Comrade Moshood Erubami is a development finance expert and Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Ethics in Development.
A frontline human rights and pro-democracy activist, Erubami is a former president of Nigeria’s oldest pro-democracy group, the Campaign for Democracy (CD) and past chairman of the renowned Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), the largest election monitoring group in the country. He was also the first chairman of the Election Observation Network in West Africa (WAEON); a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and the Pro National Conference (PRONACO) under the leadership of Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Senator Abraham Adesanya, Chief Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Bola Ige, Mr Ayo Opadokun and Chief Bisi Akande.
Erubami is not a pushover among Nigerian activists as activism runs in his veins.
In this exclusive interview with RAZAQ BAMIDELE, the Ibadan-based activist and politician spoke extensively on political activism in Nigeria and the struggle to enthrone democracy; how the current structure and governance system are hindering the country’s progress; the months-long strike by university lecturers and his choice among the leading contenders for president in the 2023 election.
When, how, and why did you become a right activist?
My brother, with this question, it means you have neither come across nor read my published book on ‘From Unionism to Activism’ – A biographical Sketch of Comrade Moshood Erubami.’
I started working as an Accounting Officer and a Banker with the Barclays Bank DCO, now known as Union Bank Plc. In1977, I joined the bank as a junior executive and rose to its senior management executive level.
Thereafter, I joined the Campaign for Democracy (CD), the oldest and largest pro-democracy organisation in Nigeria, under the leadership of the Chairman, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti of blessed memory. I took over from him as the first president, where I sharpened my teeth as a pro-democracy and human rights activist.
I left the bank and bank unionism to establish the Centre for Human Rights Research and Development in 1992.
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Without being immodest, the unionism experience taught me a lot in liberation struggles using the stipulations in the staff collective agreement and conflict and grievance handling and resolution processes.
The larger Nigerian struggle for human rights and democratic order requires courage, honesty, character, commitment and sincere doggedness and, above all, the sound knowledge of the laws relating to one’s area of specialisation.
My being a frontline unionist assisted me in the larger society when I became engaged in nationwide human rights and pro-democracy activism. This was the way I came into activism and became an activist of repute respected all over the world.
What is the relevance of activism in military and civilian dispensation?
Along with being a member of the human rights and pro-democracy group, we continue to study Marxism and Socialism as a principle, philosophy and ideology of human liberation under Senior Comrades, like Professor. Ola Oni, Professor Bade Onimode, Professor Olorode, Professor Lai Olurode, and Professor Adele Jinadu, and from there became a trained Marxist socialist.
My socialist ideas blossomed when I established the Centre for Human Rights in 1992 working with Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, Femi Falana, Femi Aborisade, Prof. Aborisade, Segun Sango and others too numerous to mention.
I grew through the relevance of my understanding that nothing concrete can be achieved with activism that we were engaged in, under and against military rule. We became better informed that only with the ideology of politics and election can we confront military rule.
We proceeded with the two, learning the politics of ideology in Portugal around 1974.
The first civil disobedience introduced into the politics of the Campaign for Democracy (CD) in 1993 immediately after the annulment of June 12 was a product of that understanding that the oppressed can be timely liberated from the grip of their oppressors only through civil disobedience to military orders and finding succours to their pains arising from military autocracy, despotism and regimented oligarchy.
Above this, political activism is relevant given the understanding and readiness to adhere to the warnings in the saying of Plato. Plato warned us that whoever jettisoned participation in partisan politics will end up being governed by his inferiors, while he will be busy criticising.
The mistake of some of us is that majority of Nigerians including their media are engaged only in setting an agenda for good governance daily, instead of being part of practical solutions to the problems being encountered by the people. It is only through partisan practical involvement, participation and inclusive implementation that the perceived problem will be brought to an end.
How did Nigerian activists fare during the two dispensations?
Activists have not been faring well, to the extent of not making the civil governments appreciate them since 1999. Immediately after the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the activists, realising the sweat they made into the emergence of the alliance that brought the party into being, the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria, a platform of civil society/APC engagements was set up but to no avail. Only one or two members stayed through and utilized the opportunity at the executive level now in the party.
