Tinubu’s Govt Becoming Worse Than Buhari’s - Onuesoke

A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Governorship aspirant in Delta State Chief Sunny Onuesoke  in this interview with CHIBUIKE CHUKWU, spoke on the response of the presidency over the New York Times verdict on Nigerian Government. He also spoke on the PDP, the NLC and national minimum wage, among other issues. 

The Federal Government replied New York Times over report of very bad economy under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wherein Bayo Onanuga said the President inherited a bleeding economy. Do you think this is a bad response to the obvious weak economy and part of the APC blame game? 

APC government has always been a blame game government and it started from President Buhari’s time. I quite agree with you on this and this is probably in agreement with what Tinubu said that he was going to continue from where Buhari stopped. When Buhari was in government, the economy was seriously degenerating and highly under pressure and when Tinubu was campaigning, he repeatedly said he was going to continue where Buhari stopped; he said he was going to continue with the policies of Buhari. You ask yourself what is the difference between government of Buhari and government of Tinubu? So, I am not surprised  that they can toe this path. When you look at the economy under Buhari and Tinubu, you will see the worst situation in Nigeria. You will see the worst economy of the country since 1960. They themselves know the state of the country and how bad Nigerians are living currently.

Nigerians are not surprised  by that report from New York Times; it is the reflection of current realities in the country. Nigerians are living under worst economic situation and the government is here trying to blame it on whoever. Under the present administration, we seem to be moving nowhere as it is even worse now. I read what the New York Times said and it is the truth of the present Nigerian situation. It is unfortunate that things are this bad in Nigeria. Nigerians are suffering and cannot afford the basic needs. I think Government should appreciate the sufferings of the masses and admit that things are grossly very bad in the country.

But looking at the response by Bayo Onanuga, is there anyway Nigerians can make excuse for Tinubu given that the economy under Buhari was truly very abysmal before Tinubu came to power?

I may have to agree with you that Tinubu met the economy very bad and what he is doing perhaps is trying to resuscitate it. Admittedly also, everything was completely spoilt eight years ago and the Buhari's  administration left the Nigerian state in shambles. Comparing two of them, we can admit that Tinubu prepared for governance although his impact is yet to be felt but Buhari never prepared for governance. So, we can say that the rot of eight years of Buhari’s government is what is presently confronting Tinubu and that is what he is trying to fix. Fixing APC’s eight years of misgovernance is not going to be an easy thing as Nigeria was brought to its knees under Buhari. But know that the high cost of governance at the centre is a major contributor to what we are passing through today. But Tinubu has not helped matters. Much more like Buhari, the cost of governance under Tinubu is something else. When he was campaigning, he promised restructuring and reduction in the  cost of governance but if you look at appointments under Tinubu, you will realize that he has grossly increased it beyond what it was. Tinubu's  Government has even increased the cost of governance arbitrarily compared to even Buhari was there and this is very unfortunate from someone we believed prepared to rule. 

Can we rightly deduce that Bayo Onanuga was right to make case for his principal regarding the New York Times narrative?

Well, a little bit to the left and a little bit to the right, he was right and to about sixty percent, he was right because of the state of the economy before the emergence of President Tinubu. If you see the arrays of appointments that are going on even when Tinubu preached that he was going to reduce the cost of governance and restructure the country, you will know that he has revived the wasteful cost of governance and increase same so much more than Buhari. And this aligns with his promise to continue with the policies of Buhari. He promised so and people have seen that, that is what he is doing. Until he renounces that statement and say: ‘I am sorry, I won’t continue with the policies of Buhari’ then, we will take him seriously  and believe he would have a policy shift, and begin to feel the pains of Nigerians who are heavily bearing the high cost of necessities. With the present situation in the country, it is obvious that this is a far worse continuation of Buhari’s time and while Onanuga may be right in defending the President, the realities on ground will justify the position of New York Times.

In his Salah message, Tinubu charged Nigerians to sacrifice more and this is despite the huge N15bn renovation of VP’s residence, among other seeming unnecessary expenses like procurement of very costly bulletproof SUVs for lawmakers and others. Is this not hypocrisy?

