Let me start with the issue of the reforms of the present government. When the reforms started, things were hard and Nigerians were crying. But President Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised that things will get better, he assured in particular that inflation will be coming down. And true to his words, this year, you can see that the food inflation has actually gone down. I want you to discuss how you see the reforms of the Prsiesident.

Answer:

Well, generally, the concept of reform involves sacrifices. That’s why it’s called reform. So, whether it’s in governance in a country or even in a private organization, if you say, I want to reform the place, it means you want to restructure the place, which means you are going to upset the settings,  which means people are going to adjust.

So, from the very concept of reform, the President knew that there will be some tough time for Nigerians. He said that he didn’t hide it from them. He asked them to have patience, that government has plans through the various interventions to ameliorate the issue for the moment, hoping that the reforms will start yielding and then we’ll have a lasting economic boom, so to speak.

So, at the beginning, there were lots of complaints, because then it has affected cost of items, when people take home, can hardly take them home, you know. But we introduced lots of interventions, like through the rice production, they were giving food to people. We have, in agriculture, various programs of government.

Even in health, for example, the President subsidized for kidney dialysis, cesarean section for women, free.  If you come to education, we had the NELfund for students that can access funds for their studies and their cost of living. We have the scheme for the university, the investment in the area of research.

But in every field that we introduced this reform, there are some form of intervention to help people. And we knew that may still not be enough in the short run. But in the long term, we knew that it’s going to work.

So, at that time, beginning from 2023, it was tough. But as we ended the 2023, we started seeing the glimpses. In 2024, if you look at the macroeconomics, there is this tumbling, tumbling that we are trying to glide, but we found our feet. By the end of 2024, we assume stability. Throughout this year, steady growth of GDP. Throughout this year, the decline of inflation. Throughout this year, you see our net exports went up. Throughout this year, our dependency on import is going down. We also had the Dangote refinery that opened. That also created a breakthrough for us as a country. Then we have manufacturers introducing new products in the market. So, Nigerians now patronize Nigerian products. Thereby keeping money at home, but then having it at a price that is cheaper than if it were from abroad. Then we see other interventions. So, for the structure of the economy, the fundamentals are aligning positively as we are putting them.

Now we can say with every degree of certainty that the fundamentals of the economy have taken their shape. So, you know what it’s like saying the President has conducted a successful surgery. But you know that after surgery, you don’t go outside playing football now.

They will take you to the recovery room. And they’ll observe you until the recovery is complete before you will now be allowed to go. As it’s now, we are not in the surgery room. We are in the recovery room. The surgery was successful. But in the recovery room, you are administered medication. If it is something that requires physiotherapy, they give you physiotherapy. If it is something that requires exercise, they give you exercise. Whatever it is, we are in the recovery and we are seeing it. Our foreign reserve has gone up steadily. Our oil output has gone up as well. We have less crisis in the Niger Delta. All the people that wrote reports about insecurity in Nigeria, they testified that from 2023 to 2025, there is a steady decline. But every now and then, you will see some issues in Benue and the rest. Those type of pocket disturbances will always be there, even in America. That’s why we said, if you look at the world report on crime, the crime rate in the U.S. is more than the crime rate in Nigeria. Those things can happen. In England three weeks ago, the Jewish community were lynched. In America, I think about two months ago, somebody was doing free speech and he was shot.  So this type of insecurity is still there. But we’ve made the progress that is required and we are pushing and ensuring that our growth continues to rise because that’s our target, we are looking at the rate of growth. So we want to make sure that the percentage for growth per year is higher than the way it used to be.

Question 

Okay, so the gale of defection now is taking most Nigerians unaware. What can you say is the reason why most politicians particularly in the South East are defecting to APC?

Answer 

Because they’ve never had an administration that was so friendly and that gave them the opportunity to impact on their people. One of the reasons why governors are defecting in droves to APC is because of the President’s bold initiative that increased their revenue, something nobody could have done. And it’s not as if nobody thought about that in the past. But people were not courageous enough to take that step. Everybody wants the glory, nobody wants the story. The President is not particular about the glory, I mean it’s not about the glory, he’s about the story. So that decision he took now has helped, a governor that was struggling to pay salary now can successfully pay salary. And he will still embark on projects and the rest.  He will want that President to repeat so that he will have more money. Maybe in the second term there will be more initiative that will give breakthrough. Because you can’t conceive of any other way of generating the revenue. So if you’re a governor and that is not attractive to you, then definitely it’s a problem. Two, his style of governance is not adversarial.  You have seen his engagement. He went to Enugu when the governor was in PDP to commission,  projects and shower and encomium on the governor despite the fact that the governor was in opposition party. He also went to Anambara, did the same thing. He went to Abia, he did the same. These are opposition states. 

