By Daniel Kanu
Akin Osuntokun is the former political adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and director general of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council.
In this exclusive chat with Sunday Sun, he speaks on the 2023 elections, the Obidient Movement, Christmas transportation subsidy offered by President Bola Tinubu, and the judicial system.
He also said that Nigeria has failed as a state. Excerpts:
Let’s start with your assessment of the subsidy which President Bola Tinubu extended to the transportation industry to assist those travelling for the Christmas celebration?
It is a good gesture, but what of its policy implementation. And when you look at how transporters hold travellers to ransom one will say it’s a good gesture. If you ask me, the policy should have been announced before now with regards to working out the modalities. But with the state of the economy and the poverty level of Nigerians you ask if it is exactly what Nigerians want at this point. Of course, you know how January is, that it is a difficult month for many people. So, after the celebration, what next? Look at the cost of fuel price and what the people are suffering or going through. The challenges that Nigerians are going through is much and beyond assisting them to travel for Christmas celebration. Address the economic situation and Nigerians will not be in this poverty condition.
Nigerian Labour Congress and the Federal Government face/off has lingered for a long time with no end in sight. Who exactly do you blame? Could we say that Labour is stubborn in their demand?
I do not want to say that labour is stubborn, but I think we have a weak labour when you compare it with what we used to have. The vibrancy is lacking and most Nigerians are beginning to lose interest in labour activism. They no longer have confidence in labour. Labour must do a self-reappraisal, and have another look at its tactics. They must ensure they enjoy the confidence of Nigerians.
There was a time you blamed former President Muhammadu Buhari for the fiasco of the presidential election…?
(Cuts in) Of course, he has the biggest share of the blame given his promises which he was unable to keep. He was the one that promised to bequeath a free and fair election to Nigeria. But the promises by the president did not translate to the conduct of free and fair elections. Remember that the buck stops at his table and secondly, it wasn’t the Nigerian public who said they were going to use the conduct of the election as a yardstick to measure his performance. He was the one who said so repeatedly. He said he wants to be remembered as the person who conducted the best election. He ended up conducting a sham, which was more of a mockery and a shame of a nation. There is need to have another look at the constitution because as it has been said “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. But Buhari is not alone in that show of shame. You recall that, we (LP) demanded also unequivocally the immediate dismissal from office and prosecution of INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu and the commencement of forensic financial investigation into the expenditure of budgeted disbursements and donors’ funds received by the electoral body (INEC). Looking back, there was a gang up against LP and the judiciary did not help matters. Let me not go into there now.
But the judiciary has also received a lot of bashing in recent times. In your view how would you rate the judiciary given some of its judgments?
The judiciary has become a huge disappointment. You can see conflicting judgments of courts of the same jurisdiction. A court gives a judgment here and another court in another location will give another conflicting judgment and these are courts of the same jurisdiction. Corruption has crept into the sector, no doubt. You can see what the retiring judge said about his colleagues. It was so indicting, giving his verdict on the judiciary. Look at the revelation of Bukachiwa and how he said he influenced his wife to subvert the decision of court of justice. So, it’s unfortunate. What other evidence do you need? Imagine Senator Bukachiwa’s wife, the President of Court of Appeal and at such level we could be getting such mess, such disturbing story, what other convictions do one need to prove the rottenness in the judiciary. Look at the activities of the judiciary even when you consider what happened to the judgments delivered on the LP issues. I have said and raised the alarm in some of my views that we are in a systemic crisis. We are coming to terms with the implication of Nigeria as a failed state in which all organs of government have been equally affected by the pathogens of corruption. As things stand today there is anger against the judiciary and the reason is simple: there is lack of trust in the Nigerian judicial system.
Allegations of corruption against the judiciary whether directly or indirectly have very square legs to stand on. We may question the tactics of President Buhari, but when he sent security forces to the houses of Supreme Court judges some years ago, you can recall all that was discovered, tons of money in different currencies. There are justifications to indict the Nigerian judiciary of bias, of corruption and of sacrificing justice. Can we in all honesty say today as we used to say it confidently before that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man with all the indiscriminate, selective, disappointing and frightening judgments being delivered?
