Chukwu David 
Senator Benson Sunday Agadaga represents Bayelsa East Senatorial District on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Oil and Gas Host Communities. In this Interview with CHUKWU DAVID, he speaks on the country’s debt profile, diversification and the pathetic condition of the oil and gas producing communities, among others
Distinguished, when President Bola Tinubu came to present the 2024 budget to the National Assembly a fortnight ago, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, asked the President to do everything within his jurisdiction to reduce the nation’s debt profile. How possible can that be achieved when he has also asked the National Assembly to approve another fresh loan?
Thank you very much. When the Senate President made that request, he didn’t ask him to stop borrowing right now but that he should try as much as possible to reduce the extent of borrowing. But you know in every structure there must be a foundation, and for you to have a solid foundation, there must be stones to lay the foundation. So, at this initial stage of his tenure, the President needs money to take off, and we are also in support of the loan to be able to shore up the budget of the country. Secondly he is going to be in office for four years and for this first budget, he is coming with a loan to lay the foundation. We are hoping that in the second budget and third budget, the level of borrowing will reduce and Nigeria will be the better for it. It is a right step in the right direction.
The President told Nigerians that he was removing the fuel subsidy in order to save enough money for the nation. But he has also written to the National Assembly requesting for a loan. Is this not a contradiction in government policy?
Well, you should know that the fuel subsidy existed for decades, for so many years before now. So, stopping the subsidy for just a few months or one year alone is not enough to have tangible effects on the economy. The borrowings Mr President is going for, are for investments to bring up the economy of the country which is currently at its lowest ebb. The steps taken after the removal of the oil subsidy are a social function; social networks that will enable us to alleviate the sufferings of the people brought about by the subsidy removal. And that is why in this year’s budget, you are seeing it for the first time, that the capital provision is higher than other years, because for us to alleviate the sufferings of the people, it means we must have good network of roads and other infrastructural facilities; because communication is another area that is costing Nigerians and bringing cost of living very high.
Like in my place in Bayelsa State, trans- porting building materials from the State capital, Yenagoa to the interior, you pay two to three times the amount you paid for the purchase of the building materi- als. And so, it has become very difficult for development to take place. But with the upsurge in the amount of capital provision to work on our roads, construct more bridges, construct more culverts, to make sure that the accessibility of Nigerians to the interior is actually made better, I believe that the condition of the economy is going to be better. Government has taken steps to make sure that there are palliatives, to ensure that the hardship on the people is actually reduced. I think the budget has been able to touch those areas. We are expecting the best in this new hope agenda.
Nigerian economy has been in a depressed state for a long time due to near total dependence on one source of revenue, which is crude oil. What do you think is making it difficult or virtually impossible for diversification to happen in the country?
No, it cannot be an impossibility, and I have spoken about this on the floor of the Senate, that we need to diversify, which has been a lip service decades ago. I know that from the time of the late former President Shehu Shagari, they have been talking about diversification, but nothing has been coming out of it. A lot of people are used to a situation where you sleep and wake up and the oil is dropping and the petrodollar is coming in. So, we have not looked for an alternative to that. And right now, we have just passed a bill to make sure that the solid minerals sector of the economy is seriously looked into by the present Senate.
I am sure that so many other people are thinking in that direction. So, if we are able to tap our solid minerals provisions in this country, because we are highly endowed in solid minerals, then that will take care of our earnings and our economy will be better. So, answering your question more directly, diversification is not an impossibility; it is the will power to do it that is lacking. I believe that Tinubu, as the President of Nigeria, is exposed and experienced enough to think in that direction and get it done. So, in the 10th Senate which looks like a corrective regime, we are looking into that direction. Am believing that before the end of the tenure of this administration, diversification will be a reality in the country.
The oil producing communities in Nigeria have been subjected to serious environmental degradation. Does this budget make adequate provision to assuage the sufferings of the oil and gas host communities?
The problem with the host communities is that we keep on lamenting about deprivation and all that. Unfortunately, sometimes, when the Federal Government gave the power to leaders in the affected areas to alleviate the sufferings of the people, we too also disappointed ourselves. The Federal Government has been doing a lot to make sure that we are taken care of, but they are doing that in the name of trying to intervene in developing the area. Now, you discover that we have the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDBDC), Niger Delta Basin Development Authority (NDDA), we also have the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and then the 13 per cent derivation given to the oil producing areas.
The question is, how have we been using these agencies to develop the oil producing areas to the advantage of the Niger Delta people. I have just discovered recently that the provisions that they used to make for the Niger Delta Ministry are nothing to write home about. The Federal Government can not say, we have provided enough to the Minis- try of Niger Delta Affairs, to take care of the peculiarities of the Niger Delta, and it is not properly funded to take care of the people. You can not tell me that you have N13 billion for Niger Delta Ministry and you expect that much to transform the lives of the people. That is just for recurrent expenditure. You can not carry out any project with N10 billion even.
For you to construct a good road in the Niger Delta, will take about N200 to N300 billion, but you gave N10 billion for Niger Delta. That one cannot go anywhere. The Niger Delta Basin Development Authority too is not properly funded.
What is the way out of this pathetic situation for the affected communities in the Niger Delta region?
I think, what the Federal Government has to do in this present budget, is to ensure that those areas are well funded for the Niger Delta to have a new hope in this present administration with Renewed Hope Agenda. The government has been owing NDDC for so many years and they too cannot bite. The Commission itself cannot bite; it has been owing contractors for so long and for that reason so many contractors can no longer take contract from the Commission. I have a new hope for the present set of management of NDDC, headed by the Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku. I think he is coming up with a lot of changes, a lot of reforms that will actually enable us to see good things in NDDC to have new hope in it.
But in the past, NDDC has been a lamentable organization but the aim of it was to make sure that our peculiarities, the difficulties in Niger Delta are taken care of. That is why all the time, I have been saying that for NDDC to be effective, we must talk about linking bridges, building roads, culverts and all that. Those are the peculiarities of Niger Delta areas and that is why it makes it difficult to develop the area, and the cost of transportation in Niger Delta is because of this winging roads and creeks. It is difficult to move from one community to another. You can imagine that for me to move from the State capital in Yenegoa to my community which is a very short distance, costs me more than N100, 000 to get to my community.
But the speed boat alone will take you N100,000 with fuel inside. When you buy the fuel, at the end of the day you spend about N200, 000 to go to a place that by road it is just eight kilometers; but I spend about N200,000 to go to my community and come back. These are the problems of the Niger Delta and that is why the people have been agitating, and yet the agitation does not go to any meaningful level. Even when the government sets up these agencies and Parastatals, they don’t bite; they are not efficient. There are problems in them. Problems of corruption, problems of will power to develop the place etc, arising from Niger Delta people. These are the problems we are facing. Right now, the issue of this host communities, I am very glad the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has been passed and signed into law, and that has been the hope of the people.
That is why restiveness in the area has for sometime now subsided but for more than two years now, the expectations of the people have not even been realized. The PIA has not been fully implemented and so, the money the people are expecting in terms of projects to make sure they change their areas are not been carried out. So, I really call for the real implementation of the PIA because companies that are supposed to contribute to PIA have been complaining of ease of doing business because of the problems of agitation, cost of transportation and do other things. It is an excuse that the cost of doing business in Nigeria today is sometimes 40 per cent more than other countries of the world.