And hopefully after the 2027 election, if the governor of Anambra wins, he will still join us. However , it’s not a cult association is based on interest. If they see that aligning with the center helped them in achieving their goal, they would rather believe it.

 So one side is the attractive nature of the style of governance of Asuwaju.

Two, the reform that has increased their own revenue and has given them the opportunity to deliver. And then the third one, which is inconsequential but sometimes is good at least for the optics, is that there is no viable opposition on ground. They are not serious. They are all a bunch of people who are desperate to grab power, but they don’t have an explanation as to why they want the power.And most of them because in the past they had the power. 

Call them and ask them to give you just an alternative view to everything we are doing. Apart from condemning us, they can’t give you an alternative. Because they also promise the same thing we promise. We say we will remove something, they say they will remove it.  And now we are doing more than what they can imagine. So in the absence of alternative, all you need to do is to see what you can do. Like basketball, catch and shoot. That is the reason why it is attractive to become part of APC than remaining in opposition. PDP was there, we woke up one morning, they sold it. And Now , they are scattered all over the places. 

The other notion, which to me is a lame argument, is that Ashuwaju is threatening them. Every governor has section 308. He has section 308. In the worst case scenario, when Fayose at the time was threatened, he said hold on, nobody fear, on the eve of his handover, he prepared T-shirts and everything.

 He came to EFCC, in fact they were not even waiting for him to come but he came to EFCC and said, I’m here. It took them one hour to decide the IPO that will start asking him questions.

Two, three weeks, after they locked him up, he got out. And here he is today. So a governor that is courageous should be able to stand his ground, even if there is a subliminal, and there is nothing like that. But people use that term. Let me give you an example of me. I left the President.  But people use that term. Let me give you an example of me. I left the President, when the issue of Muslim -Muslim ticket came up. I went to PDP. We finished.  But nobody threatened me.

Because the people to be threatened are people that are more vocal in the media.  I mean, if you are in the opposition, you are quiet. You are not a problem now.

But from when I left, even after the elections were ended, even though I couldn’t stay quiet, I was the main opposition voice in the media. Tinubu didn’t come after me for a fight, rather, his approach is to come after me and be part of what he’s doing. People actually persuaded me not to be part of what the President is doing, but I followed my conscience.

You are telling me not to join him because somebody is angry. Am I born to serve somebody as a slave? Am on national assignment; what we prayed for when we were young, that one day in life you will be a part of nation building and development of Nigeria as the opportunity comes.should I decline because of those disgruntled people in the media saying, you don’t have character, you don’t have principles, you shouldn’t go to…  All of their heroes now have changed parties five, seven times. So I want to look at life from the point of view that, if you know knowledge, all these grandsons, you know, they move. 

 I had only changed party once. This one is not even changing party. Do you know one funny thing?  When I left APC, I actually did not resign. If you go and read my register, remember, because I was in a hurry and anger: Because of Muslim, Muslim ticket I got angry and I went away until after the election is ended and I actually never left. But Asiwaju actually didn’t have it against me. He didn’t bother that I left the party what matters to him is as long as I have something to do, to deliver, he would say ‘bring him’. And I’m not the only one, sir. Look around his government. That’s his approach. No government would be more attractive than that. So he has a better sellable product than others.

There is this thing called perception. Some people say perception is reality. Perception is reality. But do you know the problem about that? Perception, for the most part, is the opposite of reality. Why? Because in the new world order that we’re in, there is aspect of media narrative, that what is correct can be pushed to be perceived as wrong and through the instrument of propaganda, it will be forever seen like that. How can crime rate in America be more than crime rate in Nigeria but America is more attractive than Nigerian perception.

It is safer to move anywhere in Nigeria than to move in Chicago or to move in certain district in New York. But our eyes don’t want to open. And this is why I believe there is no better alternative against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. Let’s be realistic.  Or the person has not been discovered. But for the clowns that are right now parading themselves for 2027, leave it.

