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…Says Nigeria making progress under president
From Obinna Odogwu, Awka
National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Sly Ezeokenwa, has given President Bola Tinubu a pass mark, saying that the country is making progress under him.
In this interview with Sunday Sun, Ezeokenwa, a lawyer, wants the President to really go beyond the rhetorics and extensively reduce the very high cost of governance, by implementing the Uwais Report as it pertains to the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the federal government. The resulting savings should be invested in vital sectors like education, health and social amenities that will enhance the quality of life of the citizenry.
Looking at Nigeria today, what would you make of the administration of President Bola Tinubu? Is the country moving forward or going backward under him?
Well, personally and even from a political point of view, I am of the firm opinion that the country is making progress. I am convinced beyond doubt that the country is definitely making progress. There are so many indices to indicate the state of progress of the nation. While some persons may not agree, of course I quite understand. There has never been a time when Nigerians did not compare the present administration to the previous one and wish that the previous administration had continued. It is a normal or recurring trend. If you look at some 40 years back when certain policies including the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the Babangida Regime and all what you have were introduced, it was as if of the world had come to an end. But then here we are, 40 years after still kicking. Why do I say this? From the time the government came into being in 2023, the President has not hidden his desire to effect desired change, and personally, I am one of the persons that commend him for what I may call having the balls to take on certain structural changes in the country; changes that some persons hitherto had not had the courage to take. There are some persons who believe that the country had somehow, let me use the word of the present governor, he said Nigeria could be likened to a standing dead horse. And when you say that an economy is dead but it is still standing. And so because the horse was standing, people who were probably at a little distance and viewing the horse were seeing a standing horse, but meanwhile this horse had died. But the only thing was that for some reason, this horse was still standing. And so, that horse is the situation with the country in the not too recent past. There are certain things we use to monitor the economy of the country. You use what we call the credit rating. There are certain economic policies that become the country’s ability. In fact, if you recall under President Buhari, we saw very sad situations where the federal government was bailing out states to be able to pay salaries. You know what that means. A state in the federation could not perform an obligation as simple as payment of salary; and required the federal government lending money to states to be able to pay salaries. So, we are no longer talking about states engaging in any meaningful economic activity. We are no longer talking about the states even probably afford to lend some support to its small and medium scale industries. We are no longer talking about states being able to construct roads. We are just talking about states performing a simple obligation as payment of salaries. They couldn’t do that. Why? It’s because at a point, one of the debilitating issues that affected the country was the issue of subsidy; the very fraudulent subsidy regime. And it came to a point when in trying to subsidise petroleum, especially given the attendant criminality that had been associated with it, the state was now even dipping hands into other sources of revenue like VAT to be able to pay subsidy. And in effect what it meant was that the country was actually growing people’s criminality because we saw the criminality that was associated with the subsidy regime where people will import petroleum, connive with staff of the Ministry of Petroleum and the NNPC, collect subsidy and then in turn still take back the imported petroleum product outside the country; smuggle it outside of the country to sell. More or less you are making double profit. And so, when the President came in, he said look we cannot continue in this trajectory. And the moment the subsidy was removed, we saw inflation skyrocket. And at that point, it was as if we were living within our reality because that was the actual cost of the product. And I believe that those structural economic changes that the President had the guts to do, were actually what saved the country. And today, if you see at least the allocations that are going to the states, you see that most states can actually…because the reason why we try to see certain performance of states, we have seen the upscale in the performance of various states is because the federal government has ensured the healthy financial status of most states in the country. And it is a commendation that we must give to the President. We are not yet there, we are still a work in progress. Even the issue of removing the subsidy that was paid in defending the naira in the market; these and many more are the issues. And today, we know what actually…because when you pay this subsidy you don’t know the actual status of your naira. You don’t know whether the naira is nose-diving or is healthy because you’re subsidising. But today, we can say this is what the actual value of the naira is. And if there are certain things we need to do as a country to improve the health status of the naira, then the President of the country will now have to do that. So, these and many more are part of the issues. And of course you can see the recommendations and ratings by various international organisations – the IMF, World Bank and even other development partners – telling you this is the performance of your country. And they have actually given Nigeria a very healthy credit rating. The major problem there is that it may not really translate to wellbeing or trying to probably translate to improvement in the plight of Nigerians but I think slowly and surely we are getting there. We are now seeing inflation ease; food inflation has eased considerably. Why? It’s because in the short term these policies will probably be felt by an average Nigerian but we are looking at the long term goals. And even quite surprising because I didn’t even believe that in less than three years that we’re going to witness what we are witnessing. There are considerable improvements; prices of petroleum dropping. And of course with the inauguration of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, we are seeing improvement in the prices of petroleum and other things. But there is still so much work to be done. And for me, I am one of those that believe that there is no country that can be functional if you don’t get certain critical sectors in the right direction. One of them is the power sector because it is the sector upon which every economic activity in the country drives on.
I think whatever the case, the President and indeed the Federal Government must still perform that magic. If you look at what is happening in the Ministry of Works, I was listening to Minister Umahi the other day trying to outline the investment the federal government is going to make in the economy in terms of construction of various critical roads and infrastructure around the country. That’s quite commendable. We didn’t see this before. And then, for us in Anambra State, we have seen the President come to conclude various interchanges around the Second Niger Bridge and we are seeing much work going on along the Onitsha Expressway. But we are still calling on the federal government to do more. So, when you do critical investments in the economy by undertaking critical projects, then the ultimate effect is that you will open up the economy for even investors to come in.
Would you say that SMEs are in any way benefiting from the policies and programmes of the Tinubu administration?
Now that you have mentioned the SMEs, I want to see the federal government support the small and medium scale industries because they are the drivers of the economy in terms of job creation and deepening the economy. I have not seen that support being given to them from the federal government.
All over the country, Nigerians are lamenting over the hardship that is almost suffocating them. What are your thoughts on this?
There is no doubt about it – there is hardship in the country. The policies of the government have brought some necessary pain. If a person has whitlow, for the doctor to treat it, he will cut it open and press out the pus and bad blood that has accumulated in the swollen finger. Then the doctor would dress it, before giving antibiotics to the patient, to make the wound heal. Pressing the site of the whitlow will be painful, but necessary to get the pus out. That is what we are experiencing now in the country.
However, I would like to see this government cut down on the cost of governance because you cannot ask the citizens to endure the pains of your economic policies while at the same time you are living in luxury. Yes, the President had come out in the past to say that he was reducing the travel expenses of the ministries, reducing the number of vehicles in the convoys, reducing this, reducing that. Yes, there should be further reduction. And part of the recommendation I think the present administration should as a matter of urgency revisit the report of the Uwais Committee that tried to look at the proliferation of federal government parastatals, boards and agencies and see the ones that should be scrapped and the ones that can be merged so that it can free up valuable funds to inject into other critical sectors of the economy – the education sector, health sector and most importantly, the agricultural sector. Finally, I believe that the government has done quite tremendously in the area of securing the country given what used to obtain in the past. But then, there is still much work to be done to secure Nigeria. In summary, we have seen tremendous progress. If you go to Abuja today, I happen to live in Abuja, if you go there today, you will see what the Minister of the FCT is doing there. It is quite commendable; and amazing. I think the same thing should be translated to other parts of the country. So, that’s my rating of the present administration.
