Former Minister of Commerce, Mustafa Bello has given an insight into his ministerial experiences under the then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, he spoke about the perceived third term bid of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He also explained Obasanjo’s leadership style and what people might not know about the former president.
What were some of your experiences as minister?
When I was sworn in as Minister of Commerce on June 30, 1999, I sat with the permanent secretary and directors of the ministry in the first briefing session at which I realised that there was indeed no Action Plan, and so there was the need to develop one using materials from the presidential inaugural address, the PDP Policy Document, as well as the Vision 2010 document of government of Nigeria.
I sketched what I wanted us to achieve over our first three years in office, and shared with the permanent secretary and departmental directors for input, including the chief executives of agencies under us. At that time we had CAC, NEPC, the Consumer Protection Council, NEPZA, Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, Tafawa Balewa Square Complex, and Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority. Some of these agencies were indeed inaugurated after my assumption of office as they only existed in law and not operational.
They extracted inputs from all these agencies, added value to the draft action plan I personally designed. To achieve this, I had to conscript all the good hands I identified in the ministry into my office as administrative assistants to the minister. Together we came up with the action plan, which I presented to the cabinet in 2000.
We immediately swung into action. One of the products of that Action Plan today is the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). When I assumed office, it was completely analogue or even pre-analogue; today it is a fully digital with astronomical capacity.
We similarly subjected the Free Zones Authority to a holistic x-ray that transformed it to what it is today, an entity that is self-financing. The Consumer Protection Council that existed on paper, we turned around into an effective vanguard of the public and today known as a Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. The Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority that also existed in law was put to operation and today equally self-financing. The Nigeria Exports Promotion Council that was equally inactive was given life through a Presidential Order that allocated 0.5 per cent out of the seven per cent surcharge collected on all imports into the country to assist it funds its exports development programmes.
So, in effect, I have perfected the art of giving life to dead public institutions.
What’s the trick behind the turnaround of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) from an invisible agency of government to a very prominent one?
When I arrived NIPC in 2003, I deliberately invited the NTA and said just help me, stand in front of the gate of the NIPC and randomly stop people passing by and ask them, ‘what do you know about NIPC?’ And right there, someone would ask, ‘do you mean NNPC?’ or ‘where is it?’ and, ignorantly, it’s right there in front of them. So, I knew we had visibility challenge which I must have had to address.
To attempt addressing the issue of visibility, I pleaded with the president to exclude my agency from those to be given nominated board members. Instead, I would recommend for his consideration names that would attract attention to the commission. He willingly obliged. So I gave him the names of Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia, Festus Odimegwu, Chief Femi Otedola, the big players in the Nigerian economy. I knew anytime they came around the commission, the press would gladly want to be around. The president, on his own, brought Chief Felix Ohiweirei to be the board chairman.
And I remember he was then sitting beside his late wife, Stella. He pat her lap and said, ‘Oh this woman will kill me if I don’t put a woman on this board. Later on, Mrs. Salome Jankada was brought in, and other institutional representatives.
Our major problem when we started was to scale up the Foreign Direct Investment or FDI capital coming into Nigeria. And Obasanjo had told me at the onset, that ‘look, Mustafa, even if it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, or at any time you have a serious investor and you think I must see him, bring him. I will meet him.’
So, we had this unlimited opening and access, and we had the trust from a leader who does nothing other than work, work and work. And we were streaming visitors in investment delegations to his office and he never showed any sign or indication that we were a burden to him or his time. I truly appreciated knowing him and working for him and serving him and his government. He had such a capacity that no barometer can measure. He has no equal at such a time. I must state that I inherited an NIPC with debt of N200 million in 2003 and when leaving, I left it rich with over N2.86 billion.
So many negative things have been said about former President Obasanjo. As someone who worked closely with him how true are these allegations?
Surely, it takes one to work closely with him to understand him well. But those who say negative things about him are surely ignorant or mischievous or both. Indeed every of our past leaders had similar insinuations, so his would not be the first or shall it be the last. One of his biggest attributes is that he is absolutely independent and not under the control or regulation of any individual or bloc in this country or abroad. This quality had helped him tremendously in his ability to take decisions relying solely on guidance and advice from his trusted lieutenants as his regulators and moderators.
If, for example, you take committee recommendations to him, he would look at it item by item, tick; this one approved, this one, no, no, no, not approved. If however you explain to him very clearly and give him valid reason he’ll say ok and tick, and when he finishes, he endorses, ‘above approved as ticked.’. He emboldens the confidence of those he trusted and stands by them always.
If you drop a memo in his office before 12pm, by six in the evening you will get a response from him. If you drop it after 12, by 9 in the morning of the next day you’ll get a response. There is no document you will send to him that he will not read thoroughly.
Could you narrate how Nigeria eventually joined the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) since you were privy to the goings-on at the time?
