Follow Us on Google
How Buhari destroyed gains Nigeria made since independence
As the insecurity situation in the northern Nigeria remains unabated, the Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi has said that the federal government is not interested in the security of lives and property in the region.
According to him, the government has shown lethargy in the rescue of the kidnapped female university students in Zamfara State.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Charanchi noted that former President Muhammadu Buhari destroyed the gains that Nigeria made since independence, insisting that the country became what it is today under his regime
What is your assessment of Nigeria at 63?
All the indices of development in the 63 years of our so-called independence show that we are very behind. The reality is that we have even been taken back to our pre-independence period. We are not only free from military administration, but it would be better if our leaders should take us back to life during the colonial era. I held this view because during the colonial leadership we had security; we didn’t have much security challenges, we didn’t have much economic crisis, and the atmosphere was conducive. Now that we have democracy, the indices are not favourable to Nigerians.
For instance, despite that fact we have had 63 years of independence, Nigeria with a population of about 200 people, cannot generate electricity that exceeds 4,000 megawatts. Go to South Africa with a population of about 55 million people, they are generating over 55,000 megawatts of electricity. Go to Saudi Arabia, it has even reached the peak level of generating electricity, they are no more talking of megawatts, but gig watts. All these are contemporary countries that Nigeria should be compared with.
What of the petroleum sector? Nigerians are buying petrol for N650 per litre since they claimed that the so-called subsidy has been removed. The price is not even stable. We don’t even believe that subsidy existed; they just came and inflated the price. Even though Nigeria is a leading oil producing country in Africa, our refineries have zero capacity despite the fact that former President Muhammadu Buhari spent over N20 billion just to maintain the refineries. Did Dangote spend such an amount to build a new refinery? All these indices show that we are not progressing and we don’t have leaders that will move this country forward. Countries like Niger, Egypt and Algeria, have refineries that operate at full capacity, but there is no refinery that is working in this country. That is why the suffering is too much.
Look at the exchange rate. Today, we are exchanging a dollar at the rate of over N1, 000. Consider a country like Eritrea, which is about 10 times smaller than Nigeria, they are exchanging a dollar for not more than 15 Nakfas, which is about N15 Naira. Ghana is about 11.7 Cedi, which is equivalent of one dollar. Go to Libya that is experiencing a war, their exchange rate is at par with the dollar. Nigeria is not progressing, we are just deceiving ourselves. All these are evident because we don’t have leaders. Our problems got worse since the beginning of this political dispensation in 1999. But, during the administration of Obasanjo, it was fair. At least we had security at that time and the economic situation was not as bad as we have it today; the exchange rate was better.
Nigeria was destabilised and it became what it is today under the regime of former President Muhammadu Buhari. He destroyed this country; destroyed every economic sector of this country; destroyed every security sector of this country. Corruption was at an alarming rate during his time and that is why this country cannot progress. Even if you have leaders with the fear of God; leaders that have the sympathy for the masses, leaders that are ready to do the job not for their own personal interests, if you give them this country to lead, it would take them over 10years to take the country back to where Buhari met it in 2015. Former President Jonathan handed over this country to Buhari with an exchange rate of less than N200 to a dollar, and the black market was less than N400, but Buhari left this country with over N730 for a dollar. Only Buhari’s eight years destroyed all that Nigeria gained from independence to 2015.
This administration is unlucky to have sunk into the deep hole that Buhari left behind. I have never seen an administration whereby as it is coming, Nigerians are tired of it like the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government. Nigerians don’t see or have any hope in this government. They are not seeing any better tomorrow in this administration. To them, this government is trying to put them in more trouble than it met them under Buhari.
Where did the rain start to beat the country?
