Former Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Dr. Wunmi Bewaji, speaks on various national issues ranging from worsening insecurity, the US intervention, the wave of defections to ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the coalition African Democratic Congress (ADC), in this interview with some newsmen. Excerpts.
How would you describe the state of the nation presently?
The country is moving in the right direction. The reforms are working, especially the Free Market Economy reform has worked out wonderfully well under this administration. When you look at the limited application of that in the area of removal of fuel subsidy which today now we see the competition going on among the market players, between Dangote Refinery as a local producer and the importers, the marketers who are importing from abroad, now they are competing. Today, Dangote is reducing prices, tomorrow, the importers are also trying to reduce their prices and you see this competition going on now which is leading to a gradual reduction in prices of petroleum products.
And you we see that because it is a free market breeding economic process, you will see that more players are going to enter into the market and which will further drive down prices. So this would guarantee two things which are very critical in any free market reform. It would guarantee sustainable availability and it would also guarantee affordability and once we are able to achieve a perfect equilibrium between those two, then Nigeria would be better for it.
The beauty of this is that this has no government intervention which means that the market is operating by itself, the government is not subsidizing by a penny. So that means that it is sustainable, it is not something that we can wake up tomorrow and somebody might say oh, government has announced an increase in price of petrol or maybe the government can complain that the amount of money we are spending on subsidy is too much, we are going to reduce it this year. That is never going to happen again and that is why you see that last two Decembers we have had under this new reforms, there has not been any petrol scarcity again.
So that is commendable and what you also see in the area of foreign exchange is quite commendable. The unification that has happened within a space of less than 18 months, the unification of the rates of exchange that we’ve had under Emefiele, yes, we had four exchange rates is quite laudable. So under that regime, the level of corruption was extremely high and it was denominated by currency arbitrage and the unpatriotic crime of round-tripping.
You found people who are connected to the Central Bank, and who can get the dollar at a particular official rate and go and offload on the streets at the parallel market. Today, nobody is talking about the parallel market any longer because the rates are merged.
How do you think government can tackle the issue of insecurity that has become permanent in the country?
The solution is, number one insecurity has been politicized in a way that you discovered that some people in this country don’t want this country to be at peace. They prioritize their political ambition over and above the peace and stability of Nigeria.
So you see a governor who is saying that oh! Nigeria is home to all Fulanis all over the world and that all Fulanis are welcome. And you now see people answering that call from Mali, from Niger, from Chad, from Cameroon, the so- called Jihadists. Politics has entered into the conversation and I believe that there are elements who believe that if there is peace and stability, the credit would go to the government of the day. So they have to do everything possible to ensure that there is instability. People are being imported into the country deliberately by some unscrupulous political players from certain parts of the country.
If the government is aware of all these things, what is it doing?
Security is the responsibility of everybody; the government would be overwhelmed, yes, if every time, you know, the government is finding a solution, you find some people sitting down somewhere who are trying to compound the problem by sponsoring insecurity. You know, there are a number of political commentators, influencers that are being recruited by some political leaders to incite violence against the government of the day. And there are some religious leaders too, who are being recruited by certain political figures to incite hate. If you see the level of hate campaigns on social media, you will marvel. And this has effect, serious consequences on the overall security situation in the country. We have a limited number of armed forces in the country.
The same with the Police, the same with the army that will go to the Sambisa Forest, that will go to Niger State or Kogi State or Kwara State. Our security architecture is stressed too thin, that we don’t have enough, even if we double the figure of security personnel we have today, it will not be enough. So I believe that instead of us trying to double or triple the number of our security agencies or personnel, the better approach would be for us to double or triple the number of patriotic Nigerians who will work consciously, the same way they are working to sabotage the peace and security of Nigeria.
Government has always claimed that there are known sponsors of insecurity but it is yet to name them, is the government afraid to do this or there are better ways to address it?
It would be a better way. But Nigeria is a very complex country. We have divisions. Yes. We have religious divisions. We have ethnic divisions. So if a Yoruba man comes out and he is accusing Mr. X or Chief Y of sponsorship of insecurity, so first thing people might say, oh, oh, he’s not APC, he’s a PDP man. Oh, that’s why government is going after him. Oh, he is a Fulani, and the president is Yoruba.
Do you think that government should consider that in the face of the security risk?
