Former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, speaks to DANIEL AYANTOYE about the removal of fuel subsidy, the hardship Nigerians currently face and his failed attempt at becoming the governor of Oyo State, among other issues
The removal of fuel subsidy has brought untold hardship to Nigerians. What can be done to reduce the pain Nigerians are going through?
The first remedy is for the government to ease the burden of the people, particularly the poor. This should be done in two specific areas where the people spend more; education and healthcare. There should be an introduction of free education for all our children and free healthcare service for Nigerians. I believe that when this is done, it will reduce illiteracy, build a greater future for Nigerians and create more employment for the people, particularly those who can teach, while also relieving parents in other critical areas of spending.
We have to remember that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo said, ‘If you fail to educate the children of the poor, they will not allow your children to sleep with two eyes closed’. I am sure that if we can do that, the cry over the removal of fuel subsidy will decrease considerably because people will have extra money to do other things. Nigerians are lamenting now because there is multiplicity of expenditures.
They are lamenting in such a way that even though you remind them that the money saved from the fuel subsidy removal will be useful for other developmental agenda, they will still complain because they still go through the excruciating experience of having to pay for all services at increased rates. With such experience, people will continue to ask how the money saved is spent. But if they have the understanding that they no longer pay for critical services like school and healthcare because of the fuel subsidy removal, there will be calm and moreover, it is everyone that will benefit and not a few persons.
Nigerians went through pain during the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Don’t you think that the All Progressives Congress should be concerned about the hardship the people are currently passing through?
The APC is concerned because we are all going through the same pain together, but I will refer you to a Yoruba adage that says ti ta, riro lan ko la, to ba ji na, a ri rekete leke, which means there cannot be progress without sacrifice; there can’t be development without making very bold and courageous choices. Need I remind you that the agenda of removal of fuel subsidy is not an APC agenda alone; the presidential candidates of the APC, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party had promised the same thing.
Unless others are not sincere, if they had won the election, they would have done the same thing. We don’t have a choice as a government and we want the best for this country. We don’t want to continue to postpone the evil day for Nigerians. For instance, because of the removal of fuel subsidy, the distributable funds in the Federation Account in the last few months to states have doubled. It is now left for the citizens to ensure that their governors do the needful by improving the welfare of their people.
It is not the Federal Government alone that is keeping all the savings from the removal of subsidy. Funds are shared among the federal, state and local governments. Unfortunately, at the local government level, governors have killed the local government system and this is one area that a lot of people are shying away from. We should go back to ensure that the local governments are given the needed freedom so that they will be able to play their appropriate part.
Why is the Federal Government not keen on repairing the refineries?
The problem is that the immediate past government promised that it would revive the four refineries. If we had succeeded with that, the problem we currently have with the oil economy would have been eliminated. Unfortunately, I don’t know the reason why the refineries were not fixed, even though I was part of that government. It wasn’t about the political party but about the government at that time. Now, we have a new government that is doing things differently and has promised to bring about change. Also, some of the modular refineries have been licensed by the immediate past government, but unfortunately, none of them except Dangote has been able to put things together.
I am sure that with this new government, a lot will be done to ensure that every entrepreneur in the oil industry is encouraged to build private refineries so that we will be able to produce. The cost of oil has gone up majorly because when we produce crude oil in Nigeria, we cannot refine it locally. So, the cost of transporting the crude oil to overseas refineries and bringing the refined products back to Nigeria is so high, thereby aggravating the selling cost.
You cannot expect that the government will continue pumping money into that sector, particularly because what we are supposed to be consuming locally is even less than 50 per cent of what is coming into the country and some are smuggled out of the country. You are aware that the issue of corruption has been with us for a long time, but unfortunately, we are still living with it. We cannot continue to deceive ourselves. We have to face the reality and the reality is that we must live within what is available legitimately and logistically.
In a bid to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy, President Bola Tinubu introduced the N8,000 conditional cash transfer which has been criticised. Though the President has directed that the policy be reviewed, do you think the decision to give money to households was right in the first place?
Firstly, whether it was right at that time or not, the President has said he is reviewing the decision, which shows that we have a good leader who listens and acts according to the yearnings of the masses. Everyone is still waiting to see what the review will look like, but I believe that if money is shared, you will not be sure of the incorruptibility of the process by those who will physically implement it.
Rather than do that, I will advise the President to introduce free education and health services. We should convince Nigerians that the removal of subsidy is needed to provide better services that will be transparent and will get to the poor. I am sure that if Nigerians know that their children will not need to pay school fees and healthcare bills because of the removal of subsidy, they will be happy and collaborate with the Federal Government.
