Expdonaloaded News; ‘Buhari can’t ignore Confab report’

Ex-banker and president of South-East-South-South professionals, Emeka Ugwu-oju, says President Buhari cannot go far without implementing the report of the national confer­ence. Wealth creation rather than war against corruption should be the focal point of Mr. President’s agenda and his job in this regard, is well cut out for him.
His words: “Yes, there’s corruption and some of the causes of the corruption are structural. Even at zero corruption, if you don’t increase our wealth base, what we have pres­ently is not enough for Nigerians. What is happening now is that we are equitably sharing poverty, not wealth. We need, at least, 20million barrels of oil a day to cater for 170million for a start. But of course, the best we can do is 2.5million barrels per day. And of course our major resource is not oil. It is the human resource. That is why what is done in Southeast southsouth is like ‘please Nigeria give us a break’. Our major resource is human resource but we need the enabling environment to be able to put human resource to work.” Mr. Ugwu-oju said more in this interview with OBIDIKE JERRY. Excerpts:
You are the president of South- East-South-South professionals and also chair other organizations. Could you tell us a little about those other organisations?
Basically in Nigeria, most people know me as president of Southeast Southsouth professionals because it is an organization I have been leading for some couple of years now. Of course I have a private sector background but I am now on sabatical. Let me see what I can give back to my com­munity, my area, and my country in terms of service. But then I am also the coordinator of southern professionals which includes professionals from southeast, southsouth, and southwest. Our major involvement or intervention was to articulate and help our people to put across our position during the recently concluded national conference. So the southwest professionals graciously asked me to coordinate the southern professionals’ agenda based on how I have coordinated the southeast southsouth professionals. The main agenda was to ensure that delegates from the south at the national conference really did their job of capturing the views and interests of the southern people at the conference. So we interacted with all the delegates from the south at the conference. We are also bent on ensuring that the result of the national conference becomes something that is not abandoned or put at the side by which gov­ernment that is in place.
Do you think that the new govern­ment would be keen on implement­ing the resolutions of the national conference?
I think the government’s major platform is change. In other words, they are saying we want a Nigeria that is different from what it is today. And they have looked at the areas of insecurity, corruption, and economy. But then as professionals and also from the feedback we’ve got from our people, you can’t do much about those three items if you are not on the same page with the people. And the people are saying that Nigeria can’t work if the structure is not right. And to get the structure right is to start implementing the national conference resolution. It is not the magic wand but it is the foundation. So they have to take it serious, key it into their agenda, make the implementation of the na­tional conference number one item on their table. That is when you now have the leeway to tackle other issues. If the government wants to succeed, they don’t have to beat about the bush than to start restructuring the country so that they can have the platform to tackle corruption, unemployment, etc. We in Southeast Southsouth already have our 20-year development agenda which we are bringing to the table. We want other people too to see it that way and we are commit­ted to that. We from southeast southsouth believe that implementing the national conference as the basic template will give us the enabling environment to fully achieve or actualize our potentials.
How do you see the outcome of the last presidential election considering that president Jonathan lost to Mu­hammed Buhari, from the North?
Let me put the presidential election in per­spective. Before the presidential election, I was opportune to have been invited by some members of the US Congress on it to what I would call a hearing with the title ‘Nige­ria on the Brinks.’ In other words, Nigeria was almost on the point of no return which is what it was if not because of President Jonathan conceding defeat at the time he did. But we have to let Nigerians know that Jonathan merely postponed the evil day. And we shouldn’t deceive ourselves. We have to try and make the best use of this opportunity. Why are we saying this? We at southeast southsouth professionals even said that the election should not take place based on the current situation of things because we saw all the analyses and all the scenarios. Now let’s go back to the fact. Former President Jonathan had overwhelming support of a lot of Nigerians to take over from his princi­pal, Yar Adua, when he died. He went for presidential election in 2011 but that’s where things started going wrong. Some people felt that he should not have contested the 2011 election because, according to them, it was still the turn of the north. And that led to the situation, rightly or wrongly, that he was taking what did not belong to him. But then most people voted for him in 2011 based on how he came to power. But what happened thereafter? All hell broke loose and people seem to forget. There was mayhem in this country. And that mayhem led to what? It led to a situation of instead of governing he was trying to contain a major upheaval against his person and maybe his government. But people don’t want to be in Jonathan’s shoes. That’s why I pray for Buhari because some­thing similar to what happened to Jonathan is happening to him though this time it is not mayhem. But in the case of Jonathan he was forced to abandon his programme and was faced with how to ensure peace and stability in the country when some people swore he would never have that peace. Unfortunately that created a suspicious environment and what we now have as Boko Haram. And now on top of that as President Jonathan was leaving is the fuel crisis. And we said it and President Jonathan also said it that fuel sub­sidy should go. If fuel subsidy was removed, all this issue of corruption, we wouldn’t be talking about it. When Nigerians talk about corruption the major issue is what happens in the oil and gas sector.
