Govs, LG chairmen should tell Nigerians how they spent their allocations from FG —Umohinyang

Emmanuel Umohinyang, a lawyer, human rights activist and convener, Coalition for Good Governance and Justice, speaks on issues of national interest, in this interview with some select journalists. BOLA BADMUS brings these excerpts:

WHAT is your assessment of President Bola Tinubu in the two years he has been in government?

Naturally we should have different perspectives about his government. Ours is not a banana republic. Those who are aggrieved will accuse the president for underperforming and others will celebrate him. Those who want to take over from him want to run him down, but you see, you cannot change a winning team, neither can you run down a man who has done extremely well in the last 24 months. However, we cannot say all areas have been covered. There are still areas that need to be improved on. When you also look at the poverty situation in the country, it is unhealthy and Mr. President cannot tell you that he is comfortable with it. You know in Nigeria, those who caused the pain, when they are out of government, they are the first to shout about it.

Somebody, a few days ago,  from Rivers State, said there is hunger. This is somebody who has been in government all through his life, and he is trying to preach hunger to Nigerians. And he just left government a few months back and he realises that there is hunger. The same man said he did not know diesel is so expensive and I asked him was it that he didn’t buy diesel when he was a minister?

So we should assume he was taking free diesel from contractors. Now, he is not in government, the free diesel has stopped; the chicken has come home to roost. He is facing what Nigerians are also facing.

I think the president is not celebrating the pain Nigerians are going through. That is why he keeps reaching out to leaders to appeal to their people that things will improve.

Don’t forget that part of the challenges we have now is because Mr. President felt that the corruption in the fuel subsidy industry has to go. He also feels we should have a uniform dollar rate. [Godwin] Emefiele standing trial is a product of the shenanigans that was going on in the foreign exchange market, where they were recycling this dollar among themselves, and then trade it at the black market and became billionaires.

I feel those two indicators threw a lot of Nigerians into misery. But that was then; things are improving and we are seeing it, because the fuel when we started it was almost N1,900, N1,800 per litre, but today we are seeing Dangote [refinery] bringing down price of fuel. Competition is coming in; the NNPC is struggling with Dangote Refinery, so that as it brings down its price, they also bring down their own price. That is what real market is. I also think that, it is time Nigerians got to see the importance of those decisions that were taken by the president.

No Nigerian leader has been as courageous as Mr. President, none. People have always shied away, not even the great Muhammadu Buhari. Of course, you can say Buhari is more interested in looking at how will the people feel? But he was not looking at the picture that it is better for a country to go through pain in the morning and celebrate the rest of their years.

Things are changing; things are improving. The number of people that have been thrown into poverty in the last couple of months as a result of those policies are regaining themselves and their strength. I think in the next couple of months things will further get better.

We are having our roads being commissioned, all kinds of infrastructure are being put in place in the country. What we think is that Nigerians must be patient with Mr. President, give him time, let him do what he knows how to do better. Some of us felt we stood our ground that it must be Bola Ahmed Tinubu, even when we have all kinds of characters showing up. We felt he has done it in Lagos, Lagos has become an reference point for development, so he is bringing that technology to Nigeria, let us give him that support and see to it that changes come back into our country.

Part of the reasons the Federal Government gave while subsidy was being removed is that it will save money and reduce borrowing, but now it has borrowed huge some of money in the last two years. What have you got to say about this?

 It is not as if when you borrow, you have committed an unpardonable sin. Where it becomes a crime is when you borrow for consumption. Do not also expect that because you have removed fuel subsidy, you have got all the money you need to solve all the fundamental problems in Nigeria. There are going to be key areas where you will need that borrowed money to intervene and make sure that there is no stagnation in those areas. I think that is what he has done. It is not as if he is borrowing to massage the ego of the governors. People always talk about fuel subsidy as if it is only the Federal Government that runs the affairs of the country.

There are local government authorities. Nobody looks at what state governors are doing. They are getting times four of the allocation of what they were getting when fuel subsidy was still being paid.