Some said the government could not offer free services and that recently, fees in Unity schools and some federal and state universities were increased. What is your view on this?
It is just a matter of rearranging our priorities as a nation. We shouldn’t override the importance of education. That is the greatest legacy we can leave for the incoming generation. I’m talking now with you because I am educated. If you were not educated, you would not be asking those questions. It is all about communicating with people and making the right decisions.
Despite the appointment of new service chiefs, the level of insecurity is still high. Where do you think the current administration is missing it?
The service chiefs were barely appointed a month ago. This so-called insecurity is not just happening now. It has been entrenched even before the Buhari administration. If you will be fair to the Buhari government, you will agree that it did a lot to minimise criminality, banditry and insecurity, particularly in the North-East. Recall that before Buhari, Boko Haram was in full control of about 24 local government areas in the North-East to the extent that Nigerian flag was no more flying there. There was no local government worker in these local government areas and there was no presence of the police. Today, there is no local government area in the North-East that has not been liberated.
Currently, in the North-West, the armed forces and the police are making sacrifices to exterminate bandits. A lot of people talk as if it is the government that is promoting criminality and insurgency and that they (the government) are not doing anything when many soldiers are killed by these criminals. You can see what is happening in the South-East; policemen and soldiers are always at the firing line of criminals. We should be fair. I’m aware of reports from television stations and social media that the new service chiefs are putting innovative approaches in place to fight against insecurity and criminality, and we must give them time; we must support them with prayers and give them information.
But it is believed that the service chiefs were in the system before and as a government of continuity, insecurity should be doused, but what is happening lately in Plateau and Benue states raise a lot of concerns among Nigerians about the capacity of the government to put an end to the killings in these states. Don’t you think there is a need for more proactive steps to be taken?
Is it the new service chiefs that are promoting what is happening in Plateau State or the age-long acrimony between tribes? In any case, do criminals give notice? Is it this so-called conventional fight we are fighting where you can hardly identify the enemies? I think people should reason very well with regard to what is happening. This is an unconventional war where criminals and people who attack others do not give any notice. Someone cannot become a criminal until he has committed a crime and is found guilty. What is happening in Plateau State requires more civil action than military action because these are different tribes antagonising each other in a very stupid way. Whether you like it or not, your neighbour will continue to be your neighbour. Nobody can drive anyone away.
Does it mean the security intelligence system is weak and that a crime cannot be stopped even before it happens?
Intelligence requires information and it is not the military that will give the information, but the civilians. It is the level of information that the members of the public have provided to the military that they can act on. If you look at what is happening in the North-West, the military is getting a lot of intelligence and they are acting on it. There had been reports of some occasions where kidnappers, bandits and members of the Indigenous People of Biafra fled their hideouts and in other cases, some of these criminals were arrested.
In the South-East, the proscribed group, IPOB, has become a major concern. What do you think should be the best approach to handling the matter?
It is unfortunate that as educated, enlightened and exposed as the generality of the Igbo are, they have surrendered their lives to the dictates of criminals among them. You find out that 99 per cent of those the self-styled Eastern Security Network and IPOB members are killing are their fellow Igbo, who they say they are trying to liberate from the so-called oppression of the Federal Government. What they are doing is counterproductive and if they think it well, they will remember that the late Odumegwu Ojukwu, despite his superior intelligence, the support he got from other countries and his expertise in war, failed after three years, losing millions of Igbo lives in the process.
Why will this group (IPOB) think that it can take on the Federal Government of Nigeria with its armed forces? It is very unrealistic and more of a suicide mission because if you are killed in the process, there is no court you can take anybody to. But I’m happy that governors like (Peter) Mbah of Enugu State, Hope Nzodimma of Imo State and a few others are taking steps to stop those activities.
Kidnapping has also been a major challenge for a long time despite the availability of the National Identification Number. Why is it still difficult to trace and arrest kidnappers?
Well, it is not only Nigerians that are registered on the NIN. I only believe that Nigeria has to spend a lot of money on deploying technology to assist the fight against insecurity. So, we still have a long way to go. The NIN is not about tracking criminality alone; it is meant for everybody to register on it. Up till now, many people in rural areas are not registered. It is a work in progress and I believe that if the government continues to pursue its full implementation, we will soon get there.
What is your take on the issue of cybercrime, which is still a challenge in the country? As a former Minister of Communications, what were your efforts to tackle the challenge?
We continued doing our best. Technology is an evolving thing across the world. You are aware that in Nigeria, we are still a consumer nation and have not got to that point of being an innovator. It is still a work in progress but I believe that if we steadily pursue technology, we will get to that point where cybercrime will be eradicated.
