• Continued from last week:

Again, the former president claimed that he left a robust economy on account of the provision of massive infrastructural projects. What is your take on this?

Yes, good infrastructure is absolutely necessary for any meaningful socio-economic development. This is one of the items in President Buhari’s economic development plan. But let’s review all aspects of the plan. General Buhari promised to repair our four refineries and construct new ones aimed at bringing down the prices of petroleum products and doing away with fraudulent subsidy. A litre of Premium Motor Spirits (PMS), for example, would sell below N40. The naira would regain its pre-SAP value of one to one United States dollar. Power outages will be a thing of the past as he would increase the generation capacity to 10,000mw in the first year of his administration. His anti-corruption war would reduce to the barest minimum, leakages in the economy. Many more promises too numerous to recount in this already lengthy interview. To be able to measure the performance of President Buhari, we need to consider the state of the economy he inherited from President Jonathan’s administration. Truth is, even the most rabid critic of President Jonathan cannot fail to notice his success in the management of our economy. He succeeded in growing the economy to be the largest in Africa with a total GDP of over 500 billion United States dollars. It was growing at an annual rate of about five per cent. Of course, the administration was lucky in terms of relatively large revenue from oil as prices remained high, ranging from  N60/barrel at the beginning of the administration in 2010 to about N140/barrel  towards the end in 2015. It also borrowed N7 trillion. It was able to utilise this revenue in the area of security and socio-economic development. For example, it heavily subsidised power. Electricity was selling at N6 per kwh, PMS at N97/litre, and Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) at N120/litre. Subsidy on all petroleum products was maintained at less than N1 trillion per annum. Other consumer prices are worth mentioning. A 50kg of rice sold at N8,000; a  hundred kg of maize sold at N3,500-N4,500. A dollar exchanged for between N165-N200 which was the highest rate. In the area of infrastructure, the government provided a couple – a total number of 12 federal universities of which seven were sited in educationally disadvantaged North. Several Federal Medical Centres were established. Almajirai schools were provided in some Northern states. The Kaduna-Abuja rail line was constructed. Many federal and states roads were repaired. The administration’s plan to grow the excess crude account was thwarted by states governors who forced the Federal Government through legal action to share the funds. It was this economic state that President Buhari inherited from the Jonathan’s administration. Let us compare this with our economic state after eight years of Buhari’s management. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) statistics although helpful, particularly in the past, do not provide an accurate and clearer picture of our economy. I have already provided consumer prices pre-Buhari era, let’s consider these prices in 2023 or the end of the Buhari administration. AGO N800/Litre; PMS sold between N187/litre to N620/litre as of July 2023 when the subsidy ended. We should note that the Buhari administration only budgeted N3.5trillion for PMS subsidy to end or withdrawn by June 2023. PMS subsidy withdrawal was made fait accompli for the Tinubu administration. Prices of all food commodities have risen by over 400 per cent in eight years. The evidence of the success of the much vaunted rice revolution can only be seen in the dubious rice pyramids displayed by the Federal Government and the so-called rice states. Electricity generation capacity has stagnated at 4,000mw. Our refineries have totally shut down despite an investment of over $2billion for their repairs and maintenance. We spent an average of N3 trillion annually as PMS subsidy. Average of N40 billion is being spent on payment of salaries and allowances of moribund refinery workers. The former President’s achievement as Petroleum Minister for eight years was the purchase of 20 per cent shares in a private refinery which he commissioned with no completion date in sight. He has also caused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to start drilling oil in Gombe and Nasarawa states before credible discovery was established. Question is, why were OPLs not granted to private sector to invest in this activity as is the current policy governing prospecting and mining of oil? The government claimed that it borrowed over N70 trillion with which it provided infrastructure. But where is this infrastructure? There is not a single infrastructure of any kind that was started and completed by the Buhari administration, except perhaps those in Daura. I stand to be corrected. President Buhari’s economic management has resulted in creating total economy paralysis. Nigeria has become a debtor nation much more so than what General Buhari described it under the government of President Shehu Shagari. Over 90 per cent of our government revenue goes to debt servicing. The naira exchanging currently at over N900 to the dollar has assumed the status of a wheelbarrow currency. Buhari’s economic management has caused Nigeria to be the poverty capital of the world with about 2/3 of its population, 130 million people, living below poverty line. It is in consideration of this security and economic collapse that Dr Umar Ardo correctly concluded that the Bola Tinubu administration inherited a failed state. Pained by this embarrassing failure of a professional colleague and a superior officer, General Haliru Akilu queried the decision of President Buhari to seek a second term in 2019.

