Benedict Ayade, a lawyer, professor and a former university don, is the governor of Cross River State. In this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO and MIKE ABANG held inside the Rice City, Calabar, he spoke on why his administration is passionate about agriculture, industrialisation and the priority given to payment of salaries in the state. He also explained that emphasis on job creation and his decision to expand government was to ensure that Cross River does not contend with social vices associated with youth unemployment. He also spoke on other issues. Excerpts:
We’ve been following what you have been doing in the area of agriculture and we wonder where you drew the inspiration; as a politician, not many colleagues of yours would want to go into something that does not yield immediate returns; what’s your motivation?
The President was very clear when he came in that the roadmap as alternative to the oil is agriculture. So, if the president of the country could make that choice; it is our own responsibility as governors to drive it into reality and that’s why I focus on agriculture to ensure that the statement made by the president is put into action. It’s a very crystal clear footprint.
What is this about the Rice City we hear about here?
Well, Nigeria spends over N400 billion importing rice every year and additional N60 billion in months of Christmas. So, averagely N460 billion annually; creating huge market in Thailand, Taiwan and others. It is very clear that if we must continue to feed the growing population of almost 200 million, we cannot continue to import food. Obviously, rice is a staple crop and it is also even consumed by almost everybody in Nigeria, so we needed to focus on rice and drive it to an end where we can reduce our dependence. You can imagine even for beans, Nigeria spends N60 billion importing beans from Burkina Faso. So, obviously, somebody has to say we must put an end to this. And that’s why we took rice and drove it very strongly.
Your Excellency, each time you travel out you always bring in investors; how do you do it?
It is intellectual money. We have a lot of international contacts from my exposure from my private business. Take away the private business, look at my background from the Senate and now governor, I have a very long exposure in my private business outside the country; I have a lot of contacts.
One of the major problems in this country is lack of sustainability; how are we sure that these legacies would be sustained by the administration that would succeed you, say in the next four to five years?
That’s why I bought professionals (pointing to the white men surrounding him) from South Africa. These are professional farmers. We are taking agriculture beyond government. We are taking agriculture completely beyond the level that Nigerians are used to. We are really bringing in professionals who will take the value chain, being themselves investors.
Your Excellency, we have been following endorsements from the three Senatorial districts of the state. People have been endorsing you for a new term; what is the secret of these endorsements?
It is my capacity. It is a demonstration of my commitment. My responsibility is to find great potentials in young people and create a platform for them to elicit and discover themselves; that’s what I have done. I have created 4 (four) thousand jobs in Cross River State via the instrumentality of appointments alone and now siting one factory per a local government area; creating again another set of jobs. Directly opposite us here (the Rice City where the interview took place) is the Garment Factory with three (3) thousand workers predominantly widows, young women who have lost their husbands; beside it we have the pharmaceutical factory; the other way you have the power plant; the list is endless. If I have created that level of jobs which is the real thing that we need now; whatever you are doing in Nigeria that does not focus on job creation, does not count; you can do road from here to wherever but the road does not create jobs; the contractor makes his money and returns to his country; but really getting jobs for young people, to allow them emotional stability; reduce social pressure, and recalibrate the social temperature to allow people rediscover themselves, these are our concern and focus and that’s what I have done differently and that’s why various religious sects including politicians and different socio-cultural groups have found it worthy to come to me and say ‘look, you must run again. Three years you have shown what you are capable of doing and have shown great commitment’; that’s the essence of the endorsements.
You have turned Cross River from civil service state to an industrial hub; what informed the passion for industrialisation?
Again, it is the issue of job creation; job creation and job creation. There is nothing else that you can do that is more important than creating jobs.
You have been able to put up the cocoa processing factory and the rice mill; and also a lot of other ongoing projects such as the Banana plantation. Where do you expect to see these projects in the next four years?
You have not seen anything yet you see this team here – pointing to some foreigners around – this is an electrical engineer; his specialty is off-grid electricity. He is here to deal with the issue of power in our farms. This other person is a specialist in irrigation. He is here to ensure that we can plant all through the year. He is an agronomist; a core specialist in a specific area of grains; and in grains he is a super specialist in maize and soya bean; which is the main business of the day. You have seen how we are dressed; we are going to Obubra where we are setting up the largest yellow maize farm in Nigeria, with the field mill and processing plant to produce poultry feeds. That’s why they are here from South Africa. So, in addition to your Banana plantation; the cocoa processing plant; the Rice mill in Ogoja; I can go on and on; but this tells you that we have a clear direction where we are going to. With about 200 million population, the prediction is that by 2050 Nigeria would be the 3rd most populated country in the world. What are you doing about feeding these people? You are doing nothing; you are waiting? Cataclysm is waiting. You have an implosion in your hand; you have this youth restiveness from unemployment. The mistake is that when people focus on infrastructure; which does not create sustainable jobs, it is nothingand that’s why industrialisation is the first step. You must create factories. You must have industries where young people will wake up and go to work. Until you do that you have failed and then you look at the population dynamics and demographics in Nigeria; in Cross River, in particular, 65 percent of our population are young people below the age of 35. So, if you don’t provide jobs when the biological urge comes for them to get married, they would get married; they get married, they have no house; no home; no income; you are actually requesting for armed robbers to be on the street. There’s a level of criminality in every one of us, once you are human. Existentialism theory preaches that everybody will do everything to exist; when pushed to the wall. I can’t allow them to be pushed to the wall. That’s why we are expanding government; creating horizons of jobs to ensure that we reduce tension in society.
Your Excellency, you have been paying salaries when many other states are unable to do so; what is the secret?
Intellectual money. It is a classic departure from the currency that you know. Where you don’t have money, your intellect will fill the space. That’s what we have done. What’s today’s date (June 16th – when the interview was conducted). We have paid the salary for this June that we are in on 12th of June; because we paid May salary on the 1st of May. I can’t afford the agony of having my people to wait to the end of May and then to the end of June before they earn their salaries; that would be stretching them for so long. So, we have made a choice to pay them before the 15th of this month to reduce the harshness of waiting till the end of June. Now, where does this money come from? Because I am not indebted to any bank because I have never borrowed money. In any case, Cross River cannot borrow, because even before I came to the office, Cross River, Zamfara and Osun state were told they were insolvent and they cannot borrow. So, the Debt Management Office (DMO) at the Presidency will not allow Cross River to take a loan. So, what I have done is to bring intellectualism into governance. I am a professor; a lawyer and a senator, and a private businessman who has been a multi-millionaire at the age of 23. So, I have seen money in extreme and I have seen poverty also. I am best balanced to drive Cross River State. It is that intellectual trip that I can fill up space where there is no fund, that’s what has given us the consistency to pay salaries. And because my own father was a civil servant, retired and died as one, it is clear to me that, I a child from a very humble background, understand what this salary means to them. So, I cannot put any other thing as priority; salary comes first in every thing I plan; and when salary is due; if it means dipping hands in my pocket to make sure salaries are paid; I will do so.
What would you like to be remembered for by 2023?
The intellectual sarcasm; the shouting power of the intellect over money; the feeling that the young people deserve opportunity and that the young people can do well; and that you can bring them to governance and they can make a difference; that creating a platform for people who thought that government was exclusive but today they can see that young people can become commissioners; head parastatals; directors-general of agencies; and doing fantastically well; that’s what I want to be remembered for. I want to be remembered also for stamping out poverty and moving Cross River State from a civil service state to an industrialised state and my ambition is to move Cross River State from 3rd World to 1st world within my tenure.
