•Even UK, Germany subsidise energy for their citizens, but they’re praising Tinubu for removing fuel subsidy •There’s no doubt that Tinubu is in charge
A former presidential aspirant on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to concentrate less attention to advice and suggestions by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in the determination of the economic direction of the country.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Prof Hagher, a former senator who has also served twice as a mistier and twice as an ambassador, regretted that the President Tinubu’s removal of the fuel subsidy had made life a lot tougher for suffering Nigerians. While noting that Tinubu is a in charge and a far more pragmatic leader than his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, he posited that there will be no end to separatist, ethnic and religious crises until the Nigerian leadership decides to promote national unity.
The Presidency has accused the European Union of trying to destabilise the country, after the EU came hard on INEC for the poor conduct of the 2023 election. What are your views on this?
Both the European Union and the Presidency are correct. The EU also gave INEC money to conduct the 2019 elections, which were expected to meet certain standards. They had a stake, and a voice about how the election was conducted. INEC had received the money from the “leprous” hand, of the EU, and INEC, the barber, had to fulfil the obligation, and shave the leprous head to the customer’s satisfaction.
As for the government’s rebuttal of the EU’s position, it was a professional acerbic counter-attack, riveting, threatening, and an undiplomatic harangue. The government cannot afford to treat the EU’s damning verdict of the election with kid-gloves and create any doubts in the minds of the judges who would soon give a verdict on the election.
President Bola Tinubu is being applauded for the reforms he is carrying out. What’s your take on this?
While President Tinubu is being applauded, others are crying, and accusing him of also being nepotistic in his appointments. His predecessor had made nepotism almost a state policy of government. They point out that it is dangerous for the economy, the judiciary and military to be dominated with ethnic bias.
I applaud him for hitting the ground running. In 2015 at about this time, the Buhari administration was already comatose. About this time in 2015, President Buhari was on his way to running an administration without principal officers, and boasted his preference for civil servants rather than politically appointed ministers. It was shocking to hear him tell Nigerians to lower their expectation, that he was not their messiah.
Today, things are different. There is a dizzying pace with the Tinubu take-off. There is momentum. Position gained and lost has become rampant. There is no question that Ahmed Bola Tinubu is in-charge. There is need to caution Nigerians who reside in the fortress called Aso Rock, which is often impervious to the cries of the citizens but dances to distant drums of the IMF, the World Bank, and the international community, whose only rhythm and song is; devalue the naira, increase the pump price of fuel, and make life hell for the citizens while the elite is basking in unearned wealth.
Nigerian citizens are the most obedient citizens. They have withstood so much hardship that they are ready to bear anything horrendous. But, we must be careful for if we tarry a while the dam might break some day. The government of Nigeria must tackle the terrible ethnic-racism called tribalism, and build a united Nigeria, whose diversity is worth celebrating. The government must bring peace within the first hundred days to the victims of ethnic violence. Let all the victims of hate who live in IDP camps nationwide be resettled in their former abodes where they had been de-rooted.
Do you think Atiku Abubakar would have mustered the courage to do what Tinubu is doing if he was declared the winner of the election?
Yes, I believe so. Atiku Abubakar would have also hit the ground running. It is interesting that both Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu have the knack for choosing the right people to help them. Abubakar is also courageous. He withstood the brutality of his principal and doggedly remained Obasanjo’s VP till their tenure was done.
What’s your position on the removal of the fuel subsidy?
I feel bad. The elite created a vehicle to share money without working for it. The money that was being paid out as subsidy was largely fraudulent and to entirely remove that “subsidy” that was being doled out and debit the citizens is unfair. I wish the government will listen less to those Bretten Woods Institutions from New York and read the citizens’ hungry faces more. A few years ago, the Head of State, General Abacha, declined a request for a courtesy call by the IMF, and the World Bank officials. Instead, they were directed to meet with me and another minister, Mr. Ani, the Finance minister. When the two gentlemen arrived at the Ministry of Finance Conference room, they lost no time lecturing us on the benefits of increasing the pump price of fuel, devaluing the naira, and cutting our civil service personnel. They were eloquent and persuasive with power-point presentations from sleek Apple laptops. Both Ani and I were angry. We asked them, (since one was Indian, and the other from Bangladesh) if they would give India and Bangladesh the same advice? The meeting ended and they returned to New York empty handed. Of course we controlled the exchange rate. We refused to increase the pumps prices of fuel and did not sack the poor civil servants. We stood with suffering families. Let the government remove only the real subsidy, and call in the entire money paid out to fraudsters in the past. Above all, else it must be remembered that we are an oil and gas producing country, so why should citizens be cruelly treated? Even the advanced countries, like Britain, German, etc subsidise energy, but they are praising Nigeria for the fuel subsidy removal. What does this tell us as a people and a nation?
Nigeria is a largely illiterate society that is held captive by a rapacious elite that is unconscionable. This top one per cent now controls public perception in the news outlets; televisions and radio stations. The arguments used by those praising the subsidy removal are very well rehearsed. The beneficiaries remain the top one per cent. Nigeria is the neo-liberal heaven where IMF-World Bank experience is touted as cognate relevance for running our Central Bank. These Bretton Woods Institutions work to keep Africa perpetually poor. They hold our leaders captive to do their bidding. I believe that the Nigerian government should think deeply and summon considerable political will to stand by the Nigerian people. I was deeply disappointed recently, to hear NNPC gloating at public suffering and saying that they do not control the pump price of petrol, that market forces control it. No responsible government should allow themselves the luxury of supervising human suffering. The U.S. Germany, France, the UK and so called developed world devise social nets and social security systems as guard rails for the citizens to escape the ferocious predation of the market forces.
