Solomon Selcap Dalung is a Nigerian lawyer, academic and politician who served as the Minister of Youth and Sports of Nigeria from November 2015 to May 2019. In this interview, Dalung admits that the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari failed because it did not achieve those promises that constitute the mandate of his government after eight years. He also speaks on President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the economic situation in the country among others. Excerpts:
You are one of the strong critics of President Bola Tinubu, who used to be in the same political family as you. You said he and his Lagos miracle workers have not been able to make any difference and you also accused him of causing hardship for Nigerians. What exactly are we dealing with here?
What I have decided to be doing recently is trying to place things in the proper perceptive and trying to change the narrative from the real issues affecting Nigerians to mere propaganda and cyber-bullying because the President’s men are in a state of being a source of strength to contributing ideas and knowledge on how to deal with escalating frustration of Nigerians.
There is a high cost of living, economic hardship and insecurity but they tend to invest more energy in bullying anybody who has anything to offer or holding his voice to the increasing echo of concern by the religious and traditional rulers.
I am the President’s greatest admirer because he is also a comrade and there is a spirit among comrades to support one another. But one thing we don’t do to ourselves is to be hypocritical. We tell ourselves the truth no matter how bitter it is and all I have been doing is to try to draw his attention to the hardship in the country. Much is expected from him because Nigerians expected him to replay the Lagos miracle which transformed Lagos State into a successful economy today.
But within the last seven months, it does appear that every day, things are slipping off his control thereby generating unnecessary national frustration. So, I’m not a critic and I don’t think we should now invent another new nomenclature from the admirers of our popular spokesperson, Femi Adesina to a staunch critic.
Will you say that the President is surrounded by people who are unwilling to tell him the truth about the state of things in the country?
President Tinubu’s presidency appeared not to be distinguishable from the same grip of power and fortification by people within the corridors of power. I say this because if you gauge their statements and body language, they tend to over-protect the President and deploy maximum energy to go after anybody who may even be genuinely expressing concern that needs to be addressed.
I will begin with the National Security Adviser, who has no business to begin to champion a campaign of blame game because he introduced this. That signifies that he has something to hide from Nigerians and he is trying to over-protect the President. So, there are people who have made the presidency inaccessible. I’m trying to back up what I said with facts when Plateau State was burning and they were killing people.
As a leader, I rallied round opinion leaders among the Fulani-Hausa Christian leaders and we discussed and decided that we should meet the National Security Adviser. They trusted me with the responsibility of moving them and this delegation included serving members of the state House of Assembly. We drove to the office of the National Security Adviser and they stopped us at the gate and insisted that we must get clearance by calling him.
I made several calls which he didn’t pick and I sent several messages and he didn’t respond. I sent several WhatsApp messages and he didn’t respond. At the end of the day, this delegation with all its noble ambition went back to Jos. But the next thing we heard was the unfortunate calamity that befell the state during the festive celebration.
I have also personally tried to reach the Chief of Staff of the President to just say we have to help you succeed because this country belongs to all of us and I would want us to discuss alternative ideas on how we can deal with some of these challenges and how we can engage more Nigerians to give the government stability to perform.
He did not even respond to any of my messages even though I was even persuaded by one of our close friends and I reluctantly accepted. So, the President is equally fortified by a group of people who do not allow alternative ideas and key opinions to filter across.
“I have admitted several times and even if it requires that I would be tied to the stick and shot for my role in Buhari’s government, I deserve it because we failed Nigerians”
But a lot of people will disagree with you because you were part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration that damaged everything and they are saying that in your time you couldn’t do it well. Why now is this attack on the likes of Daniel Bwala and Bayo Onanuga that they are praise-singing Tinubu? Secondly, what were the things you would like to say that Buhari did better?
Solomon Dalung has never claimed to be a saint and I have admitted several times and even if it requires that I would be tied to the stick and shot for my role in Buhari’s government, I deserve it because we failed Nigerians. I have said this several times and I have apologized several times. So, trying to make issues out of that is inconsequential for now.
