INTERVIEW
Dele Momodu: Enough Of The Blame Game And Paranoia of Buhari’s Cabinet
By Dele Momodu
Fellow Nigerians, let us start today’s epistle with a real life story. Some years ago, a woman named Dr Kema Chikwe was appointed Minister of Aviation. Her mandate was to bring sanity to our insane airports across the country. It was as if we were a jinxed nation and nothing good could ever come out of our rudderless system.
Dr Chikwe set out on her mission like Henry the Navigator. She mapped out her strategy meticulously and elaborately. Our airports were as hot as hell. All efforts to tranquilise the place and make it habitable for passengers proved abortive but Dr Chikwe was determined to succeed where others had failed miserably and woefully.
At the beginning of her voyage, Dr Chikwe was supposedly rattled by a negative story that was aired on a British television describing the Lagos airport as one of the worst in the world. The problem wasn’t just about its aesthetic ugliness, the airport was totally invaded and ravaged by port rats who specialised in pilfering peoples bags thus depriving them of their valuables.
The Nigeria High Commission in Great Britain felt sufficiently scandalised and terribly angered by the negative but factual story. A message was promptly despatched to Dr Chikwe in Abuja requesting her to respond and deny what was considered a vicious attack on Nigeria.
As cool as cucumber, Dr Chikwe thanked the then High Commissioner and said there was no reason to respond to the annoying story. “Did the television channel tell any lie about our airport? The answer is no. Our best response is to upgrade the airport and even our worst enemies would have nothing negative to talk about…”
The Buhari administration has some great lesson to learn from the above episode. The lizard cannot enter a wall that has no cracks. Your enemies must talk and run you down but your best response is to stay focused and successful. In pursuing the anti-corruption war in particular, President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to step on some fat and powerful toes.
Such people would never wish the government well no matter its efforts. I would have been more surprised if everyone loves a tough and no-nonsense man like Buhari.
It seems to me that some operatives of the Buhari government are already getting paranoid and almost as neurotic as the Jonathan regime. Their reaction to every criticism suggests an unnecessary agitation. They are blaming real and imaginary enemies for the gale of attacks on the economic policies of the current government.
I find this very reprehensible. If truth must be told our economic team is floundering at the moment. They appear rudderless and totally confused. Did they expect anyone to praise them when the Naira is spinning and nosediving at a dizzying pace like a rollercoaster gone beserk?
Nigerians sent President Goodluck Jonathan packing because they believed he was incompetent and the APC and its candidate assured they had the solutions to the problems and the magic wand to the economic and spiritual hopelessness of the time. No one should blame them if they are grumbling that this was not the change they voted for.
The least we can do is to continue to pacify them while we continue to work harder at turning things around for good and for the better. No one is going to listen to the endless sermon that PDP or Jonathan caused these gigantic problems for us. That is stale news. Jonathan is gone with the winds and it is for the new government to demonstrate its expertise and that should not be too difficult. The confidence Nigerians have reposed in this government is so humongous that the expectations should be naturally high.
The biggest albatross of the Buhari government right now is the comatose economy. Buhari must borrow a leaf from medical science. A patient in coma is usually referred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Sometimes, near fatal ailments often require induced coma if the imminent fatality is not to become reality.
Nigeria must pick an option before it is too late. This fact is corroborated by the alarm raised by Professor Wole Soyinka who said Nigeria’s needs an urgent economic conference to arrest the present explosive drift. For me, another conference is not the solution. Nigerians are tired of the endless confabs with attendant communique that end up in the dustbin of history unimplemented. What is urgently required is a practical team that will proffer practical solutions that are practical to be executed.
When I raised hell about the scandalous budget last week, I was impressed when President Buhari responded by admitting that something terrible had happened and acted swiftly to fire a scapegoat. We need more than a scapegoat being fired though. We must also fix the mess which includes firing others who are found complicit in the scandal.
It is the same way I can’t feel any sense of urgency or desperation on the part of our economic experts in the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. It seems obvious that there is a kind of lackadaisical attitude on their parts while the Naira is busy dancing kpalongo on the parallel market.
May be the time has come for the President to wield the big stick in the finance circuit. What is going on is too disgraceful and unthinkable. If something is not done urgently, the consequences may be too grave for our country.
