The outspoken Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Donor Agencies and Dean of the Faculty of Initiatives, Hon. Eseme Sunday Eyiboh in this exclusive interview with TORDUE SALEM of LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, speaks on the faculty’s recent roundtable on deregulation, the communication difficulties of government on the idea and other burning issues. Excerpt:?
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Recently, your group, ‘The Initiatives,’ mediated a debate on Deregulation, what’s your take about this?
First, we have to know that debate in the public domain on subsidy or no subsidy is purely politics. It is not about the knowledge of the subject matter. Most of the people who are competent and understand the import of subsidy removal and what constitutes subsidy are in the minority, but those who we are hearing their campaign loudest are those who are largely playing politics with it. This has nothing to do with political parties or religion or tribe. It is purely an economic discussion. First, let’s understand what subsidy is—Subsidy is a buffet for the citizens in various ways. But put it differently, what we are saying at the Board of The Initiatives, is that we are not experts, so we want to be enriched on the subject matter. We provide the platform for parties to come and canvass their own opinions and the outcome should be able to create better enlightenment, but sadly and unfortunately, government on its own part, has not been able to inform as necessarily as it should. In some instances, some functionaries of government could not even attempt to address this issue, which is very unfortunate.
So when you do it through a veil, nobody will be able to ask questions, because you don’t know who to ask. So we came out to do that, and realising that a lot of people have turned Nigeria into a buffet table, a minority though, but very powerful people have turned Nigeria into a buffet table. To some of us, when we first heard about this issue of subsidy, the first thing on my mind was, ‘what is subsidy?’ and after getting the definition of subsidy, then I asked: ‘Do we have subsidy in our economy?’, then I asked again: ‘which of the petroleum products is subsidised? If fertiliser is subsidised for example, then why is the farmer in Gombe unable to get fertiliser to grow his beans, why is the farmer in Kano, unable to get fertiliser which is very important to him, to make another groundnut pyramid?
If there is subsidy, why is the man in Niger Republic, even after discovering oil, still come to buy fuel in Nigeria, even when they have their own refineries? They have refineries, but they choose to buy Nigerian fuel, because it’s cheaper. Why? And if there is subsidy, why is somebody round-tripping and everyday, people are on the queue, pipes are broken and all that, so if you look at all these things, the effect of subsidy on fertiliser, is higher than the effect of the vehicle on the petrol. Because of this inaccessibility to fertiliser to the farmer, the cost of beans, the cost of Tuwo (cereal pudding) has gone up. And of course the majority of the population are depending on it, so the effect of the agricultural produce, is creating food insecurity, which all of us are talking about, so what makes fuel very high is that, it is consumed by the elite and those who are benefiting from it, are people that are contributing to the campaign that subsidy should stay. So we(The Intiatives) have not taken a stand for or against, but we are trying to enrich the discussion with facts and figures with clear evidence, that is what we aretrying to do. We want this economy to be stimulated, and deregulation or subsidy to us, is a reformed mechanism that can stimulate the economy by letting government restrain itself. Government is not supposed to be run by business. Government has statutory responsibilities, which of course, is about the wellbeing and welfare of the people. The regime of deregulation must also be guided by the responsibility to the citizenry. So, it is not total freedom to oil marketers. We felt we should come out to put this thing on the table for everybody to be able to come and interface.
The next thing we should go into now is the content analyses of the presentations. We want to look at the people who are for, or against it. Many Nigerians are at the crossroads, they do not understand what the whole thing is all about. It is very sordid by the day, as a result of lack of information. You have started seeing queues at the filling stations for what reasons: lack of information. There is no proper information, as a matter of fact, we were the first to come out with the facts, not minding the consequences.
There were attempts at deregulation with promises of palliatives in the past. A committee was even set up, led by the then Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu, yet nothing came? of it. Do you think the government can do it differently now?
I believe that before taking a decision on subsidy, there must be palliatives, because there will always be a backlash. So, the safety nets are what would cushion the effect. The next level we go now is that. What are the safety nets? That is why I am saying, let’s go to the next level on the content of what we collated and then, we engage government on what the safety nets are. We will pull them out of the shell and say: ‘please let’s discuss these things’, because the constitution is premised on the welfare of the people.
The budget proposed by the executive is silent on subsidy, and we are not told where the funds that will be realised from the subsidy idea will be housed. What is your take on this???
