A leader’s character determines direction of the economy – Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in this exclusive interview with PHILLIP ISAKPA, Editor, BUSINESSDAY, and   ZEBULON AGOMUO, Deputy Editor, BD SUNDAY, speaks on the correlation between right political focus and a robust economy, need for leaders to make sacrifices, why the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has not yet been passed, need to change the nation’s security architecture to combat the security challenges, among other issues. Excerpts:

To what extent does politics affect the economy?

 There’s no way you can have economy running in any country when you have over 52 percent of the revenues going to the Federal Government. It is completely wrong. You will need a bold leadership to do things the proper way. We must take a cue from other parts of the world that practise the kind of system we have, and see how their revenue allocation formula is like. We have a situation in Nigeria today where all the 32 states share less than 30 percent of the revenue, which means at the very best, no state gets 1percent. Now, where are the federal roads, federal parks, federal hospitals and other necessary infrastructure to justify the huge share going into the federal purse? For me, this is where we went wrong. If the Federal Government takes anything more than 40 percent, the economy is already out of focus. I am saying that you can’t get the right political economy if you don’t have the right political focus. I was a chief of staff in government and that gave me access to the thinking of government and governance. And I realised that when in 1999 Tinubu was elected governor of Lagos State, the first thing he did was to put together a think tank; a committee in virtually every subject of governance- infrastructure, tourism, power, finance, health, education etc. He told them, ‘give me your ideas’; of course he had his own ideas; it was the outcome of the products of the various committees that another committee sat down together and came out with fantastic policies. The character of a leader determines the direction of the economy. I will give two examples:  Shortly after the inauguration of Tinubu administration, we needed to solve the problem of power; we visited US and we went to seek for a meeting with the corporate council of that country because we perfectly believed that no country can be industrialised without power. He approached the corporate council of that country and said, ‘help me, I need power’. We were advised to go and meet the former US ambassador in Philipines to learn what they did when Philipines faced with our kind of situation. We thought about bringing about 1000MW of power. When we came back, it was taken over by the Federal Government, and what it was meant to achieve, it could not. We knew that if we gave power to the industries, it would be a tonic the country needed, but the Federal Government refused. At the end, the compromise was that, well since you have brought it, you can’t take it back. They were to stay at Ijora, but they said no, let’s take it to Ikorodu. Our intention was to say, Cadbury, Lever Brothers, UAC what is your power requirement? If they said 500MW, then we would say this is it; you’ll pay a premium on it. That would mean that the industries would be running 24 hours, production would have increased and people would have been employed. But Federal Government said no; whatever that is generated at Ikorodu will first go to the national grid, after which we have no control over it. So, you can produce 500MW today and they can take it to Warri because you have no control over it. That’s how we lost out.

Again, when we came to power in 1999, the chief judge of Lagos State was earning less than N50,000 (fifty thousand Naira) a month. The governor said, ‘look, how do you want to stop corruption when you pay the chief judge of the state N50,000 a month and you ask him to preside over cases worth billions of naira? That’s how Lagos State reviewed the welfare of judges, but the Federal Government said we had no power to do so, because the constitution says the state has no power to appoint judges. They nominate and send the names to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for approval. The argument was that you cannot determine the salaries and welfare of people who are not your staff. That again is another anomaly in a democracy. The arrangement was that, yes they may be appointees of the Federal Government, but they work in Lagos State. And their jurisdiction does not extend beyond Lagos State. It was after us that the Federal Government took the cue to review the welfare of judges.

Again, there can’t be a sound economy without a sound political leadership. If we take care of small things, big things will take care of themselves. Imagine a policy abolishing WAEC fees for pupils. It is not rocket science. When we came to power in Lagos we did it. Imagine a woman with five children who are due to take the exam; she makes a living by roasting corn by the roadside; she cannot afford the fees for the five children; the implication is that the children will drop out of school. We sat down and said, how much does it cost a state to underwrite the fees and how many children are involved in the exam every year? We arrived at between 50,000 and 100,000 pupils and then multiply that by N5,000. It won’t be an impossible burden on a state. But it can really make a huge difference in the lives of families and their children.

We also started free eye treatment (free medical services for those with eye problems). Today, Lagos is exceptional; everybody is talking about what is happening in the state, only because of the vision of Fashola. How many other states can boast of such leadership? Look at a state like Osun with less than N4billion monthly federal allocation, the entire internally generated revenue I don’t think it is more than N1billion. Osun State has a wage bill of over N3.5billion, how do you address such a serious problem?

