From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Former National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Emma Ibediro, having been around the leadership corridors for years now, has built himself to become a political force.
Speaking to Sunday Sun, Ibediro after critical assessment commended the performance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the power play that resulted in the ouster of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC), and the chances of the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, in retaining his seat after the November 11 governorship election.
What actually gave APC victory in the 2023 presidential election?
So many things worked for the APC and no matter your perception, APC enjoyed the benefit of incumbency. In politics, the election is not won just by the mere popularity of a presidential candidate. There should be a structure. APC, as the ruling party, has a structure up to the polling unit level. There were people all over the country talking and working for the party. APC is an already established party. The person of the party’s presidential candidate is also counted. No matter your impression about him, he is a man who prepared for today as president in the past 40 years. He has made friendships across tribes, and religions. Over the years, he prepared himself for this day. He has remained the national leader since the formation of APC. Of course, he was a president in waiting. Therefore, because he has been able to reach out, it was easy for him. We all saw how the party primary went. There were issues of whether there was a consensus candidate before the primary. But the Tinubu factor played out when the friends he made in the past collapsed structures for him in the field, which helped him to emerge. He won with a very wild margin. And after that emergence, the rest became a roller coaster.
With the election over, what is your assessment of his performance so far?
My assessment of the president is that he has shown that he is a firm person who speaks his mind timely. He does not prevaricate over issues. Nigeria needs such a leader at this time, unlike the immediate past president, who his taciturn nature gave room for misinterpretation of his intentions. Tinubu does not wait for people to speak for him. He speaks and makes good his intentions for everybody to know where he is driving to. At some point in this country, it was as if Nigeria was floating. People didn’t know whether to go front or go backward. But, Tinubu has become decisive so far. If he says he is going to do this, he comes out to do it. Fully aware of the consequences, he will still go ahead. Nigeria needs direction and at the moment, he has done quite well in the past few weeks he has been in charge.
I also see him as a man who wants to write his name in gold and be on the right side of history. By his background, he is not an indigent person. I don’t think it is the wealth of Nigeria that is driving him to become president. He wants to write his name in gold and fit into this special place reserved for certain leaders of the world that have positively taken their country, on the right path of development. Leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew, South African Mandela, and others are those you mention along their countries too. The opportunity is open for President Tinubu to have his name in that type of history book. He has started well.
On the inauguration day, I was taken aback that he could find the courage to announce the issue of subsidy removal. I was impressed because I have always believed that subsidy must go or else Nigeria will go for it. We cannot keep getting the impression that every month we use whatever we put together as revenue to pay for subsidies for products we produce the raw materials and export to foreign countries to refine. What we are doing is not the kind of history we will bequeath to people coming after us. Yes, he has addressed that issue, and the consequences will be there, but sometimes we have to make sacrifices. It is our place to make the sacrifices today so that the coming generation can have a more stable economy. I support him on that. Again, unifying the exchange rate is another beautiful move, because people apply for Forex, but cannot get it even when they claim there is an official exchange rate. We can only assess foreign exchange through the black markets, what are we then doing with the official rates? Unifying it now will give everybody the direction we are going because the idea of having two exchange rates is very deceptive. People who have connections with those in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) accessing it will encourage corruption. If they know that the currency is almost doubled at the black market, they can move it there within days, and collect their money. Double exchange rates encouraged round-tripping. President Tinubu’s decision was like house cleaning.
People like him know where they are going. I tend to trust people who know where they are going than those that want to drift. I believe that God has given the man the opportunity to write his name in gold.
What about Nigerians suffering over subsidy removal?
We have to be practical about some of these things. There is no way subsidy will be removed and the effects will not bounce back on the people. Nigerians are already down and anything will further aggravate their problems. Subsidy removal is a bitter pill that needs to be swallowed for the country to get better. My advice to the president is to quickly find and develop policies that will cushion the effect of this suffering for now. It is not just the issue of normal palliative, where people received hand-outs of little cash. If he wants to encourage civil servants in both state and federal levels, he will look at their salaries. It must be something that can enable them to plan not a one-off hand-out that will still leave them where they are at the end of the day. We have refineries in this country. If we assure Nigerians that these refineries will start working within the next six months, they will be ready to take the suffering for six months and it will further reduce the way they react to the removal. I will advise the president to do everything to ensure that the refineries in the country will begin to work so that at least the price of the fuel can come down since Nigeria practically runs on petrol. When they removed the subsidy on diesel people did not feel it so much because they believe only the rich run generator. And because Nigeria practically runs on petrol since our electricity is not stable, artisans operate small generators for their trades; we must feel the effects of the removal. They must quickly activate our refineries to start working because it will go a long way to help our people.
What about the decisions on the removal of CBN Governor and EFCC Chairman?
Everything about Nigeria revolves around currency and Forex matters. I am very convinced that President Tinubu is not a man who acts on his instincts. Every action he has taken so far is based on solid reports. I am sure that if he doesn’t begin to touch certain areas, people will not take him seriously. We all know what happened on the issue of currency redesign and the issue of double Forex. What he has done so far is what any person who wants to show seriousness will do.
What target can you set for Tinubu as one of those considered his boys?
