for their selfish end. Well, if they hadn’t done what they did in 2014, Jonathan would have maybe done something better. And the mess that Buhari brought us in wouldn’t have taken place.
There are so many other things that have happened, especially in the government; the removal of the service chiefs, which some of us believe was informed by the northern lobby, given that General Musa had instructed soldiers to defend communities without waiting for instructions from higher authorities when they are under attack. It’s a departure from the past. But that didn’t go down well in some circles.
Tenure was used as an excuse to ease off the service chiefs and brought others in. But thank God that the chief of defence staff is now the Minister of Defence. At least, there is a slight change in the security architecture, given that there is a dilution of the Fulani hold on the security architecture because the NSA is Fulani – the former minister of Defence, Fulani, the Minister of State, Defence, also Fulani. So, at least there’s an injection of some other characters that at least would fight insurgency.
Generally, the dynamics in 2025 have been volatile in the sense that there are lots of denials. The government and people in government have refused to accept some basic facts. And we still continue to cover things up as we have seen it before. When Yelwata happened, there was a real cover-up. When Trump spoke, the Foreign Affairs minister went and was telling all sorts of things, which are not in consonance with what is on ground.
So, all these things inform what 2025 is. And we’re just hoping that the mistakes made would be corrected so that we can have a better 2026.
Talking about the past and the present, the mutual suspicion, hatred among ethnic groups is frightening. Why?
It is something which we came up with right from independence, unfortunately. The British gave us independence, but it was negotiated independence, not true independence. Northern elements went behind the others to promise the British so many things and to ensure that the British handed over power to them.
And people who had the population and abilities ab initio were seen as enemies. Prior to independence, the far North never trusted the South-Eastern people. The Yoruba also had suspicion and felt that the North was taking undue advantage, given the kind of things the British did. So, this suspicion has been there. The Middle Belters have suffered through the British colonial indirect rule, which again favoured the far North. And all this continued. The Middle Belters took it in good faith initially, but when they saw wanton discrimination leading to what we are experiencing now with regards to insurgency, the suspicion, dislike, hatred has grown.
Look at the issue of Nnamdi Kanu. Look at how policing and military stranglehold on some areas is being seen. It is unfortunate that there are disparities in ways in which people are treated.
Why would Nnamdi Kanu be jailed for life and then a Boko Haram person, a terrorist is jailed for only 20 years? So, you see, these disparities affect the psyche and psychology of people.
Naturally, an Igbo man will feel that he is being maligned and discriminated against. And, of course, that will breed more and more suspicion. So, it’s unfortunate that we are in this situation.
We haven’t had leadership that has been able to do the needful with regards to addressing this issue.
The constitution has not helped matters in the sense that it allows these things to continue to thrive. And we are working with a military constitution, which was put together by military leaders of northern extraction.
And of course, naturally, these people prepared the constitution to favour whatever they felt would favour their section. So, it is not serving Nigeria. And we have a National Assembly; we have states assembly that came into existence through that constitution. And of course, if the foundation is faulty, every other thing would be faulty.
Unless we get things right, right from what is the basis for our staying together, that is the constitution, all other things will not work properly.
Why would some sections say that people from one extraction or from one tribal group should not be president? All these things generate more suspicion. And unless we are able to overcome these things and become a nation, not nation-states within a geographical entity, we will continue to have problems.
President Bola Tinubu has presented a budget of about N58 trillion for 2026, with 15 trillion for debt servicing. So what do you say to this?
It is unfortunate that we continue to go for loans for debts, which to me is not a good thing for developing nations. They tell us all sorts of economic reasons that even developed countries survive on other people’s money. But, what are we doing with the debt we collect?
For example, a debt is taken for some specific infrastructure and that infrastructure will not be over-bloated to just siphon money and then it is used for the benefit of the country, then we can say, yes, if we are paying debt for such, it’s worthwhile.
Other News
But we are taking loans and you don’t see what they are for. It’s unfortunate, and we cannot just continue that way where a big chunk of our money is going into debt servicing just because we took some loan; and servicing debt is not payment of the debt. It is usually and mainly payments of interest on the debt. So, it is unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation. We need to have people who are more patriotic in government, who can also stand firm for Nigeria because a lot of the debts we are taking are not for capital projects but for some current expenditure, which helps nobody. We have to change the way we do business. People say government is not a business entity, but unless we learn to run government as if it were a business, and then the things like social welfare, etc that come in can be thrown in from the profits of whatever we are getting, that is where we will get things right.
We cannot be borrowing just to service debt and to meet up recurrent expenditure instead of capital work.
About September, the president told the nation that they have exceeded their revenue expectation for 2025. Curiously, last week, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, told the nation that they had a shortfall of N37 trillion. How do you juxtapose the two statements?
It’s just insincerity in government. That is it. There’s no way you can say that we have exceeded our expectation; that means we have raked in more than what we expected, which means that we have some surplus and then, you come and say that in spite of that surplus, we are having a shortfall. It’s an unfortunate development, and it appears that our government is not telling us the truth or some games are being played. The earlier our government change attitude the better for everybody. We need leaders who will tell us the truth; we need people in authority; Minister of Finance; minister of whatever, who will tell us this is what we have and this is what we will do with it and that’s what’s remaining, and not to tell us that we have done beyond expectations and yet we are having a shortfall. It doesn’t tally. It is unfortunate that we have such people in government. They need to come out clean and tell Nigerians the truth.
