Presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in 2015 elections, Martin Onovo, in this interview with Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU, speaks on the Nigerian condition under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and his platform, the All Progressives Congress (APC), among other issues.
Let’s look at the journey so far since Muhammadu Buhari took over office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
So far, so catastrophic! I am saying this with all sense of patriotism and responsibility. Why do I use such a strong word? Many of my compatriots are keeping quiet while the APC is destroying Nigeria. APC has attacked the Nigerian constitution, public morality, the judiciary, the electoral process, and the Nigerian unity with its sectional agenda. That is why I say so far so catastrophic. Even if we stop the APC today, the damage it has done will take some time to heal. Nigerians are now suspicious of one another because of the divisive tactics of APC. Deceit has now become the standard for public policy. The government is completely directionless, particularly in the area of the economy. It is politically directionless, socially directionless. This is a tragedy to the future of 200 million people. After 10 months, we do not have an approved budget. The APC is using 25 per cent of its tenure to draft a budget and it’s yet to be approved. Who knows how long that will take us? The presidency has admitted that the draft budget was full of errors. We don’t have a budget as we speak, and that’s a shame. Elections were conducted in March 2015. I don’t know what can be worse than APC.
APC said the damage had been done by the government of former President Jonathan; that they are trying to repair the system…
President Jonathan did the damage and one dollar was exchanging for N160. That is the damage we know that he did. General Abacha held the value of the naira at N84 to a dollar for five years. That is the man who had economic direction, economic policy and economic management team. Jonathan mismanaged the economy to the point where naira was exchanged at N160 to a dollar. Today the APC has mismanaged the economy where naira is exchanging at N345 to a dollar. PDP was a tragedy, APC is a catastrophe. Let them leave Jonathan alone and do the job they rigged themselves into.
I think it is very obvious that the APC government has four cardinal characteristics. And the most important one is deceit. The second one is directionless. The third is divisiveness, and the fourth, dictatorship.
Don’t you see the current economic crisis as a global issue?
It is not. The countries that have led the world in human development index have remained the leaders despite economic vicissitudes. Why? Because they are led by legitimate leaders who have clear vision, integrity and who are competent. What happens here is that failures have excuses, and the APC is a catastrophic failure full of excuses. The same APC is trying to justify the frequent trips of President Buhari falsely; trips which have no benefit to the country.
The trip to America was reported to have cost N2.2 billion. For the 14 trips the President has undertaken so far, you multiply it by N2.2 billion, and you can guess how much has been wasted on foreign trips. At N6 billion per zone, you can build a world class facility like the Texas Medical Centre in all the six zones in Nigeria from the waste Buhari has incurred from his foreign trips.
The difference between the National Conscience Party (NCP) and the APC is very clear. We have a plan. We published the plan. APC did not have a plan. They (APC members) cooked up falsehood and used the media to spread the falsehood. I don’t speculate; I talk with facts. I have the APC 2015 manifesto here. I can prove to you that the APC is not a political party; it is a group of deceivers and the most corrupt elements you can find in Nigeria. I will show you here on the APC 2015 manifesto signed by its national chairman. Everything here is false. That is APC! The APC promised to employ at least additional 100,000 police officers. Now we hear that they have got approval to employ only 10,000. The APC promised to introduce an immediate pay rise and improve conditions for all five security services. Instead of introducing that, the APC is owing salaries, including that of the frontline soldiers fighting in the North East. They are owing allowances.
The APC promised to provide interest-free loans to university and technical students. Name one person who has collected. APC promised to introduce free daily school meal for all children attending primary school. My children are in primary school. None of them has eaten an APC free daily meal. APC promised to introduce conditional monthly social security payment for 25 million poorest Nigerians. This was written and signed by the national chairman. What can be more dishonest? Dishonesty is the fundamental for immorality. It is dishonesty that leads to other depravities. And that is why Satan is the father of lies. And APC is the source of all lies in Nigeria.