Instead of wasting so much time on trading blames, we can build on where Jonathan left off. Buhari needs to energise his team. They are looking weak and timid. I think most, if not all of them, are too scared to take risks and use their initiative. This is sad. No matter what you may say about Jonathan, his ministers were bubbly and vibrant.
They enjoyed some modicum of freedom that fired their imagination and temperament. The President needs to encourage his men and women to loosen up or nothing tangible would be achieved soon. Everyone seems to be watching and studying the body language of the President and there are always conflicting signals.
This lacklustre existence is always palpable whenever I see the pictures coming out of the Federal Executive Council meetings. The cabinet looks forlorn and haplessly dull. I’m not able to see a team at home with itself. Only the President can release his team from this self-manacled cage.
I wrote last week that the nation is tension-soaked. I wish to reiterate that an atmosphere of fear is not conducive for good business. There is too much hullabaloo at the moment about fighting corruption that may be counter-productive in the long run. The government should fight the war more in the law courts and less in the public theatre creating mere sensation without much legal substance.
Issuing threats on daily basis on the next agency to be probed is promoting hysteria in the land. As I already noted, the priority should be how to repatriate most of the looted funds. Nigeria needs every penny it can retrieve right now. This can be done with less noise and better efficiency and alacrity.
The focus should now also be on rebuilding our roads. I travelled from Ibadan to Lagos yesterday after flying from Abuja and could not help but imagine that we belong in the prehistoric age. Even at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, power outages were abysmally constant. We are waiting for the trains to run beautifully and efficiently.
We want quality education for the Nigerian kids. We want Nigerians to live much older through efficient Medicare. We want jobs and employment opportunities for our youths. We are tired of lamenting like Jeremiah.
I have no doubt that it can be done but this government needs to free itself and begin to fly. Mistakes would be made and corrected along the way. Such is life. The fear of failure is far worse than failure itself. It is time to fly more at home because time is man’s worst enemy.
SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO BEN MURRAY-BRUCE AT 60
Say what you will, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce is one of the greatest things to happen to entertainment in Nigeria, and Africa in general. My earliest recollection of Silverbird, the family business he leads, was as a student of the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University. Ben and his group used to invite top American artists to perform in Nigeria and took them to campuses especially Great Ife, noted for learning and culture.
I will let out a secret today. As an indigent student, I learnt how to do small business to augment whatever my poor mum could afford. I was studying Yoruba and learnt a lot about the traditional technology of Africa often referred to as ‘juju’. I exploited this knowledge effectively and used it to mesmerise children of the rich who actually believed I was a Babalawo.
Ben and his guys invaded Ife with those foreign bands, the Shalamar, the Sky Band, Whispers and others. My late friend Femi Segun was the one who used to contract me. I had a little shrine in my room to complete the shakara. Walahi, I made my little income and was very popular on campus as a “rain catcher”.
The last show I got was to stop the rain from falling when Whispers came as the shows usually took place in the open air University Amphitheatre at Oduduwa Hall. Unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs that night and I had to run away from the vengeful anger of the mammoth crowd. My mystic was shattered. That was the end of my shakara, and of course my business!
Several times, Ben and his brothers invited me to be a judge of the ‘Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria’ contest. I was one of those who chose Ms Agbani Darego, the first and only African ever to win the Miss World Contest. Ben has since grown the family business to a stupendous empire foraying into cinemas, radio and television.
The great Ben encouraged me to go into television years ago culminating in our lifestyle Ovation TV, now showing in Nigeria, Ghana, United Kingdom, USA and Canada. I’m eternally grateful for that inspiration.
My admiration for Ben quadrupled when Ben decided to go into politics and he has made an astounding success of it. His sermon about what is wrong with Nigeria and the solutions that he has proffered to some of our intractable problems have gone viral on the Internet. I’m certain he has a greater role to play in the affairs of our nation.
Help me raise a toast and drink to the health, wellbeing and success of this fine, upstanding gentleman, media entrepreneur and distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Thousand of youths and women in the ruling All Progressives Congress have endorsed former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as the party’s consensus presidential candidate.
To demonstrate their support for the party’s national leader, the group from 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory have announced that it will hold a national rally in the FCT on Thursday.
Speaking to newsmen, on Monday, secretary of the planning committee, Barrister Adamu Abubakar, said the exercise will be the mother of all rallies never seen in the history of the country.
