…Says president leaving behind legacy of misery, incompetence
By Daniel Kanu
National leader, Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), Comrade Joseph Evah, has assessed the Muhammadu Buhari eight years in office as president, describing the administration as a failure.
Evah is not only angry over the failure, but also what he described as his last days’ efforts to punish Nigerians.
With a voice full of anger in this no-holds-barred encounter with Sunday Sun, the activist listed reasons he is angry with Buhari.
He did not also spare Senator Godswill Akpabio as he exposed his sins.
He also spoke on other critical issues, including the danger of leaving a vacuum after the exit of President Buhari on May 29, and what the incoming president needs to do. Excerpt:
May 29 slated for the swearing-in ceremony of the president-elect is drawing close by the day. Most Nigerians are of the opinion that the election tribunal should conclude its judgment before the president-elect is administered the oath of office. What is your position on this?
Although it’s not the right thing to do given what happens in organised and decent societies, you know we cannot create an artificial vacuum. That will be bad considering where we are coming from, considering the nature of our society. The constitution says President Buhari’s tenure will end on the 29th of May. If the country is thrown into turmoil, into uncontrollable crises then you need a state of emergency and this will extend his tenure. Even if the constitution is not perfect, of course, it’s the most demonic document on earth, and because we are practicing it, that is why Nigeria is not normal. We need a new constitution, the people’s constitution, all these playboy politicians and jokers in the National Assembly in the name of senators and honourables, do you think they can rise up to the challenge? They say they are amending the constitution, but they are deceiving themselves. The current constitution is the most demonic document I have ever seen. But be that as it may, I still think we should deal with a lesser evil and going by this demonic constitution, President Buhari will exit office on May 29. If our institutions are normal, if our institutions are strong, the judiciary is supposed to conclude all the cases, both the governorship and presidential cases, before the swearing-in date, but since our institutions are all sick and weak, including our judiciary, we have no option than, in order not to cause anarchy or military intervention in the name of: there is confusion in the land as an excuse for the military to take over. They will tell us they took over the government to maintain law and order, and that they don’t want Nigeria to disintegrate. We don’t want to hear things like that; we don’t want any excuse for military intervention. So, let’s handle a lesser evil. The president will be sworn-in on May 29 for a hand-over, then after that let us have our watchdogs, our lawyers, our advocates, etc to follow the case. We can go extra mile to ensure we follow the case, but to say the president-elect should not be sworn-in, we will be asking for anarchy, and by extension, we are asking for military intervention because there will be crisis. That is not the best option if you ask me. I don’t want us to have an anarchy situation for us to have a military intervention.
You have described the Nigerian constitution as one of the most demonic documents…?
(Cuts in) Yes. In fact, the person that would have helped us to make the change easier was President Obasanjo, he was the right person that would have helped us from 1999 to 2007, but because of his third term selfish ambition, he wanted to bribe the then National Assembly members for his third term self-seeking agenda, he did not put it as a patriotic issue that needed priority attention. That National Assembly is the one we can say was patriotic to at least 50 per cent when compared to the ones we have now. What we have now are cowboys, at least, the majority of them. The National Assembly now, especially the Senate is surrounded by, majorly, Yahoo-yahoo boys. Imagine the way they are signing all of Buhari’s loan requests. They are ready to advise President Buhari to take a loan from Togo or Benin Republic and they will not blink an eye to see anything wrong with it. It is sad we are having such lawmakers in the majority. You can only count those to exempt by your fingers, majority of them are shameless and can go to any level to rubberstamp anything that comes from Mr President. Our senators are ready to tell Buhari to go and take a loan from Benin Republic, not even Ghana. In fact, every time my mind is telling me to go and get a cane, a good Koboko, and march to the National Assembly premises to flog a good number of them. It is just that the policemen at the security post will block me and they will tell me you can’t flog the honourable, which honourable? Even if Buhari wants to go and borrow money from market women in Togo or Benin Republic, this National Assembly is ready to approve it. As long as they are enjoying their free jeep, enjoying their government houses, and eating free foods in some choice hotels in the name of Federal Government senators, they are ready to rubber stamp anything. I can’t understand why they are behaving in such manner; even those you expect to resist or reject certain things are equally compromising. Since the 1960 independence till date, this outgoing National Assembly ranks the worst in rating.
