Chief Modestus Umenzekwe is a
chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In his interview, he took a critical look at the Appeal Court Judgement that
affirmed the electoral victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he also called
on the new ministers of the Federation to emulate the exemplary leadership of
the former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) and to surpass
his achievements. Excerpts:
In spite of all the pressure, the
former Lagos State Governor and Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde
Raji Fashola, is not part of the cabinet of President Tinubu, Nigerians saw his
good work and clamoured for him, what we want to find out is, this his action,
is it a sign, because in Africa, there is this wave of sit-tightism by African
Leaders, are you seeing this as a sign of renewed hope for Nigeria, because
while he was at the Lagos State University he talked about new generation of
leaders. Do you think this decision to step aside and offer service from the
sideline should be emulated?
My answer to
your question is, I don’t know Fashola as somebody that makes dangerous mistakes.
He is a perfect gentleman, a trail blazer, a noiseless achiever, a true
democrat and his ingenuity and experience as I said at the beginning of this
interview, is flowing like a river in every part of governance as far as this
country is concerned. Don’t forget that he served at a stretch for 24 years and
the marks are very good and excellent and indelible. So the question that he
opted out, I can’t confirm. When you see him, ask him that question, but all I
know is that Fashola is a nation builder and he has not relented in nation
building, taking into consideration his outings since he left office, like he
said, we need generational change in Government. I know he believes in building
talents and building people and in bringing people up in governance, I am not
there, but whatever happened, whatever decision he took, I think he took it for
the betterment of this country and for the future generation? And I must
continue to congratulate him for being a role model leader.
Are you saying that African leaders
should emulate Fashola in leaving office when the ovation is loudest?
I told you
that Fashola is a role model leader, can’t go further than that.
As minister of Works and Housing,
Fashola left indelible mark. Looking at all the projects, he left a big shoe
for whosoever that is his successor, so what is your advice for those coming in
that sphere that he operated?
My advice to
them is to keep the tempo high, to improve on what Fashola did, if he was able
to do, I just want to give example, if he did 1,000 roads, and 200,000 housing
units, let them double it, that is the essence of government and I know my
brother Umahi, taking into consideration what he did in Ebonyi State, he is
going to improve on that, so I am not expecting anything less. Let them improve
on Fashola’s excellent performance. That is my advice to them.
Chief the Appeal Court Judgement that
upheld the victory of the President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, how did you take
the judgement?
Before I
answer your question, I want to ask you, did you listen to that judgement?
That is why I am here
Well, first
of all, I must congratulate Nigerians for coming out en mass to vote, I must
congratulate Nigerians for assimilating the voter education, people now
understand the importance of democracy, their participation is quite
encouraging. I also congratulate our contestants, as I said before, our leader
and President, his outing was wonderful, that is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, right
from the Primary and all through the elections. Again, the Waziri of Adamawa, the Former Vice President, he did
well; but I am very proud of my brother from Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, for
making all of us to be on our toes. In as much as there were a lot of emotions
that followed that election, because this is the first time, our own son and
our own brother, participated in such a
fiercely contested election. The Nigerian
environment was charged, I congratulate him, and I would say let him keep on
trying.
Having said
that, I told you before the election that Asiwaju will win this election; from
all indications, taking into consideration, his contributions to nation
building and his deepening of democracy. He has paid his dues, not because I am a
member of APC, but because that is the way I see it. This is a man that put his
life on line when we were trying to bring back democracy. He fought tooth and
nail and he participated in bringing to an end the military regime. As a result
of that dangerous exercise he went into exile, you know what it is, for you to
leave your home unprepared, he spend
several years outside the shores of Nigeria, and as God would have it, he came
back alive and still continued the struggle.
The 1993 Election
that was cancelled, gave us a lot of wound politically, and he himself fought
tooth and nail to make sure that we averted that ugly exercise but all to no
avail. At that time, most people were not at the war front but he succeeded
with his group, democracy now returned, he went to the Senate, from Senate he
contested governorship of Lagos State, and won that election, using the
platform of an opposition party. He remained the one man standing, he
redesigned and reinvented Lagos. From there he started building his political
empire and people started cuing in, using his resources to do that. From there
he gathered the whole of southwest. Apart from doing that, the man started
building people across the six geopolitical zones, being detribalized, so
generous, to the extent that he accommodated other tribes in Lagos, in one
position or the other, and these things cannot be wished away. From there APC
was formed, his party went into election in 2015 and won. He kept quiet,
waiting for an appointed time to come out. When Buhari finished his tenure, the
Northerners as championed by former Governor of Kaduna State, El Rufai, saw
that need for power to be shifted to the south, for which I congratulate the
northern governors in taking that decision.
