Nigeria Doesn’t Deserve A Questionable mandate

–      Dr. Kalu

Earstwhile Minister of Finance and later, National Planning, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu,is of the belief that if the forthcoming general election is disrupted, things could go awry. In this interview with Uzo Chikere, he bares his thoughts on the polls, the state of the economy and other sundry matters. Excerpts:

You served in past administrations at both the state and federal levels. How would you access the present Federal Government?

It is not always that fair comparing regimes. A regime takes over and a whole new set of problems arise. Every regime has its core priorities and principles; every era has its own peculiar set of parameters depending on resources availability and structure of the economy, demands of the constituent parts of the country, among others. Over the last 30 years, every regime had tried to tackle the country’s problems as they see them and the priorities may have different nomenclatures or different ordering in terms of listing, but essentially we are still facing the same issues.

It was particularly instructive that despite the many mistakes that we have made over this period, the rebasing that occurred recently showed that Nigeria is indeed a potential giant in the continent. In nominal terms, considerably more than South Africa, which is number two despite the fact that we’ve had problems counting ourselves properly as we should. Roughly we are between 165 and 170 million or more. The fact that we still came out with a nominal GDP (Gross Domestic Product) three times higher than that of South Africa, and where you see a state such as Lagos having a higher GDP than that of Ghana in a given year within the enumeration period despite all our mistakes; despite the waste of resources; despite the inadequacies of management; despite the inadequacies of prioritization – availability of basic needs like pipe borne water, power, housing, healthcare and perhaps jobs.

Our GDP can be described as one big shell fish with lots of trails. We have a large economy but that rebasing showed us large holes in the economy. So, every government has to try to fill those holes, and it implies creating more interconnectivity within the various sectors of the economy. Agriculture produces food, but it also produces raw materials for the pharmaceutical, textile and furniture sectors. If you go the oil sector, there are all kinds of derivatives. So, you are not just producing crude, selling it and buying everything that comes out of crude.

Those are the challenges that we still have, and if you have to judge the government by that, you will say that we haven’t done much because the share of the manufacturing sector outside oil and gas is just about four per cent. For many African countries, it should be seven times higher. The interconnectivity between the various sectors of the economy is still waiting to take off in a way to fill those gaps, so that we are no longer talking of import substitution but producing for export on the basis of our immense endowment.

So, there are still lots of task ahead and that is what structural reform is all about – to make sure that you provide the basic needs, so that all those empty cells that are filled by imports are filled by things that are produced locally. So, the GDP may not be growing or expanding as it has done but it is deepening and getting wider and the economy is that much stronger. When we are doing this, all these special programmes of creating jobs become mere additives on top of the basic things of providing employment from the so-called real sectors.

Despite the picture you painted, some people insist that there is need for change. Do we just need change for change sake or consolidation of the small gains already made?

I will speak my mind straight to the facts. We tend to focus more on the tangibles, but there are other intangibles, which are also important. We talk about what constitutes the pride of a nation, which is where you get the feeling that those who are up there think about those who are down there, and those who are down there think of those who are up there. In other words, whether you live in Badagry, Chibok, Nembe, Enugu or Sokoto that sense of commitment and equal protection under the law is there. We need to be more committed, it should not be what only members of the civil societies and advocacy groups should be crying about. The average citizen must feel that he is part and parcel of the society, and that he is not somebody to be brushed off the road or to be cordoned off. He should be a part player; he should be contributing.

These are what give him a sense of self-worth as a full-fledged citizen of any country. So, those are the things we should continue to watch and make sure that those who occupy positions of power are fully seized with their responsibilities to protect the citizens wherever they may be. As you know, we have very many issues on the table as far as guarding the lives and properties of citizens is concerned. That is paramount, so every effort must be seen to be addressing those issues that are important to the ordinary citizens. Government cannot afford to be complacent; it must be fully seized with the urgency of this situation.

Do you see the present administration meeting these demands, given the disconnect between the leaders and the led?

It is always easy to look up to those in power, but in Nigeria, and everybody will agree with me that somehow when you compare the level of expectation; the level of awareness; the strength of persistence to individual rights; the sustenance of the demand for equality before the law, you will find out that the two sides have a lot to work at. People have to be better organised. When they are better organised, they send a strong signal to those who need to change their perception about how to relate with those who put them in office. Talking about those who put them in office, this is the time to assert more strongly that the sanctity of the ballot box; the organisation and supervision of elections; free access of the citizens to the voting process.

