Wale Oshun, chairman of Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, spoke on the state of the nation, especially the recent Supreme Court ruling giving financial autonomy to states. Excerpts:
Nigeria recently celebrated 25 years of democracy, what is your assessment of the progress so far?
In Nigeria for democracy, since 1999 we have had unbroken electoral circles which we have kept to. You also know that the legislative arms in the states and at the federal level have also been there; we can admit any need for reform has to be in line with the system and internal.
We may be in a hurry, but we are on track, at least in terms of having the circles of elections, of course our people would speak about the quality of election, but the quality of election is as good as the Nigerian themselves.
The only thing that can change is that there should be a check in the cost of governance at the various levels. Whether it is legislative or executive, there is a dislocation these days, because people don’t want to do anything except play politics which in return is heaviest, that is what people can see.
But if there are deliberate efforts to grow production, grow the industry, whether at the primary or tertiary level to heighten primary production such that agriculture sector, industrial sector is absolving the produces and primary production is growing in other sector of the economy, with that focus can then been shifted away from political practitioners.
If you look at the example of some developed countries you would notice that if you take hundred per cent of those coming out of tertiary institutions all they are doing is coming out of school and seeking employment in the economy to make a living for themselves.
I am sure that if this is the case, practically those coming out of school would not want to go into politics, but because now in terms of return of wages politics is the most profitable compared to the production side of the economy people are rushing.
Talking about democratic reforms, we saw the judgment by the Supreme Court giving financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria. What is your take?
What is financial autonomy? In the first instance what should ordinarily happen is that the federation account should be something that is shared between the centre and the federation units and the federating units can then decide what to do at this level.
The federating units can decide to hold elections, they may decide to use technocrats, but the same constitution that says we are federal is imposing a unitary concept on the country.
What the Supreme Court has done is to complicate issues in my own view. A lot of people are saying they have done the right thing, but the trust is if the money is originally shared between the centres and federating units, the federating units are in a better position to determine the state of other levels, the governance and what to do with their funds.
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But many Nigerians are saying we must strengthen this democracy to save it from collapse?
This is who we are, when we are perfecting the process of electoral circles once that is in place the institutions that get along with them, especially the judiciary; the governance process would get better with time and experience.
But the truth is that there must be deliberate efforts using the constitution that allows the federating units a lot of dissolved powers. In fact, it is not just dissolving power; it is a question of powers that belong to the federating units originally.
Whether in time how they manage their mineral resources, what we would have at the centre would be foreign affairs, security, maintaining boundary, other essential productivity, like education, health and the rest would be more in the federating units. The federating units would have the power to generate their funds. They paid tax to the centre and the centre can also use part of this money for any part of the federating units that are weak financially.
It is to allow all the federating units to take up the essential powers and once that is done it is a fixed rate of all revenue which belongs to them. There is a serious need to look at it rather than insisting that we continue to operate this unitary constitution that we have.
In essence what would help the democratic process would be a filing by all Nigerians, that they are not paying an undue price to maintain this country, but I can tell you today if you add the people of Niger Delta this question they would tell you they are paying undue price.
There are other parts of the country that would fill the same also. You have seen the incident of illegal mining of minerals in the whole country; we know that Zamfara State is in the hub of banditry because of the enormous resources in the land. Imagine if Zamfara State as a federating unit had been in a position to manage its own resources, they would be more efficient in managing it. They can then pay tax to the federal government but today the federal government has the prerogative over everything under the land.
These are some of the fundamental issues; you cannot build institutions, unless there is filing of equity across the country. When there is no equity there is a problem. Who are the people who would build the institutions?
They are human beings, people come into positions and that is why they broke all the rules and laws because they think they are disempowered compared to other people in the country.
Are you saying the 1999 constitution should be changed?
You cannot have this unitary constitution which is military inspired and that is hierarchical in structure; they give others and it must take place. You cannot have that in a federation where there is diversity.
Each federating unit must take care of its resources with all the minerals under the soil and yet it is being managed by criminals. Imagine if the original decision in the constitution was that all states should control their resources and pay royalty to the federal government.
Is that not the restructuring people are agitating for?
It is not even about restructuring; it is for the country to agree to the terms of togetherness. People are calling for a parliamentary system, I’m sympathetic to the parliamentary system because the cost of governance is low and there is no godly figure because the prime minister is elected parliamentary.
The cost of running the presidential election in Nigeria is too high. Look at the UK election, the money spent on the entire election is less, the entire money we spend on our presidential election the UK would not spend it in five election circles. This is a country that is superior to us.
What is your take on the pegging of admission age at 18 years by the federal government?
It is not the best and I think the government should not be gagging students’ admission age to the tertiary institution.
You know each child guarded by each parent ought to have a choice about the kind of education they want to make available. For instance, there is no child of mine in between the university that did not pick a skill, whether in fashion, catering etc.
They are tertiary institution students, but they also have a long vocation they can learn from there. There is a place for technical school education, whether at the secondary level or post-secondary. If you speak of university, each child has a choice.
For reforms in education in Nigeria, it is to make sure the technical schools, technical colleges take a prominent place. That they are established and students would have a choice. It is either, they go ahead to pick a skill, you can’t force them but because of the situation we have in our country some go out of their way to pick a skill.
There is no harm in having people in secondary school go straight to technical colleges to read engineering, to pick up skills in technical vocation.
Then in the past we used to have agricultural school, there was a time you could move straight from secondary school to agricultural school. These are various technical skills people can pick up formally through education. Formal education that runs academic institutions would also take pride of place, but technical schools would always be there.
There was a time when the federal government established the technical trade centres in practically all the major towns in Nigeria and students after leaving secondary school would go straight to the trade centres to pick a skill that is when they were talking about City and Guilds.
So, from there they go to technical colleges where they have a diploma or degree, from there they can proceed to do their master’s degree in the universities and they can convert.
