Dr. Isuwa Dogo, the National Publicity Secretary of the Middle Belt Forum, in this interview with JOY ANIGBOGU speaks about insecurity, high cost of living, system of governance and other topical issues. Excerpts:
Let us talk about the rising cost of living, recently residents of Niger State protested against the rising cost of living and hardship in the country and major opposition political parties in the country asked the President to seek help, what are your thoughts?
It is just unfortunate that we are going through this. What happened in Niger State is just a little part of it. There is no part of the country that is not feeling it. If last year you bought a bag of rice for about N30,000, this year you are buying it for over N60,000, which is an over 100 percent increase. If you bought a bag of flour for about N20,000 and this time you are buying it for N50,000, it is an over 100 percent increase.. If you bought a bag of beans for about N30,000, now you are buying it for N62,000, it is over 100 percent. I am just using these examples so that you will know what it is. There is nothing that its price has not doubled. Even the common biscuits for children that were selling for N250, now cost N1,000. Rising cost of living is a disaster, it is a calamity and it’s catastrophic. I think it’s leading us to a point of no return. I think something should be done immediately before the existential crisis will become a problem to all of us, particularly to the government.
Some Nigerians have expressed concern over the way aides of the president are reacting to the protests. They even went to the extent of saying that the protests were sponsored by members of the opposition. Some people expected them to consider the suggestions made by the opposition rather than blame anyone for the problem that is obvious to all. How do you react to that?
Anybody that talks of opposition is probably a political illiterate. Those in government like the ministers and the rest of them, yes they may have too much and may not feel it. They know the truth, whether they like it or not, they have those down the line that feel it and may have been disturbing them on a regular basis for assistance, but it is an open secret that Nigerians are suffering as never before. They are suffering and truly speaking we are just playing with time because when the time comes and these people are pushed to the brick of existence, they will have no alternative than to revolt against anything that is going to destroy their lives. You saw the video in which the Vice President said that some boys in Kano smashed the windscreen of the vehicle where his friend, his wife and the driver were. These people complained that they were enjoying themselves and they (the attackers) were suffering. They didn’t run away. It was the woman and the driver that ran away. Was that done by opposition? The video is all over the country. If the number two citizen could say that, how can somebody in his right mind be talking of opposition? The crisis is getting out of control and if care is not taken we will regret it in a terrible manner. The time is now for us to stand and solve the problem. We must not wait until it is too late.
Still on the issue of hardship and food insecurity, the Governor of Kwara State said that the food produced in Nigeria is the cheapest and neighbouring countries are using Nigeria food to trade and make money. Why do we have this issue, could it be traced to lack of capacity on the part of our leaders?
On people coming from outside to come and buy the food, if Nigerians have the money to buy the food, won’t they buy it? Will they be staying hungry? If your food is cheap and Nigerians have no money to buy it, how do those who come from outside make the money to come and buy it from Nigeria? Unfortunately Nigerians do not have the money to buy the food. It means they are not given anything1. Second aspect is this, are the borders controlled by Nigerians generally? How do they carry the food out of Nigeria? Is it the legal official trade? Even if it is correct, the average farmer, how much was he buying a bag of fertilizer last year? Compare what he bought the fertilizers in 2022 to what he bought in 2023. Even if he is going to buy fertilizers this year, how much would they buy? How much would you pay for transporting something from Kano to Lagos, for example, or to Port Harcourt or to Onitsha? So, to make such a statement is unfortunate in the sense that your people are dying of hunger and you are saying that the food is cheap. If it is so cheap, where is the money to buy them? Why are Nigerians dying of hunger, unable to buy the same food which is the cheapest. It is not the common man that will go and patrol the borders and stop people from coming to buy the food. Will Nigerians deliberately stay hungry instead of going to buy the food? Niger and Kwara are neighbouring states. So, if in Niger they are protesting because of hunger, and you say that people are buying cheap food from the borders.
This takes us to the issue of leadership, how leaders emerge during elections, what do you think can be done to ensure that we have the right people as leaders, do you think that what we need is an electoral reform that will guarantee transparency during elections so that the right candidates emerge as leaders?
