If Tinubu gives me a job, I’ll reject it because I don’t trust him anymore – APC chieftain Onokpasa 

 

Jesutega Onokpasa is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a member of the APC presidential campaign council. In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on the appointment of Daniel Bwala as a spokesman to President Bola Tinubu and the implication of the appointment on the support base of the President ahead of 2027, among others. 

 

 

 

The appointment of Daniel Bwala sounds like a black eye for the supporters of President Tinubu, like yourself, how much of a black eye is it?

 

 

It is a serious black eye. Our dear and beloved president stabbed all of us, his staunch supporters in the back with this absolutely ridiculous, meaningless and just inexplicable appointment.

 

 

What do you think brought on this appointment that you see as an actual betrayal?

 

 

I don’t know. It has ruined our party. I’m a Tinubu supporter, I’m not a sycophant. Those who apologise for everything, say it’s strategy. I think it’s stupidity. We won the last election with the lowest margin since 1999.  Every other president has won by more than 50 per cent of the votes. We won with less than 40 per cent of the votes. So, for me, well, as a Catholic, I believe it’s just the will of God.

 

 

That may be the reason why he wants to form a broader base…?

 

 

Yes, a broader base by stabbing his supporters in the back and bringing in people who insulted him. How do you call a president of a country a drug dealer? I mean, Daniel Bwala is a lawyer. He has no evidence, not a shred of evidence, that our president is a drug dealer. He called him a drug baron. Then how does a president now appoint such a person? We were the ones defending him. Then this person who called our president, collective president, that was the president God gave us, called him a drug dealer, you make him your spokesman, and then Bayo Onanuga tries to rationalise. It’s just ridiculous,

 

 

What is your main grouse? Is it that Mr Bwala’s appointment is bad for the president’s image and his PR? Or is it that the jobs are being taken away from Mr Tinubu’s supporters who campaigned for him?

 

 

First of all, not all of us want an appointment. Not all of us need an appointment. It’s just the insult that our president seems to take us for granted. He does not feed us. I’ve never gone to Tinubu’s house to sit and start waiting for him to give me anything. Never. Some do that. Not all of us do that. For me, I even like the president as if he were a family member. I don’t know why. And that is why it’s really hurt that my president just behaved as if he could stab anyone in the back, disgrace anyone and humiliate anyone. I mean, I don’t trust him anymore. I’m sorry. I don’t.

 

 

Is this response from you a full-scale reprisal because if it was, you’d probably renounce your support for the president?

 

 

No. I still support my president. Yes, our party is our party. I can’t remember the name of my president, right or wrong. That’s not my philosophy, but I still support my president. It’s just that he’s misguided and he’s just doing things that he thinks will help him in 2027. And you are not a politician, so you wouldn’t be a member of such platforms, somebody said that it is strategy. And I said, no, its stupidity. Bwala helped Atiku Abubakar to fail in 2023 and he will help Asiwaju, Bola Tinubu to fail in 2027.

 

 

Is that a prediction from you?

 

 

Of course, because we can’t tolerate this and Asiwaju has to respect it. We are politicians. We are Nigerians. We are citizens. We have the right to hire and fire a president. He has to rescind this appointment.

 

 

How would you hire and fire him if you were not working against him?

 

 

Well, let that time come. I support my president, but he just has to respect all of us in this party.

 

 

What about the appointment of other non-APC people like Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who’s now a Minister of State for Foreign Affairs?

 

 

There’s nothing wrong with Bianca because she never insulted us, never disrespected us. Bianca is the wife of our dearly departed brother, Odumegwu Ojukwu. Bianca’s appointment I would say, is the strategic one and that makes more sense by far as a strategy because the president is uniting the country. If you look at our government, it’s freaky and many of us have not, just maybe because of our love for Asiwaju we have not been complaining about it. I mean, where are the Niger Deltans in the government? Where are the Igbos in the government? Where are the Hausa Fulanis in the government? We won, even in Yoruba land, we won in Ekiti. We won in Ondo. We won in Ogun. Where are those people? You form a government of Lagos and Osun where you lost? I mean what an insult.

