The Federal Government has given tax defaulters up to March 31 to regularise their tax status under the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) or face prosecution. The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who disclosed this in Abuja, last week, said that the government would establish special courts to prosecute the tax offenders, comprising high net worth persons and corporate organisations.

It is believed that government’s new initiative on tax evaders will stop tax leakages and shore up the country’s revenue base.      

Therefore, effective from April 1, 2018, special tax courts will be established to fast track the adjudication of tax-related offences under the VAIDS introduced on June 29, 2017. The VAIDS  is designed to shore up government non-oil revenue by growing the tax base and ensuring tax compliance.  The prosecution will involve tax defaulters who failed to take advantage of the nine-month amnesty window provided by the VAIDS. 

Already, government has identified not less than 130, 000 high-profile tax evaders. The VAIDS is a time-limited opportunity for taxpayers to regularise their tax status relating to previous tax periods and pay any tax due. And in exchange for fully and honestly declaring past undisclosed assets and income, taxpayers will benefit from forgiveness of overdue interest and penalties, and the assurance that they do not face criminal prosecution for tax offences or tax investigations.                                

According to the Finance Minister, the special courts have become necessary because of the seeming slow nature of our judicial system and the need to fast track the adjudication of tax-related offences under the VAIDS initiative. Under the scheme, all incomes, assets, and other properties earned and acquired from 2010 to date will be declared and appropriate tax paid on them. 

We lend our support to every good plan that will drive the effective implementation of the government’s tax policy. But, such policy must be in line with extant laws and all guidelines between banks and their customers. Interestingly, the minister has explained that VAIDS is covered by the existing tax laws in the country.           

It is, indeed, disheartening that high net worth individuals  and some corporate organisations do not pay commensurate taxes  after posting astonishing profits. This is often done in collusion with some tax officials. The planned special courts may seem drastic, but it is one of the measures that can redress Nigeria’s present low tax ratio to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which at 6 percent is one of the lowest in the world.  This obtains because of low tax compliance among high net worth individuals and a large informal sector that do not pay tax. If the initiative is successfully implemented, it will improve the current low tax to GDP ratio from the present level to between 12 and 15 percent.        

The recent disclosure by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, that the agency has realised N17bn from the scheme since its introduction, is encouraging. Not long ago, a survey conducted at a tax stakeholders’ forum organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that 70 percent of Nigerians said they do not pay taxes because the government cannot justify the use, 22.5 percent said it was due to tax rules that are unclear and compliance process that were too complex, while 7.5 percent claimed it was due to poor enforcement by tax authorities.

Whatever is the case, payment of tax is an obligation backed by law, even as we agree that the citizens deserve the right to know how the revenues from tax are utilised. There is need to follow laid down processes to bring defaulters into the tax net. This includes modalities in the Common Reporting Standards (CRS), which Nigeria entered into with 35 other countries, in August 2017 under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The device is a standard programme for automatic exchange of bank accounts information on   the ‘super rich’ individuals. It is about time to get our tax policy right and enforce penalties against tax offenders.

Sun

“Fellow Nigerians, finally, we have dutifully intervened to save this nation from imminent collapse. We therefore expect all Nigerians, including those who participated directly or indirectly in bringing the nation to this present predicament, to cooperate with us. This generation of Nigerians, and indeed future generations, have no country other than Nigeria. We shall remain here and salvage it together.”

Those who are old enough would remember these words. They were the concluding statements made by the then Major General Muhammadu Buhari on his acceptance of the role of the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces on January 1, 1984 following the overthrow of the Shehu Shagari civilian administration.

It was in continuation of the campaign for Nigerians to stay home and salvage the country together that the NTA created an “Andrew” who threatened in his American accent, to “check out” because there was no water, no electricity and no roads. In response to Andrew, a songstress, Veno produced a track in 1985 where she pleaded with “Andrew” not to check out because in her own words, “Nigeria go survive”. Please note that all this was long before the Trans-Saharan migration phenomenon which has in its own since developed into a global scandal

If Buhari could cast his mind back to those days and compare them with these days, he would only conclude that he was being clairvoyant as what he was talking about then was a child’s play to the Nigeria of today. If people were “checking out” in the 80’s for greener pastures, today, they are checking out in droves out of hunger, insecurity and lack of hope. And today, they are doing so, despite the grave dangers that lay wait on their routes which they are very much aware of. In fact one of the repatriated ladies from Benin who narrowly escaped death was so defiant when journalists confronted her. She insisted that if she had another opportunity, she would travel again through the same route in spite of the near miss she had. Her point was that it was no use remaining in here given that she also stood the risk of dying out of hunger or in the hands of robbers, kidnappers or herdsmen.

It has become stale news to hear that Nigerian, and indeed African migrants heading to Europe and Asia by land or sea were killed in their numbers or consigned to forced labour by fellow Africans in North Africa, often with the active connivance of their countrymen.

Those who choose to travel by land via the desert either die of hunger and exhaustion or are attacked, dispossessed of their belongings and killed by border criminals, human traffickers or fake travel agents, hence the endless sad stories of how human corpses and skeletons of dead migrants litter the Sahara Desert.

Those who choose to travel by sea either drown or are attacked and thrown into the sea, as a result of over crowded ships and boats. Stowaways on regular ships are often on a suicide mission as they are most certainly thrown into the sea if detected.

