By Umunna Kalu

Activist and President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima in this chat assesses President Bola Tinubu’s administration as it marks it’s one year scorecard. Shettima, spoke on other critical issues including off-season elections.

Excerpt

President Tinubu’s administration will be clocking one year in office on May 29. So far, what is your assessment of the administration ?

So far, it has been a rough journey under the Tinubu presidency in the last year. The journey has been rough even though some of us remain hopeful that it is also not right to quickly jump into hasty conclusion that there may not be light at the end of the tunnel. Don’t forget that the government inherited so much problems from the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari. So, there is no way we can say that we expect the Tinubu administration to arrest some of these issues that are very fundamental in just one year.

Even in four years, I don’t see it working out but we hope and we look forward to seeing this administration bring in people, who have experience and capacity, people who can effect changes and people who will lead the country and put us in the right direction. At least, after eight years of Tinubu, we should begin to see light. Then in the subsequent governments, we expect that they can also build on his achievements.

Yes, we want the Tinubu administration to take us to the Eldorado and we look forward to that. But anybody who assumes that the road would be easy is just deceiving himself or herself. It has to be rough and certain critical decisions must be taken that are very painful but the government has no choice but to take them. We are also saying that any policy that the government will introduce no matter how unpopular it is, must have a human face. Human face is key and very important because you can only govern people when they are alive.

So, whatever the government is putting in place must allow the people to breathe no matter how difficult it is on its part. Despite the hard decision, they must take it in such a way that the common people can also live, so that they can be governed because you cannot govern anything that doesn’t exist or dead bodies. So, that is my appeal to the government.

When you say that the President should go for people with experience are you referring to a cabinet reshuffle?

Of course, reshuffling the cabinet is important, so that we don’t go back to what we came out from in the Buhari administration. Buhari gave people appointments and he never asked them to account for their performance in office. He will not monitor your performance. Once you are appointed; that was all and for him, you are doing fine as if he does not listen to the news at all. So, we hope that Tinubu would be smarter. The Tinubu I know; once he gives you responsibility, he monitors you personally and he ensures that you deliver. That was why he made sure that he surrounded himself with the best brains.
We also hope it will not be the case of Buhari who would appoint you for eight years and does not remember that you were even appointed talk more about checkmating your excesses or even monitor if you have performed or you have not performed. Tinubu’s case would be different but I am one of those who believe that the cabinet should be reshuffled though we can identify some of them who have done well. The likes of Bello Matawalle, a former governor of Zamfara State, has done brilliantly well in the area of security.

If you also look at Festus Keyamo, he has done well as Minister of Aviation. Dave Umahi is also doing well as Minister of Works. The Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, are also doing well. So, a few of them are doing well and they are making us proud and we are proud to associate with them. I will prefer for the Minister of Defence to be moved to another ministry, so that the Minister of Defence for State will take his position because you could see that the men in the service are happy to see him because he is always there for them.

He is performing and his record speaks for him. In the course of his action, you could see that the number one minister in the ministry is nowhere to be found. So, for me, I will advocate that he should be elevated as substantive minister of Defence. If you look at people like that and other young men and women with energy in the cabinet, you can see their passion for the country. It is not only about cabinet reshuffling; we have to know if some of these ministers are patriotic as well as whether they believe in the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President. Some of the ministers do not share the same idea as the President and that is why most times when he is being attacked on certain policies, they find it difficult to defend his position. But the likes of Matawalle have always been there for him and I’m concerned because the North is key to the realisation of Tinubu’s second term ambition. So, he must work with people who are brilliant and determined to go all out and make sure they deliver.

How would you rate the President in the area of security, particularly the North?

If you look at Tinubu’s body language; it is a clear indication that he has succeeded in handing over the issue of security to the northern part of the country by appointing Nuhu Ribadu as the National Security Adviser as well as Badaru Abubakar and Matawalle as Minister of Defence and Minister of State for Defence, respectively. He also appointed Yusuf Bichi, who is very committed as the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS).

This is a clear indication that Tinubu truly wants the issue of insecurity to be tackled by any means. So, all they need to do is to work together and work towards that and ensure that they deliver and give us what we want. I have no doubt in my mind that if encouraged and supported by all Nigerians and not only the government, they will certainly tackle the issue.

Are you in support of the position of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on the alleged plan by the United States (U.S.) and France to build military base in Nigeria?

The issue has been brought to the fore and I am glad that Nigerians came out and condemned it and our position remains that we will not accept it. We are a sovereign nation and we do not need America and France because their antecedents in other countries do not speak well of them. During President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, the issue came up but the then Chief of Army Staff, General Victor Malu, came out and opposed it and gave a very good reason, and that reason has not changed.

We are a sovereign country and we don’t need them to come and destabilise us because there is no country where insurgency, terrorism or kidnapping has been totally eliminated. Often, they raise an alarm and don’t find a solution. Rather than protecting the country, they end up protecting themselves and also exploiting that country. So, I stand with those who have opposed it and we will not accept that. We vehemently oppose that because we can manage our crisis internally and we will find solutions to our problems because we know what our problems are.

What is your take on the clamour for state police; do you think that Nigeria is ripe for state police?

