Former Countrywide Vice-Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, South-West, Mr Bankole Adefemi Oluwajana, in this interview, speaks on President Bola Tinubu’s output, the status of Nigeria’s economy, agriculture, restructuring, and the 2027 extensive elections, within other domestic issues. Wale Igbintade brings excerpts.
President Tinubu is remarkably brilliant and knows what he is doing and where he is taking Nigeria. Presidents earlier than him majorly had governance in mind. He means well for Nigeria. In addition to governance, the government of President Tinubu has introduced restructuring, growth and economic stability. Such hitches are not unusual, and the approximate edges can be smoothened.
If there are lapses and mistakes, they are not reflect over.
No modern plantations exist, even when there are now stronger hybrids that will bear fruit during three to four years. The promote for agricultural products is inexhaustible, nationally and globally.
The majority of the cash crops now established on farms—cocoa, kola nuts, bitter kola, cashew nuts and timber—were planted in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. They have now virtually reached the conclude of their lifespan.
Is there anything you would have loved the President to do differently during his tenure?
Although our audience are rushing out for what they summon greener pastures in foreign lands, the Chinese, Indians and fellow Africans are taking over our land for farm plantations—cocoa, oil palm, cashew, timber and so on. Virtually all the primary oil palm plantations in Nigeria, including the exception of one or two, are indirectly owned by foreigners. They receive paid in dollars beyond Nigeria, which they smartly hold externally Nigeria.
These persons are not producing for the nearby promote.
How do you respond to this argument?
The matter of subsidy removal is criticised by opposition figures like Atiku Abubakar, who matter out that other nations conserve subsidies and that Nigerians benefited from them.
But I will too concur together with you that the governors summon for to do much greater than what they are doing.
It’s still the leading we can have. Are you getting the aspect?
We have a federal structure, which Tinubu is even trying to polish.
There is no contest.
The battle has been won even prior to it started.
The election is just a few months away, and the understanding of important opposition figures of what a campaign means is to abuse President Tinubu on social media like kindergarten children fighting over a bar of chocolate or groundnuts.
One of the negative effects of colonisation in Nigeria is that the vast majority of Nigerians aspire to take up white-collar jobs and become employees following graduation. Several followed that pattern and ended up in Lagos, which offered the leading opportunities for white-collar employment.
They have houses there. They have houses in Potomac. Now, they can’t do that anymore; it’s tough.
So, persons were buying—the rich individuals were buying houses in Potomac. We learn them. Potomac is a particularly pricey place in Maryland, adjacent to Washington.
The President has been distributing the subsidy savings to governors. What can Nigerians do to create the governors do additional for the individuals?
Atiku is a political gangster! The same Atiku spoke regarding subsidy when they were running the primary election. But his past does not justify that. Atiku will express anything just to experiment to—pursue to offer the dog a poor name to hang it. He’s saying whatever he could state to reveal that he could do something preferable. Individual who wants to receive what he wants by force. And serious persons will not take him seriously.
Who is a gangster?
I believe Nigeria is improving. But thank God for individuals like him. Are you getting the thought? The Fulani and the Fulani result—you reason it’s going to effort against Tinubu one day?
Now, when you talk regarding ethnicity, a majority of the governors in the North are all pro-Tinubu. Hopefully, by the time Tinubu is done including the additional four years, the people we will have there will moreover be as large-minded as Tinubu has been.
We are not going to acquire there overnight, but one later than another. I mean, are they not Northerners? Is Senator Sani, the man in Kaduna, not a thoroughbred Fulani?
Looking at political dynamics, what caused the APC’s loss in Osun Condition?
Now, Nigerians commute abroad together with goods to market there, earn proceeds and result alongside empty boxes.
Obviously, President Tinubu wants a well-arranged and enhanced upcoming for Nigeria. The naira deregulation and removal of subsidy are helpful policies. The reversal of this trend is useful for the economy.
This was injurious to the economy. Prior to now, it was the other manner roughly—Nigerians would go abroad using empty boxes and acquire alongside boxes filled using goods.
Baba Akande would have done far improved, even at his age.
His deputy, Benedict Alabi, would have done stronger. Oyetola was the fragile relate.
