I’m sure Tinubu’s policies will bear good fruits in future – Prof Sagay
By Daniel Kanu
Prof Itse Sagay (SAN), legal luminary, former chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), under the previous government of President Muhammadu Buhari in this encounter takes a critical look at the Nigerian condition, controversial ranches commission bill, state police, President Bola Tinubu’s one year assessment, and measures to be taken at the moment to address the plight of Nigerians, among other national issues. Excerpts:
Let’s have your view on President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office?
For Nigerians, it has been a very difficult year. The hardship is real, but the consolation is that government is conscious of it from what I know. They are struggling to put policies in place which will gradually alleviate the situation. We had a very difficult year in terms of prices, in terms of the value of the Naira which has fallen so high. All Nigerians are feeling it.
Even the so-called middle class where I personally belong, we had it very rough, but I have hope because the activities of this government is geared towards alleviating this situation and bringing up our economy to a level that the majority of the Nigerian population in general will be able to live fairly comfortably or at least relatively much better than we are living now. I think that the government needs a little more time for things to be realized. Things are very rough and I think some measures should be taken in the interim to improve the situation while we wait for the results of the various policies, and one of them, which I personally enjoyed for three weeks, is Sanwo-Olu Sunday Market. Where the government bought agricultural products, rice, beans, tomatoes and all others and sold them at less than half the price in the market. I wish Governor Sanwo-Olu had continued with that.
In fact I personally appeal to him, let it be for an indefinite period. Once we can reduce costs of food because that is the worst of all, our condition will be relatively much better than it is. I will advise all the governments, even the Federal Government to be involved in this buying of food and selling it at reduced price because the alternative of that is to place restrictions on prices and enforce it. Government has to do one thing or the other and I believe that the one Sanwo-Olu did in Lagos is probably the better option.
Looking at the organised labour and its demand, some Nigerians are saying that it is unrealistic considering the kind of figure they are asking for. Let’s know your take on this?
I don’t think the Joe Ajaero-led group is serious with such demand. If they are serious they should not have proposed N615,000 as minimum wage, which was the first figure that they mentioned. So, the cleaner in an office will be earning N615,000, what will the permanent secretary earn? Maybe N10 million. People should be serious when they are holding important positions. Honestly, given Nigeria’s peculiar economic situation, I don’t see a minimum wage up to N100,000. The reason is because if they institute that N100,000, the states cannot pay, and the private sector cannot pay.
So, it will be a farce. We really have to be realistic. What organised labour should be asking for is improvement of economic conditions so that whatever they are given will go far, and life will be better. Reduced cost of transportation, reduced cost of food which I have earlier suggested, and many other measures, but not to bring in something that will bring inflation. Nobody will be able to buy anything, and we will be like Zimbabweans who need a huge basket to be able to buy a loaf of bread, or who are printing one billion notes. That is what the labour people want to reduce us to, if government accedes to their request, they will just wreck the economy of the country and everybody will go down, including themselves.
The Federal Government civil servants are about two million. It is better to improve the condition of living which will bring down the cost of living, and then pay a reasonable wage and not to pay a wage that will cause hyper-inflation and destroy the economy. It is not just realistic. You will see that if N100,000 is imposed, state governments will not pay. Up till today I understand that there are state governments that are still paying N18,000, they are not even paying N30,000. So, what is the point? People should be realistic. Government should be asked to improve conditions of living, bring down prices so that whatever you are paid will go far. That should be the approach.
There is a report that the Federal Government wants to waive levy on imported food items and drugs for six months, do you think that can address the issue of hunger in the country?
I think that is wonderful. Because some of us who are on so many medications, it has been a very difficult time for us. I will give you just one example that will give you an idea.
There is a medication that I have to take, which used to cost between N6,000 and N9,000 once a month. Now it costs N35,000. There are so many other drugs like that. I will give you another example, Augmentin that we used to get for N6,000, the last time that I bought Augmentin it was N25,000. I had to stop. I looked for the generic one which is still reasonable. I even asked my doctor to prescribe another medication, he refused and said that one is better than any other. So, it is rough. If the government can waive duty on all these items so that prices can come down and hopefully the pharmacists will cooperate and not try to make money out of that. Not a situation where they will still sell at old prices. Nigerians sometimes try to abuse every situation. Most of these things being sold in the market are just exploitation.