The rain started to beat Nigeria more during this political era, but during Obasanjo’s administration, it was fair; ditto Yar’Adua’s and Jonathan’s governments, because we can associate so many developmental projects to those administrations at different levels. The situation got out of hand under Buahri – the exchange rate was not appreciable, the petrol subsidy removal, the increase in electricity tariff , the insecurity bedevilling this country went to unprecedented level under him. The activities of bandits and kidnappers are even more dangerous than that of Boko Haram. Even though Zamfara State doesn’t have an official IDP camp, the unofficial IDP camps there is higher than the refugees that Maiduguri ever experienced. The number of households displaced in Zamfara is more than that of Maiduguri. Buhari was a catastrophe to this country and I can tell you that he did more harm to Nigeria and to Nigerians, and I doubt if the citizens can forgive him because he plunged this nation into these crises.
Even during the military regime headed by Ibrahim Babangida, we witnessed much developmental project – building of Abuja, the building of major roads, particularly in the northern part of the country, the Third Mainland Bridge and more were done under IBB’s regime. There were better things during the military regime, and during the past political leaders. But under Buhari, the reverse was the case.
Unfortunately, instead of Tinubu to do a rethink and begin to bring a proper solution to the Buhari’s obnoxious policies, he started to do window dressing. A situation whereby you begin to distribute palliatives to the people when you know that the economy is in a crisis shows lack of understanding of proper governance. The inflation rate in July was about 40 per cent, but in August, it went up to about 50 per cent, which has never happened in this country. The number of out-of –school children is always increasing; many are leaving school because they are not seeing a future in going to school. Appointment letters are sold to citizens; it will get to a level that they will begin to sell political appointments. Unfortunately, Nigerians were praying and hoping that Tinubu would do something different, but Nigerians are even looking at the Buhari government with nostalgia. The hardship in the country is alarming; people are suffering, starvation is everywhere and insecurity is everywhere.
How do we get it right as a nation?
We can only get it right when Nigerians begin to think of having good leaders – leaders that are patriotic, leaders that have the concept of human feelings and leaders that have the fear of God; leaders that come to serve people and not to be served, and leaders that believe in the ideology of respect for humanity. That is the only way we can get it right.
If we don’t get the right leaders in this country, we may keep on moving like this. We don’t care whether it is political, military or colonial; we need leaders that are patriotic and ready to serve this country and Nigerians.
Nigerians had thought that with a new government and new military chiefs, insecurity would abate. But it has escalated. Why?
When Buhari decided to relieve people like Burantai and others, we said that if you are going to relieve these service chiefs or whoever is holding a position in this country, let it be based on the fact that the person is not competent to hold that office. There must be reward and punishment; when you do it right the government should reward you, but when you do it wrong, the government should also punish you. The government should be a watchdog to the service chiefs and reward them when they get it right, as well as punish them when they fail. These service chiefs are just nominated based on their relationship with the government, not based on their competence. It is only when Nigeria begins to appoint people based on their capacity and competency that we’ll get it right.
What is going on in Zamfara, especially regarding the abducted female university students?
We were in the state a day after the kidnap of the female students. We met with the major stakeholders in the state – the government delegation, the emir, the school management, the students, the parents and the community. The issue is that people saw it coming, but nothing was done.
They told us that there were five major attacks before the time they abducted these students and that for many weeks, over 70 of these kidnappers were in that university. Fortunately, one MOPOL chased them out from that university. This institution is situated at Kwasankwashi in Sabon Gida. Whenever you are talking of Sabon Gida and Kwasankwashi, you are talking about banditry. There is no perimeter fence in the university, which has a population of 10, 000 students, with a hostel that can accommodate about 100 students. Most of the students are living in Sabon Gida, which is a den of bandits. So, to attack the university is very easy as there is no perimeter fence. They don’t have a stationary military joint force in that university. The soldiers that are responsible for the security of the university are far and it may take them over an hour to arrive at that university if there is any attack.
Today, these abducted students are females; we were told that the bandits were even communicating during the operation. Until now, the federal government is yet to take any decisive action over the kidnap of those students. It is only when we imbibe the culture of reward and punishment that people will take their jobs very seriously and guard their jobs in order not to lose their positions or appointments.