When it was ultimately concluded, I was not in the cabinet. But at the beginning of it, I recall that the then Minister of Finance, Malam Adamu Ciroma presented a memo to the Cabinet requesting for approval of Nigeria’s membership and payment of the dues to join the Islamic Development Bank. Unfortunately that day, some non-Muslim members of the Federal Executive Council, who misunderstood ‘Islamic Development’ to mean the bank was being brought in to develop Islam, objected to it.
President Obasanjo, at the council meeting, told Ciroma to withdraw ‘your memo.’ So the minister did as he was instructed.
We thought that was the end of the issue. Little did we know that the president had a different plan entirely. I was one of the few that followed him to his office some few days later to draw his attention on how sensitive the subject was and the need to handle it with care.
He assured me not to worry. On one of our trips to China, I raised the issue with him again and said, ‘sir, what transpired earlier had gone out and particularly the Muslim community was not happy’ and I advised the issue be revisited. He said to me, ‘Mustafa, I will take Nigeria into the IDB and whoever does not want Nigeria in IDB can leave Nigeria’. I knew that the case was finally settled. I thanked him for his commitment to fairness.
In his second term, there were changes in the cabinet and most of those who opposed were not in the cabinet anymore, and the current WTO Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was then the Minister of Finance.
President Obasanjo instructed the Minister of Finance to look at the issue again and raise a memo and she did and defended it very well. The cabinet approved and that was how Nigeria seamlessly got into IDB. I could remember clearly when she was asked by the media after the cabinet meeting on same subject, she explained that it was a normal financial institution just like any other. She even assured that the ultimate beneficiaries of IDB in Nigeria may end up to be those who we all least expected. That’s exactly what is happening today.
Obasanjo is courageous, bold, strong. He can be explosive, but if you can manage him well, get him to calm down and understand you, he’ll get along with you. And if he trusts you he doesn’t disappoint you. He defends you, protects you and stands by you.
But if you give him an iota or an inch or room to suspect you’re doing hanky-panky, you and him will part ways.
Please tell us what you know about the Third Term Project of the then President Obasanjo. I’m sure you might have been involved in it given the level of trust and confidence between you from your statements?
Towards the end of 2006 or early 2007, there were speculations here and there that started featuring on both social and traditional media that the then President Obasanjo might be considering finding ways and means of extending his tenure. And the scale was growing exponentially to a potentially reputation-damaging level of the integrity of the president and the office.
At that time, I and the then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and current governor of Kaduna, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i, agreed to meet the president on how we could mitigate the potential damage to his office and reputation that the circulation was intending to do. We went to him, as he was available 24/7 and after salutations, Nasir said, ‘Mr. President, who are your friends in the North that we can arrange to mobilise for you to meet and speak on this Third Term noise that is fast moving around, so as to bring it to a close?’ He looked at both of us and pointed his finger at me and Nasir. Nasir responded back by saying that, ‘Mr. President, we are serious!’ He immediately responded by saying, ‘so, am I!’ He then dropped his pen on his table and said myself, el-Rufai, Adamu Maina Waziri, Lawal Batagarawa and Dr. Aliyu Umar Modibbo should meet on the matter and get back to him within the week. We, immediately upon leaving his office, placed calls through to all the other three for a meeting in the house of el-Rufa’i the same day in the evening. At that meeting, there was consensus that if at all the speculations might be an existing or contemplated plan, it would not befit Mr. President as it would definitely dent his integrity and diminish his value and erode completely the trust on which Nigerians voted him into office in 1999. Indeed the decision then was that vacating the office at the appropriate time was more honourable to him than whatever other benefits the extension would bring to the country. As such, we agreed to recommend to him to abandon such a plan, if at all it existed or being promoted by some other groups to him for these reasons. We appointed Malam Adamu Maina Waziri to be our leader and the one to speak at that first meeting Obasanjo would invite us to later in the week.
Surely by the fourth day, we secured an appointment to see him at his house about 8.30pm and presented our discussions position. He agreed with us absolutely and directed that we design an exit plan for him, so as to help him use it as a guide and monitor implementation. We left, did as he instructed and requested for a second meeting, which we got on another evening at which we presented the plan and he thanked us and took away a copy of the plan to study. He then arranged a third meeting to discuss the plan. By the third meeting, he came with an enhanced version of that plan to his own convenience and at which the late Chief Tony Anenih was invited as leader of the party, the then Senate President, Ken Nnamani was invited and the Speaker of the House of Representatives was also invited, both of whom were not able to attend as the heat on the subject was brewing. Obasanjo directed the leader of the party to share the programme with these two arms of government. After this meeting, another fourth meeting was convened at which I was not in attendance, but I was later made to understand that it was indeed the final. After that, some of us among the five decided that we must do everything possible to save the name and honour of Obasanjo and our efforts brought it to an end as we saw it. That is the true story. nothing more, nothing less.
What about your family?
I have one wife with five children; three girls and two boys. Three of them are already working, each with a Masters Degree. The fourth one has now gone for her PhD programme in Chemical Engineering., while the fifth one is undergoing her undergraduate studies. Our investments in them have brought them out to contribute to making our country great.