We failed because those promises that constitute the mandate of Buhari’s government, which I was a part of, were not achieved after eight years even though it is one of the governments in the history of Nigeria that Nigerians invested in, including common people to bring it to power. I’m not trying to play saint but all I’m saying is that despite that Buhari did not even survive my toxic mouth, I did not spare Buhari even in government or out of government.
About my failure that has been referred to in sports, to the best of my knowledge, I did my modest best and I still have an unchallenged achievement in that ministry. It is left for people to accept. My brother and friend, Daniel Bwala, has decided to consider whatever my opinions were as a hostile approach. I have apologized to him because he has referred to me as a multidimensional incompetent person.
I’m not laying claim to monopoly of knowledge but all I’m saying is how President Tinubu could be surrounded by such Cambridge intellectuals, yet local women in Minna understood the dynamics of Nigerian politics more than them. These women, none of them were wearing anything more than N10, 000 and they were not properly schooled but they were able to mobilise people to protest.
That means the thesis of the protest was superior to the intellectual prowess of the likes of Bwala and Onanuga because the women were saying that an empty stomach does not listen to the gospel. What I’m saying is that the President should concentrate on tackling the issues and not the blame game.
Buhari tried in his modest way. What did he do differently? Buhari appreciated the dynamics of the Nigerian economy when he came in because he appointed a very modest cabinet of 36 ministers. Each minister approved only two aides and Buhari did not change vehicles in the first four years of tenure that I also served in.
Buhari cut his salary by 50 percent and he also took measures that brought Nigeria out of recession within a year. Even though in the final analysis, he is a hero of woes for not being able to run the race to the end. He should not be blamed for self-inflicted injuries caused by President Tinubu’s administration.
You have been quoted as saying that the Tinubu’s administration has been rudderless since May 29. You also criticized the government for adopting the International Monetary Fund policy and removing subsidies without providing alternatives. But the government has been commended by the IMF and other international rating agencies. How is the government rudderless?
When a witch announces that a sick person has recovered, mourning should commence. That the IMF has commended President Tinubu’s government is evidence that they have dealt a massive blow to our attempt at economic transformation. The prescription of the IMF had never in the history of the world succeeded in transforming any country. The South East Asia countries that today are celebrated as industrialised nations emerged without IMF prescription.
So, why can’t we develop our home-grown economic policies that will recognize our uniqueness? I referred to the government as rudderless because the President on May 29, 2023, armed Nigerians with weapons to criticize him and should not spare him because he said and I quote: ‘Do not pity me, I sought for the job and I got it.’ So, those over-protecting him cannot be more Catholic than the Pope. He has given us the right not to spare him and I thank him for conferring that right on me.
On that same May 29, he made some profound statements which guaranteed some relative hope to Nigerians but after a few days, he rolled out his palliative programmes and the palliative programmes followed the same dimension of Buhari’s style of sharing money and grains to the state governors.
The moment you tell Nigerians that you have released grains to the National Emergency Management Agency, a lot of people would look for their blood pressure medication because of the bitter experiences they have had with NEMA. NEMA is good in accepting the declaration of release of grains but very economical in accountability of how it has been distributed.
So, when he rolled out the same method and gave money to governors to go and share, of course, it was evident that the ship had lost control and was at the mercy of the stone. I don’t need any soothsayer to tell me this. So, it became rudderless from analysis of some of the policies the government rolled out as a response to how it can deal with the consequences of the withdrawal of fuel subsidy.
A lot that has been done by this government in dealing and tackling the problems contributed much in driving us to this bus stop of frustration. Therefore, in this circumstance, I may not be too wrong to have used that word. It may also even suggest that I am also frustrated.
What is your opinion on the call by the People’s Democratic Party for the President to resign if he cannot handle the challenges Nigeria is facing?
The request of the PDP governors for the President to resign is irresponsible and reckless because it means politicization of the challenges Nigerians are facing. Even if the President is to resign, the next sheriff on the line is another All Progressives Congress man. The problem should not be personalized. The problem should be taken holistically. The APC has not given Nigerians a credible governance mandate.