 APC and too much expectation from Nigerians

 The media has shown little or no understanding of issues at stake in society. People expect APC, a party that was formed just a year ago, to have structure as if it had existed for years. In fact, they don’t even understand where we are coming from. They don’t even understand that what we have achieved in APC has never been achieved anywhere in Africa. The merger of three, four political parties is not easy. The most difficult thing to manage is people’s ego. The day that merger was announced, the entire political permutation of many individuals changed. Or do you know what it means to sit down with the different leaders of various parties that merged and arrived at a particular thing? And you think within one year, APC will be running like a party that is 15 years old? It is not possible. You’re demanding too much. People, who had never seen eye-to-eye before, sat down together because they believe in Nigeria. I was a member of the merger committee; you’ll not believe how difficult it was to arrive at a common name. ANPP, CPC, ACN, and APGA- they were all there with their different expectations. Everybody wanted whatever name we adopted to reflect his own party; to reflect his own history and ideology. It was a miracle to even get a common name. It was largely because of the sacrifices of people like Buhari, people like Tinubu. When we got APC, our people in ACN were mad; they said it is only one letter from ACN that was reflected, whereas ANPP has two alphabets; CPC has two to their name; APGA has two alphabets to their name. But we told them it’s not about me and you; or the issue of logo but about the country. When people begin to say certain things, it upsets me at times. Yet, the media don’t take time to educate the people on the right things in society?

Look, when we asked APGA to give us eight nominees, they gave us eight Christians, not even one Muslim; CPC gave us eight nominees- seven Muslims and one Christian; it was only ACN that gave us five Christians and four Muslims. The composition of interim officers was not made along religious or geo-political zones, but along party lines. In South West, religion has never being an issue. When it came to the national convention, it was a different ball game, because in this case it was zoned according to geo-political zones. If I tell you today bring me five frontline Muslims in Bayelsa, you will not get any; a Muslim cannot become governor in Imo State in the next 20 years, never, or in Anambra, or in Rivers, Cross River or Akwa Ibom. It can never be possible. The same way a Christian can never be governor in Sokoto State, Kano, Katsina. We must accept it. But people exploit it and name us Boko Haram. How much can I say? But where are other thinking people who should reason the right way? They say all our governors are Muslims. But I tell you that of all the governors in APC, only one is married to a Muslim woman. That’s Aregbesola. Fashola’s wife is a Dame; Tinubu’s wife is a deaconess; Ajimobi’s wife is one of the Catholic leaders in her church; Amosu’s wife is a Christian. Only Aregbesola has a Muslim wife. I think the media has to wake up. I have no issue with Jonathan coming back in 2015; I only have the following questions: will that mean an end to unemployment? Will that be the end to Boko Haram? Will that be the end to impunity? Will that be the end to corruption?

 No more a united Nigeria

 Jonathan inherited a united Nigeria, but there’s no leader who had divided the country today along ethnic and religious lines like Jonathan. It is so bad that today, legislation is being contemplated that if you are from the North and want to live in the South, you must register; if you are a southerner and want to live in the North you have to register. Everything our founding fathers worked for has been destroyed by this administration. Look at the issue of NYSC. In the 70s and 80s many of those who served outside their states of origin never returned to their states after service. They married in those states and raised their families. Today, everybody wants to serve in his own state. Boko Haram is not about Jonathan, it came before Jonathan in 2002. When the Niger Delta militancy was on, Yar’Adua did not see it as an agitation against his government; he saw it as a threat to Nigeria. The man who brought an end to Niger Delta militancy was from the North. But this Jonathan sees every issue from the stand point that people are after his government. What we achieved between 1993 and 2010, he destroyed. In 1993, Nigerians made a point that religion was not an issue by voting for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. In 1999, Nigerians made a point that ethnicity was not an issue when Obasanjo was rejected roundly by his own kinsmen, but the rest Nigerians voted for him. Today, we have gone back to ethnicity and religion, why? You are talking about economy; do you know how much Nigeria has lost economic-wise since the Boko Haram started? Potiskum was the largest cattle market in West Africa, today, it is a dead town. A lot of other businesses have collapsed. Poor political decisions will always affect the economy. Policies must drive the economy not the other way round.

 Why the PIB is not yet passed

 The Northerners believe if you pass the PIB, it will affect their interest; on the other hand, the international oil companies do not want the PIB passed because it will take the autonomy back to Nigeria. If I were in the position of the President and had the majority in the National Assembly, the bill would have been passed long ago. But because everything today is being viewed from religion, ethnic, North, South points of view, nobody sees anything from the view point of Nigeria. We went to the National Assembly, what did we see- it was the problem of North and South. Everybody went there with his own agenda, not to seek how to move the country forward.

