Emma Okah, three-time Commissioner in Rivers State in the Ministries of Information, Housing, and later Information and Communications, is a Port Harcourt based legal practitioner and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party. The doctorial law student was also Chief Press Secretary to former Governor Peter Odili and was at different times, a columnist with National Interest and Sunday Sun newspapers. In this interview with AUGUSTINE AVWODE, he speaks on sundry national issues from politics to the economy, growth and development, down to insecurity and leadership. He argues that for the country to enjoy quality and credible leadership, the peoples votes should be made to count, among others things. Excerpts:
Last week, the presidency organized a ministerial performance retreat. There have been speculations of possible cabinet reshuffle. Do you see it as too late in the day or still necessary?
The ministerial retreat was long overdue and the self-appraisal by the government is commendable. The government has a responsibility to continue to assess itself with a view to meeting the expectations of the people. Speculations of possible reshuffle are not misplaced.
Arising from the retreat are obvious facts that some ministries are not delivering and would need to be overhauled by changing leadership.
There is nothing wrong with that but as a matter of fact it’s an exercise that should happen more often as the need arises until a strong team is firmly in place. Adjustments are part of leadership imperatives. The bottom line is that whichever way it goes, the interest of growing the country, developing the economy, enhancing citizen’s welfare, providing security and stabilising the polity should be paramount to any government.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have called on the president to declare those we call ‘bandits’ as terrorists. More than two weeks now, nothing has happened. How would you react to the federal government’s seeming unwillingness to tag bandits as terrorists?
Insecurity is one of the sore points of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. Ordinarily, no group, especially one identified as violent criminals, should be seen to hold the sovereign to ransom but here we are, the leadership, it would seem, is pampering killers, rapists and genocidal agents as untouchables. The bandits are inflicting recurring havoc on Nigerians and the federal government sees nothing, smells nothing and hears nothing. The federal government is not helping itself at all. It is not masking its bias for the terrorists who we call bandits that are ravaging the northern part of our country. It behaves clearly like it worries less. Sadly, when smaller infractions happen in other sections of the country, the federal government is quick to clamp down on them, send military after them and tackles them. It is in a hurry to declare them as terrorists even against reason. But when worse things happen in another part, the federal government goes to sleep and refuses to do the needful by declaring such violent set of people as terrorists.
Look at the carnage going on in the North where the nation is literally at war and so much money spent on military engagements, the federal government sees no reason to declare them a terrorist group. This is not right. This only shows who we are as a nation and the low attention we place on credible leadership over and above ethnic consideration. Therefore, to the extent that we prefer ethnic considerations and religious sentiments over and above the time-tested principles of building a nation, regenerating the environment to encourage prosperity for the citizens, standing up for a strong country and protecting lives and property, every talk about a great Nigeria is like blowing hot air, a mere lip service, deceit and a dream that may never be realised even in another 61 years.
The structure of the Nigerian state is faulty, wrong couples are living together and no one cares about building a formidable nation but region, state, religion and ethnic dichotomies. So who builds the nation without nationalists? Unfortunately, this disorder is beneficial to only a minority in the country while the rest of the citizenry groan in unending pain and agony.
While the South is relatively safer even with recent disturbances, the North is torn into shreds by terrorists who are beautifully called bandits. No country grows with such recurring structural defects. We should dress them in their garb, call them the names they deserve and talk to them in the language they will understand, apologies to President Muhammadu Buhari.
There seems to be interest in diaspora voting in subsequent elections. Do you see the call as practicable? What are the likely outcomes of such a venture?
Diaspora voting is not the most pressing problem in our elections although I believe every Nigerian should be entitled to vote wherever they are. Sadly, the process here is still crawling and has not matured to handle voting Nigerians at home, let alone the diaspora.
“The leadership, it would seem, is pampering killers, rapists and genocidal agents as untouchables. The bandits are inflicting recurring havoc on Nigerians AND the federal government sees nothing, smells nothing and hears nothing”
Institutions have been made weaker and any party in power thinks of itself and not the integrity of the entire process.
Look at the furore generated in the National Assembly and among Nigerians on the issue that is as simple as electronic transmission of results from the polling unit to the central server so that whatever happens to the hard copy would not materially affect the results. When you see people think with a mindset like we saw in the National Assembly, then you will weep for our country. Thank God, the Independent National Electoral Commission stood its ground that it can transmit results electronically despite the intimidation.
Only a few days ago, the Senate concurred with the House of Representatives to accept that the INEC should transmit results electronically where necessary. I thank the Senate but it is not yet Uhuru. In the general elections, 2023, INEC in many states will claim that electronic communications failed and so it could not transmit results electronically. In that case, the exception will become the rule as the manual transmission with its frailties will stay. That way, any concocted result will find its way into INEC and nothing will happen. So in truth, the Nigerian electoral process is not ripe for diaspora voting. Our mind is twisted and our goal is unclear. If we get the elementary things right at home, we can move to the next stage and consider diaspora voting. A child must learn to crawl and walk before he can run. The most important component of the electoral process in Nigeria is making the votes count. I am a politician and I am ashamed to say that votes don’t count in our clime. After every election, we simply manage the failures and move on. Until we enthrone electoral integrity where the votes will count and citizens will freely choose their leaders, there can never be credible leadership in Nigeria.
Reports say Nigeria imports almost 75% of her domestic gas consumption. Ironically, we flare millions of metric cubic tons of gas annually. Now, the price of cooking gas is out of the window. What does this say of us and how can it be remedied?
