By Fred Itua, Abuja
Idris-Etanami Abiodun Usman is the executive director of Sustainable Initiative for Nurturing Growth (SING) Nigeria. The organisation is non-partisan, non-profit and non-governmental, with a mandate to catalyse a society that is free of poverty as well as developing sustainably.
He was the North-west information officer for the Neighbour to Neighbour (N2N) campaign, director of strategy of Believe Nigeria Initiative (BNI), and convener of the Get Involved campaign. He was also the national publicity secretary of the Young Democratic Party.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, the social crusader advocated for a power shift to the South, particularly the Southeast and South-south.
What’s your take on suspension of subsidy removal by the Federal Government?
There is one thing when we talk about previous government which is the PDP administration being corrupt. I don’t know why the APC government is displaying high level of corruption. One thing you should know is that they are Nigerians and whether we like it or not, there is still the same blood of corruption that runs in their veins, especially the elite of this country. Our lifestyle, the way we see power and how we use power, has to be something that is promoted by corruption. So, when a group of people are in power, the first thing they want to do is to use the state resources to settle themselves. To use the state resources to empower their constituency and with that, any available means of doing that, they will use the opportunity. So, subsidy has always been an avenue of empowering the the few. From PDP government to APC government. What the APC government is doing is that they just amplified it. We started in a little way in PDP government. There is so much in this and we can really take so much out of the system. So, they amplified it and the next government can also use it to amplify more. But the major challenge is the Nigerian masses, civil society and people with good conscience. It is like almost impossible for us to believe that we cannot manufacture the petrol we use, we cannot process it, but we know that this thing is not rocket science. I remember when the Buhari administration started with Ibe Ukachukwu, the then minister of state for petroleum. He went to all the refineries in this country and said don’t worry in the next nine months our refinery will be working in the maximum capacity. You look at Ukachukwu coming from that same sector you will think he had an idea and he knows the problem and we then sat and we are looking. Nine months passed, we are still hearing the same story. Finally, he was removed. The president is still in charge of that office. There was a matching order. Then you ask yourself what is holding us from producing our own petrol? This government needs money for election. They have to sustain the party. So, if you are expecting subsidy to be a thing of the past, then it’s a joke. The 18 months is not a guarantee. Since APC came into power, we all know the civil societies have been in a “sleeping mood”. Civil society has shown that they are not independent. The people that control the civil society, the politicians that control civil societies are the ones that are holding the rope. They know when to release it. They know how to draw it back. We have seen people who were part of civil society organisations become billionaires overnight. We didn’t ask of their source of wealth. Civil society has been another cabal of people who choose to also hold the society to ransom because they are supposed to be the voice of the masses, but they are now the voice of the elite.
So, will you say the suspension of the subsidy removal is political?
Yes, it is political. For God’s sake, election is just next year and you want to remove subsidy now? How would they make money from the election? You know politicians hardly save money. They only start saving money one year to an election. They need to save money for the election. So, the government would do itself harm in terms of wanting to remain in power. They would not want to commit that error in removing subsidy when an election is coming. They need to make money for the election.
What’s your take on zoning?
Let’s look at the whole North and South power sharing from 1999 till date. The Southwest did eight years. Power went back to Northwest which was the North. Yar’Adua came in and did three years after then he died. Jonathan came in from the South-south after finishing Yar’Adua’s tenure, he contested. Jonathan used four years. What we are hoping is that the South-south has never ruled this country before. Buhari also came in after Jonathan and Buhari is going to eight years. By calculation, the North has used about 11 years all together. Out of that 14 years, the Southwest has used eight years presidency and eight years as vice president. Southwest is holding the office of the vice president and the Speaker. So, the Southwest has been compensated well. Then the Southeast is also being marginalised, but then, there is a region that has never ruled this country. That is where most of our resources come from. That region by chance produced a president. What is fair and what is right is for them to complete their tenure so that the zone will be circled. Then we can now come back to the North. After four years because North is also being short-changed. We know that any northerner that comes into power now would not want to use four years. It will be another eight years. So, it will be fair to let it go to that region to complete its own circle which is with eight years and then come back to the North. We should now start afresh again of eight and then go back to the South. I think that would be fair because we can’t stop zoning. This is a country that there is still no trust among ethnic groups. There is still no trust among the regional blocs. The only way to balance this is through power rotation and the Southwest should not think of producing the next president. The Southwest has been one of the major stumbling blocks in turning a united South. In 2015, the Southwest could not stand by their own southern bloc which is the South-south to support Jonathan and now again the Southwest has decided to neglect that same bloc again who has four years more. The only way we can move forward as a country is when we start to see ourselves as equal. For instance now, an Edo-born child today, what is his hope of ruling this country? The only hope he has to be president is by zoning. So, I think the Southwest should do what is right for a united South. The Southwest should allow the South-south to complete its four years.