Most of these migrants who choose North African countries like Morocco and Libya as their traveling routes, hoping to get to Spain, Greece, Italy and other European countries, end up as corpses along the precarious routes while majority of those who survive the horrific experience end up in crowded refugee camps.

Some of these desperate migrants chose these illegal routes mainly because they lack the resources, the necessary travel documents and above all the proper information and knowledge needed to understand the hidden dangers that accompany such risky journeys.

Stories have been told of how sea border security guards intentionally carried out attacks on desperate African migrants forcing their boats to capsize, while others have been accused of standing by to watch endangered immigrants drown without offering any form of assistance.

As at mid 2015, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHER) reported that out of over 350,000 people who journeyed across the Mediterranean, 3,075 died or disappeared. The report went ahead to disclose that six out of the ten largest countries of origin of refugees were Africans which included Somali, South Sudan, Gambia, Senegal, Central African Republic and of course, Nigeria.

In February 2013, Spanish police opened fire on a ship carrying hundreds of African migrants who were asking for help after their ship developed a problem while trying to enter Spain. Not less than 40 migrants, many of them Nigerians, were killed. The shooting incident attracted serious protests from the Nigerian community in Spain and widespread condemnation from Human Rights groups.

According to the International Organization for Migrants (IOM), about 50,000 people crossed the Mediterranean within January 2016, out of which 2,200 persons lost their lives while a dozen other migrants also died after crossing over to Europe. The report disclosed that this alarming number more than doubled the number of migrants and deaths recorded during the same period in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Dozens of other tragedies that are not captured here have obviously occurred, with many human fatalities and injuries. The alarming figure of 2016 gave a serious warning that huge danger lay ahead, unfortunately we have proved repeatedly that we are a continent that attaches little regard to the lives of our citizens.

In November, 2017 more than 30 migrants died and 200 were rescued after their boats had a problem off Libya’s western coast, according to that country’s naval authorities.

According to Agency France Press, migrants from Somalia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and equally Nigeria were among those rescued.

On the 17th of the same November, 2017, 26 corpses of young Nigerian girls lay in state in the winter sunshine in a cemetery in southern Italy. According to reports, out of the 26 women, only two of the women Marian Shake and Osato Osaro were identified.

In May, 2017, online media platform Premium Times reported the death of 44 African migrants including Nigerians, who died after their truck broke down at Sahara Desert in Northern Nigeria as they attempted to enter Europe.

The incident which was also reported by the BBC, involved three babies, two minor children and seventeen women amongst other victims.

While Nigerians and other peoples of the world were yet to come to terms with the alarming number of recorded deaths of Nigerians and other African migrants at the Sahara Desert and at the Mediterranean, then came the newest and very dangerous dimension of slave trade.

Slave trade, which is believed to have started in the 16th Century, is the business or process of procuring, transporting and selling human beings, especially black Africans to the New World. The fact that anti-human scourge like slave trade which ravaged humanity centuries ago could rear its ugly head and reappear once again not for the purpose of deliberation aimed at ending every trace of it, or for the purpose of payment of compensation to families of past victims, shows how Nigeria and Africa have failed as a nation and as a continent in the 21st century.

As usual, and very unfortunately, Nigerians top the list of the victims of this modern day slavery, even though revelations by victims have exposed the active involvement of Nigerian citizens, meaning that Nigerians are indeed, both the slaves and the slave masters.

Listening to horrifying stories from victims of the Libyan slave trade, especially those eloquently captured by one Mr. Imasuen from Edo State whose interview with the CNN broke the hearts of millions of viewers and Osaze Aghimie, one would easily appreciate the enormity of the tragedy that has befallen Nigeria as a nation and Africa as a continent. Both men got stranded in Libya, were tortured, sold and resold into slavery, extorted, detained, and finally rescued and deported through the help of IOM

Speaking on the ongoing slave trade in Libya, former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, said that slave trade in the 21st century should be condemned in the strongest terms possible.

“What can we do and what must we do?” We must ensure that a conducive atmosphere is created for the genuine exchange of goods. This is what will ensure development within our country, sub-region, continent and the world which we live.

“But then today, migration has a very nasty connotation particularly when you watch the television and you hear the story of thousands of our youths daring to go through the desert.

“Then after they have embarked on such perilous journeys, some of them are sold as slaves. Slaves in the 21st century, Africans being sold by Africans and maybe to Africans.

“All of us as leaders must feel a sense of regret for what we have done or what we have not done to bring this to our own people’’ Obasanjo concludes.

Leaders and citizens of different countries of the world have continuously raised their voices in condemnation of the Libyan slave trade, yet there is very urgent and pressing need for leaders, especially those of African countries to go beyond the usual rhetoric of condemnation and ensure they sit down and make critical assessment of the issues responsible for this humiliating development which has subjected Africa to the worst forms of ridicule in the comity of continents.

It has been decades since the illegal migration of Nigerians to Europe began. Yet, past and present governments have failed to consider the issue a national crisis that must be resolutely and critically tackled with both political and economic will. On the contrary, Nigeria has behaved and has continued to behave as if the lives of her citizens do not matter.

