Most Rev. Dr. Funso Awe is the Presiding Archbishop of the Orthodox Anglican Church in Nigeria and former governorship candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in Lagos State. In this interview with , Archbishop Awe, Vice Chairman, Civil Consciousness Global Initiative (CCGI), speaks on former President Muhammadu Buhari’s death, the fate of Buhari’s political platform, the State of Nation under the All Progressives Congress (APC) rule and the emerging coalition under the African Democratic Coalition (ADC), among other critical issues. Excerpt. 

 

The death of former President Muhammadu Buhari was the end of an era and the beginning of another era. President Buhari was a two-time president and Military Head of State. In total, he put in about 10 years of leadership of the country as a military leader and civilian leader. One thing you cannot take away from him is that he had a sincerity of purpose. By his training, he was a patriot. In character was a forthright man. So, no matter what anyone would say, Muhammadu Buhari did his best. No man can do more than his best. In his first coming, he was a dictator. That is what the Military is all about: Order. You give order and it is obeyed. In his second coming, as a civilian president, his training as a Military man became his undoing. In order to avoid being called a dictator, he would give people jobs and allow them to do it without interference. That gave them room for them to mess up. Buhari was a righteous man. I know that if they investigate him, it will be difficult to find here he had deepened his hands into public funds. He lived a moderate life and was loved by his people. He had a cult following. May his soul rest in perfect peace. As I said earlier, his death was the end of an era and the beginning of another era. 

Buhari was Nigerian president when the world generally had a global recession. It was a period of COVID-19. By the time he came in, the economy did not give him room to do much. But, he tried as much as possible to give the people a reprieve. So, he could not take some drastic actions. He kept the economy afloat and that was what he left to the present government to battle with. He loved the people and reminded us of the fact that no matter the policy we put in place as a government, the comfort of the people is what matters. 

It is easy to castigate. Before the All Progressives (APC) government came in, the fact was that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had performed so badly and things had become worse, so APC thought that when they got into power, they would change everything. Even people like Babatunde Fashola, former Lagos State governor and a Minister of Works and Housing under Buhari had said that some things would be done in less than a month. But, it is not right to complain about a man’s shoe until you have walked in it. The APC inherited a bad economy, coupled with the global economic recession. They have not been able to do much. Buhari tried a people-centred economy. Tinubu, as an accountant, will naturally try tightening the belt. That has resulted in a rising economy. So, it is the people who feel the brunt. We just hope that the end will justify the means. People are not getting it easy now. But, economists are telling us that there is stability and that things will get better with time. So, I hope we just have to wait. But, what it means is that we should not change the government for now. 

That is what the economists are telling us. We may not see it in our standard of living. I know that managing the economy under Tinubu is better than those who managed it under Buhari. We know what happened under Buhari. We know what happened under Godwin Emefiele. The CBN and Ministry Finance under Buhari were working in contradiction with each other. Now, under Cardoso, both are working as a team. Buhari appointed people and left them to misbehave. That was why people like Godwin Emefiele misbehaved. That is what we are trying to get out of now. 

I don’t know why a lot of people, including the government, are jumping the gun. We have two years to go. A lot of things can happen within two years. The economy can turn around. Political situation can change. For example, the passage of Buhari could have changed a lot of people’s political standing. It has also left a vacuum in the political permutation in the North. So, let us not jump the gun. Two years to come will determine. 

The APC is a coalition of people that registered a new political party. It is not a coalition that hijacked an existing political party. They tried to register a party. They ended up hijacking the African Democratic Congress (ADC). They are a bed of strange bedfellows. The hijacking of ADC may be their undoing. They may end up with legal issues that they may not be able to get themselves out from in the next two years. In the end, they may not go back to their former parties successfully. 

I am not disappointed in his actions. Anyone has the right to decide his or her fate. Looking at the political calculation now, I think Jandor made the right decision. You do not stay in a sinking ship and you do not stick to uncertainty. Jandol has an ambition of ruling Lagos State. The only party that ambition can be fulfilled is now APC. I will say he is doing well for now in APC. He is playing the game the way it ought to be played. 

I am a keen observer of Lagos politics. I am very much interested in Lagos politics. That is why I know that he is in the right party. Jandol has brought in a lot of people who were originally PDP into APC in Lagos, apart from his Lagos4Lagos Movement. There is no PDP again. PDP has always been a joke in Lagos. Jandor has taken himself and his group back to Lagos APC. He put up a good campaign for APC Lagos during the recently held local government election. Jandor was never in the PDP. He only saw PDP as a vehicle. Even PDP did not regard him as one of them. 

The local government elections in Lagos this time around were very free and fair. APC went into the primary process. That is where we had an election. When they finished the primaries, the elections were set. The candidates that emerged through the primaries were already anointed because, actually, there is no opposition in Lagos in the Local Government elections. The opposition parties were not serious. Most of them did not campaign. You hardly found their posters anywhere, coupled with voter apathy. Majority of the voters were APC members. Others did not come out to vote against the APC candidates. So, they did not need to rig the election. The votes cast were actual votes. So, they won free and fair. Where were the other parties? Was it PDP? Was it the Labour Party? They were nowhere in the local government election in Lagos. So, it is not a surprise that the APC had a smooth sail in both the Chairmanship and Councillorship elections.