During your time as minister, what were the challenges you faced?
The government office has always been difficult. One of the challenges I had was some bottlenecks within the Presidency. I don’t want to open up some old wounds. What is important is that every minister must have a vision of how he will use his office to develop this country. It is one thing to have the right ideas, it is another thing to have the support of critical stakeholders in the system. I believe that with the kind of President that we now have, we want people to see beyond now and be able to provide leadership. As it is said, a leader must be able to lead and not be led.
You also had the NYSC issues. What happened and how was it addressed?
The law during our time was the 1979 Constitution. The NYSC decree was promulgated in 1973. The law gives you the option of either going for the national service or moving to the House of Assembly and I chose to move to the House of Assembly to serve Nigeria in a much bigger role. I got elected while in Law School and I spent four years in the House of Assembly and immediately after, I got appointed and became a commissioner for Information and Culture. By the time I completed the term, I was well above 30 years as provided by the NYSC then. Subsequently, I occupied other political positions. So, I thank God. A lot of people intentionally or ignorantly compared my situation with that of the then Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun. My issue is entirely different.
Do you think the NYSC controversy might have affected you politically?
Yes, it was mysteriously exploited against me. In 2019, I wanted to contest the governorship position in Oyo State and the then governor, the late Abiola Ajimobi, used it against me by influencing the leadership of the political party at that time to disqualify me. He was given a ticket to contest the Senate and I was disqualified. If we had the right party leadership at that time, I would not have been disqualified. When the current Governor of Ogun State (Dapo Abiodun) won the election in 2019, his political enemy took him to court, asking the court to disqualify him because he didn’t go for the national youth service, but the court said no because the constitutional requirement to be a governor never stated the NYSC certificate as a precondition. So, I am qualified to occupy any position either as a governor, minister or any other because the constitutional requirement for contesting an election has nothing to do with an NYSC certificate.
Some people have said the NYSC should be scrapped, while others said it shouldn’t be made compulsory. With the experience you had, what is your position on it?
I don’t have any hard feelings about its discontinuation or otherwise. Still, I’m aware that a lot of people look forward to it because it is the first opportunity of being employed and it gives them the right exposure. Many people, for instance, are in Ibadan who have never crossed the River Niger to other parts of the country. Through the NYSC scheme, they have the opportunity of being posted to Abuja, Enugu, Port Harcourt, etcetera. I think as one Nigeria, I’m in support of it.
What was the reaction of former President Muhammadu Buhari to your NYSC controversy?
Well, he was misled. I remember that I had to explain to him about my previous political experience and the NYSC issue. When I was elected in 1979, my political opponent then took me to court, asking the court to disqualify me on the basis that I did not go for the national youth service and the court said there was no constitutional requirement for the NYSC in any election and the case was dismissed. I showed evidence of that to former President Buhari.
You couldn’t make it for the second term of the Buhari administration. What was the reason?
If I must be realistic with you, I will tell you to go and ask Buhari why he didn’t pick me because he was the one who picked me for the first term. But to clear the controversy that may have existed, it was the same person who got me disqualified from the governorship race. He too lost the senatorial election and then blamed me for his woes. He came to Abuja and told the President and other people that I was the one who messed up the party which resulted in the APC losing at the 2019 (governorship) election (in Oyo State). Unfortunately, nobody called me when he brought that information to hear from me. They just went ahead to disqualify me. I thank God that I’m still myself as it is often said that when there is life, there is hope. I will rather forget what has happened; what I look forward to is a better future.
But many believed the NYSC controversy contributed to why you were not reappointed for a second term. Isn’t that the situation?
Not at all, it was mischief on the part of our then leader (in Oyo State) who reported that it was Shittu who messed up our political party, and I asked if I was so powerful to have messed up the entire political party in the 33 local government areas of the state. At a point, the party wanted to arrange local government election and people bought forms for chairmanship and councillorship elections. No member of the APC who collected the form was allowed to participate in any of the primaries. Somebody just sat down and selected his favourites to be candidates for our party. Again, at the party primaries to select party officers, some of us collected forms. We, as the Unity Forum at that time, a lot of our people collected forms and they paid for the forms, but the same leader ensured that none of us got the opportunity to participate.
There are a lot of other people and I paid for governorship forms, but none of us was allowed to contest in the primaries. Many of us said we could not support a governorship candidate and a senatorial candidate and that was how the people got annoyed and voted for the current governor at that time and that was how Ajimobi lost the senatorial election only for him to go to Abuja and say that I was the cause of the party’s failure. In terms of performance, with all sense of humility, nobody has done all I did for the party. It happened and I had to accept that God knows the best.
