Hon (Chief)
Modestus Umenzekwe, a Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)
in this interview with CYRIACUS NNAJI, in his office in Lagos says that Ndigbo
should not be drawn into the call for nationwide protests against government
policies and the attendant economic hardship, saying that Ndigbo are
enterprising people and need no distractions. Excerpts:
After
eight months of ascending the presidency, you have seen how the President has
been piloting the affairs of the country, as a believer in the APC and the President,
do you still believe in Tinubu?
Thank you so much. If you
ask me that question 20 times, my answer will be yes 20 times, I still believe
in him and what he can do.
The way things are going do you also think there is peace in the land considering
the way the President is piloting the affairs of this country?
And let me ask you is
there any war in the country, answer me?
That is why I am here to get your opinion on the issue and many other
things, if you are comfortable with Tinubu’s policies
You see, we make one
mistake; we rush into conclusions without proper analysis. We lack patience,
Tinubu is a human being and not a magician; tell me how you start criticizing
him now, the time he started everybody was clapping, then eight months into the
administration, some of us are talking from both sides of our mouths. How do
you expect a child of eight months to behave like a child of eight years? It is
impossible. Look around the whole world, and see what is happening. Nigeria is
not an exception. In fact, I pity the man, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but then I
have confidence that he will try his best as he has said because he applied for
the job. We are saying he has not done this, he has not done that, but, we are
not saying what he has done right. Take for instance during the last African
Cup of Nations, AFCON, matches, I was watching the games with some of my
friends, people started calling them all sorts of names, they didn’t do that,
they should have done that, when they score goals, they started applauding
them, when Ivory Coast equalize they condemn them, eventually when Ivory Coast won,
hell was let loose, that Super Eagles don’t know what they are doing. Some of
these people don’t even know how to play football.
My advice is that we have
to be very careful in whatever we are talking. What Asiwaju is doing, I don’t see
anybody doing better than him, because from his background, he understands
economy. He came in as a businessman, by business, I mean, he has been in
business, private business, he came in equally as a technocrat, he came in as a
professional, someone who studied finance, an accountant, he came in as a
seasoned politician, he came in as somebody who is tested and trusted in
governance. He also came in as somebody who at a point in time put his life on
line, in defense of democracy in Nigeria. He came as somebody who has seen the
life outside there, being on self-exile, he came in as somebody who has double
experience in religion, having married a Christian and himself a Moslem, he
came in as a great political thinker and philosopher. He came in as somebody
who looks for talents and develops human talents, what else? And he has been
bringing these things to bear into this governance, and some people are
attacking him here and there, let us give him some time to work. Why are we not
talking about those things he got right? The other time I learnt he has paid
some of our debts we owe to India, Germany, or whatever, about some billions of
dollars, nobody is talking about it.
Nobody is talking about
the steps he has taken to make sure his ministers are on their toes, we are all
living witnesses, we all saw how he handled Beta Edu’s issue; nobody is talking
about it. I read in one of the dailies, that Tinubu has approved Kano-Lagos narrow
rail express service. It will help farmers to move their goods and aid quick
products export from the hinterland. He has just switched payment of crude oil
sales to CBN instead of retaining it with NNPC. He has secured a financial
partner EDIB to develop the $27. 29bn Escravos Seaport Industrial Complex, he
has also ordered the federal housing authority to build 5,000 low cost housing
in every state of the federation. President Tinubu has provided a written
confirmation of a new era free trade zone, with a workable financial model 99years
concession.
Recently he established a tripartite
economic advisory committee and has released 42,000 metric tons of grains
to farmers nationwide, it is a litany of sound economic decisions he has taken.
And he has not denied that Nigerians are suffering. So why can't we give him a
chance? Anyone who says that Nigerians are not suffering is being economical
with the truth. He has admitted that, everybody has admitted that, the federal
executive council has admitted that, the national assembly has admitted that.
So let us have patience, did he commit a crime by removing fuel subsidy, which
everybody was clamouring for? He has the courage to remove it, we applauded
him; the next thing, we are condemning him, haba! haba! Let us give that man a
chance.
There is
no gainsaying the fact that subsidy is gone has thrown Nigeria into undue
economic hardship, with cost of goods and services hitting the roof tops, as a
chieftain of the ruling APC we need your honest and sincere advice and
direction, which other area do you think the president is not doing well and
what he needs to do to really get things working?
