By Christy Anyanwu
Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, is one man who always bares his mind on any national discourse.
In this encounter with Sunday Sun, he refused to dwell on the forthcoming general elections, saying that what he wants most, after six months of the ascension of the next president of Nigeria, is a change in the structure of the country. Excerpts:
What do you think of the latest happenings in the country, where people have money in their accounts, but they cannot access the funds and the banks are not helping matters at all?
Although it is painful, but the explanation of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele makes a lot of sense. I watched the interview of the CBN governor; he said the money hoarded by the establishments and politicians is almost N200 trillion. And he even said that the money they have realized is about N1.8 trillion and it’s not up to one per cent. Nigeria has borrowed almost N70 trillion. The debt is almost N70 trillion, and in such a situation, some individuals in this country that cannot explain their wealth have almost N200 trillion in their houses. They need to explain to the authorities how they made the money. To build a nation, we must sacrifice. We are in pain by the policy, but if it is a policy that will solve Nigeria’s problems to a certain extent, let us share the pain and let the gentleman (Emefiele) do his job. We were in Badagry for four days; we know what we passed through because we couldn’t access cash. We left the world congress of OPU for four days. We moved to Ife for two days, we couldn’t access cash too. It got to a stage on Tuesday, to transfer (money) was so difficult. Many accounts were practically blocked. Since October, this man gave us the 31st of January, and people have this questionable money, they do not want to release the money to the banks so that the new notes should come out. He gave them till the 10th of February. I don’t blame the Central Bank and the authorities. They gave us about four months. October to 31st of January, that is, four months. They are not saying they want to seize the money. Bring the old ones and the money will clock your account, you get the new notes when the new notes are ready. From what we saw in the social media, a lot of people brought naira that had been destroyed in their houses. Initially, I did not have sympathy for the Central Bank, and I said, what’s the meaning of changing money? I now went deep into the situation; I realized that the Federal Government got intelligence report that people were not putting money in the banks. Questionable money was not being put in the bank, they were hoarding it in their houses and that was one of the reasons they changed currencies. That was one of the reasons. The economy of the nation has fallen already. How would they recover from the economy? It is only when they change the currency and they ask you to bring the money in your possession so that they can give you new notes and you explain how you got the money. I don’t believe in all this blackmail. If you want to do an election and you have money in your account, transfer that money and if you are not ready to buy votes there’s a limit of money you will spend during the election. The bulk of the money is spent on the campaign and logistics, after that campaign, maybe some money for PR. If you have any integrity, you don’t need to bribe people before you win an election.
What about fuel scarcity?
The only one I do not agree with is the fuel scarcity and the way the fuel price rose from N165 to N350. That is what I condemn totally. That one has brought a lot of hardship. We know what we faced during the Yoruba festival in Ile-Ife. It impeded a lot of people from attending that programme. We could not access up to 70 per cent of our followers that we were expecting at that festival because of fuel scarcity. We bought PMS at almost N400 per litre. Most of these filling stations have tampered with their meters. If you want to buy 10 litres in most filling stations, what you get is seven and a half litres. They have tampered with it and the government is not monitoring or regulating it. We bought fuel of N15,000 to fill one of our cars in Gbongan. By the time the vehicle got to Ogere, the fuel finished and there was no hold-up. The road was free. Ibadan road was so free. There was no hold-up that I could use as an excuse. Imagine N15,000 from Gbongan to Ogere, a journey that was not up to 2 hours. Definitely, the meters from the stations have been tampered with. Nigeria is deeply rooted in corruption. Not only in government, 70-80 per cent of Nigerians are corrupt. Both private enterprises and government enterprises are corrupt. So, we are in trouble. The issue of Central Bank’s naira redesign is a very clear example. They gave us four months and, if you have money, put it in the bank and they will credit it to your account. Most of the countries in the world, they are cashless societies. The only people it should affect are the rural dwellers, for which I think the Central Bank should pump money (new notes) to the rural areas because they are not conversant with the cashless way of spending money. There are times in my house, I may not have up to N100,000 cash yet I may be spending like N2 million in a day through transfer and things are going well. By talking against the Central Bank policy, is it because you, as a politician, you want to share money on the day of election or what? There are no presidential candidates that will not have up to N500 million at hand to organize a campaign in a state.