Is it wise to remove fuel subsidy when you don’t have our refineries working?
What has it got to do with that? People miss the essence of the whole thing. The issue is poor people should be subsidized when we create wealth. If we don’t have wealth you will be subsidizing poverty. But then people have this notion that we are rich so let us drink oil when the sales from oil should be what will help you to fix your roads, fix your education, and fix your health. And you are not doing that. Refiner­ies will work without subsidies because it is subsidy that is preventing refineries from working. People should do the econom­ics of refining. In America many refineries are closing down because it is a very tough business to do. Some people in labour don’t understand the business of refining. That is why they say if you remove subsidy the masses will suffer. This position of labour is killing so many jobs that would otherwise be created. I said earlier that in the southeast and southsouth we pay market price. Unfor­tunately, the money that should have been used in providing other things is being used to subsidize who we don’t know.
There’s this argument or debate that the Igbo voted wrongly. Where do you stand in this argument?
I am the president of South-east-South-south professionals which includes the Igbo. I don’t know about Igbo voting rightly or wrongly. But I can say that the Southeast- Southsouth voted in one direction. I would say that the major reason why they did that way was that in as much as former President Jonathan, is from the southeast-southsouth but the point is that he was running on the agenda of implementing the national confer­ence resolutions which is very dear to the people of the southeast –southsouth. If I may even say it, many people in the south­east-southsouth were very upset with Presi­dent Jonathan in the sense that the restruc­turing should have started from day one. But then, better late than never. Of course, Jonathan could say that when he came in it was more or less mayhem so he needed to stabilize the polity first. But for the people of Southeast-southsouth, looking the way of Jonathan was purely because of restructur­ing otherwise it was more of a disadvantage for the people of southeast-southsouth for the last four years. Some individuals might have benefited but it is more painful that you can’t complain because the president is from your area. But what we want is let us take our destiny into our hands. We don’t want to take what belongs to other people. We only want equity, justice, and freedom to be what we can be. And Jonathan delayed in that but he believed that if he was re-elected he would have done it-implementation of the resolution/report. For the Igbo and non-Igbo from southeast-southsouth, no apologies to anybody. Though I don’t speak on their behalf but what we have always tried to do as southeast-southsouth is to have town hall meetings, find out from our people what they want and articulate that. And the outcome of the election validated our position.
Do you think that the south-East-south-S ,outh have lost out in the new government by not voting for the eventual winner at the national level?
It is a very interesting question. I laugh when people say that. There’s a constitu­tional provision that says he should have a minister, for instance, from each state. But for me, we don’t need 36 ministers based on where we want to go and in terms of cost of governance pending the restructuring of the country. The national conference has provided the template for reducing the cost of governance. So, whether the southeast-southsouth will get this or that is not the issue. In any case people like Ogbonnaya Onu, Muoghalu, Raph Obioha, etc worked for him. The president should consider a lean government and of course that lean government should try and balance things up. In other words, If Buhari is going to run with twelve ministers then two from each geopolitical zone. You can’t say you won’t have two from southeast southsouth. It is going to be there because the law says so. And then if he wants to succeed, he has to look for the best and if he finds the best to handle a particular post from south­east –southsouth and refuses to use that, he will have himself to blame. If he likes let him not pick anybody from southeast-southsouth. What we are interested in is our southeast-southsouth development agenda. Once we have a space we would get there.

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