Willy Ezeugwu is the secretary-general of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP). He was also Orji-Uzor Kalu’s presidential campaign manager before the former jettisoned his ambition. In this chat with ONUKOGU KANAYO JUBAL, he takes a swipe at President Goodluck Jonathan’s criteria for nominating ministers-to-be and states that the president is surrounded by sycophants.
The time has come for the president to form a cabinet. What is your assessment of the calibre of ministers-designated?
Well, some civil societies have been kicking against some of the nominees, some of whom have been tested and found wanting.
Normally, these ministers-to-be should be nominated based on their antecedents, and where former ministers are re-called, it should be based on their performance in the previous government. The civil societies are presently kicking against them because they have nothing to show for the four years they have spent on the saddle of the ministries which they oversaw. The president has no reason for re-nominating about 13 of them or so.
What many of them do not understand is that once appointed ministers, they are supposed to serve the country not self and cronies. It is not good for this country and its people at the moment.
Sure, they don’t have to be nailed even before they get into office. We can only wish that we get the best. There are good ones among them.
But while some think he should stick with those from the last cabinet, others are rooting for the greenhorns…
I don’t agree with those who opine that he stick with those from the old cabinet because most of them did not do well. If the president can ensure that technocrats like Okonjo-Iweala, Ezekwesili, Dr. Agary, Godknows Igali and several others are in his cabinet, why won’t we move the country forward? Unfortunately, some of these names were not considered.
You said though some ministers performed poorly, they were called back. Can you be particular?
Well, if you look at the Ministry of Works, the minister of the FCT and others, you will discover that they didn’t do anything worthy of a come-back. That is why many of us are kicking against their return.
You mentioned some people earlier, saying they should be preferred…
… (cuts in) because they are some of the best career technocrats we have in this country. Some people are trying to sabotage the president’s effort but if he really needs change, he should pursue them and do all it takes to get them to come help him impact on the country in his tenure. There are people who are as bold as the CBN governor and ready to institute the kind of change he is instituting.
Are you saying some people are pulling strings to ensure that these people don’t become ministers despite all they can offer?
Yes. They are doing all that because they know their antecedents and would do anything to get their cronies in instead of these people who are tested, trusted and tried; people around whom Nigerians have built their hopes.
We believe that these people can do well, and beyond that, strengthen the government of Goodluck Jonathan but because, he has been listening to a lot of psychophants and saboteurs, they have caused him to look away from these people.
Recently, it was announced that Godknows Igali was appointed chief of staff to the president, but in their ‘wisdom,’ the presidency has failed to announce his name. What is the president waiting for? These are people well known by Nigerians – there is no minister you appoint today, whose character is unknown to Nigerians.
Dr. Agary has been the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Labour and Productivity and has been instrumental to the success of the government in the Niger Delta. That is how resourceful she is behind closed doors. What such a person can do when brought to the open can only be left to the imagination. Does it mean that anyone who has no ‘lobbying power’ cannot be a nominee?
You are saying this government is full of psychophants and lobbyists…?
Of course. No two-ways. They have nothing good in store for Nigerians. They are only concerned about themselves. They are swirling around the president like dangerous currents, and if he (the president) is not careful, his government will be booed at the end of four years.
You don’t consider the president a fair man, do you?
I commend him for the appointment of Anyim Pius as SGF but what happened to the official announcement of Godknows as chief of staff? The psychophants surrounding the president will not let such people emerge because they have no one to lobby for them. In our present state, we don’t need lobbyists. We need credible people who can serve this country and bring about change in the process.
Why should the president listen to such sorry, divergent voices? He does not have to look far to get them. Nigerians know people like Barth Nnaji, Joy Emordi and others. They will come in handy as ministers.
It is said that during Obasanjo’s tenure, his wife was a strong influence, especially in forming his cabinet. Do you think same is happening here?
That is not new. No matter how strong a man is, his wife influences him to a great degree. Since this democratic dispensation set in, the wives have played great roles. Yar’Adua’s wife influenced her husband mightily. Stella Obasanjo did same. Don’t be surprised if Patience Goodluck is doing it. I think she is more influential than the other two put together, no doubt about that.
And For the 35percent affirmation which some groups are clamouring for …?
As far as I am concerned, you can’t satisfy everyone, every time. So far, some people are for it and another group is against it. Speaking of the 35percent representation, you must note that nine of the nominees are women.
Three weeks ago, the car park of the force headquarters was bombed. Last week Friday you escaped being kidnapped, though your assistant was. Examples abound, what is your assessment of the security situation in the country?
It is unfortunate that the system we run in Nigeria is one in which no one takes blame for anything. Normally, people would say, “For the lapses in the execution of my duties, I resign.” But no one does that here.