APC promised to create a network of local health centres, providing free services and drugs. I have not seen it. If I see it I will go there.
APC is the most anti-Nigerian organisation ever created since Independence. It is the most dangerous institution to national development. If APC is not checked, it will destroy Nigeria, economically, before 2019. How many Nigerians are aware that we are heading to debt crisis? If APC is allowed to borrow N2.2 trillion as proposed in its budget, within two years we have a debt crisis. And you don’t need to be an economist to see that. A country that its estimated revenue, local and foreign, is at N3.8 trillion, wants to borrow N2.2, and you are servicing the existing debt with N1.4 trillion! APC has no payment plan. It is to perpetually enslave Nigeria forever. All the people defending APC have been enslaved by the party. They are probably not aware.
We have entered the abysmal cyclone of debt if the National Assembly (members) does not stop their budget of ruination. With the amount of debt the APC is trying to put on Nigeria, we will have a debt crisis by 2018.
What is your take on the anti-corruption crusade of the APC government?
APC government is promoting corruption. The APC government is not fighting corruption. How is APC promoting corruption? The APC governorship candidate in Bayelsa State had a case in court. He was already charged to court. Investigation had been completed. The matter was over N2.45 billion. The APC government mismanaged the case and gave him ticket to contest the governorship election. Is that not promoting corruption? A case already charged to court! Not at investigation stage. The late APC candidate for Kogi election was charged to court for corruption. APC mismanaged the case, gave him ticket to contest the election. The Lagos State government published earth-shaking allegations against former governor, Babatunde Fashola. APC promoted him to a Minister. APC is the greatest source of corruption in Nigeria.
Do you see what they are doing as vendetta?
The APC is doing what is worse than a vendetta. Vendetta is mild. APC has an agenda to finally destroy Nigeria, starting with the foundations. What are the foundations of Nigeria? Foundations of any society are its culture, its laws. APC has decided to destroy the culture of national unity that we have built in the last 55 years. We have done many things to unite Nigeria. We started Unity Schools (Federal Government Colleges) to unite our people. We started National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to unite our people. We put federal character in our Constitution (Chapter 14). We have done many things as a people to unite this country, to lead Africa.
Now, APC has no regard for the Nigerian constitution or any law. APC is defending the most tyrannical dictatorship that Nigeria has ever seen – worse than military dictatorship. A military dictatorship works through its command structure. What you have in this situation is deliberate impunity and total disregard for all laws, including the greatest law of the country which is the constitution.
Let me be specific. APC and Buhari disregarded the rights of Nigerians – I think that is Section 42 – from being discriminated against. In fact, Buhari, in his celebration of impunity, went as far as announcing to the international community that those who gave him five per cent vote cannot be expected to be treated equally as those who gave him 95 per cent vote. That is discriminatory. The Nigerian constitution forbids that. The Nigerian constitution says federal character must be regarded in constituting the government because of the heterogeneous nature of the society. But of the first 37 appointments published by national newspapers made by Buhari, 30 were from the president’s section of the country. Among the most strategic appointments made in the military, six were made in one swoop, and some zones got nothing.
The right thing to do, if you want to respect the constitution of the country, would have been, if you are making six military high command appointments, you get one per zone. And like Balarabe Musa said, every local government in Nigeria can provide a material for President of this country. And there are 774 local governments. So you can’t say a zone doesn’t have a qualified person.
To respect federal character, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was promoted from Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier-General when Olusegun Obasanjo became Military Head of State. It was not even in the constitution then. That is why I am talking about the culture of the people and their laws. APC has no regard for our national culture. APC has no regard for our constitution. APC is the worst form of dictatorship ever contemplated.
There seems to be a lot of purge in the system. Don’t you think that may be a solution?
Purge? It is APC that needs to be purged. Also, it’s the unpatriotic, anti-Nigerian government that needs to be purged. APC is deliberately destroying all the foundation of Nigeria so that the country will collapse. It is deliberate. This cannot be a mistake. You attack national unity, the constitution, and the judiciary.
