By Daniel Kanu
Dr Phillips Ntoh is former Commissioner for Finance, World Bank consultant, and Provost, Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu, (ASCETA), in this chat with journalists in Lagos, speaks on the 2023 elections, the president Nigeria needs, secret behind ASCETA success, challenges and other crucial issues. Excerpt:
Let’s look at the political campaigns so far and how satisfied are you on the issues of discussion?
Well, I am happy that the dynamics of Nigerian politics is quite changing; it is getting to a stage that I may describe as being far advanced than what we used to have before, probably because of the signing into law the Electoral Act. I will give credit for that to President Buhari. Before now, politicians used to joke with the electorate, and even the electorate themselves lost confidence in the umpire, INEC, but given the signing of the Electoral Act into law, reasonably, confidence of the electorate has been restored, where people now feel that the votes will count, quite unlike before when the feeling of the electorate was that, they will still write the results and that whatever you vote will not matter or count. Such mentality has shifted, and you can now see people rushing to collect their PVCs, rushing to get registered, you see people exchanging views in social media, people that before had no such interest. Today, you see big pastors in churches now campaigning, telling the electorate, their church members that they should vote out bad leaders, so that goes to say that Nigeria’s democracy is evolving and evolving to a level everybody is getting interested. So, I may say that because of that singular challenge in the sense that it is no longer business as usual for politicians, so politicians are now trying to come up with what they can do, it’s no longer mere political promises now, it has become more engaging and the electorate are now probing further, digging out past records. I was watching Arise TV, the other day, when somebody was saying, questioning the man; ‘you have said so many things concerning what you will do, how will you do it?’ The questions that the electorate are asking through journalists, and at townhall meetings are: How will you do what you are promising? And that is a proper question to ask. I am happy at the campaigns despite the mudslinging in some cases that tend to distract. The campaigns are becoming issue based, but let them come up with more serious agenda and how? If you say that you are going to solve security problem, tell us how you will do it, so that Nigerians will then analyze your approach and see whether you have the capacity. If you say you will give us power, tell us how. If you say you will fight corruption, tell us how? If you say you are going to fight poverty, that you will create jobs and take 130 million Nigerians out of poverty, tell us how. Some of them are living up to expectation in marshaling their point in that aspect, but I want all of them to key in and tell us how they will solve all these identified Nigerian problems. Some of them have done serious job in their manifestos, I have gone through some of them that are quite okay, but let it be that the manifesto is something you know how to implement. We do not need much of the abuses, but some of the abuses too seem to be revealing the dirty nature, lack of credibility in some of them, and this will guide the electorate while voting. The big question we must continue to ask is: How will you do, achieve or accomplish the promises made? How will you raise the funds, for instance, for your projects? Not when you win you start telling us you didn’t know the enormity of the challenge, that the problem was far much than you anticipated. Already, we, the electorate, know that the problem is enormous, that it is huge, so nobody should come in again to give us excuses, once you come in you hit the ground running from day one.
So, what should Nigerians be looking out for in the choice of electing their next president?
Well, I may not influence the choice of other people, but personally, I will vote for a president that is energetic, one with capacity, competence, some body that will unify the country. We have seen a few of them with the capacity to unify the deeply disintegrated nation; we have seen some of them that are energetic, healthy and young and also those young in spirit but old. The next president must be one that is either you are young or you are young in spirit and somebody that is at alert and fully energetic, it’s very important because for you to govern you must be able to read files. At our own little level, you have to go through files, you have to move round the departments, you have to move round the school, look at the various courses etc. And now, we are talking about the president of Nigeria. The person must be energetic not one that every now and then you are flown abroad for medical attention. You need good energy, your brain needs to function well, mental alertness and all that. We do not need one with hidden health challenges. Personally, I know who I will vote for and I wouldn’t want to influence others with my choice, it’s not my style to do such, but I know who fits in better for me to govern this country. If you are satisfied the way we are today, fine; if you are not satisfied you make your choice, not a choice to regret later.
As an outstanding economist, a World Bank consultant for that matter, how do you see the humongous debt that the APC-led government under Buhari will be leaving behind?