 Need for sacrifice

 If you do not get the political side right, you can’t get the economic aspect right. And what does it take to do so? Selflessness! You must be selfless. You must sacrifice. Our founding fathers made a lot of sacrifices to see a united country where anybody could live wherever he/she chose to without fear of attack or intimidation. But when government today demonises the opposition, they don’t know they are demonising even themselves. For instance, when we arrive at the airports of some countries, they look at our passports and put us by the corner for hours, they will not ask ‘are you a Christian or Muslim, or are you from north or south?’ You spend so much time being drilled simply because you are a Nigerian. I will not suffer such fate because my name is Mohammed, no, because I am a Nigeria.

 APC’s plan to tackle the challenges confronting Nigeria

 If you go to our roadmap, job creation, insecurity and fight against corruption are our priority areas. Our major problem in this country is corruption. If you solve corruption, you are going to have more money to take care of the other areas of need. Sanusi said that $49.8 billion was missing, later he said it was $20 billion. Okonjo-Iweala said no, it was $12 billion. For crying out loud, what can $12 billion do for an economy? We have heard about $1 trillion fraud; multi-billion naira police pension scam; let me tell you, if you face corruption squarely (it needs a bold leader without skeleton in his cupboard), we will get many other things moving on well in the country. If you read our roadmap on corruption, we said we’ll have zero tolerance for corruption. We believe also that the only person who can carry out the war on corruption successfully is that person that will declare his assets on the day he assumes the position of president, so that he will be seen to be open and transparent.

 Fight against insecurity  

The Federal Government recently asked for $1billion external loan to further combat Boko Haram, yet FG has set aside only N2 billion as a marshal plan for the entire North. You can imagine what $1billion invested in education; job creation will do in the North. Talking about fighting insecurity, it is not just about buying more guns, more assault helicopters, no; you must also take care of other economic factors. There’s nowhere in the world where insurgency has been defeated by the use of gun alone; it must be a combination of socio-economic and political strategies. What APC government will do in this circumstance would have been to explore various options. For instance, if there is fire in my house today, the first thing I will do is to put it out before asking how it came about. But Jonathan is busy blaming the north and the opposition. I will not do that. Terrorism is terrorism, no matter where it is seen. Boko Haram is not an enemy of Jonathan; it is an enemy of all Nigerians. A week ago, Boko Haram went and kidnapped the wife of vice president of Cameroun; is that APC also? But what did the government in Cameroun do? It swung into action; it didn’t blame opposition (there’s opposition in Cameroun also). But they went ahead and rescued the lady and fired the two Army officers who they said were responsible for it. But what do we do in Nigeria? We blame Buhari, APC, Lai Mohammed. All these days why can’t they even come and arrest Buhari, Lai Mohammed or any other APC member they think is sponsoring Boko Haram? On the contrary, two weeks ago, Buhari’s convoy was attacked, how do we explain that? If Buhari was truly a member of Boko Haram, are you saying that they did not recognise him? But if you say he is not a Boko Haram, it means there is a 5th columnist in this country. Everything we blame on Boko Haram. This is the dilemma. We must ensure that national problems are tackled nationally. There must be transparent counter-terrorism strategy not this kind of reactionary. Today, we react to Boko Haram, we are not proactive. We have to change the entire architecture of intelligence gathering. And you cannot succeed in your intelligence gathering if you don’t carry the people along. Have you ever asked yourself this question that in a state where there is a state of emergency, people will move with about 30 vehicles, pack more than 250 girls in those vehicles and disappeared into thin air without resistance from anybody? Then what is the state of emergency all about? In Yobe State, 59 children were murdered in the midst of state of emergency. We are concerned; we are worried. Things don’t add up. When the governor of Borno State made an observation that ‘from what I can see, these Boko Haram people are better equipped than our soldiers’, what did the President do? They called him names that he was supporting the sect. But few months later, the same President is coming to tell us that he wants to borrow money to buy better equipment; he wants to employ more soldiers. Some families have been disjointed with members not knowing the whereabouts of one another. I don’t think that people appreciate the kind of trauma those parents at Chibok are going through- for you not to see your daughter for over 100 days? If these girls were dead, their parents would have taken heart long ago, they would have been consoled, but today, whether they are being raped, whether they are being indoctrinated or being drugged you don’t know; whether they are the new suicide bombers the Boko Haram is using now, you don’t know. It can drive anybody insane. In our roadmap we said we are going to set up special squad to fight terrorism, kidnapping etc.

 How APC hopes to fund the projects

 I want to ask you a question, do you know what we can do with $20 billion, or let’s even take the figure Okonjo-Iweala agreed that is missing- $12 billion? Today, you need only $1 million to have 100 MW; $1 billion can do 1000MW power. With $1 billion you can do one kilometer of road. That is why we believe that if you can just plug corruption in the system, the money will be available to execute projects. Today, we are losing 300,000 barrels of oil per day, officially. You can imagine how much Nigeria loses every day!