Comrade Osatohamhen Samuel Ebhohon, the Publicity Secretary of the African Action Congress (AAC) in Lagos State is a core activist. This he shows in this interview with EJIKEME OMENAZU, where he speaks on some current issues of national importance, including the vexed issue of insecurity, renewed calls for restructuring and reported allegations of corruption in the Tinubu administration. Excerpt:
Following anxiety of Nigerians over the rise in kidnapping and other criminal activities across the country, the Afenifere leaders recently suggested a multi-level policing in the country. What is your view over the suggestion?
There is nothing wrong with multi-level policing. As a matter of fact, the purpose of multi-level policing is to bridge the gap between citizens and the police who are responsible for safeguarding the laws of the country. That being said, it is also a fact that the Nigerian Police Force was not established to serve the working people. The origin of the Police Force goes far back to the trans-Atlantic slave trade era and they were tasked with the responsibility of capturing run-away slaves. Bring it home during the colonial period, the police were established to protect the colonial administration from uprising against their illegal occupation and history recorded them doing just that on various occasions, including the Aba women uprising and the Iva Valley Massacre. What I am driving at is that as long as the bourgeois(e) of Nigeria maintain power and their hegemony of the state and its apparatus, the benefits of multi-level policing will be reduced to more legally armed individuals at the beck and call of the corrupt rules and their cronies that are bedevilling us today. For multi-level policing to achieve its genuine aim, the working people must organise themselves as a class for themselves, capture the state and transform the purpose of policing from a force of oppression to a service toward the people.
Some statesmen like the pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande; former President Ibrahim Babangida, and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo President General, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, have made fresh calls for the restructuring on the Nigerian federation. How do you see these new calls?
The question we should ask characters like IBB and Bisi Akande is: What do they mean by restructuring Nigeria? You see, it is not enough to throw the word restructuring of Nigeria now and then to sound progressive because the context of restructuring needs to be elucidated when the conversation is going on. For IBB and his friends in the ruling class, restructuring is not more than regional government for the ruling elite. This kind of restructuring offers nothing, but more pain, sorrow, tears, and blood, because the working people are still caged behind the evil claws of the politicians and their billionaire friends in Nigeria and abroad. If the conversation of restructuring Nigeria does not address the devolution of power to the working class in the form of popular democracy and vertical accountability by providing more direct avenues for citizens to influence and participate in policy-making/ political decisions, I will advise Nigerians to dismiss such discourse. The African Action Congress (AAC) differentiates itself in the discourse on restructuring. Our approach directly addresses the aforementioned issues. We are unafraid to empower the people, allowing them to decide policies that profoundly impact their daily lives. The fact that the ruling class of Nigeria has a problem and can convince the working people of Nigeria, through the media and their influencers that only they, which includes the likes of Dangote and their pseudo-intellectual economists, know what is best for a population exceeding 200 million, indicates that Nigeria has long functioned as a fascist state. If we, as the working class, aim to dismantle this fascism ingrained in Nigeria since colonial rule, our discourse must centre on popular democracy, referendums and vertical accountability.
Still on restructuring the federation, do you think this could be achieved now considering the body language and political will of the Tinubu administration?
It is the body language of the country right now that necessitates the need for Nigeria to be restructured as soon as today. The working class in Nigeria has given up on the false promise of economic and political prosperity that the bourgeois class gave when they first replaced the colonial rulers. Their failure to put the conditions of the working class Nigerians (that were already in a state of emergency due to colonial exploitation and dehumanisation), over their ethno-nationalistic ambition and primitive capital accumulation, is the reason we are here today. This is why I said that if the conversation of restructuring Nigeria does not address the devolution of power to the working class in the form of popular democracy and vertical accountability by providing more direct avenues for citizens to influence and participate in policy-making/political decisions, I will advise Nigerians to dismiss such discourse. The battle of the working class or ordinary Nigeria is not a tribal or religious battle like Peter Obi wants Nigerians to believe. It is rather a class war. It is the ruling class which includes the politicians and the multi-millions and billionaires of Nigeria Vs the working class, which consists of the professionals working for the ruling class and the poor petty traders, farmers, cleaners and the like. This is why I can’t stop saying the working class must organise as a class for itself.
The issues concerning corruption in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs in the past and current administration is yet to be resolved, would you agree that the ministry and its top officials are conduits for looted funds?