Nigerians are not asking their state governors what they are doing with the money they are getting. When you talk of poverty, poverty is not bearing Federal Government’s name. Ask the governors: what are they doing with the money they are getting? In the last two years,  what have they done in their various states? Let us assess the performance of the 36 state governors in the last 24 months and  you will see abysmally poor grade. On the assessment, it is not about Bola Ahmed Tinubu alone, it is all about the state governors. If you don’t tackle poverty in your state, will Tinubu travel from Abuja to come and deal with the problem in your state? So, these are some of the challenges. Some governors felt the more money they receive, the more they should steal. You begin to see all kinds of funny programmes that have no bearing on the people. They throw them up because they want to use it to patronise their friends. So we should also put focus on the states to see what they are doing with the huge money they are receiving.

The Supreme Court has ruled that allocation of the local governments should be paid directly to them so that the third tier of government can operate independently, but some state government are yet to comply with the ruling. Why do you think  this is so?

The Supreme Court ruling is being implemented. The very minute the Supreme Court gives judgement, in the eye of the law, it is operative; nobody can seek an appeal over such ruling. But there are administrative procedures that government has to put in place. The first is that these local government areas that have been operating a joint account now have to be detached from the so called arrangement and set up a direct account with the CBN. Most of them are doing that. We have 774 local government areas. That is being done and neither has the president tried to bring up an appeal against the ruling of the Supreme Court that the ruling should be ignored.

We should not forget that it is the president, through the Attorney- General of the Federation that went to court. You see the governors operates like a cartel; you may have them in different states, but they have the same mindset. Their desire is not for the people, I can tell you that. I don’t think there is any governor that can be counted out of this. A very few of them can say their desire is for their people, but for most of them, it is the next election they are looking at. Some of them are even thinking of how they can become president. What they now do is that, once they receive this money, the Federal Government is not in a position to teleguide them, concerning money of their states. It is the people of their states who have become so docile; they are so weak that they don’t even have the strength to challenge their governors on what they are doing. Sycophancy has taken the order of the day in the states. What Mr. President can only do, which he is doing, on several occasions I have seen him intervened by calling the governors to tell the governors you are getting more allocations, it should show in the lives of the people of your states. You can also see that some of them come up with bogus figures to show what they are doing, but those figures only exist on the pages of newspapers. Nothing is on ground.

What the Federal Government can only do is to continue to prevail upon them. Don’t forget we have three tiers of government: the federal, the states and local governments. One cannot oppress the other, neither can it give instruction to others.

Most of the state governors are not comfortable with the ruling of the Supreme Court because they hide under joint account to defraud their states. Visit any of the local governments and tell me which local government chairman can provide pipe borne water for the people. They only go to the state governor. It is what he gives them that they take. The most important is the salary of local government workers that the governor releases; so, they are not happy.

Local government is the closest tier of government to the people; people can then ask questions what has been done with the allocations they receive. I must agree with the submission that all allocations should be published.

 What is your view about coalition and alignment going on in the country. Do you see it as a threat to President Tinubu getting a second term in office come 2027?

If there is one election that we are expecting that will be so easy to win, it is the 2027 election. There is no coalition anywhere, just a group of few politicians who are looking for how to survive. There is nothing they have not accused the president of: some have said he is pushing the country into a one party state.

The question I asked is, if Nigeria becomes a one party state, who do we blame? Is it the president who is looking for members, or is it the opposition who wants to stand firm and provide alternative ideas against the government? Don’t forget that in 2003, the entire South-West was swept off. He was the last man standing. From one governor in Lagos State in 2003, South West was regained in 2023. He could have chosen to join the PDP; he did not. He stood his ground and worked very hard to recover and regain those states.

As of now, you don’t know who is the National Secretary of the PDP, even the National Chairman. Even Peter Obi, if you ask him in private, who is the national chairman of his party, he doesn’t know, because he is as confused as me. It is the failure of the opposition parties that will lead to a one party state, not the ruling party. It is the opposition that ought to put themselves together. But this thing we called coalition, you know what is going on?  These people only assembled those who lost out in the ministerial appointments, National Assembly, and those who could not win at the presidential primary. These are the people forming a coalition. So there is no coalition anywhere. I have assured the president that it is going to be one of the easiest elections he will win, because those who could have opposed him are busy fighting themselves.

