DR Kalu Idika Kalu is a renowned economist. In spite of his age, he is trim in appearance and sharp in his composure. It would surprise many people also that the former minister has a good sense of humour. How­ever, getting the septuagenarian for a press interview could be a herculean task owing to his busy schedule and strict adherence to daily routine. A teetotaler of a sort, Dr. Kalu once joked that if a greater proportion of Nigerians are like him, perhaps, all the pubs in the country would shut down. Effect was with the finance expert at his Victoria Island residence and he spoke extensively about his childhood years, his unforgettable moments, his style, the state of the economy and many more. Excerpts

People have been commenting on the one-year of President Buhari-led administration, can you tell us the way forward for the economy for instance?

First, we have to clean out whatever are areas that are still encumbrances and cleaning out may sound very optimistic because we still have major problems, Lets face it, the sooner we recognise those major problems, the sooner we can project in a way that people can put some money on our projections. In the area of security for instance, I have had to process my remarks by putting the issue of security in its context. I think we have to acknowledge the conference that had been organized compared to what we had in the recent past. We still have a lot of security issues and we’re aware that conflict resolution is the way to go, not necessarily the application of force. That means, we need to identify the underlining basis for security. Like in the Niger Delta, a lot of issues have been raised. I was very much involved with the Niger Delta Technical study sometime ago and we thought that the issue of how you allocate revenues, oil blocks, allocation and management of the funds are standing issues. These things have to be in place so that the people from that area can really have a feeling that some congresses have been irreversibly made as regards the things they complained about.

People are saying that agitations by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) are coming up because the agitators no longer feel they are part of the coubtry. What’s your take on that?

When you optimize your resources, you don’t start to pick and choose. Something is called IMF borrowing or World Bank borrowing or ADB borrowing and so forth. You amplify your degrees to freedom and then allocate resources to meet your needs to the extent that at any given point in time, this is the maximum you have. But when you leave that maximum from your own self-imposed con­straint and you are having difficulty meeting school requirements, health requirements, simple road net­work, water resources, housing and providing credit because some of these funds come to you at zero interest. so through then you can actually reduce the overall rate cost of funds for small, medium and large scale. You have to start from that major micro consideration and that is why they are interrelated. The whole dynamics say that you take the decisions that you are faced with, but what funds are available? You maximally combine all the resources available, then you begin to address your problems. A nation such as Nigeria, I know no nation has it all, look at what’s happening in Venezuela for instance, poor management. That is a major oil producer. They are on their knees and they are being declared almost a failed state. That country shouldn’t be near where people are talking about not having financial inclu­sion. We have all the resources and with all the re­sources, the simple term is leverage. When you have so much resources, you can leverage, maybe magnate from 7-1 from the cash that you have. We are talking about cleaning up the Niger Delta, having basic infrastructure, proper transportation and building institutional framework for the type of things that we see in Dubai. Nigeria can do it. It is not financial but management constraint.

What are the secrets behind your good look?

You have to say, to God be the glory. It is not my making. You can say it’s our maker, our creator that gives one a certain physique. Of course, there are varieties of this. For instance, you have a physique with which you are able to maintain your stature. If you don’t have pot belly in spite of the fact that you eat as much as others. Perhaps, you grow older, deciding whether to eat in a particular way, or drink in a particular measure. I happen to be one of those who never liked to drink. Left to me, as I’ve always cracked jokes, all the beer parlors would have ceased to exist. I like drinking within the social context; it’s just my own preference. Some people say they can’t get started until they drink a shot of brandy in the morning. I don’t like such urges. I probably would say orange juice or tea. Whether it’s tea or orange juice, whiskey, brandy or wine, they are all prefer­ences. The preference you have will explain how you look or how you turn out at our age. That is the way I can explain it.

Do you exercisie or go to gym?

I did a lot of sports in school. Unfortunately, I don’t devote time to exercising in the gym. It’s a ter­rible problem but I’ve always made a resolution to do better but I ended up watching television, read­ing, browsing on the internet, writing, than going to the gym. My doctors are not happy about that. They feel I need to do a lot more exercises. I’m sorry I can’t impress you with push ups every morning or walks every morning.