What do you think President Buhari will be remembered for when he finally leaves office?
He tormented Nigerians when he was about to go, using one Central Bank of Nigeria governor called Emefiele to torment the people, to make people commit suicide, to make Nigerians live in shame, in frustration and agony. It is sad that at that national level, somebody who is about to leave office decided to torment the citizens with a cashless policy. In fact not just with a cashless policy, but even your own money you cannot access it. They do not care if your children are dying, they do not care if you cannot access your money to pay your children’s school fees, they do not care if your children are not in school, but are at home due to ASUU strike, they are happy disorganizing, destabilising Labour unions. In my own part of the world, the Niger Delta area, Buhari tormented the NNDC, and turned the commission to Yahoo-Yahoo centre, turning the head of the commission to eating chairman, a General Overseer etc….We gained nothing from the NDDC under his tenure. A commission that is supposed to be like an alternative to Shell, to bring intervention to the region, but that was not to be, and like Shell, they simply turned the place into a child play centre, a game playing centre. It’s annoying that for the eight years of Buhari, NDDC gave us nothing. They will tell you what they gave to us in the pages of newspapers, but go there and see in reality what is on the ground, nothing. They are just using the money to do whatever they like. Buhari will be remembered as a tormentor, leaving a legacy of total incompetence, failing to deliver in any of the areas he promised Nigerians, whether on the economy, security or anti-corruption. They brag about providing infrastructure, but you need to be alive first to enjoy infrastructure. Are we not all living in fear today? He is leaving Nigeria worst than he met it. We have never had it as bad as this. They used high-powered propaganda to remove my kinsman, President Jonathan, but what do we have today?
One of the former NDDC bosses, Senator Godswill Akpabio is now being positioned for the seat of the Senate president…?
(Cuts in) I will not accept Akpabio as the next Senate President; we want another South- south senator if it’s finally zoned to our zone. Akpabio has not come to apologise for destroying the NDDC. We never derived anything from Akpabio’s leadership of the NDDC and he has not come to apologise for that disaster. If he wants to become the Senate President on behalf of the South-south, he should come and apologise to the people for his past failure. He should tell us the spirit behind him, behind his actions at the NDDC and whether such spirit will not take over him again. He is still our brother; we cannot throw him away into the forest, but we must see that he has turned a new leaf. He destroyed the NDDC era, so he should come and apologise to the people and let him assure us that the former deception spirit has left him, that the spirit has been cast away. If he refuses to drop that spirit, Akpabio will be the worst Senate president, he will be causing problems in our region. I want to urge Bishop Umah Ukpai, Bishop Okogie, Bishop Abe, and all other Niger Delta bishops to help cast out the bad spirit, which Akpabio used in tormenting the NDDC, before positioning himself for the Senate president on our behalf. I watched him on television on Tuesday; it does not appear to me that he has transformed for such an assignment as the Senate president.
The United States recently sanctioned some Nigerians on visa restrictions due to the part they played in compromising the just concluded elections. How do you react to this development?
I think it’s cheering news. If they have the details they should help us. It is only countries like that that can help us, so that next time innocent people will not die because of election. A lot of terrible things happened during the election, denying voters access to vote, ethnic profiling, so much hate speeches, etc. Thank God social media exposed most of these things. In some cases, some people had to run away from their homes for fear of being killed. So, if the USA with a superior intelligence than ours is putting sanction that is okay. But, I think it will be good also for them to make the names of those facing the sanction public. We need to know them. No single blood is worth wasting because of the election.
How will you assess your state (Bayelsa) governor, Douye Diri’s performance so far?