 What is your view about insecurity in the country that the government in power has been unable to reduce it to the barest minimum?

All over the world, no country can say it is not facing security challenges. It is a mixed grill. The issue of insecurity is a little bit difficult to address. The reason is that, while you are trying to address the issue of kidnapping, insurrection can happen somewhere else. Practically, the military are in over 33 states in the country, and this should not be so. You must give this guys that credit, that these are people, who have put down their lives so that you and I can sleep.

Yes, we may not have attained the kind of security we want for our country, but the president is not sleeping about it. Just a few days ago, he met the Service Chiefs, so all these meetings are not just for the purpose of gathering, they are strategic meetings to see how they can tackle some of the challenges in various states.

Don’t let us forget that various states have their peculiar issues, and the government is dealing with those challenges as they arise. Let me also tell you that the government is not just relying on that kinetic aspect of security; the government is also thinking towards improving the well being of our people.

It is true that there are dangerous people in the system; there are those political thugs who have access to weapons and are now being used by their godfathers and government is working towards flushing them out, so the challenge of security is neither here nor there.

Even the weapons we are talking about, to get the hardwares, it is not on the shelf; it takes time.The president when he assumed office had to use the procurement from the Buhari administration. One bomb costs about $200,000. If one is dropped, $200,000 is gone. You can imagine if there is no challenge of security.

You can imagine how many boreholes that amount of money will construct. So it is a problem that the president is not sleeping over. A man of over 70 years, he will stay awake till wee hour of the night. That is why some of us suggest that the number of visitors to the president should be reduced so that he can have time to think and plan. Mr. President, being who he is, has opened his door so that he can receive all these things, but in taking them, he will look at which one is good. That is one thing about Tinubu; he doesn’t discard people’s advice. He only looks at it and analyse it, and looks at the potential benefits.

Ahead of 2027, don’t you think that the gale of endorsement of the president for a second term in office is borne out of desperation on the part of the president?

You know that endorsement is an age- long issue but does it amount to vote?

No, you have to get that very clear. Even some of the people endorsing him, can they win election within their families? So endorsement is just a hype to say I support you. Although some are genuinely doing so to show the president that, the good work you are doing we support it, but some are just sycophants. On election day, they can just vote somebody else. The president is not allowing those things to get into his head, not Bola Ahmed Tinubu. You can say that to these paper weight politicians. Tinubu won’t allow mere endorsements to get into his head and then he will take his mind away from the real issue. Peter Obi enjoyed immeasurable endorsements. In fact, Charlie Boy, during that period, he was organising what he called one million-man march,. How many votes did he get during the election?

Endorsement is one thing; election is another thing. President Tinubu appreciates the endorsement; he welcomes it, but he knows, being a master strategist, that endorsement alone does not win votes. He knows he has to go out there and solicits vote from Nigerians and how does he do that? He does that by showing his card of performance to the people. In 2027, he will show them what he has done in every state of the federation.

It is the performance of the president that will win him election, and for those who think every election they want to rig, not this president. This president has no record of rigging. From 1999, he has been wining his election, and 2027 he will win it because he has shown capacity in terms of performance.

With the hardship Nigerians are facing, do you think Tinubu can win the 2027 election? Why do you think Nigerians will want to vote for him?

You know the president may be contesting 2027 election against himself, because who is going to challenge him. Is it the people who don’t know who is the national secretary of their party or who is the national chairman of their party? How are they going to show up to contest an election? If you look at the indicators of performance, you can give it to this president that so far, so good in two years, he has done well. The adjective done well can be relative and subjective, done well to me, may not be the same to me or you.

if you are to be honest with what he met and what he is doing now, you can say convincingly that there are certain policy of this government, yes the fruit may not have been seen visibly, but you can see it from those indicators that in the next couple of months, things will even get better. Don’t forget that as at May 29, 2023 subsidy is gone, that was the statement of the president, and from that period, we also had series of protests. You can now see that some of the challenges we had then when the subsidy was removed are beginning to be suppressed by reasoning of what Mr President is doing. Those indicators he is putting in place to change the narrative, I have no doubt that before the 2027 election, things will get even more better for Nigerians, people that have fallen into poverty by the grace of God will come out of poverty.