I am not worried about our debt profile, I know it’s too high, but I am only worried on the ground that, what did you borrow for? Why did you borrow? What did you use the money borrowed to do? Assuming at my little level I borrow money for my family, just for us to eat and drink and make merry for that day and live luxurious life, it means you are creating problems for tomorrow, but if you are borrowing to invest, if you are borrowing to create wealth, if you are borrowing for capital formation there is nothing wrong. Even the developed countries like United States of America, Russia, Singapore etc, they also have high debt profile, but the difference is that they used their own borrowed funds to invest for capital formation so that tomorrow where that money is invested will now start to generate income which will then be used for the debt servicing. Our own story is different, we borrow and invest on consumption, and even some of the money borrowed is also invested in non-productive areas. Non-productive area in the sense that it may not be consumption, but a situation where you borrow money from China and then you use it to do road in a place that is not economically viable that can be classified also as consumption, so consumption does not mean when you borrow to pay salary, but if you use that fund for non-productive sector, it also means you borrowed for consumption.
Analysts have been situating the problem with Nigeria, for you, what do you see…?
(Cut’s in) It is leadership, once we get our leadership right every other thing will fall in line, people will follow. The leader must be someone that will be able to identify Nigeria’s problems, a leader must be somebody that will be there to unify the country, a leader that will look at the motto of the country: Unity, peace and progress and once you bring the three components of our motto together, you solve the problem. First and foremost, unify our diversity. There is a saying that there is strength in diversity, tap from it, unify the country. Each of the various regions has something to offer as there is no part of the country that can exist without the other. The North cannot exist without the South and so can the South not exist without the North, so the West cannot exist without the East and vice-versa. It is the way the country is configured, so we need unity, but our leaders failed to tap from it. All they do is to play further the bad politics of disintegrating the country more and more, bringing in things that will continue to distract our unity, things like religion, tribe, where are you from? So that is why some of us have been telling people to vote for somebody that has the capacity and love for the country. Nigerians should not vote on religious or ethnic sentiment. Once you vote on these sentiments and you elect one with no capacity we will suffer for it tomorrow, your children and grand-children will suffer for it. Any mistake we make in this 2023 will be disastrous, a serious problem for everybody. I am happy people are writing letters, People are telling us that this is the direction to go. Let me just use this platform to again plead with the various electorate to vote according to their conscience, don’t vote for any body because the person is able to give you money, that N1,000 or N2,000 you will only use it one day to drink or eat then the suffering will continue, you will be mortgaging your future too. If a politician gives you money you have already mortgaged your conscience, you can‘t come back to such a person to do one or two things for your constituency. So our major problem as I said is that of leadership. If we get the leadership right, all other things will fall in place. We must get it right in this 2023; we must elect a competent leader, leaders that will take us to our Canaan land.
What has been the secret of your success and the challenges you are facing as ASCETA provost?
You know that the NCE certificate which we offer is gradually going into extinction, people feel that it is a long way to go if you want to get university education, so people now go straight to do their degree in the universities. That singular factor has affected our enrollment. So by implication our biggest challenge is that of student’s enrollment. The best way to go now is what I have been advocating for which is vocational education, technical education, skill acquisition. Let us de-empasise this idea of getting conventional degree, mere certification, let’s go for skill acquisition and I suggest that most of our Colleges of Education should be converted to skill acquisition centres. In ASCETA, that is the way I am going, I have established a centre for skill acquisition and no matter what you study , you must get one skill. The skill could be in vulcanizing, hair dressing, building, leather works, agriculture etc, in any area of your interest. Once you graduate, you don’t need to start carrying files up and down looking for job rather you create jobs. All graduates that I produce are job creators. One of my other desire is to ensure the institution gets a university status or upgraded to a university because everybody now want’s to get a degree as the NCE is gradually phasing out, but that does not mean we close the skill acquisition centres. The magic or secret of our success is the vision of our governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu. When he appointed me as the provost he gave me his vision in the education sector, so that vision guided me, it shaped my thinking, my vision. He made the work easier by giving me his blueprint in the education sector and I religiously followed the blueprint. Remember that the governor when he was elected started E for E (Education for Employment) so we simply, but aggressively translated that E for E to what we are doing. It means as you are getting the education, also get the skill. Another major issue is that the governor will never interfere in what you are doing, particularly if you are doing it well. He does not interfere in the way we run the institution; unlike some governors in some states where once you get TETFund you go to their table to present it. Some governors sack provosts of institutions for the fact that they simply awarded legitimate contracts. The governor is focused and has never interfered.