Prof Usman Yusuf is a member of the Northern Elders Forum. In this interview, Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, speaks on various issues including President Bola Tinubu’s romance with France and the Tax Reform bill before the National Assembly. Excerpts:
The Nigeria-France relationship is not new, and it’s a significant one. France is Nigeria’s biggest trade partner in Europe. What positives do you see from this relationship, particularly when it comes to security and economy?
To be honest, I’m nervous and every Nigerian should be. Okay, let’s look at our relationship with France past, present, and the future. France has been in all these Francophone African countries for 60 to 66 years, and they’ve been kicked out. They’ve been kicked out of Chad, Senegal, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Five of your neighbours kicked out a colonial master, and all of a sudden, you are hugging that person.
There is something you guys know that we don’t know. But let’s look at the history of France in Africa or anywhere else in the world. It’s not been good. Look at all these countries; you need to ask yourself, why was France kicked out of those places? You are sucking their resources and there is no development in any of these countries.
You go to Chad, you go to Mali, you go to Burkina Faso, you go to Niger, there is nothing to see, but they’ve been sucking their uranium and gold. All of a sudden, President Bola Tinubu is in this love feast with President Emmanuel Macron and France. We’re asking ourselves, why? What do we have in common with France? Literally nothing.
You look at our history with France, it has been one of the major countries that was supposed to have united Nigeria. France opposed the formation and the creation of ECOWAS. France opposed the creation and sabotaged the creation of a single ECOWAS currency, the Eco. And France sabotaged ECOWAS by the young military juntas leaving ECOWAS. Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, ECOWAS is now just a shell.
“Bringing France in is going to make us a hotbed for terrorism. It is going to make us poorer and it is going to make us second-class citizens. They will open a base in Katsina State and be digging our gold and I cannot go there as a person from Katsina. We’ve seen that in Niger, we’ve seen that in Mali. That is what they have been doing”
Wherever France is, it’s no good. Mr. President is not talking to Nigerians. You will remember that after the coup in Niger, the president had just started and he had not even assembled his team, he said we’re going to attack Niger, and I’m sure that was prodded by France. We in the North resisted vehemently.
We said that we are not going to allow Nigeria to invade Niger because the fight was going to be a proxy war. The United States of America had one of the biggest drone bases in Niger. Their reason was that they’re going to fight Islamists and all that. But insecurity has been much worse where you have bases in these foreign countries.
The reason France is courting Nigeria, and President Tinubu is allowing them, is because they are looking for a place to situate their military base after being kicked out but we will resist it. We in the North, which is a place they are looking to locate these bases, will vigorously resist any foreign military boots on our soil.
Mr. President needs to know that we do not have any historical ties, defence, economic or linguistic relationship with France. And all this cozying the French are doing, the reception they gave Mr President was fit for a king. He will not get that if he goes to England or the United States or anywhere in the world.
What is France getting for that? France wants three things. One, it wants the right to concessions to exploit our minerals, which are predominantly in the North, which is what they’ve been doing in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Number two; they want concessions in oil and gas. I heard the spokesman of the President saying that Total is going to invest $750 million in gas.
And I asked myself, is this true or is this fiction because the same Total, 17 months ago, exited Nigeria and sold its entire stake at $860 million to a Mauritius-based company. Their reasons were sabotage, theft, oil spillage and high cost of lawsuits. So, what has changed in 16 months that they’re coming back again? After selling its stake for $860 million and leaving town, now they’re coming to invest $750 million, we were told. It’s not going to happen. They’re looking for three things. They are looking to come and exploit our mineral resources, predominantly in the North. They are looking to explore oil and gas, which they ran away from, and number three that is most importantly, most worrying, they are looking for a military base.
But, we will vehemently resist any attempt by President Tinubu’s government to allow any foreign military base on our soil, particularly in the North because it is going to be a harbinger of trouble. All these Lakurawa things you’re hearing, it is the French that started all of them. Wherever France was in West Africa, there was no peace.
So, why would President Tinubu bring them back without consulting anybody? A military base, whether by France, America or any country will be resisted vigorously by all of us, because this is a country we love, and we’re not going to allow recolonization of Nigeria like they’ve done in the other countries.
In Hausa, there is a saying that if you see the beard of your neighbour catching fire, dampen water on yours. France has put fire all over the Sahel, and we are inviting them into our household. No! we are not going to allow that. And I’m calling on our sleepy, do-nothing 10th National Assembly to wake up to its responsibility. They are the ones we elected; they are the ones who should checkmate President Tinubu in all the opaque things he’s been doing.
