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…Dismisses Nigerian state as huge disappointment
By Daniel Kanu
National leader, Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), Comrade Joseph Evah, is unhappy over the leadership failure in the country.
Therefore, he had wanted to decline granting this interview, but realised that it was not in his nature to keep silent in the face of tyranny, so he spoke, but with a voice full of anger during the encounter with Sunday Sun. Excerpt:
How do you see Nigeria’s political situation, going by the aftermath of the presidential election?
The entire situation is worrisome and things seem to be getting worst contrary to the thinking that things will shape up after the presidential election. Things appear to be getting worse each passing day. A lot of homes are passing through serious agony due to untold hardship while the so-called government is there, doing nothing to alleviate the problems of Nigerians. It’s so sad when you think about what Nigerians are passing through, the hardship encountered. The suffering is becoming unbearable for an average Nigerian and those in authority are irresponsibly carrying on, enjoying themselves, behaving as if all is well. So sad, looking at the crop of the so-called leaders that we have. It’s a shame. Look at the Supreme Court, for instance, giving judgment on the naira re-design the government is not obeying the judgment, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is adamant and not obeying the verdict pronounced by the highest court in the land. Since the Supreme Court pronouncement the Federal Government has said nothing, the CBN has said nothing. Everybody, I mean the average Nigerian, not those in power or their cronies and families are stranded, confused and their small businesses stranded and dying. Nigerians are waiting for the Federal Government to talk, but they have remained mute. The CBN has said nothing on the issue and Nigerians are trapped, abandoned and confused. You kept your money in the bank and you cannot have access to your money. Those in small businesses are winding up because those in control do not care. Their human feelings, their sense of empathy is dead. The majority of Nigerians are hungry, frustrated, and now hopeless more than ever.
What is your take concerning INEC’s move to reconfigure the BVAS machines for the governorship and House of Assembly elections?
I think our concern should be on the position of the law concerning it. Is it a provision of the Electoral Act? My worry is that those running the affairs of the country, at all levels tend to act with impunity. They want to play God. They are insensitive about the plight of Nigerians. You put on your television, you see women dejected, miserable, and crying, you see children crying, and you can see the hopelessness on the faces of Nigerians. I do not think we have had it as bad as this. I suggest we import leaders from Togo, from Benin Republic to come and mentor, and teach leadership to those running our affairs as leaders. I repeat, we should get those running the affairs of Togo and Benin Republic to come to our aid, come and teach our so-called leaders what leadership is all about, rather than the impunity, the failure, and incompetence we are witnessing. The Nigerian state is a disappointment, a huge disappointment. Can you imagine what Nigerians are suffering because you re-designed their currency? You now use money to buy back your money at POS centres. You don’t have access to the money you deposited in your bank… what a country. We have become a laughing stock, no creation of job, nothing. You can see Nigerians trooping out of the country at any slightest opportunity because leadership is frustrating their living conditions here. Nothing seems to be working, nothing is working, nothing I repeat, is working. You wonder on the thinking of those managing this country. Where, which country have re-designed their currency and witnessed what we are going through today? None that I know and I can tell you it has never happened and cannot happen in any other country, but in Nigeria. It’s a shame. As we are importing petroleum products, I suggest we also import leaders from Togo and the Republic of Benin to come and teach our nation managers, our politicians what leadership is all about. How can the Supreme Court make a pronouncement on the very sensitive issue we have at hand and neither the Federal Government nor the CBN is saying anything? They are behaving as if nothing is wrong, because they do not care, they have access to the money and you see them living in opulence, they lack nothing…they are gradually inviting catastrophe. Why is leadership so insensitive about what Nigerians are going through? And rather than help bring solution, they are rather worsening it. How can leadership not care about the plight, the worsening condition of Nigerians? Leadership is irresponsible, insensitive, reckless, and with impunity that has no boundary. Look at the level of insecurity in the land, look at the poverty, the hunger, the frustrations Nigerians are undergoing. Businesses are folding up, petty traders are crying because they don’t have access to the money you asked them to deposit in exchange for new currency. Why must you deceive the people? Why must you deceive Nigerians? Why must you put Nigerians to this kind of pain? Mothers, fathers etc have turned beggars and it does not concern those in power, those who call themselves our leaders, they have become lords, shame to them. Each time I look at the sufferings of Nigerians and I consider all that we have, our massive resources I shudder. How can a country with all that we have, human and massive resources in abundance live under this poverty index while its political leaders revel in stupendous wealth?
Let’s look at the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) and your level of confidence in them?
Which confidence? I do not have confidence not only in INEC, but also in most of our other institutions because they have consistently failed in living up to expectation. How many times or which time have we got our election right without one rigging strategy or the other introduced? Which of our institutions will you have confidence in? Is it the education sector, with all the strikes? Is it the health sector? Is it on employment when Nigerians are running out from the country looking for greener pasture elsewhere? Where are the jobs when the few we had are folding up and others transferring and relocating to Ghana? Is it the energy sector, electricity provision for Nigerians? Is it in the provision of infrastructure, road construction etc? Failure of leadership has put Nigeria in a mess and as I have suggested, we need to import leaders from nearby countries to come and lead us. Those in authority have messed up this country and the way we are going on the path of destruction is alarming.
So, what do you expect from the next president of Nigeria as the tenure of President Mohammadu Buhari is winding up soon?
Let anybody going there as the president do deliverance service first. There seems to be a demon in Aso Rock that puts confusion in the head of the president, making him not to know the right thing to do when in office. So, the first thing to do is to conduct deliverance to chase away all the demons of confusion in Aso Rock so that the coming president will have his head and brain intact, and correct for use. We are gradually degenerating each passing day rather than developing Nigeria. Our leadership is living in denial, behaving as if nothing is happening and that all is well. Who are they deceiving? If we continue the way we are going, I fear the outcome. We are sitting on a time bomb while leadership is pretending as if all is well. I pity them.
