Former National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South-West, Dr Eddy Olafeso, speaks with HAKEEM GBADAMOSI on the current state of the nation, ministerial appointment, Niger coup among other issues.
Which role do you think Nigeria should play as the current chairman of ECOWAS?
Listening to the people of the Niger Republic, our relationship is not with one president or a presidency; our relationship is with the people of the Niger Republic. Nigeria and Niger share a very historical relationship that you must recognise before you take any decision. About 55 per cent of the Niger people are Kanuris, Hausas, or Fulanis. The other groups are those distinctively in control of the government. Most of the time, it is when the majority are in power that the military will come and interrupt and we begin to see an imposition that appears like a minority rule over the majority in the circumstance in the Niger Republic.
A Nigerian president who has a foreign relationship will know for sure that a war against the Niger Republic is a war against Nigeria. 1,200 kilometers of our boundaries across seven states of the North from Sokoto, Zamfara, Yobe, Maiduguri, and Borno, state are all with the Niger people, so we must as a matter of fact, make sure that we utilise diplomacy in dealing with this. Then, how can you be strong abroad when your foreign policies have left your country in extreme poverty? It is dangerous for the All Progressive Congress to even contemplate going abroad to come and sort out things when Nigeria is yet to be sorted out. This is not the right time for war; it is the right time for diplomacy and the right time to listen to the people of the Niger Republic so that we do not make mistakes.
The history of the people is not the history of their rulers. If their rulers are supporting the colonialists, especially France, in taking away what belongs to Niger Republic to France and people are kicking against it, we must be careful of who we support; are we fighting EU and France or the West, or are we fighting for the Nigerians in Niger Republic? These are some of the things we have to be careful about. Our country is in dire need; we do not have resources that we are going to spend anywhere to defend something indefensible. Nigerien people will sort themselves out.
Are you not afraid that military rule is now taking place in West Africa?
I am afraid that the kind of democracy we are involved with, subverting election processes, is the reason why military rules appear as the alternative. The only solution to it is to embrace democracy with all its tenets of freedom and the ability to produce leaders that the people want. My fear is that we are killing democracy by not just doing that and people will rebel in one form or the other. Let’s pray for our country.
How will you assess the first 60 days of President Bola Tinubu in office?
Well, from the first day, he threw Nigeria into trauma and the crisis that he created with his unilateral pronouncement on fuel subsidy removal is something still very worrisome to the Nigerian people, considering the fact that there was no arrangement in terms of mitigating the effects of the subsidy removal. While all Nigerians agreed that subsidy is more or less a fraud, if you are going to remove it, it must be through a carefully planned process instead of making the removal an albatross to the ordinary man.
By that single statement, the government wiped out the middle class and since then, nothing has been easy with Nigerians. People cannot go to work or do anything as inflation is heading towards 25 per cent. Nobody is talking about unemployment; the government’s action brought a lot of sadness instead of joy. The APC has left Nigeria in despair and all they did was to make it worst by the poor handling of the subsidy situation. As we speak, nobody knows where Nigeria is heading; there is so much pain and hunger in the land. It is quite sad that we have come to this corner. I believe that along the line, the government must do something as quickly as possible to let Nigerians know that its administration cares about them. Otherwise, I foresee a very big social upheaval in the nearest future.
The federal government has rolled out some palliatives and some state governments have done the same thing. But you are claiming that there is no palliative?
But how has it affected the people? They rolled out… does this mean it will have a positive effect on the people? Which state in the country have we not seen hunger and depravity? So, if they say that they have rolled out palliative, how has it affected the people? In the state you live in here, how has the government reacted to the pain and the abandonment of the people? We have not seen it and we may not see it because there is no clear distinction between what they did for eight years and the last two months. Remember ‘Traders’ money’, how did it affect Nigerians? So, where are those things rolled out? That is the question I should ask you. So Nigerians are still waiting as we speak and it is very painful.
But the government, within these months, has nominated ministers and they have undergone screening. What is your take on these ministers?
My take is that nothing has changed. Former governors and ministers are back; some members of the House of Legislature are also there. So, while the list is not totally empty of people of good intentions, and of love for the country, I believe the president only used the list as political gifts to compensate those who supported him. It is not as if there is a clear departure from what was going on in the last eight years of Buhari; so what expectation are you going to have? Even the National Assembly has done a very shoddy job in screening the ministers. They just asked them to take a bow and leave and all that. But in the circumstance we find ourselves, that is not the best way to go. It is expected that if the president will perform very well, those he is going to appoint will be a crack team that will help him to develop Nigeria and do something about this last 23 years that has been a very difficult time for our people.
Apart from the first republic, since the third republic, I have not seen anything different. Obasanjo came and a lot of things were done right: we paid up the Paris Club and became debt-free. But suddenly now, we are in a debt quagmire and our debt-equity ratio has actually doomed our future. Very soon, Nigeria will not have anybody to borrow money from, because they are insolvent. If we are using a greater percentage of our revenue to service debts, then, where is the future? Where is the money for capital development? Where is the money to train and make better the environment? How do you employ the young generation of people to take over? So, we are back to square one; things are really bad. The list [of ministers] has not helped our anxiety.
