Vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Datti Baba-Ahmed, speaks on the EndSARS protest at the Lekki toll gate which ended on a sad note and the sympathy of his party towards the agitations of the youth, among other sundry political issues in this interview on Channels TV, monitored by Ben Adoga

It’s been two years since the EndSARS movement turned violent happened, for you and your principal, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party what does the EndSARS protest mean to you?

It’s a pleasure to be here. Let me say quickly that the real motives behind the EndSARS are yet to be fully uncovered. It may not be possible in this era to know what was behind it, but many times people have taken the surface and worked with it. I am one of those who would want to get to the roots of whatever motives were there, the political underpinnings, and what gave rise to EndSARS. We’ve just been dealing with the surface. It is symbolic to appreciate as Nigerians that we have fellow citizens who can stand up and fight for their rights. I have always said that democracy belongs to those who can practice it, democratic dividends belong to those who can claim it and liberty belong to those who can take it. EndSARS was an indication that Nigerians can do these. It was a time to share the pride of nationhood, that’s what the surface has shown. I look forward to a time to know what happened during EndSARS. SARS was not the biggest problem then. There could have been #End bad governance which would have been bigger than #EndSARS which would have seen people like me go all the way to Lagos to join them. Probably it would have been #End Corruption or #End Bigotry or even #End Insecurity; #End falling naira. Even in the security sector, SARS was a sub of an aspect. Like I said before, today is a time to be proud that we have Nigerians who can demand their rights.

Those who saw the event and those who were part of it say that these were essentially young Nigerians who wanted to take their future into their hands and put an end to Police brutality, get justice for events that happened in the past, and good governance at that time, particularly what occurred two years ago today at the Lekki Toll Gate remains a point of controversy and you said you want to get to the roots of it. Do you align with those who say it’s a massacre?

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There was an abuse of human rights, and there was an abuse of procedure, if some people interpret that as a massacre, yes, however, the massacre has different technical meanings, I can’t say I know all of it, but I know that massacre requires that the assailants. No advance notice was given before the attack, the victims must have been attacked in their areas. These were well-meaning Nigerians who brought themselves out to a public area and there were attacked by security forces that are meant to be protecting their lives and property. The use of massacre is highly debatable, but I can say for sure that there was an abuse of procedure and there were civil rights violations.

Your party has benefitted from that EndSARS movement, that it seems, would you be doing anything that will remedy the grouse of young people if you get to government, the issues of youth restiveness, unemployment, and the rest?

It’s a very heavy statement to say that our party, the Labour Party is a beneficiary of EndSARS, while we are always on the side of the people and the side of good governance, we are against attrition, we are against repression. You may be more correct to put it in another way. We are not direct beneficiaries of EndSARS, we never wanted EndSARS, and we never wanted any Nigerian to be attacked, and cannot be said that we are direct beneficiaries of EndSARS. We benefit from a peaceful Nigeria, we benefit from progress and development that is what we benefit from. The second part of your question we are about correcting all the mistakes of bad governance, we are about bringing positive changes, mile stone developments to the lives of the youth, to the educational system, to the world of work to all businesses, to all trades, that is what we are about. We have specifically remained focussed on the key variables that touch everybody’s life, the aged, the youth, and the infant, namely security, second, economy, and third, ensuring that the wealth of Nigeria is no longer being stolen the way it was. Then we gave gone sectorally to specify that we are going to improve education, improve skills of our youths, make sure they graduate with skills, those who graduate will have skills from secondary schools and even when they are in their world of work, we continue to improve those skills, diversify their respective businesses, modify and modernise those businesses and integrate those businesses with local markets, integrate the sector with African and other international trade links, these are what we are about.

The question was particularly about the EndSARS movement and it’s clear that a good number of the supporters of the Labour Party were actively involved in the EndSARS movement calling for an end to police brutality, it’s clear when Gen. Enenche was included in the campaign council and some people said he shouldn’t be there because of some of the statements he made regarding the EndSARS movement showing that a lot of people who are involved in the movement are supporters of the Labour Party, or do you think that is not right? You say if in power you will remedy all these, should the youth trust you on this?