They just want to exploit the situation. They are happy to charge high prices knowing that we have no alternative. For example, if the government of Lagos State had continued to provide food at subsidized rates, the market price of food would go down because of competition. Some Nigerians are exploiters. They can blow everything out of proportion. They will use the dollar rate as an excuse even for products that don’t have anything to do with the dollar. It is just greed and selfishness.
President Tinubu-led APC government and the National Assembly are tinkering with the idea of state police. What is your take on it?
I have always supported state police. I have always been an advocate of state police. As a federation with sub-federal units they are entitled to have police. So, it has always been wrong that they didn’t have police. It is sure aspects of the short-comings of the constitution that they are now trying to correct. In fact, I think we should go beyond states to other levels; local government, communities, local regions need to have their security outfits for proper policing.
Nigerians are sad that in the midst of hardship and other serious challenges in the country, the National Assembly has wasted time and resources to change the national anthem. They are also not happy with Tinubu who within a very short time signed the bill into law. Can you react to it?
Frankly, I don’t see the relevance of changing the national anthem. Both of them are good enough and in times when we have more important things to do, I did not think it should be a priority. We should avoid a situation where these anthems will be changing from time to time. I don’t know why the government decided to change it. Look at the English anthem, “God save the king” They don’t extend that courtesy to the people and that doesn’t stop England from being a great country, a developed country where they have a national health system, the best in the world. So, I don’t think the anthem is relevant in terms of development, welfare and security of the people.
The Ranches Commission Bill is now before the National Assembly. What is your disposition to it in view of the controversy it has generated?
My position on it is that it is a good bill because the current system of herding is destroying our agriculture, part of the food shortage is due to that.
Then there is also a clash where farmers are being killed. They don’t even go to farms any more, they are afraid of going to their farms. From that point of view of destruction of crops and danger to those who farm. We need the law to confine those who want to breed cattle to stay in ranches. The North is wrong when they think that it is against their interest. We can’t do what we did 1,000 years ago when we were primitive.
This is a more modern and advanced age. So, many new things have come to improve our standard of living and our economy. They have to embrace it, they can’t stay in the past. What we can do, which is very simple, is to have the ranches. I don’t mind even the government assisting them in terms of finance.
They can have the ranches and when they want to take them to the South, they put them in lorries and drive them to towns where they have specific places, maybe abattoirs where they can be killed. These things can be organised, but above that what the North doesn’t realise by refusing to think of, though they may be aware, is that the cattle industry is one of the most rewarding in the world. Instead of trekking with the cattle all the way to the South, if they have ranches they can slaughter the cattle, make corned beef, and make frozen beef which they can even fly in airplanes down to the South. Abroad everything is frozen, you don’t see the cows anywhere. They only see cows in places where food is sold, already wrapped and prepared.
They can have an industry where they are bringing the cows. You can have a dairy system, they will make cheese, and they will make milk. If mechanisation is introduced and industrialisation of what they have, that part will be the richest in the country. They will also have employment. It is not like oil which is finishing, the cows are reproducing which is permanent. So, they are losing a lot by trying to stick to the primitive past which is destructive of life in Nigeria and which also destroys our food amidst food shortage and creates high cost of food, also creating insecurity. So, it is in their own interest to modernize by embracing ranches. The children of the herdsmen will go to school and their family life will just improve. So, they have to abandon that primitive culture.
Your party, APC, is said not to be doing well as things stand now, what advice can you give to Tinubu as he proceeds into his second year in office?
The good side of stopping the subsidy is that a lot of extra money has accrued to both states and the Federal Government. This money can be turned into use for making life more comfortable for Nigerians.
As I said earlier, their policies will bear fruit in the future, maybe in two or three years. In that interval the extra money can be used in providing products that Nigerians spend money on to bring down the cost of living because the major complaint now is the cost of living.
If you bring down the cost of food, the cost of transport, cost of household items, even for those imported items, the import duties can be reduced. Of course, tackle the problem of the Naira which keeps falling. They should try and stabilize it. If they do all that, there will be improvement in the standard of living for all Nigerians and they will be happier with the government, while gradually their policies will start yielding the required results in five years’ time, there will be another story entirely.