They rallied
round to make sure that APC, as a very great party brought a candidate from the
south and as God would have it, Asiwaju clinched the presidential ticket. That
was the day I concluded he would win the election. If you look at the number of
people stepping down for him, after buying nomination forms of N100m, they
abandoned it and stepped down for him, then he went into the election, all
those people he built brought in their own arsenal, brought in their own blocs
to make sure he won the election. Remember I said that time, that no blackmail
will stop Asiwaju from winning this election, I said it. And it has come to
pass. But one thing that I am telling him is that, he has won the election and
he has equally won at the tribunal, let
him not use the feelings or the attacking statements from Nigerians against
them, because it is not easy to lose an election, let him accommodate everybody
in sharing of government appointments and all that. Of course he has done that,
from the appointments he has done, and he is going to do more, in as much as
the party faithful, there are party faithful that have not been touched, let
him do at least random sampling and touch some of them.
I think this
explanation may snowball into your question about the Appeal Court judgement. I
must congratulate the five Appeal Court justices for their thorough job,
because I took time to listen very very well, they took time to analyze
whatever every person submitted during the trial period, the witnesses, and I
don’t see anywhere, though I am not a lawyer, I don’t see anywhere they erred.
Personally I welcome the judgement, but I am not the petitioner, it is left to
the petitioners to know what to do, but one thing good about it is that it has
helped in redesigning our democracy. It has raise a lot of consciousness within
the political space in Nigerians, it exposed a lot of things, so that when we
are coming up with accusations and petitions we know the areas to touch, and
that is why I must congratulate the petitioners, because if they have not gone
to court certain things would not have been in the public domain. The only
thing I am begging them now, we have fought enough, though not physical fight
but legal battle. Let us all pipe down, as I said before, and join the
president to rebuild whatever that has gone wrong. And I feel from the look of
things that the president is going to do well, and that is why I must keep
talking about the erstwhile Governor of Lagos State and Immediate Past
Honorable Minister of Works, Dr Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), if you listen to
his speech at the Lagos State University, that the government of Asiwaju will
usher in a generational change in governance, that Asiwaju government will
build new leaders, that Asiwaju’s government will usher in the rebirth of new
Nigeria, because some people that may not have been known as future leaders are
already in government. That is what Fashola was trying to say and that is why
each time I talk, I talk about the man, Fashola. Fortunately or unfortunately
he is not in government now, and we are missing his wealth of ingenuity and
experience, but then I know him, he is ready to proffer solutions whenever
contacted.
Still on that judgement, I know two
of us are not lawyers, but on the issue of 25% of Abuja, personally I don’t see
that clause as being enough to qualify a candidate to be president, but in so
far as it has not been amended, because even in the case between Buhari and Ya’Adua,
and Buhari versus Obasanjo, the supreme court held that 25% is mandatory for
anyone to be president, this is judicial precedent, how come the appeal court now
override the decision of the Supreme Court, can the appeal court set aside the
judicial precedent set by the supreme court?
If you
listen to me, I said the tribunal brought a lot of reformations or new ideas.
The issue of this tribunal, I don’t see it as being cast on stone, so to say, when
you go to court new ideas will come up, our laws are developing. You referred
to issue of Buhari, referred to issue of Ya’Adua, it has taken a lot of time, and
since then we have had a lot of reforms, a lot of changes; that is why I said
the Tribunal has brought a lot of ideas, new ideas into our political journey
and democracy. So I don’t think the five justices would make the same mistake
if it is a mistake, but don’t see it as a mistake.
Your advice to the petitioners in election
tribunal, especially, PDP, Labour and their candidates
I think I
have touched this, however, like I said I congratulate them, because without
them going to ventilate their agitation many people would not be satisfied, but
how long are we going to continue like this? I still advise, like I advised
before, during the pendency of these matters at the petition court, I said that
people should pipe low, because the feature is waiting, remember what former
President Goodluck Jonathan said, if you contest today and lose, you contest
tomorrow. And we have a role model in that sphere, Former President, Muhammadu
Buhari, even Waziri Adamawa, Atiku has exhibited such. So even in America, or
the Western world, people have contested so many times, lost and keep on
contesting, I think it was Abraham Lincon or someone like that, in America, he
contested up to four or five times before he won. So as far as there is life,
there is hope, so that we can allow the
present government to concentrate. All this money we are spending on election
tribunal and all that, it is a waste of money and time and energy. Let
everybody rally round Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to move Nigeria forward.
