Sam Ohuabunwa says Nigeria has chronically underperformed in different facets of development because successive leaders lack understanding of how an economy operates, how to build a nation.
In Nigeria’s industry management and corporate governance, Mazi SAM OHUABUNWA, a pharmacist, is a veritable brand. Aside his trail blazing feat in repositioning the pharmaceutical giant, Neimeth, Ohuabunwa, has, at various times, led such credible organisations as Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Economic Summit Group (NESG), Nigerian Employers Consultative Assembly (NECA), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), among others.
A presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ohuabunwa insists that Nigeria has been lacking in leadership with vision, hence its inability to rise beyond its current lethargic level. He intends to bring his wealth of experience in the private sector and big business to bear in administering the country, with the focal dream of building a country anchored on solid economy, equity and justice to the citizens.
Ohuabunwa considers himself the right man for the job of the president, come 2023. He shares his reasons for the aspiration in this engaging encounter with TheNiche trio of IKECHUKWU AMAECHI, EMEKA ALEX DURU and EUGENE ONYEJI
Many Nigerians are of the opinion that the country is in dire straits. What is your honest assessment of the state of the nation?
My honest assessment is that we have a country that has chronically underperformed. Because of this chronic underperformance in the different facets of national development, our country has come to a stage where it has become a troubled nation; where the economy is performing abysmally, manifested by very low GDP growth, high level of unemployment especially in the youth group. There is low productivity, resulting in high level of low output, and high level of intolerable poverty.
When you see a combination of high level of poverty, high level of joblessness, you see that the social environment is in disequilibrium, the system is completely agitated. And when you have the inability to maintain law and order, you have a society that is distraught and completely unsafe for normal conduct of human activities.
High level of insecurity, poor economic performance, high level of poverty, high level of joblessness, can only create a very difficult environment to live and work in. So, Nigeria is a difficult environment to live and work in, right now. The country is very distressed and it is completely unacceptable for most people who feel that the essence of government is to direct the nation to prosperity, wellbeing, good quality of life, safety of life and property.
What we are seeing is the opposite and that is what is making people confused. Some say they are fed up and have given up, some are looking for ways on how to get back on Nigeria for perceived injustices and mistreatments. There are just too many issues to grapple with in our nation, today.
The three main points you raised were the issues President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to address while campaigning in 2015 – fight insecurity, corruption and fix the economy. More than six years down the line, he insists that he has done his best. Are you saying his best is not good enough?
He admitted it himself. In one of his rare times of candour, he said that on the issue of security, specifically, “We have done our best but it seems our best is not good enough.” I am quoting him. So, what better evaluation do we require? For me, that was one time that he faced reality.
A man can go to school but after six years or thereabout, an examination is set for him and he fails. A man can make a promise but is unable to deliver. Those things do happen. People make promises. But because they are not prepared to deliver, they don’t understand the depth of what they are promising, they have no real plan on how to actualise them.
It is a matter of intention, a matter of wishes and desire but when it gets down to getting things done and there is no well-thought plan, you now come to a situation where you find out that you are coming long on promises but short on delivery.
Sometimes, you also may not understand the forces that are arrayed against you. People often encounter forces that they cannot deal with. So, rather than moving forward, they recede or remain stagnant. It happens in normal life.
That’s why somebody can score 90 per cent in an examination, the other person scores 40 per cent in the same examination even when they sat in the same class together. It is a question of your ability to understand the circumstances around you and the willingness to provide the solution, having those critical components of competence, character and courage.
When you don’t have a combination of these three in the right proportion, you probably won’t be able to deal with difficult situations. So, President Buhari, I am sure, meant well. I can never believe that he intended to see Nigeria this way. I don’t think any Nigerian worth being called a President, would come to see Nigeria in this situation. I would sincerely say that he meant to do well but the circumstances may have overwhelmed him.
What are these circumstances, in your estimation?
The circumstances include lack of understanding of how an economy operates, lack of understanding on how to build a nation. These are two dimensions that we have fallen apart. We have this poverty, and it is clear to me that our leaders do not have real understanding of the sequence of producing an economy that grows.