He disappears into France for a working holiday, and nobody knows what he’s going to do there. Like he’s been called for consultation, this is a democracy, not a military rule, and we need to know what our government and our president are taking us into. But a foreign military base is a no-no.
And exploiting our mineral resources behind our backs is not going to happen. It’s going to be transparent, there’s going to be an open bid, and all of us stakeholders must be involved.
Considering the current rivalry between Western powers and China for influence in the global South, how does Nigeria’s embrace of France fit into this dynamics, and could this partnership position Nigeria as a critical player in balancing global power, or is there a risk in alienating other potential allies such as China or Russia?
France is just going to use us as a pawn and we are essentially sticking out our neck and giving it to them. And, the fight is not between the West and China. The fight is between the West and Russia. Look at what just happened in Syria. Look at what’s happening in Ukraine. Look at what’s happening in Israel. It’s going to be a proxy war between NATO and Russia, because all these French West African countries are inviting Russia after kicking out America and China.
So, it’s going to be a proxy war, and we are not going to be part of it. But we are going to resist it, especially all of us in the North, who are going to bear the full brunt of any recklessness of bringing any foreign foot onto our soil. We are not going to accept it. So, it’s not about China. It’s about the United States, NATO and Russia. So, Mr. President, whom we elected, must speak to us.
He should not commit us to any foreign military presence in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And whatever investments he makes must be vetted by our National Assembly. But I call on all Nigerians, particularly our elders, our governors, our traditional rulers and clerics, to be on the lookout because danger is coming. Mr President’s romance with France is no good news for Nigeria.
How would you want President Tinubu to embrace France, which is our biggest trade partner in Europe just as we are their biggest trade partner in Africa?
That’s the scary part because if France could help any country with security, why didn’t it help Mali? Why didn’t it help Niger? Why didn’t it help Burkina Faso? Why didn’t it help Chad? They have been there for a long time. Their troops have been there for a long time. Do you think if they didn’t help them with all their bases, they are going to help us? Let’s wake up. Only Nigeria can help herself by liberating herself from these colonial forces that are doing nothing but stirring trouble in the Sahel.
So, for anybody to think that France is coming to help us with security is deluding himself. The biggest problem we will have is, and that is why President Tinubu is misfiring how to handle the situation after the coup in Niger, which is the increasing insecurity coming to Nigeria because Niger, Chad and Cameroon have been doing a lot of heavy lifting on our behalf, fighting Boko Haram and bandits and ISWAP.
Now, you’re not going to talk to them. You’re fighting them. They lift their feet off the brakes and these guys roll in. France is not going to help you with that. These neighbouring countries are only ones that will help you with this Lakurawa nonsense because the optics we are seeing in Lakurawa is suspect, I’ll tell you.
I heard the other day from the spokesperson of the Defence Headquarters in Nigeria saying in his press briefing that Lakurawa is new and that it is related to the coup in Niger. Hello, Mr. spokesperson, you should know better. This Lakurawa, as we know it today, has been around in this country.
They’ve been here for seven years, since 2017, at the invitation of local communities to help them fight bandits, to help them do the job that security services could not do. They came under the nose of the Federal Government, under the nose of the state governments, under the nose of all security services, under the nose of all our intelligence services. And now, all of a sudden, we are doing this.
The question Nigerians should be asking is, why did we allow non-state actors to come into Nigeria, settle and continue its activities for the past seven years? And why all of a sudden are we saying Lakurawa just to give a reason for France to come in? That is the only reason. Fellow Nigerians, you can never stop this Lakurawa, Boko Haram, all these bandits and terrorists, if you don’t have a good relationship with your neighbours, not France.
Bringing France in is going to make us a hotbed for terrorism. It is going to make us poorer and it is going to make us second-class citizens. They will open a base in Katsina State and be digging our gold and I cannot go there as a person from Katsina. We’ve seen that in Niger, we’ve seen that in Mali. That is what they have been doing.
So, fellow Nigerians, we should open our eyes. We in the North will vigorously resist any attempt by President Tinubu’s government to allow foreign military bases on our soil. End of story; I don’t know how else to say it.
Don’t you think that President Tinubu is trying to position Nigeria as a trade partner and not just a partner to be extracted resources from?
Trade partner; how much is he getting from France. They said $750 million investment by Total. For goodness sake, that’s a paltry sum for a country like Nigeria. The other day, they went to Qatar, how much did they say they got, $600 million and Qatar denied that. The other day, in Saudi Arabia, they said $800 million. All of these investments, less than a billion for a country like Nigeria? That is paltry.
