Presidential Candidate of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) and the former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), OLU FALAE, speaks with Special Correspondent, JULIUS ALABI, on some of the recommendations of the recent national conference, corruption in the land and effect of military administrations in civil service.
You were a member of the recent national conference. Would you mind letting us into some of your recommendations at the confab?
We made a lot of recommendations. Going by the level of corruption in this country, we recommended special anti-corruption court, specially designed to deal with corruption. In it, no trial should last more than 12 months and anybody found guilty should go to jail not less than 20 years. Also, what he had stolen should be taken from him 100 per cent.
We also looked at the immunity clause. Our presidents and governors are immune; they cannot be arrested or prosecuted while in office, even if they commit rape, arson or murder. This is one thing that helps increase the breakdown of law and order. I even praise the governors and presidents for showing restraint. They are empowered by the constitution to do what they like. Those who put immunity clause in the constitution destroyed Nigeria. That was why the conference recommended removal of immunity from the constitution, whether in civil or criminal matter.
These are special prescriptions in the reports that, if well implemented, would impact on the Nigerian society and poverty will a thing of the past. Then, our people will enjoy the dividends of democracy.
Do you think any of the recommendations is workable, considering the composition of the confab?
I believe God himself had a hand in that conference, otherwise how could we have succeeded in passing more than 600 resolutions without division? I was surprised. Yes we worked very hard and negotiated. We built coalition and consensus. What has emerged, in my view, is a beneficial blueprint for re-inventing Nigeria because when you look at the report, in every area, we analysed the problem and offered possible solutions that are beneficial to the people. Take railway for example; a country of a size of Nigeria has virtually no rail network to talk about. The single line we had from Lagos to Kano for the past 20 years had become non-functional. That is why we are not growing as we should and employment not growing. The railway in India carries up to 20 million people a year and close to two million people work in the railway. We have virtually none here, and it is because the federal government is the only agency that could establish and run railway system.
At the conference, we decided that the state government can participate in developing railway network. What does that mean? Take the South West, for instance; we have six states, and one of the decisions taken at the conference was that although we did not agree with regional government, we agreed with zonal commission under which the zone can do whatever it wants, develop any industry and build anything it wants. To me, it is like an experimental regional government. What is wrong if the recommendation becomes law? Yoruba people who are of the same race set up the zonal commission, gave it as a first assignment to build railway to link towns and communities in Yoruba land. The construction of that network alone will provide at least half a million jobs and the effect on the economy of that area will be tremendous. It will make it easier to move people and goods for development. This is just one recommendation from the conference that can transform the country. Other zones can do the same and do other things together. The report also says that ports, which the federal government monopolised, can now be built by the state government. We have three coastal states in South West: Lagos, Ogun and Ondo. Each can build commercial port that will employ thousands of people to facilitate the movement of goods and services around the South West.
Even solid minerals, which had been the monopoly of the federal government since Independence, what have they done about them? Next to nothing! The conference has decided that mineral development can now be the joint effort of the federal and state governments. In Ondo State, we have bitumen. We have a commodity which, if developed, can employ more people. In the light of these potentials, I can see people pressurising government to implement this programme, to the benefit of the people. As I have always told people, it is the quality, relevance and usefulness of the report that will determine what happens to it, whether it will be implemented or, like other reports, gather dust in the shelve of the federal government. I am persuaded that this report contains too many recommendations that are beneficial to all parts of the country.
Are you saying that corruption has deterred the nation’s development?
I am yet to see a civilian president or governor who is passionate about developing Nigeria as Obafemi Awolowo. When Awolowo was planning his free education, I learnt that every minister in his cabinet had to go home to supervise the construction of schools in towns and villages in his area. It was as if the life of government depended on the actualisation of that programme. Where is that zeal and commitment today? People are more interested in getting big contracts, making money, becoming billionaires and hiding the money in Switzerland, Abu Dhabi and all those funny places. Once your focus is not in the development of the society, you cannot achieve much in the area of development. You can achieve more when your thoughts and energy are channelled to development.
