Former Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Dr Wunmi Bewaji speaks on status of local governments, state police and challenges confronting the administration of President Bola Tinubu, in this interview with BOLA BADMUS. Excerpts:
WHAT is your assessment of the administration of President Bola Tinubu, thus far, based on his campaign promises?
I would adopt the sovereign credit rating of Fitch, which is B-, with positive, stable outlook. And then most of the major rating Agencies like Moody, and S and P, this is a true reflection, minus politics of the present situation in Nigeria which means that the trajectory for Nigeria is positive and there is hope for Nigeria. For Nigeria, that shows that we are bottom out of the economic calamity that we’ve found ourselves in the last few years. So I would rate this government as having performed well, especially when it comes to area of revenue.
In the past one year, we have seen the kind of financial reengineering that we have never witnessed it since Independence. You can’t fake these figures with international rating Agencies, you cannot fake it. So for them to rate Nigeria, in fact, Fitch is rating Nigeria long-term Tripple B, A- long-term, it means that there is hope for this country. I would cite one example. As of April 2023, our revenue was N600bn monthly. Last April, our revenue was in the region of N2.2trn. So that means we are doing extremely well. Yes, there are unintended consequences of the reforms, but everybody that would have looked at this would know that none of the critics of these policies have suggested any alternative, nobody. So that means that we are doing well. Of course, there are pitfalls, and there would be consequences and probably, there are areas where the government could have done better, in the area of implementation. As far as I am concerned when it comes to food insecurity, the government could have done better.
What more could have been done, in the area of food security?
You remember last year, I predicted that Nigeria would experience food insecurity. If you remember at that time, I made a suggestion that we can have a branch of the Nigerian Army deployed to farming so that the problems of farmers not being able to go to their farms because of either farmers/herders clash could be resolved? Or maybe, you set up a special branch of the Armed Forces that would provide security for farmers on the farm. Again, this idea that we must grow what we eat is good; it’s idealistic; but if you want to eat yam this evening, you cannot say you have to grow it this afternoon or this evening. The Yoruba have a proverb which says: dried meat is sweet, but you must eat something before the meat gets dried otherwise the person would die of hunger. So you think that if we allow importation, it would affect domestic production, where is that domestic production? Like in the last one year now, this administration has given N800 billion in farm input to farmers in this country, where is the result? These farmers take this money and, at the end of the day, export their produce. They take it from Kano to Maradi and from there to Libya to go and sell. Some of them have been arrested in the process. The point I’m making is that if our farmers are producing the same way our farmers are exporting food items out of the country, I see no reason we cannot also import food items to stabilize prices.
But Nigerians believe that we are not producing even enough for home consumption let alone exportation.
There is the issue of insecurity; we have that because a lot of farmers are in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. In Plateau, in Benue, a lot of farmers are in IDP camps. That’s the issue. Then there is also the issue of some of our governors in Western Nigeria doing nothing about agriculture. They are not concerned about food security of their people. What you have in the Western Nigeria are some owambe governors, who are just rulers not leaders. When it comes to something that affects the livelihood, the standard of their people, they cannot be found. For example, out of the N800bn that this government has disbursed through the Ministry of Agriculture, what percentage has come to Western Nigeria? If farmers in the North are given fertilizers, tractors and all these farm inputs, where is the federal government’s intervention programmes in Western Nigeria. So our people have to wait for food items to cross over River Niger before they can feed, and our governors are there doing nothing, it’s very shameful.
There are those who believe that Nigeria has regressed in the area of security under the Tinubu administration.
I don’t think so. If anybody says it is getting worse, that person would not be telling the truth. It is not getting worse, not at all. The era when Boko Haram had space of land or territory to themselves and they actually had their own government in those areas, is gone. What we now have is the era whereby you have these so-called terrorists being deodorized as bandits. These are terrorists who now go to a primary school and they abduct children from their school, a development which is cowardly act. This is because if you call yourself terrorist, you should be able to face the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Armed Forces. So what you now have unlike before is a situation where these terrorists go to a school in very lonely environment, they abduct children from that school and they are asking for ransom, but not a situation like you have before when these terrorists can actually face an Army Barracks. They can no longer do that now because of the arsenal of the Nigerian Armed Forces. So this thing that we call lone wolf attack is all over the world where terrorists have been defeated; the end game is usually lone wolf attack. That shows that terrorism is ending.
Really!
