By Daniel Kanu
Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu, national chairman, African Democratic Congress (ADC) in this exclusive interview, speaks on the Tinubu presidency, the error on subsidy removal and the attendant hardship, Nnamdi Kanu’s continued detention, security challenges and the organise labour protests, among others. Excerpt:
We are witnessing protests in many states of the federation. Do you see it as an indictment that the President Bola Tinubu’s APC-led government is not doing well?
Yes, there is no doubt about that, it is fairly an indictment and it shows the sentiment of the people that the political leaders are supposed to be governing. It shows the temperature in our different constituencies. Poverty is ravishing everybody. The economy is in a horrible state. The security situation is horrible and hunger is ravaging everybody and poverty is at its highest level. Its manifestation is everywhere because there is hunger in the land. It seems the people now are better united by hunger and poverty. The worst part of it is that the people in government, the National Assembly, the executives, legislators at all levels, executives at all levels, the presidency, the state governors, the state legislators, local government chairmen etc, they are all insensitive. Most people cannot find N20,000 in a month to eat, but the government has continued to facilitate increase of almost every commodity on one hand and their insensitivity is that, they are at the same time lavishing big Owambe’s, putting up lavish parties and they are arranging private aircraft for enjoyment at parties, going for overseas treatments with billions of dollars of the tax payers’ money. Meanwhile, our hospitals here in Nigeria don’t have up to N500 million for the whole hospitals. For me, that is completely insensitive. So, the protests that you are seeing are reflections of the state of the nation, the mood of the people, how they are feeling, the hunger, their frustrations, the starvation in the land, and it seems to be getting worse by the day. All that Nigerians are getting is promises upon promises, reforms and more reforms while the hunger is biting in a deadlier fashion. It’s a sad commentary.
There are some critics that are saying that the organised labour are also insensitive with the protests they are carrying out as warning for future protests?
There is hunger and the hunger is caused by the insensitivity of the people in government, and if the organised labour don’t react to protest now when will they react? Will labour react when the masses of this country are dead from hunger? The people in government are insensitive to labour, they are insensitive to the situation in the country. The truth is that when you push the people to the wall, you should not expect them not to react. Is it when they are dead that they will react? Like I said earlier, those condemning labour are equally insensitive and I suspect, if you check their background, they are likely going to be agents benefitting from this ongoing madness. I cannot imagine what we are experiencing now, and anybody who is praising the government, given what Nigerians are going through now is living in denial of the reality. No matter how anybody will want to commend the government the stark reality is that Nigerians are hungry, Nigerians are starving and you should not expect them not to let you know the way they feel. Nigerians have not had it this bad.
The President Bola Tinubu-led government is presently looking at the state police option as a way of tackling the growing insecurity. What is your take on this?
When you cannot pay your workers decent wages and you show so much insensitivity to their wellbeing they (the state police) will use their uniforms to terrorize everybody. When you recruit them and you cannot pay them, you will cause a bigger mayhem. It is something that requires serious planning and not that we dabble into state police without proper arrangement and equipment. The first thing to do is to be sensitive first to the welfare of the people. How many state governors are implementing the small N30,000 minimum wage agreed upon with the Federal Government? You can count the few states that have complied on your fingertips. It’s sad that those in government are insensitive of the plight of the majority of Nigerians.
There was this great enthusiasm of hope when President Tinubu was coming in that the country can no longer have a president believed to be as bad as President Buhari, but it seems Nigerians are now wrong? Where is President Tinubu missing it?
That brand of hope, that statement that the president made on that inauguration day, 29th May was reckless, and careless that with immediate effect, fuel subsidy is gone forever. How can you without sitting down first to analyze issues increase the very basic product that can trigger things off with almost 500 per cent? That decision to remove fuel subsidy is a very delicate issue and it is not something to be done without preparing for its after effect. That is the only subsidy that the masses enjoy, so you cannot remove it without preparing for a cushioning effect. As a president you must at all times gauge, be very careful of what comes out of your mouth because they become policy statements. There is need for national conversation where party leaders, National Assembly members, leaders of the civil society, organized labour, media practitioners, etc, should meet to find a survival strategy. There are national issues that need to be thoroughly discussed. Like the issue of state police and some other things point to restructuring. But we need at the moment to talk about food insecurity, to talk about how to survive with the hardship Nigerians are going through.
