By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
In this interview, Dr. John Kennedy Osuala, a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, and the 2019 Presidential candidate of Rebuild Nigeria Party, bared his mind on the state of the nation and offered suggestions on how to get make Nigeria great. According to him, the political class and political leaders are Nigeria’s problem as they lack the patriotic zeal to serve diligently and selflessly. He also scored President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress-led government (APC) low on some areas of governance and urged more innovative economic policies to lessen the current economic hardship in Nigeria.
How can Nigeria, in your view, surmount the myriads of challenges currently facing it?
Our leaders or the political class must be patriotically willing and ready to pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to serve Nigeria to the best of their abilities, and even beyond the best of their abilities. Let us, Nigerians, elect leaders who will be patriots in the morning, afternoon, evening, and at Night. Let us not elect those who will be nationalists in their home states, but tribal bigots at the national level. Let us always choose leaders that are absolutely willing and ready to serve with the greatest integrity, and dependability, with the greatest accountability, and transparency, with the greatest humility, and honesty, with the greatest equity, and equality. Such rare, enlightened, seasoned, disciplined, determined, and diligent Nigerian leaders, will catapult Nigeria out of the myriads of problems facing her. This is my humble opinion, and it is consistent with global literature on leadership, that everything rises, and falls with leadership.
Some Nigerians are of the view that the political class are responsible for the country’s socio- economic and political woes. What is your view on this?
To start with, a political class in any country presupposes a patriotic group of people with esprit de corps, and like minds on fundamental ways, and means of advancing the country’s basic national economic and political interests. Such a political class existed in Nigeria from the 1940s to 1983. After the overthrow of the government at the time till today, what we have today does not really deserve that patriotic label of a political class. Minus few individuals here and there, the rest of the people are a consolidated company or crowd of crooks, cranks, careerists, carpet-baggers, lackeys, and looters with no interest in working assiduously for the advancement of the Nigerian nation.
Today, they are progressives, and tomorrow they are tribalists. Today, they are nationalists, and tomorrow they are separatists. Given this ugly background, it will not be out of place to agree that this class of people constitute a huge factor in our national travail.
Almost two years down the line, would you say that President Bola Tinubu has largely met the expectations of Nigerians?
My own enlightened opinion is that the overall Nigerian economy is in tatters, in all chapters of the economy, such as food availability and affordability, transportation costs, educational management and parents’ inability to afford school fees for their children, poor housing for the greatest majority of Nigerians, and general poor health adversities for all Nigerians. There is also rampaging and ravaging unemployment situation for the vast majority of Nigerians; the Nigerian Naira is trembling, shivering, and zig-zagging up and down. Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu has lost absolute value, and hyper-inflation rules the markets, rules the streets, rules the stomach, and rules every where in Nigeria of today. Everything has been affected, and inflicted with poison of Tinubunomics, pollution of Tinubunomics, perversion of Tinubunomics, prevarication on economic policies and bastardisation of subsidy removal, petroleum products price jack-ups, and electricity prices go up every now and then. So, what expectations of the masses of Nigerian people has this government met?
Everybody, yes, everybody including the so-called APC faithful across the country are crying, crying and the elected or appointed Nigerian managers are bemused, confused, compromised, disorganised, and destabilised. Tinubu has about two years left, perhaps he could do one thing or the other. I don’t know, I am not in his mind to know what he is planning or not. But the current verdict is crystal clear. Is this how Chief Obafemi Awolowo would have performed? Does this resemble the Awoist tradition of discipline, the diligence, ideological focus and ideological consistency Chief Obafemi Awolowo was known for?
The Naira, like you said, is on a free fall, inflation is suffocating Nigerians and many families are suffering. What are those actions you will like the president to take to strengthen the economy?
This is an exercise in futility. Nothing you suggest will get to President Tinubu, talk more of moving him to listen and take action. One can suggest making the existing petroleum refineries operational at the shortest possible time frame. One can suggest giving Dangote Refinery, reputed to be the single biggest refinery, a chance or a level playing ground to operate. What is wrong with that? If Dangote, a single individual can build the largest refinery in the world, what the hell is the Nigerian Federal Government doing? Is Dangote bigger than the Federal Government? Let the Tinubu-led Federal Government of Nigeria, encourage the private sector to build so many Modular Refineries. This is possible and practicable, but will these people listen? Chief Engr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu of blessed memory told me in his office that he suggested to former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida to build a refinery in each state of Nigeria then, and IBB agreed in principle. However, when IBB consulted with his advisers, they dissuaded him, and that opportunity was lost. With due patriotism, I can suggest that this idea of years ago can be dusted and put into practical use, pronto, we will now have 37 functional refineries.
