There’s a feeling we’re heading to a one-party state – Archbishop Nwaobia

•Nigerians not feeling gains of subsidy removal

Leader of Southern Nigeria Bishops Conference (Anglican Communion) and Archbishop of Aba Province, Dr. Isaac Nwaobia, has posited that despite promising to lead the country out of economic woes, President Bola Tinubu’s two years in office had yet to bring succour to Nigerians. He called on the president and governors of the 36 states to focus more on people oriented programmes to cushion the effects of current hardships and uplift the poor.

In an interview with Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, he also said that using emergency rule to settle political disputes in states is anti democracy and could be fatal to national unity.

Two years into the Tinubu administration, politicians especially those in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), are congratulating the president for leading Nigeria out of the woods, and endorsing him for a second term in office. How do you see this success that is being celebrated?

In the first place, we must return thanksgiving to God Almighty, for releasing his mercies on Nigeria for its continued existence. We’ve seen God going beyond our expertise, best preparations, skills, intellectual properties and relationships. What I term mercy, in this context, is that one sees a person fumbling and continues to love the fellow. That is how I feel, that God has been helping us. We want to thank God for the leadership of our country. Like the Bible says in the book of Romans chapter 13, “All authorities are instituted by God,” it is therefore, a responsibility for us to continue to pray for the success of the government and this we have been doing very religiously. Our prayers have been for the nation to progress, to be peaceful and move to the next level of development.

We want to thank God for President Tinubu, for his wisdom in what he has done so far. However, I still want to note that there is much that he has not done which must be done. This is from where I will score his administration. When one wants to enter for a course of study in a university, he or she must be well aware of the capabilities he or she possesses and would not want to fill forms for a study he will not graduate in. As an average student, one does not have to enrol in any programme that will be difficult in order not to fail to deliver. That’s how I see President Tinubu and his leadership. Nigeria has been in decay over the years, many decades I would like to say and needed someone to rescue it from going down further. He offered himself to reconstruct it. In his own language, he said that he applied to reconstruct the nation, to move it forward. From that point, one can see whether he has done so or not. Nigeria is very wide, large and cumbersome. Nigerians are very intelligent. God has blessed us with abundance in everything needed to grow the nation but the coordination of these abilities is what we need to move to the next level. In that case, I want to say that Tinubu and his team have not excelled. Come to think of it, the first action he took on assumption of office was the removal of fuel subsidy. Today, his team members are clapping hands saying Nigeria is now making more money, gaining from the subsidy removal. The effects of the enormous funds being realized are not being felt by the people.

This leads to the question – where is the money going to? because we are not seeing or feeling anything from it. The money is in the hands of the governments – federal, state and local councils. They are the ones gaining from the surge, getting allocations they were not receiving in the past. I am convinced that the impact is not being felt at the grassroots levels. I had expected the president as a leader, to sit back and come out with how the abundance will roll down to the lowest group of the citizenry. The National Assembly members are the people also sharing in the abundance. Someone told us that each legislator in the Assembly is currently allocated a billion naira as constituency fund for the year, outside of their salaries and other allowances. This has not been disputed by any of them. If this is true, are we sure they will utilize a quarter of such huge funds in their constituencies for the welfare of the people?

The abundance of the funds coming to the states, are we also sure they are being utilized to carry out effective development programmes for the people? Are they thinking of welfare packages for the less privileged ones in the society? I stand to be corrected whether salaries of civil servants and pension allowances have been adjusted upwards. Why does the government find it difficult to start evolving measures like mass transportation services, bulk food purchases to resell at pegged prices to the people? To me, this would have cushioned the effect of continued hunger in the country.

The president ought to have pushed his lieutenants into thinking and acting in that direction, instead of using the funds to acquire more luxurious vehicles for government officials, reconstructing old buildings and leaving Nigerians to continue wallowing in hardship. That is why there is indifference in people’s perception of the successes they are claiming to have achieved. The gap between the rich, upper classes and those at the lower rungs have continued to get wider unabated. The president should do more.

There’s a wave of political activities aiming at the 2027 elections, with many dumping their parties and joining the APC, the president’s party. Do you foresee it leading to a one party state for the country?

Well, as a religious leader I would like to say that I am convinced that power belongs to God. He gives it to whosoever he wishes. I also believe that time and season belong to God. Half way into their four year tenure, they are already awarding 100 per cent pass mark to the president and governors and endorsing them for another term. One will wonder what they will award when those individuals attain three years in office come 2026. As they jubilate, one may be moved to ask if they and their people are benefitting personally from those they are endorsing?

Rushing into the party of the president is a bad omen for the country. Yes, there’s a feeling that we are heading to a one-party state, the way things are going. If we go with the trend, I’m afraid we are not courting trouble with the military boys in the barracks? I do not think that they will sit down and watch the country go that way, no checks, no balances. If it comes to be, government performance will be very low because everyone that should have opposed or criticized its actions would have become a member of the ruling party.