Why is Nigeria not attracting the big investment that it is worthy of? A Nigeria that has a very large population, a Nigeria that is very rich, a Nigeria that has a very educated population. Why are we not attracting big investment? It is an insult to tell me you went to France and got $750 million or Saudi Arabia, $800 million, or Qatar, $600 million.
The President himself de-marketed Nigeria twice in Doha. Remember, when they went, he said there was corruption and he warned the Qatari delegates: ‘If anybody asks you for a bribe, come and tell me.’ Hello, Mr. President. Thank you for de-marketing your country. And at G20, you heard what he was saying. There is insecurity. There is hunger. There is this. There is that.
You are the chief marketing officer of your country and you are de-marketing the country. I will tell you, real countries that want to invest in troubled spots, they factor in all these and they even get insurance and just come in and pillage the country and leave.
So, we want to see real investment that translates into bettering the lives of our people. We haven’t seen that so far. All the loans they’ve been getting, the World Bank loans, the Chinese loans, where are we seeing them? They have not impacted on the people. They have not helped the Naira. They have not brought inflation down.
“Our people are dying. Tomorrow is not better. Yesterday was better than today. People don’t trust this government, that is number one. Number two is that this government, despite its over-bloated media team of about 13 advisers, is not connecting with the people”
Just recently, they got a loan of $2.2 billion. They got approval from the National Assembly. It took only 48 hours for the do-nothing National Assembly to give them approval to go and get loans. For what? The President is proposing a bill of $47.9 billion and the collection agencies said they have collected N51 trillion so far. So, why are you getting all this money?
He gets all these loans and the National Assembly does not ask him what these loans are for and we do not see the benefit. So, we must question, especially, in a situation where we are worried there is a state capture by the President and his business associates. You see them signing MoUs in France, on whose behalf, definitely not on my behalf, not on my grandmother’s behalf.
They are not in government. Nobody knows about these guys. Do you see them signing on behalf of Nigeria? Do you have your business associates running this country? Nobody can tell me how much the Federal Inland Revenue Service has collected or how much the Customs has collected. Nobody knows what comes in and what goes out. The reason is that our National Assembly is complicit; it is there in bed with this bad governance.
This cannot continue. We must all wake up. Investment from France is not going to solve our problem. Get investment wherever you are going to get investment but we are very nervous about this love fest between our President and France and her president. It’s a harbinger of bad things to come because of France’s history around us.
And we cannot trust France or any country with our security. Doing that would be foolhardy. Yes, there is insecurity in the North but it is going to get much worse with France around. Do they want to go and fight? Let them go and do their fighting. We will solve our problems here.
Do you have any concerns about the Tax Reform Bills and how can the government balance this urgent need for revenue generation?
President Tinubu is essentially bringing the Lagos model to the big stage. What is the Lagos model? Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax but you cannot overtax your citizens to a level that they cannot pay. You’ve removed subsidies, and you’ve made them poorer. You’ve floated the Naira, you’ve devalued the currency. People are poorer. Why are you taxing them? What you need to do is broaden the tax net instead of overtaxing citizens. That is number one.
Number two, people will say those that are against this tax bill, they haven’t even read the bills. It is not the responsibility of citizens to go and read; it is the responsibility of the government that is going to bring any policy to people to come and sensitize and explain to them and get their approval. You cannot just pay hired consultants. They go into their room, bring out an encyclopedia of how we want to do the tax, throw it to the National Assembly and rush it.
I tell you, 99 per cent of the members of the National Assembly have not read the bill. Nobody has time to read this bill. So, essentially, all this brouhaha you’re seeing, I took time to read it because I talk all over the place. Some of it is good, but the biggest problem is that there is a lack of trust. Nigerians don’t trust this government. The last time you did, Mr. President, you flippantly removed the fuel subsidy. You flippantly floated the Naira and said tomorrow would be better.
Our people are dying. Tomorrow is not better. Yesterday was better than today. People don’t trust this government, that is number one. Number two is that this government, despite its over-bloated media team of about 13 advisers, is not connecting with the people. They are not, they think they will stay in Abuja and talk, and people will listen to them. They are not connecting with the people.
You could see from the National Security Adviser’s speech the other day, their frustration that the government is not connecting with the people. That was why he said ‘critics, we will shut you up.’ We want to be shut up with facts, with benefits for our people, not propaganda. The government is not connecting with the people.
The government has not explained anything to the people. Members of the National Assembly do not even understand the bill. And look at the clumsy way it was presented at the Senate the other day. Senator Godswill Akpabio thinks he will be clever by half, recused himself, and put the Deputy Senate President from the North to fight his people.