Osita Okechukwu is a former Director General of Voice of Nigeria(VON) and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks on the local government’s financial autonomy, economic hardship in the country, planned protest by youth on October 1, among other issues. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpt:
Can you explain your point about President Bola Tinubu’s milestones on local government financial autonomy and the 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day to local refineries?
The truth of the matter was that the statement was made over a month ago and a lot of water has passed through the bridge since then. One of which is that President Tinubu has been very attentive to the outcry on the streets. You can imagine under your regime, there was a nationwide protestsaying bad governance and hunger. So, he set up a review committee that reviewed both the Renewed Hope Agenda, our manifesto and what the government has done, and so far the two issues I mentioned he has dealt with it decisively. I attended one of the meetings where they told me that we need the governors to meet up with the five details of the Supreme Court landmark judgement. And you could see that since the judgement, over 10 states have conducted local council elections and more are in the offing. The good thing about that move is that because people have been told in black and white that the local government now belongs to them, we are energized and the oppositions across the country are energized. I think that the Tinubu administration had explained why the three months latitude was given for the governors to meet up with the five details of that law. On the 450,000 barrels of oil, I was also invited to a meeting where we were told that over 80 per cent of that 450,000 barrels of crude oil has been allocated to Dangote Refinery, the one that we know is the biggest and the rest would be spread across the line. And he said Osita, the Petroleum industry is not like the buying and selling of your people in Balogun Street. There were commitments before I came to power and we need to take time to get those commitments hands-on and also appeal to those who have been committed that the crude oil is the same in the market and that there is always a commitment back before the day in question. I think they have resolved that and where we are right now is by October Dangote Refinery and the rest will get the allocated crude oil in naira. And that means there will be multiplier advantages like the price reduction and even the reduction of the so-called haemorrhage on our foreign reserve and foreign exchange dealings. So, those issues have been dealt with to a larger extent. A lot of people have said that Tinubu is not listening but that is not my position today because I have attended meetings and I have seen that he is bothered about the outcry of the Nigerian state and the citizenry.
Some analysts have said that the Supreme Court ruling on local government autonomy is incomplete without reviewing the process of electing local government chairmen, what is your take on that?
Those who are the critics of the ruling are not wrong in saying that if you don’t amend certain relevant sections of our constitution it is going nowhere. But they should also remember that in a public space, there are always two sides of the coin. Today a lot of people call the National Assembly rubber stamp National Assembly but this is where they are going to play their role. It is already one of the top agenda of the alterations committee made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. I happened to have talked to the Chairman of the House Committee, Benjamin Kalu and he told me that both the governors are in support of the ruling. Those who are governors in as much as they behave like emperors, are aware that one day they will not be governors anymore. And they know that the Nigerian people have gotten the clarion call that they are not only looking at the centre to ask where is Tinubu spending our money that today the local government is now in the hands of the citizenry. A lot of local councils will not go the way they go before no matter how hand-picked the elections are. But the good story is that the amendment committee has a unison position that the debate so far is whether it should be cancelled outrightly and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will do it but some said no, that what should happen is that we should fortify the nomination process to the state electoral commission. By the time they are finishing with alteration, I think we are going to be in a good stead to use it maximally to achieve the intendment of the landmark judgement. That is why I called it a milestone and also the fact that the citizenry is now aware whether you hand-pick Mr Okechukwu or Mr Musa to be a local council chairman, it is time for the communities to march onto them and ask questions. Luckily, they are now aware that no local council gets less than N200 million every month. But the excuse was that the governor had taken everything. That issue has gone and as I said democracy is not a revolution, all the progress made has been incremental. The fact is that President Muhammadu Buhari tried to amend that section and failed and Tinubu has the ingenuity to use the arm of the law to bring it to bear; now it is easier for the amendment of those relevant sections.
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A lot of people are saying that the Supreme Court judgement is for political expediency for the President, what do you say about this allegation?
There are two positions on this matter, one is that there is a crisis and everybody agrees on that. President Tinubu agrees that there is a crisis. He agreed that there is hardship and nobody in Nigeriacould deny that fact no matter how high heavens you are but the truth of the matter is that I’m talking about the solution. On the issue of the 450,000 barrels of crude oil this is what is holding it and today that matter has been resolved. And if it is resolved, I sincerely believe there will be multiplier gains Nigerian citizens would drive from it. On T.Y. Danjuma and others, the truth of the matter is that he knows about the military more than myself but the report on the ground has shown that General C.G. Musa and his group have achieved a lot in the past year. I know for instance in one of the meetings we held with the Minister of Agriculture where we were telling him that there is hunger in the land and he said yes he knows. And that Mr President has brought out N100 billion for what he called the Agric Fund and that he has engaged many companies. He said Osita, for instance, I engaged one that is addressing the issue of cassava and that in the next few months, you will see the amount of garri and others in the market and some are addressing the rice programme. So, those farmers couldn’t have gone to the farm if it was as bad as it was before. But as they said, it is not too easy to absorb the gains because there is a trust deficit already and we are aware that the APC approval rating is low. As human beings and political organizations, we are doing all we can so that in the next year we don’t continue to receive the same bashing. I agree with the elder statesman Danjuma but if he looks down deeply he would also know that some gains were made. I’m not trying to praise anybody but I know that General C.G. Musa and his team have done a lot. We could now see that there is a synergy between the Inspector General of Police and the. Police Service Commission. What does that show you, it means that 10,000 President Buhari marks for recruitment of police every year will come on stream.
Are you aware of the statement credited to General Abdulsalami Abubakar who has said that economic hardship has gone out of control and that is the narrative among Nigerians, would you commend the Tinubu government for that reality?
I’m not the spokesperson for Mr President but I have attended several meetings and I’m here to disclose how the reduction in the price of fuel will come. I was there when they analyzed how our colleagues in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) manage local consumption to bring to bear and reduce hardship in their countries. And they said for God’s sake do you get foreign exchange at all cost and starve your people at home? I know that by the time the issue is concluded, it might not go the way you are thinking. You will see the advantage of that intrusion to go on a naira basis. No law on earth says that as an OPEC country, if you dash your people the barrels you are out of OPEC but I know there will be a middle ground. On elder statesman, Abdulsalami, I have my greatest respect for him because he oversaw our return to the fourth Republic and he has been there with his group led by Bishop Hassan Kukah and others trying to make sure that even the conduct of the elections go well. But what Abdulsalami is saying is real but as I said I’m not praising Tinubu but what I know President Tinubu has done is that we now have a responsive review committee. That committee has put a lot in place that I will not disclose before it matures. But the guarantee we are giving is that it will not be this hard next year.
What do you make of angry youths’ plans toprotest on October 1?
Those youths who want to go on protest shouldremember that this country belongs to all of us. I think what some of us in our little way will advise the government is to engage some of them so that we can tell them what the government is doing.
