Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Former Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Prof Tam David-West, has taken a cursory look at the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last four years and pragmatically telling the government areas to improve in the second term starting on May 29.
He called for return of handing-over and taking-over day in every election year to October 1, as it was in 1979 and 1983.
The Senate just passed into law a bill that makes June 12 Democracy Day in Nigeria, as a way of giving a legal backing to a declaration made by President Muhammadu Buhari. How will you appraise the decision, vis a vis May 29 and your earlier call that October 1 should be the handing-over day?
That is one of the best things the Senate has done in its life. When I read it, I was so elated. If I knew the phone number of the Senate President, I would have phoned him. I knew his father, but I don’t know him. I would have phoned him to tell him that it is the best thing I can see he has done in his tenure as Senate President. Why did I say that? First, we must give the credit to President Buhari. But it is sad that something that elevates our nation should be so treated. The freest and fairest election in the life of this nation, General Ibrahim Babangida, for selfish and self-serving reasons, annulled it. I am surprised that nobody has done anything about June 12. Former military president, Gen Babangida annulled the election.
But at least, he can give it a rightful place in our history. It’s a great day in our nation. In fact, it is not only for Nigerians, it’s a great day in the Third World and Black nations. The whole world would say it was the best and fairest election ever conducted in Nigeria.
The unfortunate thing is that Olusegun Obasanjo did not honour June 12. Why? Why did Obasanjo not take the credit of giving June 12 the rightful place in our history? People say he would know better. For self-serving reasons, he didn’t do it. So, what the Senate has done is very good.
I have a caveat though. We should not make June 12 a public holiday in the country. We already have too many public holidays. I don’t think Abiola will be greatly honoured if we make June 12 a public holiday because he was a businessman. Every time we have public holiday, the country loses hundreds of millions of dollars in business.
So, giving a public holiday every June 12 is not the issue. I want to also see a physical honour for Abiola. I don’t want to be sentimental. I hope that President Buhari, in his second term, will also consider giving him a befitting monument in the capital of this nation to immortalise him. He deserved it.
With declaration of June 12 as a Democracy Day, and the legal backing given to it by the National Assembly, what will become of May 29?
May 29 should not have existed at all. May 29 is nonsense. It was Obasanjo’s ego now. He said May 29 should be the Democracy Day because he took over from military government on that day. So, what is very important about it? Obasanjo himself was a military man. If you took over from military government, what is so important about the day? It should not have been there in the first place. He did it for his own personal ego. It’s immodest and very inappropriate for him to declare May 29 a Democracy Day, all around himself. May 29 was set aside by Abdulsalami Abubakar to honour Obasanjo.
In fact, I am ashamed because May 29 should not have be mentioned at all. We should erase it from our history and memory, if we can. It has no place at all. The only day that is important, to me, is October 1. Nigeria became independent state on October 1, 1960. From the generation of colonialism, a lot of tough battles were fought by founding fathers – Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and Saduana of Sokoto, Mallam Ahmadu Bello. So, October 1 is the only day that I will suggest very strongly should be recognised. It should not be called a Democracy Day. It is independence Day.
Nigeria’s elections are almost always fraud. I do have the courage to say so. But October 1, has no stain at all. In fact, it is a day that the Union Jack came down. For the first time, we had our own national flag. In short, October 1 should be only day, to me.
America recognises July 4. The interesting thing is that on July 4, 1776, America declared independence. Americans said the day of declaration of independence should be honoured. In fact, America recognises July 4 as a national day. Nigeria’s independence was won; it was not declared. The Americans declared independence against Britain on July 4, 1776.
But how can Nigeria make October 1 its handing-over day, such that it will not lead to an extension of tenure of office for political office holders by five months?
If it extends by a few months, does it matter? Nigeria is greater than extension. We have used October 1 twice before now. Obasanjo handed over to Alhaji Shehu Shagari on October 1, 1979. Again, October 1, 1983 was another handing over day before the military overthrew the civilian administration on December 31, 1983. So, it is possible. We don’t need a law to achieve this. All we need is administrative arrangement. If it goes for extension, not long extension, adjust the time table and make October 1, even it will be for few months. What you are going to achieve is much greater than what you are going to lose.
What are the things you will prefer that President Buhari improves on during his second term in office?
Well, I am answering this with great humidity and trepidation. He is a very wise and an experienced person. I know very well that he himself knows what is to be righted. He cannot claim that he has done everything well. He cannot claim that everything is going well. He knows the soft spots.
But let me say for emphasis that security is very vital. The constitution is clear that the life of the citizen is a primary responsibility of the government. So, security must be improved. We have one of the best military in Africa. Our military has gone to other countries, even at United Nations, to fight, and they excelled. Why can’t we do it here? But the problem we face here is that you cannot fight insurgency like a war because you are going to cause a lot of loss of innocent lives. I think that security should be one of his topmost priorities.