Yes, the moment they start taking those easy targets, that means their end is very near. That means they no longer have what it takes to face our Armed Forces. But when you have incidents of somebody entering a mosque or entering a market strapping bombs to himself or herself, that one is very difficult to prevent. That could happen anytime, but to say that it is getting worse is not true. Maybe, when they enter a school and carry 200 students and then they are demanding for payment of ransom, of course, you know that these are just criminals, these are not really like hardcore terrorists anymore, these are just people who have turned it into a trade. So, the way out of that is to wipe them out or take them out. I think the government needs to use special forces for that kind of operation rather than the regular deployment. The idea of operation this, operation that, is wrong; it’s wrong even in military doctrine, yes. What you have is that you set up mission, what we called mission. This mission is made to take care of 10 to 15 terrorist leaders, and you give the mission assignment to go and eliminate all those people. If they fail, they retire from the Army, that’s the military doctrine all over the world. This open-ended operation must stop. The open-ended Operation Haden Kai, Operation this and that must stop. The Army does not work by operation, operation is done by the police, Operation Fire for Fire, or whatever it is, but for the Army, they go by mission. Yes, you must have a mission, and mission is go and do this. I want you to eliminate this number of people within this specific period of time, I am giving you three months, if they fail, they retire from the Army. Yes, if they succeed, they are promoted. The idea of the Armed Forces having unlimited, unending operations is strange in military doctrine which I am very familiar with. It’s strange, it should not be done.
On security, there has been the call for state police. What is your take on this clamour?
On the issue of state police, I was among the people that supported the call because this forms the core of our programme in Afenifere in 1998/1999. State Police was one of the things we were fighting for in Afenifere and of course, the position has not changed as far as we are concerned, I mean with those of us from Western Nigeria, we have always believed we must have State Police. We have always believed that a centralized police system can never work.
What do you make of claims that the governors will use state police to their advantage and to suppress perceived political opponents?
No, I doubt it; no governor would do that. When we started Amotekun, there was the outcry that they would hijack it. Today, you see what Amotekun is doing in Ondo, in Ekiti, in Oyo, in Ogun. Nobody has accused any governor of abusing Amotekun; Amotekun is working professionally. People trust the outfit, locals trust going to Amotekun to report crime or giving information to Amotekun because they speak the same language. And that’s why Amotekun has become a huge success story and as a matter of fact, what I see happening is that whenever we start having State Police in Western Nigeria, it’s going to be a seamless exercise. This is because Amotekun will transform into State Police and would now carry heavy weapons and no criminal, no criminal dare enter any territory of Western Nigeria by the time Amotekun now begins to carry heavy weapons. No criminal would dare it unless that criminal wants to commit suicide.
People speak about the keenness of the present government to increase revenue through various forms of taxes. They note that this direction is also responsible for present hardship and inflation.
I don’t think so. How many taxes have been introduced since Tinubu became president? As a matter of fact, it is on record that for the first time in the history of this country, President Tinubu set up the Oyedele panel and the job of the panel is actually to streamline taxes, to reduce taxes, to review all the taxes in Nigeria so that they can be brought down to a manageable figure. The review is ongoing. So, with this review and at the end of the day, the idea actually would be the taxes being paid at the Federal, states and local government councils, all of them would be reviewed. At the end of the day, a single document would come out whereby the number of taxes would be reduced to a single digit number and a very manageable number.
So, that means this government is really interested in relieving the masses the burden of taxation. The particular levy, which is electric transfer levy that people talk about, if people had taken time to actually read that law, that law actually does not apply to private individuals. But I think, maybe overzealous officials at the CBN, without good understanding of that law, brought out the memo that appears that the law applies to private individuals. That law was meant for corporations, GSM operators, and the rest of them, it was never meant for private individuals, and the amount was 0.0005 percent and not 0.5 percent as being bandied about by some people. But to prove that the president is a listening president, he has suspended it. And you know, to the credit of this government, for the first time in the history of this country, this president has reversed himself on several, not once, not twice, not trice whenever people point out things and say oh! we don’t want this. This is a good development for our democracy. The person who is governing is not a maximum ruler, he is a democrat, yes.
President Tinubu could possibly have a blue print on how he wanted to run this country but since he assumed office, things have not been rosy, while the purchasing power of an average Nigerian has become weak. Is anything worth celebrating one year into the Tinubu administration?
The government can be celebrated on the economy. Things were bad before he assumed office because we were actually borrowing to do everything. Nigeria was going bankrupt. The only reason that provision could not be made in the budget for fuel subsidy was because there was no money, the NNPC was already owing over $4bn in fuel subsidy payment. So, at the time fuel subsidy was removed, we had actually had no option and I am happy the president had come clean on that when he was at the World Economic Forum about Nigeria going bankrupt. Nigeria would have been bankrupt maybe by June or July if we did not adopt that approach.
What then happened was the removal of fuel subsidy and unification of the multiple Exchange Rates. What that caused was the high cost of fuel which eventually led to high cost of transportation, which eventually led to high cost of food items and then this inflation we are talking about. But there is a silver lining to that which Nigerians should be happy about and hopeful about.