That is what we are saying. This is hypocrisy because you cannot be asking Nigerians to sacrifice more while you go about spending such bogus amount of money on renovation of Vice President’s residence and buying very costly bullet proof SUVs for lawmakers and some Government's  officials, even as appointments are over-bloating everyday and the overall cost of governance is out of the world; how can one explain this?

That is exactly what we have been saying about the APC Government. There is a lot of contradictions in this Government because they are not yet ready to govern well. This is just the same continuation of Buhari’s policies which he promised during his campaign. Tinubu’s cost of governance is quite more expensive than Buhari’s and the multiple appointments that have been going on under Tinubu is grossly increasing the cost of governance. These appointments go with SUV cars, four wheel cars, salaries, allowances and other pecks of office and you are telling Nigerians to sacrifice more. What have Nigerians not sacrificed in the last eight years of APC Government? So they are not ready because it is the masses that are bearing the brunt of this Government. 

In arresting the situation, do you think the Presidency should reverse some of his policies to checkmate further economic downturn?

I have been an advocate of subsidy removal but if you look deeply, there is subsidy payment still going on. However, some people will say the major reason we have high cost of things is because of the high cost of fuel, PMS, diesel and all that because we need them for the production of goods and services. That is right definitely but the major reason  there is high cost of food is that  farmers can no longer access their farms because of insecurity. People can no longer go to their farms because they are no longer safe to go there. If you want to reverse those policies, first, the Government should tackle insecurity; they should stop insecurity so that  people will be able to go to their farms. About forty five to fifty percent of northerners no longer produce because of insecurity over there. They no longer go to their farms. Even in the south south, south east and south west, in fact all in parts of the country, farming activities have stalled because of insecurity. North Central is worse and this is the food basket of the country. The main thing is to ensure that the Government stops insecurity so that the farmers can return to their farms. This is what I told the Nigeria Labour Congress that they should be on the government to stop insecurity so that everybody will be able to go to the farm; it is not about minimum wage increase. When they produce, they take a portion to the market and keep some. Nigerians need food and security to continue to exist. That is number one. Number two, how do you take these farms  produce to the major markets if produced? Because of transportation, the economy has been affected drastically. If you look at the cost of transportation, it is almost forty percent compared to cost of farm produce. How do you even transport farm produce to major markets? How do you transport from the North  to the Southern part of the country and this is also to consider the cost of feeding the livestock. The livestock almost eat like human beings. The first thing I told the NLC was to implore the Government and force them to tackle the insecurity so that our farmers can go back to their farms. How much is the cost to take cows form the northern part of this country to the south? Go and ask and they will tell you that it is above one million. A lot of all these have made cost of living to be so high. So, we don’t have to start discussing minimum wage but we should discuss how to douse tension arising from the cost of farm produce and other things. Even if they increase the salary and there is much money in circulation, there is bound to be inflation so we should tackle the most important thing right now which is insecurity and how to bring down the cost of living in the country.

But assuming the country is fine economically and security wise, will you have agreed with the organised labour on the N250,000 minimum wage given that, as you observed earlier, it would likely lead to inflation?

Truth is that if there is no insecurity and attendant hardship as a result of non-production of food items, the labour won’t have demanded that high amount; they would have settled for N62,000 government is proposing. We are crying today over cost of living because of insecurity. What does the common man wants? It’s food and security, and nothing more. I had expected that labour would have given the Federal Government an ultimatum that if they don’t fix our refineries in six months, they (labour) would go on strike. That is what could have affected everyone and help in bringing down cost of living among Nigerians. They should look at how to bring succor to Nigerians. Look at the state of small scale businesses and look at how companies are leaving Nigeria in droves. I think all these should have been the priority of the labour union. There is no electricity and businesses are collapsing. The average hours of electricity in Warri a day, for example, is four hours and business, and the economy generally is  being suffocated. Those policies Government is copying are practicable in the Western world because they already have stabilised economy, not a developing and struggling economy like Nigeria. It is not going to work as it is working in the western world. The truth is that in coming up with their positions, did labour  negotiate  for the common man in the market; did they negotiate with the unemployed, did they negotiate for the artisans, the plumbers, all those small small small scale businesses? No,  You are negotiating for yourself. The people in the labour sector are just minute or one percent of the entire populace that is being affected by the economic problems and bad policies. You cannot just negotiate for yourself and feel it is alright for the whole Nigerians.