But you cannot ignore this, this is the reality. When there was a situation in Niger Republic, and Nigeria wanted to intervene, you remember, and Nigeria was saying, oh, Niger Republic is our neighbor. If there is instability in Niger Republic, we are going to be directly affected. But you know what some people said? Some people say, oh, Niger Republic, they are our brothers. Niger Republic is 80 percent Hausa, if you go there; it means that you are against the North. So Nigeria is a complex country to govern. Also, there are some religious leaders, whom we now know are sympathizers of some of these elements coming from outside the country, because they will never condemn, Deborah was killed in Sokoto, they have nothing to say.
People who are killed in another area, they will not say anything, they will keep quiet. So, where does their allegiance lie? Nigeria is a very complex country. So you hear that, oh, there was a massacre in Plateau, and you find a particular religious leader who will not say anything to condemn it. Check our budget, we are now spending something close to 45 percent of our national budget on security.
What do you now say on the U.S. coming for intervention based on what it termed genocide against Christians in Nigeria? Is it a genuine claim?
Of course, American intervention is not genuine because everybody knows that there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria. I have lived in the North long enough to know that there are Christians in the North, although they are minorities. And when people talk about Hausa/ Fulani, people forget that there are also minorities even in the core-North. There are several minority tribes, and there are also Christians even in the core-North.
So, how can anybody talk about Christian genocide? There is no Christian genocide. What you have in Nigeria is pure terrorism, pure and simple. It has no religious coloration whatsoever. So, if America wants to intervene, of course, I believe that America has superior equipment and facilities when it comes to that. They have more number of satellites in orbit that they can see more than our own people can see. So, if they have such information, I believe, with reference to the tenets of International law, I believe that a better approach would be for America to share that intelligence with the Nigerian Armed Forces for them to act on it.
There have been arguments of Nigeria turning into a one party state because of the gale of defections into the APC, what do you see to this?
You see the way a politician will look at a political party membership will be different from the way a voter, or an average citizen, will look at it. A politician who is an office holder, who is eligible for re-election, would consider his own interests, and, you know, by extension, the interests of his people. When I say his people, maybe the people of his constituency, or the people of his caucus, his supporters, generally, in taking a decision. It’s not that Nigeria is going towards one party. For me, it’s actually a good thing.
Do you think that the coalition, ADC, will stand a better chance, come 2027?
No. I told you the coalition is dead on arrival. You want to run an election against a Bola Tinubu that we know, and by this time you don’t have a candidate, the election is gone.
The election of 2027 is to choose the number two to Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yes, whether it will be Obi, who will be number two, or it will be Atiku Abubakar, who will be number two to Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But as far as the election of 2027 is concerned, it’s over.
How would you react to the statement that there would soon be an implosion in the APC?
People who are saying that don’t know the politics. Bola Tinubu is a power player. Yes, he’s probably the only power player politician you have in Nigeria. All others are regular politicians. And that’s why you see, when you hear that in every state, the governor is the leader, so that settles it. Bola Tinubu is not an armchair democrat. Yes, he has that gift of leading from the front.
So, there cannot be any implosion in the party. Don’t forget, this is the first time in the history of this Fourth Republic, where you have a full-fledged democrat as president.
What do you think President Tinubu should do better ahead of his third year in office?
So, what I believe, what I think the government should focus on will be to ensure that the reforms that are in place are galvanised, should be strengthened. We should not lose focus. This is because inflation rate is coming down and the exchange rate is getting better. Inflation rate came all the way from 34 percent now to 14 percent. It’s projected to go as low as 12 percent this year if we remain focused particularly on those two areas of the exchange rate and fuel subsidy, which are the two major reforms which can come under a single heading of free market reforms. I believe that we need to speed up the momentum further in order to ensure that because the way things are going, we have come out of the storm. We are definitely out of the storm. What we now need to do is to bring these macroeconomic figures to reach the average Nigerian.
For example, I will always continue to say this. Food is a very strong component of any economy. Yoruba used to say that “Ti ounje ba ti kuro ninu ise, ise buse.” Even abroad, in the western world, despite the fact that they do their free market economy and all of that, food is heavily subsidized, yes. I would urge that enough energy be put into the availability of food. It’s very important. It is not like the economy will be judged by the price of a bag of rice, it is very important for there to be abundance of food in the system.