There are so a lot of solid politicians in the APC—Bashiru, Omisore, Fadahunsi, Omoworare and a lot of others.
Where do you see the biggest latent for Nigerian agricultural exports going forward?
He has shown us signs that he has restructuring in mind.
So, for me, Tinubu has moved us forward in restructuring. Using democratic limitations, he’s undoubtedly pursuing restructuring.
But we are not yet there. And this is not a military regime that can just wake up one day and restructure by route of military fiat like what a former Chief of Status, Aguiyi-Ironsi, did or what another party did at that time. By the time he finishes his second term, hopefully, we will have gotten there.
Section of what leaders discover out—mature leaders—is that you at no time criticise or labor against your party openly. And this happens furthermore in the United States. That’s why, no material what Donald Trump does, you hardly see Republican senators criticising him openly.
The man carries the flag of your party in the status.
The simply thing right now is that they are talking on the supposed case against Tinubu in the United States. Come on, was it not there in 2023? It just doesn’t build sense. So, to me, whatever anybody is doing anywhere will not succeed.
And how does that influence Nigeria? Are the votes to be cast by the cross-border network, by Americans?
They would come fund to Nigeria together with naira worth £1,300. You would adjust sterling here, express £1,000. So, goods were not coming to Nigeria, yet official transactions were going on. You understand what used to happen?
It even happened the other path ahead of, when the naira was stronger than the pound. They wouldn’t bring in any goods at all. The £1,000 you had changed here, Nigerians would go to the UK and vend it on the streets.
Do you see ethnicity and religion shaping the outcome of the 2027 election like they did in 2023?
When the time comes, we will cross it. In politics, anybody is free to aspire to be anything. So, why should that be an concern? If law has crossed it, it will be re-echoed again. Is Tunji-Ojo an inexperienced individual who will talk regarding such a thing? If we don’t cross it, law will cross it.
In the second place, as to whether he comes endorse, whether he wants to come fund, that is not for me to determine.
How do you outlook Nigeria’s transfer away from its modern agricultural base over the decades?
The third category comprises unduly ambitious young men excluding organization. They presume that a riot, protest or upheaval can bring them to power, forgetting that the same upheaval may consume them.
It cannot labor. This is why it cannot labor. That explains why Peter Obi kept jumping from one party to another.
And individuals of ambition don’t look at any other individual’s resonate to. You see, countless of them are individuals of ambition.
Is your party not threatened by the shift by the opposition to field a lone presidential candidate to reject Tinubu?
How far has he been able to do that?
Tinubu has been recognized to be an organizer of restructuring the body politic.
Where they are migrating from, in the farmlands of the countryside, you don’t see mad individuals on the streets at night owing to the detail that family members can accommodate them, occasionally in an entire house.
If anything, else, he’s subtly praising Tinubu. Lawal has suddenly realised that the topic has not actually worked against Christians. It wasn’t like that ahead of; he was so antagonistic.
In detail, a large champion of the concern at the time is now a spokesman, Daniel Bwala. So, the noise-making regarding muslim-muslim at that time has gone down.
And the other primary champion has been silent, former SGF, Babachir Lawal.
The smartness of Nigerians is not limited to just the Yahoo boys.
Nigerians are extremely smart. The merely thing is that some persons employ it positively; some apply it in a method that activity against the mechanism.
In your situation, Ondo, why is there political tension amid Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Minister Tunji-Ojo?
It takes time and serious activity by serious-minded society, acting including principles and excluding anger, envy or jealousy, to create a formidable unit or party.
Anywhere in the world, including the United States of America, you cannot be a serious contender in a democracy minus a arrangement.
How do you analyze the current situation of opposition parties ahead of the forthcoming elections?
I will cite the deputies, Ali Olanusi and Mimiko’s deputy, Agboola Ajayi, yes. I’ve mentioned; I will cite my humble self owing to the truth that I was a former Domestic Vice-Chairman. The initial feedback I’ll make is that, if you see, the primary leaders—leaders, I mean anybody I summon a director now, a party who has held a opinion in the condition.
Well, I will produce two comments. I will cite the former Governor, Mimiko.