Unfortunately, the more the news of the deaths of African migrants at sea are reported, especially by International news agencies, and reactions heard from countries  whose borders are affected, the more African leaders and media institutions play dumb.

Reacting angrily to the silence of African leaders in the face of the numerous tragedies which led to the death of thousands of African migrants in 2015, a Ghanaian Journalist, Elizabeth Ohene said “The AU wastes no time in vocalizing its thoughts even on matters they are not well informed about, However, their silence on this salient issue may hinder the world from taking their commentary on other issues seriously. I have heard African Governments make statements on issues that do not concern them in any way; I have heard them on issues when their opinions are not sought and I have heard brave statements on issues about which we obviously are not well informed. But the drama unfolding on the North African coast demands some noise of some kind from Africa. Otherwise we shall forfeit forever the right to comment on any other world event”.

The frustration expressed by this Ghanaian journalist is the same some of us feel concerning the unjustifiable, if not suspicious, silence of several African leaders while their citizens perish at sea or suffer and die as slaves in a bid to seek greener pastures.

If Europe whose citizens are not the real victims of these illegal migrations could be speaking out and coming up with measures to prevent illegal African migrants entering their countries,  why then have African leaders considered the issue inconsequential by their actions of collective silence and inaction.

Speaking on the issue in 2016, the sacked Gambian President, Yahaya Jameh, whose citizens were among the highest number of migrants embarking on the risky journey, called on the United Nations General Assembly to investigate what he described as “this man-made sinking”. He condemned what he called “the dangerous, racist and inhuman behavior of deliberately causing boats carrying black Africans to sink” and alleged that there was a deadly mysterious force causing boats carrying Africans to disintegrate.

From the above Statement, Jameh who had ruled Gambia for 22 years as at that time, left no one in doubt about his incompetence and unwillingness to rise to the challenges of his office. He chose to ignore the home made factors caused by poor governance which gave rise to the desperation of his citizens to illegally migrate to Europe, but chose to apportion blame on those who didn’t cause the illegal migration ‘ab initio’ while at the same time sounding unnecessarily superstitious.

Mr. Jameh’s statement bore the same disdainful resemblance to that of the former South African President Jacob Zuma, who, while reacting to criticisms in the wake of the xenophobic attacks in his country in 2015 said, “Why are their citizens not in their countries? Why are they in South Africa?

The statements from the two African leaders spoke volumes of the insensitivity and level of disrespect African leaders generally have for their people. It showed gross disrespect for human dignity. It also imposed huge moral burden on Africans who would want to criticize the West for alleged marginalization and racism, because the internal marginalization and racism we carry out against our people and fellow African countries cannot measure with the ones we accuse Europe, America and even Asia of committing against us.

There is a simple answer to this conspiracy of silence by the leadership in our continent. African leaders have failed to make their countries attractive enough to keep its people at home. They have failed to provide the enabling environment for their people to prefer being in their own countries to elsewhere. People who have come up with suggestions about reorientation and educational solution may be right, but they tend to forget that those do not change the situations at home.

Our governments, at all levels, must come up with sound economic policies that would not only create the enabling environment for the youth and take them off the streets, but also guarantee hope of a secure economic future for them. To the extent that they do not see a future within their countries, the youth would continue to take the risk of migrating given that they believe that if they remained in their countries, they faced the certainty of death by poverty and pestilence, while there remained a chance of survival if they made it alive to Europe.

Some people argue that there could be some justifications for citizens of some poor and warring African countries to illegally migrate, however, others that are neither poor nor at war like Nigeria are fighting a different kind of war. The economic war is the most potent war unleashed by failed governments against its people. As long as that war persists, people would continue to vote with their feet irrespective of the dangers that may exist out there. And they would tell you that if they stay here they would die, if they travel they may die, so let them travel and die, apologies to the “Ajekun iya n’ioje” maestro, Senator Dino Melaye.

INTRODUCTION
In a few weeks, it’ll be seven years since Senator Ibikunle Amosun took over Ogun State as Governor. He came with the slogan “Mission To Rebuild Ogun State” (MITROS). His promise was to ‘rebuild’ the State in all critical sectors - education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, employment generation, community development, empowerment of women, creating enabling environment for business, etc.

Having spent his first term and another three years out of the second and final term in office, all that Governor Amosun has got to offer Ogun State are already manifest. We all have seen Amosun’s very best, we’ve seen his MITROS - warts and all!

WHY THE RESCUE MISSION?: FACTS AND FIGURES
Besides the normal recurrent expenditure, which has been consistently high under the Amosun Administration, about 90 percent of what remained for capital expenditure has been spent on expansion of very few existing urban roads in a few locations in the State. Out of a total of 2,545 kilometers of state (Trunk B) road across the State, Governor Amosun has spent almost N300 billion to expand a total of 347 kilometers. This represents a paltry 13.6 percent of state roads crying for attention. Virtually all internal (Trunk C) roads in every city, town and village in the State have become impassable. This is the case because all federal allocations to Local Governments (LGs), as well as their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) are seized by Amosun using the instrumentality of a law he enacted immediately he got into office for what he described as State/LG Projects Joint Account.

Apart from all other sectors neglected due to this mono-focus on urban road expansion which, in real terms, adds little or nothing to the GDP of Ogun State, the real tragedy is the huge debt Amosun will be leaving for all of us and our children to settle in at least the next 30 years.