What is your take on the six-year single single tenure  as being proposed by Reps?

I think it is better for us but that should not  come without going back to the Regional government. I think that is good but like I have maintained , if we can revert to the old national anthem, nothing stops us from reverting to the parliamentary system of governing with emphasis on regionalism. It will bring Regional Government because all regions like  to survive on their own. It is only in Nigeria that you see states going to the national to get allocations. That is not a good economic policy and assuming that there was no oil, won’t we have existed as we had existed before? We have neglected all other sectors and focused on oil. So, I think regionalism will bring the best out of every region. So, many countries today do not have this oil but they are expanding. I still believe in whatever they are doing about governance like the six years single tenure, they should not forget going back to parliamentary system of government because the one we are practicing hasn’t helped the country as much as it should. 

In the proposed Electoral Act Amendment, suggestion from the Reps has proposed all national elections to be conducted in one day. Also given the logistical demands, do you think it is possible to have all elections in one day?

We don’t have the capacity, we don’t have the technology and we don’t have the advancement needed for such venture. Ask yourself where do we even have to start in conducting all elections in one day. We don’t have the electronic capacity for that because the election that was even segmented, there was problems here and there with it. Is it the communication sector that will break down in a short time or the malfunctioning of telephones  and internets? Which one are we talking about? Such is not even done in the advanced countries, talk less of Nigeria. Here even while segmented, the issue of results on real time has been a big challenge. I don’t think such will be possible. If we have to be truthful to ourselves, until the Independent National Electoral Commissions is truly independent in funding, independent in structure and independent in composition, we will still be playing with elections. It is not going to work and there is no need even contemplating it. As a former governorship aspirant, what is your position on this lingering local government autonomy issue?

I am in total support of local government autonomy in all areas like finance and elections. I advocate  that it should be the national body that should be conducting the local government elections and not state electoral body so that the elections will be outside the influence of the state government. 

As someone who once aspired to govern Delta State, what is your impression of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, one year after his assumption of office?

Not because I am a PDP member because I keep telling people that government is a continuum. Governance is a continuity. Some people are saying he is working on former Governor 'project; nothing is wrong with that. Are you expecting that he abandoned his predecessor’s projects? Nothing is wrong with what he is doing. It is even better to finish than to start. What he is doing is what I have expected him to do. If he is completing Okowa’s projects, nothing is wrong with that. Some people are just criticising for nothing, Governor Oborevwori is on the right track to ensure we don’t have abandon projects in the state.

As a PDP Chieftain, how can you defend the popular position that the party isn’t playing the opposition at the centre which it supposed to be playing? It is said the party is not ready for the next election?

We are prepared for the next election if it is taking place now. I can say that we are sixty percent ready for that. But I have to be frank with you, PDP’s opposition to the ruling party is weak. We are not presenting the right opposition to the APC. This has allowed APC to do all sorts of things, we need a close marking on them in order to checkmate their excesses. But for election, I can tell you that if election happens today, we are sixty percent ready. But for being opposition, we need to wake up to put machineries in place, we need to wake up to our responsibilities as the main opposition party. This is because APC seems to have a free hand and they are doing all that they are doing because nobody is talking and checking them. We need to wake up the opposition in PDP; we need to reposition our political force and counter missiles. We need to step up because people are dying, Nigerians are suffering and people are no longer going to their farms; still nobody is talking to this APC. 

Still on PDP, is former Governor Nyesom Wike untouchable?

Wike is a PDP member; he has been there when a lot of people weren’t there. A lot of people have sympathy for him over what he has done in PDP. For being untouchable, nobody is untouchable in PDP and nobody is indispensable. Some people have been sympathising with Wike for what he had done do the party and not that he is untouchable or indispensable. Wike has really worked for the party and so many people can still recall that very well.