Emmanuel Umohinyang is a human rights activist, public affairs analyst and President, Centre for Leadership and Justice. In this interview, he speaks on contemporary national issues and challenges facing Nigeria.
What is your take on the state of the nation?
My take is that, there is hunger in the land. Our people are hungry, there is starvation. There are all kinds of challenges we are battling with.
It will not be fair to say these challenges we are facing today are as a result of Tinubu’s administration, neither can we say that they are a result of Buhari’s administration. However, the man in charge of affairs as we speak is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The buck stops on his table to ensure that as many Nigerians as he can should be brought out of the basket of poverty.
If election is over, which I doubt… By the way some of these political actors are still throwing bullets. It looks as if we are going into another election in the next couple of weeks. My opinion is that after election, all hands must be on deck so that we can salvage our country collectively.
We just had the presidential election in America. I have not seen the sitting president attacking, or Donald Trump that won the election attacking. But everybody is now coming together to see America remaining great as the country has been before.
But the situation is different in Nigeria. Whenever your preferred candidate loses an election, the election is not free and fair. Then from the first day the winner is sworn into office, you start attacking him, even on things that are so ridiculous.
Some time ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo doubted the fact that Port Harcourt refinery is working, describing it as a lie from the pit of hell. But so many people have visited the refinery to attest that it is working. You can see that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) invited Chief Obasanjo to come and see things for himself.
When a man can’t fix certain things, it doesn’t mean others cannot. The principle I have as a Christian is that if Jesus did not give an answer to my problem, it doesn’t mean he does not answer all problems. Then I will assume Jesus is not the problem. I should be the one.
What we have seen is that, they do not want to give Bola Tinubu the credit for the good things that is happening in Nigeria, but they want to put the blame on him for every bad thing that happened, even if those things did not happen under his administration. And this is where the problem is. We must be able to commend an administration that has done well and criticise the one that has not done well.
The purpose of criticism is not to run a government down. When you criticise, you suggest a solution. It is not to be one-sided and you were not suggesting what he would have done better. That is why opposition party is referred to as an alternative government, because whenever an administration is not doing well they criticize and offer solutions.
Naturally, one would have said that, you know how we play politics in our country. For the typical politician, two plus two is not four. So when you run into a trap of characters like that, everything in Nigeria is politicized. Even the politicians you don’t expect to play politics will do it.
I see it that we must begin to move away from that attitude where any government in power we don’t like, we must bring it down.
Tinubu is a man who is known for taking hard and tough decisions. I am not surprised at what is happening. Are we where we should be? No! Do we want to remain where we were? No.
We are looking at the future that we will be proud of. A government came and took a decision that previous administrations had been running away from. Even the most revered Muhammadu Buhari administration had to abandon removing the fuel subsidy. He was of the opinion that removing it will have negative impact on Nigerians. But we were living on borrowed time. President Tinubu has said repeatedly that if he had an alternative to the removal of fuel subsidy, he would have settled for that option.
There was no other option, we either take away fuel subsidy and maintain a culture of decency or we continue to deceive ourselves under the guise of subsidy and run the country aground.
In what way has removal of fuel subsidy helped the common people?
Sometimes in August 2023, there was a protest, when Nigerians vented their anger with #Endbadgovernance protest. Then I listened to some of the state governors, encouraging the protesters, with comments such as ‘I will take your message to the president in Abuja,’ and I was wondering what message were they taking to the President? The protesters were telling the governors they were hungry and the governors have been receiving allocation four times more than what they were getting before.
That money was meant for, among other reasons, to cushion the effect of the challenges in their states. What message will the governor of Kano take to the president? What message will the governor of Rivers State take to the president? These people have formed the habit that, if any government fails the people, it is the Federal government that they will attack, just for some of those governors to hide their incompetence.
People went to protest over hunger. You are the state governor, the land of the state falls under your purview. You need to tell the people what you are doing with their money, because the allocation to the states has increased, but some of them still have the audacity to say they will take their case to the president. What message are they taking to the president?
I feel that in the long run, we will feel the impact of fuel subsidy removal, but my worry is with state governors, because we have already seen the signs that the state governors are happy over excess money they receive, but are they using the money to impact the lives of the people positively? That is where the problem is.
The kind of federating units we run, the president has his limitations. He can’t control the governor on what he should do. However, the president has even been lenient with them.
Look at the local government affairs. What we are saying is that, with the removal of subsidy, a lot of hardship has been brought into Nigeria. Nigerians are in pain. We do not deny that fact. All we need to do is to go round and see the challenges facing Nigerians as a result of the removal of the fuel subsidy. But is it only the federal government that is responsible for the hardship Nigerians are facing? No.
We have the state governments where state lands are under their control. How many state governors can boast of improving the agricultural sector in their states, despite the abundance of rain we had in 2024?