The incompetence and irresponsibility of the current government are vividly captured in the 2016 Financial Statement of the State published in some national newspapers on December 28, 2017. In that Statement, Ogun State had a total revenue of N114.8 billion. From this figure, FAAC allocation from Abuja was N32.6 billion, IGR N71.5 billion, and others (not specified - most probably short-term loans from banks) N10.7 billion.

From this revenue of N114.8 billion, N70 billion (or 61 percent) went on recurrent expenditure in 2016. While salaries and emoluments took N39.5 billion, overhead costs consumed a whooping N13.8 billion, with debt servicing taking away N16.7 billion (this amounts to N1.39 billion monthly).

From the figures above, it would be seen that only N44.8 billion was available for capital expenditure. To appreciate the level of incompetence and corruption of the Amosun government, I’ll cite two roads that are typical of the road expansion projects executed by it.

1. OGTV-Brewery junction road with a distance of 8.7 km at a total cost of N17.2 billion and per/km cost of N1.98 billion.

2. Sagamu-Benin Express junction/Oba Erinwole junction road at a total cost of N11.87 billion and per/km cost of N1.7 billion.

If the total amount available for capital expenditure in a typical year (as it was the case in 2016) was N44.8 billion, how does anyone justify spending N1.98 billion to expand one kilometer of an existing road with no strategic importance or the potential to boost the local economy? At that rate, it means the whole N44.8 billion could expand a total of only 22.6 kilometers in a budget year out of the 2,545 km Trunk B roads and tens of thousands Trunk C roads needing attention.

Now, the reported costs of the road projects are another matter entirely. The Lagos-Ibadan express road being executed by the Federal Government is 124 km at a cost of N167 billion, which translates to N1.35 billion/per kilometer. While the Sagamu-Lagos end is 8 lanes, the Sagamu-Ibadan portion is 6 lanes. Apart from the width of the FG’s road, the construction is a total overhaul of existing road with massive excavation and very thick concrete and asphalt overlay that are several times the volume and dimension of any of Amosun’s roads. Yet, the FG’s road is far cheaper than what is delivered to us in Ogun state.

The foregoing is the very reason there are no passable roads in the towns and villages of Ogun State outside of the 300+ km in the few urban locations. It is the reason the education and health sectors have deteriorated so badly. It is the reason unemployment is at its worst in the history of the state. It is the reason the 7,334 CDAs and 55,000 cooperative societies in the State receive no attention whatsoever from the government. It is the reason only one out of the 22 so-called Model Schools started 6 years ago is operational. It is the reason the government is owing civil servants 18 months salary deductions and 4 years of backlog in gratuities and pension. It is the reason so many manufacturing concerns in Sango Otta, Agbara, Igbesa, Akute, Ogijo, Mowe and Ibafo axis have shut down and retrenched thousands of workers because there are no motorable roads to their factories. It is the reason agriculture receives no tangible government support and it is the basis of the lie and fraud called MITROS rice. It is the reason all the taps hitherto serviced by public pipe-borne water are dry. It is the reason the whole economic environment of Ogun State is so dreary and mournful.

THE DEBT OVERHANG
In the 2016 Financial Statement referred to earlier, the government reported a total debt stock of N113.2 billion, being internal and external loans. This is partial reporting and concealment of facts. Non-flow debts of liabilities to workers and pensioners, outstanding payments to contractors and suppliers are not included. Informal estimates have it that total non-flow debts are about N150 billion. With the interest-based debt of N113.2 billion, the $300 million (= N109 billion) World Bank loan recently and dubiously approved for Amosun by the National Assembly, the current government will be leaving a whooping N372 billion debt overhang for Ogun residents to sort out for the next two generations. For, if the debt repayment rate remains at the N1.39 billion per month level of 2016, it’ll take a minimum of 30 years to settle the debt at a conservative single-digit interest rate of 9 percent.

‘THIRD TERM’ FOR AMOSUN?
It is ironic, therefore, that the man and his government that promised to rebuild Ogun State at the inception, through their own publicly presented records, which obviously must have been doctored - suggesting that the reality would be worse than presented -  have only succeeded in effecting monumental destruction and degradation on the State. This makes it imperative that conscious and concrete efforts be made to retrieve our State from him and halt its decline. Yet, this is the Governor that has been boasting that he’ll foist on us a successor to continue the pillage and cover his back. Evidently, this man has no worthwhile interest or plan for the State beyond dominating and cornering its resources. For, it is certain that anyone from his camp would definitely continue along his line of bad governance.

It should be obvious to all right thinking observers that Ogun State cannot and should not be allowed to continue under the tutelage of Governor Amosun and his ilks in All Progressive Congress (APC), as the party and its standard bearer have shown themselves as incapable of rebuilding Ogun State as promised. And in the light of the stark evidence staring us in the face about the level of denudation that the State has been subjected to under the APC government, it should be the responsibility of all Ogun State indigenes and residents to work assiduously to see that APC is prevented from further mounting the saddle of governance in the State. The case against APC cannot be made better than the way the current government has misused its mandate.