To God be the glory, that is my physique and it is my metabolism. I eat, I flush out what I ate and feel very hungry shortly after.

How do you unwind?

I like music. Since my secondary school days, I have been a classical music buff. I like good music, and I love to dance. I’m a very sociable person even though I don’t go out much these days. I party, I dance, and I listen to different types of music. I like country, traditional and highlife music. I unwind when I listen to good music. I can stay awake till 3 am in the morning, listening to good music. I love watching movies too. The only thing I don’t like is drinking.

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With has life taught you?

You should be smart enough to see what works for you. There’s an element of luck where life is relatively easy, it’s not a big deal. You don’t have to scratch your body in order to understand many things. When you study well and pass your exams; when you are professionally trained but all through, you are focusing on what is whole­somely productive. Sometimes, you’re not so competitive or enviously competitive but you’re fulfilled in doing things you are doing. A lot of people worry about other people; who is where and who is not there. That is not me. I’m excited when people are doing well. Some of our youths are doing so well despite the fact that we complain about so many things like the education standards declining, unavail­ability of power. I remember the management of a school coming up to me in Abu­ja, saying, Dr Kalu, please you must say this; you are to chair this seminar, please do something about power. Our grades are going down; results are getting worse because the children cannot read. Power is not there. When I was in sec­ondary school, we had lights out. I spent years in Kings College in Lagos. During our time, things were easier. Nigeria’s population at that time was below 30 million. We had schools and the standards were high. If you did well, you could win scholarships.

Your parents would not have to pay. After your studies, the jobs were there wait­ing. From the time I was in high school to my days in the university, I worked on three jobs. I was juggling from one job to the other knowing full well that I wasn’t going to stay there for a long time. I was going to the university and many of us were like that. It’s a totally different life. If we have spent a good portion of the money frittered away on the roads, they would have been better, broader and wider with conse­quent lower deaths resulting from car accidents and traffic on the roads. We should have had a much more robust security system. With the police, the military, properly equipped and housed, strife and corrupt tendencies would reduce.

Any memorable moment in your life?

They are so many. These are not what you can just share with journalists anyhow.

Okay I can tell you that when I was in the primary school here in Lagos. As a kid, you wanted to be attend schools that were champions in sports so I was always excited moving from one school to another. I moved from Ladi- Lak Institute, Yaba, to a school called Colony public school. Then I moved to St Judes Ebutte- Metta. I was in the boy’s brigade and we had a good band. I also had memorable moments acting plays in prima­ry schools. At the end of my school days, I secured a scholarship to travel to the US with a lot of people. I arrived in France and I was so busy. Dressed up in my three-piece suit, I missed my train and I was almost stranded. I had to move by taxi to the north of France to catch the ship just in time before it departed for America.

In the United States, I was a fellow, a hall of a fellow. You can imagine African students being in charge of all the white students. I was in the students’ parliament. I belonged to a political party. The students believed that I was so popular, they fielded me for election and I won against a white student. That’s another memorable moment.

How were your childhood years ?

I believe I had a happy childhood; I love movies as I said earlier. I used to sneak out to watch movies but I was doing well in class, I was always coming first in my class. If there’s a successive thriller like one, two, three, I figured out how I was going to make the three with­out getting caught. These were good movies. I come from a very large family. I had aunties, uncles, and anytime, I was at home, I would go from one auntie’s house to another with my friends, eating corn. I had a happy childhood moments. I remember talking to my kids and telling them jokingly, I am not as extroverted as you think in terms of exposure. The minute I mentioned that, they all screamed, aaaaah daddy, how can you say that? They were surprised. Then I said to myself, so these kids believed their daddy was very extroverted.

You have a good dress sense, what influ­ences that?

I come from a very large family. I looked at my dad as sort of a role model. Compared to people of his time, he attended a good high school. He attended Hope Waddell College and he was an officer in the army. He was administering officers in the British army. Just before the war ended, he went on operation to Ethiopia, Burma and East Africa and he used to reflect on his days in the armed forces. A lot of my friends marveled at how fluently I speak Yoruba, I learnt it in class.