•Says, South-East problems self-inflicted
Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi met with some newsmen recently in his Ebonyi home where he spoke on varied issues, including President Bola Tinubu’s reforms, economic hardship in the country, prices of cement, the defunct Nigerian Cement Company, NIGERCEM, and farmers/herders’ clashes, among others. WILSON OKEREKE was there.
President Bola Tinubu came up with a mantra tagged ‘Renewed Hope’ but nine months into his administration, Nigerians are groaning because of hunger. Why is this happening when the people are supposed to have this renewed hope in his administration?
The present hunger that everybody is talking about didn’t start today. It’s a build-up to a number of factors. Before the past administration and the present administration, we had been having a build-up of insecurity, we had farmers/herders’ clashes over a number of years at a long period of time. At a time, I was the Chairman of the NEC Committee on resolving farmers/herders’ clashes. So, I went through a number of states, especially the northern states, settling farmers/herders’ clashes and it yielded a number of fruits. That problem dealt a lot of blow to food production. The issue of kidnapping, the issue of insecurity, prevented farmers from going to their farms. Now, we are talking about hunger and you expect the administration of President Tinubu to fix all those things within nine months, it’s not possible. So, it’s a cumulative effect of the past like I have mentioned.
We should be asking ourselves; how do we solve these problems and that’s what the President has started doing. When something has gotten to a climax, you don’t expect to dissolve it overnight. If you check very well, especially in South East, you will know that we no longer have incessant farmers/herders’ clashes. So, why should we join the protest when the President has solved our major problem? The problem now we have in south east is self-inflicted and that is the issue of unknown but known gunmen. So, if we are protesting, are we protesting against who? We are protesting against a President that has solved herders/farmers’ clashes. If you remove the issue of unknown gunmen, South East will be completely safe and farmers can work. So, we can’t go and join anybody to protest.
People are worried and protesting against the general hardship in the country. Is there any way out of the hardship?
For those who said they are protesting, Labour had its first strike in nine months. That’s very unhealthy, that’s very unreasonable. You have to be a Nigerian first, you have to be patriotic; everything is not about politics. This is our nation. God forbid we have a crisis, we have no other place to run to. Our neighbours will not accept us. Yes, there is hunger. There is hardship but the darkest part of the morning is in the dawn. At the time the morning will break, then the darkness is at its utmost level. The truth remains that all over the country, you can see insecurity coming down. So, as insecurity would be coming down, then farmers can go to work. At least, we can feed ourselves so that the issue of hunger can go away. You have to look at the intention of Mr. President. Is he concerned about all those things? Yes! Success creates another problem but you have to compare the two. So, there are a number of reforms he introduced that resulted to the few hardships you are seeing, but it’s an attempt to completely solve the hardship. So, Nigerians should know the good intention of Mr President. Nigerians should know that his Presidency is divine by the way the election was fought and won miraculously by the fingers of God. So, South East has no reason to join the protest.
You talked about going to farm to solve hunger in the country and the farmers are still being attacked, especially in the North Central, which is a major food producing zone. If Nigerians can’t go to farm now, how then will they come out of the growing hunger?
I have already answered it that these are caused by long years of insecurity; farmers/herders clashes. These are what contributed to what we are experiencing now and Mr. President has started solving the problems. Of course he knows the problems while he was outside government but if you bear witness, the level of insecurity in the North is reducing and we should be concerned about the South East, about the issue of the unknown gunmen. And this issue of unknown gunmen is very much unknown to South East where people will seize their brothers and go to the bush, will seize their sisters and take them into the bush. For what? So, these are the things you journalists should assist to fight. Insecurity in the North is coming down. Mr. President is fighting very well, the herders/farmers’ clashes are almost a thing of the past all over the country. So, this will open doors for farmers to go to work, it will open doors for food production, it will open doors for us to have food to overcome the hunger. The President is evolving a number of mechanisms that will certainly lead farmers to their farms and bring them back.
The price of cement has gone up so high. Any assurance to Nigerians that the price will come down?
You know, the presidential power is overriding. The President has directed cement manufacturers that they have no reason to increase the price of cement and I want to thank him very highly because our road construction was badly hit and so, he had a meeting with them and he told them to go back to the old price. And that has started yielding result. We were in Sokoto and Bua said that his sales price is N6,000 and we still believe that they will still go back to the presidential directive.
I want to see in the days ahead that they comply with Mr President’s directive and the public will also help to checkmate that, because in this country, we have very high level of unpatriotic people. Everybody cashes in on every opportunity to milk this country, to inflict a lot of hardship on the people. Yes, there may be factors that will increase the price of cement but should it increase it to the level it is? And the manufacturers are also enjoying incentives from Mr. President. And so, they should be able to contribute to solving the challenges we are all facing now and the challenges are global. Even the hunger we are talking about is a global phenomenon. It’s global but we can grow our food. We have a lot of resources, both human and material, to overcome these challenges if Nigerians can support Mr. President and play less of the politics and be patriotic. This is very important.
The defunct Eastern Nigeria Government established a cement factory in Nkalagu in the present Ebonyi State which has remained moribund for many years. Is there anything that could be done to revive it?
I want to commend the governor of Ebonyi State for his effort in revamping NIGERCEM. He called over a number of hours and we spoke at length and I encouraged him. We shouldn’t continue to have NIGERCEM as moribund or unproductive. I was governor for eight years and it couldn’t take off, Elechi was there for eight years and it could not take off. This governor is a younger person and he is more daring. So, let the shareholders expand their tentacles, get more players in so that money will be made available. And the governor has met with other South East governors and they are willing to buy shares. I call on Ibeto, who is a major shareholder, to open his arms. He should open his arms. Ebonyi people are beginning to be restive about that because that can revive the economy of Ebonyi State. It is the best cement limestone quality in the whole country. So, I will encourage the governor by all means. Within the next three months, we must see a direction that NIGERCEM is going. Sentiments must be shelved apart; we have endured enough and no one man can do that alone.
Why is it that more cement factories are not coming up in the country?
We cannot wake you up and say please, come and start cement factory. The door is very open. Mr. President’s governance is very healthy for business environment. When you come and say look, I want to start this, you will be given the enabling environment for it. So, anyone that is interested in cement factory, Mr. President is there and willing to offer incentives. Nobody is stopping anyone from developing cement factories. I have just spoken with two cement manufacturers and in the coming weeks, they are coming to Ebonyi to definitely examine a number of sites and anywhere they want to work, they will be given that opportunity.
You have been preaching road concrete infrastructure. What is the essence of it?
The essence of introducing road concrete infrastructure is first to reduce the pressure on the naira so that those who want to do asphalt should go and develop the asphalt in Ogun and Ondo States and other parts of the country, that’s number one. Then, number two is that it creates more jobs because more cement factories will come up; direct and indirect jobs reduce pressure and make our roads to last much longer. And it’s also cost effective.
What is the place of South East in the Tinubu administration?
We must thank Mr. President. Before now, South East was not in the picture as far as road infrastructure is concerned. Yes, the past administration did a little bit compared to the previous administration, but right now, Mr. President has placed us on equal footing with every other zone in this country and that is the reason no Igbo man or woman should be against his administration.
We must support Mr. President for road infrastructure, for giving us Minister of Works, Chief of Naval Staff, Minister of Trade and Investment. These are key positions. Even if we are not getting more, these ones we have, we didn’t get them before. I am the first Minister of Works from the South East since the creation of Nigeria. So, it shows confidence, it shows commitment, it shows love.