• ‘America has no business dictating to us’

Dr Usman Bugaje is a former member of the House of Representatives. In this interview, he speaks on the fight against insecurity and the United States (US) classification of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

The President was quoted as saying that he is deploying military assets to fight insecurity and that he’s committed to keeping Nigeria safe. Are you convinced by what he said and give us your assessment of how he has handled the fight against insecurity so far as well as the economy?

I’m always interested in metrics. We need to have an agreed metrics to be able to measure things. If you go by the textbook definition of democracy and issues of security, clearly the Bola Tinubu’s government has failed to deliver on what is most important because in the hierarchy of human needs, human life comes first.

And if you look at the statistics of the death and the blood that was shed since he came; if you look at the kidnappings, if you look at the ransoms, I know we don’t have accurate statistics, but even going by what is available, you can see that there has not been any improvement in terms of security.

You would sometimes judge an administration by the quality of the people it appoints. Now, if you look at the Ministry of Defence, for example, the people that he chose to give the Ministry of Defence were people who may be good in themselves in some other fields, but certainly defence is not anywhere near the area of competence.

If anything, the Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, who is still in the ministry, has been accused in being caught with the same bandits. Now, these accusations can be proved later, but there are lots of information circulating to the effect that he was part of those who was actually funding bandits.

Now, whether this is exactly what they claim to be is a matter to be decided either by investigation or by the body of evidence that is emerging now, but how can you be serious about security when you have taken people who are least qualified to be in that place? It looks like he has done so deliberately because he wants the insecurity to continue so that the North will continue to go down or the country will continue to go down. I don’t know what the benefits are, but certainly in terms of security, the present government has not done anything too different from the government before.

The present government has not done anything too different from the government before. If anything, it has deteriorated

If anything, it has deteriorated. Now, whenever I make this statement, I make excuses for people who are in the system, who are doing their best, who are losing their lives, who are giving up the most valuable asset they have in this world just to protect us. I salute their courage.

We all appreciate their efforts but there is no point for an administration to be sending poor young people, ill-equipped, ill motivated, without caring to ensure their own safety in a very dangerous space, while the bandits are waxing stronger and challenging government.

We have seen clips of bandits basically challenging that this government cannot do anything, and they are dictating their terms. They are taking over. Recently, they said they were going to clear the forest. I have seen some activities around the Sokoto area, but it’s too early to say if this is going to yield to anything.

But I think the one last point I have to make on this is that the current government is not only unable to solve this problem, but I think it’s being reckless and it’s being irresponsible in this matter of security.

Are Nigeria’s security challenges more political than military at this stage?

The question of politics takes a lead because it’s a question of leadership. It is the leadership that determines the level of impact because they as leaders are the ones who give directives and who source the funding that is necessary and supervise the dispensing of the funds to ensure that the actual work on the ground gets done. So, yes, there are military challenges.

There are other institutions of security that are not performing in their optimum, but the final responsibility goes to the leadership. To this extent, you can say it’s political because it is the political process that produces leaders.

What we have been suffering since 25 years ago has been a process of poor leadership, or if you like, poor leadership that seems to have, which is defined by poor education and poor upbringing.

So, you have people without the knowledge, without the character, taking positions of leadership, and therefore they are unable to deliver on any of the deliverables, and yet they continue to remain in office, and that violates the social contract on which democracy is predicated.

The U.S. government recently declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern. What is your reaction to this development as well as the Federal Government’s ambassadorial list?

Let me start with security because we have just been talking about it. I think the basic thing about security is that this government is not serious about security. It’s two years already in session, and we are not seeing any improvement. Like I said, even from the appointments in the Defence ministry, it is clear that they have not intended to bring the necessary impact that everybody was expecting them to do.

So, there are still huge challenges but I hope the fact that America has thrown its weight behind some of the concerns will make some impact. I’m not saying that I agree with what they are saying, and I think Donald Trump is the last person you would expect to help you in any way.

He has not helped Americans. And if he speaks about genocide, you have to look at the genocide of the black people in the United States. And we have to go back to the United States history and see that it’s a country that was built on genocide. They killed the red Indians that were inhabitants of that place to make room for the white immigrants that have been there.

