Ize-Iyamu: If We Concede that the Past’s Bad, Why is Buhari Recycling it?
Barrister Osagie Ize-Iyamu is a part-time pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Benin-City, Edo State. An astute politician, he was born into the upper middle-class family of late Chief Robert Osayande IzeIyamu, the highly respected Ben
What is your assessment of the unfolding political events in Nigeria, especially since your party, the PDP, lost power at the centre in the last general election?
Well, some people believe it is too early to make comment; but like the popular saying: time waits for no one. President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in on May 29 this year, and if you check it, it means the administration has spent four months in the office. For a party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), that was preaching ‘’change’’ before the general election, one would have thought by now they will be up and running. And many people were disappointed and surprised that 100 days came, passed and the president was still not able to even appoint his ministers. And when you now look at the ministerial nominees, you ask yourself: What was the big deal in keeping Nigerians waiting – in an attempt to get the so-called people without questionable character as ministers. If the ministers were new faces, one would have said that the president or the party wanted to have enough time to look around – including outside the country, to look for credible and capable hands to form his government. But what we are seeing today is a recycling of old hands. If we concede that the past was bad why is Buhari recycling the past? What are they going to provide for the future? Honestly, it is an anti-climax and people are disappointed. Quite honestly, it is all noise; no serious things have been done by this administration in the last four months or so. Members of Boko Haram that we were all hoping would be crushed in a matter of two months – as promised by Buhari, have started to extend their evil activities to the nation’s capital, Abuja. We thought that had been dealt with by the past administration; we are surprised that with all those arrested in connection with Boko Haram’s terrorism activities, and with international cooperation, the government has not been able to gather enough information to expose all those behind Boko Haram’s activities. By now, we thought those sponsoring Boko Haram would have been exposed. Buhari has not kept his promises; even the fight against corruption appears to have been compromised when you look at the list of ministerial nominees. Nigerians are wondering if they just wasted their votes for the APC. If we are to judge the government by what it has done in the past four months, it is a story of many disappointments.
What do you think is responsible for the inability of Buhari to perform, according to your assessment, in the last four months?
There is no doubt that the leadership of the party is a collection of strange bedfellows; what brought the membership of the party together was not an ideology; it was the quest for power by any means necessary; they wanted to win power at all cost. Their idea was to gang up and see how they can wrestle power from the PDP, especially former President Goodluck Jonathan. That to me, was the inspiration behind the APC’s agenda. And the moment Buhari won, the inspiration just died. Their problems now is how to share the proceeds of their so-called victory. It is clear now that all the APC was interested in was just winning the elections, so much so that they have started to disown their electoral promises. Some of them have even gone ahead to say that those promises were made by the party and not President Buhari. But Buhari came to power through the APC. Buhari’s name was not on the ballot paper during the election; it was the APC that was in the ballot paper. So, they cannot now beginning to disown the promises of the party on behalf of Buhari; they cannot say the party’s programmes are not that of President Buhari. For now, Nigerians are not sure of what the president promised them. But you and I know that there were promises of millions of jobs that will be created; there were promises of social welfare programmes, and nobody is talking about them anymore. The economy is suffering because the government of Buhari has no economic direction. Even the foreign trips that the president made were not properly defined; it was wasteful events. The current situation is quite worrisome, but having voted for the APC for a period of four years, one can only hope that the remaining three and a half years will be a lot more inspiring. But if we continue like this, God help Nigeria.
You were a founding member of the APC; you know too well the characters behind the party. Do you see the party fulfilling its promises to the people?
President Buhari needs to rise to the challenges; because a lot of the people who made the APC merger to succeed have all left the party. Whether anybody likes it or not, Chief Tom Ikimi was the chairman of the merger committee; he presided over all the meetings that were held and they were held in his house, whether in Abuja or Benin-City. And he was able to manage the process until we were able to agree on a name, symbol, flag and even the constitution of the party. The manifesto of the party was done through that process. People like Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and others have all gone. Those who are there now did not really play any serious role in the merger of the APC, though they were leaders in their own right and gave their blessings to the process. Right now, you can see a lot of confusion in the APC. The National Working Committee of the party has not been able to assert itself, and we saw that demonstrated when the leadership of the National Assembly was about to be constituted; they could not even call a meeting; they had to rely on an appeal to the president to call the meeting. In an ideal situation, the president should have been allowed to face more pressing issues of governance. And in any case, if there is a separation of power, it is not the responsibility of the president, the head of executive arm of power, to dictate to members of the legislative arm of government, who should lead them. But, because the party was unable to call such a meeting, they had to resort to the president to call a meeting. Of course, before they could convince themselves to call such a meeting, it was already too late. That apart, the party ought to have a board of trustees, they have it in their party’s constitution. But they don’t have because of the different tendencies among the power blocs within the APC. You have a party that ought to be a national party, yet, there is no clear leadership. Yes, I have heard an appellation like the National Leader; but if you look at the constitution of the party, it only recognises the national chairman as the leader of the party. But as we speak, the national chairman is embattled; he has not been able to constitute the board of trustees members. It appears that apart from the issue of governance, the president would have to help his party. Immediately they won the elections, one would have expected them to call a meeting and set an agenda for the party -- in terms of governance. But after the general election, they celebrated throughout and forgot about the reason they were elected. Now four months later, the party is still confused.
Let’s come to your party, the PDP. The leadership of your party recently admitted that they made some mistakes, which led to their defeat in the last general election. What are they doing right now to reposition the party?
Well, several meetings are being held; the party in its wisdom had set up Senator Ike Ekweremadu-led committee to investigate what went wrong before and during the last general election and make far-reaching recommendations on the way to go in the future. And they did a comprehensive works and they have submitted their report to the National Working Committee of our party. Between you and I, the defeat of PDP – painful as it might have been, is good for democracy; it is a wake-up call. It brings more competitiveness into the political arrangements. If elections are so easy to predict, the political environment and the players become nonchalant. That is where