Former President of the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), Dr Jonathan Asake, has dismissed the major actors that formed the opposition coalition against the Tinubu administration, describing them as fighting personal battles because they are out of power.

He said only Peter Obi was deserving of the coalition ticket.

In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Asake said the core northern elite would always complain whenever a southerner is Nigeria’s president, no matter what that southerner does.

In his words, if a president from the south did what Buhari did in eight years, in terms of lopsided appointments, monumental corruption, borrowing, and empowering only people from one side of the country, among other ills, there would have been war in Nigeria.

What’s your view on the coalition that is building up for 2027 elections?

The coalition just like any other coalition is preparing to take over power from the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). But, my view about it is radically different from other people’s views. In the first place, I’m speaking as a member of the Labour Party, and secondly, I’m also speaking as an active politician, who has been part of the issues and has been a player too.

When I see the coalition coming together, it brings into memory what happened with the coalition that brought about the APC, which torpedoed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), then ruling party, under the leadership of former President Goodluck Jonathan. It was the same momentum, the gathering of the people from different political parties and different backgrounds, it is the same agitation, the same disgruntlement and so on.

When they came together, their sole purpose was to remove the leadership of Jonathan, which they perceived was the sole problem of the nation and because their attention was more focused on removing the leadership, they did not realise that they were ill prepared to give good leadership to the nation, and boom, Buhari was produced.

Never in the history of Nigeria have we had a leadership that has failed the nation, brought about monumental corruption, introduced bigotry and nepotism like the Buhari government for eight years. Insecurity pervaded the entire national atmosphere on a monumental level and we are still lost in the ocean of insecurity that we have not found a solution up till today.

Fast forward to today, 2025, the same group of people who left and formed the APC and brought the leadership of Buhari is almost the same group of people championing the coalition of today.

It Is not that I am not looking for that positive change of leadership that will bring succour to Nigerians. Most Nigerians today want a change. The suffering is too much. The insecurity, like I said, is still there, but not in the manner the coalition is going about it again. Anybody who was there in 2014, 2015, will tell you that the same group of people is coming together again.

Let me bring them into a line-up. Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president, championed the formation of the APC. Today, he is the same person.

Nasir el-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, one of the champions of the formation of APC, is speaking the same language; the same language of disdain for the leadership of the Jonathan administration. He is the one championing this one again.

Aminu Tambual, the former speaker of House of Representatives, and former governor of Sokoto State, is one other person that was there championing the formation of the APC. Today, he is there too.

The only person I can say was not there is the former Senate President, David Mark, who is now the interim chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the party the coalition is trying to use as a platform.

So, what is the language they are speaking today again against the Tinubu led government? The language that is being spoken against the Tinubu administration is the same language that they spoke while forming the APC.

They are more interested in removing Tinubu than giving Nigerians the way out.

What is their vision? What is their roadmap to bring about good governance for the nation? Nobody is talking about how they can bring about good governance.

No, th”y are only talking about removing what they perceive to be bad leadership, the Tinubu led leadership. It brings into memory again that we may end up having a coalition that may bring the same people together; whose mission is to remove what they think was bad leadership, without knowing what it takes to provide good leadership.

Today, Nigerians are regretting the removal of the government of Goodluck Jonathan. We removed that government and went into a worse government of the Buhari led APC, we may even move into a worst government if we do not probe the real intentions of the people that are coming together to make the coalition.

Most unfortunately, there are very good people that are going into that coalition to observe things and see. I can tell you, Peter Obi is one man that is making people to still listen to that coalition. He is one person in that coalition that is making Nigerians to still say, ‘if we can only have this coalition and can have such a leader, we believe Nigeria will be taken out of the doldrums.’

If Peter Obi is not given the ticket of that coalition, there will be nothing like a coalition, and Tinubu will have a smooth ride.

APC stakeholders said in spite of the coalition, Tinubu would be re-elected as he has done well. What’s your position on this?

It is not because they have performed creditably well. Just check, right from 1999, any president that has been there, the people that surround that leadership at that level, or even at the level of the state leadership, you will always hear such, comments coming from them – that they have performed creditably well.

