Why Tinubu’s govt has not favoured South-West in appointments—Adeyeye
Prince Dayo Adeyeye was the leader of the South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) in the build-up to the 2023 election. He was Minister of State for Works in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan and had also served as the National Publicity Secretary of the Pan-Yoruba Socio-Political Organisation, Afenifere. In this interview, he declares that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has not deliberately favoured the South West zone in appointments. He also stated that the best way to get palliatives to the people is to go through groups of artisans and professional bodies rather than governors and politicians. He equally speaks on other issues. General Editor, TAIWO ADISA, Excerpts:
SIR, you led the South-West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA) to build up support for President Bola Tinubu in the prelude to the 2023 election, looking at how the government is turning out, will you say your mission has been accomplished as a group?
Yes, I think our mission, started as an organization that believed in the candidacy of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and decided to advocate and sensitize Nigerians to the great potentials that we find in him. We believe that he was the right person who could fight for the presidency and win To that extent. We gathered prominent personalities, and important political figures, first in the South-West and later across the Middle Belt and the far North and other parts of the country. SWAGA was made up of people who believe in our mission, which is that Nigeria needed a person of pedigree to steer the ship of state, particularly at these troubled times. And we went round the whole country, particularly starting from the South West. We met notable traditional traditional rulers. Many of them bought into our ideas.
Initially, even people in the South West were skeptics. They didn’t believe in the mission. They didn’t think it was ever going to succeed. They didn’t think that was the right person for the job then. But against all odds, we were focused on our mission, and we succeeded in persuading the vast majority of our people to accept the candidacy of Asiwaju. We were the first organization to start to start the propagation of that mission, and other groups later on joined. So to answer your question, I will say to the extent that ultimately he (Tinubu) went on to accept to run, and not only that, he won the primaries of the APC in a landslide and ultimately won the general elections. I will say to that extent, the first part of our mission has been accomplished, which is to make him the president of Nigeria. The second part is what we had told Nigerians that he was the best man for the job, that he was coming with the right experience, with the background, with all the great attributes that make for a great leader. We believe, to that extent, yes, that mission is on. I won’t say at this time that we have accomplished it, but we are hopeful that at the end of the day, at the end of his eight-year time, God willing, we will be able to say again that the second part of our the second leg of our mission can be accomplished.
Recently, a member of your group said that SWAGA has not got the deserved recognition. Are you feeling that way too?
No, I’m not feeling like that. The member of my group who expressed that view, I won’t blame him. Yes, people would think they started this group and the mission; and that they should have been recognized by now. They should be in the front row positions. But our mission was not that. Our mission was a nationalistic one, which is for the good of Nigerians. It wasn’t a selfish mission; it was a selfless mission to put forward somebody we think can turn around the fortunes of Nigeria for good. And in the process, of course, we expected to be rewarded for our efforts. If that has not been done, we don’t think it is too late in the day there are still many positions that are available to be filled and the government is just starting. So, I have been appealing to my members to exercise great patience that now we are dealing with somebody who doesn’t forget, who has a reputation for rewarding those who are loyal and diligently served him. I believe that ultimately, we will be well compensated and rewarded. I appeal to SWAGA members and in fact, many who are not even SWAGA members, who have expressed such opinion. Who have said that SWAGA should have been at the forefront of the appointments that have been made so far. I am appealing to them to please exercise patience.
Now looking at the way the government is being run, people are expressing issues about economic policies, security issues, and others. What do you say to that?
Regarding the government or the policies of the government, it’s too early in the day to begin to rate the government, whether it has succeeded or has not succeeded, whether it is performing or not performing. I think it is too early in the day. Nigerians have to exercise a little bit of patience. Let me use an analogy of a guy who has decided to set up an examination for a person or group of persons and then you say give them three hours to answer a set of questions. Maybe five questions to be answered within three hours and in about 30 minutes, you come back and say somebody is not writing well and therefore he has failed. I mean you must allow him to conclude before you mark the paper and say whether he has succeeded or not. Many governments would come to office with great popularity, and they begin to take populist positions that make them instantly loved by the vast majority of the people. But ultimately along the line, maybe towards the end of their time, everything goes sour and they discovered that those populist policies have become extremely negative, that they were not in the best interests of the nation. And we have had governments that come into the office and took some very, very necessary, I mean some drastic, painful but necessary decisions that ultimately turned out to be right. And they turned out to be very popular at the end of their tenure and to be very appreciated. We have seen examples of this all over the place in the world. We have seen it even in this country as well. So it is too early in the day to judge the government of President Tinubu. I believe that we should give him more time. I believe that some of the policies if they are going to be successful, it will take time before we begin to see the effects.
But you may not blame Nigerians if they are in a hurry to get results from the APC government, because they are taking it as a continuum of the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, where he came in with a lot of enthusiasm from the people that voted, believing he was bringing change. In eight years, everything turned upside down…
I’m not blaming Nigerians for agitating. I think they are right in thinking that there should be some immediate positive changes, yes. But I’m saying that it doesn’t work that way and I’m only appealing. I’m asking, begging for patience, but that’s the only thing we can do at the moment. Nigerians are not to be blamed. I don’t want to blame them because of this high expectation of the government. But I’m saying that they should let the process go on. They should let the government make the hard decisions and let’s see them through and we begin to see the result. I know Nigerians are very skeptical. Now skepticism, like my late professor, Bob Jay Dudley said, it’s a political virtue. Bob Dudley of blessed memory, was the Head of the Political Science Department, University of Ibadan. He said skepticism is a political virtue. Yes, they’re skeptical and they have the right to be skeptical. But I’m also seeing on the other side that yes, your criticism, we recognise it, but we are assuring you that ultimately there will be positive changes in the lives of Nigerians.
