Tunde Daramola is a pharmacist and former national exco of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, he assesses the state of the nation, pointing out that Nigerians may not see the gains of the reforms of the current administration, because President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not sincere and had wrong people in his team. Excerpts:
Recently the Patriot met with President Tinubu and asked him to give the country a new constitution. What is your take?
The problem of Nigeria may be constitutional, but it is not purely constitutional, it is a management problem, a leadership problem. You don’t win an election to retain power; you win an election to burn political power and improve the livelihood of the masses. Let them write and rewrite the constitution if we have the same leadership who is about burning political capital only to retain power, you are not going anywhere. It is not the constitution that is the problem of Nigeria; it is the management of governance that is the problem. Why would you come into office and the first thing is to make sure, you butter the bread of the legislators who can remove you or the Supreme Court who has a case pending in their front. You increase their salaries and emolument because those are the people that can make life difficult for you. That is what is happening, they win an election, political capitalism burns to retain themselves in power, that is why you have dictators and people who don’t want to leave power. What is happening is that people who can interpret the constitution and make law are in their pocket. Emeka Anyaoku should know better, that the problem is not only the constitution, but also those in power.
In the current administration of President Tinubu, we had the Supreme Court judgement giving financial autonomy to councils. Is that a step forward?
But it was Lagos State that started taking from LG funds under the Tinubu’s administration when they had problem with the Olusegun Obasanjo administration at the federal level. So, they are the one that set the fire and now you are calling the fire fighter to put out the fire and people want us to praise them. Tell me why should I praise them? People learned from his play book, because it was when he created the LCDA in Lagos State and the Supreme Court disagreed that is when the state took control. Local government according to the 1999 Constitution supposed to be independent, Tinubu’s administration in Lagos started to seize allocation and every other governor wanted to be like him.
Tinubu has refused to restructure the country. Are you surprised?
Americans often say ‘walk the talk’, it is easy to restructure when it was PDP, did you hear any talk of restructuring under Muhammadu Buhari? They are now in power. They want the status-quo to remain, they are doing something different.
What is your reaction to the recent hunger protest across the country?
I don’t mean to disrespect the NLC, they are the one talking and threatening strike and they would later call it off. Nigerian workers don’t believe in the current labour leadership, because they believe they are being settled. Who agreed on N70, 000 minimum wage with the government? What can that buy? How many tubers of yam can that buy? The labour should re-access themselves because it is imminent we are not seeing the end of the protest, because the protest is not going anywhere. The politicians are just looting the money to send their children abroad and buy houses where they want, labour has to re-access themselves. I just came back from the United States, I collected N2,000 for them to buy food, but it has not provided anything in the house. Every message I received from Nigerians while abroad is cry for financial help, they can’t eat or survive, this government needs to do certain things. The number one import to Nigeria is refined oil and the number one export is crude, and those are the two things taking away our forex, if you are going to remove subsidy what arrangement did you make to make sure that the refineries are working.
When the refineries are not working, you remove the subsidy, so that the Malta own can import petrol. Before they use to allocate blocks, but now they give licence to bring in refined crude oil. It is a scam.
Why is Dangote not getting the crude? Of course, Dangote is a monopoly, but if you don’t want Dangote to be a monopoly then repair our refinery. You continue to make life hard for the masses, why did you increase electricity tariff? No preparation was made to increase generation and distribution, nothing, you just wake up to collect money from people and steal it. The same method they used for the Lekki toll gate. They are not the one that built the Lekki toll gate, it is Lateef Jakande that built it, they only did some palliative and started to charge. If you want to achieve success in governance you don’t put loyalists in economy and financial matters positions, you put experts.
Meritocracy and competence should be the watch word. Is it not the same people that messed Lagos up? I was renting my bedroom for N500, 000 now it is 5,000 000. When you put loyalists, they come to make money for you, because it is about the masses, but they are enriching themselves and their master.
There are calls for cabinet reshuffle, is that needed now?
The man put his cousin in charge of the blue economy and his loyalist in charge of the central bank and other places; you are not going to get anything to improve the economy, because it is garbage in garbage out. They are going to dance to the tune of the person that put them there. What the president should be doing is to put competent people to run the economy; you want to tell me that it took almost a year to provide palliative, when on the first day he announced removal of subsidy and other reforms. They thought it was fruit for the boys so they had come for their own.
Dangote said there is refinery in Malta, you take out crude and bring in refined crude, what preparation have they made for the youth? We hear all sorts of lies and they have an attack dog, who talks because of stomach infrastructure.
Despite President Tinubu’s promises, insecurity is worsened across Nigeria. What is your assessment of the situation?
That is a function of the economy, when people are hungry and hungry they would do anything to survive. So, that is why our lives are in danger, because they would take from anybody even if you are in government or not, because hunger is high. As clueless as Buhari was, he was able to listen to advice. Why remove subsidy and float the naira? You have floated the naira and removed subsidy, what happens to the gains? Instead of improving the lives of Nigerians, improve the healthcare, improve electricity generation, what we are seeing is an increase in the salary and remuneration of legislators and judiciary workers.
Is it sad to you that the main opposition, the PDP, is dead?
One of the gimmicks of the Bola Tinubu’s administration is to entice other politicians into the APC, they said he had bought Pius Anyim and more are coming. Nyesom Wike has a price, so you would see them cross to the APC because of stomach infrastructure. People that money passed through but did not use it well, would continue to have an insatiable appetite for it. Most of them are crossing to the APC because they lack principles. They are after stomach infrastructure.
