• 2027: Why PDP should pick candidate from S’East
Former President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union (SOKAPU), Dr. Jonathan Asake has said that Nigerians have yet to see what has been done with the saved fuel subsidy money. According to him, those who say that the President Bola Tinubu economic reforms have started bearing fruits are not sincere.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Asake, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 governorship election in Kaduna State, noted that the North protesting against the proposed tax reforms is a sign of laziness, and advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to pick its presidential candidate from the South East zone if it wants to come back to power in 2027.
What it is you view on the state of the nation?
Honestly, the state of things in Nigeria is not very palatable with many people, including me. The state of things is really bad, really terrible, and people are suffering. I’m talking from within the area I’m living. As far as Kaduna State is concerned, and the communities I stay in, I see suffering everywhere. And it appears as if nothing is being done about it. The basic irreducible minimum for any society is to have food to eat and to have security. Now, people cannot afford basic necessities of life anymore in this country.
So, I can see suffering everywhere. I see hunger everywhere. I see people dying in their homes. They cannot even afford to go to the hospital for medication; to seek medical attention. In fact, we see somebody dying because he doesn’t even have N2, 000 to go and buy drugs from the pharmacy, at least. Prices of most of the drugs have also skyrocketed along with the prices of other commodities. So, there is suffering everywhere in the land.
Was it the type of thing Nigerians expected when the then incoming government had promised them renewed hope?
To be very frank, nobody was even expecting this same government to come on board. Nigerians expressed their franchise clearly and they voted massively for the leader that they believed was coming to take Nigeria out of the doldrums and that is the person of Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party. It is not a secret, everybody knows that for the first time in this country, the common Nigerian masses came together and expressed their desire to change the order of the day.
During the Buhari eight years APC administration, there was this continuous suffering, continuous exponential inflation in the country and insecurity that almost suffocated everybody and so Nigerians wanted a change and they saw a leader that was promising hope and they voted massively for him, and I can tell you that he won the election. I’m not afraid to say so, he won that election, and he was denied. INEC deliberately denied him that victory, they denied the Nigerian people that voted massively for him and wanted that change. That was a leader that told Nigerians clearly the vision he saw of the country where he wanted to take Nigeria to. He had a clear foresight of where he wants to take Nigeria to and how he wants to do. He will always tell you that unless Nigeria becomes a country that produces, we cannot get anywhere; that if we keep importing, consuming goods and services that we don’t produce, and we are not also producing for other nations to earn foreign currency then we have not started. So, you see today, what are we producing? We are not producing; we are only printing raw cash without knowing how the dynamics of economics work.
Nigerians never expected what they are seeing and that is why they expressly voted against the order of the day, but they were denied. So, we are putting up with a system that is so crude and so weak that Nigerians cannot get to realise the kind of leaders that will save this country.
Just take for instance, the American example that just happened recently. Trump in his first tenure was an incumbent president, but he lived in a system that is so strong with strong institutions and so he was voted out even as an incumbent president, very strong president. But the American people also saw in him that they wanted him back because they saw a weak president thereafter and so they brought him back and he defeated an incumbent government. Maybe, try it in Nigeria; it will never happen. So, I can conclude by saying that Nigerians, yes, they knew that they were putting up with a government that was highly insufficient, highly, highly incapacitated and so they voted against that government, but they didn’t get the result they wanted.
Some people have said that the reforms of the administration have started bearing fruits. What’s your reaction to this?
Where are the fruits? If you look at a tree, let’s say a mango tree or an orange tree and say it has started bearing fruits and people around that tree say they have not seen even flowers. The people are telling you consistently that you are vested with the responsibility to water and nurture the tree, but you are telling them that after six months that it would start bearing fruits. After six months, they have not seen the fruits and after one year they have not seen fruits, and you come to tell them that it is bearing fruits when they have not even seen any flower. How do you put up with that?