Many people are kicking against the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) partnering with France on the nation’s tax administration. What is your take on this?
Foreign powers have no business in this. We have well-qualified persons in Nigeria. If you are talking of people of international repute in economics and other disciplines, which have to do with revenue, we have them. We don’t have to look elsewhere to talk about or control our taxation. We should be able to do something that would work for Nigeria.
It appears that some of us still have that colonial mentality that unless something is from outside, it cannot be good. We don’t believe in ourselves. It’s unfortunate and it is only proper for Nigerians to reject it wholeheartedly.
We cannot allow our internal revenue generation to be monitored by some country or entity outside just because we want things to work. It’s unfortunate that the government has succumbed to that. The government has not told us whatever reason they have to accept this kind of arrangement, but it should be rejected and we just hope the government will jettison it since the generality of Nigerians are rejecting it.
Many opposition politicians, including governors, have collapsed into APC. What is your view on this? What does it portend for the politics of Nigeria?
Something similar happened during Shehu Shagari’s second term of National Party of Nigeria (NPN). They tried to win every state and tried to make the country a one-party nation. Unfortunately, that arrangement collapsed. There was a military incursion. We just pray that we don’t end up with a one-party system.
It’s just unfortunate that Nigerian politics has not matured, because it is not ideological. You look at the constitution, manifesto of all the parties, they are all similar. Because of that, people feel they should be where the goodies are rather than having an ideology and say, yes, we are who we are because of our ideological difference from those who are in power.
Because there is no ideological difference, everybody just troops to where the power lies and that is where we are today. It’s unfortunate, but that is the reality. We need to have ideological parties or platforms that believe that this is our ideology, this is our manifesto, and this differs from the one of the ruling party and we are going to pursue whatever it takes.
Until we have matured to that level, this type of thing will continue. People will continue to rush towards the party in government because they feel that is where their future is guaranteed. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a reality.
We pray that we have ideological parties and people of principle would join politics and stick with their ideological persuasion so that whatever happens they will stay where they are and convince Nigerians to vote for them.
What agenda can you set for Tinubu for 2026?
Tinubu has challenges. One, though it is tough, they are raking in a lot of money more than ever before. The Naira has been so devalued, but it is picking up gently. My advice is for him to strengthen the Naira, try and bring it down to $1,000 or even lower. Let the Naira be a stronger entity than it is now.
Number two, the issue of insecurity which is now staring us in the face with all the denials. We would want him to come out openly and accept the reality on ground, partner with the Americans and rid this country of insurgents so that there will be peace. When there is peace, the economy will grow, people will return to their ancestral homes or land, and all this rubbish that is going on will stop.
He has to partner with the Americans who are ready to assist Nigeria to ensure that we have a secure land for everybody. We would want him to also reach out to aggrieved communities. I can clearly say that in spite of all that is happening; a lot of our brothers from the South-East feel aggrieved.
Nnamdi Kanu is just one person, but political settlement can be done. Let the president be magnanimous and use his political authority to allow this man to see the light of the day, and also embrace the Igbo to feel that, yes, they belong in this country. Let there be a sense of belonging for our Igbo brothers through the release of Nnamdi Kanu. We are praying also in 2026 that the trend, just as we say, everybody is trooping into APC, let the APC now have a more democratic system of emergence of leaders and people who are going to contest, so that internal democracy can reflect in the national outlook, so we can have better people coming to the National Assembly that will not just be rubber stamps because they are all APC or they’re all whatever in the future.
So something has to be done to ensure that the division of power between the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary is strengthened in 2026, so that as we go towards 2027 for the election, we’ll have a system that Nigerians can have confidence in and trust.
We wish too that 2026 would usher in a thorough implementation of ranching. Fulani have been brought from all parts of West Africa through the moratorium on free movement established by General Abdulsalam and his colleagues when he was in power. Today, we have people who are not Nigerians all over the country contributing to our problem. The ranching policy which he has mentioned should be vigorously pursued so that it can assist in addressing so many of our problems.
In 2026, the president should look at mining, and not for oil, which is the main revenue earner for Nigeria, gold in abundance is being taken out by people and is not raking in the money that we expect it should bring into the coffers of government. It’s an unfortunate situation. People are estimating that the kind of gold in Zamfara and other parts of the country can parallel, if not be more than what appears in South Africa, and yet, what is coming into government coffers is nothing to write home about. Lithium is being taken in trucks every day, and leaving this country. The nation is losing a lot of revenue. Government should take control of these items so that we can control our resources. Now, it is not being controlled, and we are just losing money and depending on oil while we can have more revenue from these stolid minerals that are being carried away by individuals, by the Chinese, and it’s not good for the country. So, the revenue base should be widened, not just taxation of Nigeria that is creating more burden on Nigeria. We have ways and means of getting revenue, even more than oil, if we are serious.
Let 2026 be a time when these things would really make a meaning to the economy of Nigeria. There are so many other things, including reforms within the military, including ensuring that the state police, including county police, which many of us are advocating would also come into fruition, and that we can have true federalism, coming to play in 2026.
The president can implement either the 2014 CONFAB report or ensure that another national conference could update what is on ground, so that we can have a new people’s democratic constitution, rather than continually trying to amend the military constitution of 1999.
