Buhari’s minister condemns Tinibu’s administration 

Solomon Dalung who is a former Minister of Youth and Sports during Muhammadu Buhari administration has condemned the President Bola Ahmed Tinibu’s administration.

Dalung, in this interview, stated that the last two years under President Bola Tinubu, looking at the various indices of development, and submits that the president has performed poorly and would face the wrath of poor Nigerians in the next presidential election. Excerpts:

What is your assessment of the last two years of President Bola Tinubu in the area of good governance?

Well, for the past two years, I think the country has never been as terrible as it is now in terms of good governance, because good governance provides better well-being for the people, and the indices of good governance are transparency, accountability and justice.

Now, these three paradigms in the past two years are nowhere to be found. So, if I am going to score the government on good governance, they have performed poorly. They have scored less than 10 per cent.

In terms of adherence to the rule of law, has the president done well?

The rule of law has also been an issue in the past two years because the rule of law has been suffocated with the knees of the president on the legs of the rule of law. The cry is I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe and this is reflected in how impunity has replaced the rule of law. This was manifested, recently, in the case of Rivers, by the declaration of a state of emergency in that state, where the requirements of the Constitution were not only abandoned but were trampled upon by the members of the National Assembly and the President.

The law requires that the President has discretion to exercise when it comes to the declaration of a state of emergency. So, that is not questionable. But if that discretion is exercised in the name of a proclamation, the proclamation must be gazetted and there must be ratification by the National Assembly. Even when the president made a declaration and the state of emergency had not been ratified, he proceeded to swear in a Sole Administrator even before the ratification. So, all this total disregard for the rule of law and the arrests of dissident voices and voices of conscience, the arrest and prosecution have indeed brought down the concept of the rule of law to a very embarrassing degree. So, the government also failed in that.

Would you say more Nigerians have become poorer or richer in the last two years?

In the last two years, the country made more money than ever before, with the withdrawal of fuel subsidies. The poverty indices as of today are higher than at any other time in this country. With inflation very high, poverty reduction has become an illusion because Nigerians are dying of starvation and hunger. Even during the civil war, Nigerians did not suffer this much, except maybe in areas where the war affected the people, that is, the impact of the war on the people and their environment. But we are not at war, yet, Nigerians cannot feed themselves. I think the effort of poverty reduction of the government is hypocritical.

They are just paying lip service that a lot of money is being pumped into the sector while poverty continues to escalate astronomically.

Has the president shown respect to minority groups and endeared inclusive governance?

Well, the policy of this government is exclusivity and not inclusivity, because if you look at the approach of the government to appointments, it is not only lopsided, but the government has adopted the principle of “Kakistocracy” and not democracy.

The minorities have been further marginalized under this administration. The government patronizes associates, family members and concubines more than even giving Nigerians a semblance of peace. So, Nigeria is more divided than ever before in two years.

What about the fight against corruption by the administration?

The posture of this government as it relates to anti-corruption is that you must have high corruption credentials before you are appointed. I think the government is not fighting corruption, but this government spurs corruption. Why do I say this? The former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Dr Betta Edu, in just six months, was accused of being unable to account for over N72 billion. She was suspended for transferring N300 million from a government account into a private account. If you look at how this government has persuaded Nigerians to sacrifice for renewed hope meanwhile they keep lavishing and squandering the resources of the country in promoting their self-aggrandizement.

So, when you take a general view of the attitude of this government, taking into consideration how the son of a president goes about carrying a lot of money and sharing it, sometimes he is out to share food, the wife also travels across the country spending billions, you will conclude that this government is not fighting corruption. Still, it is promoting corruption, and it is corruption-friendly.

Do you see the president winning re-election in 2027?

The president has declared war on the Nigerian people with his policies of removal of subsidies without proper alternatives to address the crisis, the floating of the Naira, the increase in electricity and data tariffs etc. All these put together are policies that target the common man. So, the president has declared war against the class of poor people, and winning the election in 2027 is going to take the miracle of God, because it is not the political class now that will be fishing for the poor people, because it is Tinubu versus the poor people of Nigeria.

He might be tempted to bring out a lot of money to try to buy the poor, but I think the people are wiser than before. There is going to be a bazaar and a bonanza of collecting his money by even politicians, but it is going to be very difficult to sell him to the people of Nigeria, whether in the South West, in the South-South, in the South East, in the North West, North Central and or North East. It is going to be very difficult for anybody to sell him. So, winning the election is going to be difficult, but using technical means to declare himself as the winner may be a bit easier for him, but that would lead to a national crisis.

You are from the North and some stakeholders in the North seem very displeased with the president. Why is that? Is it because the president is from the South or are there other issues?

No, the president even won the election because Northerners supported the political arrangement called rotation of power or zoning between the North and South. So, the president was elected predominantly with the votes of the Northerners, over 5 million. They are dissatisfied with him because of his economic policies, which I earlier enumerated, withdrawal of fuel subsidies which have impoverished the poor, then weaponizing poverty and insulting the sentiments of the poor by living very large and lavishing money on his family members and government, while the poor continue to languish in penury.

So, these are the factors that are creating distrust between President Tinubu and the people of the North. It is not even about appointments – because the Muslim North, even if it is about appointments, has no reason to oppose him, because 90% of those he appoints in the North are from the Muslim North – but because he has declared war against the poor, and all his appointees cannot make any impact, neither can they convince anybody to trust him again. So, that is the issue. It is not the issue of whether he is from the South or not.

What are your thoughts about the massive defections in the APC?

The defections have been defined clearly by Adams Oshiomhole. So I don’t think we should bother much about it. The defection is a political confession for political sinners who have looted the country and they are afraid of being prosecuted by the EFCC. So, once you join the APC, your sins are forgiven. But all those defecting to the APC have no impact. Let us take the Governor of Delta State. There was somebody who won the primaries, a very popular politician of the PDP and the mandate was stolen by the former governor and given to his crony.

The matter was litigated by the Supreme Court. So, if that person, who was in court as a governor, today has defected to the APC, he will only defect with his commissioners and chairmen of local governments, but the people will remain with their ideal leader. So, nothing has happened in that state. Also, in many places, where most of these people did not even win elections, very unpopular people, the National Assembly, some of them, since they came to Abuja, they have never visited their constituencies. They collected, relief materials, and converted them, they didn’t even go to their constituencies and they are now defecting to the APC. Who will go with them? Did you see any of them moving with any crowd? No. So, the defections are more or less a political papal confession, where grave sinners would declare sins of political armed robbery, looting of the national treasury, political banditry, and so on. So that is it. It has no impact on the political situation.

Do you see the APC imploding as a result of these defections?

Most of these governors will suffer double jeopardy and multiple crises when they defect to the APC because they are going to face some of the leaders of the party, self-entitled leaders of the party, or self-appointed leaders of the party, who will not be willing to accommodate them and they have their tall ambitions too.

So, that is going to lead to an implosion in the APC and most of them are going to, again, defect from the APC to other political parties. So, we have not seen defections yet until when they will congregate at their conclave and then, there will be no white smoke, because their own “Pope” will not be elected. And then they will scatter, and begin to look for refuge in other political parties. So, that will happen because the defections are not in the interest of Nigerians. It is for their selfish and personal interests.

How about the opposition coalition being put in place by some politicians?

I am an SDP member and there is the tsunami of coalition building up and I am informed and connected to the coalition talks. So, we will keep our fingers crossed and see how it goes.