The president the other day said on the television
that he doesn't know it all, and of course, the government is government of
unity and he reflected that during the appointment of ministers, and that
is why he has called the federal government representatives, the
subnational representatives, and the business community despite the fact that
he has ministers, but he called them to a meeting and that is why he formed the
tripartite advisory committee to add more value to what the national executive
council and the national assembly are doing. He has equally set up a committee
to review the minimum wage and now the national assembly is talking about the
review of the Constitution and they are going ahead. He gave them unfettered
hand, he is not interfering. So those areas that are not getting proper
attention, he is going into them. He is not the cause of our woes, Tinubu is
not the cause of our problem, and the problem of Nigeria didn't start today. Look
at the other day, the Minister of works was worried, Engr Dave Umahi, about the
cost of cement, he called the manufacturers, he shouldn't have done that
without the president s approval and very soon we are going to get result.
Dave Umahi is an expert. He is an Engr and
that is why he is going from one road to the other, dismissing fake
contractors, those who don't know what they are doing, improving seriously on
the foundation laid by former honourable minister of works and housing,
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, so I think having admitted he doesn't know
everything, asking me where he is getting it wrong is neither here nor there.
The question is dead on arrival because he has said I don't know everything, come
and help me, come and assist me. Look at what Wike is doing in Abuja, trying to
restore the Abuja master plan, Wike is in PDP, but he appointed him and gave
him a sensitive area like federal capital territory, and he is blazing a trail
no matter the criticisms. I still insist that Asiwaju is not a magician, he is
a human being like all of us, but his background has given him enough
experience to handle this country, let us give him some time.
Do you
think labour going on nationwide strike is the best at this period of our
national life or what do you think is the alternative to strike?
It is right for Mr A or Mr B including you
and myself to express our feelings. It is their right, but my worry in all
these protests, is, let it not snowball into anarchy. If I am protesting and
you are protesting, we should be very careful, so that criminals and hoodlums
do not hijack it and bring this country down. You see, in most cases these
don't play out very well as we think, as the planners think, they might have
good intentions but how do you manage it? So I believe in serious engagement
with the government like labour has been doing.
Some people are worried that the southeasterners have not joined in the
protests against government policies and its attendant suffering in the nation,
why are they no joining?
You see, people should
leave Ndigbo alone, the Igbos are highly enterprising people, why must they
join the protest, when they have that sense of reasoning, when an Igbo man can
put on a thinking cap in a hard situation to know how to sort himself out, that
is what they are doing. When you troop out on the street, will it solve the
problem, the southeasterners, they have analysed the situation, they have seen
the way things are going, if you go out on the street and come back and your son,
your daughter tells you, Daddy I want to eat food, you would tell him that you
went out to the street to protest, does it make sense? It doesn’t solve any
problem. So what they are doing, they have gone back to the trenches, in my
village now, it is a law that everybody must go into farming, I have been
farming but I am going down to do more. So Ndigbo or the southeasterners are
busy thinking about how to come out of the precarious situation, instead of
going out to protest, to cause trouble, to attack government, and in the course
of that lives may be lost, who loses?
In the course of that hoodlums
might hijack it and it would turn to another thing. So any serious thinking
Igbo man is working on how to improve his or her economy, the economy of his
family, the economy of the nation, that is the way I look at it, so people
should leave them alone, and think of how to assist the president. Look at what
our revered Vice President, Shettima said the other day about the southeast,
that is to tell you where we are going, because he believe that if southeast is
okay, Nigeria will be better, so with that opinion he has formed, you now
expect southeasterners to start going about the streets, it is not done.
And I want to advise every
section, every part of the country protesting because of hardship to, please,
pipe low, because the government of the land is still young in the day. Myself talking
to you is not finding it easy but shouting and protesting will not solve the
problem, at my own small level, I try to engage those people I know that can reach
the president, we keep talking, keep discussing and keep giving ideas, and I know
that those statements are being noted.
Did you listen to the
president the other day, as if he read my mind; the president tongue-lashed
labour unions for always calling for strike. Of course, they should give him a
chance to work. He said “The labour has gone on strike four times within my nine
months in government. That’s a record. Calling for a strike in just nine months
of an administration is unacceptable.
You see, all those
individuals calling Ndigbo to come and protest against Tinubu, I am begging
them, let them leave Ndigbo alone. We are working on how to feed our families and
assist the president achieve the renewed hope agenda.
Some say, not joining in the protest is also a protest,
when according to them, Nigeria has opportunity to make a better choice for the
presidency and they chose to bring in someone else.
My dear,
election has come and gone, we are now talking about governance. That is what
we are talking about now, how to keep this country as one, how to be our
brother’s keeper; that is what we are talking about; the issue of election is
over, nobody is talking about election again, and on that election, I have
addressed it extensively in the past.
The southeast development commission has passed the
third reading awaiting the president’s assent, is this cheerful news and can
you tell us some of the background to this and why southeast should deserve a
development commission?
