Why Gbajabiamila Should Have Been Suspended – Ex-minister Dalung

Barr. Solomon Dalung, a former minister of sports, speaks with ACHOR ABIMAJE about the state of the nation, alleging that democracy is on life support.

How will you assess the state of the nation vis-à-vis the current happenings in the country?

Nigeria, as a country, has been through a lot in recent times. So much so that when you align it with our history, you begin to wonder what kind of progress we are making as a nation. One step forward, ten steps back.

These challenges have agitated many patriotic and responsible citizens. The question has always been whether democracy, as a phenomenon, has actually paid off.

What are the issues that have tended to call our democratic credentials into question?

Nigeria has never been this rough in the past 10 years under the APC administration. On many occasions, I have admitted our role in creating the monster that has today plunged this country into monumental challenges. But the question remains: leadership is responsibility. Everybody who aspires to rule knows why they want to rule. Therefore, passing the buck or engaging in the blame game, as has become common, is not the issue. Nigeria under APC is like a theatre of the absurd, with one scandal after another each week.

I sympathise with the citizens of this country because those suffering from high blood pressure have seen the cost of their medication rise because of these things. We woke up one morning in this country to discover that an alleged federal agency was fake. It had a Director General who was very influential. It was listed in this country’s budget. It had an office in a strategic position in the Federal Secretariat. The fake Director General received foreign envoys and investors, including the EFCC Chairman. The fake agency had an account with the Central Bank. It had a take-off grant of N220.4 billion. It also had budgetary allocations, yet Nigerians are being made to believe that the agency is fake.

The unbelievable story concerns the Director General, Mr Adeniyi Adeyemi, who said he paid a N600 million bribe before his appointment. If not a bribe, what else could have opened all those doors, including the gate of the presidential Villa, for a fake agency?

The President has said the EFCC and ICPC should investigate.

Which ICPC? The ICPC, as it stands today, is designated as the attack dog of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They are arresting critics of the government and locking them up, even arresting the doctors attending to some of those critics in custody. So the ICPC lacks the credibility to investigate this issue, especially when the President has not demonstrated the political will to do so.

How?

His Chief of Staff, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, remains in office. His name was mentioned. As if this were not enough, the International Monetary Fund, in one of its recent reports, indicated that over 20 per cent of Nigeria’s budget was spent outside budgetary procedures. That 20 per cent amounts to about N8.8 trillion, meaning N8.8 trillion went down the drain and is now comfortably in individuals’ pockets.

The same IMF published a report indicating positive economic growth, and the government celebrated it. Now they are saying the IMF does not know what it is doing, as if we were all fools.

Then there is the N6.4 billion appearing in the budget of the Ministry of Sports or the National Sports Commission, supposedly meant for Nigeria’s participation in the World Cup, even though Nigeria had already lost its qualification long before the budget was prepared.

So that money meant for the World Cup is for which World Cup? Is it for the corruption World Cup to be organised in Nigeria?

But the ICPC had invited Femi Gbajabiamila for questioning…

What is happening is a mix of comedy and drama. The appropriate thing for Mr President to do, if he wants Nigerians to believe him, is to suspend him. The man is still in office.

Insecurity has ravaged every nook and cranny of the country, and it seems the federal government lacks the political will to nip it in the bud. What do you think is the way forward?

Insecurity has persisted in Nigeria unabated. Almost every region of this country is beset by one form of security challenge or another. The government has continued to pay lip service to the issue of insecurity, with even the Minister of Defence looking Nigerians in the face and telling them the situation has improved. I want to appeal to Nigerians not to be deceived by these reports, as they are intended to lure Nigerians into letting their guard down so that bandits can kidnap them. Whenever the government says the situation has improved, Nigerians should become even more vigilant.

Then came the embarrassing kidnapping of the schoolchildren in Oyo, who spent more than 56 days in the hands of bandits. There are different accounts of what happened. One narrative says a ransom was paid before they were released, while another says it was a rescue operation. I go with the rescue operation narrative, and I believe the Nigerian military because they lost one of their gallant officers during the operation. If it were not a rescue operation, that Second Lieutenant would not have been killed.

But the summary is that the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic lacks the political will to address it, because insecurity can only be tackled through political will emanating from the Commander-in-Chief.

Two presidents have demonstrated that. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo did so in 2004. He gave marching orders to the service chiefs, telling them, ‘Look, I give you 72 hours. If you cannot reclaim the two local governments taken over by the Nigerian Taliban, now called Boko Haram, bring my uniform to me.’ Within 24 hours, the military had reclaimed those two local governments in Yobe State.