In the first instance, we never wanted to be seen with the civil government that we fought for with our blood and life. Ironically, the military government that yielded positions for the civil government in 1999, never pretended.
They made it clear that they were only granting us the chance to transit from military rule to civil governance. Unfortunately, civil governance was not the target of our struggles. Pure democracy was.
Through the gaps of ambivalence, ideological lethargy and unwarranted indifference on the part of activists, the military oligarchy was allowed to regroup and reorganise to seize power again in civil government and has been occupying what belongs to us.
Today, those of us who fought for civil politics as against militocracy, cannot move nearer the grabbing of political powers let alone use our time to move towards getting to the Eldorado’s of democratic governance, where human rights will be guaranteed, the law will be able to rule and every citizen will be equal before the laws.
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Frankly speaking, the activists have not truly fared well because of the contradictions in their thoughts and pretensions, which made them unable to win political power, making them irrelevant. The greatest mistake the activists made was to be content with the displacement of the military and not to replace them.
Can you share with us some high points of your activism experience?
Thank you. I will use this short opportunity to explain some misgivings about our different activism experiences.
I am a very bold activist just like my late bosses, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, Comrade Ola Oni and Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN). Regrettably, when the history of this struggle from 1993-1998 was being reported, I have not been given my due mention.
Though I am not the only one involved in the June 12 struggle or the whole democratic struggle to date, my pain is that I am being under-reported. Very few reports mentioned me adequately in what I did when I became the president of the Campaign for Democracy (CD) and chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group.
As the President of the CD, I played a major role that was fantastic in confronting the Abacha regime and his cohorts in Oyo State, to the last point which led to the reported death or perhaps the ouster of Abacha from the government.
I led the protest rally at the Adamasingba Ibadan, a front-line selfless protest march of mass of the people against the monetised 2-million-man march of Abacha then in 1998.
The resonance of the rally throughout the country ended the tenure of the Abacha military junta. Regrettably, most reports have been giving credit to those who did not even participate in the rally.
Understandably, those who were mentioned in the Adamasingba rally were also part of the democratic struggle but they were not physically part of the rally in 1998.
The late Alhaji Lam Adesina was not among those who participated with me in leading the protest but he was the chairman of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a position I gave to him after Dr Busari Adebisi withdrew from his leadership of the organisation.
I and Comrade Ola Oni, Comrade Oyebola of blessed memory, planned the 1998 protest rally but I led it with other strong-willed comrades. In the end, it was Lam that was arrested wrongly because he was the state chairman of the coalition. His arrest was after the rally had ended but I led it from start to end.
Also, the rally started from Agodi Gate in front of the Prison Yard and ended at Adamasingba in front of Chief Bola Ige’s office.
Chief Bola Ige did not participate in the rally but he was a frontline activist in the NADECO struggle. My position here is that due mention must be given to the role everyone played.
Also during the electioneering, I led the Transition Monitoring Group to change the election observation processes, exposing election riggings in the country. We have ever since been improving the conduct of elections.
Four of us represented Nigeria at a Ghanaian Conference organised by the National Democratic Institute from America (NDI), Dr Ibrahim Jibril from CDD, Compatriot Gbenga Aruleba of the African Independent Television (AIT), Comrade Mashood Erubami (TMG) and a senior military officer who later died in a helicopter mishap.
At the end of the conference, we brought back the first and the best election observation to the country which lifted Nigeria from the years of corrupt and unfair conduct of its election history through electronic and statistical methods of election observation, code-named the Project Swift Count (PSC).
Ever since, Nigeria has been having its election better than it was, very few Nigerians knew about this but I am sure you are one of those who covered us then in Abuja as a foremost journalist.
Do you agree that some activists nowadays are cash and carry lots?
An activist is someone who is imbued with the character of fighting, protestation and peaceful civil demonstration with integrity, someone endowed with the passion to selflessly promote happiness for the greater numbers of the poor and rich, very courageous and committed to ensuring that the social, political, economic and environmental surroundings of peoples are rich and stable with the strong desire to always protect changes in their conditions for the better.
