•Kanu’s release will bring peace to the South-East
The National President of the Indigenous Igbo Youths Congress (IIYC), Chief Mayor Echefu has accused the Federal Government and the South-East governors of enjoying the insecurity in the region since they are doing nothing to arrest it.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the leader of the IIYC, called on the self-acclaimed factional leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to stop causing problems for people in Igbo land.
President Bola Tinubu is being applauded because of some of the reforms that he is carrying out. What is your view on this?
What reforms? Those praising him have the right to do so, but when they go deeper, they would understand the president is not doing and has not done anything extraordinary. The removal of service chiefs and the appointment of new ones shouldn’t be an achievement because that is what any Head of State should do. Former President Muhammadu Buhari did the same thing. What else? He announced a student loan scheme, which he has not come out to say how it would operate. Even at that, industry watchers have criticized it as unworkable programme. The appointment of special advisers and other aides is what people are ascribing as achievement or reforms.
So, when you direct agents of the state to hound your real or perceived enemies as the case with the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele and the suspended boss of the Economic Finance and Crime Commission (EFCC), Bawa, it becomes a reform or an achievement? The country is grounded; there is gnashing of teeth everywhere. The way things are going, it showed that he wasn’t really prepared for the office contrary to what was told Nigerians during the electioneering; he just wanted to make a name. They should return the presidency to the man who won the election.
What is your take on the fuel subsidy removal?
It is a time bomb and ill-conceived. President Tinubu rushed to announce the removal of fuel subsidy because during the campaigns other presidential candidates said they would remove it. He didn’t ask to know how to make it work. Look at how the removal has reduced greater percentage of Nigerians to nothing today. The country is in a quagmire – move front, no way; move backward, no way. This is not what we expected after we have passed through the furnace of former President Buhari.
We were told that the fuel subsidy money was getting into the pockets of few people, and these people they said were defrauding Nigeria. The government knows them; they are no spirits, they are flesh and blood. If Tinubu has the strength of character as we were made to know, he should have taken on these people head on. What are the anti-graft agencies doing? What are the security agencies doing? When you get these people arrested, and get back what they have stolen, and you pluck the leakages, there wouldn’t be any reason for this so called subsidy removal and its attendant suffering.
These fuel subsidy fraudsters are known, the DSS has not gone to arrest any of them, but they found strength in breaking into Emefiele’s house to arrest him for alleged sponsoring of terrorism, and later for gunrunning and now for possession of a pistol. This is laughable. At the same time, Asari Dokubo is brandishing AK 47 guns with his private army. The same DSS and other security agencies are looking the other way, and you are applauding somebody for reforms and achievements? Where is justice in this country?
You removed subsidy and you want to increase salary of workers. How many Nigerians are working in federal establishments? What of those in the private sector? Simple economics tells you that an increase in wages without corresponding increase in production leads to spiral inflation. Inflation is already hitting 30 per cent high. Let him go after these people that have brought Nigeria and Nigerians on their knees. Then people will take him more seriously.
How should the insecurity in the South-East be tackled?
Nnamdi Kanu should be released; his freedom is the panacea for the insecurity in the region. The court has freed him, but you are still keeping him in detention. He has not committed any crime against the Nigerian state. If he had, both the High Court and the Court of Appeal would not have discharged and acquitted him.
His offence was voicing out against the injustice and the treatment being meted out to the Igbo, but you wanted to silence him. He was going about with his adherents peacefully and even without any stick, but you brought soldiers, Operation Python Dance, to kill him, and they succeeded in killing many of his followers.
The insecurity in the South-East Region is the failure of the state governors of the zone. Our governors have failed us; those who were there when the problems started and those who are still there. Yes, the governors, past and the present have not done much to arrest the situation. They have not come together to find solution to the problem. If they call for a meeting, some will delegate their deputies, while some will send their chiefs of staff. Does that show seriousness for a region that is passing through affliction?
Added to this is the Federal Government, which from its action and inaction seems to be enjoying what is going on in the region, particularly the past government of Buhari, who would even like the Igbo to engage in self-immolation.
President Tinubu should distance himself from the position of his predecessor over the security situation in the South-East, and see it as a matter of urgency to free Nnamdi Kanu for the region to have peace. Recall that before the Operation Python Dance, the South-East was the most peaceful and the safest region in the country, but see what clueless leadership has caused and is still causing in the region, which in no distance time will start spilling over to other regions.
What is your position on the sit-at-home declared by Simon Ekpa?
The truth is that every Igbo youth wants Nnamdi Kanu to be released, but the way Simon Ekpa is going about it is condemnable, and should not be obeyed. He should stop overheating Igbo land. Kanu has queried why the economy of the region they wanted to liberate should be asphyxiated, and that is the reason he asked them to stop the sit-at-home.
There is no doubt that Nnamdi Kanu is central to the crisis. Igbo leaders led by Mbazulike Amechi met Buhari and pleaded for his release, but he refused. Buhari had the opportunity to write his name in the hearts of Igbo by releasing Kanu when those Igbo leaders went to him, but he refused. Instead, he said the court would decide, and when the court decided that he should be released, the former president refused to obey the court order. That shows that he was happy with what was going on in the region, and didn’t have respect for the rule of law.
Tinubu will do himself so much good if he should release the young man as soon as possible. His release is very central to resolving the insecurity problem we have in the zone, especially with regard to the issue of sit-at-home, which is crippling the economy of the region. Even the criminal elements that are enforcing this, who are not members of the IPOB are also hiding under the banner of non-release of Nnamdi Kanu to justify what they are doing, whereas Nnamdi Kanu’s own organisation has since distanced itself from it, but the thing continues.
If he comes out, we can then separate the real criminals from the genuine agitators for self determination because these are two different kinds of people. The challenges we have in the South-East are the governors and few Igbo leaders, who don’t want Kanu to be released. Killings in the region should stop; our youths should stop fighting each other. This is not what Kanu is fighting for.
The parties at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal have submitted their written addresses; do you see anything different from what is on ground?
All eyes are on the judiciary. Nigerians are hearing of a rerun from the camp of Mr. President, but it should be made clear that Nigerians are not interested in a rerun election. The people know the outcome of the election, and the candidate that won the election. So, if the APC is basking on rerun election, they should perish the idea because the Nigerian youths would not allow that.
The judiciary has a great opportunity to scroll its name in bold prints in this country. Every report from the election observers gave a damning verdict on the election and its conduct. The time to do the right thing in this country has come. Let us stop being a laughing stock among the comity of nations. We shouldn’t go wasting resources for another election; every truthful person in the country knows the winner of the election, and he should be declared the president.