‘Buhari Needs to Perform Major Surgery on Nigeria’
Adejare Aremu Adegbenro is the grandson of the late Premier of the Western Region, Dauda Shoroye Adegbero from Abeokuta, Ogun State. In this interview with Ojo M. Maduekwe in Lagos, Adegbenro suggested how the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, can succee
How would you assess the just concluded elections? First and foremost, I think all Nigerians should give thanks to God because it was indeed God’s doing that it was a peaceful election. It was against the anticipation of the people that a lot of lives would be lost; that the election would not hold and that Nigeria would break. But glory be to God that Nigerians came together and spoke with one voice. In unity, they elected a president that came from the opposition party for the first time in the history of Nigeria.
One cannot but mention the fatherly roles played by the likes of the former leaders of this country, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, General Abdusalami Abubakar, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Chief Emeka Anyaoku and a dogged fighter and unbowed democrat, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If not for them, Nigeria could have become ashes by now. They have proved to be real elder statesmen and respected international figures. What lesson did Nigerians learn from the election? It teaches us to always be flexible because nothing is gold cast. Today, I have learnt that Nigerians have a voice. The election has shown that, whoever misbehaves in office would be kicked out through the ballot box. What do you think led to the ‘Change’? I believe we should look at ourselves as Nigerians and not as Muslims, Christians, Hausa, Yoruba Igbo, northerner, South-south or whatever. Religion and ethnicity caused most of the problems. The second problem was lack of discipline that led to corruption. That was why Nigerians got up and said: President Goodluck Jonathan has done his best and that it was time to move and try somebody else. It is an open fact that majority of the voters in this country are the masses.
And once their welfare is not guaranteed, there will be problem. If they don’t have job, if they don’t have shelter, if they don’t have power supply that would drive their business, if they don’t have even the business to be driven, then it is high time they kicked out whoever is in power and say, enough is enough. Nigerians are now so politically sophisticated that in the last election, they even collected money and voted against those who gave the money. What’s your take on delays in judicial matters? Cases are like that all over the world. But there are cases that should be fast-tracked. And that is up to the president and the judicial team to have a way of not having some cases staying for too long before adjudication. There should be duration for cases. If a suspect is not guilty, let him go. If he is guilty, jail him.
It is all about discipline and welfare. If the people don’t have the necessities of life like electricity, good roads, food and job, they would look for other means to survive. These are what the government has to provide. And when you look at the antecedents of the vice president-elect, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, he is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), a seasoned administrator, he surely knows what to be done in the administration of justice. Also, the incoming president who never fought back with all the insults hauled at him during the electioneering is a man that possesses the qualities of a good leader. What are the challenges that will confront the incoming government? First and foremost, as far as I am concerned, the incoming President, General Muhammadu Buhari will need all Nigerians’ support to succeed. It is God and not Buhari that can solve the myriad of the problems plaguing the country. Therefore, we should all come together the way we did during the elections to assist him in the onerous task of nation-building. We should not expect miracle overnight. People should not make Buhari’s work more difficult by expecting instant miracle from him.
The man that has been aspiring to lead this country as a democratically elected president for a long time must have a master plan for the country. We should give him a chance and rally round him to implement his master plan and see what he has for the Nigerian people. Discipline must be maintained because it is the bane of the nation. And I, Adejare Adegbenro, believe that discipline must be maintained because lack of it breeds corruption and corruption has eaten deep into our fabric. We just have to fight it together as one.
Secondly, we have to look into the challenges of power sector because without constant supply of electricity, nothing can work because nothing can be done. So much money has been spent on electricity, yet nothing positive has happened. How can we manufacture without power? That is why manufacturing is more expensive than anywhere in the world. There is no infrastructure on the ground. No good roads and our ports are alarmingly porous. So, at what point can we begin to say we want to produce anything that the masses would gain from? How soon do you expect the ‘Change’ to start manifesting? That is a one million dollar question. We are yet to see what the incoming government has in stock for us and how the people, especially the opposition would accept it. That is why I said we should organise and harmonise ourselves to assist the incoming administration to be effective. And as I said earlier, it is about discipline. With discipline, you will realise that Nigerians are easy people to lead.