No president in the world will be happy to put his people in poverty or in penury. The president was not voted in to go and enjoy on their behalf, he was voted in to go and make life better and easier for themselves.

What are the areas you want this administration to improve upon?

I think the administration needs to look at electricity, I don’t think the Minister of Power that we have is the proper person that supposed to oversee that ministry, and the president is aware. You see these people think it is like the Buhari administration which gives ministers license to operate for four years, perhaps another four years. Bola Tinubu is not that person, he would sack those who failed to perform, he keeps his eyes on those working with him. Don’t let us forget that he has people on ground to get information from various ministries, he is not only sitting down in the office and call for any minister to come and brief him on what they are doing,he has his ears to the ground.

He is not the kind of person that will allow you to continue in an underperforming capacity. I think power ministry is one ministry that is underperforming.

Infact, I have reasons to ask two days ago, that what is happening with the Minister of Housing, that ministry is completely gone. The person in charge is just loitering around, noting you can point to as policies and programmes from that ministry.

After inauguration, the first time I saw him was when the EFCC chairman was handing over that massive recovery of housing project to him. These are the kind of people the president must begin to tell, thank you for your service so far enough.

The people have suffered enough, that is why you can hear the president is appealing to Nigerians. He is appealing to them because he knows they have got ear to hear. He is only appealing to them to say this is my administration and you have also seen that he is not the type of president that comes into office and start blaming his predecessor.

You will never hear him blame Muhammadu Buhari for anything, rather whatever the defect in Buhari’s administration, he is correcting it.

No human being is perfect, this president can’t beat his chest and say he is perfect, so at the end of his administration, there will also be some gaps that the other administration will come and correct, that is why we are human, we are meant to make mistakes and to correct them subsequently.

The Minister of Works is doing a good job, the star boy in FCT is doing a good job, but the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, is neither here or there, you can say once in a while he is putting policies in place. My worry with him is that he should match his words with actions.

Nigerians are still complaining about delayed flight, non- refundable fee, and next thing, you see Keyamo refuting it. You just don’t make shows on television, you must tackle the problem.

Most of the airline operators don’t care about anybody, and their passengers are no longer kings.They do say customers are kings, in the aviation industry, you are not kings, the operators are the kings. If you like buy their ticket, if you don’t like you leave. This is a minister who is not only competent but capable, I don’t really know what is happening in that area.

If you also look at the Ministry of Interior, it is fantastic work that Tunji Ojo embarks on, he is working himself out. There are some ministers in this government that do not sleep, they work round the clock to make sure that things are better, but also there are some that are not doing anything.

I can’t recall the last time I hear anything about the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, these are some of the challenges and Mr. President is taking note of some of them.

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Don’t forget that Adiza committee is still profiling them, so in the next couple of months, we also want to see these guys kicked out. You will need people who can perform, don’t forget that a non- performing minister is a disaster to the country. One, he collected salary, he has collected allowance and no benefit for his efforts, no input, he’s not being felt by the people.

As we move closer to another general elections, what is your advice to the electorate and those in government?

To the Nigerian people, they should continue to pray for the president, they should have faith in the president, they should have faith in his government, they should support him wholeheartedly, they should be blind to what is coming from the opposition. They should focus on how they can work with the president and achieve the needed result. They should do this because if the country is prosperous, it is the people, and if the country fails, it is still the people, Mr. President is just one person.

You and I must show that support, even from our family unit. For where we fail in our duty, how do we expect the president to succeed? For the opposition, honestly, I am glad that they are fighting. My advice is that they should continue to fight and quarrel until after 2027, then they can begin to see how they can come back and pack whatever pieces left.

I like the way they are now, I want the tempo to be maintained or improved upon, there should be quarrel among the opposition because this president is not the type of president who sets fire in somebody’s house.

He was once in the opposition, he fought to be president, let them also drop the feeding bottle they have been drinking from and fight as opposition. They can’t work together because these are people with various interests. These are people who sit down in a meeting and agree on what to do, then some go behind and do a different thing. Some of them in that meeting will share the information of what they discussed with a government in power, is these the people you call opposition? And the worst is when they use the word coalition and I begin to wonder what they are coalescing? These are part of the problem.