Countries that are doing very well democratically today, engage in multi party politics. Countries like the United States of America, Britain, France, Germany, among many others even here in Africa. In these countries, when one party is in power, the others monitor its activities, criticizing where necessary and advancing policy thrusts to engage, should they get the opportunity to become the ones in power. This makes for robust challenges and brings progress and needed development to nations. Since I became an adult, I’ve not seen a situation in which a single party continues to govern the USA for 20 years and more. We should be careful in what we do in Nigeria, so as not to attract anger from certain quarters. We should allow politicians to join parties based on ideologies, using threats to coerce them into following us or be hunted to pay for undisclosed acts that broke the law. If we attain credible election levels with the Independent National Electoral Commission, opposition parties with proper packaging and good candidates can defeat ruling ones and take over leadership.

Looking at the growing menace of insecurity in the country, how do you assess the performance of our security forces?

Being present here in the country, I do not totally blame our security forces on the current situation across the nation. We’ve in the past seen or heard of protests from that end on shortfalls in modern equipment procurement to fight the terrorists who we hear come with more sophisticated weapons. To me, our soldiers may have been fighting with weapons at their disposal. I feel that if they have been receiving more, they would step up their game to counter the activities of these bandits. It is very painful that up till this moment, innocent Nigerians are being slaughtered in Benue, Taraba, Plateau and Zamfara, among others, without justification and people are calling for emergency rule in those states. This is not good for human existence. These are referencing the fact that our security architecture is porous because people have said that the herdsmen come from other lands into the country. What then is happening in our borders making them insecure? Can’t our soldiers and other security agencies be able to contain them? Why are they not being officially identified and actions taken against them? These are questions that have to be answered by our leaders, instead of pointing fingers at the military.

Do you see the government being reluctant to declare emergency rule in the troubled states due to the backlash it received for declaring emergency rule in Rivers State?

Well, there ought to be a balance of judgment on the issues at stake. We need to, first of all, understand what factors will make the president impose the state of emergency anywhere. I say this because we are in democratic governance. To collapse all institutions in a democracy and impose emergency rule, is to draw us backward, but I do not blame the president.

There is a procedure in the constitution and it has to do with reference to the National Assembly. If the president had not done it well, the National Assembly ought to have brought a check. We witnessed what they did. It was not voting by individuals rather they took a voice vote which has a political undertone. So, even if he (the president) had made an error pronouncing the emergency rule, it was the Assembly’s duty, assigned by the constitution, to advise him to reduce it to one month or two, at most or directly refuse to approve it.

Again, he didn’t deploy a politician there. He brought a man with a military background. If you wet the appetite of the military with political appointments, they might rise up one day in one part of the country and possess it. It will no longer be a problem of bandits taking over.

So, in the case of the affected states, I would suggest that efforts be made by the federal government to intervene. Let the president go in as a father of the nation, know if there are measures or means to handle the issues at stake and rescue the state from the clutches of its tormentors. Government should find out what the areas possess that attract attention, making them gullible to the bandits. It is after doing that, when peaceful interactive settlements fail that the issue of state of emergency comes in.

I hear that in Zamfara, the central cause of the problem is how to manage the mineral resources God has blessed us with. I understand that some local communities and ethnic areas have been colonized. There’s no international airport in Zamfara but planes come to carry the minerals out to places like China and other foreign countries. This is a loss to our country. The resources are not being accounted for. The federal government is focusing all its attention on oil from the Southern states then the other way, the resources are wasting and costing lives. It is not good. Government should intervene. They can ask every person to vacate the area for peace to reign. Let there be a proper licensing of those that are genuinely mining the minerals. In the case of Benue, I know that it is the green leaf that the herders want to possess. They want to push the land owners out of their home and possess villages and communities that do not belong to them with their cows. This is bad.

Nigerians have continued to call for fiscal federalism blaming the country’s woes on a constitution foisted on them by the military…?

There is this general talk about a constitution that is people oriented, one that ‘We the People,’ will make and say, ‘this is our own.’ I believe this was what led the Jonathan administration to organize a National Conference, in 2014. A report was produced that didn’t see the light of the day. We spent resources; elders gathered, they were inter-mingling with politicians, technocrats drawn from government establishments, the civil service, were invited including the international community. So, if they (government) can bring out that report, we can look at what is there and use it to upgrade the one in use at the moment.

I’ve seen the desire for regional government. Sometimes, even if one brings it to the people we will be quarrelling in the states. For instance, if something is coming to the South-East, the Anambra man may want it in his state and will start discriminating against his Imo brother. So it will be between Imo and Abia, Ebonyi or Enugu people. Some will even remember to align with their old school boys against others. These tribal issues have manifested over the time and need to be crushed for us to get a new Nigeria.

