A member of the House of Representatives, James Faleke (Ikeja Constituency), has explained why Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu can be a good President, capable of addressing the knotty problems confronting Nigeria. On Friday in Abuja, he picked a Presidential nomination form for Tinubu who was away in Saudi Arabia for lesser Hajj.
He argued that when you look back to where Nigeria was coming from, and where it is today, and you want to look at 2023, you even look at 2022. What will happen? “My only prayer is that we should bring in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who I know can tackle all those issues, not to talk of the security challenges. Gone were those days when you could move freely. During the Anini saga, you could not move out with your flashy cars. In those days, armed robbers would gather the cars and take them away.”
Faleke continued: “This man came. Governors are not in charge of the security system, the control system. He set up the Security Trust Fund. The security trust fund is being copied in virtually all the states. Today, Lagos is safe. Successive governments after him have continued to implement it. Even, as a local government chairman, I knew how much I was contributing to the security of our state.
So, the man who did that can also face the challenges confronting us. If you look at Lagos, compared to the economy of Nigeria, what we are facing today are low revenue and very high expenditure. All the revenue sources in the country, there are holes in them; in other words, leakages. So, if you have someone who can block all those leakages, our country will be better off.”
Tinubu, according to Faleke, blocked so many leakages in Lagos. He was able to move from N600 million per month to over N40 billion today through successive governments. That is the type of person we want.
“Looking forward, we are looking at somebody who can create jobs for our teeming youths. It means making the system work. If the system works, everybody will be better off. Industries will come back.”
Below is the interview, published by The Nation:
Why Tinubu should succeed Buhari, by Faleke
Hon. James Fakeke, House of Representatives member (Ikeja Constituency) spoke on the presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and preparations for the primary.
What are the issues that will shape the presidential election in 2023?
My understanding and prediction of issues that are likely to shape the presidential election in 2023 are based on what is going on now; the state of the nation, the achievements of this government, the perceived inactivity or otherwise of this government, the expectations of Nigerians as regards some critical issues, most especially security, secondly security, and thirdly, economy.
When we took over in 2015, during the campaign, we used security as our weapon to the campaign. It was our understanding that Mr President, of course, will fight insecurity. It was a challenge we had.
As much as he has tried, the unemployment rate, which has to do with our economy, has unfortunately assisted the human resource market for recruitment into those challenges. For example, there was no banditry. The word: banditry, was not well known in 2015. It was more of Boko Haram; sponsored terrorism by elements outside the country and destruction of schools and some places in the North. But now, we have banditry everywhere, down to the South. I see us facing these issues during the campaign.
Where you do place the ambition of the leader you are campaigning for, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in all these?
What is important is who can solve these problems. That is one. Two, economy. Most analysts have come to say that our currency was N180 or below N200 in 2015. Today, it is close to N600, our excavation rate, to the extent that we have devalued our naira and made it worthless. So, what Nigerians will be interested in 2023 will be who can bring back our economy, who can provide jobs, who can create jobs, who can create wealth. What have those in charge of the economy today done? What are they supposed to do that they have not done?
For me, I notice that this administration has so many lawyers without economists. Each time an analysis is made, you don’t expect a lawyer to provide economic solutions to issues. And of course, unfortunately, we are where we are today because of a lack of foresight to know that when we continue to import and export, our currency is likely to crash. We are import-dependant. Even, when the government tried to look inward and engage in food production, the security challenges, of course, affected it. So, Nigeria was faced with importing food to eat. At a stage, when the borders were closed for rice not to be smuggled into Nigeria, for the industries in Nigeria to survive, we knew how much money we were losing to the neighbouring countries. How much money Nigeria made within those short periods? Unfortunately, the people went back to producing rice; states were setting up rice mills everywhere. What surprised me most was the cost of the locally produced rice to the imported.
So, in 2023, we will be debating how to solve the problem. How will Nigeria become self-sufficient? We will be debating the issue of power. Why should so many industries in the country turn their buildings into warehouses? Most of them have relocated. Why has it been difficult for us to take the bull by the horn and face this power challenge once and for all? Those challenges will face us.