When I look at their background, I am not completely surprised. When you are sponsored by Nigeria to go to school, you go through another institution under Nigerian sponsorship, you leave that institution and get sponsored by Nigeria to work in one place, you have never been challenged to generate income, or pay a debt, you have never built a kiosk, you have not borrowed money from a bank, not been threatened with liquidation or repossession of your property or assets, you have not kept awake in the night wondering how you are going to pay salaries to your workers, meet obligations or bills that are due, you have lived a life of appropriation with everything supplied to you, you have not gone through a mental opportunity of seeing how to dimension problems and think ahead.
So, when I look at their background, I situate it to the saying that one cannot give what he does not have. You can have very good intentions but there is nothing like experience in managing the economy or creating wealth. They are lacking there.
The other thing is the quasi-military or semi-military psychology. The military trains you to see the next guy in front of you as an enemy or a foe that must be demolished or disarmed. So, your attitude is always abrasive and corrosive to wear the person down.
We need a man with the normal civilian heart, who can understand the need to cry when it is time to cry, laugh when it is time to do so, to be able to win the people. We need a leader who can win the people and get their followership, so that he can lead them to a determination.
Nigeria has no vision. We don’t know where we are going. Everybody is just trying – the government, the private sector, the civil society – but some time at cross purposes because there is no defining vision leading the country. We don’t even have anybody who can speak to us to motivate us to action.
Whose responsibility is it to formulate that all-encompassing national vision?
It is the responsibility of the leadership. It is the job of the leadership. The principal job of leadership in an organisation, community, state or a nation, is to forecast the destination, paint a picture of a better day, better year and a better view of where we should go because the natural thing among human beings is to move from bad, to good, to better and to the best. We try to be perfect. And perfection is a continuous process. We continuously seek expansion and improvement. That’s the nature of human nature. For any human being who is comfortable with going back or retrogression, there is something wrong with him.
So, it is the nature and primary responsibility of the leadership to cast a vision. When a leader has cast a vision, he then tries to sell that vision to his followers, subordinates, compatriots through a method of conviction, not by order, not by instruction so that they can see the future and understand what it takes to go to the future.
Do we need to make sacrifices to attain the vision? Yes! How do we make the sacrifices? How long would it take us to do so? After the sacrifices, how do we compensate for the sacrifices at the end of the journey? These are the facts that the people need to know.
Till now, Nigeria has not successfully removed the subsidy on petroleum products because the leadership does not know how to connect with the people.
The leader should cast a vision, sell the vision to the people carry them along, step-by-step to actualise it. A leadership without vision is rudderless. We don’t know where we are going.
The main job of a leader is to lead us from Point A to Point B. At first it may not be where you want to go but it is the job of a leader to make you understand why you need to go there. And the leader does not commence on the journey until all of you see that that is the best place to go. It may not be everybody that will move at the same time. But if you can succeed in moving with the majority, you can then find time in relating with the minority.
We have a country that has leaders that don’t seem to understand the import of leadership. Leadership is not office. Leadership is not being president. Leadership is to influence positive outcomes and get people to do so, happily, even when they are in pains.
The problem is that there is no trust on our leaders. They are so opaque that even when they are saying the truth, you are suspicious that they are not telling the truth. There is so much wrong with our leadership paradigm in Nigeria. I have always said this. I have written so much on it. That’s why God said, ‘stop writing, stop pontificating, go and do it’.
You want to be President of Nigeria in 2023…
By the grace of God, yes!
But you have no political party. How are you going to do that?
I have a political party. I have already declared that I am running on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I have been in PDP for many years. Actually, I had done my best not to get into the fray. I have political skills, I had leadership skills, from my community, town union, club levels. And I know how to lead people to seek good for our community. I have also led at professional levels. That’s why I have been Chairman of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), National Economic Summit Group (NESG), Nigerian Employers Consultative Assembly (NECA), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) etc.
I have leadership skills that are politically savvy. But I do not like the way Nigerian politics is organised. So, I told myself that I wanted to go to heaven and did not think that one of the routes is the political route in Nigeria. Luckily I was running my career in the industry. In 1990-91 the then governor of Abia State, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, wanted to make me a commissioner but by the grace of God, prayers of my wife and I, it failed.