Isn’t N500 million much?
About N500 million in 36 states, just for campaign in the 36 states, is just about N18 billion in the presidential election alone. We are taking of presidential and not governorship election. You have to spend at least N500 million. The sound system, security, mobilization. Why did you pause (asking the reporter)? Is it Bola Ahmed Tinubu that will not have N20 billion to transfer, or Atiku, or Obi or Kwankwaso? When you are complaining too much, people will have the mind-set that you want to do vote-buying. You want to buy people’s conscience. You want to buy votes. The election that is coming is not an excuse to go against the policies of the Federal Government. Let’s assume the Federal Government just gave one month’s notice, it could have been said it’s too short, but they gave four months.
Some people are clamouring for extension of the deadline…?
February 10 is okay for it.
This hardship of cash shortage and fuel scarcity, won’t that affect the election?
It can’t affect the election. We should stop this notion that when you are organizing an election you should spend too much money. We should clear our mind to the extent that politicians will not buy people’s conscience to vote for them. If you could afford to buy food before the election and during the election, you should not be thinking that there should be huge money from the politicians for people to exercise their franchise for them. We cannot produce a good leader that way. Democracy will be defeated, government of the people by the people for the wellbeing of the people. The government of the people, people must choose their own leaders willingly without undue influence, without even rubbing their palms. When we are talking about election, most of the things to be used are being supplied by the Federal Government. INEC will produce the materials, take them to the destination where people would vote. The only thing is for you to canvass the electorate to vote for you, not even giving them money to transport themselves to the destination to vote. If they want a leader of their choice, they would move to the BVAS to cast their vote. In an attempt to buy snacks or minerals for them, you are inducing them and it is criminal. You are influencing them for your own political party. Definitely, if we don’t stop this kind of act in our electoral process, we are breeding political criminals who will get to power and do away with everything that is due for the masses and they will tell you, we have given you money. I know a state governor that gave N15,000 to each person that voted for him. In some areas he gave N10,000 per person, another area he gave N7,000 per person. When he got into power, he started dealing with the state. He wouldn’t listen to them. Nobody can talk to him right now because they have sold their rights for a period of four years. When you sell your rights for a period of four years, you can suffer for 40 years.
As a leader what advice do you have for the electorate?
I am not so keen about this election. My main mind-set now is that Nigeria should be restructured to regionalism. Any person that wins the election, that is not my problem. I believe anybody that wins the election should take us back to the way we got our independence, either the 1960 constitution or 1963 constitution. That is why we have not been able to get it right in Nigeria, because we have betrayed the conscience of our founding fathers, politically. The federating units by then will have autonomy. Bringing Nigeria, North, South, West and East together, the British brought them together to get independence on the basis of a federation. By 1966, the military destroyed the federating units and forced us to the unitary system of government. Since then, we couldn’t get our bearing. We discovered oil in Oloibiri in 1958, and the wealth of oil we couldn’t enjoy it. Even, when we had not discovered oil, we were managing the little resources we had through agriculture. When the oil boom started in 1972-73, we lost our bearing.
