Associate Professor of Law at the Lead City University, Ibadan, Olu Ojedokun, was at a time the dean of the Faculty of Law of the university. A graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and holder of a Master’s as well as research degree from Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, he speaks with DARE ADEKANMBI on governance in the country, the incoming government, just as he rates Buhari’s government of eight years, among other issues.
How do you see the recent signing of some constitution amendment bills into law by the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari? Do you think this action is enough to set off the journey for a re-engineered Nigeria?
Well, I think it is a mixed bag. I would like to focus more on the ones that have to do with the Exclusive List, which essentially removes things like electricity and railway from there to the Concurrent List. That is itself is quite fundamental. If Oyo, Ondo, Enugu or any other state, for instance, is able to generate their own electricity, then of course that brings a new paradigm in terms of balance of power. And even in things like railway, where we will now have the Federal Government competing with the state governments, that brings an opening for new and faster development and access for their goods and services to move within interstates. I foresee a situation where the West, I mean the DAWN states, can just decide they want to do power generation across the West. Likewise, the North could do the same and it is the same thing with rail transportation. We want to see stronger transport links between the DAWN states and the South-East state and they will do it. Gradually, we will have a building block of a strong West that wants to align with a strong South-East or South-South.
So, I think with those bills that President Buhari signed he has re-engineered the country to a certain extent. He may not know or realise it. Does he do it completely? Of course not. There are other bills he could have signed such as the local government autonomy bill and other bills that have to do with resource control. But generally, I think it is a step in the right direction and I foresee the new government building upon that and moving further. Once the new government opens this whole restructuring no matter how little, it becomes a Pandora’s Box for good in our own case.
The Buhari administration will roll into the chiaroscuro of history in the next couple of weeks. What would you consider the highs and the lows of his eight years rule?
I think the obvious high point is the fact that he majored on infrastructure, particularly the rail. The government has also been innovative with the tax system where we have the Dangotes, rather than pay tax, have been given the leeway to develop some of our roads, giving us high quality, high standard roads. So, in this area, they will get a sort of mark and I won’t say pass mark. They are still promising us that at the end of April, they are going to complete the Lagos-Ibadan Highway. We will see whether the road will be completed by then. I think that is the government’s point.
Since we have to assess the government by the promises it made, I think in terms of fight against corruption, restructuring, economy, foreign relations, religious tolerance, Buhari will get a low mark in these areas. The government will also score a low mark in terms of our foreign debt which has ballooned. The security architecture which they promised would be addressed has not really been addressed. These are some of their low points too. People would then ask the question: would things have been better if Buhari had had a government of all talents? People have come to see the Buhari government as a sectional government. Not all the time, but they see it as sectional in terms of appointments and some of the policies.
What areas would you counsel the incoming government to focus on to give Nigerians immediate relief from the burden they have been carrying for eight years or more now?
This is a difficult one and people would probably stone me for this on the streets. I think the incoming government will have to remove subsidy because of the corruption there. People are actually getting money for doing nothing. Secondly, a lot of the subsidized petrol is being smuggled across the borders. For those two reasons, they have to remove subsidy. Yes, it will bring hardship. But in the long run, it will free us some money for the new government to do the projects that it intends to do. I think the incoming government of Senator Bola Tinubu just concentrate on education, health, create an economy where foreign investors will come and put their money so that the economy can be expanded. The government must begin to look at how to address inflationary rates by looking at what we produce and see to what can be done to give incentives to produce such things. Tinubu needs to run a government of all talents. That might even be the immediate thing. What do I mean by a government of all talents? For once, let’s not think about APC or PDP or even Labour Party. Let’s appoint the best into positions so that whatever positions these talents get, Finance Minister or whatever, we will get the best alone. Lastly, we must begin to look at our foreign policy. We have not had a foreign policy for a long time and I will whoever is appointed foreign affairs minister to lead the effort to draw up an active foreign policy for the country. We can attract the best in terms of investment and bilateral relationship. We also need to restructure the security architecture of the country. Let us have regional policing so that the security arrangement does not continue to be burdensome and centralized in Abuja.
If the reasons for the removal of subsidy on petrol is because of the web of corruption woven around it and the smuggling of the product across the borders, then that is the failure of government which should have stopped the corruption and closely monitor the borders. Governments, all over the world, still subsidize some services for the citizenry…
Yes, things are still being subsidized in advanced countries. But as for us, the last major industrialized country I remember that subsidized petrol for a while until it decided to tax it is the United States. I know Saudi Arabia did it for a while too. The vast majority of countries that we compete with do not subsidize petrol any longer and because they do not do this, it distorts the price and this allows people who don’t receive subsidy to take advantage of the opportunity. I think the subsidy from petrol should be moved somewhere else. I am not against subsidy. I am just saying it should be targeted at those who need it most. The people who enjoy subsidy on petrol are those with three or four cars and not people like us who are managing just one. We should move the subsidy to other areas. Subsidy must be in the right area. I am one of those who feel the new government should bring in a new road tax and not the one we currently have so that the rich will pay for the benefits they get and let some of these benefits go to the people who will suffer as a result of the removal of subsidy.
The issue of pruning down the size of government at all levels with a retinue of appointees is also key to bringing down the cost of governance. Along with this is the issue of the presidential system which many think should be discarded because of its expensive nature….
There will be some economists who will say doing all these will not move the needle in the sense that most of the savings will be negligible. But I am of the view that we must make a start, even if the gains are negligible because the symbolism sends a message that the government won’t tolerate waste, a message that the government will run a leaner, fitter, meaner government. What do I mean by this? Concerning the National Assembly, for instance, we certainly do not need a bicameral legislature. The reason America has it was that they needed to balance competing rights of the larger states with the very small states. Most of our states, by and large, are almost equal. I think we only need one chamber as we have in the states.
We also need to prune down the presidential fleet. We don’t need a presidential fleet. In the UK, for instance, the Prime Minister does not have a fleet. The Queen’s flight that is talked about is probably about two or three small aircraft. We need to look at the whole idea of estacode, perks of office, cars maintained at government expense. As president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo tried this, but the problem with his own policy was that people still got benefits, despite the monetization policy. There is no reason why government should be providing accommodation for government officials if they are not president or vice president, governor or deputy governor. The rest, as far as I am concerned, should be living in their houses. So, there should be a whole root and branch examination as to what we can afford. We can’t afford all these perks of office. I think we need to sell a lot of our assets that we actually don’t need, but on which we are spending money to maintain. Then of course, our refineries have to be sold. Why are we having refineries that are not working? Why are we paying salaries of staff working in refineries that are not working? What of Ajaokuta Steel Company? Has it ever made any money for government? We do we keep pumping money into projects which in the foreseeable future may not bring any money to the Nigerian state? There are a lot of things that the Tinubu administration, if it comes in, will need to do. Tinubu has been innovative in Lagos and I hope he can replicate that innovation at the federal level.
The outgoing government is planning to conduct a census. What do you make of that?
It is nonsense. The constitution says the government should conduct census every 10 years and if we are to go by that, the next one should be in 2026. One should have been done in 2016 but they kicked it into the long grass. I think this can even be challenged in court, if it does not suit the purposes of some people. We need a stable government to settle down and do the census in 2026. I don’t know why there is a rush for this census. In fact, many of the critical questions are going to be taken off the questionnaires, according to what NPC has been telling us. Things like ethnicity and so on and so forth. The new government should come in and get settled and it can then plan for a proper census. We already have the data and the parameters we need for a properly planned census. We have BVN and NIN. These are bases for which a proper census can be planned.
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