Nigeria’s political class not showing interest in national transformation —Awosan, CECO boss

NIGERIA is under President Muhammadu Buhari’s change reime, do you think the country is really undergoing change?

Well, we cannot say in general terms that Nigeria is under change because fundamentally, the character and disposition of the political class is still very much the same. The political class has not shown much interest in change in values and the actions of politicians have continued to be at variance with the aspirations of the people.

However, we can point to certain actions that have been taken by this government that are commendable; especially in regards to the fight against corruption. Though many will like to argue that the anti-corruption war is selective, even this ‘selective’ attempt is good and better for Nigeria than criminal silence.

It is good for Nigeria in the sense that a lot of people have taken it as their life ambition to suck the life- blood of this nation. Look at all the revelations concerning stealing of public funds. It is shameful that those who have been elected to bring good life to the people are the same people causing abject poverty and making the people to live in misery and agony.

Look at the case of former GMD of NNPC, (Andrew) Yakubu. In the history of my life, I have never seen where dollar currencies were packed like bread, that kind of thing you find it in bakery where they pack their loafs of bread in layers. And to make the matter worse, the man is also arguing he wants to go abroad for medical treatment. It shows that the ruling class is not serious about change and when I say the ruling class, it includes the political elite and even the media elite.

There are certain things that are necessary for change to occur in any democracy. One, you must have  a viable political  party system. Today, I dare say that there is no political party in the true sense of it in Nigeria. What we have is just an assemblage of people who gathered with aspirations to promote and protect their selfish socio-economic and political interests. Essentially, the ingredients to midwife change is absent in our system.

One of such is trust, I mean political trust. Political trust means citizens must believe and have confidence in the political institutions that govern them. Can you say that Nigerians truly have confidence in the political institution that is governing us? I say no.

Another thing is social trust. Social trust is that value that will allow civic virtue to permeate and without civic virtue, you cannot talk of civic responsibility. All these things are totally absent in our system. What we have is just an arrangement for some people to galvanise their political ambition. If I ask you as a seasoned journalist, what is the programme of the two big political parties in Nigeria? You would not be able to say it, but if I ask you today, what is the agenda of the Republican and the Democratic parties in America?

You will tell me in a jiffy. The issue is that political parties here are not guided by any philosophy. You know Nigerian politicians believe that governance is just a matter of tarring roads, stand akimbo on it and take photographs and go and take a page of advert in newspapers to display it.

Governance is more than tarring of roads and digging of boreholes. So many of these characters that are ruling today don’t know the dynamics  of good governance, so how can they deliver?  And how can such system midwife change? The fact that we are not under change is not a personal problem of Buhari, it is a systemic problem. But I should think that the political class, having seen the level of rot under the immediate past regime, was the reason they came together to bring about the present change under a progressive platform called APC, don’t you think so?

Forget about that, majority of the people in APC today were PDP leaders, let me say 85 to 90 per cent of former chairmen of PDP, are in APC today. Okay, saying that they wanted change and that was why they moved over to APC is not it. Look, it is just a matter of alphabet that is different, it is the same character, the same attitude, the same people, I am telling you. Look at the president of the Senate, (Abubakar) Saraki, where was he years ago? He was a PDP leader. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. (Yakubu) Dogara, he was a PDP leader, the Governor of Sokoto was a PDP leader,

Chief Audu Ogbeh was former PDP National Chairman, it is not about party, it is a general problem within the political class, it is their methodology that is different. These people now are more skillful and are more careful and are more friendly with the media than those who left government, that is it. But to say that in terms of magnitude of corrupt practices, you cannot say that those who left have more as those who are presently there. But I give it to President Buhari that in the midst of all these chaos, he himself as a person, you can trust him to a very large extent, nobody has traced anything directly against him in terms of corruption, in terms of stealing of money. In the final analysis, I give it to him, afterall most of the retired generals are the richest in Nigeria if not in Africa.

But what I think is that to be able to lead a country like this, it is not enough to be a good person, though very important. Deep knowledge of the  diverse problems and the contemporary strategy to solving these are important. You must have the required intellectual and physical capacity to provide the right  and vigilant leadership. These we must ask God to give to our present leaders.

 

In that sense, what would you have advised Buhari to do to enable him realise his change agenda, if you see him lacking in these areas you have mentioned?

You see it is said that men are the ultimate makers of history, but history itself has shown that every epoch making in life has been through the selflessness of some very few people; it is very few people that galvanise change.

I think one of the immediate things he should do is to expand the buying in of people into his anti-corruption crusade. The way the matter of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, that is his involvement in the IDP matter was treated was a minus to the anti-corruption effort of the government. That is what they call inside trading, the fact that his company was involved, whether it was involved negatively or positively, means he has abused his office. Abuse of office itself is corruption, I would have thought that he (Buhari) would have used that to send signals to so many people, if he had taken action and that man had been removed, today the tempo of anti-corrupt would have heightened. There would have been a lot of buy- in by people who hitherto did not believe the struggle is genuine. There would have been a lot of people that would change their mind and support the crusade.

 

Some people are of the view that Mr President should have a cabinet reshuffle, do you also believe that?

Well, well, there are lots of brilliant people in this regime and I think human resources management is part of the problem, the ability of the leader to manage the human resources at his disposal. Cabinet reshuffle may be necessary, it may also not be necessary, it may be a mere change of style and sitting up to human resource management. But I think about the Minister of Finance, although she is our sister, but I think for somebody that would succeed Okonjo- Iweala, if he or she cannot equal Okonjo- Iweala, he or she must move very close. I think Adeosun, in terms of her pedigree, I am not saying she is not a good person, but for that office, she is not the one we would have required at this period. Even in APC, there are people who are eminently qualified and also amongst sympathisers of APC, we have people who are eminently qualified.

 

There has been this excuse that the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan had ruined the economy and that oil is not selling well now and that is why the economy is so bad, do you also support that?

Well that has been the argument but this is now becoming stale. But one thing I want to say is that let there be signs, even though we have not recovered, let there be signs that we are moving towards recovery. There is no sign, that is the point. Nobody is saying that the thing can be done with magic, I would not say it, having served in government. I would not say they can do it like a magic, no, but let there be signs that we are moving in a particular direction. You get the point. A lot of people are confused about the direction in which this government is actually moving, the government needs to do more.

This government is lucky in the sense that it has professionals as media managers unlike past government that would just bring anybody. Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu are real professionals, cool and calm. I think if the government can do more in terms of rejigging their strategies here and there, things would work well. I also think that some of the programmes the government has put forward might become another avenue for corruption. This idea of feeding school pupils is too pedestrian.