NEITHER APC NOR PDP
Incidentally, it is not only APC that should be consciously prevented from governance in Ogun State. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, in his celebrated open letter on the current APC-led government at the federal level has this to say on the two leading political parties in the country at the moment: “I have had occasion in the past to say that the two main political parties - APC and PDP - were wobbling. I must reiterate that nothing has happened to convince me otherwise. If anything, I am reinforced in my view. The recent show of PDP must give grave and great concern to lovers of Nigeria … If neither APC nor PDP is a worthy horse to ride to lead Nigeria (and we must painfully add Ogun State here) at this crucial and critical time, what then do we do?” We know all men and women of goodwill in Ogun State want the best for the State and would want to stop in its tracks the bad governance which the former President has remarked as basic characteristics of both APC and PDP. The former President, has of course, recommended the urgent need for people of goodwill across Nigeria to come together and present an alternative to both discredited parties which have woefully failed our people and pauperised them. I offer myself to be part of this new crop of leaders in Ogun State.

I believe we in Ogun State, having been witnesses and victims of the deleterious effect of the high-handed and pernicious rule of the APC-led government in the State in the last seven years, have an abiding duty to come together to rescue the State from falling further into morass or getting into the hands of those who only know how to prey on the State or those who are so poor in everything that the only thing they have is money with which they think they could lord it over the good people of the State.

NOW THE REAL DEAL
We have the capacity to prevent further denudation in the State and it should be our responsibility to ensure that the State is put back on the path of development that was its hallmark under the tutelage of its founding fathers like the late Governor Olabisi Onabanjo. The time to act is now! This is why it has become imperative for me to ask all men and women of goodwill in Ogun State to rise up and join me in this onerous task of rescuing our State from the present miasma of hopelessness to which it has been consigned by those currently superintending over its affairs and their ilks who are seeking to perpetuate the hopelessness. The time to rescue Ogun State is now. We have a duty to rescue the State and I am pledging myself to this task even as we are sure that SUCCESS would be ours. Omo Ogun, ise ya!

• For a well thought-out programme of action on how to effect a new deal for our people in Ogun State, kindly visit:www.sinakawonise.com.ng

‘Sina Kawonise (SK) is an Ogun State gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP)

A National Executive Committee, NEC, member of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Alhaji Mohammed Abdulrahman has disclosed that some ex-military officers and politicians are reforming the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP, into an organized and effective political force ahead of the 2019 elections.

Mohammed, a former political secretary of the Northern socio-cultural group, ACF and an international security surveillance consultant since the time of Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s tenure as Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, revealed to Sunday Sun in an exclusive interview last Tuesday that three Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stalwarts have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SDP.

According to him, all the retired soldiers in Nigeria, whether under Obasanjo, Babangida, the retired soldiers, ex-military officers are the people leading the SDP back to light.

“They are getting ready. If 2019 proves to be a herdsman issue and a Buhari power confrontation… all the former soldiers will set up a group that will deal with Buhari and every other person in Nigeria that is creating problem. So, they should not just look at SDP simply,” he added.

Mohammed also addressed other pressing national issues facing Nigeria and disclosed that the government was planning a firm official action to be taken against the media in Nigeria.

Recently, PMB appointed Tinubu to bring about an end to the crises in the All Progressives Congress, APC, by reconciling the warring factions in the party. I’ll like to have your thoughts on that.

I think Buhari may have the honour to be president of Nigeria, but I think he is very bereft of political wisdom, a man lacking, very lacking…the poverty of political wisdom is afflicting him.

Can you break that down?

He is suffering from the poverty of political wisdom. That is the simplest I can put it and I think Nigerians will understand this.

Is it because he appointed Tinubu as the man to reconcile the warring factions in the party?

Yes. You have abused a man and disparaged him. A man led you to success…I was one of those who insisted…you remember during the alliance when they were having a meeting in Abuja, the first alliance meeting when I held a press conference in Kaduna that Babangida now owns 51 per cent of ACN of Tinubu and that I was there when it happened, then Buhari said the meeting was inconclusive and that the alliance will not hold. They went to polls after then and he failed woefully. It was then that Aliko Mohammed and the rest of them called me and begged me to use my spirituality to…

Let’s address this present issue rather than what happened in the past.

I was trying to let you know the genesis of the reason why Buhari is suffering from the poverty of political wisdom. The magic which Tinubu brought to the victory of Buhari through the alliance was disparaged, abused and rendered useless  by his nepotism by the way he operated the presidency, neglecting Tinubu completely, never knowing that there will be a tomorrow, never thought of 2019 at that time. Buhari’s political strategists are the most useless ones I have ever known in my life. Even if there is any political strategy for him, there is no political adviser. The person that is supposed to be his political adviser he doesn’t listen to him. He is not even present there. So, most of the infrastructure that the presidency used for leadership and rulership are not present in Buhari’s government because personal common sense and personal uncommon sense and wisdom are the three things that help a leader to be a good leader. So he is suffering from leadership dysfunction because there is no common sense regulated. Nigeria is too big for his small brain. So, he needs a political adviser, he needs strategic adviser. Tinubu brought a big luggage of political wisdom to him. He didn’t use them. From his appointments you can see he never used it. The people they call the cabal are diminishing the effect of Buhari’s capacity and capability to rule Nigeria. They are not helping him.

If you say these things of Buhari what would you say about Tinubu who was that disparaged after victory as you have said who accepted the job of reconciling factions?