Barely three months into the life of the Tinubu administration, the growing insecurity and economic crisis leading to hyperinflation, have made some people to compare it to the Buhari administration, concluding that it is no better. Or that it is behaving like it is an offshoot of the Buhari administration. After all, Tinubu promised to continue where Buhari stopped. How do you react to this?

It is preposterous. As you have observed, the Tinubu administration is barely three months old, so not time enough to assess its performance. Yes, it has demonstrated worrying impulsiveness in its major public policy decisions. As I said earlier, Dr Umar Ardo is spot on when he said that the Tinubu administration inherited a failed state. How else do you describe a state with an empty treasury, heavy debt burden, having to spend over 90 per cent of its revenue for debt service, a state with decayed infrastructure, high insecurity and monumental corruption? Tinubu is saddled with the task of resurrection of a dead or failed state. The worst mistake he will make is to create the impression that his is an offshoot of the Buhari administration. Doing so would amount to building on a shaky foundation and having to own the rot. He must chart a new course even though he is of the same APC party. He must probe and recover looted funds. Luckily, President Buhari had created precedence by his probe of the Jonathan administration and prosecution of some of its members.

You advised President Tinubu not to appoint former governors who were desperately lobbying to be appointed in his cabinet. You accused some of them of leaving behind empty treasuries, heavy debt burden, looting government property and polarising their states through divisive politics. He has appointed six former governors. Are they not part of the group you referred to?

Yes, I referred to all those former governors who are guilty of the offences you enumerated  and who exhibited embarrassing desperation to be appointed in the cabinet after eight years in what should normally be a difficult assignment, making most honest holders to show hesitation and resistance to being called to serve in any capacity in public service. It is mostly in pursuit of selfish interests that you find former high level public servants lobbying for office. The stories coming out of many states reveal shocking and brazen corruption acts by former governors. Most shocking is resort to petty theft of public property, including cars and furniture by states chief executives who paid themselves humongous sums as severance allowances. Please, compare this to the case of former military Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon. His nine years regime was toppled in a military coup on July 29, 1975, while he was attending the Organization of African Unity (OAU) meeting in Kampala, Uganda. Soon after a world press conference during which he magnanimously accepted his ouster and wished his successor, General Murtala Muhammed  success, he  called our High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alhaji Sule Kolo, with a request. His wife, Mrs Victoria Gowon, was in London to shop during the seasonal summer sales when prices of items are reduced. Some believed that he got her out of the way since he had security reports about the likelihood of a coup against his regime. His Chief of Staff, General David Ejoor, left the country on vacation after failing to convince the C-in-C to pre-empt the coupists. He asked the high commissioner to check his wife out of her hotel because he couldn’t pay her hotel bills. The high commissioner was taken aback and sympathetic. He immediately called Dodan Barracks to relay Gowon’s request to him. When General Murtala was informed, he instructed the high commissioner to pay all her hotel bills for as long as she stayed. Gowon requested our Embassy in Kampala to book him on a commercial flight to the United Kingdom. Word on Gowon’s travel plan reached heads of states attending the OAU meeting. One of them volunteered to lend him his presidential plane to fly him to the United Kingdom. Gowon had sent back his presidential plane, since according to him; he was no more entitled to its use as a former head of state. Those heads of states gave him monetary contributions to start life in the United Kingdom when they discovered that he could not even pay his wife’s hotel bill. A few months later, Gowon shocked the world when he appeared in a queue at a Warwick University students’ cafeteria trying to buy food. General Murtala was so shocked and decided to despatch a delegation to meet with Gowon and convince him to return home with the guarantee that he would be treated as a former head of state entitled to benefits befitting his status. He apologised to the delegation for refusing the offer as he had already enrolled for undergraduate studies and would prefer to continue his studies. Besides, returning home was not a good option since he did not own a house anywhere in the world, including in Nigeria. When as Governor of Kaduna State, I visited Gowon’s family house in Wusasa, Zaria, in 1987 in company of the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Gambo Jimeta, we met Gowon’s mother in the same mud building where he was born. Her room furniture comprised a Vono bed, a wooden chair on which IGP Gambo sat, while I sat on a bag of grains. Gowon’s sister took her position on a straw mat, while the mother sat on her bed. Her other daughter was making haste to fry beans cake for us, of course, using firewood stove. Leadership self abnegation in glaring display! This is who we are. This generation of ‘leaders,’ at least, most of them, have strayed. I used to encourage my subordinate officers to follow me on pilgrimage to Wusasa where I conducted them round the Gowon’s family compound. They saw those relics of saints. I am happy to report that the Gowon’s family church is still the old mud building. I encourage our current leaders to visit and be guided on the right path.

