…Says his government needs to align with people’s situation
By Daniel Kanu
Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa was a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria.
He speaks truth to power each time you have the opportunity to interact with him.
In this exclusive chat with Sunday Sun, he speaks on critical national issues, including the current state of the nation, the President Tinubu solution, restructuring and the Nnamdi Kanu dilemma. Excerpt:
Most Nigerians thought that things will get better with the exit of President Muhammadu Buhari, but things seem to be getting tougher with much hunger and poverty in the land. What is wrong?
Well, I will say that once you want to make an omelette you must break the egg. There is no doubt that the Nigerian situation requires some radical actions However, radical actions must be taken in a calculated manner. So, I think what has happened is that the action the government has taken is much on the consequences in the short term. In the medium to long term things will be better, but as they say, in long-term, we are all dead, so Nigerians are witnessing short-term consequences and it’s like they are moving from bad to worse. So, they were not adequately prepared and government didn’t seem to also properly prepare, so we are now running helter skelter giving palliatives and these things are not fixed overnight. The real truth is that to make Nigeria work well requires very radical and serious action, but I believe those actions should be taken advisedly with proper preparations to ameliorate the impact because when you beat a child the child must cry. When you beat a child and you say don’t cry it doesn’t make sense because the child must cry. So, the people are crying and the challenge for government is how to carry the people, how to motivate them. You have to encourage the people that this suffering will only be in a short term, but that is not being done appropriately. They should level up with the people, show by example that they feel their pain and not when government and their officials are living in luxury, all manner of profligacy and you are telling the people to tighten their belt. The convoys are still long, sirens all over the place, monies are being voted left and right with the people not put into consideration. They don’t give the people encouragement to reflect that the people leading them are feeling what they are feeling. It is as if the people are isolated from what they are feeling. There is a disconnect, the people who are governing ought to show that they are in a sincere manner feeling what the people are equally feeling. So, the government needs to be more convincing in their actions to show the country that they are not being taken for a ride, they need to do it by modelling, by precept, actions, by what they do, by showing examples themselves by how they live and conduct their businesses. To be sincere with you, nobody is seeing change, genuine change, what we are seeing is more money that is increasing, enlarging of the government size, growing advisers, growing ministerial positions and this is not encouraging the people. I think government needs to align with the peoples’ situation, be more empathetic, use emotional intelligence to know what will soothe the people’s feeling now.
What exactly do you think the government should be doing now? The economy is still down; the Naira exchange is getting more ridiculous, among other critical issues?
If I were the president, I will not de-regulate the way they did, I was going to phase it. Secondly, I would have created two lines or grades of PMS, one PMS will be for big fuel consuming vehicles and another will be for taxis and buses, commercial ones, for people not in the upper class. The level of subsidy adjustment should be different. SUV’s, and the likes, petrol gulping equipment motors can use a special, or premium grade. There are people who can afford to pay the fuel price without much pain. This understanding with the people should have made them feel that you understand the situation, that you know that all fingers are not equal. In fact, I would not even have started the subsidy until you are sure you can meet supply with demand. Why the hurry? I would have waited until all the refineries are working, so that we can at least meet local demand. The moment you are through with the fundamentals, the basics, then you can start this process I am talking about gradually. But government decided to give short therapy and there is a consequence for that. If you give short therapy the patient may die or the patient will survive and if he survives he may live longer also. That is their own style of implementation. On the foreign exchange equalization, I will not also do it in this manner. You need to understand the law of supply and demand very well before you insist on equalization. You know that Dollar is a commodity, we are not earning much from oil, we are not exporting more, we are not attracting more foreign investment. These things ought to be considered and be in place if you must expect optimal result. You must manage both supply and demand. If you can’t bring enough Dollar then you look at the supply, and you look at the initiative and see how you can tackle the challenge. There was a time Nigeria agreed to do some currency swap with China. Why don’t you pursue such a thing, currency swap with China so that all Nigerians importing from China, for instance, do not pass through the dollar rather they go straight through the Chinese currency. You can show them or look for how you can incentivize them to take local alternatives etc. We are not digging deep, we just allow, let water find its level and water finding its level is what is causing the problem. There are many ways we can use to reduce demand for dollar. There are many ways beyond these controls that some of them do not even work. Every economic behaviour can be motivated using carrot and stick, it can be moderated by the incentives you put in the market. There are some commonsensical things that we can do. There are some people, for instance, who are going abroad to read some of the courses that our universities are teaching here. You can decide to give those people scholarships and encourage them to study here. Ensure you fix the education sector. With such, the demand for foreign exchange will reduce. As a leader, at critical times, you think outside the box. All the things this government has done; I will do, but differently.
Insecurity has continued despite the government assurances of being on top of the situation. What exactly is wrong?