This is the silver lining. Like I said, from N600bn monthly revenue last year April to N2.2trn in April this year, that is one. Number two, our transition now from fossil fuels to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which will roll out from May 29, 2024 is going to reduce cost of transportation by over 75 percent. The manner by which this will bring down the cost of transportation is going to be massive. The cost of fueling will be cut down by about 75 percent; it’s going to bring down this inflation we are talking about in a drastic manner.
Between May 29, 2023 and now, this government has also invested a lot in gas production. The government recently commissioned some and said that 25 percent of that production would be devoted to local market. The green energy programme of Nigeria is unrivaled in Africa; no other African country has it. It is ambitious, very ambitious. Yes, we would have these initial pains but you know this CNG thing is not an on-the-shelf technology. The government said it didn’t just want to import, it also wanted to use it to create job opportunities, which is why they are giving credit funds to private sector to be part of it by opening workshops where this conversion is to be done as well as opening gas stations where also this can be done. By the time this deployment is completed, it’s going to be a game changer.
Then you also see the efforts that have been put into Port-Harcourt Refinery, the Kaduna Refinery, the Warri Refinery. Port-Harcourt Refinery has started doing diesel and aviation fuel. Both Kaduna and Warri refineries would start production before December this year. Meanwhile, Dangote Refinery has started producing diesel and aviation fuel. Dangote now has started exporting to European market. So, when you look at the components of our foreign exchange expenditures, which used to consist of 75 percent that is devoted to fuel importation, by October or November, Nigeria might become a net exporter of petroleum products. That means that the money we have been spending on importation of fuel would now be saved and that’s how the value of the naira could rise. The outlook for Nigeria is really, really positive and encouraging.
Nigeria has spent so much money on turn around maintenance of refineries. Why do you think it will be any different this time?
The president said, “If I wanted to benefit from the chaos, I would not remove the subsidy.” What does that tell you? That means there could have been actors in the previous administration that benefited from fuel importation and those actors who were benefitting from fuel importation never wanted the refineries to work in the first place. But this president came and said, “if I wanted to benefit, I would not remove it.” That means, what was needed was sincere leadership, and that is what this administration is giving, sincere leadership.
Go and see what is happening in Port-Harcourt. There are two things that are happening in Port-Harcourt, maybe people are not noticing. They are repairing the old refinery and building a new one, side by side. And the one they are repairing is almost as if it’s a new one because all the equipment they are bringing are new equipment. So they are almost turning that old refinery into new. By the time they finish building a new one, the total capacity would be near 300,000 barrels per day, which is huge. So what is needed is what we are getting and I believe Nigeria is lucky at this period to have a president who does not need to profiteer from the chaos of the system, we have a president who is only interested in leaving a legacy. I believe that President Tinubu wants to leave a legacy to be the man that actually led Nigeria from the wilderness to the Promised Land. The same thing is also going on in Kaduna, and equally going on in Warri refineries, going by the extent of work they are doing there.
I think the sincerity that has been lacking is coming back. For example, there were people who said that Port-Harcourt Refinery would never come onstream, but now they’ve started loading; trucks have started ferrying fuel from Port-Harcourt now, I mean diesel and aviation fuel. So, that means that there is hope.
Now that President Tinubu has marked one year in office, what is your advice to him?
My advice to him is to dissolve his cabinet. He should dissolve this cabinet because if you look at the structure of this cabinet, you see what you call PDM Cabinet. PDM means you have Performance, you have Deadwoods and then you have Misfits. You have a cabinet of about 50 ministers or thereabouts; out of this number, you only hear about probably less than nine of them. The remaining 40, the only time we saw them was the time they were screened at the Senate and I don’t think any minister has died. So, why are we not hearing from them? So you have those that are performing, they are less than nine and I can name them. But the deadwoods among them are many; then you also have the misfits – those who don’t even know what it takes, what it means to be a minister of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I know ministerial appointment can be used to compensate people who have contributed to electoral victory, but some of these people for God sake, you can make them Ambassadors maybe to Lessoto, to Congo or somewhere. Let them go there. But for the assignment now, the job of building a new Nigeria which I know the president is passionate about, it means you need people that believe in that agenda, that have the same zeal. I am very happy the vice president came out last week to say that there are even ministers in this government who don’t even believe in the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu. The vice president said it last week. I think a time has come even if somebody contributed to electoral victory, being a minister for the last one year and you are having nothing to show for it, he should take a walk. So I think the president should dissolve his cabinet and then appoint people that can actually do the work.
The president is doing a lot and it’s very sad that the old man is doing the heavy lifting while the younger elements are getting fresher,
Also, the idea that the president will be assessing ministers on their performance is totally wrong. The idea that you have a department within the government that would monitor performance of ministers is wrong.