In the past, some people had this funny notion that they can hold on to results and give them out in bits, but in most free politics, the results are the property of the people. You can give it to them honestly, and if there is a mistake, you can come back and address it and they will understand you. You don’t withhold results, create tension and put people under stress. You don’t announce result on a Monday morning instead of a Sunday night. People must know what is happening and when we demand to know what is happening, that puts people in power on their toes to make sure that they deliver. That is how democracy is built and nurtured.

What are your thoughts on the forthcoming general elections?

I feel very strongly about it, but it is worrisome when the news is more about killing of innocent children, women, soldiers, policemen and traders. The views I have expressed is that when lives are involved, that becomes the number one issue. So, the custodians of peace and order must take cognizance of the enormity of that and its implication on the psyche of the citizenry. To that extent, we need to consider very deliberately what our priorities are. Do we just stride on to have elections for elections sake or can we say that this is something we have to trash out. Invariably, when you take such a decision, the chances are that we can nip a more serious situation in the bud and avoid aggravating what could be handled in previous six months in one year.

I have always been skeptical, putting it rather mildly, the tendency to brush aside the enormity of lives that have been lost. Most nations cannot tolerate the loss of one life, but it seems we have developed a thick skin to absorb all these dastardly events. It is unheard of in most societies; one life alone calls the attention of a whole community not talk about hundreds of lives on a weekly or monthly basis. It does say much about how we feel about fellow human beings. Irrespective of the cause, the responsibility of government; local, state or federal is to guarantee the safety of lives and properties. So, we have to bring to a tolerable halt the insecurity in the country before a peaceful contestation in politics.

Does this mean that you are on the same page with those who are advocating for a shift of the general election?

One cannot be holier than thou on this issue. One has to be practical; I have been saying this for some time now that we really need to consider it. In the meantime, you get the impression that things are going into a lull and you say that life must go on; that most societies have gone through this and so life must go on. But life goes on for those who are alive; it doesn’t even go on for those who are in hospitals. That is why I said that it is not something one person will say this is what we have to do. By the time we gather leaders who regard power as transient; those who see that power is held in custody for the people, and they reason that given the seriousness of the situation at hand, what do we do? There have been allegations that we missed some clues; probably we could have had some honest help and that we could have had a better understanding if we had sought the views of everybody involved. What is happening is really outrageous.

On a personal note, would you support a shift of the polls because of the security situation?

I am not sure that I can come out to say that, but if you ask most Nigerians, they need the comfort that they are fully mobilized to contain the situation. It will not augur well if the elections are disrupted. That would be chaotic. So, I will not say that I will call for the elections to be put on hold, but we need to make sure that the elections are not disrupted. It is easy to say: ‘I call for the elections to be put on hold,’ but it is not a wise stand to take because the decision cannot be taken easily. It should be taken by a caucus that knows the facts; that is privy to the plans being put in place to ensure that minimum safety precautions is in place for elections to hold peacefully. If a sizeable portion of the country is not part of the process, the rest cannot say ‘let’s ignore them and carry on.’ That would not be fair.

What is likely to be the implication if elections fail to hold in the North-East, which has been ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency; will a president still emerge?

I think that would be a serious issue, but a president will always emerge. Like I said, we have enough crises. We are talking about security everywhere not just only in the North-East; we are talking about unemployment crisis; we are talking about crisis in the health and education sectors and to some extent infrastructural crisis. Look at the communication sector where we have succeeded in moving subscriptions from 300,000 to 130 million lines, they services are not what they should be because we didn’t do some of the basic things that we were supposed do about the land lines. Everybody migrated to the GSM but the structural support for that has not been adequate, which is responsible for the disruptions we are having. At the end of the day, we are not sure of how many of the subscriptions are operational. It may be around 30 or 40 million.