He is just concluding four years; there are projects that he has put in place, he has a project that is connecting all senatorial zones. He is massively doing the work and we hope it will not stop. It’s a good project, and I think he needs our prayers. You know we are 70 per cent water; we are on top of water, so, if a governor is connecting all the areas, he needs to be commended, and we are supposed to encourage the governor. With what he is doing in the past four years, if he can do that for another four years, I believe it will go a long way to improve the standard of the area and of the people too.
There is this prediction and warning by weather experts that there will be downpour this year. Bearing in mind what the flood did to most Nigerian states last year, including Bayelsa, is your governor making any serious effort to avert imminent flood danger?
I think two weeks ago, he (Diri) set up the flood committee. I am trying to get the names of those in the committee and other officials of the government, so that we can assess them and start warning them to do what is right. So, if they politicise it, we are going back to square one. They must not fail in their assignment. The flood committee is expected to map out the needed strategy that will save us from any anticipated flood tragedy. I hope that the new incoming Federal Government will also be on top of the flood challenge nationwide. I am sure that immediately after Buhari leaves office, things will change, that is certain. Look, Buhari has shown that he is such a person that just sits at a place and watches things go wrong and he won’t have what it takes to stop it or say: enough is enough. I don’t know why, it’s so strange….With the way we looked up to Buhari, not knowing that it was Idiagbon that was making that government popular when he was military Head of State. The way Buhari came and became a changed person, watching things go wrong and not talking or reacting the way expected of him is strange. I am still studying to know the reason Buhari came and campaigned, and told Nigerians that he wanted to be president. I am still struggling to know why Buhari said he wanted to be civilian president. Something was in his mind telling him to come and run to become the civilian president of Nigeria. And you ask yourself, what has he achieved for Nigerians? We are now even more divided than ever, so what did he achieve? Three or four months to his leaving office, he just decided to punish Nigerians, why? Even when the Supreme Court, the apex court made a pronouncement concerning the Naira redesign and some other crucial issues, he disobeyed it. When the Supreme Court makes a pronouncement, a declaration in the interest of the ordinary people he disobeyed it. They should put Emefiele, the CBN governor, he also used to torment Nigerians on a live television, let him tell us the demon that entered into him to torment Nigerians. If Buhari is watching the news or listening to news reports, he won’t subject us to this dehumanizing level. Nigerians are today dying both instalmentally and on a large scale. This is worrisome. Even the Muslim world is ashamed of Buhari’s government. I don’t know what will make Buhari to be heartless about the Nigerian condition. People are crying for survival and he is not interested. Today, they are telling us to go and spend the old currency… so, where is the new currency that they printed?
What is your advice to the in-coming president?
He should go and visit Gen. Yakubu Gowon and ask him how he managed the civil war situation. It was with such magic that Nigeria boomed again immediately after the civil war. Look without sounding immodest, the years of Buhari is just like a civil war situation. So, we are coming out of a civil war situation as things are now, let the incoming president, Asiwaju Tinubu visit Gowon to learn the secret of his leadership success during this time that we are coming out of the civil war situation. Let him ask Gowon why he selected people like Pa Awolowo to manage the civil war situation and post-civil war situation. He should select people that are patriotic, people with fresh ideas, technocrats, and people who can deliver. We have people like Pa Awolowo in this generation, people with economic wisdom, people with the interest of the nation at heart, and people who are go-getters. Gowon went for the Awolowos, Aminu Kanos, the Enahoros, wonderful people, highly intelligent and visionary people who are not after enriching themselves, but want to leave their names in gold, in the sands of time. Years of Buhari are exactly like the Nigerian civil war crisis: security problems, starvation, economic crises, etc, but Awolowo was able to manage it. Tinubu should go for a round peg in a round hole. I recall one story, during the first international press conference of Yakubu Gowon, where Gowon was asked how he can manage this vast country, this massive nation, and Gowon told them to look at the people sitting with him. If Tinubu has sound people surrounding him, those with patriotic fervor, commitment with competence, he will do well and will restore the already lost hope in the land.
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