THE NEWS NIGERIA
In this interview, Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023 election spoke on issues of governance and the way forward for Nigeria
The 2023 elections have come and gone. What are the biggest lessons you learnt therefrom?
Well, for me, the biggest lesson is the fact that Nigerians are actually committed to good governance. They are not as complacent as people thought they were because they, especially the youths, were actually committed to doing the right thing. That is why they came out in their numbers to participate in the elections.
The second lesson is the realisation that the leaders, most people in the elite class are not actually interested in good governance because you can classify the electoral umpire as part of the elite class, the government, all of us are not prepared to do the right thing because if the elites are prepared to do the right thing, the result or the outcome of the election would have been different.
But for me the elections have come and gone and I don’t want to talk about the issue of the 2023 elections again. It has come and gone and I am done with it.
What I am talking about now are issues of governance because the average Nigerian today is talking about the Nigeria of today, and the Nigeria of tomorrow. That is what is important.
Talking about governance, are you satisfied with where Nigeria is today?
That is really a question for the generality of Nigerians to answer. Ask the average Nigerian how he is faring today. The truth is that we have many more Nigerians thrown into poverty, millions of Nigerians don’t know where the next meal will come from. Nobody is sure what the price of a cup of rice, garri or a loaf of bread will be tomorrow. So, it is Nigerians that you should ask the question.
It is not a question for me to answer. It is not something I alone will tell you. Ask Nigerians, the masses out there on the streets of Nigeria and you will get a feel of what they are going through. But I know that the situation is critical.
But President Bola Tinubu will definitely disagree. He is of the opinion that his reforms – removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the Naira – in particular are not only bold and consequential but are working, so much so that speaking at the 10th German-Nigerian Business Forum in Berlin, Germany in November 2023, he said he deserves to be listed in the Guinness World Records for the reforms he has made since assuming office on May 29, 2023.
He may actually be correct when he claims that his name deserves to be in the Guinness World Records. Don’t forget that people’s names don’t always make it into the Guinness World Records for only altruistic reasons. So, it depends on which angle he is coming from. If the idea is to put his name in the Guinness Book of Records for causing Nigerians the most hardship – untold hardship, of course he is spot on and I will totally agree with him because his reforms are not achieving what they are meant to achieve.
But some of your critics say that both you and Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also promised to remove the fuel subsidy if elected. So, Tinubu did it. What is wrong with that?
Yes, I agree that the fuel subsidy has to be removed because it is not sustainable, but there should have been gains from the removal. Right now, they say they are saving billions of Naira, which nobody is feeling the positive impact. The other subsidy is the exchange rate. They said when the Naira is floated, people will be able to access foreign exchange at the same rate. But today there is even a wider gap between the official exchange rate and the unofficial rate. The official rate is about N900 to $1 while the unofficial rate hovers between N1,300 to N1,400. So, the gap today is even bigger.
The implication is that we are doing something that is just not right. It is not enough to claim that you have removed subsidy. And these are the things that we need to look into because the idea of reforms is that it is something that would have helped Nigeria to begin to walk on the right path, in the right direction and it must be all-inclusive. I have always said reforms in governance should be in all sectors simultaneously. We should be dealing with the issues of cutting the cost of governance, corruption, all forms of waste, targeting priority areas – education, health, pulling people out of poverty, simultaneously.
You cannot do one and leave the others. What you are doing has to be seen by the people. I was a governor and we dealt with these issues simultaneously and holistically. That is the only way to achieve positive results. If you do one and leave the others, you are bound to have problems. These issues should be dealt with simultaneously and transparently. People have to see what you are doing.
But Tinubu on January 9, directed that all the entourage to state and international events be drastically reduced by 60 per cent. Shouldn’t that suffice?
No, no! I am talking about cost of governance, overall cost of governance. And remember what I just said, everything has to go simultaneously. You cannot do this and leave that. It has to be done across board.
Some people strongly believe that despite the removal of fuel subsidy, the Tinubu government may, in fact, be paying a much higher subsidy now for Nigerians to be able to buy petrol at N600 per litre given the strength of our national currency. Do you have that feeling too?
Well, I have just told you that anything we are going to do, we must do it in such a way that people will see the gains. And there must be a clear destination of where we are headed, where such policies will take us. It is easy when you tell people to suffer today because in five years, ten years, they will get to the Promised Land and everybody who is preaching that is in the same vehicle. So, everyone is in the same situation.
You cannot be preaching A and doing B. You cannot tell people, let us fast and they are seeing you feasting. If you preach fasting, everybody must be seen to be fasting. Some shouldn’t be feasting while telling others to fast. The issues that are fundamental today starting with the issue of security of lives and property, people must see the government doing something. It is not about empty rhetoric. Governance is hard work. They must see and appreciate that their leaders care for them, their welfare. Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case. All they see now is the elites celebrating when the masses are poverty-stricken and told to further tighten their belts.
But again, speaking at the second term inauguration of Governor Hope Uzodimma last Monday, Tinubu assured Nigerians of an impending economic recovery, expressing confidence in the country’s ability to overcome the adverse effects of the fuel subsidy removal. He was upbeat about the country reaping positive outcomes from the elimination of the fuel pump price subsidy. He said in the past 40 years, a few people were cornering our commonwealth, and calling it subsidy but assured that things are looking up. “Things will get better for the good of all Nigerians. With me, there is hope,” he said.
Nigerians will be the judge. Of course, the picture he is painting is unreal. That means he is far removed from reality. I tweeted this week that things are getting worse, not better. People must learn how to govern and serve transparently and truthfully. The reality is there for everyone to see. Even if we did things wrongly in the past, like some people will refer to me and say, when you were there what happened, even if we did it wrongly in the past, must we continue doing the wrong things now?