What is your take on the 2024 budget which the government said will inspire hope…?
(Cuts in) Which hope? There is no budget with such inclusions of frivolities as we have them that can be a budget of hope. Any budget that contains such items as budgeting 160 million for each of the 450 lawmakers to acquire a new jeep, given the state of our economy is a misnomer. How will budgeting such huge amount on the office of the First Lady or budgeting for mansion worth $15 million for the vice president. There is nothing wrong building a good residence for the vice president, but is it a priority now in view of the level of poverty among Nigerians today? Looking at where our economy is today can we in all honesty, if the government is a serious one consider such issues of the vice president and the First Lady as issues of great importance? How do you justify such budget now? What is so bad in where the vice president is staying now that will require the waste of such huge amount of money for his residence in the condition that the country is today economic-wise? Any budget containing such things can really not pass as a budget of hope, but rather the opposite. What we are witnessing is an insensitivity of a government. They, I mean the lawmakers will tell you they need the jeep due to travelling long distances on the Nigerian roads which is bad. And you ask, how many of them travel on long distances? Is it not still flight that they use? Such excuse is bunkum, absolute nonsense. There is no justification for that.
Do you think Nigeria needs restructuring?
Of course, that is what I have been saying about constitutional reform. It is not an academic argument because what we are having or practicing today is not what our fathers bequeathed to us in terms of running a good federal structure. This is not true federalism. We have abused the system. The reality is that what we are practicing today as a structure will not take us anywhere in terms of unity. The focus of the founding fathers was unity in diversity where regions developed at their pace and there was healthy competition. They were not going to the federal capital with cap in hand to share revenue as we have it today. They developed the resources in their regions and developed their areas. We don’t need this strong centre as we have it today where you keep some people perpetually down while elevating others probably, your own people. The president wields so much power and it should not be so. There is the need to restructure, to give more power to the states, more responsibilities than we have them now. The present structure cannot make for genuine development. What we are even asking today is the restoration of Nigeria. Our founding fathers restructured it well and it was working for genuine development. I think when we say restructuring we are referring to restoring what we had before which guaranteed genuine development and unity. What we are asking for is the restoration of federalism and that is what the country needs. Any other thing you are talking is rubbish without restoring true federalism. The way forward is constitutional review, restoration of federalism. When you live in an environment, you should discover what structure that will suit such environment in terms of unity, peaceful co-existence, social challenges of that environment etc. Until you discover the challenge of your environment and what you should do to bring peace and growth, you will continue walking in your mistake, walking in circles. Look at what President Buhari did to Nigeria? It is the type of constitution that we have today that empowered a president like Buhari to do all the destruction that he did because the position is too powerful and it should not be so. Such power makes the holder slip into tyranny, dictatorship. The power is absolute and it corrupts. Now, President Tinubu is there, you can never know what he will turn out to be tomorrow because the presidency wields so much power. When you have an Almighty president, it is dangerous because abuse is common. When you have a leviathan president it is dangerous.
When you reflect back on the Obidient group, what do you get?
It was the gathering of those, mostly youths and the youth at heart that believed that they have the right to choose the future they want. It was a spontaneous movement that pointed the way Nigeria should go. They have learnt what Nigerian politics is like and they will come up with a solid structure as things unfold politically. They were full of energy and cuts across all political divide. They are the future that Nigeria needs to make the needed massive, global impact given all our endowments as a country. It is the type of movement needed to move this country forward from all its divisive ramifications. Of course, they are not only members of labour party, many are not even members of any party, but they desire a better country. They simply saw the face of a good leader in Peter Obi, LP presidential candidate and they know that with such a detribalized, highly patriotic character on the driver’s seat, there is hope to take back and rebuild Nigeria to the joy and benefit of all.