Is it that they are conmen or they don’t know what they are saying or they are confused? We have not seen the fruits; people are seeing hardship. The economic reforms are bearing hardship. You are saying it is bearing fruits when inflation is hitting the skies. I can tell you that many families are not feeding as we speak. Even the middle class are not spared. In Abuja, for instance, a person who earns N80, 000 and stays around Nyanya and works in the town, at the central area- Federal Secretariat, every day, he spends about N2,500 to go to work and come back with strict management. In ten days, he spends N25, 000. And we are not talking of when he goes to work, he needs to eat some food before he goes back home. So, that N80, 000 is taken away by transportation alone. We are not talking about maintaining his family, his feeding with family, medical expenses that families go through every day. It is unrealistic to say that the measures today that this government is implementing are bearing fruits.
Petroleum cost is being increased every day, which increases transportation and that translates into every other facet of life. Talking about pharmaceutical products, ordinary drugs that used to cost N2, 000 is nowN20, 000. So, when you cannot afford it, you just go and die at home. Many families are losing their loved ones because they cannot afford simple medication. Go to the private hospitals (because the government hospitals are always on strike because the workers are not being taken care of), a bed per night depending on the location is not less than N20, 000; N30, 000; N40, 000. How much is the income of the average family in Nigeria? When we are talking of reality, anyone who rises up to say that things are improving or they have started bearing fruits is actually not telling the truth.
The Finance Minister, Wale Edun was quoted as saying that the federal government has saved about N20 billion from subsidy. Conversely, the same government is applying for N2bilion loan Breton woods institutions. What is your take on this?
They have capitalised on Nigerians’ ignorance because many Nigerians are frustrated and they are no longer interested in what is happening in the country, if not, you would not be talking about having saved so much money in subsidy, and still going to borrow. What have you used the subsidy money you have saved to do? Nigerians cannot see that. You met a tradition of borrowing that was laid by the previous administration of Buhari and we are not seeing any result or any activity with the amount of the money that is being borrowed. We are being saddled with governments in succession right from 2015 up till now, governments that believe that they can conduct themselves with so much impunity because they didn’t win the election. If they won election rightfully with the people’s votes and mandate, they wouldn’t be doing this kind of impunity; I see impunity going on everywhere. You are seeing people with hunger; you are seeing people incapable of sustaining their families, men are running away and leaving children and their wives, men are collapsing everybody because they cannot contain what they are seeing. It seems it is appearing as if it is not a reality. Many families have been stripped of their dignity and government officials keep telling us that they have gathered so much money from subsidy and yet they are still borrowing money from World Bank institutions to further put future generations in chains. It is unfortunate.
The North is kicking against Tinubu’s tax reforms. What is your opinion on this issue?
Both the North and Tinubu government are not sincere. Tinubu himself is a known person. Right from the time he was the governor of Lagos State, all he knows how to do is to overburden people with taxes to mop up all things from the people he is leading at all cost. The north themselves, who are known as perpetually lazy people that take up taxes, particularly VAT that they do not give are also opposing this tax reforms because of particularly the VAT that affects them.
The Northern governors and the Northern elders that are kicking against these tax reforms; I believe it is only one aspect that affects them that they are kicking against. It is the issue of VAT. If you look at the VAT profile, Lagos State alone remits about N400 billion and they take in about N40 billion in return, while Zamfara State that gives the least about N400 million, takes about N5.9 billion. So, it doesn’t encourage creativity and productivity. The Northern states take in VAT that they don’t give and that is why they are protesting against this.
If you look at Kano for instance and the Northern states that are implementing Sharia, you hear every time that the number of trucks carrying alcohol that has been taken over by Hisbah. Even the last three days, Hisbah destroyed trucks carrying alcohol in Jigawa State. But the VAT that they take which they don’t give comes from states that are into productivity like alcohol and other products that they are not interested in. So, who will be the producer and another person will be the consumer. So, that is why they are protesting against it. It is a sign of laziness.
So, what I see on both sides, Tinubu wants to mop up taxes because that is his expertise right from the time he was a governor. He wants to take taxes even the ones that are supposed to be for the local governments. Under these tax reforms that he is proposing, the Federal Inland Revenue Services is going to be in charge of that, which is an abnormality. The Northern governors and the Northern elders are also being selfish because they know that they don’t produce but they consume. They take something that they know that they don’t contribute to. So, on both sides (Tinubu and the North) there is a sign of selfishness.