So, he’s trying to produce the ideal of a seemingly unhelpful scenario.
Well, thank you so much. That was created by the Constitution. There’s nothing he could have done. You learn, if you see the manner Tinubu operates, he knows that, in a democracy, as the approach is in Nigeria, the governors hold a lot of power in the states. He still has to utilize them to be able to attain the persons as much as achievable.
That wasn’t created by him.
How has urbanisation and the quest for white-collar employment affected cities like Lagos and the rural areas?
Ultimately, even Tunji-Ojo will not admit that they are fighting. Neither will the governor state they are fighting. So, who am I to tell that they are fighting? It’s moreover just people speculation as to what is happening—but I believe I’ve made adequate observation for you to grasp. Are you getting the proposal?
The same thing alongside Atiku. So, you can see, at the conclude of the day, assuming they now express they prefer to activity together, that means that they have already acknowledged that they have failed.
Atiku additionally is a man of ambition, and he has changed parties—virtually every prepared party that you have seen.
He’s doing what persons prior to him under no circumstances did. For illustration, it is now a understood truth that the states are richer than they used to be. Another sample is the point that he’s trying to extend to the nooks and crannies of the country using a network of roads, trains and every other thing.
You learn, in four years—I will state in three years—you can’t complete the ultimate. But audience would have observed that he is gradually restructuring Nigeria.
If subsidy is returned, it will favour persons like you and me. But it will further enlarge the gap betwixt the rich and the weak.
Subsidy has enriched the privileged given that they have the network of friends. Given that the elite, the privileged persons like you and me, capitalise on it.
Why? They understand how to tap into it.
Kano alone has 44 LGAs and has the largest voting bloc in the North.
On the forthcoming election, it is particularly apparent that there is no serious opposition, or the opposition parties are not serious. Kano is one of the two swing states that determine presidential elections. The supposedly biggest of them all, the ADC, has no governorship candidate in Abia, Cross River, Enugu, Ebonyi, Kano, Katsina and Taraba States, comprising 159 LGAs, on 20 per cent of Nigeria. The NDC is in an even weaker dilemma.
Those are two large things. There are two things: subsidy and deregulation. I will tell you what happened, for instance, in deregulation.
Look at what was happening during the subsidy?
You have to discover a path of making sure that you carry out your role as a governor.” That’s the top he can do—we don’t have a unitary government in Nigeria.
And, in his own manner, as he’s counselling them, he lately spoke regarding, “Look, don’t employ too much cash on bridges.” He’s telling them that, “Look, you have to do greater than that. You have to extend to the persons.
But again, I will attach that such a concoction cannot activity. They are sharing the figure of people who are opposed, for instance, to Tinubu. Are you getting the aspect? And I have not seen signs that they are telling us anything—anything that they didn’t express in 2023.
In other words, Atiku will activity alongside Peter Obi when he knows that Obi cannot win, and Obi knows that Atiku cannot win. So, for me, all of them together shape an opposition.
Persons like you and me, we belong to a supposedly elite unit.
Look, let me tell you. Just listen. You have a substantial percentage of Nigerians who don’t have the opportunities that you have.
From the 1960s, it became a culture in Nigeria that every graduate must acquire a white-collar job, preferably in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt or Kano.
Nigerians summon for to spot that God created Nigeria in the world for a aim. That cause is to rise and furnish food to the world. Graduation became a walk away from farming, creativity and self-employment. Activities shifting our focus away from agriculture and towards other areas are misplaced—we are easily on a frolic of our own. Every other job, including farming, was abandoned.
What consequence is foreign involvement having on Nigeria’s agricultural sector and cash crop economy?
Leaving the messenger aside, what regarding the essential remark that everyday Nigerians actually require government subsidies?
They will be compelled to live in slums and uncompleted buildings, just like the prodigal son. Some will still come to Lagos this week looking for jobs that are no longer introduce.
Most of the industries established amid 1970 and 2000 that offered thousands of job opportunities have folded up, yet numerous individuals are still limiting themselves to office jobs and employment, wearing coats and ties.
It will be disastrous to reverse the direction.
Economically, we are moving forward, and there is international acknowledgement of this.
