November 07, (THEWILL) – Former Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly and one-time Commissioner for Finance in the state, Bright Omokhodion, speaks withAMOS ESELEabout the current state of the nation and other issues. Excerpts:
How would you assess the current state of affairs in the country, with non-state actors asserting their power every passing day?
Call them what you will, I think our country is being vitiated by forces and non-actors threatening the stability and foundation of the country. It started with the terrorism in the North-East, which looked like a skirmish but has turned into a conflagration as every part of the country is virtually feeling the impact of kidnapping, vandalism and banditry.
As we speak, many local government areas in the North-West and North-Central are in the hands of bandits. I think the Federal Government should heed the call of lawmakers and other stakeholders who have demanded that the bandits be branded terrorists so that security agencies will be able to apply the correct measures in dealing with them. They are not the same thing: banditry is like scout action, while the terrorists plan assault on the integrity of the country.
We have to be more proactive in handling the situation because every part of the country is being threatened by their activities. In the South-West and South-East we now have separatists and secessionists, with people called unknown gunmen shooting and killing people in the South-East. It is so bad that the Anambra governorship poll may witnessed the election of an unpopular government because the voting pattern, in an atmosphere of fear, may not reflect the general mandate of the people but political expediency.
Would you support the view that the country’s prevailing economic and political models have collapsed and there is a need for new ones?
That is truism and a reality for a long time, not even in a decade. When I worked in the banking industry, we used to have cocoa industry, warehouses and industrialists like Adebowale, who was manufacturing and assembling electronic gadgets; Dunlop, PAN and textile industries that employed a lot of Nigerians. They made Nigeria a great economic hub with Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt as economic centres of Africa. None of these industries exists anymore. They have been transformed into worship centres. We have become import dependent, a consumer economy. On the streets of many Nigerian towns and cities today, you find roving masses with no destination.
Who is to blame?
The lack of visionary leadership is to blame. It is like there is an economic conspiracy against the destiny of Nigerians. Nigerians are the greatest enemies of their country. Since we discovered oil at Oloibiri and abandoned agriculture, things have never been the same again for the country. If we had a food policy, for instance, and not make it look like we are dealing with eating, then we would have been able to develop the agri-business value chain that sees farm produce as economic products. Take palm oil, for instance. From it we can make toothpicks, vegetable oil, wine and cake, all of which we still import. That was how the Chinese developed chopsticks.
After importing cutlery for a long time they discovered that with a huge population importing cutlery was constituting a drain on their economy. By the time they developed a culture of using chopsticks, they found out they had taken the right step and thereby enriched the producers of their cutlery for millions of their people. When the government established the National Economic Fund (NEFUND) sometime ago, it was to give loans to investors. We interrogated many of the investors when I was in the bank, but the effort was sabotaged and the country started importing oil, wine and the initial investors and their companies stagnated.
When I was Commissioner of Finance in Edo State, I also had cause to visit the rubber factory at Urhonigbe, which used to produce fluid for tyres. Now we are importing tyres and brake fluid that oil palms can take care of. The point I am making is that the country must have a specific and dynamic policy for every aspect of its growth and development that is scientifically measured and supported by continued research. That is what developed countries do.
Do you think some of these issues you have raised can be taken care of during the ongoing constitutional and electoral amendment?
A serious country does not depend on constitutional and electoral development. That is why leadership is at the top and the masses are at the base of the pyramid of development. Those who think for a country are usually a minority. We have to decentralise power and restructure the country such that national development policy can be adapted by each region to which power is devolved. If we restructure and devolve resources, the various enclaves would develop faster.
You and some other prominent Nigerians have formed a new group called Eminent Elders Forum. Is it aimed at the 2023 general election?
No, we are not partisan or sectional. We are engaging in every aspect of life in politics in the country. We intervene on issues along the lines we have been talking about in this interview. Take the collapsed building in Lagos, for instance. We would ask about the building policy of Nigeria, who authorised and supervised the structure?
Your party, the All Progressives Congress came to power to solve three major challenges, namely corruption, economy and insecurity. It would appear they are failing on all of the promises. What is your take on this?
There is nothing wrong with failing. They appear to be failing due to the circumstances in which they wanted to implement these policies. If a foundation is weak, you cannot put something concrete on it. I am not an apologist for APC on this matter. Suffice it to say that Nigerians in APC are not different from you and I. Ours is a country that is not properly structured, where industries have turned to worship centres and there are no productive processes going on. Corruption is not about taking money; it is a culture. One of the greatest errors in our development stride in Nigeria is the lack of orientation and that is where the National Orientation Agency comes in.
The politics of 2023 is gradually building up. What would say about that as a politician?
Yes, 2023 is around the corner. It is very clear that there will be a change of guard and another person will come in as President. I would say that we have the opportunity to ensure we improve on what has been done so far because democratic governance is run that way. We must ensure that we do not continue to do the same thing in the same way as we have been doing so the country can continue to move on. We need change agents with capacity, capability and character so we can continue to see progress. I make bold to say that the country can best be ruled by people like us who grew out of poverty, excelled out of poverty and survived out of poverty. When I was commissioner of finance in Edo State, the only person that said I did not do well was someone who wanted me to open the treasury for him and I refused. I told him if he was using his own parameter to assess me, I agreed. We paid all civil servants and pensioners. Lecturers at Ambrose Alli University were paid their outstanding salaries.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