Tinubu’s Administration is probing
CBN and other Government Businesses and Entities (BGEs) headed by a special
investigator, it was alleged that he has traced about N8trillion of funds
looted from the vault of the apex bank to bank accounts of individuals and
organizations, and I ask, is Tinubu’s anti-corruption war bearing fruits?
You are just
informing me that N8trillion has allegedly been traced to various account, and
you are now asking me whether Tinubu’s anti-corruption war is succeeding, from
what you told me, don’t you agree that it is already succeeding? It is working
now, whether what you told me is right or wrong, it is working. They are still
investigating and N8trillion traced, so how else do you want him to perform to
know that he is working? I think he is working; he needs to be encouraged,
simple.
Now President Tinubu has just formed
his cabinet, to you, do you think the cabinet is made up of Nigeria’s first
eleven, our best?
Let me ask
you, how do you know the best eleven in cabinet formation?
I asked you because you are a
politician and a Chieftain of APC, you know your people and you know those who
should ordinarily be there
Asiwaju has
never been a failure, and I don’ think his administration will be a failure. And
he knows how and when to cut his onions and he has consulted wildly; let us
give him a chance.
The consequences of subsidy removal
is still very much with us, government promises are met in breach to some
extent, labour continues to threaten strike, why is government slow in giving
out palliatives as it promised?
But he has
given out to the states, I don’t know whether they have collected their five
billion or whatever, then labour threatening, it is normal, because that would
make the government to be on their toes. Those that were given assignment by
the president should be on their toes to produce result, and when a committee
is set up, you must give them chance to look at issues, the cabinet has just
been formed, some of them were never in government or part of the government
before, they were just nominated and confirmed and assigned ministerial
positions. So this is not a 100 meter race, you start pia and stop. No. You
have to look at files, look at offices, collect reports before you couple them,
and that is what the various committees handling these palliatives are doing,
and the labour cannot keep quiet, if they keep quiet, people may relax; workers
may relax. So that is part of democracy. However, we must know the difference
between limitations and excesses; by now labour must have known that the
government is working. If you had listened to Chief Ajuri Ngelele, the Media
Adviser to the President, he has touched these issues, the government is
working to meet up with her promises, the various committees are working, and
they are still interfacing with labour.
Giving governors N5billion, many are
alleging that it is just compensation to the governors instead of palliative
for the people. What do you make of that allegation?
That
allegation is unfounded, it has not been substantiated. Do you want the
president to throw the N5billion on the streets? He must channel it through a
proper channel. So you want to tell me that if something is coming to Anambra
for the first time from the president, the governor would not be aware of it? Is
that what you are telling me? Otherwise why is he there? All these allegations
are premature, because Governors have not denied that such money is coming, it
might come in tranches, but the thing is that they are ready to accept it and
do the work. When they received the money, if they don’t do the work, then we now
talk. The president cannot throw the money on the street and say scramble for
it, some people must coordinate it, and the governors are in a good position to
do that.
While other ministers are still
looking at records in their ministries, Nyesom Nwike, Minister of FCT, is
already working. Your view
All the
ministers are working, not Wike alone; you can see my brother, Umahi,
travelling to all parts of the country accessing all the roads. Umahi is
already hitting the ground running, going to places to make sure, like now he
has assured us that the south eastern roads will have a boost from where the
former minster stopped.
Nigerians have continued to suffer as
a result of high cost of food stuff, a direct consequence of subsidy removal
and hike in transport. Government continues to assure us that Nigerian farmers
have the capacity to feed Nigerians, rice being the major staple in Nigeria, so
why is it difficult to open Seme Border, even if for one year so that food can
come in for people to buy food to eat. Why is government dilly dallying on it?
You see, in
this country, if you do A, as a government, you will be criticized, you do B,
you will be criticized, so people are insatiable, you want to tell me that the
Federal Executive Council is wrong, National Economic Council is wrong, all the
Nigerian stakeholders are wrong, the National Assembly is wrong, let us give
them chance to do proper analysis, after all, they are equally suffering, no
matter how big each and every one of them may be, they are suffering. The
president admitted that Nigerians are suffering, he has not denied it, even he
himself. So let us give them chance to do proper job; that is why we have them
there. Seme border is not the main thing Nigeria is facing. I think they would
act on that when it is necessary, otherwise there is no need having them there.