This was the underlying reason for waging the selfless struggle in the Campaign for Democracy, the Centre for Defence of Human Rights, (CDHR), the Centre for Human Rights and Ethics in Development (CHRED) and a host of others engaged in the explicit selfless activism.
Those being referred to as activists today carry the name from their past selfless activism, past explicit activism that they were known with, not those who are engaged in protestation of today, that are not attached to specific issues that affect the life of the masses.
They are the lots that are always raising funds for victims of human rights infringement for selfish reasons and personal enrichment.
Those who are categorised as cash and carry lots are not activists but active selfish entrepreneurs who are out to make ends meet under the pretence that they are engaged in activism. Many of them are on social media to blackmail some known targets for monetary gains.
Should activists join active politics? Why, if either yes or no?
Yes, because the relevance of their activism can only manifest through their involvement in partisan politics as directed by Great Plato. “He or she who jettisons politics will be governed by his or her inferior.” Mere activism can only make one be like a philosopher who discovers the world but cannot change it.
An activist cannot ignore partisan politics if he would be relevant. Only through political activism and political participation can the social, economic, political, and environmental problems discovered can be interrogated and solved in the best interests of the poorest of the poor.
Have you ever been in politics? What was/is your experience like?
Yes, I joined politics in 2014 before the APC emerged. I contested the House of Representatives election for the Egbeda/Ona-Ara Constituency in 2015. I was rigged out by a manipulated figure of 40. I tried again in 2019 but was afflicted with a strange ailment which did not allow me to obtain the forms for expression and nomination.
This year, I obtained the forms of expression and nomination to contest the election into the House of Representatives again, but the result is yet to be finally determined because we are still in the court for just adjudication.
Eight of us started the race but along the line, the contestants were reduced to three. One also dropped when he found out the huge irregularities and malpractices in the processes, leaving me and the incumbent. At this stage, it became difficult to contest through fair processes but I am bent on fairness from my party and believe the final decision of the court will be based on justice.
How comfortable are you with the current administration?
I am very comfortable with the current administration because not only did I know that there are problems. I also understand the reasons for the shortfalls that hindered the party’s desire to perform to the best of people’s expectations. These factors are discernible and are being tackled.
There had been crises embedded in the global market interactions between the forces and supply which affected the country as a majorly dependent on crude oil. The party came into power at the time that our crude oil was not attractive to buyers as expected.
Also, the prices of crude oil fell drastically from over $120 to nearly $27 and stabilised on this negative value for a very long time, dis-configuring all economic, fiscal and monetary policies of the government. At this time targets of income and services delivery could not be met.
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Banditry, insurgency and other criminal acts were on the rise, making it more difficult for the government to run a peaceful society, where farmers could farm and produce substantially to increase both food and cash crops for foreign markets towards increasing foreign earnings to boost foreign reserves.
No one can become a successful president in Nigeria without tampering with the system or the structures of government as presently constituted. The system is such that the leadership is hampered, while the country is suffering arrested growth and inability to achieve sustainable development.
The above are the roots of our problems and unless and until Nigerians rise to reset their minds to ensure the processes for recruiting the leadership are made fair, free and credible while the country is restructured in a way that every geo-political zone is equal in the control and distribution of the commonwealth for the benefits of the greatest number of the poor.
Also, despite the current administration’s promise to eradicate corruption, the fight against this vice has become weak. Corrupt people are not adequately punished to serve as a deterrent to others.
This is the time to step on the toes of corrupt leaders and crush the legs that carry the toes.
There is no justification for releasing the exposed corrupt politicians who were tried diligently and found guilty. The prisons should be their homes. It is also not considerate, fair, equitable and just to release jailed prisoners based on their health. If they become ill in prison they should be treated like those who are ill in society.
And where their ailments cannot be healed with available facilities, it should become their luck. No jailed corrupt politician should have been freed on account of ill health.
