Former National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, South-South, Chief Edet Nkpubre, shares his thoughts with CHUKWUDI AKASIKE on Tinubu’s administration and why he left the PDP for the All Progressives Congress, among other issues
Why did you leave the Peoples Democratic Party for the Al/ Progressives Congress?
I moved from the PDP to the APC because I was no longer comfortable with what was going on in the PDP in 2015. In 2011, I was a member of the team that negotiated for former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2011 presidential election. It was agreed that he should only contest for one term of four years. That one term was reckoned as his second term after the completion of Yar’Adua’s tenure. People like the new Senate President (Senate Godswill Akpabio), Chief Edwin Clark and some others encouraged Jonathan to go for the 2015 Presidential election.
When we agreed for Jonathan to run in 2011, he stood up and made an acceptance speech, saying that the constitution allowed Presidents to go for only two terms of eight years and that if he completed four years, he would have done six years. He said if he tried something else, he would be going beyond eight years in office. He thanked God for granting him the opportunity of becoming a President, a position that a great politician like Chief Obafemi Awolowo had tried to occupy without succeeding. Jonathan said he was satisfied with the decision.
What happened thereafter?
When he (Jonathan) got into power, they began their scheming and in the end, he became the candidate of the PDP for the 2015 Presidential election. After that, I granted an interview and stated that if Jonathan failed they (those championing his course then) should be blamed. Akpabio was the chairman of the PDP Governor’s Forum at that time. They were the people encouraging him. They should blame people like Edwin Clark because Jonathan was not supposed to run for that (2015) election.
If Jonathan had allowed the emergence of PDP presidential candidates from the North, Muhammed Buhari would not have won that election in 2015. So, I left the PDP on moral grounds. The President was supposed to emerge from the North in 2015.
The governors appear to have an overbearing influence and decide almost everything in Nigerian politics, including who becomes the President of the country. How will react to this?
The governors are very powerful; they control the electorate in their states. Any candidate who wants to win an election and becomes the President will surely listen to the governors and sometimes concede to them, even inappropriately to have their support. That is how powerful they are. When the Northern Elders Forum spoke on the 2023 presidential election, the then governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, told them directly, ‘You are the elders, who cannot influence the votes’. He said it was the governors that always influence the votes and not the elders.
But do you agree with him on that?
No, but I’m saying that this is the situation on the ground, where everything revolves around the governors.
Is it right for the President and governors-elect to be sworn in before the courts deal with all litigations against their election?
If an election has been completed and a winner is announced, litigation to challenge such an election is part of the entire election process. Why not wait till that process is exhausted before the inauguration? I have always said that the legislature should amend the constitution to reflect this very important aspect. Assuming today, with all President Bola Tinubu has done and another person emerges as President, there will be a lot of crisis. He has supported the emergency of a Senate President. Whether you like it or not, he brought the Senate President. So, a lot of things have been done.
Assuming today, the court calls for a rerun, who takes over the government? It is the Senate President. This would not be fair to the system or to other parties. Remember that President Tinubu has appointed the security chiefs, he is appointing ministers and has supported the emergence of the heads of the legislature. What else does anybody want again? The government has already been set up. This might even influence the Judiciary on the doctrine of jurisprudence.
Are you saying that was what President Tinubu meant when he said that there would be a crisis if the court removes him from office?
I don’t think it is the crisis of people moving on the streets, rather it is the crisis of undoing what has been done. Assuming there is a rerun and he loses, undoing what has been done will be a recipe for crisis. That is how serious it is, and the constitution must be amended to make the court process a part of the election.
Don’t you think the judiciary has inadvertently been slowing down the court process?
That is why a time limit has to be given. The Constitution allows the court to handle election matters in 180 days. Who says such matters cannot be handled in three months or 90 days? We need to reschedule election dates to accommodate the 90 days for the judiciary. It can be done and we will have an elected person who has gone through the process before he is inaugurated and not a situation where the President will begin to look back to see the outcome of litigations and other distractions. The President and other elected people should be looking forward to seeing how to manage their governments.
Some people have criticised the floating of the exchange rate and the removal of fuel subsidy in one fell swoop by the President. What is your view on this?
All the presidential candidates made the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the exchange rate a campaign issue. But I have a different view. Even if you made that as a promise in your campaign, you should have formed your government before taking such decisions. Removing fuel subsidy or floating the exchange rate should not be rushed. These are very serious policies that should have been discussed in the Federal Executive Council. Your ministers should put their heads together and come up with a policy that will not cause the citizens too much hardship and depress the economy. We were told that crude swap is done, which means you send crude oil to a refinery outside and the refiner sends you refined products. So, where did we spend the trillions of naira in subsidies? Who did we pay such money to?
We needed to understand the dynamics before withdrawing the fuel subsidy. There is no economy in the world that is not subsidising. America subsidises. Germany subsidises. In Saudi Arabia, virtually everything is subsidised. There is no healthy economy which is not subsidised, particularly energy. When you don’t subsidise energy and you allow what is happening today, you are virtually killing the economy and production. If you make the cost of energy unbearable to the manufacturers, some people will not be able to run their factories profitably. So, energy subsidy should be taken seriously and should have been deliberated and the impact on the economy should have been considered and analysed before taking such a major decision.