They enslaved black Africans, and they were the people who built all these huge mansions, including Washington itself. In fact, the architect who designed the city of Washington for George Washington was actually a black person, a very brilliant genius, who has now been left into the dustbin of history as if that the blacks did not contribute to the building of the United States.

They were the people who actually did the toiling, that actually built the states and built the roads and built the economy. But see where they are. Look at the cases of black harassment all over the place. So, he’s the least qualified person to speak. But you see, it speaks to the emptiness of our leaders. It speaks to the poor education. They do not seem to know that we are not an American colony.

We are not anybody’s colony, at least for now. We are independent. America is just a sovereign state like Nigeria. If America decides not to trade with Nigeria, that’s their own business, we have got trading partners. Why should we even ponder? Why should we even care about what America is saying? What is America? Look at other nations, who are standing up to America, they are doing very well. How many people have stood up to America? Where has America gone to to solve any problem? In Vietnam, did they solve any problem? In Afghanistan, did they solve any problem? Wherever they have gone, they have not solved any problem.

So I think it’s the dearth of leadership that has given America even the clout or the audacity or this idea of considering Countries of Particular Concern. We are also considering America as a Country of Particular Concern over the terrible thing they have been doing in Gaza because of the way they have supported Israel against the will of their own citizens. Look at the demonstration that took place. Look at what Jeffrey Sachs and other public intellectuals are saying about America.

So, the summary of all this is that the Bola Tinubu administration is not only failing in securing this country, but it is destroying the very institutions on which this country is relying on to be able to function as a sovereign nation. I also think that this idea of America considering or describing or taking Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and therefore coming to check if we are doing things correctly is the worst thing that has happened to us since our independence. Nobody has the right to determine how we run our affairs as a nation.

Of course, if there are violations of international law, there are mechanisms through the United Nations that should be taken. But America has no business to come here and start dictating to us what to do or what not to do. So, it’s really sad that we have deteriorated to this level. Trump, for many Americans is a tragedy, and we are trying to cope with our own tragedy here.

And I think the last point on this is the point I have consistently made, that our problem, when you reduce it to what it is, it comes to leadership. And we are not able to do anything until we fix the leadership recruitment process. At the moment, our leadership recruitment process is not calibrated to produce the best of us. It is calibrated to produce the worst of us.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the president can take extraordinary measures to prevent the breakdown of law and order, so essentially upholding the state of emergency declaration in Rivers State. What’s your response to that judgment?

The Supreme Court is all part of the institutions that are going down the drain. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has lost a lot of its integrity in previous judgments. And many citizens also believe so if you listen to what Prof. Chidi Odinkalu has been saying, if you listen to a former justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Dattijo, when he was leaving, the kind of remarks he made, if you listen to a number of credible legal experts discussing the court.

So, I suspect that it is some kind of connivance to give the president powers that he doesn’t really have in a proper democracy. So, I find that quite disturbing and I hope lawyers and experts in the field will challenge the legitimacy and the kind of integrity of that particular statement.

But let’s go back to the issue of the powers of the president. I have said earlier that President Tinubu behaves like a monarch, not like a democrat, because he speaks about the things he wants to do in a way that does not seem to give any room for consultation or for consideration of other citizens in so many ways. Look at the way the tax law was passed. Basically, at one stage, he said he wants this thing to be done irrespective of the National Assembly. And the National Assembly was sitting there, basically like some dead institution.

And up till now, they have not proved to us that they are alive to their responsibilities. People who have occasion to interact with the National Assembly are usually ministers or heads of MDAs, and they find that the National Assembly does not like to discuss any idea of how these institutions are run. All they are interested in is the money. And because of this, we are really in a very serious problem. So, I think it is time young people try to wake up from their slumber and salvage their country.

This has been done in a number of places. Look at what young people in Kenya have done. They stood up against the mess that politicians are making of their country even as they have not quite gotten there. But they have shown that they are present, they are alive, they are alert, and they are ready to really protect their own future. I think young Nigerians have to organize and have to stand up to this.