According to him, the youths and women across the northern states and the FCT will converge in the nation’s capital in their numbers.
He said the march will culminate at the Aso Villa where Tinubu will be presented to President Muhammadu Buhari as his successor.
Abubakar said the choice of Tinubu was due to his incredible pedigree, experience and resume.
He noted that the former Lagos Governor is respected and widely accepted, especially in the north where he is only second to President Buhari in terms of cult-followership.
Abubakar added that the APC leader will sustain infrastructural strides, economic reforms and other remarkable legacies of the president.
He, however, enjoined other youths and women from the north to throw their weight behind Tinubu.
’ APC Candidate Tinubu In Abuja
Thousand of youths and women in the ruling All Progressives Congress have endorsed former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as the party’s consensus presidential candidate.
To demonstrate their support for the party’s national leader, the group from 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory have announced that it will hold a national rally in the FCT on Thursday.
Speaking to newsmen, on Monday, secretary of the planning committee, Barrister Adamu Abubakar, said the exercise will be the mother of all rallies never seen in the history of the country.
According to him, the youths and women across the northern states and the FCT will converge in the nation’s capital in their numbers.
He said the march will culminate at the Aso Villa where Tinubu will be presented to President Muhammadu Buhari as his successor.
Abubakar said the choice of Tinubu was due to his incredible pedigree, experience and resume.
He noted that the former Lagos Governor is respected and widely accepted, especially in the north where he is only second to President Buhari in terms of cult-followership.
Abubakar added that the APC leader will sustain infrastructural strides, economic reforms and other remarkable legacies of the president.
He, however, enjoined other youths and women from the north to throw their weight behind Tinubu.
INTERVIEW
Army chief speaks on insurgency war: We’re not constrained by manpower, equipment – Buratai
Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust on Sunday spoke on how his troops are winning the war against terrorism in Nigeria, the strategies employed by the insurgents, the preparedness of the Nigerian military to tackle the ISWAP and other security issues bedevilling the country.
We understand that you visited the National Assembly, together with your colleagues in other security agencies. What’s the outcome of the discussion, and what necessitated it?
You are very much aware of the hues and cries over insecurity across the country, the seemingly resurgence of Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East, kidnappings and banditry in the North-West, and some other criminal clashes. This calls for concern. The government is very concerned, and in their constitutional responsibilities, the National Assembly felt there’s a need for us to meet and discuss these issues. Essentially, that’s why we were invited. And we had a very useful discussion on the security situation in the country, and of course, the way forward. The most important thing is that there is an understanding for us to address the issues. One interesting thing is that we have always been proactive. We have always been pursuing the goal of ensuring security across the country. We have agreed to work together, based on understanding, and for them to give us the support needed towards a successful execution of our mandate. And to bring insecurity in the country to the barest minimum. This is the key issue we all agreed to pursue; and let everybody go about their normal businesses.
We are aware that you are outstretched in almost all the states in the country; did your discussion address the issue of manpower shortage in the army?
Some of the issues of specifics are strategic. These are issues we would continue to address without even being prompted or getting unnecessary tension or misunderstanding. These are issues that have to do with strategic and operational issues. The issue of internal security is not primarily the responsibility of the military; we are called in to support the police, and that is the grand norm. We always come in to support the police, and we are doing that.
The issue of manpower is something we have always addressed as it comes. There is a difference between the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and now. So we would not see the issue of manpower as anything that has to do with fighting insecurity. This is because we have so many force multipliers that would facilitate whatever shortcoming we have in manpower. And that’s very important. The issue of manpower is not something you would start today, and tomorrow you say you have sufficient.
It requires time to train and equip the person you trained, as well as organise further training, which is the most important aspect of it. Anybody can have basic training for one week, two weeks, one month, six months, but that is not enough. So personally, I don’t see the issue of manpower as something that is too critical to affect what we are doing on the ground. But it is important. If we are relating insecurity to manpower we may not get the solution, but it is important.
We understand that there is difficulty in getting the required equipment, especially from foreign countries, is it also affecting the capability of the troops in fighting insurgents and other operations across the country?
Like the issue of manpower, equipment are very important and quite strategic. We can have all the equipment we need, you can also have all the resources you need to fight insurgency or any war, but if you don’t utilise it well you cannot achieve the needed results. People are talking about equipment and relating it to the resurgence of insecurity; they are also linking both equipment and manpower to the resurgence of insecurity.