 

 

What is your position now in terms of your support for President Tinubu?

 

 

I support my president, but I’m very angry with him. He has to sack Bwala. Well, that is up to him. If my president feels he has conquered everyone and conquered everywhere, we shall see what will happen in 2027.

 

 

What about his policies? I know you’re a big advocate of trying to make the situation of the poor in Nigeria better, are you seeing that in his policies?

 

 

Not at all and that’s even the strange part of it. Asiwaju is confusing us. Asiwaju is someone who, if you are around him, hates somebody being hungry. He’s a nice guy. He hates someone being hungry around him. So, it’s so strange that he seems to be comfortable with hunger. He takes care of people and that’s why I love him. Now, he does not take care of me. I take care of myself. God takes care of me. Asiwaju has never given me one kobo. I don’t owe him anything. He’s the one that owes me something. Now, we have formed a government, and prices keep increasing. Our citizens can hardly afford the food. Okay, what was our plan? We massively produced food for Nigerians. And the whole idea is this. If, for instance, we can reduce fuel prices, let us reduce food prices. Let our citizens just be able to eat. I was talking to a professor of psychology, and I asked him a question. This is something that has never happened to me. What would a man feel if in the morning he woke up and couldn’t feed his children? And he said the man would feel worthless. And that’s how many of our citizens are feeling today. And then we buy cars worth N250 million. We wear wristwatches worth N200 million. We can’t take tractors to villages. They called us Agbadorians during the election. And, okay, you call us Agbadorians, you will eat the Agbado. When you eat the Agbado, are you not an Agbadorian with us? No plan, nothing. I don’t know those two guys he put in the Ministry of Agriculture. I don’t know, they have no plan to feed anybody, perhaps other than themselves. It’s a disgrace, and I’m not sorry to say.

 

 

Do you think that there could be political ramifications for the president in the appointment that may likely cause more serious political ripples going forward?

 

 

This one, Asiwaju, has gone too far. He has insulted us enough. Seriously, he’s insulted us. I’m still a Baptist. I don’t know why I love him. He has insulted us too far. This one will not play out. Bwala is not an issue for me but it is an insult to all our party supporters. You see the election, our supporters in the East became endangered species during the election. They still supported us. They still supported Asiwaju. What has Asiwaju done for them? How do you run a government like that? What has Asiwaju done for Niger Deltans? What has he done for Hausa Fulani? They voted for us. What has he done for the Middle Belt? If he gives me an appointment now, I will reject it because I don’t trust him anymore. I just support him. I just love him, but I don’t trust him anymore. Asiwaju gives us, his core party supporters the impression that he can stab anybody in the back. He can disgrace anybody. He can humiliate anybody. He can discard anybody. And do you know the funny thing about trust? You see, if I don’t trust you, it’s either I run away from you or I fight you. I’m a Niger Deltan and I don’t run away from anybody. I don’t run away even from God. I run to God. I will run to my God. Now, I don’t run away from anybody. It’s that fight and flight conundrum. Me, I fight, you know. And Asiwaju has pushed us to the wall to the extent that he does not even realize, I don’t know who the hell is talking to him, people are regrouping. He does not even realize that. People are angry.

 

 

Would it be fair to say that there are a lot of people within the APC and Tinubu’s support groups who are very unhappy with the way these appointments are going on against people?

 

 

Yes but apart from the appointments, we have to feed our citizens because they are hungry. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re APC or PDP or from the southeast or southwest or whatever, people are in serious pain. And Asiwaju seems to have been dislocated and disconnected from reality. Then he insults us with the appointment of this character. That is just unforgivable.

 

 

What is your opinion on the arrest of Simon Ekpa, one of the leaders of the separatist group IPOB in Finland on suspicion of publicly inciting people in Nigeria to commit crimes with terrorist intent?

 

 

In the case of Simon Ekpa, his arrest is overdue. I had even… Well, this is classified. I had even encouraged he should be shot because he was killing his fellow people. If the person is an enemy combatant, he’s liable to be shot. He’s just a crazy, poorly educated young man. If that’s the case, I am in full support of his arrest.