To talk of electoral reforms is an understatement, because in Nigeria we talk of democracy but it is far from the truth. What exists in Nigeria from top to bottom is that the people are simply imposed by the oligarchy at all levels. I want to start from the local governments’ chairmen. They are put there by the governors to dance to their tunes. Even when elections take place, it is not the people that were elected that are sworn in. I will use my local government as an example. For two consecutive times, the people that won were not allowed to be sworn in by El-rufai. He would simply impose somebody who would serve as long as he wanted, remove him or her and put someone else. There is no governor in any state that is not influenced by the retiring governor. How logical will a governor, having been sworn in, start shouting and telling the whole world that the person who put you there is the ex-governor. So those who voted for him were absolutely useless. To the extent that he said whatever he says, if the former governor says something contrary, they should follow what the former Governor says. I don’t need to talk about the issue of Rivers State. It is like that across the country. The Senate President was put in that office due to the influence of the President. Is that democracy? I am not even talking about the elections. When a governor is leaving he will put his stooge there and will also ensure that he goes to occupy the senate seat. They retire as governors and go to the senate, stay there for as long as they want. Where in Nigeria can we say that we have clean, clear and credible elections where people elect those they want to be there? Even those who want to aspire, if they don’t have N30, N50m and all the millions to buy forms, can they go there? It is also rumoured that people pay money to be appointed ministers. The system has to be overhauled. Let me be sincere with you, the kind of democracy that we are practicing is not what we need in Nigeria. We need a parliamentary system of government, not this kind of democracy. It is less expensive and to a certain extent more transparent. They are more independent in taking decisions. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman is always appointed by the government. When they appoint the person, he will dance to the tune of those who appointed him. After elections there should be no swearing in until all court cases are settled. The executive appoints the Supreme Court justices, the governor appoints state High Court justices, the Federal High Court justices are appointed by the government. Can they be independent? Why should the person who is in power and have appointed all the service chiefs, including the police and all others, and you will start fighting him in court, thinking you will get justice? He put them there and if they pass a judgment against him today by tomorrow they can all be removed. If he goes on appeal the new people will bring the person back to power. So, it is not possible to have fairness at the security, judicial levels, not at any level. Every single election the court cases should be settled before the people are sworn in. If they can conduct elections a whole year before the swearing n, so be it. If there will be swearing in 2027, then conduct the elections at the beginning of 2026, before the end of 2026 all the court cases must have been settled. It is nonsensical if you have 30 political parties and they all conduct elections, and out of 100 million people that voted in that election and the winner gets 10million votes, that person cannot be sworn in as president. He can only be sworn in if he has more than 50 % of the votes cast. It is at this point you know that he actually has the majority. It can be 50.01%. It is not that the person has the highest number of votes. If nobody has above 50% of the votes cast, there should be a rerun. So, anyone who hasn’t got above 50% shouldn’t be sworn in as president. It shouldn’t be about the person with the highest number of votes. That is when democracy can appear to be democracy. The electronic level should be such that if you cast your vote, it should be recorded at the centre everybody can see the political party that has the highest number or the candidate that has whatever number of votes. We do not need to have different elections for different offices. All elections to different offices should be conducted in one day. Nigeria will save over 50 % of the money used for elections if all the elections are conducted one day. Every single election can be done on the same day. The results will be displayed automatically after voting. If nobody gets more than 50% of votes to be declared presidential, National Assembly, Governor and local government elections, he or she shouldn’t be declared winner. I don’t think it is right for political parties to sell forms at millions of naira to aspirants. What role do they play that aspirants have to buy forms for N30, N40 and N50 million. Political parties should be collecting small fees from members of the political parties, either monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually to run the party, and not by selling forms. So whether a person is rich or poor he or she can contest elections. Some people may be qualified but are hampered by financial constraints. You discover that some people who have the money will tell the person that he will sponsor the purchase of the form but the person will eventually be at the mercy of the benefactor when he gets into that office. The constitution should be amended to have independent candidates. If the person is popular in his place and is not under any political party, he can be elected.
Some people have asked the president to reshuffle his cabinet immediately in view of the lack of performance by some of his ministers. Insecurity is rising and they have also advocated for the sack of the minister of defence?
Does the minister go to provide security for anybody outside? He doesn’t. It is a systemic problem, the system has to be rejigged. By rejigging it, that is why I said that there should be state police and local government. The police should be profiled. The police and all the other security agencies should be adequately remunerated, I mean the police, the Army, the Navy, the Air force should be adequately remunerated. The money that a senator gets in one year is enough to pay a whole brigade for one year. These officers would be sacrificing their lives and one senator can be moving with about ten police men. What do they give to those 10 policemen? So, the system requires change. The security officers before they are recruited should be profiled to confirm that they are clean. Secondly, they should be properly trained to know that they have the ability to combat insecurity. Thirdly, they must give them adequate weapons to protect their own lives and that of other citizens. Fourthly, there must be adequate remuneration. They go to the same market like every other person so that they can take care of their families and loved ones. The topmost members of the society should not be allowed to monopolize the police in particular and stop them from protecting the citizenry.
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