This has always been the issue. If there are challenges that crop up at a time, people complain that equipment and troops are not enough. This has always been the trend. I am not saying that these are not the issues; they are quite cogent and important, but we have achieved so much with the present level of equipment we have. From 2015 till date, we have achieved a lot. Let’s cast our minds back to 2015 and 2014 and you would see the extent of damage that Boko Haram was doing. But when we entered 2015, 2016, 2017 you can see that the level of apprehension virtually fizzled out. Your correspondent in Maiduguri cannot say the same thing in 2015 is obtainable today.
He can say the same thing for Damaturu, Mubi, Gwoza, Buni Yadi and so many other places. We achieved that with the same equipment we have. The point is that we are not fighting a regular adversary; we are fighting an irregular enemy. Even the United States, one of the world’s super powers, with all the array of arsenal and equipment in their inventory, cannot say they would win every war.
When it goes to asymmetric and non-conventional warfare, this is what we are facing. Surely, we need more equipment, including booths on the ground. Those are the basics and very important, but we must follow it up with training. We must do tactical and communication training.
We must also get training on equipment and troops operations. We must also get those force multipliers like intelligence equipment, drones, surveillance equipment. Then we have support from the Air Force, the police and government. These are force multipliers and all factors that will lead to success.
We also need support from the press, so you don’t talk of tactical issues. We relay such issues that are organizational, and strictly remain within that narrow perspective, to say this is the cause of the issues, or this is the cause of the insurgency, or this is the cause of the insecurity we are facing. It is far beyond that. As strategists we must always find the way and look for the means to achieve our goals. These are critical.
We are here as strategic leaders, we are not talking of the equipment, we are not talking of manpower, but they are also very critical. What we are doing is to prioritise the men on ground. We prioritise the deployment of equipment, then we now talk of the best use of the space we have. That is what we have been doing, and that is what has brought us to this stage. Yes, on pedestrian interpretation you would just be talking about manpower and equipment, but we are missing the main point, which is critical. We need them in a good number, we need them sufficiently to be deployed to cover key areas. But we must train, which is very important. And we have been doing that, as far as I am concerned.
You don’t believe there is resurgence?
It is a minimal resurgence. If you say resurgence, it means in the overall perspective that you guys cannot even stay here. Nobody would stay in Maiduguri. So tell me the intensity of resurgence and in what perspective. I just came back from Maiduguri last week. You may have watched the documentary. In the same period I opened the road from Maiduguri to Damboa and Biu, but social media was saying no road was safe in the whole of Borno State.
We are relying so much on terrorist propaganda. It is bad to kill one person, but the rate at which the propaganda goes out is so alarming. Go to Maiduguri today, nobody is bothering himself. If commuters are attacked on the road, the whole world would hear it and it would overshadow every other peaceful moment enjoyed this period. People are drawn back to pre-2015 challenges.
During that period, every day we had bombings in mosques and churches in Maiduguri; at times three to four times every day. But the attacks started going down. Yes, there was an attack in Limankara and Madagali; there were also abductions and killings by terrorists, but all those things are limited to Borno State.
Why is there a threat on the Maiduguri-Damaturu road?
In 2016 there was no threat on that road, and people were plying it. In 2017 there was no threat and nobody asked that question. In 2018 there was no issue of abduction along that road and nobody would ask that question. It was the same thing in 2019 until around December/January when they started attacking. But people have not asked why that road has not been closed. All these years, there was no threat to anybody on that road; it is only within these three months that everybody is raising the alarm, and it has overshadowed previous efforts, even the ongoing efforts in other places.
When we introduced this Super Camp concept we had some opposition. I don’t know why anybody would be interested in operational or tactical issues. You are not a military man or tactician; you are not a strategist in military doctrine, but suddenly a strategy was adopted and you said no. When we adopted this Super Camp strategy, we were completely in a different mode of operation and needed to realign and redeploy our troops, units and formations to those identified gaps. It took us time to identify these gaps. When we bridged those gaps, a seemingly peaceful road is no longer tenable to the Boko Haram terrorists.
It caused a serious threat to their activities. They were used to crossing and moving about, but what they are doing now is using abductions to force the troops to leave that area. They are no longer finding it easy, but they would do anything possible to dislodge the troops there. But as at today, it is not possible for them. It is just a matter of time.