If you are to pick somebody from the South-south, will Jonathan be the best?
To be honest, Jonathan did well as a president. We won’t sit down here and talk about the issue that came up after his Presidency, but let’s look at the theme and his achievements in his Presidency. We need to thank President Buhari. Buhari has shown that government is nobody’s personal business. Government is a business of government that no matter who finishes and who comes in, there is a project of government you need to complete it. Most of the projects Buhari is completing are from Jonathan’s government. Most of the policies he is using to tackle corruption, transparency were also initiated by Jonathan administration. But in 2023, the party has to decide that the party can have a way to get somebody from that zone that will sign to do one term and also create a system that can checkmate it. At the same time, if it has to be lack of trust of who will follow that rule then the truth is that both parties should come out and ask Jonathan to complete his own tenure from the South-south. But I don’t know if the party will decide. They are politicians. This is a matter of trust.
In essence, you are supporting a president of Southern extraction?
I am from the Southwest. So, I’m speaking because I want to see a united South, that is what has been our problem and it has caused a lot of distrust among us. We don’t stand as one and the North always seems to be more stronger than us. The South has to come together to speak in one voice. Biafra is what divided the South. Since then, we still have not come to build that trust among ourselves. I’m calling on my Southwest brothers to do what is right to understand that we cannot stand on our own. We can’t win elections if the Southeast and South-south are not with us. People use as an example, Obasanjo. Obasanjo ran an election and the Southwest did not vote for him, but the Southeast and South-south voted Obasanjo. The Southwest should shun the presidential ambition and support a South-south president. That is the right thing to do.
What’s your take on changes made in the Electoral Amendment Bill?
I’m a student of political science. The part about consensus is open to be argued in court. l, but the aspect of political appointee resigning is good. You know in this country, people in political offices use government money to contest elections. So, it is the right thing. I will give the National Assembly a thumbs up for that because if you are contesting against somebody that is not in a political office, there should be a level playing ground. So, you don’t use the advantage of the office and somebody who is outside that doesn’t have that advantage. At this point in time we in the civil society need to be looking at all these things and we need to be supporting initiatives that will create a level playing ground for us to produce a leadership that will be accountable to the people.
Do you believe that a Third Force is possible in 2023?
It is impossible. That is simple. It can never happen in the next 20 years. It will never happen. As it is now, we should all go into PDP and APC. We should make ourselves available. We should work hard to also see that we create a true democratic system in the government and probably also find ways to supress money politics within parties and then from party level we can still start getting it right. 2023 is a battle between PDP and APC. PDP has been in power for 16 years. They have accumulated a lot of status. They have governors who can bring out billions for elections. APC is now eight years in power. They have accumulated a lot of money. What we should pray for is that, we should have candidates among these parties who will think of Nigeria first, unite Nigerians, account to the masses. Candidates that will bring true change. That is what will help us.
Has Buhari handled insecurity well?
Security has been a very big challenge in this country. As it is today, I believe the government is handicapped. The government has tried everything and the government has failed woefully. That is what I will say, but I will not blame it on the government alone. I will blame it on also state actors. We are in a country where the cause of the desperation to attain a political office because of the desperation to be elected because of the desperation to sit in one office or the other, we can do anything and sometimes must of these actors don’t look at the pains of the masses. They look at their own gain. The government should be blamed more, but state actors have also played a role in it. All we need is a leader that can unite this country. A leader that can by body language, by the way he talks, can calm nerves. To me, as it is today, I will not say let’s hope for a better leader; I will say let’s hope for a leader that can be very practical in terms of achieving peace in Nigeria.