The reason for losing our bearing was because we did not allow the oil-producing states to have a certain percentage of their oil. At least, they should have 50 per cent share of their oil, and Federal Government 50 per cent. In the North, we have large chunks of solid minerals. In Maiduguri, Al Mustapha revealed it to us that there’s a certain mineral called California. It is in Maiduguri. It is the most valuable solid mineral in the whole world. He said 1 gram of it is about $24 million. He said the only country that has it is the USA and that’s why they named the state they found it in USA California. That was the essence of Boko Haram. The mafia behind stealing that solid mineral created an artificial war in the Northeast and it has now engulfed the entire Nigeria. Assuming they had their own region, they were controlling 50 per cent of the resources coming from there, they could have developed. Those who build a glass house would not throw stones at it. There’s no state in Nigeria that does not have solid minerals. The West has its own, the East has coal and copper. Out of the five states in the East, they have discovered crude oil in three states in large quantity. There’s crude oil in Edo, aside from Delta, which is the normal oil-producing state. There’s crude oil in Ondo, there’s crude oil in Lagos. There’s large quantity of crude oil and gas in Badagry now. Why are we troubling ourselves? In the Northwest, in Zamfara, they have 18-24 carat of gold in large quantities. In Kano, they have 32 solid minerals. In Zamfara, they have 27. Plateau State has 30. Why are you taking the oil of the Niger Delta? You want to drain them before leaving them alone. Let’s balance this country to move forward. If we still need Nigeria, let us balance it for the sake of justice and equity and having a structure that gives federating units freedom to enjoy the resources they have. They create a lazy governor that will be begging for money in Abuja every month. And don’t create a lazy Premier and local government chairman. The governors have rendered the local government chairmen useless. The same people that caused these problems are the same people contesting now. How do you want me to have confidence in them? You can see I didn’t say anything about the election. When you asked me, I said ‘no comment’ because, already, I’m confused about these issues. I’m involved in many things in Nigeria to move it forward, but the political establishment does not want it. They want to drain this country. They don’t care because any of them that has up to N10 billion has a private jet and they have diplomatic passports. So, anything that happens, they jet out of the country and they have their investment all over the world. Most of the best hotels in Africa are owned by Nigerian politicians, even the best hospitals. Definitely, the issue of election is not my major priority now. My priority is that, if we still want this nation, let us go back to the basics, the 1960/63 constitution. If we don’t do that, I can’t assure that Nigeria will not break soon because the agitation will continue. The agitation for Biafra will continue after this election, if justice is not done. The Yoruba Nation will not be subdued after this election. The Middle Belt and Niger Delta region will spring up, if there’s no good leadership coming from this election. But, if there’s a good leader, within three to six months, he should do the needful.
Is that not too short a time to start tackling these challenges?
It is not short; it is a simple thing on the basis of policy and determination. Within six months, if he has good people working with him in the parliament and not the rogues, rubber-stamp parliamentarians. I have never seen a worse parliament than this parliament. Anything the President says, you stamp it, quoted from the Senate president. I have never heard such a thing in my life. I have never heard it in any democracy that the Senate president would say openly that anything the President says he will do it. We now realized why when the presidential primary of the party was coming and the President chose him as his own candidate, because they know where they are going. I am not saying the election should not hold, but I place no priority on it. All I want, for the sake of the masses, for the sake of the young children who are suffering, let us go back to the basics, the way we started it; go back to regionalism. Anything short of that, I am not interested.
Some would say Nigeria is really in decay, the incoming President can’t do much in six months…?
We are not saying, by going to regionalism, Nigeria will be fixed in six months. But put back the structure. When you build a structure, you can build a house on it. A structure of a house, you can even decorate it the way you want. If you have no structure, there’s no way you can decorate it that will make sense.
What is your take on insecurity in the country?
Everything lies on the structure of governance. By the time you allow certain autonomy to the regions, each region will arrange their security according to the environment. With the little efforts of some states now, you can see what is happening. For instance, there are lots of changes about states that are serious with Amotekun. There are lots of changes. Not every Yoruba state is serious about Amotekun, some of them are paying lip service to the federal structure. But with the major governors who are so serious about it, there are changes about the issue of insecurity. Gradually, if we have a good structure, the issue of insecurity will be resolved, the issue of corruption will be reduced, and the issue of building integrity in Nigerians highly coordinated within zonal unit governments. Without going back to it, you are wasting your time. When you restructure the whole house, you can restructure the sitting room, you can restructure the lobby, etcetera.
What about community policing?
What they are talking about is informant of the police, which I don’t believe in. It does not hold water in the issue of security. They are informants to the police. It has been in existence for more than 20 years. Policing that we are talking about should be the federal police, regional police, state police and local government police, not community police. The local government police are sometimes more effective because they know the criminals of that environment. Also, they are being recruited from the same environment.