When my younger brother (Mao Ohuabunwa) showed interest in politics in 1998 -1999, I was pleased because that slightly took the pressure off me so that I could do other things like community development and corporate advocacy. He joined PDP. To be able to support him and be where decisions were made, I joined the party.
In my State, I am known, even at the federal level. If you go through my CV, I have held political offices in boards – national and state – many times right from the administration of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
Today, I am the chairman of the Private Public Partnership Investment Promotion Council in Abia State. At the federal level, I have been on several boards and presidential advisory councils. You can’t be invited to such committees if you don’t have some political affiliations.
But I was in the support advisory area, telling people what to do, teaching them what to do, formulate policies, advocate Vision 2010, 2020 etc. So, I have been in the party. When I now decided that I was going to run, I decided also to say, ‘God show me the party’. In my mind, I have a leading that I should use the PDP platform. I made the declaration since November 8, 2021.
Politics in Nigeria, especially at the presidential level is not only a matter of ideas. There are other issues like money; the so-called war chest and other incidences of intrigues commonly referred to as structures. How are you prepared to go into the fray?
You see, when new things have to happen, the rules begin to change. They may not be visible. My coming out has a motivation that I believe is divine. Permit me to say so. I am trusting that those things that define our politics will begin to mellow. If we continue to do Nigerian politics the way it is being done – war chest, stolen money or money that has been gotten from the devil somewhere, where you have to go and sign agreements and sell your soul so that when you become a governor or president, they put their pipe and start collecting their money back and you can’t do roads, bridges or provide light, this country will not change.
There are things that are important. Yes, if you want to do politics everywhere in the world, even in the United Kingdom and United States, you need money. But in those areas, it doesn’t need to be your money. It has to be the money of those who believe in your vision.
So, we may not have war chests as individuals but we believe that in the combined efforts of the people who believe in us and who are supporting our cause, we would be able to confront whoever that comes across us.
Secondly, I think Nigerians are becoming slightly wiser that money is not all. That’s my thinking. They have collected money severally but their lives have not changed.
Since God gave us this vision of Vision 2023 to birth a new Nigeria, we have gone round the country establishing a New Nigeria Group in the 36 states. I have had the opportunity of interacting with different people in the country at different levels – political and non-political – and I have found out that there is a yearning for new thing.
You could call it a true change, not the type of change that came in 2015. People are tired – north, south, Christians or Muslims and they are beginning to say, ‘this same people that come to us, telling us the same story, if they come again with their money, we will take the money but we are going to be more sensible.’ That’s what I hear. Will it translate to that? Only time will tell. But for me, what you need to win an election are as follows; an ideology, ability to sell that ideology to a critical number of people and the ability to network and link up with the stakeholders to be able to see your point of view or the value you are going to bring and then, to generate the resources needed to do critical things you must do.
So, I believe we have formatted ourselves and are working along these lines. I have a high level of confidence. I have gone round the 36 states of the country. I am doing the second round. The first time was to establish the New Nigeria Group. Now I am going to visit the political groups.
I am meeting with the party leadership at the state and local government levels, expressing my interest and letting them know who I am. I am not a known political person. That, has its disadvantage and also has its advantage. I am playing up on the advantage side. That’s why I am working harder than those who are known names.
I have the confidence in my heart that I am offering Nigerians what they have never had in the right quantities and proportion. The choice is theirs to make, either to accept it or not to. But at the end, the prayers of the innocent in Nigeria, the prayers of the widows and widowers, the prayers of the orphans, the voice of the blood of the innocent that has been shed ceaselessly in this country, has cried to God and I have the leading in my heart that God has heard the prayers and He is about to intervene in our country. And in doing so, certain unusual things may happen.
For whatever reasons, the governors are seen to be in charge of the political parties in their states, especially in the PDP. What is your relationship with them?
I have good relationship with them because I know all of them. We‘ve met somewhere or the other even before this time. Some of them have welcomed me, some are watching me and some seem a little scared. So, you have them in different categories. But my approach is to try and talk to every one of them and make friends of them, if they are willing to reciprocate my friendship. But I want to tell you one thing; I am not scared of anybody in the race. I believe I can compete with them, inch for inch, quarter for quarter.
