Revolution of civil disobedience, only way out of current misrule —Ariyo

Former political aspirant under the All Progressives Congress (APC),Chief Robinson Ariyo is public analyst, lawyer, vociferous activist and a peace builder in the Niger Delta. He speaks with EBENEZER ADUROKIYA on the seven years reign of the APC government, among others.

 

What’s your score sheet like for the APC in the last seven years?

We actually over-expected based on our dissatisfaction with the Goodluck Jonathan administration and with the promises that the government made, and our impression about President MuhammaduBuhari during his War Against Indiscipline (WAI) administration in 1983. We felt that indiscipline was a major issue and bringing somebody with a pedigree in attending to that issue was the way to go. And so, everybody expected much from him. All the promises made – if you put the manifesto side by side, item by item the realities on ground, you’ll discover that the government has failed in practically every area. If you view the power generation issue which was one of the major issues they took President Jonathan on, the Minister of Works and Power, RajiFashola had said any serious government should be able to fix the power issue in six months – that was the extent of bragging they had before mounting the saddle. As a matter of fact also, President Buhari himself did say that, given his experience as former minister of petroleum sector at a time, any Jonathan’s government claim to be subsidizing fuel was a fraud. He had followed up on that statement that there’ll be functional refineries. He painted a picture that he was going to solve the problem of petroleum subsidy and make us more self-sustaining. But he failed on this, too. I’ve spoken about power, petroleum sector, which are critical sectors.

The primary duty of any responsible government is the welfare and security of its people. In this area again, he’s failed woefully. This country has never been as insecure as it is now.  And global indices as regards the ease of doing business has plummeted. The ease of doing business during Jonathan’s time was much higher than where we are today. There have been a lot of small and medium scale businesses flying away to neighbouring countries to the extent that even Nigeria, at a time, was going to neighbouring countries to refine crude oil and bring back to Nigeria. So, power, petroleum sector, security, and infrastructure – the roads are terrible. Now it is almost impossible for Nigerians to travel safely via all the means of transportation. The trains are at the mercy of terrorists’ attacks. Is it about the religious unrest in the country? The country is now almost at a boiling point. There appears no respite in sight as to how to resolve this logjam. We thought things would be far better by now, but we were wrong. In the area of education – the other time Buhari had described the government of Jonathan as irresponsible over ASUU strike. Buhari’s government has entered into several agreements with ASUU which it has never fulfilled. And that’s why we have a situation our schools have shut down and it has radically affected the quality of education in Nigeria.

The area of the economy, things have become worse. Today, the rate of the naira to a dollar is N610. All the empirical indicators suggest an abysmal failure – completely below expectation. See how high profile economic criminals convicted by the EFCC are being granted state pardons. What message is Buhari sending to the younger generation? Talk about those accountant generals accused of stealing billions of naira in a government priding itself as anti-corruption crusader? This is a tip of the iceberg when it comes to corruption in this government. In the last one week, we’re talking about over N500 billion being stolen by just two persons – the accountants general of Rivers State and the Federation. Do you know what that amount will do as regards ASUU strike? Imagine the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the man who sits on the financial policy of a country nursing presidential ambition and grandstanding while in power and claiming that a group of people bought him a presidential form of N100 million? We’ve become the laughing stock of the world! I don’t think any government can be worse than this! It’s just as if we don’t have a leadership in the country. It’s a state of lawlessness. We’ve gone back to the state of nature!

 

How do you critique Nigerians’ standard of living in the last seven years? 

We can’t be talking of standard of living without talking about the cost of living. Our incomes have not improved in any way since the last seven years. The rate of inflation is unimaginable. Check out the rates of a pack of Lipton, sugar, etc. How much were they sold then and now? Electricity tariff, transportation, fuel pump, rents, foodstuff, electronics, everything has gone up. That’s why crime has increased and people are so desperate now. People are resorting to different measures to survive including ritual killing. If your income is down and the cost of living is up, what happens next could be unimaginable!

 

Are you saying this government has been more of a curse thank a blessing to Nigerians?

Absolutely yes! Particularly so because when you don’t expect someone to perform, you’ll not be disappointed. The expectations were high. They came with the critical concept of the breath of fresh air. They understood our state that we were suffocating, but they sunk us deeper into that toxin that we were in. Every promise they made, they had failed on it. Where are the refineries? Where’s the life abundance? Today, we’re more unsecured than when they came in. Is subsidy still a scam like Buhari described it then? Has he not consistently maintained paying it in the last seven years?

 

What are the ways out?

Unfortunately, we have an electoral system that has been hijacked by the oligarchy.

 

How do you mean by the ‘oligarchy?

The ruling class at the Federal and state levels. Those who are privileged are the ones favoured by the government. Those who have stolen money and are not favoured by the government are being chased by the government through the EFCC. I understand that the wanted accountant general of Rivers State won the PDP governorship primaries in the state. How can such happen in a country where people are hungry and someone who’s alleged of stealing billions of naira being declared governorship candidate? If you look at those emerging as governorship candidates in some states and compare them to the aspirants they contested with, you’ll understand the rationality behind these oligarchs. What we’re practising is government of the oligarchic few, by the oligarchic few and for the oligarchic few. If you look at all the primaries, you’ll see that there’s a pattern. A Nigeria’s president who purchases a form of N100 million for a four-year job of less than legitimate N50 million salary, is it not madness?

 

What is the way of the current mess of seven years?

There’s really no way out of this quagmire, because the people in charge of the transitional and electoral system are the ones benefitting from the system. The way out is a radical change by way of a revolution that’ll sweep away these people and sanitize the system. People make laws and they’re the actual beneficiaries of the same law. We need the people to come out en masse. For me, there should be no election. The people should come out and solve the first problem. When you do a thing over and over again in a particular way, and you expect a different result, then you need your head examined. The scaffold with which we produced Buhari is still the same scaffold available to produce the next set of leaders. The kind of revolution I’m prescribing is the type that occurs in every civil society. Why can’t we adopt direct primary in our political parties? That’ll eliminate all these incompetent candidates emerging in our states. Let the people choose who they want. But they have created a system that eliminate quality candidates in favour of less quality ones.

 

What kind of revolution are you calling for?

Within legal framework there’s what we call civil disobedience. That’s one of the tools with which you challenge the policies of government. For instance, the plummeting dollar issue is enough for us to occupy the streets to reject some policy directions encouraging the harsh situation. As of today, the country is unsafe due to religious intolerance, and ethnic intolerance and insecurity. So, the civil society is supposed to mobilise the populace against these trends to hold this country to ransom like they did during EndSars debacle. Why can’t we have direct primaries as opposed to indirect primaries? The real election is the primaries which they’ve hijacked for their cronies. Already, the citizens have been disenfranchised. Look at what happened during PDP primaries in Delta State? Look at the quality of aspirants that contested? If it were to be a direct primary, the person who emerged would not have emerged.

 

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