The leader of Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, has said that even though many of the elected political office holders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, as well as other political stalwarts are defecting in droves to the ruling All Progress Congress (APC), it will be very difficult for Nigeria to become a one-party state.

According to him, it will be a herculean task for the APC to win the next election because of the excruciating hardship it has brought to the country.

In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the CNG leader concluded that the reforms initiated by the present administration were not yielding positive fruits.

What is your view on the state of the nation?

The nation is in a sorry state. The nation is on the verge of collapse. Nothing is working in this country. Nigerians are suffering. There is an economic hardship, which evidence is empirical. Nobody is enjoying the country, and nobody is enjoying this administration. Things are moving the way Nigerians never expected; Nigerians wouldn?t have believed that the country would be in a situation like this. It is very unfortunate the kind of leaders we have. It is very unfortunate that Nigeria is at the verge of collapse under the Tinubu?s administration.

It Is very unfortunate that we have people that are self-centred, whose only agenda is to benefit themselves rather than how to promote the country. The country is in a very sorry stage.

But the government says its reforms have started yielding results?

Well, actually, this government has done so many reforms, but it is very unfortunate that those reforms we are talking about put this country into the ugly situation we find ourselves in today. We have seen a reform in the petroleum sector, but unfortunately Nigerians are buying petrol at the rate of over N1, 000 per litre today. We have seen a reform in the exchange rate, but one dollar is closing to N2, 000 today. President Tinubu met one dollar to about N500. We have seen a reform in the food security. President Tinubu met a bag of rice about N30, 000, but today, Nigerians are buying a bag of rice at over N100, 000. We have seen a reform in the aviation sector. It is very unfortunate that today, Nigerians are buying a ticket from Lagos to wherever in the country that is as it they were buying a ticket to travel outside the country.

We have seen a reform in the education sector. It is very unfortunate that today, many Nigerians cannot even afford to pay their school fees, and those that can pay for the school fees cannot afford to have three square meals. At the end of their studies, they don?t even know where they are heading to.

These are the kind of reforms that Tinubu?s administration is bringing. We have seen the so-called tax reform bill that Tinubu is proposing. Unfortunately, in that tax reform bill, he never took consideration of the Nigerian economic situation. They are even planning to increase VAT from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent, and later to 12 per cent and up to 15 per cent without putting into consideration that Nigerians are in a serious economic mess. And VAT is a consumption tax.

We have seen these reforms that are undergoing in this administration, and none of these reforms proffers solution to Nigeria?s problem. We have seen the reform in the electricity sector. Today, the Band A, which we are talking about, cannot give 20 hours electricity, and a single unit of that Band A is more than N200, while Tinubu met it between N60 and N70. This administration has put Nigeria in a serious problem, and has taken it backward. It has no human feeling; The leaders are not even considering the very bad situation that Nigeria is in today.

Why is there so much contention about the Tinubu tax reform from the North?

The agitation is not only coming from the north. The agitation is for Nigerians and Nigeria, because if you are talking about increase in VAT, it doesn?t affect only the north; all Nigerians will feel the pain, either in goods or in services. In this so-called tax reform, they proposed a situation whereby the funding of TETFund, NITDA, NASENI, etc will stop. Nobody can undermine the contributions of these agencies in the educational, technological, science and engineering sectors. So, in as much as you are going to reform, you are scrapping these critical agencies.

In this so-called reform we are talking about, we have seen how they have shifted derivation from the distribution, and how they share the VAT. It is very unfortunate that in the so-called reforms, the VAT is going to be shared 20 per cent equality, 20 per cent population, and 60 per cent derivation.

And if you are talking about 60 per cent to derivation, nothing defines what derivation is all about. Nothing defines where and how they are going to do this derivation.

And if you are going to maintain the current formula we are talking about, derivation is based on the headquarters of the registered corporate companies. That means all Nigerians will be serving Lagos. This cannot be tolerated. We will fight it within the ambit of law.

So, it is not an issue of South versus North; it is not an issue of Christian versus Muslim, but it is an issue that concerns Nigerians.

By the way, if I may ask: What are exact problems that Nigerians have today that the only solution is this tax reform bill? Will the tax reform bill ?esolve the issue of petroleum subsidy removal? Will it resolve the problems of economic hardship that Nigerians are experiencing? Will this tax reform bill resolve the issue of electricity increment? Will it resolve the issue of increase in the school fees at various levels? Will it bring back infrastructure development in Nigeria? Will it boost our educational sector? Will it boost our health sector? These are the questions we are talking about. Despite the huge amount of money being collected as taxes in Nigeria, still our educational system is in a very bad condition. Our health sector is on its knees. Our infrastructure development has collapsed. Nigeria is not working and nothing is moving in this country. How much did this government generate from removal of oil subsidies and other subsidies? What have they been doing with this money? Where are the roads? Where are the hospitals? Where are the institutions that this administration built with the money that they have removed from oil subsidies?

Recall that during Abacha?s era, it was about two or three naira that they added to the petrol price and Nigerians saw the empirical evidence of that increase. But there is nothing to show for the subsidy removal. So, why will Nigerians be paying taxes? Even the 7.5 per cent VAT is not acceptable and Nigerians can longer afford it. That?s why we are advocating for the reduction of this VAT to 3 per cent from the 7.5 per cent. We should not even be talking about increasing our VAT.

The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, said that the government has saved about $20 billion from fuel subsidy, and at the same time the government is going to borrow $2.2bn. What do you say to this?