President Tinubu’s government is dusting the Oronsaye Report to see to its implementation. Is this a cheering news to you?
Considering what is on the ground to be tackled, the priority list should be to address poverty, the hunger in the land first, address insecurity. Some of these things are distractions giving the challenge that is facing this government. They should do first thing first. Anything you want to address now, which should be seen as an emergency is addressing the hunger, the frustration in the land. Address the economy, address insecurity, how will farmers have access to their farms so that they can produce? Those are the critical issues to frantically address now. Bringing the report for now is a distraction, a diversion of attention no matter how good the report is. There must be timing and we should at the moment focus on key issues. You cannot be buying vehicles of over N150 million for legislators, throwing parties as if all is well as government officials and you want Nigerians to believe that you are sensitive of the masses situation? No, you are insensitive. When the people are hungry, you cannot be paying hundreds of millions for overseas medical treatment, ignoring our health sector? There is too much shenanigans from political office holders at different cadres. If you are in public service, you have to serve the public, but the moment you begin to use the public money for yourself then there is a big but, a question mark, a moral question in every other thing you are doing.
Some members of the National Assembly are proposing a bill for a return back to parliamentary system of government. Do you see the type of government that we are running in Nigeria as part of the problem hindering our development?
The major problem that we have is that we have merchants getting into power and government and they distort the system. In any system you find them, they are merchants who are doing things just for their own selfish interests. And in any system you find them that system will equally collapse. If you practice the system in the way, it should be practiced you won’t have any problem. We claim that we are practicing presidential system of government, but is it how it should be practiced? Everything should not be centralised and you still say that you are practicing presidential system. How are the federating units or states coordinating their affairs? Is true federalism in operation the way it should be done without undue control or influence from the centre? In most cases, it is the people operating the system that are abusing it. When the operators, the actors, the human element are bent on abusing the system, no matter the system you give them, no matter how good the system is, they will still abuse and corrupt it. Are the operators of the system ready to follow the rules and regulations of the system?
Looking at Nigeria today what do you see as the solution?
Let there be national conversation, to address the major, fundamental challenges confronting us today. But I think the biggest problem that we have is leadership. Instead of leaders being nation builders they become nation devourers and that is a serious problem. They have corrupted the entire system and when you are in a corrupted eco-system then anything goes.
Let’s know your take on the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader?
They are again completely wrong and insensitive on his continued detention. Why are they still keeping the young man in detention? Is the young man going to overrun the entire Nigerian Armed Forces? Is the young man going to overrun the Nigeria police? Is he going to overrun the entire Nigerian security forces? Sometimes, our system and our government create monsters for the country. Nnamdi Kanu has not done anything that will warrant the type of incarceration he is going through. As I said earlier, it just shows the insensitivity of those in government. As a matter of fact, if you release Nnamdi Kanu today the type of happiness that you will get from a good majority of people will be overwhelming and the state security will have less pressure so that they can concentrate their effort in the other bigger issues.
Your party was quite optimistic that your candidate will win the governorship position in Kogi State in the last off-season election. Are you disappointed?
To a great extent, yes, but then it boils down to the Nigerian thing, the Nigerian factor of people overrunning the system and manufacturing results. It just shows you the APC style. They fooled Nigerians, promising to deliver a free, fair and credible election after Buhari lost elections many times. But now that they are in power they are conducting worst elections. And with Tinubu having to be one of the key political players since 1999, we thought it will be enough of rigging and violence, but the same thing has continued, even in worst form today.