By Daniel Kanu
Former House of Representatives member, who represented Ife Federal Constituency, Osun State, Hon. Rotimi Makinde and former deputy chairman, Human Rights Committee in the 7th Assembly, was outstanding for his great contributions in legislative matters then.
Makinde, an APC chieftain was in the forefront in the formation of the South-West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA), a vocal platform that campaigned vigorously in all states of the federation for the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Presidency.
In this exclusive chat with Sunday Sun, the former lawmaker speaks on the President Tinubu-led APC government, the challenges, fears and the need to restructure the country, among other national issues. Excerpt:
You are known to be a strong supporter of President Bola Tinubu and were among the founders of the Southwest Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA). Now that he has been in-charge for over seven months in office, can you say, you are happy with the way things are in your frank assessment?
I will want to sincerely tell you that it’s a good start because with my privileged information of how worse the situation was before he took over, we should not expect anybody to perform any miracle. So, the president is on the right part and yes, I want to believe that, with patience, if he continues with this trend this country stands a better chance to be rescued from the situation. It has been work in progress and I tell you, so far, so good.
Most Nigerian’s thought that with Tinubu in power given his acclaimed knowledge of economic and political re-engineering skill that the present sad experiences of hunger, frustration, insecurity etc, would have been tackled by now rather it seems to be escalating?
Well, first and foremost, there is no known economic policy that triumphs in unsecured environment. There is no good policy that can come out or blossom from any environment with insecurity, as it makes nonsense of every plan you put in place. It’s a very bad situation that we have found ourselves in this country with this challenge of insecurity as this is seriously killing our economy. And I can tell you that you cannot perform any miracle under such threat of insecurity. You need diplomacy, you need to think out of the box on these challenges that abound. So, what I think the government should do is to consider some certain things as priority. They should put certain critical issues on priority list and security is a major one in that list. We must ensure that we are well secured and that the people can live in peace before you can think of anything else. You cannot make any meaningful progress or lasting development in a state of insecurity. But the government cannot do this alone as it requires some kind of collective responsibility from all of us to see this happen. On the economy, it is a world-wide phenomenon that things are bad, but notwithstanding, what makes ours worst is this issue of insecurity where people cannot go to their farms, where the people cannot plan due to uncertainty, but all the same the government is not folding its arms or doing nothing over it. I will also want to see a government that will tackle the banking industry in such a way that Nigeria can leverage on it and this idea of skyrocketing interest rate can never make us grow. So, the government must deliberately declare state of emergency on our banking sector to make it a one-digit affair. How can somebody go and borrow from a one-digit economy and bring it to Nigeria and start lending to people at 30 per cent. Something you borrowed from other countries at three per cent and they do not care about how they milk the people for profit. What is happening there cannot make us grow in any way, and I think, fiscal government policy must be put in place and must be adhered to. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must come out alive and maintain their monetary policy in such a way that they can control and if possible, all the hindrances placed before the banks relaxed by way of excessive tax, so that they do not transfer all the aggression to the general populace. Also, government must concentrate on those things that touch on lives, something like the oil and gas industry. There is no country that can triumph in an economy that is not regulated, so a situation where in our oil and gas industry, we cannot have a good policy in place that controls it, saddens my heart. Distribution of fuel is faulty using the tankers and we can’t triumph with such system, when indeed there are pipelines that can transport and transfer all those movement of fuel out of the roads. You can see the destruction done to our roads and the killing of our people on daily basis by tankers. These are some of the things that make nonsense of our economy. But I must salute this government for taking the bull by the horns by removing the oil subsidy. Subsidy is a fraud and I have always been describing it as a fraud, but even at that the government must use their bilateral relationship with other countries to bring it pending when we can overhaul our refineries. Leaving importation of fuel to individuals is still making nonsense of the oil and gas sector. Government should use their bilateral relationship to either use its discretion by way of exchanging the crude oil to finished product so that the effect will not be much on the people. With what we are witnessing now, no matter how they increase the salary of workers; how many workers can survive on even N50, 000, not to talk of the N35,000, that they are proposing? It saddens my heart that people cannot pay their rents, people cannot pay their little bills. There must be a deliberate policy to prioritise our expenditure. We cannot carry everything along the same time. If it is power, if it is education, if it is agriculture we want to tackle, let’s face it. If it is only security that we can tackle and excel in, let’s do it well because it will positively rub off on others and the better for us as a nation. Then government must also demonstrate their own commitment by avoiding a kind of unnecessary expenses being incurred by people in power. Asiwaju is known to be an apostle of unicameral system of government, I will like to see him championing it now. All these ideas of having the senate and others, the fancy positions that the politicians want etc; for me, I think we have to think patriotic at this level and given our situation and cut off things that do not suit our system or that do not allow our system to grow better. I don’t see the government being able to curtail the expenses being incurred because we are running an expensive system. If we can survive with the unicameral system of government at the state level, at the local government level, I certainly believe we can survive at the national level. And Asiwaju is an apostle of that. Look at the number of senators, the number of members of the House of Reps, it may not be fashionable to my people, I am referring to members of my former constituency, but for me, I have to remain committed and that should be a challenge to ponder about by all of us. We have to think about this nation’s survival, especially now that things are very hard. Look, the money we spent on infrastructure on railway, for instance, if there is no security or if there is insecurity, it will make nonsense of it all. So, we have to be strategic, identifying key areas and addressing them.
