Henry Ajomale, the former Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, shares insights with ADEBAYO FOLORUNSHO-FRANCIS on the prevailing economic conditions in Nigeria and President Bola Tinubu’s capacity to address the existing challenges.
What is your assessment of the post-election drama between President Bola Tinubu and the two frontline opposition candidates; Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi?
Well, they took Asiwaju (Tinubu) to court. But didn’t he win the legal tussle at the end of the day? That to me is the most important thing. The irony of the whole drama is this; number one, Atiku will never give up without going to court. When you look at his antecedents, you will see that he has never given up and congratulated his opponent before without going all the way to the Supreme Court. Atiku did it to Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. In fact, he did the same to Buhari twice. So, the former VP is a customer and he is someone we understand. There is no way you will defeat him in a contest and he will not be willing to go to court. That is normal for him. He is somebody who will never concede defeat without first heading to the Supreme Court.
What about the Labour Party’s flagbearer, Peter Obi?
That is the other irony. How can someone who emerged as number three in a political contest claim he won an election? I really don’t understand it. Isn’t that an irony? In fact, Obi, the number three, even seemed to be contesting the result more than the number two man. Have you ever heard that before? I am talking about someone who came far third now claiming to have won the election. Well, it is only in Nigeria that you can have such a thing.
Politicians have bastardised the entire system and there is no way they intend to give up. They will always lament when they feel the judgment will not favour them. It is not unusual to hear them say, ‘The judiciary has been hijacked’, ‘The judiciary has been bought over’, and ‘The judiciary is in distress.’ If it is in their favour, they will sing to the highest heaven as if the justices are some form of angels. But if it is not in their favour, they will sing another song. It is unfortunate.
Some Nigerians have expressed disappointment in Tinubu’s six months in office, saying the fuel subsidy removal and forex challenge have brought further hardship. Do you share the same sentiment?
No. People should know that the economy has been destroyed for a long time and everybody that came in has been building on a collapsing bridge. If care is not taken, that bridge will give way and Nigeria will be bankrupt.
This is why I pity those who are fighting to be leaders of Nigeria today. The economy is bad and terrible. And what is going on all over the world today is affecting us seriously. We have 25 per cent inflation. Ghana has 35 per cent. Go to London, you will observe that the ‘One Pound Shop’ they used to have is now ‘One Pound Plus.’
It is also important for us to consider the equivalent of foreign currency to naira now. Let’s assume a pound is N1,500. If you want to eat, you cannot conveniently use that one pound to buy anything in London; not even bread. Yet, you can use the naira equivalent which is N1,500 to eat two or three times. At least, I know some people who will take N500 to eat in one sitting. That alone is luxury. Even if they buy N200 garri to eat, they will be okay. This is something you cannot try in America where you can buy just one banana for one dollar. It used to be a bunch for a dollar before.
Inflation is everywhere. But we are still lucky that there is a control valve being created now. Honestly, this man patched everything up until he gave up and ran to Daura. He left the whole mess for Asiwaju to tackle. It will take only a bold leader to do what the President is doing now. That’s because others cannot do it. Just look at all the years we have been trying to remove subsidy until it took a man like Asiwaju to do it.
During (Olusegun) Obasanjo’s administration, he couldn’t do it. He pushed it to (Umaru) Yar’Adua, who in turn left it for Goodluck (Jonathan). Of course, he also passed the buck to Buhari. It is only Asiwaju who is bold enough to remove it. I agree that it is going to bring hardship for some time. But you will find out that we are going to smile again. The man has just been there for six months and you expect him to perform miracles. Somebody was there for eight years, what did he do?
We can see the moves Asiwaju has been making and I have also been able to talk to some economists who have praised him for the bold steps he is taking now to readjust and reconstruct the economy of this country.
I believe that by the first quarter of next year, things will start stabilising. There is no gain without pain. Asiwaju was not the one who created the problem. He has never been in government before, except in Lagos where he was governor. He has never worked at the federal level.
During the military regime, he was a senator in 1991 before they were kicked out in 1993. There was no way he could have been involved in anything at the federal level. All he can do is to get a grasp of the problem within six months to the level where we won’t go bankrupt. How many countries are bankrupt now? Let us thank God we are not down.
Look at the likes of Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and other nations that have gone under amid efforts for bailout. Nigeria could have headed in the same direction if the government had failed to do what it had done. Now, Asiwaju is being praised all over the place for taking that bold step. Otherwise, it would have resulted in a situation where someone would be driving around in his car, some people would stop him and drag him down, demanding to know if it was bought with their money (taxpayers).