Off course, Fela sang, ‘Armed robber him need gun, Authority man him need pen, Authority man in charge of money, Him no need gun, him need pen, Pen got power gun no get, If gun, steal N,8,000, Pen go steal N2 two’. It was also penned that the Tinubu regime used to write a request of N1 billion to set up the committee that would review and negotiate minimum wage. This will not stop with Betta Edu. The ruling class will continue to use political office, banks and their companies to loot the commonwealth of Nigeria until the working class of Nigeria captures the state they currently control.
Since the suspension of Better Edu, many have said that the Tinubu administration is serious in the fight against corruption. Do you agree to this assertion?
I don’t know if you have heard, but the evidence shows that Interior Minister, Tunji-Ojo’s company got N438 Million as ‘Consultancy Fees’ from Betta Edu. People will say ‘Oh it’s business that involves his company’. But the Code of Conduct Act, in Sections 5 and 6, bars public officers from putting themselves in positions of conflict of interest and prevents them from partaking in any business other than farming. Blue Trend has no record of being registered, Memak Nigeria Limited with no known ownership and date of registration, MC Van Management Consult Limited with no records of registration, all got N277.8 million, N277 million, and N275.8 million respectively from Betta Edu’s misappropriation of N3 billion. So, when will Tinubu hold them accountable? Is Tinubu saying they weren’t aware of Mrs Edu’s scam? Or is she, like Emefiele and Dasuki Gate, a ‘Fall guy’ for those who are regarded as touchable? Also, Gbajabiamila was fingered as one of the beneficiaries of the largesse of corruption uncovered under Ahmed Kuru, the Chief Executive Officer of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele. According to Sahara Reporters, The Special Investigator, Jim Obazee’s report exposed how Gbajabiamila benefitted from Ahmed Kuru’s “largesse of Ikoyi properties from his days as Speaker of the House of Representatives”, that Gbajabiamila in return, had ensured Kuru remained as AMCON’s Chief Executive after about nine years. Is that corruption enough for Tinubu to act on? What I am saying is that Tinubu is corruption and corruption is Tinubu. He handpicked all these ministers, not because they could perform, but because they aligned ideologically on corruption and neoliberalism.
How do you think the Military and other security agencies could control the current upsurge in terrorist activities around the FCT in particular and parts of the country?
As I said earlier, the Police Force was not established to serve the working people. Rather, it was set up to protect the ruling class from the consequence of their inaction and from democratic people’s uprising. Kidnapping and terrorism are part of the consequence of their inaction. Nobody wakes up and decides, ‘I want to be a terrorist or a kidnapper’. The government’s complete neglect of its citizens throws people toward such a detrimental path. Until unemployment, poverty, and marginalisation is addressed and eliminated we will continue to be plagued with terrorism and kidnapping. However, I have been seeing all over the news how the military and the police have been meticulously capturing and eliminating these people for the past week. I will bet you it is only so because Abuja is the capital of the ruling elite of Nigeria and they more than anything value the lives of those that belong to their class. So, the security agencies don’t need me to tell them how to resolve our security issues. They are very much aware of how to resolve them, but it is not in their interest or that of capitalism to do so.
The visit of the US Secretary of State, Antony John Blinken, to Aso Rock is still fresh in the mind. Would you say it was due to positive results of President Tinubu’s globe-trotting and quest for foreign investments?
This question does not need too much analysis. It is simple. They came to give Tinubu a pat on the back, saying: ‘Well done, my son. The IMF and the World Bank are happy with you. You are dancing to our tune, so you, your family, and your cronies will be rewarded’. If America or the West appears content with our nation, it indicates a concerning reality: Our ruling class is exploiting the resources of our hard working citizens, trading them at low costs to sustain Western industries. In return, they receive support from the West, bolstering their dominance over Nigeria’s governance. This enables them to continue asserting control over our shared wealth while neglecting the needs and interests of the populace. Nigeria should see the visit as a sign that things are only going to become worse and as a result, should wake up and take to the streets demanding the end to the current hardship, return of subsidy, fall of school fees, the continuous privatisation of our commonwealth, and so on.
How do you think the current Naira slide could be stopped to improve the economy and reduce costs of living among Nigerians?
A planned socialist economy that re-nationalising and nationalising critical national infrastructures, institutions like schools, hospitals and sectors like agriculture, oil and gas and other heavy industries that optimise production for self-sustenance and export and tailored towards prioritising the needs and interests of the working class and impoverished individuals. Any other solution is only a waste of time. I am sure Tinubu himself is seeing it, because as of the time of this interview (last Thursday), a dollar costs N1600 despite all the new policies that include floating of the naira and paying receivers of dollars in naira.