Tinubu is a Nigerian. He knows the luggage he brought into ACN and CPC alliance that led to the formation of the APC. The Yoruba nation as a whole may not focus on the fact that Tinubu is a political businessman and can never be a good leader in Nigeria. Tinubu will make one of the worst presidents Nigeria will ever have if he ever goes into that table. It is money he cares about and it is money he knows how to capture, but leadership he cannot. He is so selfish that he can never be a leader of any group of ethnic or tribal collective which is what Nigeria is. He can never be their leader because he likes money too much.

Will Tinubu succeed in reconciling these factions in APC?

No, he will just throw it back on the face of Buhari that sorry APC cannot win election in 2019. So please just stand down your efforts. It’s all Nigerians that gave you the effort because the Yoruba nation will tell Tinubu he is unintelligent. What reconciliation can Tinubu do when he led the entire Yoruba nation to the Villa? Whatever profit they made out of it is not responsible profit. They are hustling profits. There is a difference between responsible profit and hustling profit. Responsible profit is the one you earn as a citizen being nationalistic and patriotic to your nation and government. That is not present.

Would you advise Buhari to re-contest in 2019?

They are bandying the masses they captured on video when he went to Kano, Nasarawa…they are not the people who will come out for voting in elections. It has never worked like that. Have they forgotten the twelve two-third of the Akinjide era? Do you remember that? So because the whole of Kano are in the picture, the whole of Nasarawa and Zamfara are in the video and he has up to 20 million people there doesn’t mean that he would win an election. They are preparing for the greatest of all rigging and post-election violence that Nigeria has ever witnessed in its lifetime as a country. The indicators are all the pictures and videos they are showing of people in one city that welcomed Buhari.

What has that got to do with general election in 2019? How can that be an indication of those going to vote for Buhari if they are not planning to rig an election? It doesn’t imply. The fact that they have put all their weights, thinking, resources and responsibilities on just some people who have gathered in one visit of Buhari and they snap it and start showing Nigerians and some people who think that they are political strategists will say he has already 16 million votes. Those people hardly come out to vote. So if they are not planning to rig an election they will not be grandstanding on this. They should look at the ingredients of progress in Nigeria, economy and leadership. Look at the issue of herdsmen, the unpeaceful situation, the economy, inflation, schools.

We are now in another turn of Chibok in Dapchi, Yobe State. You can imagine that. How can such a man think that he can become president again? Are Nigerians fools? So they are only holding on to illiterates and poor people who want to come out to see a president. They are not thinking about why people go out to line up and vote. And the government wants to disenfranchise those who can vote and disabuse their minds. If INEC is not watched, the materials for voting will not go to where the opposition party or PDP or SDP can win an election. They will be short of election materials. They will concentrate the materials only where Buhari is going to get big votes and they will come out with a decision that Buhari has won the election.

What then is your projection of all those who are now eyeing the presidency?

My projection is a very funny one. Funny in the sense that Atiku is the one who is going to carry the day. But in my vision some people have decided to assassinate Atiku.

Assassinate?

Aren’t herders killing people all over the place? Is that not assassination? No, I am asking you. If a herdsman…they have infiltrated everywhere in Nigeria. If Atiku’s aeroplane gets up, don’t ask me how they are going to know it is Atiku’s aeroplane. Don’t you see herdsmen being driven out of tarmac? Don’t you see herdsmen using telephone all over the place? If Atiku boards a plane and is going up, herdsmen can shoot down the plane. What are you telling me? I was more inclined with NSO (defunct Nigerian Security Organisation), the military security in those days. You know it was when NPN government was going to come in that we converted NSO into three organizations. I wrote the document and I still have the document, the document with which Vision 2010 was written and if you remember Abacha did a national broadcast on Vision 2010. They will stop Atiku. Then out of the blues, emergency, Dankwambo will be asked to take his slot as the presidential candidate.

How will that happen?

That will be worked out, but Dankwambo got interested in the race after my eyesight on the Atiku presidency. Somebody called me from his state and tried to find out how right is the efficacy of my vision and I told him it is 99.9 per cent. So, Dankwambo, whatever it is will be railroaded to that contest to be a president. If they have already zoned the presidency to the North… I don’t know why because when Ekwueme and Shagari were in power, Ekwueme was going to be the next president as the Vice-President, but Buhari did a coup against them. Now, Yemi Osinbajo is favoured to be the next president and he has performed very well when he was Acting President… Nigerians have no doubt that Osinbajo can do it and Osinbajo is saying Buhari is not nepotic.

Let’s look at the position of the Igbo in the equation. The Igbo, especially those in the APC are banking on the fact that if they assist Buhari to realize his second term dream, the Igbo would get the presidency in 2023. What do you think?

(Prolonged laughter) So you have not seen the plan? Haba, my brother. We struggled in Abiola days in the trenches with you. You ought to be seeing it now. They want to give Buhari…they want to revenge what happened to Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election. Do you think any human being, a candidate will ever spend as much money as Jonathan in a presidential election in Nigeria again? They moved the Central Bank pounds and dollars onto the streets. They went section by section of Nigeria…

(Cuts in) I want you to address this issue of Igbo presidency. Is it not feasible in 2023?

