From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Dr Christian Chidubem Nwadigo, a lawyer and human rights activist, is the chief executive of Peoples Rights Organisation, as well as former executive member of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO).
He is also a member, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
In this interview, he bared his mind on the shortcomings of the present administration, the insecurity in the country and other sundry issues.
The National Assembly was alleged to have padded the 2024 budget. Line item scrutiny of the budget by several people uncovered evidence of padding. For instance, a provision to spend about N194 million to erect one streetlight as part of a constituency project was found in the budget. The padded budget also provided billions for the purchase of deep freezers for people in the constituency of one of the senators. What are your thoughts on the allegation of padding?
First, it is illegal to pad our budget, because the budget has been passed to the House of Representatives and Senate and it has been looked at, but surprisingly just like Senator Ningi raised an alarm after research, it was up to N3.7 trillion added into the budget. Instead of the President to investigate (and not sweep it under the carpet), they began propaganda. We are talking of a budget of N27 trillion for 2024. The president ought to have resigned if he’s found culpable. The sum of N3 trillion represents a reasonable part of the budget – up to 10 per cent.
How do you feel about the alarming rate of money borrowed by Nigeria?
The problem we have in President Tinubu’s administration is that it seems that they borrowed a leaf from the Buhari administration in that it keeps borrowing, which is not acceptable. Meanwhile, policy of the economic team as being formulated from the Finance Minister is focused on the Bretton Wood institutions – the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and their policies have ruined the Nigerian economy. You can imagine the first speech of Mr President saying that subsidy is gone. When he came in, he dusted the books he left behind as the governor of Lagos State. Just to please the World Bank, he removed the petroleum subsidy without any economic planning. In the case of General Sani Abacha, when he removed it, he created the Petroleum Trust Fund. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, when he increased the price of petrol, he set up SURE-P, and through it invested and meaningfully utilised the funds realized from reducing subsidy. Now, the Tinubu administration is not content; it is proposing to remove subsidies in electricity when it is obvious that there is no good power supply in the country. So, as long as the economic team keeps looking at IMF, they will continue borrowing and our economy will keep going from bad to worse as the destiny of the borrower is in the hands of the lender. We saw a situation where revenue is used mainly to pay off debts. As long as there is borrowing and no fresh ideas, the economy will remain in tatters and because of this, our naira has been devalued. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) thinks that going to burn down the batchers of the money changers will solve the problem. They are not the cause; until we stop borrowing and invest massively in ourselves in our economy, Naira will not pick up. The Tinubu administration has really worsened things. The development index of human capital here now is at the lowest ebb.
Do you think our problems have anything to do with the political parties?
Not really, but having politicians who are not productive could really be our problem. They’re only there to steal, with no fresh ideas to offer, although the political parties could also be blamed. The All Progressives Congress, APC, came with their Change mantra in 2015 and foisted the Buhari administration on us, which took the country 50 years backwards. Buhari had nothing to offer except having his cattle everywhere. Now that Tinubu is on the seat, your guess is as good as mine. Look at the dollar to naira exchange rate, hunger continues to be a monster that everybody has to contend with; a bag of rice that was N6,500 during Jonathan’s administration is now N80,000. This government has failed woefully, the “Emi lokan “ government is not working. It’s in this government we’re seeing bulkanisation of office. Anywhere he travels, he goes with his two sons, he furnished his wife’s office despite the hunger ravaging Nigerians.
You’ve been an advocate of the health insurance policy loop. Please enlighten us a little about it?
Yes, the cheapest way to have access to health in Nigeria today without spending your last kobo on medical bills is payment of your premium on insurance. Imo State now has Health Insurance Agency, which has started by registering 606 indigent persons from the Basic Health Provision Funds provided under the National Health Insurance Act. Imo State has not done badly by enrolling principal civil servants for a one-year insurance policy. The government also has a programme which you can enroll with a minimum of N15,000 with four of your children. There is also the one you can enroll with N12,000 that gives you access to primary healthcare, even secondary, but limited to tertiary. Interestingly in Imo, we also have health maintenance organizations (HMOs). One of them is Pro-Health and you can register your family with N45,000. The benefit of that is that immediately you register it can be activated so that you now have access, but in the case of the Federal Government you can wait for like three months before you get their card. In the case of the state, you can wait for one month, but there is an exception when there is surgery to be done.
How do you see the present security situation in the country?
I think the security system in Nigeria seems to have collapsed abysmally. Look at a country where hundreds of school children are daily being kidnapped and the president could not declare a state of emergency. This is too bad and it’s worsening under this present administration.