In this interview, Chairman of the Board of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and former National Vice Chairman, South -South of the governing All Progressives Congress, Honourable Hilliard Etta, speaks on raging national issues. MUYIWA OYINLOLA met him.
Some have expressed concern that the gale of defection into your party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, is a threat to democracy, which ought to thrive where there is virile opposition. Do you share this concern?
I share in the sentiment that for government to be at its best, it needs opposition. But not any kind of opposition. It has to be responsible, it has to be patriotic to be alive to its responsibilities, to be able to offer or proffer solutions other than what the government has put in place.
What I have seen in Nigeria is that first of all, we don’t have that kind of opposition and to worsen matters everybody is now running into APC. So, it is a cause for concern. But we also know that people are running into APC for varied reasons that will push a politician from one party to the other.
The first one is that there are no ideological differences, there are no positions that are held by different parties to make you feel very uncomfortable to be in that party. That’s the very first one.
Secondly, a friend also told me that a politician relates with 3Rs, which are Recognition, Relevance and Reward. When the three come together, he is further propelled to give his best. You will recall that Enugu State governor recently defected to our party. You are aware of the fact that the South- East has been the bastion of support for the PDP since 1999 and they haven’t been in the concept of the 3Rs.
The proper recognition, proper relevance and reward haven’t been accorded the South East, so it becomes natural for the governors in that area to now begin to ask themselves that for how long will we be here and put all our emotions, our passions, our resources, our time into a political party that doesn’t give us relevance and doesn’t reward us or recognise us?
I think that’s exactly what has propelled the likes of Governor Peter Mbah.
Another variable is of course, the success the Tinubu administration has garnered in two years. Whether we like it or not, he has shown that it is possible for you to give a promise and deliver on the things that you promised.
If you look through the manifestoes, you will see that almost all the reforms that he has brought are what he promised and you will be told that politicians don’t do what they say they will do. And so this is a man who is doing exactly what he said he was going to do. So, this kind of leader attracts people to himself. Given also that his policies have made otherwise non viable states to become viable. I don’t think of the 36 states, as we have it today, there is one single state that is incapable of paying salaries to its workers.
This used to be a very normal thing in the Nigeria preceding Tinubu’s government. So if a man has crafted an economic architecture that makes a state that was otherwise not viable to be viable, I think it is only natural that the people of that area or that state will now begin to rethink their relationship.
Like they say in Cross River, it is the socket to the centre. In fact, I was on a television programme with Mrs Josephine Annenih, the former Woman Leader of the PDP and she alluded to this very reason that I have given to you. There are other reasons but I think that these reasons that I have given are the ones that have propelled a lot of people to come to the APC .
Let me also add this, in terms of developmental strides, in comparison, if you juxtapose the PDP that had 16 years of our lives and the APC that has 10 years of our lives; in the South East, we have the most infrastructural project that the South East has is the Second Niger Bridge. Before the adventure of the APC, the PDP went to the site and broke ground, three times! Every time there was an election cycle, they will move with their President and the entire gamut of government into the site to go and break grounds. It took the government of Buhari to commence the construction of the Second Niger Bridge and completed it before leaving office.
If you come to my state, Cross Rivers state, you can point to certain developmental strides that the APC has brought to Cross Rivers and these are things that we never saw in the 16 years of the PDP.
Take the Ikom Bridge for instance, it was supposed to be built to allow the port in Calabar to be relevant to the people of the North east because we had only a reticulated bridge and that had to go for us to build a bridge that will allow us to take goods to the North east. For over 40 years nobody thought about building that bridge until Buhari came in the APC . As I speak to you now, nobody has even come to commission it and we are using it.
The road to Cameroun from Cross River was also built by Buhari. So whether anybody likes it or not, if our results sheets are published for examination, the APC will come far and above whatever the PDP did in 16 years . So when people are moving from APC to PDP you must understand.
Let us even take the Lagos- Calabar Coastal road that is now a legacy project of the Tinubu administration. We are the cheese that lay the golden eggs of Nigeria and the present administration has come to recognize that fact and gave us the kind of project that will become a catalyst for economic prosperity of our zone. Why won’t our people be happy? That’s one of the few reasons that I can give.
As you are excited, there are those who are apprehensive even within the APC. Their fear is that APC will get bloated, unwieldy and suffer implosion.
I agree with you. I have said it with all amount of responsibility that it behoves on the national leadership of the party to understand that this party that came in 2013 with the active collaboration of two iconic individuals: late President Muhammadu Buhari and the current president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That these two individuals for as long as we have had national elections and APC have been on our ballot. You know as well as I do, that Buhari controlled a large swathe of the North.
You also know that Asiwaju controls almost the entire South west, politically speaking. Now, in 2031, we aren’t going to have either Buhari nor Asiwaju on the ballot which means that we must have a set of ideas and ideals that we can celebrate on the ballot.
So, it behoves on the national leadership of our party to now sit down and craft ideas, taken from interaction with members of the party to become the ideals and ideology of the party in such a manner that tends to easily identify and distinguish our party from other parties.
Now, if this happens, what it means is that we will shed weight in a way that will be ideological. For instance, those not comfortable with those ideas will have to find platforms that will assuage their political leanings and those who believe in the ideas will stay. It is true that an undisciplined army, no matter how large it is, is far less effective than an Army that is lean but disciplined.
So, we know that given these various variables. Number one that we aren’t going to have any iconic figure on our ballot in 2031. Number two, the party must be identified by ideals, must be appealing to people to come and identify with it, and number three it must grow in the political consciousness and awareness and education in such a manner because the ones that are coming behind us are very demanding.
They are very demanding for good governance, they are demanding to see Nigeria where it ought to be. And if we must continue as a party to be in the driver’s seat of Nigeria, we must begin to think, outside of the box. We must begin to think of building a new and very effective army . That’s what I think.