First, you have to tell how much you are realising from the withdrawal of subsidy or how much you are realising from this kind of saving, before you think of where you are putting it. When you don’t know how much money you are realising, how then do you want to know how much you are going to save from the subsidy withdrawal, whether it is 100 per cent or what percentage, only then will you know what you are channeling it into.
What is making government suspect is its inability to be able to come out and say it the way it should be and justify its action. I think the managers; the managers of information and Mr. President’s men, have made the communication field open. The government’s reputation is there. And in managing government reputation, communication is key. They have refused to communicate the way they should, so the opposition is going to take over the space and continue to have all these agitations.
NLC has threatened to shut down the economy Next Year if the subsidy removal regime is effected, what have got to say?
The NLC is part and parcel of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They are Nigerian citizens. The letters of the Constitution are to the effect that we the people of Nigeria, so members of the NLC are also part of the people of Nigeria. To now turn round again to ask otherwise, is a departure from the spirit of the constitution, so it is going to create hardship, insecurity is going to affect the welfare of the people, which is the kernel of the constitution. The Labour movement should be able to rise beyond that traditional activism into the realm of policy analyses and get to understand these things rationally, and contribute into the process of governance.
What about refineries, the government is curiously silent on that??????
Yes, because it is cheaper and more profitable to import fuel. Because if you make a profit of N77 per litre of fuel, why do you have to go and build refineries, because over twenty companies were licensed to run refineries, but then all these people they make more money round tripping. They bring fuel, they don’t even discharge it, they round trip as many times as possible and collect the money. So, it does not make economic sense to continue that way.
So does it make more sense not to build refineries?
That is what we are advancing to now. My worry is that government should guard against our moving from subsidy cartel to a deregulation mafia.
…But we need refineries
If Niger Republic is able to have refineries, then why shouldn’t we have refineries in Nigeria?
In Burutu, Delta State, a Committee of the National Assembly discovered that about 51 refineries were built there by mere militants, how come government is making it look like rocket science?
That is one of the questions we are looking into at the moment. It is a difficult one, but it can be addressed.
Education’s budget has continued to deplete through the years. In 1999, before Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over to President Obasanjo, the budget for education was 15%; it dropped to 9% in Obasanjo’s year in office, and continued to drop until 2009, when it was upped to 13% of the budget, but only about 30% of it was implemented. Now, President Jonathan has submitted a paltry 8% for education. What do you think of all these?
Government is truly said to be responsive, when the representatives of government at various levels are proactive, result-driven and have an agenda for government to fund. You cannot begin to fund in a vacuum. You cannot place something in a vacuum. If the managers of the educational sector rise up now and come up with very strategic plans for funding, this will be able to cure the embarrassment in our educational sector, but that is not possible, because of our leadership recruitment process. Recycling and putting the wrong people in the right places will ensure that the institutions will continue to grow weaker by the day, so is the output and the appropriation process. So, when you begin to have that level of input, the result is what you and I are talking about now.
Society will have to go back again to look at the leadership recruitment process, because institutions are almost witnessing eclipse, while individuals are now becoming institutions.
Can’t the National Assembly find a way of imposing a budget presentation timeline?
The Medium Term Revenue Framework specifies the time for presentation of Budget. The problem is the political will of government to carry out certain provisions. The question is: Are we conscious as a people, of the growth and survival of this country?
When you put all these together, you realise that our failure is a result of absence of proper institutions and the enforcement of rules and laws.
You are the Chairman of the House Committee on Donor Agencies and there are allegations that government agencies squander the largesse from these foreign donors, meant for development in Nigeria, what discoveries have you made?
I have seen some cases where monies coming on the platform of assistance are being diverted to private accounts and withdrawn. I have seen clear cases of contract solicitation by even the managers of such proceeds of assistance.
By January, we are starting our investigative hearing. The House has directed the Committee to investigate the issue of tracking these aids and assistance.
What figure are you looking at?
It runs to some millions of dollars. There are some agencies and individuals milking the respective agencies that they have authority on, there are some cases where individuals have contributed over $30billion into the Global Fund Basket, for intervention in malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. I can tell you that one of the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that was supposed to now be the drivers, out of the money, it used it for Forex Trading and we have facts and figures, which is going to be part of our investigation. Everything is going to public. We will take everything to the fore.
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