Jesutega Onokpasa is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a member of the party’s presidential campaign council during the 2023 elections. In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of Daniel Bwala as one of his media aides and its implication on the support base of the President ahead of the 2027 polls, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

Appointment of Daniel Bwala sounds like a black eye for supporters of President Tinubu, like yourself. How much of a black eye is it?

It is a serious black eye. Our dear and beloved president stabbed all of us, his staunch supporters in the back with this absolutely ridiculous, meaningless and just inexplicable appointment.

What do you think is responsible for this appointment that you see as an actual betrayal?

I don’t know. It has riled our party. I’m a Tinubu supporter, I’m not a sycophant. Those who apologise for everything say it is strategy. I think it is stupidity.

We won the last election with the lowest margin since 1999. Every other president has won by more than 50 per cent of the votes. We won with less than 40 per cent of the votes.

That may be the reason why the President wants to form a broader base…

Yes, a broader base by stabbing his supporters in the back and bringing in people, who insulted him. How do you call a president of a country a drug dealer?

I mean, Daniel Bwala is a lawyer, he has no evidence, not a shred of evidence, that our president is a drug dealer. He called him a drug baron. Then how does a president now appoint such a person? We were the ones defending him.

Then this person who called our collective president a drug dealer is someone they made a spokesperson and Bayo Onanuga tries to rationalise it. It’s just ridiculous.

What is your main grouse? Is it that Bwala’s appointment is bad for the President’s image or is it that the jobs are being taken away from Tinubu’s supporters, who campaigned for him?

First of all, not all of us want appointment. Not all of us need appointment; it is just the insult that our President seems to take us for granted. He does not feed us. I’ve never gone to Tinubu’s house for him to give me anything. Some do that; not all of us do that.

For me, I even like the President as if he were a family member. I don’t know why. That is why it really hurts that my president just behaved as if he can stab anyone on the back, disgrace anyone and humiliate anyone. I mean, I don’t trust him anymore. I’m sorry. I don’t.

Is this response from you a full-scale reprisal because if it is, you would probably renounce your support for the President?

No. I still support my president. Yes, our party is our party. I can’t remember the name of my president, right or wrong. That’s not my philosophy, but I still support my president. It is just that he’s misguided and he’s just doing things that he thinks will help him in 2027.

Somebody said that it is strategy but said, no, it is stupidity. Bwala helped Atiku Abubakar to fail in 2023 and he will help President Tinubu to fail in 2027.

Is that a prediction from you?

Of course, because we can’t tolerate this and President Tinubu has to respect it. We are politicians, we are Nigerians, we are citizens. We have the right to hire and fire a president. He has to rescind this appointment.

How would you hire and fire him if you were not working against him?

Well, let that time come. I support my president, but he just has to respect all of us in this party.

What about the appointment of other non-APC members like Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs?

There’s nothing wrong with Bianca because she never insulted us; she never disrespected us. Bianca is the wife of our dearly departed brother, Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Bianca’s appointment I would say, is the strategic one and that makes more sense by far as a strategy because the President is uniting the country.

If you look at our government, it’s freaky and many of us have not, just maybe because of our love for President Tinubu we have not been complaining about it. I mean; where are the Niger Deltans in the government? Where are the Igbos in the government?

Where are the Hausa Fulanis in the government? We won, even in Yoruba land; we won in Ekiti, we won in Ondo, we won in Ogun. Where are those people? You form a government of Lagos and Osun, where you lost? I mean what an insult.

What is your position now in terms of your support for President Tinubu?

I support my president, but I’m very angry with him. He has to sack Bwala. Well, that is up to him. If the President feels he has conquered everyone and conquered everywhere, we shall see what will happen in 2027.

What about his policies?

I know you’re a big advocate of trying to make the situation of the poor in Nigeria better, are you seeing that in his policies? Not at all and that’s even the strange part of it. Tinubu is confusing us. Tinubu is someone who, if you are around him, hates somebody being hungry. He’s a nice guy.

He hates someone being hungry around him. So, it’s so strange that he seems to be comfortable with hunger. He takes care of people and that’s why I love him. Now, he does not take care of me. I take care of myself. God takes care of me. He has never given me one kobo.

I don’t owe him anything. He’s the one that owes me something. We formed a government but prices keep increasing. Our citizens can hardly afford food. What was our plan? We massively produced food for Nigerians.

And the whole idea is this. If for instance, we can reduce fuel prices, let us reduce food prices. Let our citizens just be able to eat. I was talking to a professor of Psychology and I asked him a question. This is something that has never happened to me. What would a man feel if in the morning he wakes up and couldn’t feed his children? He said the man will feel worthless.

That’s how many of our citizens are feeling today and we buy cars worth N250 million. We wear wristwatches worth N200 million. We can’t take tractors to villages. They called us Agbadorians during the election. Okay, you call us Agbadorians, you will eat the Agbado. When you eat the Agbado, are you not an Agbadorian with us? No plan, nothing.

I don’t know those two guys he put in the Ministry of Agriculture. I don’t know; they have no plan to feed anybody, perhaps, other than themselves. It’s a disgrace, and I’m not sorry to say.

Do you think that there could be political ramifications for the President in the appointment that may likely cause more serious political ripples going forward?

This one, President Tinubu, has gone too far. He has insulted us enough. Seriously, he has insulted us. I’m still a Baptist. I don’t know why I love him. He has insulted us too far. This one will not play out. Bwala is not an issue for me but it is an insult to all our party supporters.

During the election, our supporters in the South-East became endangered species but they still supported us. They still supported Tinubu. What has he done for them? How do you run a government like that?

What has Tinubu done for Niger Deltans? What has he done for Hausa /ulani? They voted for us. What has he done for the Middle Belt? If he gives me an appointment now, I will reject it because I don’t trust him anymore.

I just support him. I just love him, but I don’t trust him anymore. Tinubu gives us, his core party supporters the impression that he can stab anybody on the back, he can disgrace anybody, he can humiliate anybody. He can discard anybody.

Do you know the funny thing about trust? You see, if I don’t trust you, it’s either I run away from you or I fight you. I’m a Niger Delta and I don’t run away from anybody. I don’t run away even from God. I run to God. I will run to my God.

Now, I don’t run away from anybody. It’s that fight and flight conundrum. Tinubu has pushed us to the wall to the extent that he does not even realize. I don’t know who the hell is talking to him, people are regrouping. He does not even realize that. People are angry.

Would it be fair to say that there are a lot of people within the APC and Tinubu’s support groups, who are unhappy with the way these appointments are going on against people?

Yes, but apart from the appointments, we have to feed our citizens because they are hungry. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re APC or PDP or from the South-East or South-West or whatever, people are in serious pain.

And Tinubu seems to have been dislocated and disconnected from reality. Then, he insults us with the appointment of this character. That is just unforgivable.

What is your opinion on the arrest of Simon Ekpa, one of the leaders of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Finland on suspicion of publicly inciting people in Nigeria to commit crimes with terrorist intent?

In the case of Simon Ekpa, his arrest is overdue. I had even encouraged he should be shot because he was killing his fellow people. If the person is an enemy combatant, he’s liable to be shot. He’s just a crazy, poorly educated young man.