APC is destroying the foundation, so that even when NCP comes to power, it will seem impossible to repair. It is deliberate. This is calculated. That Nigeria must end, that Nigeria must be destroyed, is APC agenda. It also aims to disunite the people, disregard their laws. When you disregard laws, what you have is lawlessness. That is anarchy. That is the end of Nigeria. APC is attacking the pillars that hold Nigeria.
Let’s look at security, particularly as it concerns Boko Haram.
In line with the APC deceit, they promised timeline, that the moment they came to power, Boko Haram would be defeated in two months. That did not happen because it was a false promise. For example, NCP made a promise that we are going to double power in four years. We told the Nigerian people and we put it in writing that it will cost the Nigerian people $9 billion. Don’t forget that they have spent $40 billion and could not double power. We have already done the early project plans. We have done all the cost estimates. We have validated the cost estimates with Nigerian projects that we are going to double power in the first four years of our tenure. And we said we were going to take $9 billion of your money to do that. We had the entire project plan complete. If we were elected, what we would have done was to hand it over to the civil servants during the transition, not even during swearing-in, to revise. As you are sworn-in, you hit the ground running. During the transition period, you summon the permanent secretaries, you show them your vision, tell them to align and come back to you with what they think you will need to achieve your vision. So, about Boko Haram, the first promise was in two months. After that, we got a December promise. After that, what we have seen are chieftains of the APC telling the media not to publish the carnage of Boko Haram and the deceit of telling the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to go back home when they know they will be killed by Boko Haram. And the media will not publish it, so that we will have a false sense of security which is more dangerous than insecurity. If there is insecurity, you can run away like the IDPs did. But when you gave them a false sense of security, they went back to Chibok and Boko Haram killed three-year-olds, shot octogenarians and nonagenarians, and set them on fire. The APC must be charged with genocide against the Nigerian people – genocide in Zaria, Chibok, Dikwa, and Dalori.
The APC senator in Borno State said it and they stampeded him to shut up. What is Boko Haram to withstand the Nigerian people; 3,000 cowards to withstand 200 million Nigerians? It is only a bad government that can be talking about Boko Haram. NCP government would have taken care of Boko Haram. There is no way 3,000 cowards would withstand 200 million Nigerians or our gallant troops if equipped. It is not possible. You cannot contemplate that. Even without weapons, we will march on them.
The government is talking of tariff increase for electricity.
When you make a man like Fashola Minister of Power, you will get tariff increase. When you make him Minister of Works, you will get toll gate. When he was in Lagos, what did he do if not tariff increase? How can the Minister of the Federal Republic, who is to oversee regulation, reduce himself to public affairs manager of privately-owned Distribution Companies (DISCOs). Fashola has reduced himself contrary to the law. And he says he is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He spent about N4 trillion in his eight years in Lagos. Do you see evidence of any N4 trillion other than toll gates, taxes and extortion?
So you don’t see any good coming out of the APC government?
No, something good has come out of the APC. I congratulate President Buhari for having the courage to reject the abominable iniquity of same-sex marriage. I commend him honestly because that is the higher dimension of spiritual corruption. The APC is spiritually corrupt. But that is the higher dimension of spiritual corruption. Buhari has my support for that.
But does he have my support for his inability to bring a reasonable budget proposal? No. Does he have my support for trying to put our people in slavery and perpetual bondage through debt crisis that is staring us in the face? No. Does he have our support for his inability to fight Boko Haram because he lacks the ideas? No. Can he win the anti-corruption war with a deceitful and corrupt anti-corruption war? No.
Nigerians should speak out when things are going wrong. Only the people can save the people. The Nigerian people need to get rid of the corrupt political elite and enthrone their own government of the NCP. There are constitutional ways of getting that done. Let the Nigerian people agree that they are tired of an illegitimate and corrupt political elite that use state funds to fund their parties.