Despite all the issues, are you still interested in contesting an election or accepting an appointment?
Let me tell you that I have been an active politician for 44 years at a stretch, glory be to God. I made a lot of sacrifices, including during the last presidential and governorship elections. So, if an appointment comes, it will not be unexpected, but if it doesn’t come, I will leave everything to God and continue doing my best. I sacrificed my professional career because of politics. As for contesting an election, it is not in my plan except if God says so. Permit me to say that I am a product of the (Obafemi) Awolowo school of politics and with all sense of humility, I can say that the difference that I can make in occupying the position of a governor, most people are likely not to have that knowledge or exposure. My prayer to God is that if He loves the people of Oyo State, He will put me in a position where I can affect their lives positively. For instance, if I had been a governor, within two years, I would have eliminated graduate unemployment. I have the knowledge and capacity, but if I don’t have the opportunity, I won’t be able to do it.
How will you rate the performance of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari?
I will continue to defend his record in the area of infrastructure across this country. The last budget of the (Goodluck) Jonathan administration about federal roads was N19bn. The first budget of Buhari on the same subject matter was N265bn. To start with, in the N19bn budget, no kobo was spent on federal roads. The money was simply shared and mismanaged. You will recall that about 10 years up to that time, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Oyo-Ogbomosho-Ilorin Road and several others had been abandoned, but when Buhari came, he mobilised resources and resumed work on all those roads which were abandoned under the PDP government. That alone is a clear example of the superiority of the Buhari administration over all previous governments.
If we take the aspect of the railway, the project had been on the drawing board for so long, but when Buhari came on board, he ensured that the Abuja-Kaduna railway, Ibadan-Lagos railway and Warri-Ajaokuta railway became a reality. In the area of education, Buhari’s administration established more than 10 new federal universities to ensure that Nigerians yearning for higher education had access to it. No other government had such a record. So, he did very well. Of course, as a human being, he was never perfect; he had some areas he couldn’t do much. If a child goes to the university and gets a First Class, it doesn’t mean he scored 100 per cent but has made appreciable achievements. So, the government of Buhari scored more than average.
Some are of the view that former President Buhari failed to take advice that would have benefitted the country from his ministers and other aides, including the suspended governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele. How will you react to this?
From the example you gave, anybody who is politically intelligent will agree that Emefiele’s naira redesign was a political mischief foisted on Nigerians through the former President without his sufficient consideration. I think the problem then was that there were some people within the Presidency through whom Emefiele always had his way. Ordinarily, he ought not to have spent up to that period in office. He was there for about nine years doing the same thing and I’m sure it was through a lot of compromise. The mistake Buhari made at that time was that if a central bank governor advised the President on financial matters, in good conscience, you would have discussed with your finance minister to get her input, but the naira redesign was rushed and the minister of finance was sidelined. That was very wrong and I’m sure that even Buhari would regret that he took that advice. That has gone now. Nigerians have recovered their naira back.
Some members of your party are not happy that President Bola Tinubu wants Abdullahi Ganduje as the next APC national chairman. What’s your position on this?
President Tinubu has not said that. People are just speculating and I like to leave it at that. Until I hear from him, I can’t be a part of such speculation.
It was said that you eyed the position of the APC National Secretary before Iyiola Omisore got it. How did you feel about that?
I was persuaded to drop my ambition for Omisore which I did with respect to the leaders of our party and as far as I’m concerned, that matter has become a past tense.
Do you still have an interest in the position of the national secretary of the APC?
Certainly not!
The APC has removed five national chairmen within 10 years. This does not create room for stability. Why is it so?
This is because our party is a very dynamic one. You will recall that even the PDP, within the eight years that (Chief Olusegun) Obasanjo was in office, you know how many chairmen the political party had. He was forcing them to write resignation letters before they assumed the position. So, we are a democratic party.
The North-Central is demanding that the chairmanship of the APC be zoned to it. Do you agree with that?
If they are able to justify their right to it, so be it.
Looking at the way the leadership of the legislature emerged, especially with the interference of the executive. What is your expectation of the current National Assembly?
They are independent and I expect that this National Assembly will work with the executive to ensure a greater Nigeria.
Don’t you see the tendency for the 10th National Assembly becoming a rubber stamp to the executive?
What kind of rubber stamp did we not see during the Obasanjo administration? One cannot forget when he ran this country like a military administrator where he facilitated the impeachment of some governors. For now, the best that Nigeria has had is the APC government. So, I don’t see members of the 10th National Assembly becoming a rubber stamp. Both arms of government will work for the development of this country and this is what we all desire.
