Hon. Babajimi Benson represents Ikorodu Federal Constituency of Lagos State in the House of Representatives and chairman, House Committee on Defence. In this interview with PHILIP NYAM, he speaks on calls for state police, autonomy for local governments, discriminatory practices against Nigerian companies by foreign concerns, insecurity and other issues

You recently sponsored a motion to check unfair business practices against Air Peace, Dangote Group and other businesses by certain foreign businesses operating in Nigeria. What prompted that?

My intention to move the motion was to ensure that there is fairness, justice, good conscience in doing business in Nigeria. It will be very unfair if there are conspiracies by foreign companies to undermine Nigerian companies.

What we frowned against is these companies coming together to offer predatory prices that are below the market rates in order to edge out Nigerianown enterprises. These are practices they do not engage in in their own countries.

It can stifle Nigerian businesses by reducing their prices and then they jerk up the prices. It is speculated that this happened against Air Peace. At some points, tickets from Lagos to London were selling as high as N4 million.

All of a sudden, a local airline came in and all these airlines just dropped prices lower than what Air Peace was offering. So, you ask yourself, why this sudden drop? Is it to undermine or get Air Peace out of it and once Air Peace is out of it, the prices go up.

There is also a flip side at end of day. Air Peace can also be added to that cartel. So, my motion was not to protect Air Peace alone but to protect Nigerians; to let them know that there are opportunities for operators in a certain industry. But to collude and whenever it pleases them, some will lower their prices, whenever it pleases others, they will increase it is not acceptable.

I am saying the Nigerian authorities, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) should also be watchful of this and make sure that if there is a gang up to stifle Nigerians, they should quickly step into it or do an investigative hearing, so that the world be aware that Nigeria is informed about predatory pricing strategies. Second, we spoke about Dangote because if Dangote Refinery, which produces 650,000 barrels per day works, Nigeria will work.

So, the authorities should investigate and find out if this non-sale of crude oil is not part of a predatory way of ensuring that Nigeria keeps importing and Dangote Refinery is left out.

The FCCPC should be alert to its responsibility to know that its mandate is huge, the mandate is to protect Nigerians from being exploited by these oligarchs.

The legislation on consumer protection is very robust. It is new; it is one of the freshest legislations we have. I think the law was passed in the twilight of the Muhammadu Buhari administration. So, I think the operators of law should ensure that

State police should not be by force… There should also be conditions; if you give them the licence and they don’t do well, you can suspend, revoke or you may not renew it

they study and apply the full essence of the clauses that are contained to prevent these practices. It’s a wakeup call; it is a motion to make them wake up to their responsibility and also know that the agency can add tremendously to Nigerian sustenance of its business ecosystem.

You have been applauding the military in its fight against insecurity in the country. Do you think they are really doing a good job?

I think they are doing tremendously well and I give super kudos to the President for ensuring that there is local government autonomy because security starts from the grassroots.

So, if you empower local governments to have full receipt of their monthly allocations, because they don’t have immunity like the governors, people will be aware of what is coming in. With that, the shackles are broken and I don’t think there will be any stretch or space in Nigeria that will not be governable.

When we received a report from the military, they told us that there are a lot of ungovernable spaces, there are areas where no single space of government presence exists. These will be made aware that this local government that is next to the border or whatsoever has received so much money.

So, it also behoves on the people to be wise in choosing people that administer them because if you do that, it is a game changer in my opinion. There will be competition amongst local governments.

It will also spur development if they receive their full money and people will be moving from one local government to the other because the local government chairmen can concentrate on their campaign promises, be it provision of water, infrastructure, be housing or healthcare.

So, I believe that financial autonomy for the local governments is a game-changer that will be the catalyst for Nigeria’s development.

There has been clamour for state police as a solution to insecurity. What is your take on that?

I will say that state policing should not be by force. If you want it, apply for it.

If a governor applies for state policing, the vetting authority, may be, the Police Service Commission or whatever agency should look at it and if passes, should be approved as a pilot scheme.

There should also be conditions; if you give them the license and they don’t do well, you can suspend, revoke or you may not renew it.

On insurgency; what is the military doing about the case of Leah Sharibu? Is there any update?

We have always spoken to the authorities. There has been a lot of intelligence that has been shared but you know those things you cannot openly disclose but trust me that efforts are on to get to the bottom of everything.

I also thank Mr. President; he has mandated the armed forces to also put farming in the front burner to ensure that all their lands should be cultivated for farming.

If there is food security, insecurity will go down. So, if the army takes possession of its lands, let’s say, they have 1 million hectares somewhere, there is not going to be insecurity in the areas because the land is going to be manned by the military.

So, we are taking initiative and by next week, we are going to call the Minister of Defence and Chief of Defence Staff to come and explain to us how they want to transform Mr. President’s directives into reality. Let members of the armed forces who protect us takeover all their vast land and let them go and cultivate it.