If a third of what has been happening since the appointment of Ringim happens in another country, no two ways about it, that police chief would have resigned. Grimmer is the fact that if a bomb was successfully shipped into police headquarters, no place in this country is safe.
What have the police and the state governors done with the security votes and allocations due to them?
Last Friday, I had gone to Nsukka to see to the burial of my mother. I was in the car of my friend when some young people laid siege on the road and tried to kidnap me. My friend was kidnapped. I just paid the ransom and he has been released.
Within one month in Nsukka, there have been seven cases of kidnap. The state security and the police are all poorly equipped. How can security be assured? We are not even talking about the cases of armed robbery.
While traveling you would encounter more than 20 police road-blocks, but they are just standing there with no communication gadgets. If something goes wrong in point A, how can those in point B know? How can they chase criminals? Despite these ugly inadequacies, they have security votes. Terrible. We are just watching because the situation will surely deteriorate if the government continues to be so morose about it.
Everyone says our armed forces are poorly equipped to get the job done, but shouldn’t we be looking at the federal government? Does the blame not lie with them?
Look, no matter how well equipped they are, if those who handle the equipment are badly trained and cannot think outside the box, nothing is worth the effort.
Consider IGP’s warning to the ‘Boko Haram’. Less than 24 hours after his spineless speech, they bombed his domain. That tells us a lot about his intelligence-gathering.
He was aware of the poor tactics of the police, their poor equipping and rusty intelligence-gathering before he went on air to say their days were numbered. Now at least, he has learnt some things about when and when not to talk.
Some people are saying that the amnesty plan for the ‘Boko Haram’ be actualised while others are saying it will be a show of weakness if the president grants them that request.
Before you grant amnesty, you must get to the root of the problem. Like my chairman and former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa said, “You can’t just grant amnesty. Instead, the cause of their dare-devil actions should be identified.”
Others are saying the fault is that of the former governor of the state. He reneged from the agreement they had. The government cannot grant amnesty in a hurry; it is not time for that. They must get to the root of the matter.
Another thing is, when you grant the ‘Boko Haram’ amnesty but continue to persecute a harmless group like the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), it makes no sense. Till this moment, some members of the MASSOB are being held for conducting peaceful demonstrations. No one can even tell where they are. Muzzling some groups and revering some will only create more friction.
Granting amnesty or not is baseless. They should get to the root of the problem. After the agreement in Borno State, the police killed their leader, marking the beginning of fresh violence. The federal government has to find out what went wrong – these guy are human and they have grievances, a cause to go on rampage.
So the spillover to the federal level is from the states?
Yes. They are trying to tell the federal government that the security condition is bad and that they have to keep every agreement.
Is the amnesty plan wisdom or confusion?
It is unequivocal confusion in the making.
Do you think the president can cope with the spate of violence within the next four years?
That is why I am telling the president to see to it that he looks to our most intelligent bureaucrats in Nigeria to advise him, not riff-raffs and sycophants. Appointing a minister is just a minute portion of the problem: what does the minister have to offer the people of Nigeria? I mentioned some people earlier, but they are not the only ones. There are millions of intelligent Nigerians who cannot be ministers because they have no one to lobby for them. If President Jonathan means well for the country and wants Nigerians to remember him for good, there are people he should bring into government to help Nigeria progress.
Surely, Nigeria’s problem does not lie in the selection of her ministers…
No, no. More than that, the major problems are corruption and unemployment. We are talking about the minimum wage and the governors are saying they can’t pay, yet each of them has a house full of advisers, some as much as 35 of them. What do these advisers do and how much do they take home?
These governors siphon billions of naira. All they are asked to do is pay civil servants with families N18,000 and they are crying wolf. A governor has a security vote of about N6billion; senators and honourables are in a league of their own; still, the man who works from Monday to Friday is asking for N18,000. After graduation, there is no employment, no thanks to certain individuals who siphon the money meant for such shemes.
Initially, the late President Yar’Adua declared his assets and his ministers followed suite. Goodluck should do same, so that his subordinates can toe his line. Also, we must have a credible person at the helm of affairs of the anti-corruption agencies.
But some state governors have said, “look, we don’t have the money to pay this minimum wage,” but many don’t believe them…
As a Nigerian, will you believe them? How many workers do they have in their states, anyway? Consider the actions of Rochas Okorocha: how much did he cut off the security votes so as to bring free education to his state? Can’t other governors copy that? If they sacrifice 10percent of their security votes alone, they can believe them because the truth is glaring: they have the money and they can pay. Any state governor who refuses to pay that N18,000 is wicked; that is the truth.
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