Chief Modestus Umenzekwe is a chief of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks on the APC-led Federal Government and the opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 general election
What do you make of the opposition coalition, which seemed to be gaining ground given the calibre of personalities joining their fold?
I have said it before and I reiterating it that no coalition can stop President Tinubu in 2027. My position is that members of the opposition are building a mansion on a sandy soil and it will collapse. In this country, we politicize everything even when a person commits a crime in the village, it is the president. Even when somebody fails in an assignment; it is the president.
With that you begin to wonder where we are heading to. You are forming a coalition, but when your history or your record is traced, you have not been able to do what you are supposed to do. Some of them have been in government in one capacity or the other, go and check if they performed or did better. Did they perform magic?
What is their pedigree; what is their record? And when some of them made bid for the presidency and failed, the president becomes a wicked person. They start talking about coalition, jumping from one party to the other.
In your own party; where you are pulling out from, have you been able to solve the crisis in that party? As the head of your family; do you abandon your house and run to another man’s house, when there is problem in your household or attack the man, whose house is in order?
That is what is happening. I am not saying that President Tinubu is God, or that APC knows it all, we are all human beings. Some people are telling us that America did this and did that, Britain did this and did that, fine and good, but I said and I am still saying, we are evolving, Nigeria is evolving politically; it wasn’t like this from the time of independence.
America they are quoting went through stages to get to where it is. You want to be the president of your country but you are going up and down, saying your country is useless. The question is: What are you coming to do? I think the creed of gentry in politics is that you try as much as possible to protect the image of your country.
Even if something is going wrong, you narrow it down to the particular person who is not getting things right and then make a very balanced statement to safeguard that entity you want to come and rule. But people talk anyhow, especially when the system doesn’t favour them.
Are you saying that criticisms against the President are unwarranted?
We all, including the President agree that things are tough but the truth is that past administrations didn’t have the courage to implement some of the policies needed to transform our economy due to one thing or the other. But he took that decision and you see people saying all manner of things.
Fuel subsidy removal is what we keep talking every day. Yes, it is affecting us, seriously because you suffer according to your social status. The market women are all complaining. As I am talking to you, I am equally complaining. The President is also complaining, but then, without taking that decision, we will not come out of the woods.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari of blessed memory started the process of subsidy removal; the only thing is that he was not able to pronounce it before his exit. All the presidential candidates in 2023 used it as a campaign point, but now that Tinubu has succeeded, everybody is criticising him.
It is something all of us indirectly agreed, taking into consideration that we all participated in the campaign, in one way or the order, in different political platforms. So, why is it a problem? Subsidy removal is subsidy removal, no matter how you do it. Today, governors are no longer talking about borrowing money and you see almost all of them working.
Their monthly allocations are going to them without any interference as the president made it clear when he told them to go and make their states happy. You can see how he is going round the states commissioning projects. So, there are so many things he has done with our finances. We are no more talking about university students not going to school.
The students’ loan is there; farmers are getting grants; almost all the geopolitical zones are witnessing road infrastructure. The Lagos Calabar Coastal Highway is there even though some people are criticising it. Go to Abuja and see what Nyesom Wike is doing there. I was in Abuja last week and I went round.
I was impressed with what the President has done there, using the instrumentality of the Minster of the Federal Capital Territory, Wike just like when President Buhari was in power and used Babatunde Fashola as Minister of Works to work in all the geopolitical zones, including but not limited to the cherished 2nd Niger Bridge. Today David Umahi has taken the baton, and he is doing well, to the best of my knowledge.
So, I want to tell you that whether anybody likes it or not the APC and President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda administration is blazing the trail. Look at the number of defections, a situation where you have serving governors from different political platforms defecting with their structures to APC.
Senators, members of the House of Representatives also defecting to the APC, and they are now telling me, they are in coalition. Are they coalescing for progress or for confusion? Mark my words, I am not a prophet but from all political calculations, the said coalition is dead on arrival.
Things are tough but the truth is that past administrations didn’t have the courage to implement some of the policies needed to transform our economy due to one thing or the other
The President keeps receiving bashing from different quarters but he is still standing; how would you describe him?
Tinubu is an enigma; he is a political giant, whether anybody likes it or not, he knows when to strike to get what he wants for the people he is governing. He was out of power for almost two decades, and you see people have been contesting and losing, after much pressure from Nigerians he accepted to run and defeated his challengers.
Do you want to tell me that the man should not be respected? Go back to the time he was governor of Lagos State; he was one man standing. Allocations for Lagos local government areas were seized by the then Federal Government of our much-respected President Olusegun Obasanjo, but he remained calm and followed it to the letter.
It did not deter him, and from there he started winning souls winning people and eventually covered the entire South West, and became the champion among his mates. That is doggedness. I don’t want to dwell on what happened during the campaigns of the 2023 election. If he was not a dogged fighter he wouldn’t have withstood what happened.
He remained resolute and Nigerians queued behind him, and voted massively for him. Then, the legal battle started. Nany were claiming the mandate but he was not deterred. The matter went up to the Supreme Court and he won; that is doggedness. Now, come to local government structure, he took the bull by the horn, and the Supreme Court gave a judgement that granted financial autonomy to the council and their allocations are going directly to them.
I saw a primary school built by Bariga Local Government Area of Lagos State; it is like a university. You won’t believe it is local government that built it. That is as a result of Tinubu’s doggedness which has trickled down to the states and local governments.
He floated the Naira, and damned the consequences. The administration has cleared over $10 billion in foreign exchange liabilities, a move that helped restore investors’ confidence and stabilized the naira, Because of broad reforms, Net Foreign Exchange Reserves rose from $3.99 billion in 2023 to $23.11 billion by 2024.
Foreign investors interest in Nigeria’s economy surged, with the government securing over $50 billion in new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) commitments, and unlocking more than $8 billion in new oil and gas investments. The mining sector has also seen growth, with over $800 million in processing investments realised from solid minerals in 2024. There is massive infrastructure drive under this administration, with over 440 ongoing road projects nationwide, including the construction of more than 2,700 kilometress of superhighways.
If you talk about social welfare, over 900,000 Nigerians have benefited from the Presidential Loan and Grant Scheme, while another 300,000 students have accessed the Students’ Loan Scheme, aimed at widening access to higher education and entrepreneurship funding.
The economy recorded a 3.84 per cent GDP growth in Q4 of 2024, the highest quarterly growth Nigeria has seen in the past three years; there is also the implementation of a N70,000 minimum wage payment structure, which was introduced to cushion the effects of subsidy removal and inflation. With these, how else can you describe a dogged fighter.
During the campaigns, people did all manner of things to castigate him, they used the computer to malign his health, but I warned that somebody’s health should not be used to attack him or her because it could be yours’ tomorrow. Where are those people that were using computer to manipulate all manner of things? Today, they have hidden their heads in shame.