They are trying to revenge what happened to Jonathan my friend. They have it in their hearts. That’s why they have come out en bloc to say that Buhari should continue. They want to let him hit the ground badly. They want his political injury not to heal at all. They know that the issue that will make them get Igbo presidency are more than just shouting and talking. It is in the question of attitude. It is in the question of IPOB and all that. It is a question of character. Igbo should look forward to becoming Nigeria’s president if they change their style. Do you remember all the documents in the media about paradigm shift? I started the issue of paradigm shift and I think you did an interview for me at that time. Paradigm shift, age shift, that a young man should be president of Nigeria. It was what I used to help Jonathan become president. I moved against the traditional rulers in the North, the Military establishment in the North and the ACF. I even weakened the political committee of the ACF all for Jonathan to become president of Nigeria. If Jonathan seeks for presidency today, the failure will shock you.

You need strategists and spiritualists who are reading God’s intention to be able to walk somebody into the corridors of power in Aso Rock. I did it for Jonathan and the North and ACF started cursing me to make sure that I and Jonathan never became friends so that I will never benefit from God using me to make Jonathan president. So, I didn’t get a Kobo from Jonathan. That was the first thing he mentioned…

In other words, Igbo presidency is not feasible in 2023?

It is not. It is not. If Igbo would be president they will have to change their style. You don’t use blackmail to become president. You don’t talk about IPOB and become president. As long as there is a faction of Igbo land that thinks about IPOB they cannot be president of Nigeria. It means they will turn the whole of Nigeria to Biafra.

Is that the thinking of the North?

What would you say about the race for the presidency in 2019? What do you think is likely to happen?

(Cuts in) If you meet face to face with Buhari today, what will you tell him?

I will not tell him anything because he doesn’t listen. When the wife talks to me on the social media I always advice her on what would happen to Buhari. There are certain things the Bible and the Quran have prevented us from talking about. The power of the unseen is that of God alone. So we can see certain things about people’s longevity we may never know the day the person will go because only God knows that. But if Buhari contests 2019 the predicament he would face from the diabolical casting of shadow they will do on his life and living, please watch my words very carefully my brother, do not misquote me, the people that are going to fight Buhari, who do not want Buhari to continue as president of Nigeria, are going to confront Buhari spiritually and diabolically. What I have seen in APC’s Chairman’s extension of tenure, because some people have gone to court already to challenge that, is that the court will either stop Oyegun from the extension they did or the APC will break up and not be able to set up an infrastructure that will go into election in 2019. But Nigeria is not Buhari alone. From a contraption, what we have not seen, or envisaged can come up as a contraption of God’s will for Nigeria.

Would I then be right to interpret what you have just said to mean Oyegun’s tenure extension will break APC?

Yes. Absolutely. Very well. I want to be honest with you. I want to be very honest with you. The spirit of Oyegun and Buhari are repulsive to each other. And that cannot be changed. But Tinubu’s spirit is even more amiable to the spirit of Buhari than Oyegun’s. But Tinubu is not destined to be leader of Nigeria.

Some Nigerians may not believe your predictions

Let them not believe me. Let them fight God. Even Saraki has made up with Tinubu now maybe a ticket of two of them can work. It cannot work. Ekweremadu has a better chance of becoming an Igbo president although not in 2023 because the entire political system we are in now are diabolic. Look at what the herdsmen are doing. Look at how we are being ruled, people killed everyday, blood is flowing in Nigeria. So, the entire political alignment is scattered. It will never bear Nigeria any good.

You mentioned SDP earlier as one of the opposition platforms that should watch INEC. Tell me more about the SDP because it has never come up in any political discuss.

You see, Shehu Yar’Adua was a top holder and a prince from the Katsina royal house hold. He was a good, die-hard soldier. All the retired soldiers in Nigeria, whether under Obasanjo, Babangida, all the retired soldiers, ex-military officers are all the people that are leading this SDP back to light. They are getting ready. If 2019 proves to be a herdsman issue and a Buhari power confrontation… all the former soldiers will set up a group that will deal with Buhari and every other person in Nigeria that is creating problem. So, they should not just look at SDP simply. They cannot fight the SDP. They should not even attempt to do so. Let them get rid of their herdsmen, let us have peace. Then everything will be okay for everybody and Nigeria we hail thee.

But SDP is dead and not operating now as a political party that is registered.

Watch what is going to happen, my brother. The people involved, people like Ibrahim Mantu, Jerry Gana, Tunde Adeniran, all these PDP stalwarts are all going into SDP. For God sake, let me tell you, they are the best tacticians that politics has. They are the best strategists in politics in Nigeria. They have held Nigeria under their vice grips at one time or the other. They will be able to institute 2019 properly to a conclusive end, not inconclusive end, please. So, no leader can be that powerful to hold Nigeria prostrate on their knee. No leader has ever emerged like that. If they could get rid of Obasanjo on the third term plan, Buhari should just stay clear and leave quietly. Nigeria will be peaceful. Nigeria will survive.

And you think they will use an unregistered political platform?

All the confrontational institutions in East and South Africa, are they registered parties? The ones in Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, all of them, they are contraptions. The power groups are political parties but the powers that be may not be in political parties. If they are registered as a political party and they create havoc…I am not one of them but I am seeing what they are doing. You see the SDP, do you know that Prof. Jerry Gana, Tunde Adeniran , Ibrahim Mantu have all joined SDP. They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SDP already.