We are making effective progress, as shown by the develop in our reserves from $28 billion under President Jonathan to $54 billion now, an increase of practically 100 per cent during a few years.
In the meantime, the most populous nation on earth, China, has opened up to the world, and the Chinese are as usual as Africans. They demand roots, herbs, leaves and other items that cannot be grown on their soil.
So, the business they had incorporated in the US would strengthen an invoice saying that the item could be bought for $10,000.
What individuals were doing was that they would incorporate a organization in the United States, where they wanted to purchase, express, a phone. They would then obtain the item for $2,000 over there. They would repatriate the $8,000 and market it where humans were struggling to receive dollars here. They would utilize the $10,000 to source foreign swap here, and the foreign swap would be taken to them. They made resources free from functioning.
It is projected that Lagos alone will have further than 35 million persons in a few years’ time.
At independence in 1960, the network of Lagos was fewer than 800,000, on the size of Ikorodu Community Government Area now. When I came to Lagos in 1978, the persons was around two million. Lagos is now on 25 million.
What is your assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s vision and results so far?
How can we interpret Aregbesola, a established progressive socialist, pairing up using an anti-democratic dictator like David Score, who retired as a military irredentist, and an aggressive capitalist like Atiku? In this second collection, we have strange bedfellows. The second synonyms comprises serial contenders who gather together those who are angry alongside President Tinubu, those who do not like him, and some former associates who have fallen out alongside him.
The opposition candidates are in three categories. Some are dreamers, regularly misled by marabouts and prophets. It is impossible to have a coordinated unit from such a concoction.
The man who believes himself to be the manager of the APC organization in Osun Situation, the immediate former governor, doesn’t have what it takes to manager progressives. He is not charismatic, looks like an introvert, and his people relations are fragile.
On politics, the loss to the Accord Party in Osun Condition was expected. Our candidate, the candidate of the APC in the election, is solid. He never would have been in politics but for his closeness to the President.
It couldn’t have been otherwise. The man who won, Governor Adeleke, is one of us.
For me, that is what I’m seeing in him. I pray that—if you understand Tinubu particularly well, if you have been following his trajectory, Tinubu is not one of those who sit down to distribute the domestic cake. What I mean by that is, he doesn’t look at individual who is waiting for the budget or the money of the status and take a portion.
Well, I don’t recognize.
We are not expecting appointments from him. This modern generation of politicians don’t be aware of that. Owing to the point that when you diminish the image of that individual, you are watering down the image of your party.
As a material of point, they virtually automatically offer him the ticket for the upcoming election. We’ll tell him. I can’t be commissioner again; I can’t be anything. Are you getting the detail?
It’s cultural. In his space, numerous of us don’t go—we have no firm, we don’t receive contracts from him. It does not necessarily mean that we confirm of everything that he does.
Every economic tree has a lifespan.
In a few years’ time, there will be scarcity of bitter kola, kola nuts and cocoa given that most of the ones provide now were planted by our grandfathers greater than 70 years ago and will in a little while cease fruiting.
That is why you see me in the Governor’s Recommendatory Council.
Even if I have reservations, I will see the governor and tell him. I will see the governor directly and tell him. I will under no circumstances come on the street and commence to clamour and produce it a detail. If he’s not doing right, I’m APC to the fundamental.
If you google it, that clamour has gone down for the president
I would tell that ethnicity and religion continually have some result, but this time roughly, the consequence will be diminished greater than what we witnessed in 2023 when there was so much talk concerning the muslim-muslim ticket.
Cocoa, groundnuts, cashew nuts and numerous other farm products are suffering the same neglect.
Malaysia and Indonesia, which took seedlings from Nigeria, now deliver 85 per cent. Now, Nigeria supplies around two per cent.
When Nigeria gained independence in 1960, Nigeria supplied over 50 per cent of the palm oil consumed in the world.
The require for bitter kola increased sharply and its value quadrupled during COVID, and it has remained high given that some pharmaceutical companies now apply it to compound medicines, following the immunity influence that was observed during COVID. Researchers are making discoveries every day that the plants roughly us are medicinal.
Source: Oluwajana: Tinubu, By His Acts, Has Shown Commitment Towards Restructuring Nigeria