You are one of those recognised to have participated in the June 12 struggle. This even led to the loss of your commission. Many Nigerians are wondering why you are not seen close to President Tinubu. I understand you are yet to visit him. Why?

Well, because I did not participate in that struggle with the aim of attracting any personal benefits. It was, for me, a selfless struggle for justice and fairness. I also lacked the clairvoyant powers to foresee the emergence of a fellow activist as the President of Nigeria. Nobody expects me to accept an appointment from President Tinubu on that account. Besides, I am already 73 years old, having spent most of those years in one struggle or the other. I am struggle weary now. I hope we have been able to inspire the younger generation to continue. We have stepped aside and don’t intend to get in their way.

Since you don’t intend to serve in the Tinubu administration, what advice would you give him on how to run a successful administration? Are you planning to meet with him to render such advice?

With 45 ministers and many advisors, including brilliant and honest National Security Adviser and the Director-General of the Department of State Services,  it will be presumptuous of me to assume the role of an advisor to the President, particularly in that area, where you expect me to be an expert, security. Remember also that Tinubu has been a successful governor of Lagos State for eight years. But if I have to advise as an outsider, looking in, I will counsel him to be less impulsive in public policy formulation and execution. Even beneficial policies must be adopted with public support. Perhaps, it is the reason we are required to endorse and append our signatures before we undergo medical surgery just in case things go wrong. The president must carry people along, particularly in those major policy decisions which have far reaching impact on their lives. The president must be aware that worsening insecurity in the past 10 years has had negative impact on all economic activities, particularly agriculture which accounts for about 30 per cent of the nation’s GDP. Border closure, corruption have all combined to cause about two-thirds, about 130 million Nigerians to fall below poverty line, resulting in the country attaining the unenviable status of world’s poverty capital. The fuel subsidy withdrawal by this government would appear to be the last straw that will break the backs of Nigeria’s poor. It has so far led to hyper-inflation. Hunger and destitution are very visible nationwide. The exit of multi-national corporations is turning into a rush. Small and medium enterprises are shutting down in large numbers. Brilliant columnists like Profs Farooq Kperogi, Sam Amadi, Dele Sobowale, et al, have been making convincing arguments for a review and reversal of this subsidy withdrawal. The idea that fraud exists in fuel subsidy and, therefore, it must be withdrawn is akin to throwing away the baby with the bathwater. What government needs to do is to remove or reduce the fraud in subsidy and provide subsidy, not only in fuel, but other sectors such as agriculture, education, health, etc. Truth is, most government functions are bedevilled by fraud. This does not mean we should shut down government and live as an acephalous society. Most countries, including developed ones which are prophets of neoliberal economic ideas seek to improve their competitiveness through the instrument of subsidy. When Japan was forced open in 1858 to trade with the United States in particular, it had to adopt economic development strategy of giving generous subsidies to its manufacturers, Zaibatsu, to compete favourably with the American goods. Today, Japan belongs to the group of developed nations due to its fast tracked industrialisation through subsidies. This administration must create an enabling environment for fast economic growth by providing cheaper cost of production. Providing subsidies appears to be the best therapy to the treatment of low productivity and poverty cancer. The policy of giving palliatives as a means of poverty alleviation is wrong-headed and will prove inadequate and fraud-ridden. Even where it can be smoothly managed, it will amount to “giving people fish instead of teaching them to fish.” This administration must act fast to pull this nation from the precipice. It is impossible to predict human behaviour under any condition with absolute degree of certainty. But from what is happening, i.e, the high level of multi-dimensional poverty, it is becoming more likely that the country will face massive and uncontrollable social upheaval. Nigerians are hungry and angry. They are losing patience with this system that is not helping the many who are poor, which will not save the few who are rich, as President Kennedy would say. Finally, Mr President must know that he cannot continue to ask people to make life threatening sacrifices while his government fails to recover looted funds which run into trillions of naira. Nigerians have welcomed the appointment of the CBN investigator. He must be allowed freehand to carry out this onerous, but beneficial assignment. For a thorough and unimpeded investigation, all top management staff of the bank must be asked to step aside. The president may wish to enlarge the probe panel for a faster and more thorough investigation to include people like Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, Profs Chidi Odinkalu, Sam Amadi, Shamsudeen Usman, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Chief Femi Falana, et al. Government must be aware that details of the monumental corruption in the CBN are already in public domain. Nigerians have some idea about the identities of beneficiaries of forex round tripping and Anchor Borrowers fraud by which trillions were stolen. Any attempt to frustrate and stall the probe can only postpone revelations which will be made in the fullness of time and under less accommodating system.