The only thing I can tell you that I can’t do well, is to rig election or be fraudulent. I am not going to compete with them in those areas. I will do the right things and leave them to God and the people of Nigeria.
If we continue to sow the wrong seed, we reap corruption. But when a change is about to come, somebody must be the purveyor of that change. It may not be visible to an ordinary eye. It may be that I am optimistic while others are realistic. But without optimism, life is not worth it. We must continue to give people hope.
So, I agree with you that the odds are against us. I agree with you that we are the unknown quantity. I agree with you in so many respects but my counter argument, is that there is time for everything. Even civilisations end at the appointed time. Every product has expiry date. I have a feeling that we are coming to the end of the wicked ways of playing politics in Nigeria.
This country must change. If it doesn’t change, there is no hope for the future. The value of our currency is going down drastically. In 1980, N1 million was $1.58 million. Today, N1 million is less than $2,000. And I have not seen any Nigerian leader say, ‘gentlemen, what do we do about this? How do we save the value of the Naira from continuously getting devalued?’ And there is no compensatory improvement on the people.
That is why Nigeria is becoming poorer, our purchasing power is going down and increasing the penchant for people to become beggars or thieves. To balance your budget, now you have to beg or cheat, except you have multiple streams of income. Show me the Nigerian who can balance his budget depending on his salary, without extraneous income – genuine or otherwise!
My point is that Nigeria needs something different to be able to change our narrative for good. And I am offering that.
There is this charge against the Igbo of not agreeing with one another. Some of you are springing up in PDP. Are you thinking of supporting one of you for the race?
Can you tell me which nation or people that agrees – Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Ijaw, Ibibio, Berom etc.? Even if the agreement will come, it will get to a particular point for that, not at this time. People are just indicating interest. So, as many as can, should come up. But I believe in my heart that by the law of natural selection, there may be some consensus as to prime contestants. It may be difficult to agree by this time that it must be one person because we, the Igbo, are republicans.
I believe that by some mechanism, there is going to be a narrowing. If for instance we are 100, we may end up with four or five. What is important is let every party that is going into the 2023 election present an Igbo as its presidential candidate. Then one of them can be president. It’s not just about selecting one person from a particular political party. You cannot, for example, persuade everyone to vote for APGA or vote for PDP or APC.
What people who promote south east presidency demand is let every party present a southeasterner as presidential candidate. Then, one of them, who is probably the best or one of the best, would emerge. What we should rather insist now is that let more good people come out for Nigerians to make their choice. We need a good leader who can grow the economy, unite the people and unleash the forces of production upon our nation.
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We need to expand our streams of income. Nigeria has many sources of income. Everything Nigeria has is exportable. We have solid, liquid and gaseous minerals. We have agriculture. Every product in Nigeria is exportable, even as raw material, not to talk about processed products. Every Region in Nigeria has the potential to excel in specific agricultural output.
It is leading us and directing us, having the right sense that we need to harness every resource we have, both material and non-material, including human resources that we lack. India was able to move away from poverty largely from export of its intellectual power. It produces intellectuals for the local market and for the foreign market, making remittances to the country.
We have many intellectuals in Nigeria but we are not harnessing them.
What do you say to those that say they can’t trust Ndigbo with power, particularly concerning the situation in the zone now?
If they say they can’t trust Ndigbo with power, the question I need to ask is, ‘can they show us where power is given to an Igbo and he misused it’? Who was that Igbo that power was given to and he misused it? The situation in the southeast is the same in other parts of the country. They are parts of the national problem.
All we need to do is to sit down and address them. The Igbo is not a threat to Nigeria. The Igbo is actually the man who loves Nigeria best. There is no other nationality that loves Nigeria more than the Igbo, given the quantum of their investments in all parts of the country. The Igbo is the only ethnic group that goes to any part of the country, builds businesses, builds houses and develops it. Who else does so? The people building in all parts of the country cannot be the same people seen to be destroying it. That does not make sense. People are crying out of the sense of marginalisation, dehumanization and injustice. All you need to do is to determine what their feelings are and correct them. If there are misconceptions, correct the misconceptions.