Fuel subsidy is back. It was reported that the federal government paid about N168 billion as subsidy for fuel in August. What is your position on this?
I don’t how people in governance define subsidy. The essence of government in this country is stated in Section 2 of our constitution, which is about the security and the welfare of the people. It is not a bad idea for you to spend any amount of money in as much as it goes to the people of the country. They said they have totally removed subsidy, and they have come to realise that it is not affordable to Nigerians; that Nigerians cannot take it. Now they are safeguarding the administration, so they don’t want a situation whereby they would publicly say that subsidy was back. If they made it public, people will tell them to take the price back to where it was before.
The removal of fuel subsidy was a deliberate attempt by the government to enrich itself so that they would get bigger allocations, and that is why the governors, the senators, House of Representatives members and other government officials are silent over it. What kind of subsidy is the government paying again? You said if you remove subsidy, the government would be saving so and so amount of money, but has it been so?
The brain behind the crisis we are facing today is the removal of fuel subsidy. It is unfortunate that we don’t have leaders in this country that would see people as their children, brothers, sisters. If they are doing right, they would not even talk of subsidy because there is nothing bad in subsidy. Tinubu said that he is generating over one trillion Naira. What is the essence of that money while your countrymen are suffering? Is it a bad idea if he subsidises all the lives of the citizens? Go to other countries, you see how they are subsidising food items, but in Nigeria, you don’t have subsidy on education. You don’t have subsidy on petrol; you removed subsidy on agriculture, on everything. What is the essence of leadership? What is the government doing to citizens?
The organised labour unions shelved their planned strike after agreeing with the federal government. What is your opinion on this?
Nobody is taking the labour unions seriously in this country. We all know that they are doing the government bidding and it goes to the highest bidder. Nobody will take them seriously because if you read their letter on the suspension of the strike you will know it was just in their own interest. If they were fighting for the people, I don’t see any reason they would have backed out from the strike. What is N35, 000 even to the federal workers? How much are we buying petrol? How much are we buying food items? How much are we paying for electricity tariff?
With all these challenges, they decided to abandon their people who are at the state and local government levels, who are the majority. This act shows you that they are not fighting for the masses but for themselves. They cannot defend our rights. It seems that the government is using the labour union to douse tension in the country. By the time we thought that the labour was going on strike, they killed our morale to come out and do something on our own.
The Minister of Defence was quoted to have said that communities can on their own negotiate with the bandits or other non state actors. What’s your view?
People living in Zamfara, Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, part of Sokoto and Kebbi are confused because of unceasing attacks by bandits. So, anything you give for them to live in peace, they would take it. The government has lost control over the issue of bandits, and the reality is that even if you take all the military formations in Zamfara to find these kidnapped ladies, I doubt if they can release any of them. Government has failed in securing the lives and property of the citizens; it is now left with the citizens to do anything that is humanly possible to protect themselves. That is why some people are migrating. Go to any uncompleted building in Zamfara, people are living there. They are confused and don’t know what to do.
People are paying taxes to clear their farmlands, they pay taxes to plant their seeds, they pay taxes for the weeding of their crops, they pay taxes for the harvest of their crops. They pay taxes for anything they are going to do in their farmlands. The worst part of it is that after they have paid all these taxes, these bandits may decide to burn all their farm outputs. People are no more living in all these communities that are near the forest. The only people you are going to see there are bandits. Anybody who is not a bandit cannot live in that area. Some people have already abandoned their houses, farmlands and are moving to see where they can survive.
Whatever option that is available for them to have peace in those parts of the country is a welcome idea. The government doesn’t have the political will to protect the lives and properties of the people in the northern part of the country. Unfortunately, we elected people who just want to be leaders without knowing what leadership entails. People should rise above the challenges and do the needful that is the reality.