What the governors are targeting are white elephant projects, that they can maximize profit. Some of them have started planning for 2027 general elections. The welfare of the people is not their priority.
I have come to realise one thing: that majority of Nigerian politicians are at home when the people are in want. They do that deliberately, so that they can have their votes when they need it.
I won’t be surprised, when 2027 elections come, any politician that can give the electorate rice in a measure of Derica will be considered generous, because they want to further impoverish the masses, so that they will not resist their offer.
I am worried. What the president has done is good, and members of the public have started criticising some of us, that we rose against Jonathan when he removed fuel subsidy and now we are romancing the current government.
The Save Nigeria Group (SNG) that fought Jonathan did not fight him over subsidy removal .The caption of the protest was kill corruption and not Nigerians.
The aim was that government should eradicate the corruption in the fuel subsidy and not about the removal of fuel subsidy. The public misconstrued our mission that we fought Jonathan because of fuel subsidy. We were not against removal of fuel subsidy; we only told government to fight the cabal involved in the fuel subsidy scam.
Would you say the fight against corruption in the fuel subsidy has been won?
All over the world, the government subsidises one item or the other for their citizens, In our country, we have a peculiar problem we are trying to correct, and we have security agencies who have sworn that they must make profit at the expense of their people.
Many smuggle Nigerian fuel to neighbouring countries to go and sell at ridiculous prices. Since the subsidy has been removed, they find it difficult to smuggle Nigerian fuel to neighbouring countries because the fuel is too expensive for them to buy over there.
As much as I sympathise with Nigerians for the pain they have to go through, it is better for us to endure the pain and have a brighter future than for us to deceive ourselves.
I don’t have problem with subsidy. Some countries in the world subsidise products for their people.
As a result of removal of fuel subsidy, there is more money available to the government to provide infrastructure for the people. Also, allocation made available to state governors have increased, I am therefore appealing to state governors to invest part of the money made available to them in agriculture. The governors should make revenue available to them to better the lives of the people.
On corruption, corruption is everywhere around the globe, so, once in a while, you have the challenge of corruption. What the government needs to do is not to react to corruption but create a preventive way, so that you don’t need to spend money to fight it.
The government should block the loopholes of corruption. If you open the floodgate of corruption, these people will still use the money stolen to get the best lawyers. I agree with the president’s position that we need to prevent corruption and not fight it.
Some Nigerians are of the view that, rather than government burning illegal refineries, it should encourage the operators. What is your take on that?
I want to believe you have not seen what they call illegal refineries. It is nothing near a refinery. It is just somebody using firewood to burn crude oil, and such oil they refine is not good for vehicle engines. It will be ridiculous for government to do that. If you encourage them, then the corruption government is trying to prevent will overshadow it.
I am not one of those that will support a government if the government is not doing well. Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi told us that if it requires us standing alone, we should stand alone. Even if we are supporting any government and the government is not doing well, we will tell that government. We will say it openly.
Are we happy with what is happening? But we have seen that the renewed hope agenda is achievable if we can be patient with the government.
You supported the Buhari administration. And it is believed that many of the problems this administration is trying to find solution to were created by Buhari administration. How do you feel about this?
That I fell in love with Buhari administration does not mean that the administration would do everything perfectly. Tinubu administration will also make its mistakes, the same way Buhari administration made its mistakes. What I can only say and which the current president has also accepted is that the assets and liabilities of Buhari administration he will take it upon himself.
What the current administration should look at are those pitfalls the Buhari administration made and avoid them. Let this administration also face her challenges, because it is obvious this administration too will make mistakes because nobody is perfect .By the time President Tinubu finishes his first term in 2027, Nigerians will review his track record and determine if he deserves a second term in office.
What advice would you give to the Tinubu administration?
I will appeal to the present administration to sustain road construction projects embarked on by Buhari administration because that administration really improved infrastructure, like roads, rail and there is the need to open up more towns and cities.
I will also advise the president not to relent in the fight against corruption. He must not give support to any of his friends accused of corruption. Some of them have been invited by the anti graft agencies to come and answer some queries.
The Tinubu administration should not forget it came into office with lots of baggage and credibility issues, and the president should not allow himself to be dragged into corruption issues.
The president has started well by allowing the EFCC, ICPC chairmen to have a free hand to operate. He must allow the agencies to work.
What he must avoid is the mistake of Buhari administration, which is giving people assignments and going to sleep. That was why we have the Emefieles of this world and others.
Tinubu administration must give people assignment and follow it up, so that we won’t have a situation whereby somebody feels once he is appointed, it is a four-year cycle. I feel President Tinubu still needs to relieve some ministers of their positions.
The president must put the interest of Nigerians first, even if he loses the 2027 election. Let it be on record that what he needed to do was done. He must not sacrifice the development of our country for election.
We have told him to apply the brakes where it is necessary. He should also apply the stick and carrot approach where that is needed.
