Sylvan Ebigwei, President-General of Aka-Ikenga, intellectual think-tank of Ndigbo, in this chat with Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU, speaks on vital national issues, proffering the way out.
At last, the budget, which dragged for close to a year, has been passed. What do you expect of the economy?
I don’t think there will be any magic, and what is on the ground does not show that things will pick up soonest. What is a budget in the first place? It is simply an intention or expression to spend money. Year in year out budgets have been drawn, money appropriated, but usually there is nothing to show for it.
So since we have the slogan of change, let us hope that this change will bring the desired and genuine transformation. Seeing is believing; let us wait and see what the All Progressives Congress (APC) will give us. They have inundated us with so much promises, so much sweet talks. What Nigerians are waiting for now is its translation to reality, its ability to positively touch the lives of Nigerians.
There was so much needless brouhaha over the budget which I saw as ego trip. They should talk less and do more. My impression is on the mindset of people around the budget. It is the duty of the executive to propose, and it is the duty of the legislature to appropriate.
I think one group tried to usurp the function of the other by padding the budget. I think that brought a lot of bad blood between the executive and the legislature. The legislature, I think, over-stepped their bounds by trying to introduce items, projects that were not there when the budget was presented to the National Assembly by the Presidency.
The executive perhaps felt that the National Assembly was trying to usurp the constitutional rights of the executive and that resulted in the confusion that surrounded the delay. But we don’t need all this digression. Buhari and his government must hit the ground running, and given the ovation that greeted his arrival, he has no excuse to fail. From now on, every segment of governance should know its bounds.
Looking at the situation so far, what are the key areas you think government should give priority attention?
If you want to salvage Nigeria, you must get priority issues right. The first thing government should do is to establish an economic team of well-known economists in the country, and even outside. Without a very strong economic team advising the government, they will go nowhere. After establishing the economic team, they streamline or itemise areas that will bring succour to the economic development of this nation.
The issue of energy. Without power, we will go nowhere because electricity is needed to power the industries and whatever plans we have for the future. We have litany of power generating plants in this country, but due to lack of gas to power them, Nigeria has fallen short of what it desired.
Government should open up the coal industry and use it as the nucleus of energy generation in this country. That is what America, China, Poland and many other countries are doing.
Solar is expensive compared to coal. What they are now urging the third world countries to do is too expensive for us. Production of energy through coal is very important, especially when we look at our political situation in this country. There is no stability, especially in the area where gas is being produced. The owners of the land feel that they are being short-changed. There youths are very restive. That is why they have taken up arms, blowing up the gas pipelines. So our major source of energy should be coal.
The second area is for us to develop our agriculture. So there will be enough food for the average family. Nigeria has arable land from North to South. Zones could be created and encouraged to produce what they are good at. The federal, state and local governments as well as private entrepreneurs should pump money into agriculture. Once Nigeria is self-sufficient on food, we can export as we were doing. We were exporting cocoa, groundnut, ginger, palm oil, etc. We can go back, because no matter what we do, people must eat food to survive. We should strive to start industrialising, so that we can process them here and export the finished products.
The third priority is education. If people are educated, they will know their rights, and when people know their rights, there will be less conflict in the nation.
The country should also prioritise the judicial system. People act with impunity in this country, depriving the nation and the masses what belongs to them. The amount of corruption and stealing that go on in this country is mind-boggling. Unless that is eclipsed, Nigeria can never be developed. People take our resources abroad, using such money to power the economy of other countries. It is worrisome. Punishment does not visit crime in this country. The more criminal you are, the less you get judgment in a punitive way. Those that commit big crimes get away or do not get commensurate punishment.
What is your take on federal government’s anti-corruption crusade?
For me, we only hear when they arrest people and they make headlines in the media. After that, nothing goes on. We hear of billions and billions of naira. What we hear now is that people who took billions are now returning millions. How about the rest? How about the punishment? If you don’t punish people for the crime they committed, other people will continue committing such crimes, knowing that when the time comes there will be plea bargain. They return some of the proceeds and hide the rest. So the impunity will continue. To me, we are only hearing noises. The various security agencies should work silently, make less noise but be deadlier. It is better when we hear that somebody has been imprisoned, not when we hear that he has been arrested. That will make the nation know that the agencies are functioning. But all these noise making will get us nowhere.
Are you saying the performance of this government has not been satisfactory?
It will be wrong to make a blanket condemnation. For the first time in the history of this nation, many heavyweights have been brought to book in terms of arrests being made, in terms of money returned. Unfortunately, after the arrest, we don’t hear much again. How many people have been jailed? Unless you incarcerate them and deprive them of all those things they have stolen, every effort will amount to nothing. The corrupt properties they have all over Dubai, America and Europe belong to the nation. Asking them to keep some and bring some means you are still promoting corruption. Every asset must be confiscated. People thrown into jail. Not after stealing, they are still walking the street.