You have just touched a sore point. Is it only gas? The entire hydrocarbon industry is in a mess and designed to be so for the benefit of some persons. Growing up, we were told that a farmer who lives near the stream does not lack water to sharpen his knife. How do you explain the massive flaring of gas in the Niger Delta despite repeated warnings and promises to stop it? The oil majors look the other way and pretend not to know that in their home countries, such waste and pollution of the atmosphere can never be allowed. So who is the problem here, oil companies or the federal government?
Look at the petroleum downstream sector. Why are the old refineries not working despite billions of naira spent on their Turn-Around-Maintenance (TAM)? Corruption! Why did the federal government since 1999 fail to build refineries? Corruption! Nigeria is the only oil producing country in the world that imports finished petroleum products. The inefficiency is huge and patriots and many Nigerians are almost tired of talking. Every president comes, makes himself Minister of Petroleum, plays his game and goes home.
My take is that until we harness and process our hydro carbon, we will continue to live like paupers. Maybe we should beg Dangote to teach us how to be responsible. With his refinery nearing completion, Nigeria may submit to him soon.
Subsidy on petroleum products has come to be one of the major drains on our revenue. How should Nigeria tackle this menace?
Petroleum subsidy is the cash cow of every administration since 1999. As at Tuesday last week the federal government said it was spending N1.8 trillion per annum to fund subsidy. Meanwhile the cost of the Dangote refinery reputed to be one of the biggest in the world costs approximately $19 billion which is about N9 trillion. The irony is that rather than pursue the option of building new refineries, successive Nigerian administrations are comfortable with the goodies of petroleum subsidy.
Funny enough, when the poor cry over these anomalies, those we entrust our destinies in their hands also join pretentiously in wailing. Talking about moving Nigeria forward is exhausting and people are tired. For every effort made to do things well, there is more than equal force to defeat the building efforts. So it’s a case of one step forward and two steps backward.
Dangote is crying about increasing cost of completing the refinery. Why can’t Nigeria buy into it in the interim while it builds smaller refineries? BUA Group is doing one in Akwa Ibom State and if this comes on stream, there could be interim respite and some money spent on subsidy could be channeled to other things. In all, Nigeria should invest in new refineries; sell off the existing refineries which have become old and comfortable drain pipes.
Investment in liquefied natural gas is inevitable. These things are foreseeable and can’t be achieved overnight but require long term planning; and delivery on such key and gigantic projects take time. We have lost production advantages as there is low export. Naira is thereby weakened and cannot compete with strong global currencies. Why would the country not be poor when we cannot produce much? So we are our worst enemies.
October 11 was marked as the International Day of the Girl Child world-wide. What would you say should be done for the girl-child in Nigeria to realize her potential?
“Every talk about a great Nigeria is like blowing hot air, a mere lip service, deceit and a dream that may never be realised even in another 61 years”
The girl child is endangered specie and suffers all forms of degradation in Nigeria. They have become recurring victims of segregation and bias cultural practices, forced marriages, slave labour, prostitution, sexual assault and more recently, abductions and kidnap for ransom.
Nigeria can do better by eliminating all forms of discrimination against the girl child, punish crimes against the girl child with the severest pain, discourage early marriage and accord them equal rights with their male counterparts in practice.
Following the PDP NEC meeting, would you say the party got it right or missed a few things? And what would you like to see in the party as far as the 2023 presidential candidate is concerned. Zoned or thrown open to all?
The problem with the Nigerian polity is that it is over regulated. While I agree that this is borne out of the peculiar circumstance of our national configurations, it is taking too long to get it right. I had said earlier that there is scanty electoral integrity in Nigeria.
Votes hardly count and so everybody is doing one ignoble thing or the other to overreach the system. The PDP is in opposition and has to do everything possible to win elections now. It has adopted zoning in its constitution since inception. The Nigerian constitution also adopts federal character principles to entrench fairness otherwise the dominant ethnic groups will clean out the weaker ones. By zoning the national chairmanship slot to the North, the PDP is staying true to character but strangely it has left the presidential slot open to all.
I am an apostle of open contest but nobody in the minority, contrived or otherwise will begin a contest where he is already the loser. For me, let the best person emerge as a Nigerian president. I am only worried that we have allowed ethnicity, religion and selfish interests to dampen our objectivity and vision towards building a great nation. For God’s sake, the next president should come from the South and PDP is the preferred party.
What have you got to say about the level of insecurity in the country?
Insecurity in Nigeria is at its lowest point. The security agencies are over stretched. Incentives are non-existent. Now, there is hardly any region that doesn’t have its challenges. The North has been ravaged by terrorists beautifully called bandits, IPOB are kings in the East. Kidnapping and abduction is rampant, there are gruesome killings of Nigerians all over the country, herdsmen and farmers clashes are undying and what have you. Our highways are death traps as criminals now rule and speak for Nigeria. We need leadership that will look at criminals in the face and go after them in full force, like Obasanjo did to Oodua Peoples Congress.
Lastly, do you see a fundamental change in the polity by way of restructuring in the near future?
I don’t see fundamental changes in the polity for the simple reason that there is dearth of patriots in the corridors of power. Nigeria has enough laws to deliver good leadership but every president narrows himself to his ethnic and religious domain and treats others like they don’t matter. Therefore, those who have been at the receiving end would naturally clamour to also be presidents. That is why the Igbos cry of marginalisation every day in Nigeria. My notion of restructuring is that once we have a well-equipped, prepared, fair-minded and God fearing president, restructuring will be automatic.