But nobody will be able to raise his head and speak like that if our national institutions, especially INEC is working. People speak like that because they know that we have very weak institutions; whether you vote or you don’t vote, they can always win election because your votes will not count.

But, where votes count, nobody can beat his chest and speak like that in the present scenario we find ourselves in this country.

So, those people from the presidency or the APC speak like that because they know that we have very weak institutions.

Everybody’s talking about 2027. How can the country ensure credible elections that will be acknowledged all over the world as being transparent?

To me, this is the most difficult question to answer today in Nigeria, especially as it affects elections, because all efforts have been made before now, and they proved futile.

There is always agitation for electoral reforms, but each time, you find out the president in power will not be in a position to implement any radical reforms in conformity with the yearnings and agitations of the people because they want to be beneficiaries of it.

And every president that comes wants to perpetrate himself, especially to get a second term.

If Nigerians are expecting that the Tinubu administration will introduce reforms that may remove them from power, Nigerians will be shocked. Once radical reforms are made, where votes will count, I can tell you; I can assure you that results will be different.

Pulling back to 2023 and see the way Nigerians voted across the country, it’s a very open secret that the Labour Party, which they said didn’t have structures won that election landslide.

Even el-Rufai that is the champion of the coalition today, who was against the Labour Party; spoke so evil of the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has been making statements.

His recent X handle came up with results that show that Peter Obi won the election landslide.

So, this is where we are. When we agitate, we only agitate to the extent that it has not met up with our own personal ambitions and personal interests.

Anything that is in the public interest, we don’t do it, and that is where I see the people agitating for the coalition today; people that are coming together, very strange bedfellows that are coming together, whose sole aim is to just take over power.

And let me say something that I’ve also personally observed. Having said this on the political party level, I also want to say this on the regional level.

I see a high level of intolerance that comes from the Fulani north; from our own northern bloc that each time a southern president is in power, there is some level of evil intolerance that will almost threaten the peace and stability of the country.

Once it is a president of southern extraction, the northern Fulani will scream that there must be a change of power, even when it is not time. This happened to Goodluck Jonathan. Just after his first tenure, they threatened to make the country ungovernable, and they were making such statements to the extent that they brought in the insecurity that we are suffering today-these bandits and kidnappers they brought into the country from outside to discredit and remove the Jonathan administration.

That is why some of us even though we know that Nigerians are suffering and we are suffering too have realised that this coming together; this agitation and the hatred for the Bola Tinubu led government is not genuine to me. It is to the extent that those people championing this, is because their interests have not been taken care of. If their personal interests were taken care of, they wouldn’t mind if Nigerians have been taken to the forest and killed.

Let me give you an example. Flip back to the time of el-Rufai as Kaduna State governor and his utterances and his support for evil administration.

Even the Tinubu he’s talking down about today, he prided himself before that he was the one that would champion the coming of Tinubu as president, and he became president. Today, he is at direct 180 degrees hatred against the Tinubu government and against the person of President Tinubu.

Why? Because he thought after Tinubu became president, he was going to be a Chief of Staff or Secretary to the Government, but he was not given; his name was mentioned as minister, but he was not made a minister. So, now that his personal interest has not been taken care of, he turned against the government.

In the first place, he championed the Muslim-Muslim ticket because he knew that Tinubu, as a southern president is a Muslim and so it will be normal and traditional to take a northern Christian, but he stood in that path and he walked against the emergence of a Christian vice president, breaking the tradition that we had before that time because he believed that he was going to be a beneficiary, but lo and behold, it didn’t favor him as Vice President. Shettima emerged, who is a Muslim. So, el-Rufai wasn’t a beneficiary of the evil that he laid down, therefore, he has become a wounded lion. Four things he has missed- One, he brought in Muslim-Muslim ticket thinking that he was going to be a vice president; he did not become a beneficiary. Secondly, he thought he was going to be a made a chief of staff in the administration of Tinubu that he believed he brought about, he did not get that one. Thirdly, he did not get the secretary to the federal government, and fourthly, and wasn’t made a minister. So, he’s a wounded lion going about with hatred instead of saying Nigerians are suffering, and there is insecurity, there is this and that, but he’s only saying that Tinubu is bad and the best thing he wants to achieve is to remove the president.