These are mini crises that we have, and we cannot add to them. A situation where we have hundreds of thousands of our citizens as internally displaced people is unacceptable. So, as I said the issue of election holding or not is not something some so-called radicals somewhere will wake up and start calling for a postponement or cancellation. The core leaders of the country, who are privy to the facts, should deliberate on it and take a decision, and in doing that, they should know that the generality of the people will be disappointed if by not stopping to take stock, the elections we spent billion preparing for are disrupted or even if they are not disrupted to the extent of being postponed or cancelled, when they are held, there would be litigations about the appropriateness of that mandate because a sizeable proportion of the electorate was excluded from the process. 

How feasible is it for those you described as core leaders to agree on the election issue, given the rift between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan, who belong to this group?

There is a Council of State that has these people as members and they can add to emerging new players in the polity. Whether we like it or not, the Presidency and the National Assembly that have to take the lead in giving the rest of us the assurance that they have made a deliberate assessment and that they are comfortable with the decision of putting on hold or going ahead with the elections. Let the people know that those who are in charge have taken care given a fresh assessment given the facts they have. We cannot afford a disruption; we cannot afford to have an unacceptable mandate; we cannot afford to have a disrupted process. So, it is the group that has the facts on the issue that should deliberate on it and come out with a decision, and there is still time for that. 

What do you make of the primaries of the various political parties?

There is no way I can come out with a summary position because I couldn’t go round the whole place to see what happened, but it is sad from the stories we are getting. And that is what I am saying; no matter what the GDP is saying; no matter what the structure of the economy is saying, the question of the worth of the citizens is informed by how much of a level playing ground we see in the selective process from the grassroots to the highest level. The stories we are hearing is that we are still having more of the same thing. All these talks about automatic tickets remove the decision from those who should elect. Anybody can endorse but let the people have the right to make their choice.

It is like a tradition for outgoing governors to anoint their likely successors. What is your take on that?

It is symptomatic of a very big problem in the democratic process, and the scale it is happening smacks of very poor leadership; very poor governance; very undemocratic structures and lack of growth in our democracy.

How about attack on personalities instead of issue-based campaigns by the various political parties and their candidates?

We should have grown beyond that. As far as I am concerned, we should not be talking the religious belief of any candidate. We shouldn’t be talking about Muslim/Muslim or Christian/Christian ticket. We should look at peoples’ records and performance and their programmes. We are short of water; we are short of jobs; we are short of housing; we need a modern railway; we need a safe airspace. These are issues that should shape the campaigns and not religion or ethnicity.

You are from Abia State, where the issue of zoning has dominated the political space as regards the governorship position. Should merit be sacrificed for zoning in electing public office holders?

Every society or party is entitled to decide how they want their affairs managed. That is the essence of democracy, but the same rule of level playing field should apply. If you had agreed that power should rotate among the three senatorial zones, people from the zone whose turn it is in 2015 should be allowed to contest the position, no matter their number. There shouldn’t be a skewed selective process.

There is the perception that the present government in Abia State failed in the area of infrastructure, particularly in Aba, which used to be the hub of commercial activities in the South-East. What is your take on that?

I was a commissioner in the old Imo State and I recall visiting Aba in 1984. I was a Lagos boy, so I didn’t have much knowledge about the place until during the civil war, but one was excited by the little signs in the textile, leather and design sectors. So, naturally for a state that has that capacity for broad industrialization, you will expect that with improved governance, that will grow. But for that to happen, you must have proper infrastructure, power and security.

At some stage a few years back, all of a sudden, all kinds of vigilante groups sprang up across the states, including Abia, but that seems to have subsided. Of course there is competition among the states, which is a very healthy thing. You look at the contiguous states; you compare Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Imo and Ebonyi and see how they are doing, so it is very easy for some people to say that a particular state has not done well as it ought to. It is a healthy thing to put pressure on leaders. For a commissioner for Industry, it is not just a privileged position; it is a position where you use your background and experience to come out with ideas on how to nurture industries. That is how a state can meet the aspirations of the people.

As Nigerians go to the polls, what kind of leadership should they elect?

We should be looking at a leadership that is totally connected to the people. No leader has all the resources to do all what he wants, but a leader will succeed to the extent that he consults with the vast majority of his people, so that they can see the necessity for some waiting period before their needs are fulfilled. But where they are in the dark, it can lead to social anomy. So, the kind of leadership we want is one that can convey confidence; one that can convey the real essence of limited resources for unlimited wants.