Nigeria on the brink of anarchy –Agol

Pastor Tracy Ebun Agol is a chieftain of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) and a former governorship aspirant in Edo State during the 2016 gubernatorial election in the state. The social commentator and the co-coordinator of Global Seven for Human Right Peace and Justice spoke with OJIEVA EHIOSUN on a number of national issues. Excerpts…

Don’t you think with the election of a former governor of the state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party is poised to silence all opposition groups in Nigeria?

Every eligible Nigerian voter is becoming very conscious of our political system; nobody can come and deceive Nigerians again in the name of change. Nigeria is a very big nation, we cannot operate one party system and nobody has the power to silence opposition parties simply because the ruling party does not want opposition. And for former governor Adams Oshiomhole to have said that he would send all opposition parties to extinction, it shows he is cracking a political joke. I am sure that he doesn’t know the enormity of his job as a national chairman of a ruling party. His position now is not just for Edo State, not when he was governor of Edo State, we are talking about the entire country. I think Oshiomhole is kicking against the rock, and when you kick the rock, it means either you are injured or the rock grinds you into powder. Oshiomhole must be very objective and careful with his utterances.

As a female politician, what is your opinion on women’s view about President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term bid and do you think he has he done well to deserve a reelection?
You and I know that we do not need President Buhari again. Nigerians don’t need him, in fact it is my prayers that God will intervene, and as opposition, we will gang up against such ambition. They call the Christians fools, so, I don’t want to speak as a politician, I want to speak generally about what is happening in the country. They call us infidels, and that is why they decided to wipe us out of existence. I tell you it will not work, it will not stand. Those who do not want peace to reign in this country would see the hands and anger of God.

Enough is enough. God is seeing what is happening in Nigeria, the innocent blood that is being shed on daily basis in this country is crying for vengeance, and the people responsible will surely pay dearly for it.

Do you agree with those who said the fight between Buhari, Obasanjo, and some top retired military Generals over 2019 polls is good for our democracy?
What is going on between President Buhari, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other top retired Army Generals is not good for our democracy at all. They are acting drama, I call it drama, we are the spectators. They are trying to divert people’s attention from the real truth. The truth on ground is that President Buhari is not fit to lead Nigeria again. They are trying to threaten those people they know can oppose them so that those in opposition will shift ground, that is the real truth of the matter. It is not true that Buhari wants to arrest Obasanjo or Ibrahim Babangida (IBB). It is just that the APC government does not want Nigerians to know the real truth, they are just acting drama for people to be carried away.

The plain truth is that President Buhari does not have anything to offer Nigeria. If Nigeria’s constitution would retire civil servant at the age of 65, then what is Buhari doing in office at his age? What is he trying to do? So it calls for a re-orientation of the generality of Nigerians that they should come to their senses and know that for us to live better in Nigeria, it is in our hands to do so. We should not be cajoled or propelled here and there as if we are baby dolls. We all need to wake up from our slumber and save this country that God have given us, from total collapse and from the hands of vampires.

What is happening here in Nigeria cannot happen in other nations of the world, you cannot try it, never. Imagine the killings that is going on, the President is nonchalant about it and the so-called herdsmen, I don’t know what they call them, but I call them terrorists, they make bold to come out everyday making comments that is threatening lives and property and yet no one had been arrested. It is barbaric for someone to value cows more than human beings. You said because your cows got missing or killed, you result to killing hundreds of innocent men, women, children, because of cows. God will definitely ask their blood from their hands.

This nonchalant attitude of our leaders has shown that APC government is not capable of leading Nigeria to the Promised Land. The President and his group have failed woefully in all aspect of governance. We have never witness this kind of killings in Nigeria, we are not in a civil war. Nigeria is no longer secured for people to leave, if they have not gotten to you does not mean that you should rejoice over others calamity. As it is now, nobody knows who the next target is. So we must all join hands to save Nigeria from anarchy.

As an opposition party leader in Edo State, would you say that Governor Godwin Obaseki has delivered the dividend of democracy?
Each time people want to talk about Obaseki’s government, they say he is a technocrat. As a technocrat he would come on board to begin to set things straight or out things right in Edo State. But if I want to go by his campaign, he said he was going to carry everybody along, but as it is in Edo State, he is not carrying anybody along. He is alone, all the jobs and contracts that is going on in this state, he does them alone, he brings in expatriates from outside to do the job in Edo State. If you go to Government House, all the people you see there are inexperienced.

Though I am not against him empowering a group of young people, but they are not experienced. Talking about some of the jobs he is doing around the state, in the eyes of the ordinary man he is trying, but by the time you look critically into most of those projects been executed by him, you will find out that they are not properly done because of the inexperience nature of the people he has given the jobs to. They do substandard projects, they all fall below standard, and they are spending so much money on those projects.

In my own rating, I don’t think he is trying, especially when showing nonchalant attitude to the people around, and you think that you can do it alone well we are looking, we are watching. Very soon four years would be over. If you take your time to find out from top APC leaders in Edo, you will discover that they have been pushed to the corners by the governor, and majority of them are not happy about the way he has treated them.

Crime and prostitution are on the increase in Edo as a result of the thousands of people that has returned from Libya. As a member of an International Organisation for homeless, how would you advise Governor Obaseki to handle the situation?

Firstly, my advice is to the returnees. As a mother, I would not advise them to go back to Libya again. Though many of them are regretting coming back to home to Benin-City, I would not advise them to go back. The governor has brought them in, he actually promised that he was going to give them opportunity to live their lives again, but he has not fulfilled any of those promises.
I have the opportunity of interacting with the majority of them, like you observed, most of them actually want to go back but we are working against that. We have an organisation where we have began to create alternatives for them. We organise workshops where some of them are being trained just to make sure that they do not think of going back. But this is what government is supposed to be doing, because I strongly believed that the United Nations agency responsible for refuges have heavily funded Edo State Government concerning these returnees, so why is it that the state government has not used that money to properly rehabilitate them.

We know it, most of these things are not secret. The UN want them to live better lives and contribute their quota to the society again. Because the government is not doing what they are supposed to do to make life a lot better for these persons, that is why majority of them are crying that they want to return to Libya. They feel that life over there is much better for them than what they are experiencing now in their own state.

2019 elections is fast approaching, what is your advice to Nigerians?
Our president once called our youths lazy, I don’t believe that our youths are lazy, it is because of the situation in the country. Nigeria youths want to work, but if you call them lazy today, it is the situation they find themselves. Take a statistics of youths that come out of the university every year, and no jobs for them to do, the same youths we are talking about still do all kinds of jobs to take care of themselves.

So my advice to all eligible youths is to come in their millions to participate in the election, they should not allow greedy politicians to use them, they must try as much as possible to stay away from activities capable of causing the breakdown of law and order. They should not allow the APC to deceive them again, we must all join hands to vote out this people presently in Aso Villa and those that does not want peace to reign in Nigeria.

They must not bring problems to themselves or their parents, 2019 election should not be seen as a do-or-die affair. We all know that some people are busy preparing very big for the election; we must take a cue from our former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who said that his political ambition is not worth the blood of a single Nigerian. That is a man we call a true democrat, God will continue to bless him.

Source: New Telegraph