Since 1999, our governments are making a fewer number of people extremely rich, while the majority is barely surviving. The astronomical cost of fuel directly attacks the citizen’s freedom to move and live. It is a despicable choke-hold and the citizens cannot breathe. The government must act fast in the first 100 days to remedy this or become more oppressive, build more prisons, and quell all dissenting voices, and helplessly watch an unprecedented number of Nigerian manpower migrating to other countries with their families. Life is very tough, and the least we expect President Bola Tinubu to do, is to make Nigerians smile again.
Now that fuel subsidy is removed, what does the common man benefit from government?
The common man is still expectant. He wakes up and cannot afford the cost of tomatoes because of fuel increase. He cannot grind corn and cannot commute to the farm or market to sell his Garri to buy palm oil. He is experiencing hardship at the core. He runs to the clergy and to the shamans for salvation. Citizens flock to churches and mosques, and cannot sleep due to food economic and social insecurity. They are in trauma and curse for voting the way they did. The citizen looks at the tribunals and shakes his head, his salvation cannot be in the courts whose judges go to the same markets forces, and feel that judgement in courts could also be in influenced by market forces. We need a government which is strong enough to protect the citizens from these vicious, ravaging market forces.
Some are saying the North Central Zone should not have been excluded from the appointment of service chiefs. Do you share in that sentiment?
The position of the North-Central Zone in this country is deeply worrisome. Yes, we appear to be excluded in the appointment of service chiefs. But in Senator George Akume, we have the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF). This is much more than being a service chief. I believe that Nigerians are aware of the severe poverty of North Central in government patronage and federal projects. Our greatest need now is to end banditry. We need our people in the IDPs to go back to their ancestral lands. We need more secondary schools in the remote areas where our children have never been in classrooms. We need feeder roads to connect the massive streams that flow into river Benue and Niger. We need to have a minister of FCT to be from North-Central Zone rather than other people controlling our zone for us. We believe we deserve the treatment that is given to Niger Delta. We deserve attention on our environment and ecology. So we wish the new service chiefs well, but we cannot stop asking the Tinubu government to tarry awhile at our bus stop and also carry North-Central along on the destination to a better Nigeria.
=Many Nigerians thought that with the change of government that there would be improvement of the security situation in the country, but it is not so. What could be the reason for this?
It is too early to say that the security situation has not improved. I know that every insurgency, terror cell and bandit organisation has a shelf-life. The end of the shelf-life of most of these terror and banditry groups was President Buhari’s end of tenure. It is too early to judge the government on security, but I am optimistic. After a hundred days, we can see an emerging pattern to predict.
With the primordial sentiments of ethnicity and religion, do you think agitations by ethnic nationalities would end?
There will be no end to separatist or ethnic and religious crises in the country until the apex leadership decides to promote national unity instead of “it is the turn of our tribe, religion, or zone to chop” mentality. The present government has little choice in the matter since the Buhari regime had the worst record in promoting cronyism and nepotism. Nepotism became state policy. Nigerians have never been more divided than now. It is with these tribal eyes that those against the Tinubu administration will find fault in everything he does. His affiliates will drown him with applause to serve his tribe and zone, using the Buhari template. Ultimately to make or mar Nigeria is now in the hands of Tinubu and the President’s men he is assembling. My prayer is that they will have the courage to do what is right and take a solemn step in nation building and make Nigeria attain lofty heights in greatness.
The fuel subsidy removal has brought untold hardship to Nigerians. As a statesman, what advice do you give the citizens?
I know that it will be irresponsible for me to tell the citizens to stay indoors for one month, and buy nothing like fuel, because fuel subsidy removal is another COVID virus. Don’t buy their products for a month and let the prices collapse under their market force. I will therefore instead advise the government that it is not well-thought out for the government to allow so much suffering in order to raise prices. The masses do not know what fuel subsidy is. I also do not understand it. All we know is the non-affordable cost of fuel at the pump. Please Mr. President, resolve this issue on the side of the people The present government sacked former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele and detained him. Some are asking why he is being detained when Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was also removed, was never detained.
The cases of recently removed Governor Godwin Emefiele and former Governor of the Central Bank Sanusi Lamido Sanusi are two different matters. Lamido Sanusi stood for the sanitisation of the banking sector. He stood above the fray and blew the whistle against the rot the Jonathan administration was inflicting on the economy. Emefiele, on the other hand, was unashamedly, brazenly political. He dragged the Central Bank of Nigeria through the dirty sewers of politics and made it a crime scene and himself a tainted suspect. Please let no tribal, traditional ruler or community cry for Emefiele. Let him go through the courts soon enough and if found guilty, a maximum penalty be imposed on him as perpetual deterrent to all future heads of our financial institutions.
Do you think Tinubu should probe the government of former President Buhari?
Do I suggest that Tinubu probes the government of President Buhari? No, I do not suggest at all. The administration is already under probe. It was even under probe by the Buhari administration. All democracies continually renew themselves through probes and fact finding, where accountability is engendered through oversight capacity. The office of the citizen must be strengthened. The citizens must stand up to defend our democratic rights. All abuses need to be reported and remonstrated against. The power of the citizens to demonstrate against all forms of corruption and injustice must be protected. Democracy is slow to take root but there is no other better system of governance.