Question 

Okay. Let me ask one more question.  there’s school of thought that are arguing that Nigeria is tilting towards one-party system, with the way politicians are defecting to APC in droves 

Answer 

So, whether or not Nigeria becomes a party state, one-party state,  is not anchored on the sitting government. The responsibility is on the opposition. And the opposition, you have to make sure that the country is not a one-party state by building a viral opposition.  No governing party will say,  oh, based on morality, let me go and strengthen opposition  to show I’m a good boy. There is no party that will do that.

So, the laziness of the opposition should not be attributed to the government. It should rather be that you’re grabbing people and forcing them like indoctrination to join a business and say, oh, they want to force one-party state. A governor wants to come to a party that created the opportunity for him to deliver. You say because Nigeria shouldn’t be one-party state, it should not take advantage of the opportunity, ask for his people. We’re all servants of the people. So, the duty to make sure it is not a one-party state is the responsibility of the opposition and the media.  Unfortunately our current media.  I’m sorry, you guys are from the media, I’m just using a generic term.  Sometimes they get carried away chasing shadows. To me, the Nigerian media, if they want to be part of the social engineering of Nigeria, they should, by themselves, like the way they do in the Western world, go and farm out fresh ideas. Give them opportunity and visibility in the media. So that a new generation of minds  that will challenge the establishment will come out. If you are going back to the same person  that failed as a governor, and he wants to reinvent himself, and then you are recycling him, to say this is what he would have done.

What did you do before? All these guys, I see them in the opposition, what took them out in the first place  is quest for power. So, the role is that of the media to go and farm out, and there are plenty of ideas in Nigeria. All they need is visibility.

To challenge establishment.  We welcome that, President Bola Tinibu is even prophetic. Have you not noticed? When he became President, he ensured that his government is saturated with young people. He knows this generation of elders, in the next four or five years, they are no longer in anywhere. in the realm of governance.

 And then we will have a society that is completely disjointed from reality. So, he’s introducing young people,  giving them opportunities, in ministries, departments and agencies,  just pushing them in so that, by adventure, we will have a remnant that have not corrupted themselves. 

Question 

Let’s discuss the issue  of new INEC chairman. You know, the permutation before the new INEC chairman emerged was that President Tinubu would appoint somebody from the southwest,  because there has never been INEC chairman from South West, but surprisingly, he went to the north and brought in a candidate. So, how do you see the idea.

Answer 

When he became President, the INEC chairman was not from the southwest, but from the core North. I think his actions were not dictated by sentiment but  he’s looking at what will work for Nigeria. Because sometimes, even the issue of somebody has to come from my place and from this place and from that place to me, is a way to defend incompetence.  Because if this place is on fire  and you bring in a fireman  who knows how to do his job, nobody asks for his tribe before you quench the fire. Let’s be realistic.

When he says the government must be constituted in a manner that it will reflect the principles of federal character there are many other areas that he engaged. Do you know there was a time they carried this lazy conversation that the President ignored the north until he brought out the data to show them that he has appointed more people from the northwest that were complaining than even the southwest. They jumped the idea. They say he did more projects. He was doing more projects in the south. There has never been a time Nigerians will not complain. It’s part of politics that if you do anything,  I should read the meaning. That way, you either become careful  so that you don’t keep doing it or you will not remember and do something for me.  I asked in my recent interview, one interview in Hausa, I said, let us be honest, that Calabar-Lagos Coastal way, assuming he’s doing it in the north, is there any northerner that will start and say there is no equity?  So we understand you are crying  because you feel this should have been in the north, but the other ones that the government is doing this thing for them, are they not also Nigerians? And besides, if you want to invest, do you go and invest where there will be return on investment or you go and invest to prove a point? If you go and build an airport in Sambisa,  are you going to have daily flights? 

So you build airport where there will be commercial activities , so that from the revenue you get, you will have the have fund for other parts of the state.  The economy of Nigeria is in the Southwest, Infrastructure in the southwest is good for everywhere,  everybody. There is no Nigerian that is not doing business in the south. The richest Nigerian is a northerner, but his business interest is in the southwest.

Let him go to Kano now. Nah, he’s a northerner.  Nobody loves the north more than him. But he went to where there is investment opportunity.  Let’s look at Nigeria from the point of view like that.