We have gone this far since 2015 and we are moving. Insurgency is not what you defeat and it would just fizzle out; they would revert to other tactics. That is terrorism. They will promote propaganda, to the effect that all the institutions of government would be seen to be ineffective. This is what they are doing. They are exploiting the fault lines in our economic and political endeavours to expand the gulf of so-called discord and acrimony amongst various ethnic and religious groups. Why are they doing this propaganda, blocking the road and capturing individuals because they are of a particular religion? Unfortunately, they murder those individuals and send it to the world. These are propaganda strategies of the terrorists. You need to study the terrorist propaganda way of operation and see how things are. These individuals may be living with you and you would not know they are terrorists. They have a series of informants and logistics suppliers. They have a series of leadership strata that live in the communities and towns nearby. They pass information and organise those that are hidden along the borders in remote areas or communities who come, attack and go back. They also have a series of recruiters. Looking at it from this perspective, you would see that it is a complex operation you cannot wish to just go. At the National Assembly today, I said indoctrination of the citizens did not start in 2009, it started much earlier. And it grew until it reached that point where they took arms against the state. It is an indoctrination that has taken roots between 10 and 40 years back. And for you to de-radicalise an individual to bring him back to sanity, you think it would just take you three years, four or 10 years? These are people that were brain-washed to believe that when they die they would go straight to heaven. And you think they would believe in you to bring them back to mix with people they refer to as unbelievers? You have to look at this context. How long have all the terrorist activities happening across the world been going on? We must understand this thing. It is an issue of existential threat we are facing as a nation-state. When they were in Kano, Sokoto, Kogi, Niger, Abuja, Jos, Kaduna, Gombe, Adamawa and started penetrating other places, nobody took them seriously. We will continue to wish that they would not attack the next town. You guys can count how many locations they attacked in Abuja, including the Force Headquarters. Does it take a little indoctrination for somebody to load explosives and go to the Force Headquarters and explode? And people are looking at it as merely between the military and insurgents. It is not a war between the military and insurgents, it is between Nigeria and the insurgents.
Some experts are saying that if you want to successfully counter this insurgency, its leadership must be eliminated. It is believed that this would help reduce the confidence their foot-soldiers have in their course and bring the organisation down. There was a story that some of the Chibok girls were sighted in Sambisa forest. Last week, there was a negotiation, after which they released one of the captives. Since you know where all these people are, when do you think you would be able to eliminate some of the top commanders of these insurgents?
Decapitation operation is key; and it is in our plan. It may work, and it may not work. Look at Al-Qaida, a group that has taken attention across the world. All the anti-terror operations were focused on eliminating Osama bin Ladin, with the belief that once he was eliminated Al-Qaida would end. But what happened? We had several others that came up after him. It has not stopped.
Back here in Nigeria, it is the same thing. It was believed that when the leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf was eliminated (although it was not a government policy), the movement would stop. But another leader came up, Shekau. The Shekau group also split into different factions, and within the two camps they have been trying to eliminate each other. They eliminated one of their leaders.
Recently, Al-Baghdadi was eliminated and they brought up another leader. Instead of being discouraged, they have even been getting stronger. But that does not mean it would not work in certain areas. If there is consistent targeting of the leadership, at a certain point they just have to capitulate. But it has to be comprehensive. I want you to also take note of the difference between military operations and the intelligence line of operations. These two must work together. As far as leadership is concerned, our effort is still working on identifying where they are because you can say they are in Abuja; but where in Abuja. You can say they are in Kaduna, but where in Kaduna? You can also say they are in Falgore forest; which Falgore forest? When you say they are in Sambisa forest, do you know the size of the forest? It requires extensive and intensive surveillance arrangement, very good intelligence to pinpoint and identify all those issues. Nobody is resting on his oars. All these things are being done in search of all other captives, including the Chibok girls. The process is still ongoing, it has not been closed. These are issues that have to do with asymmetric warfare, counter insurgency and intelligence operations, some civil-military activities, and purely civil line of operations, which can lead to so many results.
If you are targeting the head to decapitate, you must have been on their tracks; how close have we ever gotten close to eliminating Shekau?
This is a military operation. Late last year, there was a report in which the Air Force bombarded their camps and many of their leaders were eliminated. Even the attack on Damaturu, about two of their commanders were eliminated. In Goneri also, one of their commanders was eliminated. We will continue to target them individually and as a group until we narrow the overall leader. It requires some intelligence.