Lastly, there is palpable unease and concern by the international community about the return of military coups sweeping some parts of Africa, particularly the ECOWAS region when the world thought democracy has taken roots in Africa and change of government is through the recognised and accepted democratic process of free and fair elections. You are known to have participated in a military coup or coups and even served as a military governor of Kaduna State. What would you say is the cause of military coups and this new wave of coups in Africa?

Let me make this clarification. I did not participate in any coup against any elected government. My role in the coup that ousted the General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime in August, 1985, is well documented. That, as you said, led to my appointment as military governor Kaduna State. But let me quote Sir Winston Churchill again. He said, “democracy is the worst system of government except all the others.” I believe Churchill was not referring to the democratic system being practiced in many African countries which keeps their leaders in power for life even when they become physically and mentally incapacitated. We cannot support change of government through military coups, but how else do you change those regimes headed by leaders for life? Paul Biya of Cameroon has been in power for 41 years and counting. Museveni of Uganda, 37 years. Eyadema and his father have been the only rulers of Togo since 1967. Also, Ali Bongo and his father, Omar, since 1967. They are too numerous to count. The fact that they are civilians and are able to conduct sham elections does not make their systems democratic. The international community, including the AU, ECOWAS and other regional organisations must not recognise such regimes headed by sit-tight leaders as legitimate and democratic. They should equally be ostracised like military regimes. The test of genuine democracy is not only in free and fair periodic elections, but also good governance such as preservation of life and property of people, guarantee of individual freedoms, observance and adherence to the rule of law and such other democratic dividends, particularly the intangibles. But I am sure you want me to comment on the ongoing crisis between ECOWAS and the coup leaders in Niger. I can understand why many Nigerians are not in support of the role the Nigerian government is playing in the crisis. Well, President Tinubu is playing his role as the current Chairman of ECOWAS. He has to represent the views of ECOWAS, which opposes the coup in Niger and threatens to use all options, including use of military force to return power to the elected President of Niger, Mr Bazoum. Now, whether these threats are enough to prevail on the Niger Republic junta to return power to Bazoum is not easy to see. As Ambassador Alhaji Aminu Wali correctly observed, the coupists have their necks in a noose. Question is, are they willing to commit suicide by handing over the rope to President Bazoum to hang them? Doubtful! I honestly believe that President Tinubu should not be sending respected elders to go and convince the coup leaders in Niger to return power to Bazoum. They cannot achieve the mission and this can lead to loss of face both for the delegates and Nigeria. The Ulamas should stay in Nigeria and offer prayers under the Group Managing Director, NNPCL who was surprisingly part of their delegation. Having made these points, I need to observe as follows: The coup in Niger is totally unnecessary. Bazoum has only been in office for about two years. From credible information, he was doing well. I personally know Bazoum as a very progressive and relatively honest person. The leader of Niger coup, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, was motivated by selfish desire to remain within the precincts of power. He has been the Commander of Presidential Guards for about 10 years. Bazoum was prevailed on to replace him. The General simply pre-empted Bazoum’s move to post him out. General Tchiani’s regime was stablised by the ECOWAS threats and the apparent discrimination since other military regimes in the region have not been treated so harshly. The regime has also found cover in its diversionary war against French neo-colonialism. How can General Tchiani distance himself from past governments, particularly that of Mahamadou Issoufou, his immediate past boss who cooperated with the French? I assure you General Tchiani wouldn’t have lasted one year in power were it not for the ECOWAS’ intervention and the fight against the French. The other point is that as far as Nigeria is concerned, ECOWAS has ceased to exist since we shut our borders against members eight years ago. The major aim of creating ECOWAS in 1975 was for the purpose of socio-economic integration of the sub-region. How can this be achieved when Nigeria has closed its borders against all ECOWAS member states? Again, six out of 15 states are under military regimes, while two others, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire are under civilian dictators who fall into the category of sit-tight leaders. President Tinubu should also be aware that Nigeria has been totally absent on the international stage in the past eight years. We have lost our past leadership role in Africa. That’s why Niger Republic does not reckon with our threats. It is supported in this defiance by other smaller states in the region. We must reclaim our leadership role, reassert ourselves in the whole of Africa and beyond.

• Concluded