But the World Bank and some people applauded the President for having the courage to remove fuel subsidy. How will you react to this?
Has the World Bank told Britain not to subsidise? Germans are subsidising, did the World Bank tell them not to subsidise? If you listen to the World Bank always, if you take whatever they tell you hook line and sinker, you are going to destroy this economy and destroy your people. I’m not saying you should not withdraw subsidy, I’m saying it is important to understand the dynamics of oil subsidy. Investigate the fraud in fuel subsidy and bring people to book. We complained of smuggling of subsidised petroleum products out of our borders. Who mans the boundaries? Is it not the government? So, why do you as a government want to push the cost of your failure to the masses? It is not fair because people are currently going through hardship.
The fact is that any policy that makes the citizens worse than they were is not a good policy. All these narratives that the subsidy removal will be similar to what happened in the communication sector where the price later came down. No, it won’t; energy is different, energy is everything. If you don’t subsidise energy, if you don’t deliberately manage your energy, you are going to ruin your economy. You will kill production and you will kill initiatives.
What about the floating of the exchange rate?
It is a welcome development. We don’t need to have two levels of exchange rate; one for the preferred people and one for the masses. The masses always bear the brunt. We are not exporting. So, what is the advantage of the devaluation of our currency? Floating is like devaluing your currency. If you have to float the exchange rate, you should restrict access to the limited foreign currency at your disposal. Why should you allow the importation of palm oil in Nigeria? Why should you allow students unrestricted access to foreign currency? We have Nigerian students studying in the Republic of Benin, some in Ghana, some in Sudan and some in America studying courses that are available here in Nigeria. Some of them who could not pass their JAMB examination have gone to smaller countries and run their first-degree programme. Why should the government allow such a cost on the economy of the country? A lot of items should be placed on ban both at the border and in our markets.
In our days, when we were travelling out, as a part of the documentation for a student visa, you were supposed to be cleared by the Federal Ministry of Education that the programme you were going to study outside was not available in Nigerian universities. Then we had few universities and not now that we have many universities. Why will the government allow somebody to go and read Economics outside the country? Why will you allow your student to go for a first degree in law abroad? I’m suggesting the re-introduction of Federal Government Clearance for oversea students. Those not cleared should not be allowed to participate in our NYSC programme.
What is your take on what appears to be an uneven distribution of wealth in the country where some politicians earn jumbo salaries while the minimum wage remains at N30,000?
The distribution of the nation’s wealth is lopsided and so bad that everybody wants to be a politician. Politicians are the richest people today. They are the people who award contracts and they are the people who earn the highest salary. But all of us cannot be politicians. The government needs to tinker with the salaries and the cost of governance. We can go back to a unicameral legislature. You can run a presidential system with a unicameral legislature. We must not copy the American system hook line and sinker. You can have a presidential system with only the House of Representatives where the ministers are appointed therefrom.
There must be a deliberate strategy to revive this economy. The refineries must be revived and if you cannot run the refineries, for goodness sake, import manpower that will run the refineries. You can sell them to people who will run them, but the government must have its own share. Again, licences should be issued to those who want to operate modular refineries, they will produce and we will stop importing petroleum products. We are the only country in OPEC that doesn’t have a functional refinery. It is embarrassing that 100 percent of refined products in the country are imported.
What is your view about the quality of ministerial nominees confirmed by the Senate?
I am not excited. They are still the old over-recycled faces we know. In fact, I learnt last week that some of them have unresolved cases with the EFCC. So, I am not excited. Let us hope people do change. For the interest of this country, we pray or we do hope some of them will be able to change.
Do you think President Tinubu should probe the immediate past administration?
President Tinubu should go beyond the immediate past administration and start probing past administrations from 1999. If he wants us to take his government seriously, he should probe from 1999. From the ministers to the governors, most of them have serious cases that have not been resolved with the EFCC. Former President (Olusegun) Obasanjo spent $16bn on power and yet we did not see any improvement. Who were the contractors involved? The current administration should go back and find out where the money is. Go back to Diezani’s (Alison-Madueke) case and ask questions. If Tinubu does a diligent investigation, the money he will recover will be enough to repay the debt burden of this country.
You were a former national vice chairman of the PDP. Wike has been given a ministerial appointment by the APC government. Do you think he should be sanctioned?
I do not know what they are waiting for. Before the appointment, Wike has been involved in anti-party activities. He formed an alliance of governors before he decided to confront the party during the election. Why should I keep him? I will sack him and he can go to court. I will sack you and prevent you from participating in the party’s activities.
But many are of the view that Wike funded the PDP at a point. How will you react to this?
Whether he funded the party or not, he is involved in anti-party activities and he did not even hide these. Before the election, he said it openly and after the election, he did the same thing. With his activities and utterances, I will sack him and he can go to court.
