‘FG Should Begin Restructuring Process Once Dust Settles’

 This interview, published in The Guardian of Nigeria today was granted last Thursday's (October 22) afternoon. 

‘FG Should Begin Restructuring Process Once Dust Settles’ Jide Ojo is the Executive Director of OJA Development Consult and the former Programme Manager with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). In this interview with ONYEDIKA AGBEDO, Ojo, who is also a public affairs analyst, says restructuring the country would bring an end to bad governance and the kind of violence witnessed by Nigerians following the #EndSARS protest.

What would you blame for the state of affairs in the country with regard to the #EndSARS protest that turned violent in many states?

It is the mishandling of the situation that has led to this our sorry state. We have more than 10 intelligence agencies in Nigeria. If they had done proper security threat assessment, if they had actually done their mapping very well, they should have picked intelligence on what may likely be the aftermath of the EndSARS protest. People are very bitter with the policing system in Nigeria and it is not today that government started promising reforms but failed to deliver. So, this is a bottled up anger against not only the policing system but also against bad governance in the country. They should have done everything humanly possible to arrest the situation because we all understand the trajectory.

The moment you have people on the street carrying placards and blocking the highways, definitely the miscreants, touts and undesirable elements would take advan tage of that to wreak havoc. And they knew the situation was tensed. In fact, it was the NLC/TUC strike that was shelved that many of these miscreants were hoping to use as launch pad for the mindless lootings and killings that are going on now. Fortunately, government was able to nip that in the bud on roundtable with the NLC/TUC. But they ignored the youths; they thought the EndSARS protesters were the children from very comfortable homes and would soon get tired; they thought they didn’t have the stamina to withstand rigour and stress.

But what they failed to understand was that after a while, the children of the poor who have remained jobless as a result of COVID19 pandemic and the bad policies of the government would want to cash in to avenge the bad governance in the country. And that is what we have seen.

Given your submission, do you subscribe to the view that the genuine protesters should have called off the protest at the point government accepted their fivepoint demand?

Let me say I subscribe. But again, the failure of the past is what warranted what happened. The failure to do the needful all these years was why all those law-abiding protesters refused to leave the streets. They were asking their president to speak to them and give them timelines and deliverables because SARS had been scrapped more than twice in the past. What happened thereafter? Few days ago, the National Human Rights Commission submitted the report of the Presidential Investigation Panel on the SARS to the Police Service Commission, Musiliu Smith, for immediate implementation. The report they rushed to present, which recommends 35 police officers for dismissal and all of that, ought to have been submitted a long time ago. There had been several police reforms that they didn’t act upon. That was why the youth were cynical with that five for five.

So, what Nigerian youths were asking for were complete deliverables and milestones that they can hold government accountable for. You can’t just be making blanket statements like, ‘Oh, we will establish a victims’ support fund’. For how long would that victims’ support fund be operational? Who is going to be donating? Can the Federal Government lead by sowing a seed of N1 billion or N500 million in each of the 36 states and FCT? After that, the state governments would come up with their own and then other private individuals just like they mobilised resources to fight COVID-19.

Government didn’t just leave the private sector to fight COVID-19 but the private sector weighed in with over N30 billion. So, what I am saying is that Nigerian youths were actually looking for something concrete that they can take the government on. Government has never proven itself to be credible. Look at the ASUU strike that has lasted for over six months. Many of the students that joined the EndSARS protest should have been in school. Many of them should have graduated. But the government ignored ASUU; they don’t care because their own children are schooling in Ivy League universities.

It is a fact that some of those demands cannot be immediately implemented as they would have to go through budgetary and legislative processes. Some people say the youth ought to have sheathed the sword at some point but they didn’t do that. With the level of destruction, we have seen, a lot of people are now saying that there is more to the protest than meets the eye. What is your take?

Yes, there may have been more to the protest than meets the eye but government, as I said, gave the people no choice.

Up till Thursday afternoon, a lot of eminent Nigerians were still pleading with Mr President to address Nigerians. Why should that happen? When George Floyd was killed in the U.S., did Donald Trump not speak to the American masses? Why should Mr President be talking to us through third parties? And why shouldn’t government come up with concrete terms of references, timelines, deliverables and milestones. That is where government and government officials are missing the point.

The youth are not stubborn; they want a better life for themselves. It is not everybody that wants to go abroad and become a second-class citizen. Look at the statistics; Nigeria remains the headquarters of extreme poverty globally. We took over from India about three years ago and we are yet to exit that. Now, we have an unemployment rate of 27.1 per cent according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The government promised 774,000 jobs for unskilled labourers. Do you know how

many graduates that applied for that job just because they want something to do? I know people who left the university 21 years ago who have not gotten jobs as I speak; they are living from hand to mouth. These are guys that are very brilliant. That is why people are saying let us also end bad governance with #EndSARS. People are now taking vengeance on even innocent businessmen. Look at private properties that have been razed, including media houses. Yesterday alone, the Nigerian Stock Exchange said they lost about N130 billion.

This is a period we are jubilating that we have flattened the curve of COVID-19. But with what is going on now, there might be a spike in COVID-19 cases. And with the economy already crumbled, because once you crumble the economy of Lagos you have inadvertently crumbled the economy of Nigeria, it will take a long time for Lagos and Nigeria to recover. When the president presented the N13 trillion budget, about N6 trillion was going to be borrowed. Now, there will be justification for more borrowings. And who is going to pay? Our generations yet unborn.

Already, this crisis is spreading across the country. I have seen the release of detainees in a police station in Okitipupa in Ondo State; there was a jail break in Edo State; there was an attempted jail break in Ikoyi Correctional Centre. With criminals breaking away from detention facilities, there will be spike in criminality and insecurity in the country. So, we are having a very dicey situation in our hands.

What is the way forward?

I feel the president should immediately deploy the military. But there are standard operational guidelines that must not be flouted. They are to go after the bad boys

and protect the innocent ones and their investments. Let them stop these mindless killings and the destruction of private and public properties. Let there be restoration of law and order. When that is done, let there be the political will to see through the police reforms that the people have requested.

Above everything, we need to restructure this country for better efficiency. Let’s have a dialogue and restructure this country. If we fail to restructure this country, the continuation of bad governance will just make what is going on now a child’s play. And I pray that this will not be the beginning of the end of Nigeria.