If there is no good security, everything will collapse. If there is no security, you cannot build the economy. Should he improve on security? Yes.
Also, we have been hearing of security meetings by service chiefs. People are tired of hearing words; they want to see results. I know they can do it. I will not believe that they don’t know what to do. It is not for me to tell them what to do. They know what should be done.
They have made a lot of success about security and there is no question about that. But much still need to be done, and I know they can do it. I enjoin them to go ahead and do it. They should stop holding press conferences. I don’t want to hear so many Boko Haram insurgents have been captured; that doesn’t interest anybody.
Something should be done to secure the release of Leah Sharibu, one of the schoolgirls that were kidnapped in Yobe State more than a year ago. I will suggest that Buhari should take that as one of his priorities because it is sensitive. People may turn around and twist it that he is not so much interested in getting her released because she is a Christian and the president is a Muslim. It is not true.
On the economy, he is not the only one that can do it. A professor told me that if an economy is destroyed, it takes a lot of years to build it because it easier to destroy than to build. You can make policies and also make the economy to improve. The security situation matter can be controlled in an economy. The economy involves a lot of different part of the country.
President Buhari is doing very well in anti-corruption campaign. I will expect him to even do better. Let culprits be punished.
I was told that the Attorney General of the Federation set up a financial probe into one of our universities, which I will not mention and found out N5billion financial scandal, and some of the major players are in government. This is not good for him. I am not saying they are guilty, but they must be cleared. In fighting corruption, he should get a team that will work alike with him. If you have people around you that are not on the same level with you, you cannot make much progress. He should take hardline position on corruption. Anyone that is found guilty of corruption should be made to face the music to serve as a deterrent to others.
The other things will not be palatable, and the National Assembly will not agree. A salary of our lawmaker is too much. Salaries of our lawmakers must be scaled down drastically. I heard that a Senator earns N13million.
But how can the President go about scaling down the salaries of federal lawmakers such that the action will not lead to a major face-off between him and the National Assembly?
I am not saying he can do it. Have they no conscience? You cannot pay N18,000 or N30,000 minimum wage, but lobbying to get N13million on monthly basis. Lawmakers also want wardrobes allowance. Are they not ashamed? When they were campaigning to be senators, were they naked? Why do you now, after becoming senator, want wardrobes allowance?
I am not saying President Buhari can do that alone. Even in a dictatorship, it is difficult. But public opinion is on his side. You can set up experts to look at it, including the lawmakers themselves. They have conscience now. I will like to see lawmakers’ salaries drastically reduced. Another advantage of that is that if lawmakers’ salaries are drastically reduced, and it is not lucrative, only good people will go into government. Right now, people go into government because it is like a business.
The other thing that will be difficult but not impossible has to do with 1979 Constitution. I was one of the 50 Nigerians that drafted the constitution. I thank God Almighty and my country. We never said every state should have a minister. That was added by the lawmakers in the 1999 Constitution. And the 1999 Constitution is an offshoot of 1979 Constitution. We talked about federal character, that when members of boards and things like that are being appointed, show federal character. We never said at any time that every state should have a minister. It is very irresponsible. We have 36 states now, and that means 36 ministers.
United States of America has only 14 ministers and they call them secretaries. We are borrowing money from them, but we have 36 ministers. The number of ministers should be reduced. One minister per state is a lot. What if we have 40 states? Are we going to have 40 ministers. The secretaries in America that are equivalent of ministers in Nigeria earn much less than the ministers in Nigeria. I read somewhere in the newspaper that a secretary’s wife was going to take a job so that she could make up to run the family. Can you imagine a lawmaker’s wife in Nigeria going to take a job?
This is why I said the reduction can be done. It is a matter of amending the constitution. The way to amend the constitution is clear. He (Buhari) cannot do not alone. But he can get some bodies together, and if they agree, they can amend the constitution. To change any article of the constitution, you must get two-third majority of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as two-third majority of Houses of Assembly at the state level. If the lawmakers come together and you can get two-third majority to support the reduction in salaries, it can be done.
There is an apprehension that the pump price of petroleum may be increased before the end of the year based on unstable price of crude oil in the international market. What is your take on this?
It is crazy. If price of crude oil is increasing, on the contrary we should make our price to fall. We are talking about refined products. If the price of crude is increasing, pump price in Nigeria should be reduced. Some people go to bring refined products into the country. They base their products on world oil price. You don’t need international price.
Why is the price increasing? The price is not increasing because of market forces. I will give you a rule of thumb. Anytime there is a crisis in an oil-producing countries, price of oil will increase. It is a common sense based on supply and demand. For instance, Iran crisis is taking half of the market, almost two million barrels a day. So, the increase of price is a temporary matter. Increase in the price of crude is not determined by market forces. So, you don’t expect that there should be crisis so that the price of crude will go up. It will stablise again.