But the executive would say their own is to arrest, that it is the judiciary that will convict?
That is why I said the judiciary must be strengthened and made to sit up. Corrupt judges should be flushed out, corrupt lawyers removed from the bar. We should create strong institutions in order for this nation to survive. The institutions should be stronger than the personalities. In Nigeria today, some personalities are stronger than institutions and they become untouchable.
What is your take on this herdsmen issue ravaging everywhere?
It is surprising that the herdsmen have become one of the deadliest terrors we have in this nation, according to CNN report. In my village, we interact, drink together, make merry, and we buy cows from them. They are just like the villagers. But that is not so anymore. In recent times, herdsmen carry guns, AK47 rifles. It is very strange. I don’t think they are the real Fulani people. I believe that since the military have denigrated Boko Haram, some members of Boko Haram now wear the toga of herdsmen, because an ordinary Fulani man cannot do what they are doing. It has become expedient for the government and security agencies to look deeper to know the calibre of people rearing cows, whether they are the Fulani or the runaways from Boko Haram.
The federal government should set up committees. Not just one committee; they should allow the states to set up committees. The committees should even go down to the local government areas and investigate these herdsmen, wherever they may be, know the type of people they are, take their biodata, village to village, because Nigerians must still eat cow.
All these grazing areas they are proposing; I don’t believe it is going to work. The grazing areas as being proposed, from what we read in the media, is a path to war. My own people in Delta State, for instance, can never allow any government to come and take their land and give it to another set of people, calling it grazing area. Anybody who wants grazing area should approach the community to give them the land on certain terms. It should be on lease. And once such land is leased, they cannot go beyond that area, because if you see what they do to farms, you weep. I have a farm, but I have to fence it. Assuming you took N10 million loan or more from a bank for farming, and after planting, the herdsmen bring their cattle and destroy your farm, how do you pay back that money? They have ruined you forever. What they are doing is unacceptable. Government will have to do something because if they continue, and the government pretends that nothing is happening, ethnic militia will spring up in every community in this country. And nobody is going to hold them. There are a lot of guns in people’s hands now, especially in the Niger Delta and other areas. People are just keeping quiet. But if these herdsmen go beyond the red lines of many communities, there will be war that will be impossible to contain. How many fronts will the army fight? Land is the mainstay of many communities; so they don’t joke with their land. The federal government has to be very careful in handling this sensitive issue. If they are creating grazing zones, it will be planned in such a way that communities will not be shortchanged.
What is your reaction to the attacks by herdsmen on Nimbo, Enugu community, recently?
Owners of the land should get together and compel the strangers who are coming with their cattle to have their limit. There must be no-go areas. It is not advisable for the government of South East states to fold their arms, and strangers known as herdsmen come over and destroy the farmlands of citizens without compensation. This can lead to civil disobedience. The ‘Bakassi Boys’ and various ethnic militia are re-grouping, all because of the herdsmen. People that had gone to sleep are now re-grouping. This portends great danger for this nation.
The South East governors must come together and call the herdsmen to order. They must use the law enforcement agents to ensure that these herdsmen are disarmed. Anybody carrying arms should never be allowed into any community. The police, army and civil defence must check these herdsmen and disarm them immediately. They are not above the law. We are in the same country. In the same country, how can some people be carrying AK47 walking across the streets while others don’t even have knives to defend themselves? There must be justice, equity and fair play.
Do you think Nigeria is winning the war on terrorism?
In a way, the federal government, from what it has done, is trying. Of course it is a continuation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s efforts. No matter how you drive Boko Haram, there must be some dissidents within them that will continue the struggle. What the federal government needs is to flush them out from the forest, and get out the Nigerians they kidnapped, especially the Chibok girls.
If you meet President Muhammadu Buhari today, what would be your advice to him?
He is trying on the issue of anti-corruption. But let us see more people imprisoned. Let us see more of the looted funds repatriated. Let us make more seizures of the proceeds of corruption, and put it back into the public till of this country. He must tell Nigerians how much he has realised so far. Second, the judiciary must be sanitised and strengthened, so that we can deepen this democracy. Without good judiciary, there will be no good democracy. Some people are controlling the judiciary. Tackle the issue of power frontally. Let us have coal power plants in this country to complement the gas turbines. Address the issue of the militants in the creeks, so that they will stop blowing up pipelines. Using military force can never achieve anything there. Accept every Nigerian as your ward, as father of the nation, not just your party. Diversify the economy, develop agriculture, open up industries, encourage the businessmen to their businesses without hindrance.
