…as you know change is inevitable
…only a dead man cannot change
… TInubu cannot build another party
Aftermath of President Bola Tinubu’s Democracy day address, Senator Ibrahim Jimoh a
Nigerian lawyer, politician, businessman who is the senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District since 2023, highlighted some of the outcomes of his address and issues surrounding the ruling party All Progressives Congress, APC, nin this interview,excerpts.
That he will not help them build their own house. Tell me how you feel about that?
Well, that’s fine. It’s true. He can’t build another party, that will be disloyalty. He cannot leave APC to go and build PDP, that will be disloyalty, he cannot leave APC to go and build SDP, so it’s been fractured, and I think it’s like as usual a liberalist so to even come to say the shortcomings of where the opponents are, I think it’s liberal of him otherwise he could keep quiet and say nothing, and they keep going to some discomfortable zones. He was being realistic and he must be commended for that.
He also spoke a lot about his economic reforms. Do you think we are in good hands with the President?
Yeah, I think he talked about investment of money in the infrastructure for security, technology, and that’s what we’re talking about the last time, that look, the security will be powered by technology, not manpower or that, not that we are going to turn away manpower, but we are going to put more money into technology, you know, distillment of technology instruments in stopping insecurity. And I think that is really a good focus. And you remember in the budget last year, he put about 5 trillion on security, and now we are able to achieve 1.8 million barrel a day in OPEC meeting our quota for the first time. I think this is very, very communicable, and GDP has grown from by 3.6% I think these are areas that I think Nigeria will be very happy.
On the national honours, what do you think about the President’s list?
Well, it’s very good to have a national honour. I have been honoured twice by two different Presidents. I have an OFR and a CFR. So seeing people coming on that list is quite amazing, and I think it’s a real privilege and honour. And the kind of people that are honoured, they really deserve it.
There’s a particular one I want to ask, Humphrey Nwosu, you stood against that when the National Assembly or the Senate was asking..
I think the President is doing exactly what I said should be done at the floor of the Senate. I said, you cannot name INEC after Humphrey Nwosu, the INEC building cannot be named after him but you can give him a national honour. Today what has happened? He gave him a national honour rather than naming the whole and if you name the INEC building after him, what about Jega? What about Yakubu when they finish in the next few months, there will also be agitation from different areas where they come from that they should name this thing after them. So what are you going to name? How many buildings are going to name after them? So give national honour to who deservesit. Humphrey Nwosu deserves a national honour, not the naming of the INEC building and that was why we took that bill into silence.
And that of Ken Saro Wiwa and Wole Soyinka.
Ken Saro Wiwa deserves national honour, he fought for this nation. It’s nice that the President gave pardon to some of the areas where people have some shortcoming. I think the President should be commended for this but it is not nothing surprising, because this is how liberals behave. They always like cooperation and collaboration in distilment of democratic peace theory, you know, generally. And I think this is where, Asiwaju probably, you know, making some win among the African leaders.
We…defection.
When ID said it that people are coming to APC a year ago and you people said no, it’s not possible. And I will tell you more are still coming.
So you think the wave is coming.
Change is inevitable, and it’s the only thing that is permanent. The only thing that’s permanent in human existence is change. Any human being that refuses to change is a dead person. The only person that cannot be changed is a dead man. The living man can still change. And then, of course, you change political system, you change economic decision, you change social decision. You see women even leaving one marriage to another and they get better. Or men leaving one marriage to another and get better. Social decision, religious decision. You can be Muslim today, you can be Christian. Christian can be Muslim. You can be a Catholic, you can become an Anglican. You even change location, you can reside in Abuja and from Abuja to London and London back to Abuja, change is inevitable for those who are living, but for those who are dead regrettable and unfortunately, they cannot change anything not even their corpse.