By Onyedika Agbedo

Director General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, in this interview, speaks on sundry issues in the polity especially on the controversy being generated by the statement credited to the President of World Bank, Jim Yong Kim to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari directed the Bank to focus their intervention projects in Northern Nigeria. Okechukwu believes the controversy being generated by the statement is not well located.  He wants Nigerians to rather assess the President’s performance on his projects deliveries across the length and breadth of the country in the fullness of time, instead of dissipating energy on what he described as propaganda performance.

The statement credited to the President of World Bank, Jim Yong Kim to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari directed the Bank to focus their intervention projects in Northern Nigeria has been generating controversy. What’s your take on the issue?

I think it is better we judge President Buhari in the fullness of time with his project deliveries across the length and breadth of the whole country. This will give a better picture of his distributive curve, not one statement. Methinks the statement Kim made is not as it sounds as our dear sister, Oby Ezekwesili posits; for as we approach 2019 general elections more stories will surface either fake or real. After all, the simple definition of election in liberal democracy is a referendum on the performance of the incumbent. I appeal to Nigerians to use their votes to judge his project performance not propaganda performance. Leaders like Buhari come once in a generation, I bet you. We may not have such a transparent president in quick succession; let’s harvest him.

But the statement is seriously creating the impression that he is a sectional leader. Those who hold this view point to the appointments the President has so far made, which they believe favours the north?

The appointments no doubt are skewed in the presidency, NNPC Board and security agencies, especially as they concern the south-east. But what I maintain is that appointments are transient and temporary, therefore amendments will be surely made. Mr President is listening to all the comments and secondly some of the security chiefs are on their way out. So, let’s wait and see.

To the issue of the moment, the north in question as explained by the presidency is the north-east, which is a war-torn area. Accordingly, the World Bank by its tradition without any prodding normally focuses attention on crisis afflicted zones around the globe. World Bank or no World Bank, my appeal is that we take a holistic view of the projects going on across the country. This will give a better objective assessment of whether Mr. President is sectional or not.

World Bank projects, are going on in the north and south, many of which require counterpart funding by the Federal Government or approval to states for loans, which the administration has been engineering. An example in mind is the Lagos CMS-Badagry rail project. You can think of others.

But Civil Society Organisations and politicians have been condemning the said statement as unpresidential and unpatriotic. Don’t you think that the President actually got it wrong?

Well, whether you agree that the north in question is the Boko Haram devastated north- east or not,  my primary position is that instead of listening only to the propaganda of the likes of Governor Ayodele Fayose and his clan, the cardinal questions are: Are the $11 billion Coastal Railway, the N14 billion second Niger Bridge payment, the $1.5 billion Lagos-Kano Railway Standardisation, $500 million East-West road completion, N120 billion Bony-Bodo road, Enugu-Onitsha, Enugu-Port Harcourt etc in the north? 

Some people say that the administration has not delivered any project in two years but has been drawing plans and making promises instead. None of the projects you mentioned have actually been completed?

Permit me to remind ourselves that the Buhari administration met almost an empty treasury arising from the massive looting of the ancient regime. This hampered early take off of the projects. Secondly, oil prices plummeted and made it difficult to confront the huge infrastructure deficit to be addressed with the speed Nigerians expected. Like a father whose family is broke, Mr. President embarked on global tour, appealing to international friends to come to our rescue. The outcome is the $29.9 billion infrastructure loan he mustered because of his integrity quotient.

But don’t you think the administration is damn too slow in the area of implementation of projects?

My position has always been that a lot of people assume that democracy is a revolution. No, it is not; and assumption, we were told, is the mother of all mistakes. Most progress made in the history of liberal democracy has been incremental and not a bang. In other words, Mr. President must obey the rule of law and due process embedded in the core tenets of democracy. That’s why he took the loan request to the National Assembly for a resolution authorising it.

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So, you agree that no project has been completed for the past two and half years?

That is not my answer, as many projects like the total reconstruction of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, runway, beyond the imaginations of critics, was concluded on schedule. Other uncountable projects had been concluded. What I am saying is that in the fullness of time, across the board performance will show that Buhari is not sectional as per projects distribution.

How would you react to the recent visit by Igbo leaders led by Ohanaeze Ndigbo to President Buhari, given the fact that you had talked so much about Buhari’s letter of November 2014 to Ohanaeze which you said was never replied; and his January 2017 congratulatory message to the leadership of the socio-cultural group which was well publicised?

I am very happy indeed that Ohanaeze Ndigbo has finally opened this vital channel of communications with President Buhari instead of throwing stones from the sidelines.  To be honest, I was excited when the news came that my people were coming to see Mr. President. As I said before, nations do not have two leaders like Buhari in a generation; nature is not lavish. As innovative and enterprising people, we need to focus on the big picture.

Why were you not part of the delegation?

The simple reason is because there is hierarchy of leadership and one didn’t qualify into the first cadre. I am praying to graduate into the first cadre one day. My happiness is that we are now on course of participating in the infrastructure renewal going on. A careful analysis of Chief Nnia Nwodo’s speech buttressed my assertions. He reeled out the projects they presented and also proclaimed that Mr. President had frank discussion with them. This is the birth of diplomacy between our leaders and Mr. President, which one had always advocated. We can now present the big picture.

What’s the big picture when your people say that they are sidelined in appointments in the high echelon of the security agencies?

The hope that we are closing this gap and coming to the end of lamentation. However, I subscribe that appointments in the high echelon of the security agencies are very important. But as I said before, it is transient and temporary. I understand that some are retiring, so let’s wait and see.

For me, the big picture is infrastructural development, since to bridge infrastructure deficit is Buhari’s main objective. Our big picture and target is Enugu Coal to Power, Port Harcourt-Maiduguri standard railways, gas pipeline reticulation in the south-east as submitted by Ohanaeze, urban water schemes and the focus on human capital investment, which Mr. Kim emphasised as well.

Are you not worried that the Buhari administration is sliding Nigeria back into debt trap as many economists have been warning against the increasing debt burden of the country especially against the backdrop of the administration’s request for a fresh $5.5 billion loan approval,  which is before the National Assembly?

My simple understanding is that Buhari is borrowing for only critical infrastructure, not for flimsy items. Please listen to the minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, at the press conference she held at World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele: ‘Nigeria’s debt-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio is one of the lowest actually. It is about 19 per cent. Most advanced countries have over 100 per cent. I am not saying we want to move to 100 per cent. But I’m saying we need to tolerate a little bit more debt in the short term to deliver roads, rail and power. That, in itself, will generate economic activities and jobs, which will then generate revenue which will be used to pay back (the loans). It is a strategic decision that as a country we have to make.’ The Minister had further explained that, ‘what I will assure you is that this government is very prudent around debt. We don’t borrow recklessly. We have no intention of bequeathing unserviceable debts to Nigerians. What we are simply trying to do is to ensure that we create enough headroom to invest in the capital projects that the country desperately needs.’

In this connection, if Mr. President borrows $200 billion to arm us with adequate electricity supply, modern rail, water and road transport and agrarian revolution, future generations will remain ever grateful for the progress and prosperity it will engender. The United States is indebted to the tune of over $10 trillion and remains the most prosperous and progressive country in the world.

So, you think those who insist that the administration is mortgaging the future of the country are wrong?

They don’t want Mr. President to shine and triumph. A good father in a nuclear family goes out to borrow when his kids are hungry and sacked from school. This is exactly what Buhari is doing. He wants to provide meal on the table, train the children and provide them jobs.