Subsidy removal: Nigerians should be asking government how increased revenue is spent – Oshun

Wale Oshun is national president of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), a splinter group of Afenifere, and chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Oshun, chief whip in the botched third republic, in this exclusive interview with Iniobong Iwok, spoke on wide range of issues, especially the crisis in the Lagos House of Assembly over the impeachment of the Speaker, President Tinubu’s economic reforms and the expulsion of Rauf Aregbesola from the APC. Excerpts:

What is your take on the controversy that has trailed the impeachment of Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker of Lagos Assembly?

I think the legislative arm of government is one of the three main pillars; you have the legislature, executive and judiciary and the basic assumption in any democracy is that; the three arms of government are independent of one another even in their interdependence.

The Assembly is met to take their decision; they are not to be stampeded by anybody, in some doing that you have more than two-third of members who made that decision.

Although Obasa complained about the process leading to his removal, the most important thing is that two-third of his colleagues made that decision.

When more than two-third now said they don’t want you to lead them, talking about the process is immaterial.

You need the confidence of each member and if two-third of them said, for whatever reason they would like to have a change, I think a gentle man, a democrat would respect that whatever the mood of taking that decision.

Let even leave the allegation of corruption aside for the fact that more than two –third have voted to remove him or more than two-third of the members are saying; we are tired of your leadership, that is the implication.

Forget about allegations, because when you talk about allegations in Nigeria, there are many things that can be brought up in politics. The most important thing is; are the lawmakers confident and approve of your leadership? If two-third suddenly wake up to say we are tired of your leadership, it is something to respect about.

Many people were surprised that the APC in Lagos allowed Obasa to emerge Speaker in this dispensation, after the controversy that trailed his tenure in the 8thAssembly. What is your take on that?

What you must know is that once the members of the House have agreed to elect him as Speaker of the House forget about the pressure from outside.

It is their decision, which they agreed upon, to forget if they had been influenced by anybody.

I was a member of a legislative arm before and the issue is when we take a decision, it becomes our decision no matter the external pressure that would have come.

So, if they take the decision to have him, they also took the decision not to have him. You need to respect those fillings, whether they were cajoled to take it or not, it is their decision they took it and have that right.

Would Obasa’s impeachment not divide Lagos APC, especially with the recent expulsion of Rauf Aregbesola?

APC communicates with itself, there is always a feedback mechanism within the party and this is highly respected.

For me what is important is that within the party, whether you talk of the selection process of candidates, there is always a communication mechanism.

Talking of fractions, there is no political party that does not have its ups and downs; there would always be interest which has to be contested, which has to be resolved one way or the other.

Because political parties are governed by human beings, there must always be interest, but at the end of the day, it would be resolved one way or the other.

At the end of the day there is always recognition of group interest that serves the interest of the majority of us. So, you would always find people sitting up at the appropriate time to say no; this is not the way to go, this is the way to go.

APC would always protect himself and take the best decision.

Aregbesola is in Osun State, I’m in Lagos State, but the truth is that he has been a good leader in the party.

I don’t know what is happening in Osun State, I don’t have the capacity to be monitoring what is happening in Osun, I just know that at some point all the crisis would be resolve to the benefit of the party and all the contestants in Osun.

For me one thing is important and that is, we would always need ourselves. Aregbesola is a founding member of APC, he has been in the thick and thin of politics in APC, even as a an elder in the party it would be my wish that elders of the party in Osun and across the country sit down and resolve the issues for the benefit of all the personnel and group interest of all.

What is important for me as an individual, I still believe that the leaders have to sit down and resolve the matter.

Aregbesola has been a very strong member of the political system that his interest over the years has been to the overall benefit of the party.

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But many people are surprised that the disagreement between him and President Bola Tinubu has dragged on for so long. Did this come as a surprise to you?

But the interesting thing is that Aregbesola and Tinubu are five and six.

Do you mean before or now?

The interesting thing is that, the tongue and the mouth bite one another, but they are still together. If there is little difference it is not for us outsiders to pour fuel on it, it is left for them to resolve. It would be resolved.

Confidently, I still believe they are five and six, because when you look at the relationship that was built in the past, it is what scientists would call the vesicular one.

I believe it will be resolved. That is why there must be less intervention from those who did not know the story and where they are coming from. The tongue and teeth confront themselves and still work in accord.

For me, there is no end to such a relationship; you can only hit each other like the tongue and teeth, but they can continue to work together.

But it’s been more than five or four years now and they have not been able to resolve it. Don’t you agree when observers say there is need for intervention from a third party to resolve the dispute?

There are a lot of misinterpretations in the open space that people rarely see; I do know their relationship is tongue and teeth they work together.

What is your take on President Tinubu’s economic reforms? Could the country have survived without removing the subsidy, particularly when allegations had trailed the subsidy management for two decades?

I mean allegations of unlawful payment; cartel that was taking advantage of the system, there is absolutely no way that any serious government would just look on and allow the subsidy mismanagement to continue.

Now that the subsidy is done what people should be talking about should be, with the increased revenue how the spending is done?

We can’t keep talking about the removal, it has taken place, what Nigerians should be talking about now is with the increased revenue how is it spent?

What is the government doing with the money? We are focusing so much on the federal government, yet the local government and the state government are the ones that take decisions that affect us the most.

How judiciously is this money that should be in the interest of the public used now? I mean at all levels in Nigeria we are focusing more on the federal government and that should not be.

That is why we have been talking about a reworking of the constitution, so that the federal government can be involved in a few things.

I mean things such as currency management, defence and security, scientist research, even secondary school, building of universities are things federating units should handle. The federal government should only lay the standard. Many things should be at those levels, the federal government do less.

Yes subsidy is removed but this extra money is still being distributed according to the constitution and it has yielded more money for all tiers of government, but how is this money utilised? For me that should be the focus.

But despite being an advocate of restructuring for years, President Tinubu appears not interested in a new constitution or reworking the existing one. Does it come to you as a surprise?

One thing I know is that Nigeria as presently constituted can only survive when the constitution is reworked, otherwise we are postponing the doom day. When the constitution is reworked it would solve a lot of things.

You know most people in public office would say let’s buy time, but if the constitution is not reworked for all the federating units to have more control of their resources and pay agreed tax to the federal government we may not get out of our troubles.

If for instance, security at the level of policing that we have is not shared we would just be wasting our time, talking and blaming each other, we would not leave where we are.

Is that the problem of Nigeria?

That is the problem; I mean the problem of control. We have not been able to manage the diversity; this is a big country with diverse culture and religion.

People with different habits and values and each federating unit would have to be managed based on its own perception of who they are.