Mr Lanre Ogunsuyi is Ekiti State Commissioner for Information, Youths and Sports Development. He is an old horse who was a member of the old Ondo State Assembly. In this interview with WOLE BALOGUN, he spoke on various burning issues in the polity.
What is your take on the deduction of $1billion from the Excess Crude oil Account?
The Governors Forum is an informal body, not constitutionally constituted. It can have advisory role, but it has no powers to make laws. It is that forum that allegedly gave the Presidency the nod to perpetrate an illegal action. So, if you do not derive your powers from the constitution to do such things, it becomes absolutely Illegal. They said they would soon amend the constitution to such an extent that such illegality can be accommodated in the future, but until that is done, I don’t think that it can be justified. Today, it is on Boko Haram, tomorrow, if the Governors Forum is not checked, it would pass such illegality again which would be implemented.
The law is very clear on this and this has been tested, it was tested during the Tinubu versus Obasanjo time, it was tested to the letter during the Governor Amaechi Versus President Jonathan’s case; the Federation Account is neither a property of any tier of government; it belongs exclusively to all Nigerians. Therefore, it is said that all monies accruing to the account should be shared among the three tiers of government. I remember that the Jonathan administration was opting for an out of court settlement. I also remember very vividly that Governor Amaechi, as chairman of the Governors Forum then insisted that the Governors Forum will stick to the letters of the constitution which is that all monies accruing to the Federation Account must be shared and not saved. I also remember that the President at that time was making efforts to save part of that money.
Now, the Federal Government wants to use $1b from the Excess Crude oil Account to fight Boko Haram, how much is even the budget of Boko Haram insurgents? How much are the insurgents using to fight Nigeria? Does Boko Haram have a budget of $10m?
And the new twist to the drama is the one that the army is saying that the money would be used for other things apart from buying arms. America went to Afghanistan war and the total expenditure used was $500,000. We have known now that you can’t fight war of attrition by maintaining a full standing army, by conventional military operations. You can only fight by striking with some special forces as it was done in Afghanistan and in so many other places where we have wars of attrition.
We saw the spokesman of the army showing us two types of guns, an AK 47 and another an American gun! But we must also be conscious of the opponent; are we fighting people using that kind of gun that the army is showing us? If we are fighting people using AK 47, then why should we go for a more sophisticated gun? We have a full standing army, we have air force, they don’t have, we have the navy, they don’t have that. So, I think that getting such huge amount of money is a ploy to get money to fund the APC Presidential campaign ahead of 2019.
In any case, if you get a billion dollars today for arms purchase, you are not going to procure the arms in the next two, three years. Arms is not like Gari or fish that you get once you get to the market.
No arms factory manufactures arms in excess just for the fun of it. The Jonathan administration tried to buy arms from South Africa when it couldn’t get from the manufacturer. Note also that the international community is not also going to allow you to buy certain arms to fight insurgency because it is not a war. Even the U.S has seen Boko Haram not as a war that can be won on the battle field. What about a thorough investigation into the funding of the insurgency? This is because all over the world, financial institutions and financial persons are beneficiaries of war, as both sides warring borrow from them.
So, what we should do is to check the illegality of the action, check the strength of the opposition in this war but all that fall flat. Also check what has been expended on the fight against insurgency so far? All that has been expended so far is about N400 million since seven years Boko Haram started. How suddenly do we want to now spend N360 billion in just one year and how are wars funded? Wars have to be funded within the framework of the budget. You cannot spend money that is not budgeted for. It is a criminal offence. The government has told us more than a year ago that the Boko Haram insurgency has been technically defeated, so what is the need for expending so much money again? And also why extending the tenure of army chiefs who have not even done the job well enough.
The APC has said that governor Fayose would account for alleged loan of N56 billion he allegedly borrowed from 2014, what is your take?
Somebody quoted APC’s DMO, on that allegation. It is not the Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO) that said Ekiti or Fayose is owing N56billion. The issue is that as at the time Fayose came in, Ekiti State could no longer borrow money from the money market. We have borrowed too much. The previous government has signed an ISO that money should continue to be deducted from our monthly allocation and that is being done since we have been here. Over N1 billion is being deducted from our allocation on monthly basis and that is because we had taken a N20 billion bond, so if we go ahead to take another N56 billion, we will be left with nothing.
So, the talk about borrowing N56 billion is in the imagination of those saying it. Nobody is asking us to refund any money from DMO. We have told the APC propagandists that such lies would not hold. We know they are saying that because of the outcome of the just concluded judicial panel of inquiry on the misappropriation of funds under Fayemi, which they failed to stop at the court.
Very soon, we will have Ekiti State version of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. It has been established that the Federal Government itself has no oversight function over funds in the state. It is only the Assembly of a state that has oversight function over the state finances. It is only the National Assembly that can take over the oversight functions in a state in an emergency.
The Federal Government is to take oversight of its own funds, which are being stolen everyday and nothing is done about it. We are having our own anti-graft agency because we have zero tolerance for corruption. Dr Kayode Fayemi is advised to adhere to the letters of law to avoid being jailed. He has been given ample opportunity to defend himself against the shoddy deals he allegedly did when he was governor, but he didn’t show up. It is laughable that at the federal level, Fayemi is made the chairman of anti corruption and due process; that is somebody who refused to come and give account of how he managed finances of his state for four years.
Some have said that Fayose is happy that the South West lost the chairmanship seat of the PDP because of his presidential ambition; do you agree?
Everybody involved in politics has his own interest. If Fayose is interested in the presidency and not interested in the chairmanship of the PDP from the South West, why should he support the chairmanship agenda?
Governor Fayose is a leader in the PDP and more so, a leader in Nigeria as the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum. If you wanted to be chairman and you are from the zone he comes from, then you need his support. But you didn’t even seek his support. Governor Fayose’s constituency now is Nigeria. It has gone beyond Ekiti. We are showcasing him to Nigeria and the whole world that as a man fit and proper to be President of Nigeria.
He has run the state creditably well even despite the lean resources. In his first term, he left N10.4 billion Naira and didn’t borrow a dime. He rather paid all the debts his predecessor owed. Even now that things are very bad, you can see great strides he has done in infrastructural development. That shows Fayose as a prudent manager of resources. As for PDP convention, the election was free and fair and has been widely accepted by all members.