This questioned should be appropriately answered by the Finance Minister because he is the one talking about the country saving such an amount from subsidy removal and at the same time knowing about the government?s plans of going to borrow. This is ridiculous. A country that is using 33 per cent for debt servicing is also talking about saving and at the same time going to borrow. Our leaders are not open and they are not fair to us; they are not doing justice to us and to themselves. They have squandered and looted this country to its knee. They are doing nothing rather than looting the treasury of Nigeria for their family members, and they forgot that Nigerians gave them the mandate to be where they are today; they forgot that Nigerians have responsibility on them and that is why they are doing what they are doing. When you look at the budget you will see what they have allocated to themselves.

Imagine the huge amount allocated to the Presidential Villa, look at what is allocated to the Education sector. The 15 percent allocated to servicing debt is higher than that of the Education and the Health sectors put together. If you compare the budget of the National Assembly with that of the Education sector, Health sector, Security, you will understand that these people are there to serve themselves and not Nigerians.

Tinubu administration has failed Nigerians; they are not doing anything, they are the worst since the inception of this country.

You said the Tinubu administration is not doing well. Why are elected political office holders and other political stalwarts from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party defecting to the All Progress Congress (APC)?

I have said it before that in Nigeria, we have politicians rather than leaders. A leader is always thinking of the next generation; the future of the country and the future of the youths, but a politician is always talking and focusing about the next election and how he is going to win. It is very unfortunate that every sector of Nigeria has collapsed, including the electoral sector.

So, politicians are trooping to the APC just for the simple reason of getting what they want. The politicians are not serving the country, but themselves. To them, it is a business venture; wherever you feel you will make profit, you move to that area. That is why they are moving into APC, believing that they can make profit there. Believe me sincerely, if PDP comes into power today, most of them will move there. If LP comes into power today, they will equally move in droves into the new party in power. Nigerian politicians should be counted as the worst in the world; they lack the entire qualities of leadership. They are there to enrich themselves and want to be called leaders. Today, a Nigerian politician will contest for the president, governor, senator or even a local government chairman without knowing what he or she is going there to do. He doesn?t know what he wants to be remembered for. All they know is that by the time they get into office they would get a lot of money and that is why the country is not working, but collapsing.

Insecurity is everywhere, hardship is equally everywhere. Go to any part of this country and see how people have been turned into beggars and suffering. Go to any part of this country and see how the prices of food items have skyrocketed beyond the reach of most Nigerians. Today, the food inflation is almost 40 per cent; the inflation rate is about 34 per cent. This has never been witnessed in Nigeria since its creation. Unfortunately, the government policies are not even closer to solving the problems. Their policies are centred only where they would enrich the politicians. The situations of Nigerians are not even considered when they are framing and implementing these polices.

The way members of the opposition parties are moving in droves into the ruling party, don?t you think that Nigeria may end up having one party by 2027?

It will be very difficult for Nigeria to become a one-party state because even though the politicians are trooping into APC, most of them if they don?t get what they want in the party, would also move to another party.

I doubt much with this situation we found ourselves if Nigerians would vote APC again.

But most elected members of the opposition at various levels are now APC members, and many others are warming up to defect?

We have two types of variables. We have the variables of the politicians who are in power and you have the variables of the real masses in the country. Go to any village in the country or draft a questionnaire and take it to all the villages and see their responses. With these indices in the country, definitely APC will fail. Go to the people that are supposed to be voters in any polling unit, ask them whether they would vote for APC, I can tell you clearly that they would tell you ?no?, that they cannot vote for the party. The suffering the people have been subjected to is beyond their imagination; nobody is feeling comfortable. The insecurity is there. The economic hardship is worsened by the day. The masses have learnt their lessons never to bring this party back again; they are crying and their cries are everywhere.

Some Northerners say that Tinubu has not been fair to the region in his appointments, considering that it was the North that brought him to power. But Senator Shehu Sani said Tinubu has done very well for the region by giving them strategic appointments. What do you say to this?

I believe in capability, capacity and willingness to move the country forward. I believe that whoever that can deliver should be brought on board irrespective of his religion or ethnicity. I have no problem in appointing whoever he wants in as much as that person is competent enough.

But the question remains, all those that Tinubu appointed, are they competent? In as much as he has done justice to the north, those people he has appointed from the north are they the best that the region can bring? In as much as they are not the best people that northern Nigeria can bring, then Tinubu is not rewarding the north. Rather, he?s rewarding his northern friends. So, the appointments didn?t go the north, but northerners whom he felt would serve him well.

The reality is that all the appointments are lopsided. Those people manning the affairs of the country cannot move this nation forward. I don?t want to call names, but I believe that you know that the ministries they are talking about that were allocating to people from northern Nigeria are very few and the people in the affairs of those ministries can move things to work the ways there are supposed to be working. But the others that he appointed, he just appointed them based on political interests. We have so many of such people in the government today. If Tinubu is giving his appointment to the north, let him tell them to bring their best ten and out of that he can choose the ones he wants, and I believe that most of his cabinet members would never be there.

Some people are proposing regional government. What is your take on that?

We are moving forward and it will not be a good idea for us to go backward to the time our colonial masters ruled us. We better think of something better. The issue of regional government shouldn?t even arise now. What we should be talking about is how to get good governance ? good local government chairmen, good national assembly members, good governors, good president to move this country forward. With this current woeful situation, why should anybody think of regional government? If you allow the regions to choose their leaders, they cannot do that easily because of the kind of politicians we have. Let?s have a good governance, thereafter, we can go ahead and do whatever that we want to do. (Saturday Sun)

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