Your people of Isiala Ngwa North and South hosted Governor Alex Otti,  commended him for doing well and endorsed him for a second term, but he said he will wait for God’s answer before responding. Since then, some have accused him of arrogance. What do you say to that?

We ought to fear politicians. They may be saying something and meaning another. However, if one should compare the current administration in the state with its predecessor, we can say that Otti is doing far better.  I can understand that but like I said earlier, to start appreciating one with a hundred per cent success, just two years into a four year tenure, leaves the question of what to say when he attains three years or starts rounding off the term. I feel like what they want to portray is that their son is doing well in the office he is occupying. I also said earlier that it is only God in heaven that determines what happens to man. In Igbo language, we say, Nkiruka, which means that the future is greater and will bring a bigger fortune than the present. I recall that one time in Kogi State, a governorship candidate was coasting home to victory in an election when he suddenly died. Also, a party nominee died even before filling the forms he had collected from INEC. So, people need to pray to God always. The governor, in response, said he will pray and consult his God. God will answer him. I don’t know what else he would have said to impress.

Being present in Abia, can we have a critical view of what he is doing differently leading to the encomiums he is getting?

Governor Otti’s regime has done well in capacity building. If one asks civil servants, they will tell you that they are now being encouraged to go ICT, attend skills development seminars both at home and internationally. It is no longer a situation of coming in with academic certificates, he is emphasizing that people should acquire skills to improve their work. We give him a pass mark on this and coming in from the banking sector. I want to say too, that he is in control of his team, those working with him with everyone focusing on and saying the same thing when speaking on government policies and programs.

In education, he first dismissed newly engaged teachers appointed days to his assumption of office but later, re-engaged qualified ones after assessing what was on ground. He has also gone ahead to get another 9,500. I’ve seen appointment letters of some of them. One thing his administration stands out for is that of correcting anomalies in government.

Before now in Abia, people would walk to a local government chairman with a request for employment for their wards that are idle and they would just be engaged and pushed into teaching or other government departments without experience. Officials procure sewing machines which they give out to people without tailoring experience as empowerment. If one goes into houses of traditional rulers’ wives, he or she will see most of such machines lying idle whereas the downtrodden were not remembered to benefit from such largesse.

Now, Otti has changed the narrative. The road network has been fantastic. He has been pushing it on and true to the choice of the residents, especially the urban towns of Aba and Umuahia, who are doing businesses and using the roads on a daily basis. One sees that the roads that were very bad and inaccessible are now being pushed – Obohia, Ọmụma, Ohanku, among many others. Port Harcourt Road is now ready for use. Other smaller links are being opened. People are happy. Investors are coming back. I want to also say that he needs to do more in his relationship with the people. The governor should find a way to create a window to reach the people because, if one is hungry and dying today, the good road network will not revive him. It is food that will. Yes, infrastructure is key for development but they need availability of food to survive. The high cost and scarcity of fuel with the attendant price hike in getting essential food items in Aba and other parts of the state can be checked. I recall that the military started what they called PABOD in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and was using it to bring in rice and other essential commodities at market costs for resale at pegged affordable prices to the masses. Government can partner with the church and other religious organizations that are indirectly supporting them. The church has opened schools, vocational skills acquisition centres where many youths that would have been idle and loitering the streets are being trained. Those rendering such humanitarian activities should be exempted from certain taxes and levies for helping to meaningfully engage the youths, many of whom would have resorted to crime. There was a governor that during this time in office, gave N25 million to the church to support their collaborative efforts. Though the money is not much among the political class, the church through the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), will cherish it. Our traditional rulers should be encouraged and empowered to take care of the people at the grassroots community level and checkmate criminal activities. The vigilante groups they are being asked to set up in their domain need to be equipped with necessary tools to make an impact. We see some of them move about in commercial motorcycles and tricycles. This is not good for our society. These are areas that the government can come in to assist the common Nigerians.

What advice would you give Nigerians who are eager to see positive results?

As we grow, let’s try to do away with hypocrisy in all its ramifications. Let us stop praising people out of the way, rather to be in positions of providing good advice, criticising sincerely without bias, where and when necessary. All of us that are in positions should always proffer the correct needs of our larger people and reach out to government corridors for their provisions. Don’t provide water when the most basic need of your people is electric power supply or motorable roads. Building a council hall for a community whose only road is being swept by erosion has no benefit. This is hypocrisy. On its part, the government should check the enrolment population of community schools before embarking on building more classrooms for such communities. It ought to rebuild those ones that were not maintained and left to decay before going into new structures on virgin sites. Let maintenance culture be enforced in all institutions. Let’s face reality and be straightforward to build a Nigeria of our dream.