For me, it is a collective responsibility and people should give God-fearing advice – advice that will have positive impact for today and for our future. I am closer to my 50s than to my 20s. So, I am thinking of my children. That is why we should rally round Buhari and forget about which side of the country we come from.
Thank God the General is a disciplined man. So, let us toe his line and regain our lost glory as the Giant of Africa. We can do it. Our problem is self-aggrandizement. Nobody says we should not be rich.
What we are saying is that things should be done according to due process and laid down rule. General Buhari will do all what is humanly possible to fix Nigeria, if he doesn’t, then, he is not the Buhari we all voted for.
Nigeria needs surgical operation and General Buhari has to be a fantastic surgeon to carry it out because Nigeria is rotten the way I look at it. And the first thing to do is to bring everybody together as one and forget about all the bitterness of the past. It is a new regime, it is a new party and it is a new ideology. We should all embrace discipline and once we do that, every other thing will fall in place.
How large do you want Buhari’s cabinet? Presidential system is expensive. Yet the coming cabinet should be trimmed to save cost. Only capable hands should be appointed to make things work. We know politicians would always be politicians. We should know how to accommodate them. But for the surgical operation, we need competent hands on board to carry it out. Not the people that would see the incoming administration as business as usual. That is not what would move the country forward. Corruption has eaten so deep even into the generation that is yet to be in its 20s.
We are part of the problem. We celebrate corruption. If somebody is a thief and tomorrow he becomes governor, if he comes around, we will all rise and salute him. If it were in England, he would be pelted with rotten eggs. We should now realise that all of us should come out and shout. That is the leverage Buhari’s emergence has come to offer Nigerians. What do you think about the current fuel crisis? It beats me. I am not an expert in that sector but as far as I am concerned, it doesn’t make sense. All this comes back to selfish interest. Why should we be producing oil, taking the same oil outside to be refined, and bringing it back to the country and we are then paying subsidy on it? It doesn’t add up. Nigeria should look elsewhere beyond oil. Our country is blessed with a lot of resources. But what do we do about that? Everybody just concentrates on oil.
Take our airports for instance, with the huge amount spent, they are still porous. If we don’t know how to do it, we should learn from those who know. Dubai is there so is Philippine. They make sure their systems work and they are making revenue out of it. Dubai is a tourist country today and it is making so much money from tourism. What are we doing in Nigeria? We are just contributing to other countries’ GDP! Does it make any sense? It doesn’t.
I remember as a child when I was schooling abroad. Coming back to Nigeria was more of joy than going to England for holiday. Today, it is the opposite. Your child is sick, you send him abroad. Rich men’s children in Lagos don’t know where Shangisha or Ikorodu is. We have so over sheltered and over-pampered our children that they are bound to fail.
And that is why we want the General to put discipline back into our good people of Nigeria and train the youth to imbibe his ideology. When we do that, the country will be in the mainstream and on the right path. By special grace of God, the General will live long to train our youth and instill discipline in them and teach them the way to be real leaders of tomorrow.
Things don’t work here because we continue to put wrong people in office and make use of bad policies. I believe so much in General Buhari that he would do it and bring real change to Nigeria. Would you suggest roles for traditional rulers and religious leaders in the new administration? All the traditional rulers, clerics, retired generals and other elder statesmen should stop playing politics and come together to rally round General Buhari with useful advice to move the country forward. They should emphasise what would unite us and not what would divide us.
I am not envious of General Buhari coming now at the time Nigeria is down and almost out. Even if you bring the youngest and very brilliant chap as president now, he cannot solve Nigeria’s problem. It would require God’s grace and support of the generality of the citizenry.