So, right-thinking Nigerians will see a coalition like this as insincere from the onset because of the actors. They are dragging a clean man in the person of Peter Obi, a clean man; a man of integrity, a man that the Nigerian masses believe has a clear vision of where he wants to take Nigeria. They are dragging him into it, but I know Peter Obi is there; if they give him the ticket Nigerians will follow because they want focused leadership, but if they don’t give him the ticket, any party that gives Peter Obi the ticket that is where Nigerians are going.

Some of the strategic appointments that Tinubu has been making in recent times are mostly from the North. Is he trying to buy himself back into the hearts of the northerners with these appointments?

From the onset, Tinubu has been balancing his appointments compared to what Buhari did for eight years, let the truth be told. It is only that the south does not complain like the north. That’s the difference.

The core north, you can keep giving them and giving them, they will still be complaining and insulting you.

If it was a southern president that did what Buhari did for eight years in Nigeria, this country would not have been one today. I want to guarantee you that.

If it was a president from the south that did what Buhari did in terms of lopsided appointments, in terms of monumental corruption, in terms of borrowing and then empowering only people from one side of the country, in terms of projects,

I am telling you, this country would not have been one today, there would have been war. But the south remains tolerant, knowing that we are living in a democratic society, and that after tenure, there is a chance again to elect another person. That is why after the eight years, another person, a president from the south, emerged. Even though he has not been doing like Buhari did, but you can see the level of hatred and the level of blackmail and the level of conspiracy against his government.

It is all because what the Northern bloc wants is to see that everything is given to them, especially the North West Zone, which is just one out of six zones.

But if you count, if you make the tabulation today, you will see how many appointments in this same Tinubu government that have gone to the North West Zone compared to other zones. If you are talking about the Middle Belt, where will you see any balancing of appointments? Every appointment goes to the core north.

What’s your view on the review of the 1999 constitution and agitations for creation of states?

They are using that one to hold the people excited ahead of 2027. Every government has done that. Our Assembly in 1999 did the same thing.

There was constitutional review committee, and every assembly has done that.

And each time, every administration will do that to hype the people and excite them and keep them busy.

You try to fight, okay, this boundary will be here, this state will be here, and these are the people. After that, they win the election and that’s all.

So, I can categorically tell you that it’s just one of those exercises.

They know very well that by the provisions of Section 8 of the Constitution, the constrictions that are provided in there, there is no administration that is really ready to go through that to create states for the people even when they know that creating those states may establish the stability that we need in some of the areas, but they will use it as a political tool to get re-elected.

And after that, when they get the second term, that’s all, and who talks about it again?

They will wait for another administration to just hand over the baton, no matter how rotten the baton is, no matter how weak it is. And that’s what every administration has done.

We have reached a point in this country that we just have to pray for the emergence of a radical set of people that have radical thinking that will look at the issues in this nation. In the first place, the national institutions, the security agencies, the intelligence agencies, the electoral body etc, should be strengthened so that we can begin to have the emergence of leaders that will be according to the wishes of the people.

I’m sorry, if you think I’m becoming emotional, but from the last election, where the people themselves spoke, and they were denied, where they saw the person who said, ‘I know what to do with this country, I’m taking this country to a great height. We are tired of being consumers every time. Let us for once have a situation where we can harness our natural and human resources and become a nation that is engaged in production, so that we can have foreign earnings, we can grow our foreign reserves,’ but Nigerians were denied that opportunity.

In 2027, you will see voter apathy because people sacrificed everything, including maximum sacrifice of their lives and yet, their choice was denied. We’re walking the same path again.

It appears that Nigeria cannot run away from the youth taking their fate into their hands. The youth are suffering and are the greatest losers in this country today, and that future that they say is always for the youth is no longer there for them.