The government must first understand what is stoking insecurity. I have said it severally both in my writings and during the campaigns that everything is not about producing more police, more army, more navy etc, government needs to understand with clarity what is stoking insecurity in the different places, in different parts of the country. Government needs to know what is causing banditry in the Northwest. What is causing Boko Haram in Northeast? What is causing the rise of unknown gun men in the Southeast? What is causing oil pilfering and all of such things in the South-south? What is causing insecurity in the Southwest? And all they need to do is to remove those causes. Any disease you want to treat if you keep giving it therapeutic treatment it will not go, you will just be working in circles. It is like you have malaria and you are treating the symptoms, it will continue, but if you now say: what is causing this infection and you know that it is the environment that is not clean and you go and clean the environment the disease will go. Treat issues from its fundamental, from the root and you will see result. Each group of this people causing the security challenge, you can deal with them. Just understand what is their problem. I am not saying you should negotiate with the terrorists, but find out what is spiking terrorism and deal with it from its root. Know what is spiking it and deal with it. Let’s take this Israel and Palestine war. We have agreed that the two used to have two state solution. Why can’t the world make that happen? What does it require to make it happen? There must be a solution, so get the solution, implement it and there will be peace. There is nothing without solution. You cannot wipe out Israel, you cannot also wipe out Palestine and if you leave them to be killing themselves what is the gain? If you sweep the dust under the carpet and travel, when you come back the dust will still be there and must have attracted more micro- organisms. Part of our problem is that we are not digging deep, we don’t have enough rigour to dimension our problem. Every problem has a solution if only we are ready to dig deep and do the hard work, not superficial work and by taking pictures and using propaganda. You cannot dictate to the economy, you cannot dictate to the foreign exchange, you cannot dictate to inflation or to GDP, but you work on each of them carefully, and with sincerity of purpose. It’s one at a time and you do it well, and over time the results will begin to show. You don’t just be wishing and be blowing grammar and throwing money left, centre and right and hope the problem will solve themselves. We have not started confronting our problems in a holistic manner. I don’t think we are thinking deep enough.
Most Nigerians are calling for restructuring. What type of restructure do you want Nigeria to undergo?
There are two types of restructuring that are required. First restructure is to make Nigeria a truly federal state, federal country, federal nation. My definition of federal is that people, the constituents or federating units donate power to the centre and the centre operates common services for them. The federation we have today is one that has all the power and now donates power to the constituents. That is a reversed pyramid, where the base is up and the peak on the ground, that pyramid won’t stand, it will be wobbling, it will be unstable. Until you turn it back and put the base down and the peak up there will be a problem. That is what Nigeria is. Devolve more powers to the states, start by giving the states more responsibilities to carry because they are closer to the people. Reduce unnecessary burden upon the country, that is the next level of restructure. Look for cost saving methods for the nation, instead of two arms of the National Assembly we can have one arm because they are doing nothing that one arm cannot do. National Assembly should be on part time basis. They have no reason to live in Abuja in luxury for four years, just collecting money, saying they are doing oversight and all that. Let them come together for three months, do legislative work and go back to their jobs. While they are away their staff will do the follow up of the work. If they have emergency they will converge, address the issue and go back to their profession. They should receive sitting allowance and this will reduce the waste and cost of governance. Governance should be something you give to responsible people who will use their time and make sacrifices. Those people are feeding as if we send them to a fattening house. You devolve power and then cut on expenses, the cost of governance. A governor should not have more than five and the president not more than six cars in his convoy. Himself in one car, second car the police, DSS , and an ambulance, that is absolutely enough. If you carry the police, the DSS, the army and all that security, it means you are in a war time. Are you going to fight your people? If you are a genuine leader, you don’t need to treat your people as if you are at war with them. The third restructure for me is to change the philosophy of our governance. The philosophy of our governance should be economy that is private-sector led. That is an economy that will be talking about how you create more wealth, how you will create more jobs. Everything we do should be directed at that. The regulatory authorities should direct attention to growing wealth creation in the country, growing the private sector. The attitude of the government we are practicing is not promoting the private sector, it is repressive and discouraging real wealth creation. We have leaders who don’t understand what it is to govern. They don’t understand how to motivate productivity to get Nigeria moving. Productivity will attract investment. Focus on creating enabling environment. The enabling environment will attract investment and that will bring jobs, jobs will create wealth and wealth will create prosperity and drive away poverty. That is the way it has to go and until we get it right through this way, we will just be dancing around and spending money, increasing misery.
Speak on the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu?
I am embarrassed because Buhari said he was going to intervene, that it was a matter for the courts, then the court set the man (Mazi Kanu) free and you now go on appeal; what type of intervention is that? So, he wasn’t sincere to us and that is a funny thing that the president of a country can’t keep his word. He was asked to intervene politically he said no, that let the court speak, then the court, a Court of Appeal for that matter freed the man and the matter will end, but still you are playing crude politics with it. I keep saying that some of these our leaders really don’t have understanding because these are some of the things stoking problems. Nnamdi Kanu is an individual, he has suffered, he hasn’t killed anybody that we know, he didn’t commit any crime or treasonable offence to deserve such treatment. All you need is to call him, discuss with him, find out what the issues are and through negotiations you secure peace in the zone which is to the credit of the president. Without peace you can’t talk about development. You can get him out through negotiation and then he will help you to maintain peace. If President Yar’Adua did not have the vision and sense to call the militants for negotiation how will you have gotten your oil from the region with ease. We won’t be exporting the amount of oil that we are doing now. Some of them are now being used for surveillance of oil pipelines. What is wrong in releasing Kanu and then working with him to take away all those boys who are committing crime in his name in the nation and bring peace, so that productivity can grow. I am surprised that they are still keeping him, creating more reasons for the nation to be in this dark mood. I just hope that somebody will be reasonable enough to know that it’s better we have Nnamdi Kanu out and then work with him to make sure that there is peace in the region.