How restructuring will solve Nigeria’s problems, by Akin Osuntokun

CHIEF Akin Osuntokun was Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria and Political Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In this interview, he opines that unbundling of the federal government through restructuring will address the problems besieging the country. He also bares his mind on the corruption allegations leveled against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation as well as grazing reserves for herdsmen. Excerpts:

The President Buhari administration has been combating corruption but critics opine that the administration has made it its sole agenda. Do you share the same view?
Logically, that cannot be the case. There is national security, the economy is there and so many other governmental concerns. So, logically the government cannot do that. Maybe people are using it to excuse the incapacity or lack of attention of governance in other areas. It appears the government is trying to politicize it’s functional incapacity by reducing a holistic problem to the sing song of corruption is fighting back. Even in the fight against corruption, I don’t think that government has succeeded very well. There are a lot of problematic issues that are begging for answers.
Now I admit the share of the former PDP government culpability but to reduce everything to a one size fits all argument is self-serving. Prior to this government and to the extent that governance ultimately stopped at the table of the former PDP government, it should be held accountable for whatever took place under its watch.
The fight against corruption is questionable when it seems as if it is only been applied selectively. There is that clear impression and to a large extent the correct interpretation that the government itself is not removing the log in its own eye before seeking to remove the beam in other people’s eye. As you have said, it will be an unfortunate simplistic reduction for any government, at the federal or state level, to adopt a posture that gives the impression that governance tantamount only fighting corruption. Anti-corruption should be a priority of the government but so are many other areas of governance.