Furthermore, the cost of governance is on the rise and intolerable. The government should take courageous steps to cause drastic reductions in the number and brand of economy-friendly vehicles that should be used by the president, governors and heads of ministries, departments and agencies. Same with the boards of parastatal agencies. Also, the merger of ministries and agencies should be strongly done to reduce costs.
Nigerians, for the want of strong leadership, a better country and a productive economy for the good of all, must not be reluctant to combine the reports of past national conferences and proceedings from the recommendations of the 1995 Abacha Conference, the 2007 Political Reform Conference of Obasanjo, PRONACO Conference Reports and the Jonathan’s 2014 National Conference and if the government wishes, it could consider some good parts of the APC Committee report on restructuring. The outcomes from these will take us to the centre of our desires.
What is your take on the security challenges in Nigeria?
Insecurity challenges surface wherever the government is striving to build democracy. This is because democracy itself is conflictual. It has been faced by other developed countries of the world and they overcome it.
So, it will not overwhelm Nigeria. I am quite certain that the insecurity that Nigeria is going through will be overcome through drastic actions of government and serious society surveillance. The result will be gradual because it did not come in a day.
There are the challenges of hunger and anger which have lived with us for years. The outcomes from steps towards eradicating anger and bidding farewell to hunger and poverty will take time to manifest, but the government needs to be consistent in its programmes and instil strong leadership towards improving its administration.
Honestly, the factors responsible for insecurity in Nigeria are under-employment, with its variants of lack of ideas, courage and material well-being on the part of the citizenry.
It must be noted that government and society cannot afford to ignore the negative implications of the inability of hundreds of thousands of students who fail to progress to secondary schools and tertiary institutions. The failure of the government and the other sectors of production to engage those who cannot gain admission to schools is a big problem.
The weak deterrent measures meted out to those who engage in terrorism and insurgency by the government is an additional motivation for insecurity because it has become a lucrative alternative for making a living. Above all these, is the factor of citizens’ ambivalence, indifference and apathy to the goings on in their surroundings.
Those who perpetrate crimes or cause crises in the communities are not ghosts. They leave somewhere to go and unleash terror on other communities. Therefore, everybody should be security conscious to ensure the safety of all.
Offenders for acts of terrorism, kidnappings armed robbery and banditry should never be spared. No criminals caught in the act should be pardoned and given amnesty.
Crime and insecurity are local, hence the chairmen of local government areas
and governors should be abreast of the security within their domain and crush all forms of criminalities with the monthly security votes which are meant for forestalling insecurity.
As another election to consolidate the current civil governance approaches, insecurity must faithfully and sincerely be confronted. People must see and believe the current administration is still in charge, in control with a stronger capacity to quell the raging insecurity in the land.
If you were President Muhammadu Buhari, what would you have done with the ASUU problem?
ASUU is fighting a just cause; the need to ensure that the government is committed to the development of public universities.
However, there is a way the strike could turn against it. What is at the root of the ASUU strike is funding but beyond this is the issue of ego from both sides which one way or the other must be resolved.
No one should watch as the public universities remain paralysed, while the private universities are working and carrying out undisturbed lecturing, researching and graduating students.
If I were to be President Buhari, I assure you the ASUU issue can be resolved with a clear mind and patriotic intentions of the stakeholders.
The minister of labour and his counterpart from the ministry of education should resign for gross incompetence. The reason is that for several months, they could not resolve the grievances while the students who are the victims continue to suffer.
I will plead with ASUU for understanding and express the readiness of the government to improve their conditions. I will admit that the government had been failing to honour its agreements, but that it was not out of wickedness.
On the 2009 agreements between the government and ASUU, I will admit the key areas because government is a continuum and I will let its leadership know through statistical demonstrations that the government cannot currently meet all its obligations under the agreement.
I will let them know that immediate verifiable efforts will be put in place with their cooperation, to start to reduce the cost of governance and cut wastage.
ASUU has severally called on the government to renegotiate with them if they were finding it difficult to implement the whole agreement. I will invite them to a friendly gathering of all stakeholders in the educational sector for mutual discussion of the problems. I will implement the parts of the agreement that can be realised immediately and begin a renegotiation of the others.