We look at unemployment. We have so many youths coming out of school, compared to 10 years ago. We have so many universities that have been approved, private and government, compared to 10 years ago. We have failed to realise that when each of those schools turns in their graduates, on yearly basis, where would they work? There is no commensurate employment opportunity for them. So, an idle hand is a devil’s workshop. So, it is easy to start seeing crimes that have never happened before. Only recently, I started seeing youngsters, under-18, killing human beings, putting knives to the throats of human beings, not goats.
For me, 2023 will be a challenge.
How can the challenge be tackled?
The question will be who has the capacity among all the people who are contesting? I must say that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu tried his best to support the government of the day. You can only wish that things will be better. Buhari has come and eight years are going by. When you look back before Buhari, he has achieved a lot in all the areas. But, because of the insecurity challenges, killings here and there, banditry, kidnapping. Kidnapping was not there before. It wasn’t common. It wasn’t the business before. Now, it is business. Evans and his group that started it were arrested. Now, they kidnap you, take you to the bush. You pay the ransom and you are released. In some cases, you pay the ransom and they still kill you.
We can’t say that Buhari has not done anything. But, the little he has done is not enough to solve the problem because the problems are just too much.
In this country, where we have people who are in charge of security, the NSA, for example, or even the military helmsmen, who find it difficult to quit and let others come up with new ideas until we can hire and fire until we can take the bull by the horn, and hold people responsible, we may find it difficult to get out from where we are.
When you look back to where we were coming from, and where we are today, and you want to look at 2023, you even look at 2022. What will happen? My only prayer is that we should bring in Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who I know can tackle all those issues, not to talk of the security challenges. Gone were those days when you could move freely. During the Anini saga, you could not move out with your flashy cars. In those days, armed robbers would gather the cars and take them away.
This man came. Governors are not in charge of the security system, the control system. He set up the Security Trust Fund. The security trust fund is being copied in virtually all the states. Today, Lagos is safe. Successive governments after him have continued to implement it. Even, as a local government chairman, I knew how much I was contributing to the security of our state.
So, the man who did that can also face the challenges confronting us. If you look at Lagos, compared to the economy of Nigeria, what we are facing today are low revenue and very high expenditure. All the revenue sources in the country, there are holes in them; in other words, leakages. So, if you have someone who can block all those leakages, our country will be better off.
Tinubu blocked so many leakages in Lagos. He was able to move from N600 million per month to over N40 billion today through successive governments. That is the type of person we want.
Looking forward, we are looking at somebody who can create jobs for our teeming youths. It means making the system work. If the system works, everybody will be better off. Industries will come back.
How?
You can only bring industries back if you have power. Stable power. Nigerians are willing to pay. But, the power is not there. Nobody wants to pay for what he doesn’t have. If you recollect, Asiwaju started the ERON. When he started ERON then, if they had allowed it to work, today, we will not be where we are. Possibly, so many stays would be privileged. They will have their independent power sources. But, a situation where the entire livewire; power of a nation was given to an individual. For someone who is into agriculture, you give him the power to run. What does he know? His own is just to make money. We sign a power agreement and you domicile the agreement outside the country, if you want to cancel the agreement, it will not be by the law of Nigeria. It will be by the law of France, UK. How will that work? So, this is where we are.
Looking forward, in 2023, it is only Asiwaju who has that capacity. It is either you perform or you cancel the agreement. Nigeria should bear the cost now than bear the cost for the next 10 years.
I see 2023 as the challenge. If you want to move from what is now to a better tomorrow; to how a nation is built and developments are brought, we should think. We need to check ourselves, our attitude to infrastructure, our attitude to our neighbours. If we travel to Cotonou, we obey their laws. But, here, we don’t obey laws.
Why is Southwest not on the same page on the issue of 2023 succession? Why are people brought up by the leader also squaring up with him in this election?
I can only talk about myself and my constituents. I can’t talk for Osinbajo or Fayemi, for example. But, I can just make a general remark, that I do not expect it. I will not betray my leader or my benefactor. I will not. I will not betray Asiwaju for anything. I will rather quit politics. If I see o cannot go along with him, I will rather quit.
Continue reading the interview in The Nation