As I said, this insurgency did not start yesterday; it started over 40 years back.
What about international collaboration?
Just recently, Chadians withdrew their troops from the theater; how is it affecting operations? There is this misconception that Chadian troops are withdrawing from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) operations, No! They are not withdrawing; the MNJTF headquarters is in N’djamena, the capital of Chad. The Lake Chad Basin Commission is also in N’djamena, so the mission of the headquarters and the command element of the MNJTF are all there.
The MNJTF usually organises operations periodically to identify a particular threat area and all the forces come together, operate and go back to their territories. This was done in 2016, 2017, 2018 and even last year, up to early this year.
They only completed their operations and withdrew to their territory. It was after Operation Yancin Tafki. So they are not withdrawing from the MNJTF. In the real sense, they were not here before the Operation Yancin Tafki; they came for a particular task. And they completed the task and went back. They are not blocking any other area. We had been on ground before they came and we would continue to remain where we are and do our operations without any external force.
Did their exit open a corridor for the terrorists to operate?
That’s what I have just said. Which corridor? They have not blocked anywhere, that’s what I said. They came around and were to go back around July. They left and came back around August or September, so there is no gap left.
They left some weeks ago and we have not felt any negative impact since then. Our troops are there and effective. The Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) carried out some major attacks in Niger Republic, which led to the loss of over 100 soldiers. The attacks raised the question about our level of preparedness.
What assurance would you give Nigerians that the ISWAP would not set root in Nigeria?
What happened in Niger was unfortunate. That area is the border between Niger and Mali. That place is one of the ungoverned spaces. It is a complex environment where there is a lot of movement and foreign countries operating. There are complex operations, with different types of militias, militants, bandits and terrorists. We will do everything possible to protect our troops and our people. We have to increase surveillance across our borders. We have to increase the awareness of troops, as well as the people, to know that any threat being seen would have been envisaged. We are in a good position to counter any of such happenings, and I believe we would not give them that room. We will try to build more confidence in our troops.
When you met with the National Assembly today, did the issue of your resignation come up?
No comment on that.
Excerpts:
Q: Something must have inspired and motivated you to run for office of governor, why are you joining the race?
A: Politics for me, in business and in my career, I was a banker for 16 plus years and banking for was a profession but politics for me is a career, it will seem like the only reason I was born was to fulfill a purpose in politics and I will give you the reasons for that.
From the time I was born until when I became conscious of events around me about the time that the military had take over power and I grew up in that system seeing it through, coming out from the election of June 12 and that was my first inspiration into politics. I was inspired by the race of MKO Abiola campaigning vigorously across the country and that inspired me and gave me the attraction to retail politics. So the best place you can find me is talking to our people, it is the best thing I love to do politically.
Coming down to the 2019 elections at the governorship level, I started off my politics campaigning to go to the National Assembly in 2011; I was the candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the present Governor of Cross River
State was the candidate of the PDP to the senate in the same election and from that time till now I have not put myself forward to contest elections.
As this season was approaching a lot of friends called me and thought that I should put myself forward and in 2015 the same happened but I had a sad event of the loss of my wife, my friends also came to me in 2015 and asked me to seek the APC nomination after we have informed the founding father of the APC, asked me to join the race to contest for governorship including the leaders of APC in our zone. I was interested then but because of my personal loss I couldn’t get involved in the elections of 2015.
So as 2019 circle was coming around a lot of friends gathered again and they started encouraging me and I looked at it and said well, if other people believe that I can do this, it surely means that with all of us together, together we will and I said to myself together we will do it, by myself alone I might just be one person alone you may be limited, by my resources and ability but with all these people who think that I have something to offer, I can actually come and help carry the touch and shine the light to 2019.
Cross Rivers state is a state that is in the middle of a lot of issues; the PDP has been in government in that state since 1999 and this election is the very first election where we will likely end the PDP rule in Cross River State. So I come into the race not as somebody from northern or southern or central Cross River, I come into the race not as somebody who is here for APC or PDP, I come into the race as somebody who is the from the root of Cross River, who comes from the future of our society, community and for our children and for our children’s children, I come so that we can get things right.
So the people of Cross River must start thinking that we need a different kind of leader if we want a difference in our lives, so this is what has inspired me.