What is your position on local government autonomy?
The issue of local government autonomy is long overdue, but there has to be a safety valve in that because the Nigeria’s system is a system that is full of corruption. Before this time, states will take their own revenue from the centre and would still control that of the local governments using the various ministries of the local governments and the state Houses of Assembly. It has become very absurd that most of the state assemblies, instead of having their oversight functions on their state governors who become more of sole administrators other than executive governors that were elected by the people are being reckless with resources most of the times. But, the state Houses of Assembly become just boys to the governors and turn their searchlight at the local governments and refuse to allow the local governments to operate because of the previous system with the previous arrangement.
Now, with the autonomy of the local government, they can now function the way they were created to be at that grassroots level, using their resources greatly to impact on their communities because they are the ones that are directly in touch with the local communities. However, because of corruption, because of the weakness of the institutions to checkmate these local government officials, these monies may also go into the private pockets of the officers of the local governments. The only thing that can be done is to step up the oversight organs of government on the local government to ensure that these monies that are collected from the centre to the local governments are used to impact the local communities directly. It will make a better impact than when it is subjected to the state government authorities.
Political analysts say 2027 is going to be a work-over for Tinubu because the PDP is haemorrhaging, while Labour Party is asphyxiating. So, there is no opposition; nobody is giving them any chase. What do you say to this?
It is not even from the political party point of view. Any political party that wants to get it right and wants to get the confidence of the Nigerian people must look at the issues and the present arrangements and look at it from the angle of justice, fairness and equity. Any political party that courageously does that will definitely carry the Nigerians people support.
We must look at this country without pretence to know that this country has been ruled from the ethno religious background. We look at religion; we look at ethnicity and the region and before we even look at political parties, whether it is APC, PDP, LP or any other party. The first thing that Nigerians look at is how is the balance between the north and the south, that is region; between Christianity and Muslim, that is religion; between the South West, which is basically Yoruba and the South East, which is Igbo and the North, which is Hausa/Fulani and other tribes of the north. If you look at it from that prism, you will see that from 2015 to 2023, we had Muhammadu Buhari, an Hausa/Fulani Muslim, the country was ready to switch over to southern person, a Christian, but the northerners ganged up, led by the former Kaduna Sate governor, Nasir El- rufai, who actually has been priding himself as championing the Muslim- Muslim ticket, which he implemented in Kaduna State and it is still there in Kaduna, and which he has prided himself publicly that he championed it at the national level, and that he wants that Muslim-Muslim ticket to last for over 20 years, and has not hidden it. Those people that queued behind him brought in the present arrangement – Tinubu a Muslim and Shettima, a Muslim, which is the Muslim-Muslim ticket that we are talking today. This means that if Tinubu continues, a Muslim would have continued unbroken for 16 years, and it would come back to the north because a southerner has taken eight years, and the north would not allow a substantial Christians in the region to become the president.
A political party that wants to get it right must look at this balance of forces. It will not just be the Muslim –Muslim thing, it will also include the ethnicities. If you look at the present arrangement of this country, I have been in the Labour Party, and we promoted the Peter Obi thing because we know that the South East deserves that slot because they are the only zone that has not had that slot since the Second Republic under Shehu Shagari up till today. That is why Nigerians rose up and supported Peter Obi under the LP. The Middle Belt Forum supported him under the LP, the Afenifere and many other organisations because of justice, equity and fair play.
If PDP wants to get it right, they must take it to the South East. If the LP wants to get it right, they must maintain it in the South East because the injustice is so glaring and when it is coming back to the north, it must be in the Middle Belt and a Christian fkor that matter. We can longer hide these things, these are facts, these are sentiments that everybody knows. The country and institutions are weak. Unless this balancing of forces is done for peace to reign, you cannot have the peace we need in this country, the prosperity we need in this country and the stability that we need in this country because there is so much injustice.