The youths that you see today are probably going to be the next generation of police officers. The level of training we will give them will be none like seen in Nigeria before, and the equipment we will provide to the police and security forces will be such like never seen before in Nigeria, thanks to our prudent procurement system and our style of governance and our lifestyles that have been guided by prudence, frugality, and accountability. Those who have been victims of police brutality are going to be leaders of tomorrow and would do the exact opposite by defending the citizens of Nigeria and ensuring there is no police brutality. We intend to expand the security forces, particularly the police force, we have been saying this. His Excellency Peter Obi has given you the police per capita is appallingly low, below the standards of other countries in our development bracket.

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Will people be free to protest under your government, in a civil manner or in whichever way they wish to?
Absolutely, yes. A categorical yes. Put this on record. I wouldn’t as a leader invites people to come and protest, but whenever there is a need, good peaceful rally and demonstrations, I will be proud to come out and welcome fellow citizens, speak to their leaders, and bring them out these f the streets, go on a round table and we discuss and I address the crowd, please keep this on record. There are times when Nigerians come out in their thousands for certain causes, some are religious, some are tribal and some are like EndSARS. But I have never seen Nigerians in their hundreds in front of CBN complaining or raising placards peacefully about the falling value of the Naira. Eight months after the ASUU strike just ended, I didn’t see 10 Nigerian students raising placards outside the Ministry of Education. I am fully in support of people claiming and taking their legitimate rights. I assure you Peter Obi is also like that. Do long as the rules are followed.

You mentioned the CBN, do you agree that the naira is overvalued at this point?

No, categorically no. The factors leading to the fall of the Naira are factors other than economic. There are factors other than transactional and there is this unfortunate ‘dollarisation’ of the naira that happened. In the three increases of the naira, during COVID-19 palliatives were given out, it was a time that people couldn’t go out, go to the market, and so on, it was claimed that cash was taken and distributed in the rural areas, and other places for people to stay at home. Remember that it correlated with the fall in the value of the naira which is the rise of the dollar. When we fully investigate, we will know other causes, but I can tell you that it is not unconnected with the fact that there was excess naira chasing too few dollars. These are not transactional, it is not a collection of industries or businesses that are demanding dollars for the import of equipment or materials to manufacture, no. The next round of it was also not transactional, each time government does put money, careless and reckless printing of the naira to meet the budget deficit allows excess naira in the economy that also chases the dollar, so, I do not believe that the naira is over-valued. Any further decline in the value of the naira is a direct assault on the living standard of Nigerians and also a direct assault on the security of Nigeria as a nation.

What value should we be looking to if your party is voted into power?

I am a realist, nobody just seats down and talks carelessly. The first thing we have to do is to stop the fall of the naira, remember what I said to you before now, stop the stealing, start the keeping, stop the slide, start the climb. When you stop the slide of the naira, it’s from there you find out the actual value of the naira. As a realist, I don’t talk blindly, there are very many variables including how many Nigerians live in Nigeria. The value of the naira also reflects how much we trust ourselves. As a leader, we sat down and find out how much we believe lectures in front of students can deliver quality good credible education to students, until Nigerians are comfortable about how Nigerian medical doctors will treat patients, how nurses keep our hospitals clean, until we know how much we believe in our trust in ourselves then I can tell you what the naira will be. Until we can stop reckless and careless printing of the naira for unnecessary budget deficits until we can commercialise and privatise all aspects of government that do not have to do with running a government in the third millennium in this century, government hands off all those money guzzlings until we reform our procurement system like I’ve been advocating. The first thing we have to do realistically speaking stop the slid of the naira, once you do that you determine where to go, remember Nigeria is part of an international community, and other countries have a say.

We want to talk about the flood issue because your presidential candidate said campaigns are on hold, just to confirm, are campaigns on hold, and for how long?

Campaigns by himself, the presidential candidate of Labour Party, His Excellency, Peter Obi, are on hold because he gives great attention to the welfare of all citizens. Other organs of the campaigns are at work to prepare other things, but rallies are on hold until Peter Obi has satisfactorily gone around the affected areas and given us further instructions.

The youths that you see today are probably going to be the next generation of police officers. The level of training we will give them will be none like seen in Nigeria before, and the equipment we will provide to the police and security forces will be such like never seen before in Nigeria, thanks to our prudent procurement system and our style of governance and our lifestyles that have been guided by prudence, frugality, and accountability.