Two of the reforms of Tinubu, the devaluation of the Naira and removal of fuel subsidy. Yes, there is more money to spend for those in government but the masses are feeling the pinch. How do you reconcile the paradox that Nigeria is richer but Nigerians are poorer?
I agree with you but you must try and put it in proper context. The two things that he is doing today ought to have been done several years back. If they were done at a time that Nigeria had some comfort in terms of foreign reserves. There was a time we had Excess Crude Account in excess of over a billion dollars. If we had taken those hard decisions at the time that Nigeria had that kind of comfort, Nigeria wouldn’t be where we are today. But unfortunately, somebody had to take the decision. At this stage, it would have been unforgiven for Asiwaju if he didn’t take those decisions that he had taken.
Now, I believe that all of the decisions that he had taken, all of the policies that he has brought, are gestational. They have a gestation period and I am of the opinion that two years is too short for us to have the kind of consequences that we will definitely have, borne out of the policies.
But having said so, we have moved away from a perilous condition, to a place where we can say that we are in a level of stability. It has been recognized that we have gotten to a place where we are stable and the prices of goods are beginning to come down. But we must build on that, we must continue to build the economy in such a way that the macro economic indices that are positive today— all of them are in green, that they will trickle down to the average household, in terms of the cost of housing, food, clothing, education— all of the essential things that the average Nigerian needs to live his or her life.
Having said so, I must also recognize that there is what I personally recognize in all of these mix. I recognise the Nigerian factor and I will give you another example. You remember that the Aviation people came to us, at a time they were buying jet fuel for N1,800 they came and they were shouting. That the cost was affecting cost of air fare ; that it constituted about 50% of the operational cost and that it was killing them. And God answered our prayers. Dangote opened his refinery and is selling jet fuel to them at N900. 00 !
Instead of us seeing depreciation in the cost of air travels, we have rather seen high cost of travel and that is what I call the Nigerian factor.
I listened to the President when he said he will allow the market forces to determine cost . But I disagree with him. First of all, our market isn’t even perfect because we don’t produce a lot of the things that we use. It can’t be perfect. You are aware of what is happening in the social media between Very Dark Man and some business men where someone will buy some goods at cheaper prices and come and sell at exorbitant prices in Nigeria. That’s what we have in Nigeria so there must be some form of intervention because there is no reason why the Nigerian government created an office of a Consumer Protection Council, without using it to protect the consumer. They aren’t protected as at this time so we need the instrumentality of consumer protection to come alive. We need controls . America today has recognized that to deal with what they call in America, price gouging. They have a serious situation in America today which is far more perfect than our own. They have a situation where there is no nexus between the cost of an item and the profit that is made. Only greed! So we have to deal with that situation in Nigeria. The governors need to help consumers in their various states and deal with these becaneering middlemen who are ripping off Nigerians.
Let me take you back to issue of 2027. The APC and Tinubu appears to be building a Southern coalition against the North. The governors defecting to the APC are from a section of the country. Is Tinubu mobilizing against the Northern bloc? Is that not a threat to national unity?
Well, I used to share that thought until recently. I have come to know that what has happened has brought to the fore the fact that there are two Nigerians now, politically speaking.
There are people who are steeped, trapped in the old order. Some people who believe that it is their inalienable
right to preside over the affairs of Nigeria . They are situated and stationed in the old era.
The new order are Nigerians, mostly young people — governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives, whether in the North or the South. They understand the importance of Nigeria remaining one and these are the people that have decided that, look, the old order must be defeated.
As we move forward, we will get to a point where those who will be in the Nigerian society at that time will begin to ask, who is the best of the North. But for now, Nigerians have agreed that when south does eight years, the North will do eight years and most of the membership of the APC in the North understand this arrangement very perfectly and you will see it come into play in 2027 election.
There are people who have said Jonathan had so many governors in the PDP and he lost the election. They haven’t done proper interrogation of the Nigerian situation.
Number one, five governors left the PDP. No governor has left the APC. Number two, the name of the President then was Ebele Jonathan. The name of the President at this time is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Two different entities. Number three. Those who always juxtapose what happened in 2015 have forgotten what happened in 2011. Those who always thought in the old order that I have tried to explain, people like Tanko Yakassai, people like late Adamu Ciroma, General Aliyu Gusau, they were all over the place, swearing by every deity that they know that Jonthan wasn’t going to win in 2011 and he won. But the last thing that I would say about this is that not two elections are the same. For the way it stands today, i can tell you, a combination of Atiku, El- Rufai, Amaechi, Peter Obi, put them together, Tinubu will defeat them and by 12 noon on the day of election, everybody in Nigeria and the entire world will come to the realization that the master has returned.
Finally. You just mentioned Jonathan in passing. Speculation is rife, of intense pressures on him to join the race. What if he decides to throw his hat into the ring? Will that not jeopardize the southern bloc votes Tinubu is galvanising?
The Jonathan spectacle is a romantic boon. When we were young, we used to read Mills and Boon. It will always end in beautiful, loving spectacle.
Jonathan himself knows that apart from the Airport road in Abuja, outside of the Airport road in Abuja, there is no other place in the whole of Nigeria that he can point to and say, ” I did that asphalt.” Even from Otuoke where he comes from, the road that leads to his house was built by Buhari. It will be foolishness of the century for Jonathan to be lured by the same people who disgraced him in 2015. All of them who are now luring him to the presidential election what was their role in his defeat in 2015? Jonathan isn’t a prospect that APC should take seriously because even in the South South where he and I come from it will be very difficult for him to defeat anyone in his local government. Has he forgotten what happened to General Yakubu Gowon?