So I think that for us in Cross River State, for us in Nigeria we need to look at beginning to changing our mindset, we need to look at changing how we look at politics, participation has to increase and encourage more professionals, more people who have come from the private sides. I come into the race with passion; I come into the race from the heart to serve.
Q: What do you mean by leader shift?
A: Leader shift is an idea about the way we have been running our society, the way we lead our people, the way we encourage people into leadership or the way we incubate leadership trait amongst our young people, we need to change it entirely because it is been wrong all along, we have gotten it wrong, it is a paradigm shift from the way we have been doing things.
Most people agree that Nigeria should have gotten it right because we have the resources, we have got the people but we have always gotten it wrong when it comes to leadership; so the idea is that leader shift is a new way of doing things.
So leader shift is a total mind set change and when we talk about leader shift it is not about the old or about the young, it is not about where you come from whether you are from the north, central or south of Cross River State.
But in the modern times that no longer hold water because right now we have young educated people scattered all over the state, all over the country and there are no jobs available to them; so we keep doing things the same way we have been doing them.
So leader shift is the idea that even though we have power, power is not the end in itself, we want to get power because we want to use it to serve the people, and leader shift is about service.
I am happy that young people in our country are beginning to realise that it is much more than that it is about their own future. Across the world who can change this country and that is what has made us to come up with the concept of leader shift.
It is not about APC or PDP, leader shift is a complete different way of playing politics. One of the reasons we have problems in our political space and in our country is because the country cannot rise above its politics. So we want to make sure that we begin to get the people who can actually drive politics in a different direction.
So for all of us we need to key into a leader shift, a mindset change, all of us, every Nigerian are situational leaders, I do not believe that there is a big man leader who sits there and everybody goes to him to solve a problems.
Q: Can you give us your blueprint because the public needs to know what this person has to offer.
A: I believe that the human development index must go up; so in the private sector we work with numbers, so we need to first of all create a data collection system. As governor I would know the number of inpatients that go into our hospitals on a daily basis.
As governor I would know how many children I have in school on a particular day, I need to know the level of truancy, I need to know the level of almost everything that is there, to change the system you must monitor the system and you must set target.
So even without talking about spending a naira, the first thing we need to do is to improve our data collection, schools should now that a governor can walk in, the hospitals should know that the governor might show up, the revenue collection should know that the governor can come and ask how are we doing it now and how we can improve it, so first we will improve the system by being there. So the reason I am starting with the ones that are easier and that will require me personally go there to do the job hands-on is where I will start from before I will go to the ones that you think where are we going to get the money because what we have in Nigeria now is high language, people coming and speak about what they will do, white elephant projects, that is the problem we face in Cross River State right now.
Secondly, is that we are now going to look at how we can improve capacity and what has happened in our state is that we have not been able to improve capacity because we did not improve capacity there are no jobs, because we did not improve capacity enterprise is shrinking, because we did not improve capacity agriculture is not going where it should go.
Cross River State is a state that is blessed with three major things; we are blessed with fertile land, we are blessed with beautiful environment that is where people see us as a place to go to, hospitable environment and hospitable people and that is why in Cross River State we talk a lot about tourism.
People say Cross River State is civil service state but truly it isn’t; if Cross River State is a civil service state then the majority of our people would be civil servants. Yes civil service provides the disposable income in the pocket of a lot of people but you will find out that there is any economic much bigger than that in the villages and in the communities.
So we need to build capacity and how do we build capacity, we need to open certain sectors immediately and number one for me is agriculture. The biggest challenge in agriculture in this country is the fact that we are not able to develop the commercial agriculture system that works well, the headache for most government is that how do you build a model that is sustainable, do you make it private sector driven, do you make it public sector driven, do you make it public private partnership, that is the biggest challenge, to find the models that works.
We need to make sure that we get people who are interested in commercial agriculture, we need to incentivize commercial agriculture to make them come to us and how do we incentivize it, we need to put in sweeteners.
We are going to build a mechanism that will be easy for the government to horn with land clearing because land clearing is one of the most expensive ventures for people who want to go into commercial agriculture. We have the topography that we can actually do our land clearing and make it cheaper to encourage people to come, now with commercial agriculture will now a bigger system.
