‘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.
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