The Executive Director, Cleen Foundation, Mr. Gad Peter Shamaki is a development worker, human rights activist, social change and good governance advocate. In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, Shamaki speaks on the face-off between the Police Service Commission and The Nigeria Police, the free import window, and the minimum wage, among other issues. Excerpt:
THE Police Service Commission (PSC) and The Nigeria Police have been embroiled in controversies over corruption and irregularities in the recruitment of constables into the force. What is your opinion on this?
They should have had a boardroom conversation instead of coming out in full glare. And for me, the person I feel and I’m worried about in silence is Mr. President. This is not the first time we’ve had the police and the Police Service Commission have this kind of disagreement. We’ve had it during Buhari, and they even had to go to the Supreme Court for judgment to be given. And then we are here again, having the same issue. So, I think that Mr. President needs to establish authority. What is the work of the Police Service Commission? Let them do their work. What is the work of the police? Let them do their work. They are supposed to complement each other. So, the kind of unhealthy rivalry that we’ve seen among all of our security agencies that has stopped them from sharing and collaborating on information has led us to where we are and it is the same thing we are seeing between the disagreement between the police and the Police Service Commission, which is not good. So, the president must step in strongly and ensure that we don’t have this kind of disagreement. To say the least, it is quite embarrassing, and it is not acceptable. It is equally an embarrassment to the President Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.
President Tinubu last week approved a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities such as maize, rice, and wheat to tackle the high cost of food in the country. Do you think this is capable of mitigating the food crisis in the country?
Well, these are palliatives. This is a dramatic economy. I think we need to give back to production. We need to give back to supporting people to be able to have a better life. For example, if bandits take over a farming community and the people cannot farm, no matter the tax regime that you put in place, there will be some level of poverty. Are we going to keep importing? [We should understand that] the more we import, the more we put pressure on the naira because the naira does not go to buy goods. It is the dollar [that is being used to buy these items]. Once you keep importing, it means that people are going to pay more. I’m not sure it is the tax that is making the money high; it is inflation. It is devaluation of the naira that is creating problems, because if I have two Naira and I can no longer buy bread with two Naira, such that I have to buy bread with ten Naira, then it means it is not working. So even if you remove the tax, how many percent are you charging? So, I think the president needs to go back to the drawing board and really address these issues that Nigerians are going through. Because I tell you, many Nigerians are suffering. Even people who are working cannot make ends meet much more people that are dependents. The take-home of an average civil servant cannot take them beyond two weeks. Petty businessmen and women are also feeling the hardship. In some cases, salaries are not being paid regularly. In short, there is hunger in the land. This is not really a solution to the magnitude of the problems on the ground; the government needs to focus on the economy squarely and allow people of integrity to drive the economy. Corruption must be tackled because it brought the country to where it is today. Instead of giving temporary tax relief, President Tinubu needs to think outside the box to actually bring the country out of the woods. So, this tax relief is not really a solution. It is just another palliative that I’m not sure will last a very long time.
The labour unions and federal governments are yet to come to terms on the minimum wage. The issue is being dragged beyond expectations. What is the way out of this?
First, I’m not a fan of the minimum wage, because the truth of the matter is that even if civil servants are collecting $100,000 a month, the purchasing power may not be anything reasonable. This is because the higher the minimum wage, the higher the cost of living will go. So, I think the government needs to address this issue holistically. Yes, you need to motivate civil servants. Yes, you need to give them palliative care. But again, even if we are going to talk about the minimum wage, it is quite embarrassing the way the government is going about it. The National Assembly members, how many times do they sit in a week? How many times do they sit in a month? Some of them are already retired or former governors, former ministers, former generals, or former deans. They already have benefits. They have been able to acquire wealth through direct and indirect means, either legitimately or otherwise. But yet, we are servicing them. And the whole National Assembly is made up of 360 people compared to the workers in Nigeria. We need to see our leaders make more sacrifices. The issue of a presidential jet is not necessary. The issue of a house for the vice president is not necessary. The issue of the government using $9 billion, $2 billion, or $1 billion to sponsor people to Mecca or Jerusalem is not necessary. These are funds that should be brought back to the economy to make it work. I think the government needs to refocus. Honestly, the government needs to have a rethink and go back and ask themselves: What exactly are the problems of the people? [Then it needs to] solve these problems and give people a sense of ownership of the system. That is exactly what we need. It is for the safety of Mr. President. This argument [for buying new presidential jets] does not hold water. What jets and aircraft did the former presidents use? How many times did they have unfortunate incidents? If you maintain what you have, you don’t need to buy a new one. If the president needs a private jet, he should buy it from his pocket. And we need a president who will sit in Nigeria and serve the people. Since Tinubu came on board, how many states has he visited? But he has visited many countries since he came on board. That is not good enough, we shouldn’t even encourage him to travel more. We should rather ask him to stay behind, work, and bring stability to the country.
Your organisation is currently holding a sensitisation programme on military and civil relations. What is it all about?
The situation of civil-military relations and regime in Nigeria is currently not completely stable. And that is why we have come to gather our stakeholders together to find some kind of institutionalisation towards making it function properly. We must confess that the military has made some efforts and attempts to institutionalise this by setting up a directorate on civil-military relations and having a legal desk. But again, it is about the efficiency and performance of these directorates and how they have helped to contain, solve problems, and project the people’s concerns.
What about the violations?
There are growing issues around a number of violations. And again, it is about data—statistics of how many civilian cases they have also resolved and how personnel involved in these particular cases have also been treated. It is about the subject of strategy. It is about communication. How do you debrief society and the community once there is some level of internal effort that has been made to correct the violation? And I think that, again, there is a fault line around it because communication from the side of the state doesn’t happen. We have also highlighted issues that have arisen around interagency rivalry between the state and non-state actors, and particularly among the state agencies themselves. There are a lot of issues happening between the police and the Navy, police and civil defence [Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps], police and the army, and all of these things. We have seen cases recently where the military has also attacked a number of policeman. There are issues that we need to deal with holistically, both at the horizontal and vertical levels. And that is what we are going to get to.
So, what’s the solution?
The solution is basically for us to inform citizens to show empathy and own up to their armed forces. Secondly, it is for the state to continue to be professional in handling and managing cases of civil-military concern. And again, it is for us to ensure that those directorates that are already established are functional, robust, and meet the concerns of the people.
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