You can come and say I am building a garment factory, to build a house standing doesn’t mean you have belt an industry, an industry is more dynamic, there are so many things that come to play, the market is the number one thing; if you want your state to be market driven, where is that market, where is the end to end of this investment, how is money going out and how is it coming in; so we need to build more sustainable models of building capacity. So a sustainable model of building capacity is to incentivize, people who are involved in commercial agriculture attract them and even give them more incentives, you can give tax holidays and things like that.
I also believe that Cross River State is a state where we can also encourage large scale dairy products. We can create credit guarantee schemes instead of delving and putting our hands into things that we do not know. We need to make Cross River State the number one commercial agriculture in this country producing foods that are required locally and to the international markets and we can do that by creating a whole value chain, we need to help to build the whole value chain.
Food production and food processing is very key but you cannot put processing before production. Production has to start in with the expectation of what you are getting then the investment will continue also on the processing side so it is an end-to-end thing.
Tourism is another area that Cross River State has a comparative advantage. We need to develop these resources. We have one of the best shoreline not only in Nigeria but in West Africa; it is one of the best that is perfect one for tourism, we need to go back and do that aggressively.
I have said that as Governor of Cross River State that I am going to give a guarantee 2years into my administration, we are going to operate a zero pot holes and asphalted roads.
On enterprise, I am one person who believes that we can help our enterprise by opening the doors of opportunity for enterprise and the driving factor in enterprises is competition, we wanted people to produce goods and services that they can exchange for value at a competitive cost. I am told that Cross River State has one of the highest percentages of young bloggers, and web developers who develop themselves without anybody giving them support.
So we Need to create a fund Cross River State that gives credit guarantee to such local businesses and we need to identify them and bring them out and we need to support our local entrepreneurs. So that was why when I was speaking Calabar last week promised that immediately I get into office I will set up a 1 billion naira credit guarantee system for local businesses and with that we believe you can get people who can employ between three to 10 cross riverians and we can replicate that in 500 different places and with that creating over ten thousand jobs.
So instead of me giving the support to the political entrepreneurs, political entrepreneurs right now we have over 5000 appointees of the governor of Cross River State.
Education how many students to a classroom, how many schools have roofs that are not leaking, how many schools are in the states that they should be. Do they have play areas for our children, what are the investments we are doing in the area of sports, what is our plan for healthcare, how many hospitals are well equipped, how many doctors are there to our people, can we improve the number of the doctors, what is a number of nurses that we have available treating people? The health centres that we have available in our local communities, what is the model, how many people are there looking after people. Vaccination and immunization how are we doing? Yes we have done well with polio but there are still many other things that we need to look at, nutrition, no matter how you treat somebody, if they don’t feed well they will not be healthy. So how do we make sure that our people feed well?
So you can find out that almost everything we need to do they are all tied in together.
We are talking about empowering the youth of our local government to be able to handle road fixes, the same works department will be able to do land clearing for commercial agriculture, the same works department will be able to open new roads even in the rural areas. So everything in my own vision for Cross River State is all tied together. It is a holistic approach to improving the lives of our people.
Q: How do you intend to wrangle yourself out of the party primaries considering the number of party contestants that you have, and four of you who have declared and there are still many orders.
A: The truth of the matter is that the 2019 elections is just not about being involved in the election, 2019 is a movement, I am not running the elections, it is a group. Cross River State leader shift is a group and it is not a group that you must register your name, it is a mindset, everybody who wants to see things done differently, it doesn’t matter which party you belong, it doesn’t matter which part of the state you come from, it doesn’t matter whether you are a man or woman, it is doesn’t matter whether you are old or young; if you want to see Cross River State change, it is a movement, so I am the face of a movement and if you are the face of a movement, can you be defeated?
I want everybody who wants to be governor let them come out, we will discuss the ideas, we will talk about what we want to do for our people and I believe that we can all go into the 2019 elections talking about money. I said it is not just about the big names, we are talking about the future of young people, the future of our children and the future of our society, so there is too much at stake in this election.
Yes we know that our politics is peculiar but I believe that by the authenticity of what we are offering in this race we will be able to win the APC nomination because to defeat the PDP and to defeat the status quo in Cross River State, we need to come up with an idea that is different from what we have stood for. I want solid ideas that you came with into administration that helped to shape society.
I am in politics because I want to write my name in gold. When something is the truth no matter how long you subsume it, one day it will come out to the open glare.
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