Solomon Dalung, a former Minister of Youth and Sports Development under former President Muhammadu Buhari, is a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). In this interview with CHIBUIKE CHUKWU, the former minister speaks on the sustained kidnapping and killings in the country, the position of the Federal Government and dangers ahead of the 2027 general election, among other issues. Excerpts:

What is your take on the recent kidnapping of both schoolgirls and church members and the eventual release of some of them? Do you see it as a victory for the fight against insurgency?

If they can ensure the release of some of the victims without actually arresting the people, it shows nothing has been achieved except the freedom of the victims. This is because Bayo Onanuga said that they actually spoke to the bandits and they didn’t want to go hard so that they would not hit or hurt the hostages, nothing has been achieved, except that some of the hostages regained freedom. The statement of the government as relayed by Bayo Onanuga confirmed the level of partnership between the government and the criminal enterprise. Of course, Nigerians who had been skeptical of our positions — those in the struggle that have been accusing the government of not only being complicit, but also complicit in enabling a fatal environment for terrorism — will definitely now from that statement choose where to think. The statement of the spokesperson of the president does not leave us in doubt. It confirms the fact that yes, the government is aware of the existence of terrorists. The government also has communication links with them. The government also is very familiar with the protective environment that exists in the forest. The government has access to them. All these statements were contained in Bayo Onanuga’s press release. Therefore, the average conclusion now is that Nigerians have not been wrong to accuse this government of not only turning the other side, but enabling terrorism and also providing cover for terrorists, sponsors, financiers and beneficiaries for obvious political reasons. It is impossible for the government to mislead Nigerians that the girls were rescued. That was the language they used. But the girls were not rescued. The girls were released because the terrorists embarrassed the government by releasing a video of their engagement with the young girls before they were released. It also interrogated them whether they were mistreated.

Ex-Minister Dalungx

Can you say the efforts of the government in ensuring the release of some of the victims could be linked to the threat by Trump?

To me, the disposition and culture relationship between the terrorists and the government, in my mind, is the bottom of suspicion that the kidnapping going on now could be managed by the government as a response to the issue of Donald Trump’s intervention. So, suddenly, the government has developed capacity now. Suddenly, it has developed capacity in a stage to manage a comedy, organise abductions, and then rescue. If you want to maybe understand the perspective from where I’m coming, go and interrogate the statement of the Kebbi State governor who said security was provided at the school, but the security was withdrawn or redeployed 30 minutes before the girls were abducted. Then here we have a government painting a picture of how the girls were rescued without the firing of gunshots while the terrorists with impunity were addressing the kidnapped girls and telling them, ‘you can go home now. All is well. You see, we did not mistreat you’. So, the summary of it all is that there is no operation of this nature globally that will end up in a manner with which it has ended up. So, my take is that in the current fight against terrorism and abductions going around the country, I’m suspecting the partnership between the government and the criminal enterprise. We started with the peace deal in Zamfara, Katsina and some northern states. The peak of it was in Katsina where the bandits kingpin who killed the Assistant Commissioner of Police wore the uniform of the slain police officer while attending a peace meeting organised by the government and the police whom the deceased commissioner or the fallen hero was commanding were there and the terrorist was celebrated in the uniform. So, in Tinubu’s Nigeria, good people are in danger. We must know this. It’s very clear now that from what I can see, these criminals may end up campaigning for Tinubu in 2027. That is the political motive of all these things because I saw in one of the pictures where a bandit was wearing a Tinubu signature cap in the bush and the political class could not respond or react to that. Bandits are already wearing that cap that ministers are wearing, the president is wearing, governors’ have also directed their commissioners to either wear or be fired. The political chemistry of 2027 is very clear that the director general of the campaign for Tinubu’s re-election definitely will either be the terrorist Kingpin in the north or and will have a deputy in those in the southern forest and they will not allow any other political party to hold rally. They will just mobilise, disorganise or sack any attempt to challenge Tinubu. So, from Tinubu’s body language, he does not want to be challenged in 2027.

You said Tinubu won’t want to be challenged in 2027; are there reasons to justify this position?

That is why he is going around converting governors into All Progressives Congress (APC) with a huge consideration. Tinubu will not allow opposition to emerge. That is why Wike has abandoned his responsibility as a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. He is now the warlord of the fight to destroy PDP. He has not pretended. He said, for the PDP to have peace, they must admit that they will either not field any candidate in 2027 or they will allow him to field a weak candidate. So, in summary, Nigeria is heading to monarchy, whereby President Tinubu, after successfully reinstalling himself in 2027, will emerge as the supreme leader and the monarch of Nigeria where there will be no more political parties. If other political parties are going to exist, they will exist at his mercy. He has captured the National Assembly and the National Assembly will pass any law for, except law that will empower him to fight terrorists. I want to congratulate the National Assembly for coming back from the dinner organised to them by ‘their mother,’the wife of the president, which was announced by the Senate President. In fact, the excitement exhibited by the members of the National Assembly was so monumental. If such a deal and vigor were deployed to good law-making, Nigeria would have been a safe country. So, you can see where we are heading to. So, as one who has always been telling Nigerians what will happen to them, Nigerians should prepare for the installation of a supreme leader.

