New Telegraph 
…says govt borrowing for the right purpose
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Senator representing Edo North Senatorial District, has stated that President Bola Tinubu has taken significant steps to stabilise Nigeria’s economy, particularly in managing the exchange rate and curbing the widespread corruption that plagued the fuel subsidy regime. In an interview recently monitored on Channels Television’s Politics Today by OLADIPUPO AWOJOBI, the former Governor of Edo State and a prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) maintained that, despite ongoing difficulties, Nigeria is firmly on the path to recovery and progress. Excerpts:
Would you say we are getting the dividends of democracy under your party, the APC; also some people believe that we are moving towards one party state, are they right?
Nobody can say he has fought harder for democracy than President Bola Tinubu under the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). What democracy promises is not just good things of life; under military dictatorship, your programme; “Politics Today” cannot exist. Politics would be expressly proscribed and if you talk politics, you would be detained. The fact that you can sit down here and evaluate what the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is doing and you can dispute and analyse what he said on Democracy Day is part of democracy. The citizens who board ‘molue’ buses are not less important. What democracy promises is that rich or poor, learned or illiteracy, we are equal before the law and protected under the law. When I see people write the kind of things they write and discuss on the television and discuss what the government does either at the federal, state or local government level, that is democracy. It’s not just all about bread and butter. Remember that even dictators build roads, and bridges, they build airports, but what dictators don’t have stomach for is criticism. That is why Professor Wole Soyinka is fighting for the people and wrote a book; “The Man Died.” The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi was jailed in Gashua Prison, one of the most irritating prisons because he was interrogating military decisions, especially government policies. The late Beko Ransome-Kuti, an accomplished medical doctor, dedicated his life to defending the people. There are many like that. There was someone like Niran Malaolu that wrote an article that embarrassed the military government, he was jailed for life. So today, I am not aware of any journalist that is in jail because of his criticism of the government; whether at the federal or state level. We must take decision, it does not mean that because we have democracy we must not take actions. You can argue, you can agree or disagree. The power to govern was invested on them by the ordinary man on the streets.
There are increasing frustrations from Nigerians today, who think that the powers in the country have forgotten them. Don’t you think that Nigerian politicians should get to the hearts and minds of the people by doing the right thing?
The first thing, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and our presidential candidate promised them, because I was the Deputy Director General of the Presidential Campaign and I am familiar with the issues, was that if voted for, he would ensure that some of the key features in our economy that are causing hardships for Nigerians such as the exchange rate and fuel subsidy, which some people used to steal money from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) would be dealt with. He dealt with fuel subsidy on the first day of assuming office. That was an act of courage on the part of the president. A lot of people were making money from fuel subsidy without efforts and the government used to spend as much as N6 to N7 trillion on subsidy every year, which does not include subsidy for kerosene or diesel, just PMS. Number two, he thought of the children of the poor that are young and intelligent, but gain admission to the university, which their parents cannot afford. Now, the President, under two years, established and has started implementing the student loan for the children of the poor and even for the children of not so poor people. For me, that’s a plus. There are people who cannot go to the university, polytechnic or any higher institution of learning due to the economic circumstances of their parents. I can go on and on. The President said that we cannot continue to run local governments as if they are appendages of the state, but he doesn’t have power to issue a decree and he encouraged the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to go to court and get the Supreme Court to interprete the law. He ensured that local government autonomy becomes a reality so that the money that is appropriated to each of the 774 local governments gets to them so that every part of Nigeria would be able to experience some evel of improvement in their lives. So, today even if you are a son of President Bola Tiniubu, you can’t go to the Central Bank Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and get some special rate for foreign exchange and go to the ‘aboki’ to sell millions of dollars.
We are talking of the majority of Nigerians because many people are not feeling it…
They are feeling it, may be you are not feeling it more. I can tell you, I know what is at stake as a man who is always on the ballot if I say things that are not correct. Last December, like I always did since when I became the National Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Textile Workers, and based on our culture, if you are going home for Christmas, you must give something to the people in the village. So, I bought 50Kg of rice for about N105,000 last year. The figure has since come down. Even the naira you talk about, the figure almost went to N2,000 to a dollar, now it hovers between N1,500 and N1,600. So you can make a reasonable prediction if you are running a business. The President has granted tax review to assist small scale businesses. It’s not enough to say small scale businesses and the informal sector play major roles in our economy, yet we don’t have specified, and specialised incentives for them. Now that has been provided for. There are several others like that. Remember that the President did not inherit an economy that was growing, the Nigerian economy was under recession then, as we speak, even IMF, and World Bank, I don’t like to quote them because they are not the ones to tell us who we are, but our Bureau of Statistics has said that our economy is on the path of growth and development. I also want you to take time to read the lecture delivered by the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, on Democracy Day at an enlightened forum in Lagos, it’s very informative. It reminded us that the President came at the nick of time to save us from financial collapse. So if a country was on the brink of insolvency, and somebody has come to salvage it, what do you say.
A lot of people that are watching now can barely feed their families and the question is that what is the government doing to help them?
The fact is that before President Tinubu assumed office, despite the fact that out of the 774 local governments in the country, about 300 local governments don’t have the presence of banks, the cash of the people was confiscated by the Federal Government. The CBN declared their currency as invalid, but the president reversed it. So whatever they have lost before this government came in, they have regained it. What we can say now is that Nigeria is work in progress. The recovery is on, it can be faster, but no one can say that the situation is static.
A lot of Nigerians believe that not much is being done in terms of engagement with the Nigerian people by the lawmakers and they believe that having two legislative arms is expensive that Nigeria cannot afford it and that you are a rubber stamp National Assembly, what do you say to this?
You said that the National Assembly is rubber stamp, but if we start fighting, you will call us rascals. Can you tell me which law is wrong that we rubber stamped. If none of the laws that we have passed is wrong, then you cannot say we are rubber stamp. For instance, I have raised a lot of issues on the floor of the Senate, including extortions by Distribution Companies (DISCOs) in Nigeria. There are many decisions that have been taken by the National Assembly, both the Senate and the House of Representatives. You said we rubber stamp, which law is wrong that we have rubber stamped. Would it have been okay if we go there everyday and start boxing like Oshiomhole and Air Peace almost did recently?
What of the issue of external borrowing?
Yes, once the purpose of borrowing is clear and acceptable, it is patriotic to approve of it because this is not the first President to borrow. I will challenge you to name any president that did not borrow money. From former president Olusegun Obasanjo to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari. Even the United States of America borrow and the current bill in the country will push them to a deficit of $31trn or $36trn. We are borrowing for the right purposes.