How do you see the 2024 budget?
Well, this is the first budget that will be presented by the President Tinubu-led government, so, let’s wait and see how it goes. It has been presented at the beginning of the year and such is commendable. But if you ask me, the problem for me is not in the budget presentation because we always have beautiful budgets, but in the implementation of the budget. If the budget is followed religiously, wholistically, I see us coming out from the mess and renewing our hope as a nation. There is hope in the budget if its implementation is properly carried out. So, let’s hope the budget will be fully implemented and I know such will be the desire of Mr. President. Asiwaju that I know has a track record and he will not want any blemish, so I hope, he will ensure good implementation of the budget so as to achieve the expected result. All the renewal hope that we are talking about is a matter of collective responsibility. There are those implementing the budget, not the president alone, so if all have good intention like the president and they do a good job, things will definitely turnaround for good. So, I will say that the 2024 budget is good as it is on paper, but good implementation is what will matter most. If the implementation is faulty, then that is where the problem will be. Let’s just hope the budget will be well and fully implemented.
What are your fears for Nigeria as the country is today?
Yes, I exercise fear in so many ways. The alarming rate at which this insecurity is taking and growing is worrisome. We are lacking in the area of unity and trust in one another and injustice will always continue to create peoples’ anxiety and fear about one another. I will love to see us thinking as one Nigeria. I will love the Igbo to see ourselves first as Nigeria before seeing themselves as Biafra or whatever, and so to other regions and groups. As long as these agitations continue, it’s normal for everybody to have fears. The Igbo are agitating that they want to go on their own and so are some other groups. And you ask, why are they demanding to go on their own? But because there is no fairness, there is injustice. The North is not sleeping with their eyes closed because of insecurity. Some certain percentages of Nigeria are living under serious threat, so why will any responsible person not exercise fear? I fear because there are lots of discriminations here and there. There is a lot of injustice along the line so one has to exercise fear. The poor distribution of wealth in this country is giving the people sleepless nights where even the rich cannot sleep with their eyes closed. It is not until there is unity, when you and I can guarantee that we can go to bed and sleep with our eyes closed then we can begin to feel fulfilled, but personally, I can tell you that this is not the Nigeria of my dream.
Do you think that the Nigerian condition calls for restructuring?
Yes, I think for us to move forward as a nation we must be able to sit down and look at each other in the eye and tell ourselves the bitter truth. Why is anybody or a group of people afraid to discuss their grievances? Why will a Yoruba man be afraid of an Igbo coming to table their grievances and vice versa? Why will Hausa man not be so confident that when we come and sit down together we will be able to talk to each other and from there arrive at a genuine solution for our unity in diversity? Why will anybody be avoiding a constitutional review? Why is anybody exercising fear about it? Let everybody, every group come and put their fear on the table. Fiscal restructure of Nigeria should be now and this I believe is the position of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu when he was on the other side, so I expect him to set certain things in motion. He must not miss this opportunity because opportunity lost may never be recovered. We should pray for the president, so that he can have the courage and wisdom to do the needful. We must be able to sit down and discuss what is wrong with our constitution. The constitution is not meant to be rigid, let’s sit down and fashion out what we want and how we can run this country to the benefit of all rather than few. We should avoid injustice, discrimination and all such vices because they breed fear, anxiety and lead to violence. A situation where a state like Osun will have nine representatives and a state that is smaller than Osun State will be having 12 representatives is condemnable and not good for our nation. Bayelsa State as small as it is has three senators, Lagos State as big as it is also has three senators, why? Let us sit down and tell ourselves the bitter truth where the Nnamdi Kanus of this world will have confidence that there is hope where the Rotimi Makinde of Ife will have confidence that he has a brother in Maiduguri (Borno State) or in Nnewi (Anambra State). That is the way it should be and who is afraid of that? There is a lot of lacuna in our constitution that we must sit down and discuss about. Let the Executive have the mindset that we want to discuss, that we want to have a sincere conversation. No constitution is perfect, but at least, there should be justice and fairness in it. I still think restructuring Nigeria is inevitable if we really desire peaceful co-existence in love and unity.
Most Nigerians are having this spirit of despondency in view of the hard situation in the land…?
(Cuts in) Well, there is plenty of hope in Nigeria and Nigerians must not give up hope in this situation. Hope must not depart from us as a people. Let’s keep hope alive and those who are saddled with the opportunity or have the privilege to be at the helm of affairs must govern us with the fear of God. Let them be conscious of where history will place them because ‘soldier go, soldier come’. Every opportunity to serve your people must be properly and faithfully utilized because history will document it.