With opposition parties currently in disarray, do you think they will succeed in forging a common front to dislodge the APC in 2027?
First of all, that the so-called opposition parties are in disarray is not an issue. In the practical political arena, it is called the inner party struggle for the greatest control of the soul of any party, to ensure strict ideological purity and consistency. It happened in the old Soviet Union between Joseph Stalin and the Stalinists on one hand, and Leon Trotsky and the Trotskyites on the other. In the NCNC between Nnamdi Azikiwe, and his boys, the original Zikists, and in the Action Group, there was a mortal inner party struggle between Obafemi Awolowo and the Awoists on one hand, and Samuel Akintola, and the Akintolaists on the other hand. Later in Zik’s NCNC, a mortal struggle also erupted between the Zik of Africa and his followers, and Man of Timber and Calibre, K.O. Mbadiwe and his supporters popularly known as the Nippers of Nigerian politics or the sit-tight Federal Ministers. So, people like us are not bothered about the so-called opposition parties being in disarray. They will come together at the right time to give President Bola Tinubu a political battle no one has ever seen in the annals of Nigerian politics. Those who will dislodge the APC, and send them packing will arise from the ashes of the present opposition parties that are apparently in pseudo disarray. However, the real factor in the upcoming massive defeat of the APC in 2027, is the APC itself. The APC actions, and inactions, such as the pervasive poverty in the land, the aggressive adversity in the land, and the massive mortality, and insecurity in the land, will surely defeat the APC. If the PDP under Jonathan could be dislodged from office, what stops the APC under Tinubu from suffering the same fate? Nothing! After all, no matter what you may think or say, Nigeria was better under Jonathan than under Tinubu. Do not mind the pure theatrics of the so-called droves of defectors. These defectors have no electoral value. Immediately they don’t get what the want, they will defect again. They think APC is like the former PDP where you can come immediately and they give you one thing or the other. The APC political machine is currently and deliberately cabalistic. If you are not an original apostle, evangelist or deacon, you will get the Ogbonnaya Onu treatment, QED. I am very sure Tinubunomics is not sustainable, and if it is not sustainable, it is defeatable, and beatable. Let President Bola Tinubu be careful with sycophantic crowd or those who name airports in honour of one man today, and remove the name, and rename the airport with his name. Sycophants are dubious. Sycophants are devious. Sycophants are treacherous. Sycophants are capricious as well. Mr. President, beware of these latter-day sycophants.
You were once a presidential candidate, with the benefit of hindsight, what would you have done differently from the current President if you had succeeded in your quest?
Thank you very much for this brilliant question on what I would have done differently if I had been elected as a patriotic President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019. The first major thing I would have done was to change the wrong economic direction of Nigeria. What does John Kennedy Osuala mean by this change of economic direction for Nigeria? The simple answer is that Nigeria’s economic problem is fundamentally beyond the eyes and simple understanding of Nigeria ‘s contemporary careerist political leaders and looters. This is because Nigeria’s economy has been fixed on a deliberate and organised wrong direction long ago by the colonialists, from the colonial period till today. The Nigerian economy wants to go to Abuja from Aba, but has already boarded a bus going to Calabar, and so can never reach Abuja. The truth of the matter is that no elected Nigerian President who doesn’t know this open secret, can deliver Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe knew this secret. Obafemi Awolowo knew this secret. Ahmadu Bello knew this secret. The solution to correct this economic secret, which will never allow Nigeria actualise its true development potential, is to use state authority and sanctions, to stop Nigeria from importing all kinds of useless things, and the export of all kinds of useful resources, such as crude, coal, cocoa, palm oil, groundnut etc. Under positive, strong state authority and sanctions, we must stop the excessive importation of all kinds of processed products from factories of foreign countries, and stop our export of all kinds of our unprocessed products or raw materials. In other words, if I had been elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019, our focus, our slogan, and our watch word, to change Nigeria’s wrong economic direction, would be to pursue great industrialisation.