Nigerians have gone through a lot. I must say they have gone through a lot and rightly they have the right to be impatient. You have raised a very valid point, which is that an APC government succeeded another APC government. But you have to note that we are only a presidential system of government, not a parliamentary system of government where the party is so supreme and important. In the presidential system of government, the party is not supreme or too important. It is the administration, the personality of the president that matters. It’s not the party per se. It’s not a collective responsibility. Therefore, we must make a separation between the government of Buhari and the government of Tinubu. People voted for these personalities. They were on the ballot. As a person in the parliamentary system of government, you are voting for the party, not one individual, and the one that has majority members forms the government. But this one, the personalities are crucial and therefore I’m making that distinction. The Buhari government, even though it’s of APC, is still fundamentally different from that of Tinubu and they are coming with different policies. Asiwaju came out with his agenda tagged ‘The Renewed Hope Agenda’ and he even campaigned with it. So, it’s his agenda; it’s not APC’s agenda. So, I want Nigerians to judge him on that basis. Yes, you are right to be skeptical, but APC government is different from APC government. That is the major issue in running a presidential system.
Yeah, but then the economy is biting Nigerians and it’s becoming difficult to tell them to be patient. Just recently we saw protests in Niger, Kano, and other places. Particularly, what do you think the government should do as some of the low-hanging fruits?
Some of the protests were the handiworks of political enemies. We must accept that the governor of Niger State said that much. People are hungry, yeah, not to the level that they wanted to protest. Some of these protests were engineered and sponsored by political enemies. And we have to admit that because I saw the governor of Niger State on television saying that it was some politicians who mobilized these people and said some trucks were coming with food passing through Niger state and they should waylay them and loot those trucks. When the trucks did not, they turned it into a protest. So, I believe that can happen anywhere because Nigerians also want to capitalise on the present hardship and protest. You have asked me about low-hanging fruits that the government can quickly pluck to satisfy the people. Yes, what I still believe is that the government can take some steps. They have taken a step by releasing the food from the strategic reserves. We can import food in the interim maybe rice, if there are shortages along that line and the government can then subsidise the price of the importation and give it to the masses to eat. I still believe that the issue of transport subsidy must be handled.
I’m not saying they should return the subsidy on petroleum products. But these transporters that transport our goods, not persons, goods partly farm products, the government should find a way by which they can make things easier for them. Subsidise their expenses, and their costs, so that the cost of transportation of goods from one place to the other can be drastically reduced. But then in the meantime, our railways have to be fixed. We have to focus on railways to move goods from the North to the South and from the South to the North easily and cheaply. Nigeria has to focus on road development. We neglected railway development, which is what many countries in the world deployed to move goods from one part of the country to another. The issue of petroleum subsidy will not affect many if we have a good railway system in place. So, I will say that in the medium term, we should focus on railway development. But in a short time, the government should not hesitate to fill in the gaps where necessary. By distributing food to the people from the strategic reserve, and the palliatives, which the government is doing, that’s well-thought-out. The implementation has not been fantastic, and it is because the system relies too much on personalities who are in positions of authority.
What do you mean by that?
Okay, you are relying on state governments to do palliatives. The state governments just pocketed the money and converted it to other things. They didn’t do palliatives in many states. I am not impressed. And then you want to do it again through the people in the National Assembly. A lot of those things are also not reaching the masses. But then it is not unreasonable for government to think these are elected officials of the state. We must do it through them. But then it is all not working. It’s not getting to the right people. So the right way to get to the people is to mark out the critical sectors, critical groups in society, drivers’ unions market organisations, artisan groups, the trade, the cooperatives, and the disabled. Distribute these items through them and not through these elected people. Go directly to the parks, to the people, cooperatives, artisan groups, name them, mechanics, tailors, barbers, all these groups, teachers, and farmers. Push to them these items and say, teachers, this is what we are giving you. I tell you, the items will get to the grassroots than when you say I’m distributing through your representative in the House of Reps or the Senate. That’s one gap I saw that did not allow the palliatives to reach the people. SWAGA also did palliatives. Our group, because we will continue to support the president, we organised the palliatives. We went to South-West, we went to Plateau, Birnin -Kebbi, Yobe, Kwara, and parts of the country and we distributed palliatives in November last year when we saw the hardship of the people ahead of the government. We didn’t give it to just our members. Though our palliatives were not much, assuming that we can multiply our own by about 100 times or 1000 times, I tell you the people would not be feeling what they are feeling now because those people are grateful, and they came with their groups and they collected the items.
You have talked about conspiracy on the political front; is it possible that some people are also conspiring against the Naira to allow this free fall we have seen these days?
I cannot rule out a conspiracy against some of the policies of the government. I believe there is sabotage from particular circles, especially when you look in the area of currency, the Naira-dollar issue. I believe there is manipulation. I believe that there is a group of people in Nigeria who are mopping up the dollars and making it extremely scarce. And I think unless the government looks at that critically and says, okay, who are the people behind this dollar-naira manipulation, the exchange rate, who are the people behind exchange manipulation, unless they look at it through very forensic eyes and employ security agencies and other mechanisms to discover them, they may not be able to get out of this problem, because I am convinced that the thing is not a natural demand and supply matter. There’s a distortion. Even the governor of Central Bank said the Naira is undervalued. Yes, and all international organisations have also said the Naira is undervalued. The statistics by the CBN governor show that our importation has gone down, compared to what we had in 2014.