Actually Nigeria is waiting for the Igbo to bring the people together and revamp the economy.
I will ask you this three-in-one question. How hopeful are you about 2023? Secondly, what are your worst fears for Nigeria? Thirdly, if Nigerians elect you as president in 2023, what new things are you bringing to the table?
Let me start with the third leg of the question. I will be coming to the table as the president that has the largest and biggest experience in leadership; actual leadership and more in wealth creation, in managing diversity.
I have led organisations that are multi-ethnically diverse. I left each one of them better than I met it. Talk of NECA, PSN, NESG, etc. I build, I leave legacies. So, I am bringing that understanding that the focal thing for any president, is development. If I become president, my title will remain president but my function will be minister of investment because I understand that what can make an economy grow is investment- local or foreign. And to create an investment haven, you must create an enabling environment.
So, if you are minister of investment, you will then focus on what drives the economy. If the economy is stable, there will be policy stability, security of life and property, and you provide bouquet of incentives that will attract incentives into your market because you know that it is investments that create businesses, jobs and projects. The challenge is, how do we make Nigeria an investment haven for the locals and those in the diaspora? I am going to bring that understanding.
Two, how do we become a truly export-driven country? I am going to start with what I call reverse tourism. You can’t invite any person to Nigeria in 2023 and get positive response. But I can take Nigerian arts, culture, dances, to the world. By the time we finish the tour of world capitals, we can earn foreign exchange in addition to marketing our tourism. So, by the time the country becomes stable and attractive, the people already know what they expect.
I am going to bring in a perspective that nobody has done on how to build the economy and create wealth, make us a productive nation and how to export the resources we have material and non-material that are lying waste.
We are going to have a paradigm shift in education. Today, people go to school and there is no planning. We don’t know what the needs are. We are just training people in different fields without considering the need factor. We are not asking questions on what they should be doing when they come out and where they are needed most. There is no such plan. We are going to take care of all those things and re-orientate our education in a planned manner to ensure that we are producing what Nigeria needs. The education will be experiential.
We are going to have a planned economy where everything is sequenced so that we can compete with the rest of the world. I am going to make Nigeria a global player. Our dream is to make Nigeria a First World country, not its current stagnating, Third World, developing or less developed world. I am going to give Nigerians a vision they have never had and build a country that will work for all, with no discrimination; no feeling of superiority or inferiority by one group over the other. It is not going to be easy but it is doable.
Hope for 2023?
I am very hopeful of 2023. If I was not hopeful, I would not be putting myself in this. I am hopeful. As I said, I came to this journey through a motivation that is beyond me. It is not an ordinary motivation of somebody wanting an office; not at my age and time. Something beyond me is driving me. I am optimistic. I also believe that Nigerians are learning their lessons. Nigerians want something new. They want somebody they can trust. My chances are high, higher than anybody else.
Worst fears for Nigeria?
My fear, assuming we don’t get it right in 2023, is that that may be the last opportunity that Nigeria has to repair itself. I am not a prophet of doom but the writing is on the wall. With what the youths did in the #EndSARS protest of 2020, you can see that they are organizing.
Other people are organizing. They are watching Nigeria, watching whether this atmosphere of wickedness will remain. When they are flaunting these names that are parts of the oppression they have faced, it’s like a tinderbox. Any little flame can ignite it. That’s my worry.
My prayer is that Nigeria becomes sensible in 2023 to the point that elections are free and fair and opportunities are given to those who have something to offer. If they manipulate it and put whoever they like to perpetuate their grip on the country, there would be difficulties. That’s my fear.
Some people who want to hold Nigeria as a cow that they milk, may try to retain the status quo. But if they try, let it be on record that they are ready to ignite fire on the country and that fire can be very disastrous for our nation. The way out in 2023, is to allow free and fair elections, let Nigerians select who they want to lead them, genuinely.
Let Nigerians be allowed to vote and let their votes count. Any attempts to abridge any of these, would yield catastrophe. And I pray very hard that we don’t get to that level.