You see the
policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation that was enacted
after the civil war has not been consummated, that is the way I look at it, and
a lot of other things that have happened. Just as I am talking about giving us
additional state, it is a step in the right direction. Like I said, learnt it was the deputy speaker that
sponsored the bill, God bless him, and God bless the entire national assembly
that gave it fair hearing and passed it accordingly, and God bless our
president in advance, because I know as a technocrat, as a detribalized Nigerian,
he will give assent to that bill, so it is cheery news.
Many have
averred that a government that cannot feed her people is a failed government,
now there is hunger in the land, has Tinubu government failed
I have addressed this issue in your previous
question, how can he fail when he has not started or when he is just starting,
how can he fail? There is hunger in the land, I can't deny that, but asking me
whether Tinubu has failed, that question is too early. He is taking steps to
quench all these conditions. Take time to listen to his ministers, take time to
listen to the central bank governor, the problem is that most of us don't
make time to listen, watch television, and know what the other person is
talking about, whether he is still talking sense, we are always angry, on a
slightest something we become angry. And it doesn't help us.
However, he takes note of these statements and
he understands. I think these statements are statements to make him be on his
toes. That is the way I look at it. And Tinubu knows, he has been there when he
governed Lagos, he needs to be on his toes, so that these people attacking him
will not be right in the end.
Indeed
there is hardship in the land, people bare hungry, those that are rich can no
longer sleep with their two eyes closed because they are surrounded by hungry
people and a hungry man is an angry man. But there must be solution, is
anything wrong with importation, our farmers have deceived us for long that they
can feed the nation, government can import or license people to, at least in
the interim.
That means putting their thinking cap to
know how to cushion this effect, taking into consideration the insecurity in
the country up North there, the farmer that produce most of these things is not
going to farm again due to insecurity, I think government is right by trying to,
just like the way they have released 42,000 metric tons of grains, it is
exactly the same thing, and you can see some nationals are now coming in,
various states are coming up with one program or the other to assist the
president, for instance in Lagos, Sanwo-olu has said some categories of workers
should come to work three times in a week, it is one of those things, he has
slashed transportation fares to half or so. It is part of it. Other state
governors are coming up, and I want to encourage them to do more because this
is not one man show, families should be involved, local government chairmen
should be involved, town union president generals should be involved, individual
families should be involved, in your families assist your brother, assist your
sister, you don't wait until they die waiting for Tinubu, that is what we
should be doing, and when we start from the family to address this issue, it
would help the government, I think government has turned to the right direction
by bringing in things to support whatever that is available.
One of
the selling points of Tinubu during the electioneering campaign was this claim
of his sterling performance in Lagos, with the way things are, what do you
think is the problem, is Nigeria too big for him
Are you denying those qualities that made
him to excel, starting from when he governed Lagos, judging from the road map
that he established, judging from when he put his life on the line to make sure
that democracy comes to stay. I said it before and I am saying it again, Lagos
is a mini Nigeria and anybody that governed Lagos can govern Nigeria. I say it
without apologies. So those qualities are there, look, certain things that was
done in the past by Lagos all states copied it, at least when Fashola started
sanitising Lagos, clearing roads and all that, people thought he was not doing
the right thing, now every state of the federation is clearing shanties,
illegal structure, and all that, so what are you talking about? I am not a Lagosian,
I am a visitor here, but I must tell you that any person that governed Lagos
can handle Nigeria, it is a mini Nigeria, I said it and I still stand by it.
Tell me that state that has the population of Lagos, 20million-plus people by
the last census, let us reduce pressure on the president and allow him to work
at least after four years we can then assess him to see how much he has
performed.
Many are
of the opinion that Tinubu’s government has been hijacked by the same cabal who
regularly dictate how Nigeria is governed, your view.
Hijacked, by who?
Tinubu as a person ordinarily would not watch and allow Nigerians go
through pain of this magnitude
And it is the same Tinubu
that suspended Beta Edu, when you are not in the system you may not understand
what is going on, mark you that this is democracy, not a military regime, when
you get up and give orders, I am yet to believe what you are saying. I said it that
we are all suffering it, but for us to get things right this hard decisions
must be taken and implemented, the hunger is there, people don’t eat three
square meals a day, some people trek seven kilometers in a day before they can
get to their houses because there is no money, but then those who will be able
to endure it will laugh at last. It is quite an unfortunate situation, it is
painful, but then, a journey of one thousand miles begins with a step.
Your message to Nigerians
The only message
or advice I have for Nigerians is that no matter the condition, let us calm
down, let us be very very hard working and prayerful, because God is the
finisher of all things, God knows we are in this situation whether you are a Christian,
a Moslem, go down on your knees and draw the power of God down to give our
leaders the wisdom of Solomon so that we come out of this situation.
