Northern opposition to tax reform bills baseless —Famuyibo

Chief Reuben Famuyibo, a former presidential and governorship aspirant, was a member of the Constituent Assembly set up by the General Sani Abacha government in 1995. In this interview with Associate Editor, Abiodun Awolaja, he speaks on the tax reform bills, agitation for state creation, and sundry issues. Excerpts:

During his recent media chat, President Bola Tinubu explained why the naira floatation and subsidy removal policies were inevitable. How do you think the questions that people have about these policies can be addressed?

Well, I think that President Bola Tinubu’s boldness can be applauded. But when you want to do a long-term policy, you need to have done your homework. A lot of his policies have somersaulted due to inadequate consultations. It is as if you want to go on a journey of five years and you have not considered that you might meet a big river on the way. I can tell you boldly that a lot of Nigerians are suffering, if not all. We have eliminated the middle class in this country. Yes, he said that there’s light at the end of the tunnel but what if we all die before we get to the end of the tunnel?

 

Some of the states are yet to roll out the minimum wage and the Federal Government has expressed hope that they will do so by January. Do you see the minimum wage cushioning economic pains?

How much is the minimum wage? As of today, a bag of rice is N87,000. Chickens cost about N25,000. Some of these civil servants that you are talking about have four of five children. How do they cope? What we need to do is review the policy on fuel. I pray that the cost of fuel comes down. Anything short of that, we are just wasting our time.

 

We are seeing minor reductions in fuel price here and there, by the NNPCL and the Dangote Group…

I think they are doing business with Nigerians. You have increased the money accruing to the states but you are taking the money directly from the populace. The way I see things, we still have a long way to go in Nigeria.

 

President Tinubu’s tax reform bills give 55 percent of VAT to states, and it is also derivation-driven, but a lot of people in the North have said that it is not in their interest.

I think that this will teach us a lot of lessons. When I was in the Constitutional Conference during Abacha’s regime, some of us signed the minority report on derivation, especially when they started with 14 per cent. I believe that, whatever we want to do, the principle of derivation will really help Nigerians. I don’t know why the northerners are shouting.

 

They say it is not in their interest…

We don’t have to do everything from their own interest: we own Nigeria together, and I have been saying this all along: you can’t be taking the money from the South to be developing the North. They have been in government for how many years now? Whose fault is it if they could not develop their states?

 

Former Speaker Yakubu Dogara seems to agree with you. He recently said that northerners had been in power for 40 years with very little to show for it…

Yes, if you have your money and you don’t know how to help your people; if you don’t know how to industrialise your states, whose fault is it? Instead of developing the North, the leaders are busy buying mansions in Abuja.

 

You were in the Constituent Assembly set up by the General Sani Abacha government in 1995. In the last few weeks, we have been hearing of agitation for Ijebu State. As one of the brains behind the creation of Ekiti State, do you honestly think that state creation is feasible now?

These (the agitators) are all political thugs. It is not possible with the set up in Nigeria to create any state now. It can be done by the military, but forget about this idea of somebody going about and trying to make himself acceptable to the people by floating the idea of state creation. The bill has to pass through the 36 states and the FCT. How do you get your own state without addressing my own demand? Assuming that I want to create Ado Ekiti out of Ekiti State, then you expect me to go and sit down with members of the 36 state houses of assembly. How do you get two-thirds of the House of Assembly members in Nigeria when you are not concurring to their own agitation too? Come off it; the agitators are all political thugs. It cannot be done. The LCDAs that some of the governors created, are they legal? Some of them are regretting creating them. Even the ones in Lagos, they are changing the names. So why are we just wasting our time? I think all these people are political thugs. The agitation cannot stand the test of time.

 

You have spoken about the need to address the economic concerns that Nigerians have. Do you think that going back to reports such as those of the Constituent Assembly and the 2014 National Conference can help us at this stage?

Yes. This is about the third time journalists are asking me this question. I was a member of the 1995 Constitutional Conference. We spent three years, wasted taxpayers’ money. We were lodged in the Nicon Noga, Hilton Hotel. Later, they set up another committee on Power Devolution. In 2014, we had another Constitutional Conference. Where are all those reports? I have said it before: all that a serious government needs to do is to pack all these reports together, then get all the brains together—they shouldn’t be more than 20—and review all these reports together. Where they think that the recommendations tally, the president and the National Assembly can work together on them within a month or two. They submit their report. Any new conference will be just a jamboree.

 

What is the upcoming programme about your mum all about?

Well, the point about my mum is the fact you have parents that teach you well. I lost my mother 49 years ago. But what I gained from her is what I am still using up till now. My mother taught me how to be contented in life. My mother taught me how to be hardworking.  My mother taught me how to have the fear of God. I am contented in the sense that no matter the situation I am, I don’t hustle. At one time, my mother came to Ibadan to visit my elder brother in Ibadan in the early 70s and saw his wife frying eggs with Gelsha. She packed her things and left. She told him: “Your brothers and sisters are suffering in Ado Ekiti, they are barely able to eat eggs and here you are, mixing eggs with Gelsha.” She taught me a lot: at the age of ten, I know how to prepare any soup.

 

Are you trying to say that the young people of today are missing out on something?

Yes. A lot of them are wasteful and not enterprising. My success in life started from my N500 bursary. At the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), we were given N500 bursary. I started travelling, trading with the N500. A return ticket to London then was just N121. I was buying shirts and shoes in London and selling them at Ife. Sometimes, I bought goods from Ghana because the Ghanaian currency, Cedi, had already been devalued. I went with a couple of friends, including Ladi Okusaga from UNILAG. We bought books because we were doing the same constitutional law. I was selling the books I bought from Ghana at double the price. I made my money from all these things. As a graduate, I carried my gas cooker and fridge to The Polytechnic, Ibadan. I was selling beer to youth corpers. My wife was in the School of Nursing, making pepper soup. I would go and buy ice block at Moniya, we would be under the tree at The Polytechnic. That was where I got money to buy my land for N2,000 at Orita Basorun.

 

Let’s talk about insecurity. Apparently the security agencies are trying their best, but a new terrorist group, Lakurawa, recently surfaced in the North. How do we overcome this problem?

I think some people are making money out of the situation. Pure and simple. I have a lot of friends in the northern side of Nigeria. I think that the terrorists are being sponsored by some people.

 

So what do we do?

The entity called Nigeria is a false marriage. If we cannot be one, there is no way we cannot say: “To your tents O Israel”. We could go back to regional system of government. There is no reason to keep pampering one ethnic group.

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