In all these, particularly the suspected payment of ransom to bandits by the government, where do they leave the country in terms of governance?

It leaves us as a failed state. And every nation of the world is quite aware and informed about what is happening as I narrated to you. Most nations knew more than we know as Nigerians about what the Nigerian government, the nature of partnership between the Nigerian Government and the terrorist enterprise. So, we are a failed state, to put it simply, because every institution of our civilisation has been destroyed one after the other. The economy was the first casualty. The political system, second. Education now is the third casualty, because all schools have been closed, especially in the north. So, education now is the next victim. And all the components of civilisation will be destroyed one after the other to pave the way for the theory of this emergence of a maximum supreme leader. Now, let me tell you the situation. If the president is determined as a commander-in-chief of the Nigerian armed forces, let me affirm and assure Nigerians, we have the best military as it is today, one of the best in Africa. We have one of the most committed military. This Nigerian military you are seeing, even if the president did not buy weapons for them, if you arm them with clubs and asked them to dislodge the terrorists, the determination and the zeal of the Nigerian military that I know, give them two weeks, there will be peace and unity in Nigeria. But for obvious political reasons and personal interests, the terrorists are partners in the political project of the destruction of Nigeria. So, the military has been starved of weapons, welfare, training, and everything required to deal with the insurgency. That is why the convoy of a brigadier general, which is one of the highest military assets, was ambushed and it was reported that the first power of ISWAP was more than that of a brigade. And a brigade in Nigeria is made up of a minimum of 3,000 troops and a maximum of 5,000 troops. The brigade commander cannot advance, except there is clearance. And that clearance will require the deployment of the following assets. There must be an armored asset. There must also be a sizable number of personnel, and there must also be an aerial surveillance asset for a brigade commander to move. So, if a brigade commander can be captured after maneuvering an ambush, surviving in the bush for about two days, contacting the military establishment, communicating with them, and revealing his location when a rescue aircraft was already hovering within the vicinity, just for him to be captured by terrorists, it leaves much to be desired. And the behaviour of the Nigerian state after the slaying of this gallant, patriotic officer speaks volumes about what we are today. This is because the government only issued a very lackadaisical and nonchalant condolence. The family of the deceased had not been even officially informed or visited. The government did not announce officially for national mourning of a fallen hero. There is no symbolic burial. What I know would have happened was for the president to have commanded or directed the military to bring him dead or alive. As it is now, the terrorists are in control of his phone and they are releasing information from his phone and publishing them bit by bit. Yet, we have somebody in the office of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, sitting down in a fortified environment comfortably with his family and the wife, inviting the National Assembly to dinner while a widow is crying, a young woman crying helplessly, asking what had happened to Nigeria. If this is the country we are today in Nigeria, then it is very sad. We wouldn’t have gone for independence in the first place.

You said Tinubu is trying and getting everyone onboard for his re-election. As a chieftain of the ADC, does it mean you don’t believe in the ability of the coalition to wrestle power from the APC?

I believe very strongly that in 2027, the election is going to be “We versus them”. Even if there will be no formal political parties on the ground because nobody can say what Tinubu will do next to the African Democratic Congress. They have started arresting and investigating some of the strong leaders of the party, former Governor Tambuwal, a sitting senator, of late, has not been going to the National Assembly. He reports every day to EFCC and he is one of the strongest pillars of that movement. And we heard they are also going to go after most of the leaders. So if they successfully fill the office of PDP with the mad dog syndrome in Abuja, one day we’ll wake up and bulldozers will bring down the PDP National Secretariat. Then the next place to visit will be ADC. And as it is now, they are busy fabricating charges and allegations around all the leaders, strong leaders of the ADC. So they will go after them. But the resolve of Nigerian people cannot be defeated in 2027. The election will melt down to we versus them, the Nigerian people versus Tinubu and APC. And Nigerians are going to look at the people on their side to elect them. But I’m afraid that political rallies will not take place because if bandits are already identifying with the Tinubu’s signature caps on their heads in their local camp, definitely they are going to be the campaign managers of Tinubu in 2027. And they are armed to the teeth. So they will not allow anything to happen. So it’s not an issue of having confidence. It’s an issue of what Tinubu is planning to do with Nigeria. And can the opposition, which is not armed and sophisticated like the bandits, do anything? The bandits even brought down a brigade; bringing down a brigade and the commander of that brigade means the terrorists brought down a brigade that has over 3,000 men and brought it down. So if they can bring down an armed brigade, do you think armless politicians who are seeking to govern Nigeria will be able to stand them? More so that as the terrorists will be attacking, the security architecture will become incapacitated. They will be watching what will happen. They will only issue statements of condolences and condemnation. So I think it’s not an issue of having faith in the opposition, but trying to begin to learn how we will face the reality of our future.

So what efforts is the coalition making ahead of the 2027 general elections?

The coalition leaders are still working round the clock to see how the party is built stronger. But the understanding of the coalition by Nigerians mostly has been reduced to only ADC now. It’s far, far, far more than that. But other things are strategic. And so they are not consumable by the public for now. But I am fully in the coalition. (Independent)