We were elected into APC National Working Committee (NWC) in June 2018, but we were dissolved exactly two years after, on the 25th of June, but as far as I am concerned that dissolution was not justified. Members of the Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC were victims of power play. It was not hidden that President Tinubu wanted to contest. But there were other people, like the serving Ministers or top officials of government then that were also interested in the race. The ambition was how to control the soul of the party. Oshiomhole’s closeness to Tinubu, based on their ACN antecedents, gave the perception that he was going to make it impossible for their ambition to see the light of the day since he was involved. And because Oshiomhole has a way of carrying the NWC together, they thought every NWC member keyed into the Tinubu ambition. To a certain extent, we were tagged the Asiwaju Boys. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to ask us where our interest was. We felt that the way Oshiomhole was suspended from his ward was not constitutional. In our Constitution, a ward executive cannot suspend a national chairman. We laid bad precedence because the same thing played out in PDP recently. We backed our chairman because we felt that it should not happen and by extension, people felt that we were backing Asiwaju. We are now happy that the perception has turned out to be in our favour today having supported a winning person. You asked about the target for him in the next four years, I want him to make the campaign much easier for APC, when he will probably be seeking his second mandate, in such a way that he has been able to do those things that will get Nigeria walking again. The last eight years, got Nigerians disillusioned. You can see the trend with which young Nigerians are moving out of the country. Our youths can no longer get jobs in this country. The future is not guaranteed for anybody resulting in people moving out in droves. I want a situation where in the next four years; instead of Nigerians leaving the country, those abroad will be seeking to come back. Those conditions that will make Nigerians return and live a worthy life will begin to exist in this country. On the issue of security, nothing has happened to Nigerians like the plague of insecurity in the last eight years. It has never been like that. People could no longer travel when and as they wanted. Flying has become the preserve of the well-to-do. The poor travel by road holding their hearts in their mouths because of uncertainty. Reports of 10 people kidnapped or killed no longer frighten people. It has become a regular thing and I pray that in the next four years when we begin to assess the performance of President Tinubu, insecurity will be a thing of the past. People will be able to move around and farmers will be able to return to the farms because the food scarcity we are having today is because people can no longer go to the farms. In agrarian states, like Benue, Plateau, people can no longer go to the farms. In some areas, farmers even have to pay bandits to plant and harvest their crops. I will be happy that in the next four years, Nigeria will have returned to its normal, peaceful country where people can drive their vehicles at night from the North to the South or anywhere. I will also want to see a situation where what Nigerian workers earn will be a real minimum wage. It must be something that can take them home so that Nigeria can come back to what it used to be in the past. Unfortunately, maybe a lot of factors combined to make the last eight years a nightmare. It was a nightmare Nigerians don’t want to remember.
What legacy did former President Buhari leave behind?
I have to give it to Buhari in terms of infrastructure. Unfortunately, Nigeria had already been dealt a very fatal blow before he took over. Definitely, it will not really be easy for him to turn everything around. Before he came, the Enugu-Onitsha express road was not just a death trap, but had been converted to farmland, but today that road has been restored. The second Niger Bridge has been an item on the budget every year, but they took the project very seriously, completed and commissioned it. In terms of infrastructure, I will give Buhari a pass mark. He also did well on the railway. In terms of legacies on infrastructure, I can give it to him. Unfortunately, insecurity eclipsed most of these wonderfully recorded legacies. It is not that nothing was done, but insecurity really escalated and damaged whatever positives from that side.
What will work in favour of APC in Imo State November 11 governorship election?
For now, contrary to what people thought, Governor Hope has been able to put his feet on the ground in Imo, because the way he came in gave him an initial problem of legitimacy. People didn’t really understand how someone who came fourth became first. He was able to quickly adjust and he has really captured the heart of people with the few things he has done. The quality road projects from Orlu to Owerri, is one good thing they did, which people appreciate. In Imo people don’t really depend on what the government will do. Imo is the Igbo heartland who are very resilient and resourceful on their own. All they need is just a few amenities and environmental enhancements that will facilitate their businesses. Governor Hope is also constructing another road from Owerri to Umuahia, which is what the people need. Imo is not a very large state, it is easy to make it a one-city state with those networks of roads. He is doing very well and people are happy with him. APC will win the Imo governorship election.
Did the tension over the leadership of the 10th National Assembly surprise you?
When people talk about apprehension you will think that something different happened. The party giving direction on how they want their members to vote is not a new thing. We made the same proposal when we were in the NWC. We settled for who we wanted, and who would project the party’s interest. We told our members and they obeyed, resulting in the emergence of the anointed persons. There was nothing different in this one. What, perhaps heightened the tension in this one is that the announcement was made earlier. Some of the contestants felt that things will change when they make noise. It is normal with politics. We made the announcement about two days before the inauguration and our members obeyed the party. There was nothing wrong for the party to have made such a suggestion and I congratulate the members-elect in both chambers for listening to the party.
What should be your biggest fears in Tinubu’s administration?
We have to be positive in life and it is even too early to nurse any fear about the current administration. I will continue to be positive for now. I have not seen anything that will create doubt in my mind concerning this administration.
What is your advice to the APC leadership over the crisis rocking the party?
During our time, when the push came to shove, they said we were dissolved because of an internal crisis in the party. But, I can tell you that there were no internal crises in APC then. The crisis then was externally induced by people who wanted to scatter the party and maybe take charge of the structure of the party.
At every stage, there are people who make themselves difficult to lead. This is in their character. So, they will still play the same role. However, as far as this current leadership is concerned, the issue will be sorted out. The incumbent president is a consummate party man. At the appropriate time, he will intervene if the crisis continues. It may not come in the form of dissolution, but he will direct things well. President Tinubu is a man with a history of building a small organisation into a reputable and formidable party. I am very sure that when he settles down, he will look towards that direction. We all know that this party is important to us and a party that must be well organised so that we don’t go into the next election as a scattered family. However, I want to encourage our people in the NWC to find a way to do things right. They should deploy internal resolution mechanisms to resolve the issues instead of going to the press.