Buhari not a tyrant, only driven by passion to redeem Nigeria — Ajasin

Tokunbo Ajasin, son of former governor of old Ondo State and leader of Afenifere, late Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin is founder of Atayese, a Yoruba self determination group. A former member of the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) and former chairman of WEMA Bank, in this interview with AKINJIDE AKINTOLA defends President Muhammadu Buhari of allegations of being a tyrant, saying the President is only being driven by passion to redeem the country.

The opposition PDP described President Muhammadu Buhari as a tyrant, following his comments on Media chat on the non-release of suspects despite two or three bail granted them by the courts. How do you this? I think unfortunately, sometimes the President is too frank; he is not a person who speaks diplomatically but speaks about issues the way it is, the way he feels in his heart. And to some extent, I think that’s one of the reasons people voted for him.

Because they want someone who is genuine, someone who speaks his mind; who doesn’t couch his words in language that is politically correct. We have been having people who say things they don’t do but here we have someone who say things as it is, and that’s why he is liable to all accusations. But what he has done or say is not wrong per se because if someone is arrested and granted bail, he can be arrested on another charge. In the past, they put all the charges together and come to court and then the accused gets bail and you are bound to let him go according to the order of the court.

Now, that you have been taught lessons, you don’t lump all the charges together. You put some charges first and if he gets bail you put another charge, you don’t let him go. That is what is happening now because they feel that if the accused is granted bail and they let him go, well, he may not come back. This was what the president was trying to say. The reason they are doing that is because of the past, because they have been taught lessons. Why all of a sudden, immediately you are arrested, you say you are ill and you have medical appointment for treatment abroad. Everybody is doing that, having medical treatment abroad; we know it’s a game they all play. Other people would have replied in a diplomatic manner, but he is not known to talk diplomatically. But he has not done anything wrong, there is still lot in where he is going. Some people even said he should have simply answered that since the case is in court, he would not like to comment? That’s true because there were a few questions like that which he declined to answer on account of being still in court.

But sometimes, you get passionate about something and you say certain things that may get you into this type of controversy. National Secretariat in Abuja. At the meeting, the Chinese chargé d’affaires Qin Jian, disclosed to the APC leadership that the Chinese President Xi Jinping has invited President Muhammadu Buhari to China on a State Visit on a yet-to-beannounced date. Mai Mala Buni who was represented at the meeting by APC’s Director of Organisation, Alhaji Kyari Abubakar, said: “China is a very important technical and trading partner to Nigeria. Both countries have enjoyed excellent social, economic and cultural relations. As China is aware, Nigeria recently witnessed a change of government which ushered in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. The time for better cooperation between both countries is now as the APC and the President Buhari administration works to deliver on its Change mandate.”

He said healthy relations between Nigeria and China will ultimately be of benefit to Africa. At party level, the APC National Secretary identified capacity building and collaboration as areas Nigeria’s APC and the Chinese CPC can partner. Meanwhile, Qin Jian reported that following the successful December 2015 Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) summit which brought together Chinese senior government officials and most African heads of government to Johannesburg, South Africa, the Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced a $60 billion aid package for Africa. The aid package would finance a broad range of assistance programmes to help Africa industrialise, modernise its agricultural production, boost the skills of its workers, build infrastructure and improve its health care. Qin Jian said 2016 marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and China. “We (China) have enjoyed positive and beneficial partnership with Nigeria in healthcare, economy, infrastructure development, social/cultural exchange and other areas… Nigeria has the biggest economy in Africa and is a very important partner with China.

“The Chinese CPC and Nigeria’s ruling APC will pursue better cooperation which will be of benefit to both nations. Both parties can share experiences on how to develop the economy and protect the environment as well as technical support and capacity building where necessary.” Qin Jian said. trouble if you are not careful. He also spoke about the amount the National Assembly is planning to use in buying cars when they already have transport allowance. So, those things are in the budget and obviously, he is not going to entertain that. And there are other things like that in the budget and would be scrutinised and the budget is either passed or there will be a stalemate because from his reaction I’m envisaging a constitutional crisis where he would refuse to sign and veto the budget while the National Assembly might also override his veto.

Then it would now depend on the public support through agitations of the people. And if the people support the National Assembly on the issue then the country deserves what it got. But if the people maintain their stand that no, this is not what you are supposed to be doing, you already have cars, The President is over seven months in office now, do you see any change yet as promised? The changes are not coming as fast as we expect but there is a lot going on underneath from what I understand.

The only thing is that his cabinet is a departure from the usual. Unfortunately, the long period that was used to put the cabinet into place was too long and I thought he was going to do something extraordinary, but by the time he announced the cabinet, I felt he didn’t need that much time. But in any case, those he chose, I believe they are competent people and they would do something especially in an environment everybody is expecting a difference.

The change itself is not evidenced yet but I believe looking at the caliber of people, they should perform. The only other fear I have is that the revenue profile of the country may not be able to achieve what they want to do, but the wastages would be curbed, and the excess spendings. But in the details of the budget being unveiled, it was discovered that revenue projections for the Presidency in areas like cars, feeding, travels and furniture were much higher than those of former President Goodluck Jonathan for 2015? I will be surprised, but honestly, I haven’t gone through the revenue profiles of what he has budgeted, so I can’t really answer that question. But in some statements he said they wanted him to buy cars for N400 but he declined saying the current ones are okay for him; he doesn’t need to buy new vehicles as he can use what other people have used. You know civil servants can put you into you don’t need other cars, then the President might have his way.

But the legislators are defending it saying the cars are for official duties? That’s what I mean by being realistic as nobody wants to speak the truth about anything. If you want to use cars for official duties, there are cars in the pool, but you don’t ride it around for leisure. Everyone can’t use them at the same time. And in time of austerity, you can even use your personal cars and have an allowance paid for the use of your car for official duties. It has been done before, before we started buying cars for everybody now. When my dad was a member of parliament many years ago, he got a loan from the bank to buy a car; I don’t know how they arranged it then, maybe the government would guarantee it.

That was the car he was also using for his personal duties since they gave him a loan for it and he was paying back. And that’s what they did for every member then, and when there was a coup, I remembered that my sister, a legal practitioner with the government was sent to recover some debts of some MPs who were still owing by the time they were removed from office by the coup. If they can do it then, why not now, especially in view of the lean resources at the moment. This is part of the change being expected. That time there was oil, now we have to cut our coat to our size. It also happened to individuals too when they are no more affluent. You have to cut your expenses and live frugally until you recover. So, this people