Except we restructure, true development will not come – Prof Remi Sonaiya

Prof Remi Sonaiya, a renowned academic, was Nigeria’s only female presidential candidate in the 2015 general election. She ran on the platform of the KOWA Party.

The vibrant educationist lost her bid to Dr Adesina Bryon in representing the party again in the 2019 election.

In this interview, she said that she was disappointed with the electoral process despite all the noise of assurances made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

She is unhappy that nothing seems to have changed in terms of the quality of life of Nigerians under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

She frankly spoke her mind on issues of security, women in politics, economy and the restructuring agenda, among other national issues. Excerpt:  

Since 2015 when you ran for the presidency and now, has anything really changed in our electoral process, have we improved?

Is this a rhetorical question? I asked because you should know that we are still walking in circles, things have not improved. I am sure you (referring to the reporter) observed the just concluded election? Can we, in all honesty, say the election was peaceful, credible, free and fair?  Was there any improvement in your own observation? Despite all the assurances by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of conducting a free, fair and credible poll, I was disappointed with the conduct.

What of in other areas?

Security has been so terrible, more people are in poverty, and Nigeria has become the poverty capital of the world. What we are facing is a sad situation indeed. It is difficult to point out the improvements, so to speak, that may have been done. I assume that some things may have been done, but the things that touch peoples’ lives directly, it’s difficult to say they are getting adequate attention. Inflation is still galloping, the insecurity in so many parts of the country, in Taraba, Zamfara, Benue, almost everywhere, so it’s very sad and the leaders, they are in the world of their own, for themselves and their concerns are different from that of the people. They are concerned about who gets the Senate President, who gets the Speaker of the House of Representatives etc; one does not sense that they are really concerned about the plight of the people. It’s been five years since the Chibok girls were captured; they are still there just as there are so many challenging issues that are not given priority attention they deserved.

But what do you think that the government is not doing well or ought to be doing as regards the security challenge?

It’s difficult for somebody from the outside to answer that kind of question. You know in security issues there is usually a lot of intelligence that go into it, so most times it’s not something you discuss in the open. The public does not have the facts so it’s difficult to say: do this. They may seem to be doing certain things, but what if they are not sincere? What if there is still a lot of theft and corruption in terms of the equipment that is being bought for the police, for the military, etc; so there are many things that we do not know as citizens, as the public which they know and are expected to know.

What we should do as citizens are to hold them accountable, not for us to be saying: these are the things you should be doing. Given the amount of money that has been voted for them and they are supposed to be the professionals, so they must explain to us why they have not been able to perform up to the desired standard. We are the ones to ask them, to demand the account of their work, not that we should be telling them to do this or that. That is not our own job. There are professionals that you are expected to engage, so what are they doing? What has been their work so far? Why are we not getting the needed result? That is what should bother them (leadership) rather than us, telling them what to do.

You just harped on corruption and if you recall, just a few days ago former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen, was tried and found to be guilty and punished. Do you see it as a victory for the anti-corruption war?

I am not quick at celebrating such type of victory. There is alleged wrongdoing and they have passed judgment. But you know that Justice Onnoghen has gone to a higher court to seek for justice, so I cannot just say here that he is wrong or that the court that convicted him is right.

I think we should be expecting more legal fireworks on the issue and I am not expected as at now to speak on it, remember, the case has been taken to the Supreme Court, so let our revered Chief Justices of the Supreme Court do justice to it. That is their turf. Maybe after that, I can speak my mind, as I feel on the issue, but for now, I do not want to be accused of influencing judgment.  So, let’s leave the issue to the courts to determine it for us.

So far are you satisfied with women participation in politics?

Nobody is satisfied; I believe no genuine, honest person should be satisfied. You see because what that means is that the skills, the competencies, the contributions that are peculiar that women can bring to the development of our country, to the running of our country at the level of participation in governance, we are not getting the full benefit of it. Of course, women are participating in Nigerian life in many ways, in leadership positions, in the private sector, etc but what is it that is keeping them out of political leadership?

I consider it a shame for Nigeria really that we have not been able to recognize that it is to our benefit, it is to the advantage of everybody to get competent and able women to bring their own skills and participate in the leadership of our country, in the governance of the nation. It’s a pity. Maybe, as some countries have done, we might have to legislate and say: certain positions be left for the women if we are not going to do the right thing for ourselves, maybe, we do it through legislation. But you ask yourself: who are the people that will vote for it?

How will you score the President Buhari-led government?

I don’t want to score any government; all of us are living through the realities. We should not be asking some of this unnecessary question. There may be people who will tell you that they are performing fantastically, but what I see is that my quality of life has not improved in terms of electricity, health, water provision, in terms of provision of good roads, etc, even the roads that they are doing, they are taking forever to do it. The road you say you are doing you are causing so much pain with it, causing so much hold-up, so much traffic jam, with it, so what is the advantage to us? Why can’t it be done much quickly? That is my own score of the government.

Some people are advocating for the restructuring of the country if there must be genuine development. Do you subscribe to that?

I am a firm believer in the fact that the system that we are currently running, this centralized unitary system is not working, it is simply not working and it’s a reality that we should face and come up with an alternative. A powerful central government where everything is decided in Abuja is not to our advantage. We will continue to be an undeveloped country because of it. If we had a better arrangement that will let every area generate and have control over its resources, we will find out that we will become a better country, we will become more prosperous, but in this arrangement where everyone is just looking up to Abuja for sharing patronage, distribution of oil wells, except for people like we hear, those who can be mining gold, illegally in Zamfara, but that is not helping the people. So, it’s clear that this structure is not working.

Police are national, people have been screaming, agitating for us to have state police, local police, or community police to fight some of these problems of security that we have. So, I don’t like an attitude of some people saying: this is how things have always been. In fact, this is not how things have always been. We did not have a unitary system before; it was imposed on us by the military so why are they now saying that there is nothing like restructuring when what we are practicing is not working.

We are not running true fiscal federalism. This was not how Nigeria was before and we should be able, to be honest with ourselves, and say that this system is not helping us, not working. It’s time we tell ourselves the bitter truth that this system is not working, will not work and will not take us anywhere in terms of genuine development.