Akin Osuntokun

What is your take on the controversy surrounding corrupt allegations leveled against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation?
Well, the case of the SGF seems self-evident. You don’t need to look deeper to come to a conclusion one way or the other as to the culpability or implication of the SGF in what transpired. There are issues about the company of the SGF being given contracts to do one thing or the other and the defense was   that he resigned from the company a year ago; but that has been alleged as not being true.
Even if that were to be the case, it is still suspicious that a company that he owns and he has association with, the company is a major beneficiary of the contract. So, that is a fairly well established case.
Even before that, there were the cases against the Minister of Interior and the Chief of Army Staff. It may be the case that at the end of the day they will be found innocent of allegations against them but to just ignore it like that as if nothing has happened is worrisome.
Some people came out with allegations and even backed it up with documents and these people are there as if nothing has happened. You cannot just ignore these kind of things. If you say that anti-corruption is a priority agenda then those kinds of situation and the signals that you give matter a lot.   It is not good for you to look the other way as if nothing has happened. So, these are issues that are worrisome that you begin to doubt the sincerity of what the government is saying as distinct from what it is doing.
When Chief Obasanjo was president, there was this controversy over the privatisation and sale of federal government houses.   It was discovered that, whether through omission or commission, there was a cloud of suspicion surrounding the sale of one or two properties to his relatives. Immediately, Obasanjo took the step of firing the minister of housing. At the end of the day, it may be that the minister was innocent, but these are the kind of sacrifices you need to make to establish sufficient credibility for whatever it is you are doing. That is my take on the issue.
The Federal government has attributed corruption as being responsible for the recession in the country. Do you agree with this position?
You can draw a causal relationship between corruption and governance crisis but it amounts to trivialisation to reduce contemporary Nigeria economic recession to corruption. Globally, all economies go through cycles of recession and recovery regardless of even best efforts. In Nigeria there are other causal factors that have little or nothing to do with the quality of governance. They also made the claim that the previous administrations did not make any savings, I think that is not entirely true and it is a self-serving argument.
First, it is not true that the previous government made no savings. I recall that it was the savings from the NLNG that President Buhari used for the so called bail out of state governments. What do you call that? This government met the surplus there because the previous government chose the option of saving it. Of course, there is the Sovereign Wealth Fund and the excess crude oil account. The utility of Nigeria governance, for me, transcends the undoubtedly beneficial culture of saving. What matters more is the public perception of government as being responsive in providing services to the public with the little you have.
In any case, given the magnitude of the challenge we have in, for instance, infrastructural deficit, you have to spend. The argument is not about spending, it is about what was done with what was available and whether it was judiciously applied or not.
The habit of scapegoating previous governments going on two years of assumption of office is a tenuous logic and, frankly, it is not helpful to the government and the Nigerian public. More questionable is the capacity and competence of the present government itself to grapple with the situation in which we found ourselves.
But another argument of the Buhari administration is that it is not responsible for the current situation Nigeria has found itself?
That is dereliction of duty because you have been in government for over a year and the half now, and you made some statements and pledges on how to move the country forward.   Now, if you are telling us that you made those statements or pledge in ignorance, that is a reflection of incapacity or incompetence. No serious government or aspiring government commits to promises and pledges without being adequately informed. So, I don’t see any purpose it serves other than distraction or inability to accept the burden and responsibility of governance.
Former President Obasanjo said that we knew things were bad, that is why we elected you to fix it and stop the blame game. Was it corruption that accounted for the last budget where different versions were floating around? Was that the previous government that did that? Was it the former government that appointed the SGF and other appointees that cannot withstand public scrutiny? These things are not helping the government neither is it helping the people.
If you are to advise the Buhari govern,net, what steps should be taken to bring Nigeria out of the woods?
One thing that the government and everybody seem to get wrong is the belief that there is something wrong and abnormal in a country experiencing recession. It is human and absolutely normal to go through the cycles of life and existence beginning with the primal cycle of life and death. Ultimately it is how you are able to grapple with that challenge that matters. It is not something that you seek escapism from. As Nigeria is, the problem is deeper than to be seen strictly from the economic perspective. You have to look at it comprehensively.
Under the present structure, the federal government is encumbered with so many responsibilities and functions than it can effectively discharge and that are at variance with the fundamental constitutional aspiration of true and functional federalism. In so doing, the federal government has become a cog in the wheel of the growth and progress of Nigeria.
Structurally and functionally, the country is presently bound to a vicious cycle of political crisis and economic instability – one feeding the other. Many of the issues we are having now can be addressed with commitment to decentralisation and devolution of powers.
In simple terms: restructuring of the country?
Of course, that has been my position. But you know the position of the President on the issue.   For him, he has dismissed the 2014 recommendations of the National Conference and that it is only good for the archives. It is becoming clearer to me by the day that our options are limited to restructuring or the clearly untenable alternative of dictatorship. As it is, it is like we are thrashing around in the dark. We have a situation where state governments cannot fulfil the basic responsibility of paying salaries. There is total illogicality about the constitutional structure of the country. Vast majority of the states are technically bankrupt. So, until you resolve these kinds of abnormalities, we are not getting anywhere. Until Nigeria grapples with its constitutional structure, we are not going anywhere; the federal government has to be unbundled.
Herdsmen crisis?
I don’t see why it is the responsibility of the federal government to take a decision that amounts to an imposition on the state government and indeed the substantial majority of the Nigerian public. It is liable to being interpreted as discrimination and partiality – it may not be the case but when there is an imposition from the federal government, all sorts of interpretation are given to it.
The issue could have been handled differently and that is to encourage a free will and voluntary resolution. At any rate how do countries that have the same environment like the far north address the sustenance of its cattle animal farming. Suppose Southern Nigeria is a different country from the North, how would this problem get resolved?   Are we saying these people will keep invading another country?   There are examples of countries in West Africa that have similar eco system as the north, what have they done to address the issue of grazing?
Why not limit the grazing reserve to areas that have no issues with cattle rearing and collaborate with such accommodating local public in providing adequate pasture rather than coercing people to submit to imposition? Leave it to the free will of the people. Allow each state government to decide whether they want grazing reserves or not. Cattle-farming is an economic activity that has the potential to impact positively on local economies – this is how it should be managed and promoted. Seasonal Fulani farmers come annually from far flung places to engage in fadama farming on a tiny portion of my farmland at Okemesi – for roughly five months. The farmland is fadama compliant on account of being crossed by a tributary of river osun. The occupation is so profitable that they pay me upwards of N250000 each year; which I, in turn, donate to the community and so I look forward to hosting them every year.