When the military left in 1979 and the Shehu Shagari government came in, I was in civil service and saw what happened. That was when matters started to get worse. There was less control of the ministers. Breakdown of law and order started during the Shagari regime. When he left, General Muhammadu Buhari came and introduced stringent conditions, which made the level of corruption minimal. But in 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo took over, floodgate of corruption opened. President Obasanjo was the first president to pass anti-corruption law, but when he did so, I made a statement, congratulating him for having the courage to pass that law. However, I was sure that he was not in position to implement it because his party and ministers were beneficiaries of corruption. If he wanted to fight corruption sincerely, he would be undermining himself as a government. Therefore what he did was just window dressing. What happened was that everybody was helping himself. That was when contract for electricity supply was awarded and there was nothing to show for it. Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of refineries was awarded and there was nothing to show for it. EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) was busy pursuing those regarded as Obasanjo’s political enemies. It was a very selective war. That was how the rot started. Civil servants were given money to parliamentarians before budgets were passed. Some ministers were arrested and, till today, their cases are not concluded. The bureaucrats, who were assisting these political officers, were also helping themselves. Obasanjo was not out to fight corruption, but to fight his political opponents.
What do you think is the major problem of Nigeria?
Honestly, I think we inherited a constitutional malformation, an unbalanced federation which was not designed for success. As soon as the British left, the instability began – state of emergency, rigging of elections, coups, civil war and all that. We got it wrong from the very beginning. The second point is that because of the ethnic, religious and cultural composition of Nigeria, there are deep suspicions within the ruling elite, and those in government quite often only take care of themselves. They hardly think of Nigeria as a country.
I entered the civil service in 1963 after I graduated from university. I spent few years as a senior civil servant before the military came in, in January 1966. During that period, there was order and healthy competition among the regions for development. There was accountability. If a minister travelled and took touring advance, within 48 hours of returning to his ministry, he must give account of how he spent the money, with receipts. If there was no receipt, there must be honour certificate signed by him. But once the military came in, they introduced their own culture. The tendencies was to give orders and to ride roughshod over regulations which they regarded as bureaucratic.
With the commencement of the civil war, things got worse. During the war, there were lots of confusion; people who were messengers became army officers and got married to graduates. After the war, all kinds of crises ensued. There was status war, a Colonel during the war came back to Sergeant after the war. All these created a lot of confusion and helped to destroy the order and stability that we had.
Do you think Nigeria has made any appreciable progress since Independence?
We must admit, as honest people, that some progress have been made. Quantitative growth has taken place since 1960. We have built more roads since 1960. The population has grown ten-fold. More universities have been built and the number of graduates have increased tremendously. But qualitatively, where do we stand? Many roads have been built, but what is the quality of the road? In some areas, progress has been made; in others, disaster. It will be dishonesty to say it is all disaster, yet it is not rosy. It is a mixed bag. But our worry is that there are more negatives than positives in terms of quality and safety of life and in terms of opportunity to get employment and to actualise potentials. As a student about to graduate, I had three offers. I was a federal scholar. Federal government offered me a job; I got a job from WABC, Ibadan, and from Shell Petroleum. I had to choose one. Today you graduate and after two, three years, you are still struggling. In that area, it is a complete disaster. Progress has been made in certain areas and retrogression in others.
Is there anything to celebrate as a nation at 54?
We thank God that we still exist as a nation. But there is no basis for celebration; there is nothing to celebrate. We don’t celebrate failure or tragedy because what is happening is tragic. About 218 girls were abducted about six months ago and we don’t know where they are. We read one of them was released few weeks ago, pregnant. I suspected when the abduction took place that those evil men were going to destroy those girls by gang-raping them, passing to them infectious diseases and making them pregnant before releasing them. My fear is that one has been released pregnant. Where are the remaining?