If we keep quiet and the government keeps doing what it is doing, Nigeria will continue to regress and our situation in the final analysis will be worse than when they took off. That is the reason we are screaming; nobody wants them to fail because if they fail, all of us have failed. The country will be endangered as they are not doing the right things to win. Where is the team that can actually redefine Nigeria? How are we going to re-engineer the Nigerian project? These are some of the problems and this list has not helped in any way to douse our fears.
In this situation now, it seems as if there is no opposition to the APC government. What is the future of opposition, especially PDP, in the scheme of things?
Things will improve; our party will continue to bring itself together. We are not totally dead but the trauma of the presidential election of February 25 is still part of the reasons we look forward to when there is no opposition and we are still in court. If today, the court pronounced PDP as the winner of the presidential election, you will see the quantum of actions that will begin to align with the yearnings and aspirations of the people. You will see activities that will bring about hope and aspirations for our people. So, we are going through that and once we are done with that and justice has been served, Nigeria will change for the better. I am convinced that [with ]Atiku, things would have been a lot better for the Nigerian people. You cannot buy experience and then, Atiku Abubakar has enough of that and with our interaction with him, he is ready to go. Atiku will not spend 60 days to nominate his ministers and the list will be far different from what you have just seen on the table of the APC and the increasing number of ministers in the face of dwindling resources and inability to actually give dividends of democracy to the Nigerian people. Does it not bother you?
We are in a very depressed economic situation and the National Assembly is still looking at N70 billion as part of the money to be removed from palliatives to be able to look after themselves. What patriotism is in that? And why are we doing all those things that make it look like the political class is the enemy of the people all the time? So, for us, it is not as if there is no opposition, but with the times and the resolution of the challenges of the presidential election and the general election of February, you will see that a lot of things changed completely. We will continue to put them to task for every one of their actions, either for the Nigerian people or against the Nigerian people.
There are three other elections that we are expecting: Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states. What do you think about these elections, considering the way INEC handled the last general election?
The way INEC handled the last general election, if that is exactly the same way they are going to handle the three other elections, what hope do you expect us to have? If the umpire’s hands are already tied, then, what exactly is going to be our expectation? But I believe that seeing the experiences across West Africa, of poorly managed electoral processes are, I think our political class, the president, and all of them will be very careful once again to subvert the will of the people.
We, the PDP, are going into these elections all prepared and ready and I know full well that if the elections are done without interference or support for a party against the other, without our hands being tied behind our backs and say fight the enemy, then we are going to win. In Bayelsa State, the governor is doing very well. But in Kogi State, the governor has actually chased everybody to the forest. Imo State is the capital of insecurity in Nigeria, so why would they return to their offices if they had done so badly for the past four years? We are very hopeful that things will change for the better in this country.
Looking at PDP in the state, there is still deafening silence from the camp of PDP in Ondo State. As one of the leaders of PDP in the South-West, what do you think can be done to revive PDP?
It is the same answer that I give to the fact that our case at the Appeal Court and probably going to the Supreme Court is part of the reasons things have slowed down and the irregularities of the February election are what is still trending but over time we are rising gradually.
Last week Thursday, we went to inaugurate the corpus, it was well attended. Our leaders are coming home gradually to begin to look at what we can do to bring ourselves back; a lot of things went wrong in the past. We must admit that and we must resolve them. Fairness, equity, and justice are what drive us ahead of this moment, and believe me, that is exactly what we are going to do. It is not only in PDP; even in the APC, you can see a lot; everybody is wondering, what is going on here. So, let us see, by the time the anxiety of the general election dissipates, you will see activities everywhere. You can count on us. We are not dead at all.
We have some people who are PDP in the afternoon and APC in the night. What are you doing about such people?
It has always been like that in the history of man. The word ‘betrayer’ is not a Yoruba word. It is an English word that must have been something they coined in their own process of handling democracy to us. But then, for those that we can identify, I think that there is a disciplinary measure against them. And those who worked against the party, they have consequences. We are still trying to put our house in order; we must admit that a lot of things have gone wrong. And for those trying to subvert the will of the party, time will catch up with them; they cannot escape the consequences.
Are you saying your party is ready for next year’s governorship elections in those three states?
We are preparing to roll because the elections are in 2024; this is July 2023. I am referring to the February election which is just about five months ago and we have started the processes of getting all the organs of the party in place so that we can begin our mobilisation and that is exactly what is critical at this moment. It is exactly what we are doing. We will be ready in the long run.
It is the belief in the state now that the next governor should go to the south. Is your party also toeing this line?
Yes, of course. We must look at what is happening in the running political party and we must look at the history of the state and know exactly things were before, where the last governor came from and each of the senatorial districts must actually find out what is best for them. At the appointed time, PDP will find out what is best for them. But in terms of power-sharing, in terms of rotation, definitely, those who have the opinion that it should go to a specific senatorial district must work as hard as possible to convince the other two senatorial districts. That is the right thing to do and the leaders will have to take a decision as to ensure that none of the three senatorial districts are cheated out of their own time.
In the South-West, PDP has two governors, but they are not in the same camp politically. Do you think this will not affect the election to be held in the zone?
Nothing is permanent in a political process. People come together and understand the fact that it is in unity we can fight and win. The house divided against itself will fall and I am very sure as we speak and as we are seated here, efforts are being made to reconcile ourselves. The role of PDP at this moment is to actually let the past be where it is and begin to foster a new beginning that can lead us to a better future. I am confident that the two governors will work together in the nearest future and relate with one another in such a way that unity can be part of what we will embrace for the future.