We are ripe for state police and it is long overdue for establishment of state police or community policing. In every developed nation, you don’t concentrate only on federal police. In the United States, there are over seven outfits that I can remember that complement the efforts of the Federal Government. So, the case of Nigeria should not be different, especially as it is today.

Don’t forget that we are various communities coming together as a nation, so definitely you need people in certain places to complement the efforts of the security forces, so that they can get results and take us to where we are expected to be. You do not expect a man from Jigawa State to understand the terrain and the language in Ogbomosho or expect people within the community to constantly pass information to him, a man they may not trust with information. It is not going to work.

You do not take a typical Hausa man to Imo State and you expect him to perform. It will not work because most of these jobs are done within the community and the crimes are being committed within the community. So, for me, if we have community policing or state policing, they will work to complement the efforts of the federal police and pass necessary information that will help to fish out criminals because every criminal has a community.
Don’t forget that already we have shortage of manpower. Israel with about 80 million people has over four million police but in the case of Nigeria, if you put the army, police and other security agencies together, they are not up to 1.5 million. How can they protect the lives of over 230 million Nigerians? It is impossible. Don’t also forget that because someone is occupying a political office, he will have over 50 security personnel around him. What is left for the common people like us who are out there?

He feels his life is more important and valuable than any other person forgetting that all lives matter. So, we must address this mentality and check some of these excesses by some of these VIPs and also bring the manpower to the fore by adding up more people. If the Federal Government cannot take them, then the states should recruit some people to reduce this level of unemployment.

How do we address the concerns that the governors will use state police against their opponents?

Are the governors not using the federal police against their opponents? What difference does it make? There will always be bad eggs in the midst of good ones because that is the nature of this life. So, the fact that some of them will use them for their political interest does not stop us from protecting the lives of majority of our people.

So, let them work and let the Federal Government put some machinery in place to checkmate their excesses. Because a state established its own police doesn’t mean that the Federal Government will fold its hands and allow any impunity. It should be the responsibility of the Federal Government to supervise activities of the state police. There are legal weapons that can be put in the Constitution to checkmate abuse. We can use legal framework to curtail abuse.

How will you react to the reality of the hardship being witnessed by Nigerians today contrary to their thinking before President Tinubu took over power?

You know in this life for things to get better sometimes you have to pass through hard time before you begin to amend to make it better. Sometimes, you first make your mistakes before correcting them. But to be fair to President Tinubu, without assuming the position of his spokesperson, he inherited bad legacy from Buhari. The fact of the matter is that Buhari’s eight years put the country on its knees and there is nothing to pretend about it. Tinubu inherited all of the problems, the reason things are difficult because you still need time to clear the mess. The earlier we understand this, the better because even the best of reforms do not start producing result immediately.

We have to accept the reality and should not expect immediate magic. The reality today also is that we want President Tinubu to perform magic, but ask yourself whether it is possible. Although most of us still have our reservations and we are still watching events, but so far you need to give him benefit of the doubt. I am happy he understands some of the things going on and he is taking action. There is the need for him to rejig his cabinet so that he will work better.

Speak on the issue of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) battle against Yahaya Bello, former governor of Kogi State?

EFCC is doing media trial of Yahaya Bello. Even before they finish investigation they have already started convicting the person in their media trial and in perception. EFCC will never do deep investigation and complete it, so as to have a good case, but they will not, especially on big cases and you can see them losing high political cases after they have done their media trial and conviction of the individual. How many high profile cases have EFCC won? From the information we have, they never invited Yahaya Bello, they have never given him fair hearing, but already they have gone to the media making noise and that is where they lost the whole battle..

We have gone beyond that. Yahaya Bello is a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and should be treated according to the provisions of the law. Here is not a banana republic that anything goes unchallenged. You cannot just do anything you want to do on him because of personal grudges.

Why don’t they allow the court to decide first before doing what they are doing? What they are doing has shown that they are biased already and this is bad. You should not do media trial and conviction when the person is still innocent before the court. Nobody is above the law, and I am happy he has filed a legal suit against the anti-corruption agency. Even if he did what they are accusing him of, they should not be a judge in their own case. They must follow the process that is spelt out by the law. This is not a Banana Republic as I said earlier, we are a country regulated, bound by law and order and we must adhere to the provisions of the law to guide our actions. Even when you feel or know that a person or individual committed a certain offence, it is not in your place to do the job of the judge. You cannot be a judge in your own case.

I expect the Chairman of the EFCC, who is also a lawyer to know better. You cannot be emotional in matters of the law; you simply need evidence beyond reasonable doubt. EFCC Chairman is not above the law or a tin god, he should also subject himself to obeying the law, and nobody should be an outlaw or above the law. I think Nigerians must wake up to some of these issues. We in the civil society are doing our best and will continue to do it, but Nigerians must not be keeping blind eye over certain issues. Where ever there is injustice, undue intimidation and the like, Nigerians must be active and collectively speak against it.

Edo and Ondo states will be involved in the off-season elections soon. Do you still have the confidence that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will deliver credible and transparent elections?

For me, despite the propaganda against the INEC Chairman, Prof Mamood Yakubu, he has performed creditably well. I have 100 per cent confidence under his leadership because he has done well and he will still do well. No person that has headed the INEC institution has done what he has done or performed better than him since 1999 till date.