You can see what is happening. You see graduates roasting corns by the roadside; we have been reduced to that level, somebody who is trained as an architect, as a professional that Is supposed to be actually using that professional training for the good and development of the country. Nigeria is nowhere to be found, not even making a toothpick. Look at how the education sector is today.

So, unless there is some kind of a revolution that the people will have to come together, irrespective of their region, irrespective of religion and tribe, which they have always used to divide us by making us think as Christians and Muslims; northerners and southerners; Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa or Fulani or other tribes, we cannot make a headway. They make us think along those boxes, and so it has become difficult for us to come together and look at the people that are misgoverning this country and are ruining the resources, and making people to die in the midst of plenty.

Throughout Buhari’s eight years, he kept going for medical attention in the UK.

This president is doing the same thing. He died in the UK, and they brought his dead body back. But this man could have made a state of the art hospital, just in the area of dialysis alone.

Look at how the poor man, if you have to undergo dialysis, how much does it take per one session? Now that is what government can provide so that Nigerians can enjoy the resources that God has given us, but it is not like that. There has to be a very radical approach by the youth to rebel against the system and say ‘we have to take our fate into our hands and rebel against the crude INEC that we have today; rebel against every other thing. Unless we do that this country will continue to go down the drain and we’ll continue to go from one bad leader to another, it will never get improved.

Check the history of nations; nations have been ruined because their people have remained complacent or docile. The people that are perpetrating this, their children are inheriting what they have done; what they have looted and so their children don’t even know the history of suffering. So, you can never improve, it is their children that are getting into those positions.

Go and check even in the military, the Nigerian Defence Academy of yesterday that used to be where the son of any common farmer could just write the exam and passed and then become an officer. It is no longer for the common man. The people that are being brought out as officers today are children of rich men.

Common man’s children are no longer finding themselves into those institutions, and ditto for other paramilitary agencies; the Customs, the immigration, the fire service, and civil defence, and so on. It is the same for Central Bank, the NNPC, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service. If you go to key parastatals of the nation, you will only see inheritance of people that are revolving themselves, of people that have taken over, so the common man will not have a place.

So, the youth of the common people will have to think about this thing and say ‘enough is enough’.

The government is borrowing more and more money. What’s your take on this?

It is the same story. Everybody knows that borrowing has no repercussions to it, and so you can only borrow and hand over to another government.

Earlier, I used the figurative expression of handing over a rotten baton, and nobody cares. The Buhari government accused the Jonathan government of borrowing, but he borrowed exponentially, several times more than the preceding Jonathan government. Tinubu is beating the record of Buhari, and when they borrow you don’t see anything on the ground to show for it; you don’t see any improvement in national institutions, you don’t see anything in terms of infrastructure, in terms of human capacity development and so on.

Leaders don’t know that when they borrow, they leave the burden to the incoming government, and that is why they will just try to leave and hand over, and in doing that, they will not even allow the emergence of the next leader to follow the due process or to have the stamp of the authority of the Nigerian people through the ballot box, and so they get away with it.

Look at our state, Kaduna, el-Rufai borrowed $350 million. In the first place, when he went to borrow, our senators were very courageous to ask him what he wanted to do with this money. Because they couldn’t get any reasonable explanation, they blocked him, but he worked against them using the crude system within the INEC to remove two of the senators – Suleiman Hunkuyi of the northern zone and Shehu Sani of the central zone. It’s only the southern senator that he couldn’t remove because the people of the south stand strong; they know what they are doing. Then, he brought in people that would guarantee that loan for him and he got the loan. But, the same person who is the governor today that paved the way for him to get the loan has been crying that he left a lot of loan burden for him in the state. You can see the irony of the whole thing, everybody comes, plays and then loot and try to get what he can get, deceive the people the way they can and get away with it.

We have not had a clear cut answer to how people can be brought to book even after their tenure. Even the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), you can see the selective activities they are doing in the discharge of their duties. I can tell you that this culture of borrowing has continued because there have been no sanctions against any of the leaders, and that is why they continue this culture of borrowing with impunity and you don’t see anything that they do with the huge amount. (Sunday Sun)