Additionally, I will order the reinstatement of bursaries to students and increase scholarship grants. I will create a Student Loan Fund for immediate disbursement to deserving students along with the other arrangements.
The permanent solution to the incessant lecturers’ strikes is not only through the payment of their salaries. There is a sense in which the salary payment will not completely make them happy.
Unless the students, non-academics and other auxiliary staff working in and around the universities are also happy, the university environment cannot be peaceful.
Consequently, the government must show continuous good faith in the quarterly disbursement of the budgeted payments to the universities and ensure that the funds are judiciously utilised.
Who is your preferred candidate for 2023 and why?
My best candidate will be determined by the criteria I have always set for leaders; to have a strong spirit; to be committed to the task of governance with a passion to uplift the poor and the vulnerable.
The candidates in the coming election at the federal level will have the qualities listed above. Also, I will add to the criteria, capacity and past achievements in private and public services delivery as well as the strong ability for constituencies and human resource development.
Who will top this rating? Of course, the person who has ruled Lagos State before and perfected the productive acts of meaningful governance to the admiration of all. He is today being berated on social media as if the electronic voting to be introduced includes the use of bloggers in determining who wins.
The current social media portrayal of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as not being the best, mocking his age, his health and medical conditions will not be the final decider.
Also, most dramas being staged in churches by charlatans masquerading in the sanctuaries of God will not determine who wins in 2023. Winning through mocking and jesting can only be in the imagination of the opposition.
People will vote massively for the Jagaban Borgu because of his tested and trusted antecedents as Lagos State governor, a foremost defender of democracy during the military era. He fought with everything he had including risking his life and businesses to fight the annulment of the June 12 presidential election.
Asiwaju Tinubu has many advantages over and above Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in national mentioning and a history of creating discernible positive goodness in the lives of the poorest of the poor in Nigeria. He (Tinubu) will win based on what he is known to have done well before, and majorly with the support of networks he has built of mentees, friends, political foot soldiers and political associates who are willing to support him.
There are huge numbers who are getting ready to vote for him from their other parties. Certainly, those supporters who have risen from the North are not just joking with their support, they are not people that will come out and be joking. Millions of solid votes will be given to him from the North-east, North-west, and North-central notwithstanding the ongoing social media entertainment.
The 2023 election as promised by INEC and with the prevailing signs of freeness, fairness and credible elections that were witnessed in Ekiti and recently in Osun, the leadership qualities and love of people for Asiwaju should resonate through the election and put him above in votes scoring to become the president in 2023 against any other contender.
With the security situation, do you foresee elections coming up next year?
Certainly, elections will be held in 2023 despite the prevailing insecurity. The fact about the adequacy of security during the coming 2023 elections cannot bring any shred of doubt to the holding of the election. Security has always been available and has never been in doubt.
Historically, there have been certain areas that are flashpoints of criminalities and unfairness in the course of the election, but it will not be everywhere in Nigeria. The flashpoint areas will be taken care of as was done during the previous elections including where there was an insurgency.
There is nothing that will disturb the holding of the election in 2023. What could happen to that effect is foremost, if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not placed in a position to deliver effectively and efficiently.
For now, that is not the case. INEC has assured that it is not only ready to conduct the 2023 elections, but it has also even laid out its timetable to convince the stakeholders that it is materially and humanly ready.
The improving performances of INEC in the last elections could attest to the readiness of the electoral commission. Most of the elections conducted recently had been fair and credible.
What lesson has the Osun election taught you?
The feud between the camps of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Alhaji Isiaka Oyetola prepared the solid grounds for the defeat on Saturday 16th July 2022. The sad defeat was not their own alone. They allowed the crisis to get messier and that affected the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the people who love them all.
The bitter lesson that must be learnt from the results of the Osun 2022 election, is not to be vehemently against crisis and conflict management and resolution. Members of the same party must resolve their intraparty conflicts amicably.
Other lessons from the Osun election are many but the fundamental ones are the lack of internal democracy, weak party influence and leadership apathy, rigidity, greed and the idea of winner takes all.