Referendum route to take if units want to go their separate ways –Tobun

How would you assess the policies of President Bola Tinubu, especially the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of naira? President Bola Tinubu means well for the country. He has taken some decisions that are commendable, but Nigeria is a difficult place to govern. However, our case is a two-way approach; we have the hungry ones and the angry ones.

The hungry ones are those that are feeling the impacts or effects of the policies, while the angry ones are those who feel that they have been short-changed from where they are benefiting. But the angry ones are the problems of the country. Some people benefitted from fuel subsidy over a period of time.



The government was subsidising what was not in existence. They were subsidising on paper and most of the fuel was being moved out of the country to neighbouring countries, they are sold to them and they make huge profits. So the country was paying subsidy for other countries to enjoy.

That is why with the removal of subsidy, fuel consumption has dropped drastically. That shows that all the fuel they said we were consuming was being consumed by others. Those who were no longer benefitting from the subsidy now ganged up against the government.

When you talk of floating the naira that black market rate should be equal to what is obtainable at the banks, I think this is better. Most people used to buy at the bank rates and sell in the black market to make money. They would go to the bank and tell them that they wanted to import some items and the government would pay them.

If they sell dollar at the black market for N100 and the government gives out to investors at N60, they would give the dollar to the people in the black market and make N40 profit. With this, they are killing the economy because we are not producing. It is when we produce and sell to other countries that we will make dollars that we can now spend to import.

We have turned ourselves to a consuming nation and not a producing nation. But are we sincere to ourselves. The Federal Government decided to give some amount of money to state governors to cushion the effect of those policies on the people.

Did the people go back to their governors on how the money was appropriated? No. The government released some food items to some state governors to distribute, are we saying Federal is the only arm of government? We have states, we have local governments, they are to support what the Federal Government is giving them. If the Federal Government gives 20,000 tonnes of rice to a state, and the governor provides 10,000 metric tonnes and the local governments provide 5,000 metric tonnes, we will have 35,000 metric tonnes.

It is even worse that some people divert and re-bag the bags of rice and sell them. Look at food condiments such as tomatoes, pepper, and pure water, how did removal of fuel subsidy affect cost of tomatoes, for instance? But some people said transportation. What is the magnitude of increase in transport fares, which now affected the prices of these products? It is an attempt of some people to finish the government, forgetting that all the presidential candidates of the major political parties promised to remove fuel subsidy.

Why was it taken against President Bola Tinubu? Look at the recent hunger protests across the country, the organised labour pitched tents with the Labour Party during the 2023 general elections; they are unionists, they ought not to be partisan. They have participated in the elections and their candidate lost. They didn’t even sponsor the candidate and he didn’t participate as an independent candidate under labour movement.

Labour Party is a political party registered in Nigeria and Mr Peter Obi is never a labour man, he is a businessman. They supported him and they have been carrying out his agenda. So, labour came out to face the government, to discredit the government and cause untold hardship on members of the public.

But we thank God that everything fizzled out. You can see what happened in the Northern part of the country, where people destroyed government properties, is that protest? Is it not the money that is meant to do other things that would be diverted to repair those things. The protest they did during #EndSARS to fight the police is still there.

These are some of the things affecting us. Several places were destroyed, the office of TVC and other private properties were destroyed, BRT busses that ought to cushion the effect of transportation in Lagos State were destroyed. I feel that the government means well, they should allow them to work.

It is a four-year term mandate and they have not even spent two years. It’s like a child that is not up to a year old and you want him or her to start doing many things. Within the first year, you have started judging the intelligence of the child.

You have started judging his or her ability to comprehend, you are being unfair to that child. We have given a four-year mandate to a government that is just about a year plus and we have been judging the governance. It’s not two or three years.

Some people said that the subsidy should have been removed gradually...

The question is, do we really have anything we are subsidising? Subsidy is on paper. But we were buying fuel for less than N200 and after subsidy removal, it went to over N600..

. It was because of the cabal. The question now is, allow the forces of demand and supply to decide.

The Ooni of Ife in Osun State, HRM Arole Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi, told market people that he didn’t want any pepper that is higher than N200 per measurement in his community. He said if you sell for N500, I will drive you away; since then they have been selling N200 pepper in Ile Ife. Now the prices of the condiments have dropped.

That should be because of the season...

It’s not because of the season, season doesn’t affect it. Tomatoes are round-the season and those who plant it use irrigation for large scale farming. They do this for cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, and others.

In the North, they don’t even have much rainfall and I want you to know that the price would not go up. There was a time the government tried to force the price of dollar down, then the cabal withheld all their dollars. They refused to pump them into the market so that the price could go up.

The cabal are the ones that are behind all these. I feel that what is happening in this country is our attitude, our mentality, our psyche, as well as our finish and go mentality. It’s like ‘let me see what I can do to empower myself, and my unborn children.

’ Some people are talking about secession, that they want to go their separate ways...

On the issue of secession, yes I feel this is one nation. If we want to separate, let us have a referendum where it would be agreed that our living together can no longer work and let us go our separate ways without mayhem or killing ourselves. It has happened before, see what happened in the Soviet Union.

We should also be careful so that they don’t use us against each other like what happened in Ukraine; who would fix all those things that have been destroyed now? If we say the Igbos should go, but are they on the same page, people would still feel marginalised; in the South West, are we on the same page, people would feel marginalised; in the North, are they on the same page? No. In the North, they believe that the Fulanis are more powerful, in the South West, they believe that the Egbas have an upper hand, while in the East, they believe that the people from Anambra State are not powerful. In the animal kingdom they also believe that some animals are more equal than others.

Talking about security, kidnapping has not abated; an Emir in Sokoto was kidnapped recently and he was killed, what do you think the Federal Government should do on security? The government is trying as much as possible to secure the nation. It still boils down to our psyche. There is no nation where there is no crime, some people choose criminality as a means of survival.

If we say anyone caught kidnapping should be killed, kidnappers would kill more people in their den so that they would not be caught. Since they know that they can make millions of money at a short period, they left armed robbery and chose kidnapping. If you steal a car, where would you sell it? They know that if they kidnap and hide their victims, you would pay ransom to get them released.

It is still the psyche of our people. Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest number of internet fraudsters. Some people have now advanced to Yahoo plus.

This literally means doing rituals or using voodoo to make money. That is why some of them later start barking like dogs, and even die suddenly. Kidnapping is not about hunger, it’s being greedy.

They want to eat where they do not sow. It is get-rich-quick-syndrome by our people who see it as a profitable venture. That was why in the past, we said there should be state police.

With state police, people would secure their domains. When you see strange faces, you will say where did they come from. I remember some years ago in my house in Epe, Lagos, I saw some people going up and down, I told my security to be at alert and the guys were caught when they struck.

If we have state police, we will be able to secure our environment. Boys in the neighbourhood must come together and resist any external aggression in their domain. But, here, able boys were told to go and sit down and the government focuses on normal police.

With what you have said, what would be your advice to the government on restructuring? My advice to them is to approve state police. They should legislate on it. In the United States of America, they have federal police, state police, and county police.

In the United Kingdom, they have federal police and metropolitan police for the local governments. It’s for the Federal Government to decentralise policing. Let the army, the air force, and the navy protect the territorial integrity of the country and defend the country from external aggression.

But let us secure our environment..