Late President Musa Yar’Adua also did it. We may say President Obasanjo is a former military officer, but Yar’Adua had never served in any of the security services. In 2009, while en route to Japan, Boko Haram attacked and burned five police stations in Borno State. He gave marching orders to the service chiefs: “Before I return, you must have crushed them.” They were crushed.

Nigerians are dying while trying to be patient, while President Tinubu and his government officials are living like kings on Nigerian money. The day the Commander-in-Chief is willing to address it, Nigerians will have peace.

Insecurity has now become a multi-billion, indeed multi-trillion naira criminal enterprise, with many stakeholders.

Who are the stakeholders?

These stakeholders cut across every level of society. Some provide intelligence to the kidnappers. These are ordinary people living within the communities.

There is also the security component among the stakeholders, those who share security votes and, when Nigerians are kidnapped, deliberately drag their feet until the security vote is large enough for them to share before negotiations are concluded.

Some stakeholders take a particular interest in this conflict because they sell arms to these criminal gangs.

In the same vein, some politicians exploit insecurity. People are killed and displaced, making it impossible for them to demand accountability, while elections can be manipulated in areas where displaced people are unable to vote.

There are also rogue elements within the security services who provide training, logistics, and other professional services to these criminals.

So it is a complete political economy of a criminal enterprise. It will take only a President who is genuinely willing to deal with the situation. Otherwise, Nigerians will continue to be killed every day.

How will you assess democracy in Nigeria since 1999 to date?

Democracy in Nigeria is on life support because every attribute of democracy has been destroyed. The political parties, key actors in democracy, have also been weakened.

This destruction of the political party system began when the President and the APC induced governors to defect to strengthen his party. Yet, despite that, he is still not certain of 2027. He then descended on the opposition political parties.

Virtually all opposition political parties have been affected by litigation that has moved from one court to another, and Tinubu and his government sponsor all these cases.

With what is happening in the country, do you think there will be a smooth transition in 2027?

The 2027 democratic transition is under attack because democracy cannot be based on a single political party. We are constitutionally guaranteed a multi-party democracy.

Tinubu is afraid of contesting an election, not because he does not want to, but because, in my view, he is the least qualified person to be nominated, and we do not know how the APC will handle that. He survived in 2023 because those who took him to court missed the point, and the Supreme Court ruled that Tinubu’s qualification was a pre-election matter.

You raised the issue of President Tinubu’s qualifications. You are a lawyer. Don’t you think the Supreme Court’s judgments in the last election have settled the matter?

The Supreme Court only held that issues relating to qualification are pre-election matters and ought to have been raised at the appropriate time. So the Supreme Court actually helped us. It educated us and prepared us for 2027. That is why we have serviced all our legal arsenals and are waiting.

On the day of President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration in 2023, he told bewildered Nigerians that the fuel subsidy had been removed. Do you think Nigerians are reaping the benefits of subsidy removal as it stands today?

Tinubu told Nigerians on the day of his inauguration that removing the fuel subsidy would make more resources available for Nigerians.

Since 2023, enormous revenues have accrued to the Federal Government through the removal of the fuel subsidy, increases in telecommunications tariffs, higher bank charges, higher electricity tariffs, and other sources.

Yet, with all these revenues, Nigerians are poorer than at any other time in the country’s history. Even during the civil war, Nigerians were not suffering like this.

What is your position on the recently convened Northern security summit? Do you think the Middle Belt should establish its own security structure or wait for the state police? Which option would you support?

Every arrangement requires a foundational platform. Does the Middle Belt have a political structure comparable to the Middle Belt Governors’ Forum, or even the North Central Governors’ Forum? It does not. So, from where will such a security architecture operate?

Sir, having painted a gloomy picture of Nigeria ahead of 2027, what is the way forward?

I sympathise with Nigerians because we are all human beings. They also share responsibility for their present predicament, having had many opportunities to vote bad governments out, yet they chose to collect Maggi, noodles, wrappers, and ₦500. But as leaders, whatever they have done, they remain our people, and we will continue to sympathise with them.

What Nigerians must now do is take responsibility for deciding their own destiny in 2027, because that responsibility rests with them. People will ask, “What guarantee is there that the elections will be free and fair? What guarantee is there that our votes will count?” I have always told Nigerians that those of us in the revolutionary political movement and civil society have our own role to play.

Let Nigerians go out and vote. Leave the next stage to us, ensuring every vote counts. Nigerians are already working with partners worldwide to address election rigging, whether through so-called technical glitches or other means. The international community is also engaged. We are working to ensure that, in 2027, digital platforms will transmit results directly from every polling unit.

If INEC cites a technical glitch, we will tell them, ‘No. That technical glitch is your own invention. These are the actual results.’ That is what Nigerians are working towards. So 2027 will not be child’s play. It must reflect the true outcome of democracy.