Who are the leaders of SDP?

No. I am not going to tell you that. You won’t hear it from my mouth. But I know Atiku is one of them. They contacted Binta Yar’Adua but she said she is not a politician and that her husband is dead now, that the leaders of the party that were close to her husband at that time can go ahead and do what they want to do. But definitely, she is not a politician. Three former Heads of State are in support of this arrangement.

Who are the three?

Oh no, my brother, I can’t tell you. Why are you trying to rail road me into this talk? It is too premature to talk about that. They have three powerful former Heads of State behind them and they have South West behind them.

The three key figures you mentioned- Jerry Gana, Tunde Adeniran and Ibrahim Mantu- are still with the PDP and here you are linking them with the SDP.

They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SDP already. Bukola Saraki is with them. Ekweremadu is with them; Rochas Okorocha is with them, Willy Obiano is with them. That recalcitrant governor that is from Rivers State, Wike is with them. Intimidation; you remember one time I said Buhari should release the people that they have arrested? I said all the people they have arrested let them release them. You don’t arrest the people you want to rule over. That will be his saving grace and protection. But with all the people incarcerated now and the arrests they are making about this thing is going to finish Buhari before he starts reining down the current political establishments in Nigeria. That is the situation. And the Buhari government is planning to clamp down on the media. They should not try it because if the media gets back into the trenches, the government is finished. I am being honest with you. They are going to clamp down on the media. That is what the cabal asked him to do. They feel if they are able to do that they would have effectively cut down Obasanjo and Babangida’s influence on the political journey to 2019. But they are wasting their time.

Let me end this interview by giving you the opportunity to treat the subject matter in the nation that is dearest to you.

What is dearest to me as a subject matter in the nation now is the herdsmen issue. You see, Buhari should stop…there is a difference between herdsmen that are Nigerians of Fulani and herdsmen from North Africa and West African Coast. They are not the same. The herdsmen that are entering Nigeria and carrying AK47 rifles are not the Nigerian Myetti Allah Fulanis. So, Buhari should be honest to his God and protect the Fulanis in Nigeria. Look, the herdsmen that are coming with AK47 are devouring our farmlands. Food will soon become scarce and famine will come in. See how they devour yams and eat everything. Yam is not only all we have but all harvests that they get in the farms before they pass them herdsmen are there. Why are these herdsmen, foreign herdsmen, why are they all over Nigeria? Buhari should reverse their tracks and let them leave Nigeria. We will survive. Nigeria will survive.

The politics of Nigeria and the inter-relationship in our ethnic and tribal collective will be peaceful. Distrust has come into Nigeria seriously. All these things about colonies and others are not Buhari’s business. Let’s leave herdsmen. It is not the Fulani herdsmen that you know, Myetti Allah, no.  It is the foreign herdsmen carrying AK47 and all that. Our Nigerian Fulani herdsmen don’t carry guns. The ones in Zamfara came in from Niger. So, let Buhari take his hands away from that. That is the problem he has. That is the terrible end time disaster that Buhari has. This cattle colony that is being proposed will bring disaster to Nigeria. How many cattle do we have? The table of cattle all over the world I put it on Facebook. I distributed it through WhatsApp. Nigeria is not even in the list of the first 50 countries with cattle in the world. Why has it become a problem for us, killing each other and all that if it is not end time destruction? And all the people who are the main players and actors will be carried away with it because these international Fulani herdsmen have had their problem with every West African country and the only way it was solved was that they were pushed out, banned from those countries.

All over West Africa, from Niger to Burkina Fasso to Senegal, they were banned. Why should Nigeria accept them? And Nigeria is thinking of colonies. Why?  So this is the problem. So that is what is on my mind. Let them ban all these AK47 carrying international herdsmen. Let them leave our country. John Shagaya said it then he died. I am not going to say they killed him because two former Heads of state have called me and said I shouldn’t say anything about it, that they smell a rat. Shagaya told them what has been happening since the Military on this international herdsmen coming into Nigeria. What Shagaya said is in the media. So, they should just ask all the AK47 carrying international herdsmen to leave Nigeria. Then Nigeria will survive. Look at them in Benin, Akure, Ondo, everywhere.

Which time did we ever have enough herdsmen in Nigeria; Nigeria herdsmen as many and numerous to be able to cover up the entire landscape of Nigeria?

Even in Lagos they are there. We are deceiving ourselves. If he doesn’t expel them, if he doesn’t remove them from Nigeria, he himself will be part of the first of the example of the predicament that is going to hit Nigeria on this herdsmen issue. It is a very serious issue. He will be part of God’s intervention to rid Nigeria of this problem that we are faced with because every ethnic and tribal collective pray to the same God. The God we have in Nigeria is not the God of Buhari alone, it is not the God of politicians alone, it is the God of every ethnic and tribal group in Nigeria and they all pray to God and God will listen.  So, they should never think they are going to have a safe landing on this herdsmen issue. Get rid of them now and let Nigeria live the way it was living before. Let them stop killing people that don’t want herdsmen here. Anybody that does not want herdsmen, they kill the person the following week. Why? More blood, more blood. Is this how we are going to live? Trump has explained why we are a dysfunctional country. We live on blood. Those who live by blood shall die of blood.

Sun