A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Katch Ononuju, in this interview with SAMINU IBRAHIM, accuses President Muhammadu Buhari of helping the situation that led to the emergence of the deadly militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers. He also calls to question the sincerity of the Buhari administration’s war against corruption. EXCERPTS:
There is this debate about restructuring the country, but others call it true federalism. What is your view?
Restructuring is the only way to go to. We must restructure the country. If you buy a car and the car is having problems, the only thing to do is to stop and have it fixed; you can’t continue to drive that car, otherwise you will knock the engine. So, now that the country is not working, the right thing is to hold on and then recalibrate the protocols and that means change certain things.
Every Nigerian wants a better Nigeria. So, we are all Biafrans, as former vice president Atiku Abubakar stated. We want a better country, a restructured nation, and that better country, from what we think, can come from a restructured polity. You can see that the 36 states, most of them are not economically viable; so, we can restructure that into six geo-political zones.
Considering the constitutional problems that we have, we will look at the outcome of the constitutional conference and infuse them as articles of our constitution and we will move forward. Nobody wants to break away; you can see Buhari’s style of nepotism is not acceptable. I tell you only 10 states contribute to the federation account. There is no way any company will be successful if its managers do not consider those that contribute to its operational cost up to 80 percent. Those 10 states are oil producing states and Lagos. They contribute more than 80 percent, but what have they got in Buhari’s nepotism- driven appointments? Nothing! So, Buhari, I can tell you, is the creator of the Niger Delta Avengers.
Before now it was Boko Haram, now it is Indigenous People of Biafra, Niger Delta Avengers and others. How do we tame these agitators?
That tells you that the component parts that make up the country are not happy with the way the country is run. So, if the north has 19 percent of the country’s educated population, and the south has 79 percent, you can see the disparity that will sustain friction.
So, let us have the restructuring into a fiscal federal country. The fact that the vice president has changed from his known ways and called for restructuring into a fiscal federal country, to suddenly singing the music that Buhari will like to hear, tells you that it is typical with the African dictum that nobody talks when he is ‘chopping’. So, now that he thinks he is ‘chopping’ as part of the government in power, he does not want to talk about restructuring. If the young people in the North East are demanding for a new country, the young people in the South West as OPC, are demanding for a new country, the young people in the South South are demanding for a new country, the young people in the South East are demanding for the same, the North Central are also not out of it, we need to sit down and recalibrate our laws and build acceptable protocols that will govern us as people under one nation.
We are a country but not a nation; you have several ethnic nations competing for the soul of Nigeria on their own terms. And I think the earlier we sit down to agree to acceptable modes, the better. Because the crises we have now in the South South and the South East are all due to unfairness of the state. Anybody who says the state is fair, is not being honest. Right now the country is in recession because of Buhari’s incompetence.
The grazing reserve bill has been generating controversy. What is your take on the bill?
The grazing reserve bill is nothing, it should never be there. The Poultry Association did not ask for land to be seized and to be given to them. The grazing business should not even be an issue. In Nigeria, like the Poultry Association does, if you want such animal husbandry business, you find the land and also buy the logistics to do it, because at the end of the day, everybody in cattle breeding and animal husbandry keep their money hundred percent; it is not a national issue. It is a private business.
So, I think it is wrong for President Buhari, because he is the Grand Patron of the Miyetti Allah (Cattle Breeders Association), to allow the business interest of a trade association, in this case the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, to override and clash with national security and in this case destabilise national interest. Abuja is supposed to be the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); today, with cattle all over the place it is looking like the Federal Cattle Territory.
What is your Assessment of the Anti- Corruption Crusade?
I support the anti-corruption fight totally. I support Buhari’s intention to fight corruption, but Buhari also has to be honest. You can see the problem with the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose. If Buhari had the courage to deal with the Halliburton issue, then we will be able to find out if the Aisha Buhari in page 42 of that court judgment in Virginnia is actually his wife or it is someone else. But because he is not fighting corruption holistically, people now tend to believe that he is biased. I know now that they are fighting and talking about a probe of how PDP financed its elections; what about probing APC finances of its elections, too? For me, if you ask me, I support the anti-corruption fight by any government, hundred percent. But Buhari’s strategy of picking who he thinks are perceived political enemies and calling it anti-corruption fight, is totally a non-starter.
If he is honest, how come the investigation into the Ministry of Defence suddenly blotted out the tenure of General Abdulrahman Danbazzau? So, those who claim that the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, should also be sanctioned are correct because if Buratai had joined the army and had been a General from the very first day he took over power, it will take him 58 years to earn the money to buy those houses in Dubai.
This is why we are saying it is not a holistic fight. If we need to fight corruption, we fight it holistically. I think the president is challenged. I don’t think he is honest with his anti-corruption fight. We should leave a very good legacy for our children and the young Nigerians who look up to us should see us to be honest in what we say and in what we do. I don’t believe the President is totally sincere in his intentions about fighting corruption.
What is your view about the on-going trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, over alleged forgery of Senate Standing Rules?
Why did the President accept the budget passed by the same Senate whose rules were forged? If the Senate is illegal as presently constituted, why did he (President) accept the ministers they cleared? What you are saying is simple; witch-hunt against perceived political enemies. What was the offence of the Senate of the Federal Republic? They acted in line with the separation of powers act and asserted the autonomy of the legislature. They should not take instructions or the agreement reached at meetings held in Bourdillon. I think that is wrong; it shows there is a government within a government and it shows the president is weak.
What the Senate did was to fight corruption, because, for you to agree to implement what was agreed in Bourdillion at the National Assembly, is corruption in itself. I think fighting the National Assembly is a wrong way to go. And I believe, in fighting the National Assembly and in fighting Saraki, it has undermined the cohesion the ruling party should have.
And because of lack of cohesion, the party is falling apart and the government cannot hold proper. That is why you see without proper coordination, the economy today is in recession. It is not that the ruling party doesn’t have intelligent people to actually help, but the truth is, they are not together. The ruling party is not together and I put those blames on the president’s inability to show leadership.
The ruling APC has accused the PDP of plunging the country’s economy in a mess. Is the PDP made up of corrupt people?
The PDP is an honest reflection of Nigeria. Whatever you talk about the PDP is also applicable to the APC. I will not tell everybody that the PDP was very clean, because the PDP was a transitory omnibus that was helping the country to move away from dictatorship and unto democracy and in doing that, we had an arrangement where the soldiers like Obasanjo removed their uniform and wore civilian dress to pretend that they are democrats. Soldiers like Buhari, too, removed their uniform and wore the agbada to pretend; that’s actually the problem.
So, the corruption from the previous military era as manifested in the Halliburton problem also came over to haunt us. If you say the PDP was corrupt, don’t forget 60 percent of the APC rank and file are former PDP members and 80 percent of APC governors are former PDP people. These people who are currently in power are not new, the only new person is the president.
What is the panacea to the crisis in the PDP?
It is a very natural occurrence, the crisis in the PDP is good, if you ask me. The crisis is actually a blessing in disguise. First, we lost an election; secondly, we started suffering from a disease called post-defeat syndrome. It is a natural thing but the crisis is also good because some of our members who could have angrily moved over to APC are now caught in the opposing camps. So, when we now unite the party and reconcile everything, all members will still be in the same pool. Any large family without schisms like this, is a fraud.
