Hon. Tony Chinedu Nwulu is a member of the House of Representatives representing Oshodi/Isolo II. In this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA, the Federal lawmaker says that the 2017 budget lacks the capability to take Nigeria out of the current recession. He also concludes that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has failed Nigerians, forcing individuals to seek other means of survival. Excerpts:
As a serving federal lawmaker, what is your view on the state of the Nigerian economy?
In 2017, I expect Nigerians to know that they need their own individual efforts for things to get better for them. Sometimes, we over rely on government and we can all see now that government is becoming incapable of solving all the problems confronting the people. Anybody who keeps hoping that government would solve all our problems in this country, that things will become cheap, life will become better, and relying on government, will just realise that he will be disappointed in a big way. So, my advice to the people, especially in this New Year, is to do what they can to ensure they make life easy and better for themselves.
Are you saying Nigerians should not have faith in this government?
No, but I am encouraging people that gone are those days when people depended on government for everything. Today, people need to know the 2017 budget, not panacea for recession in Nigeria – Reps member need for them to have a rethink on what they can do to keep their lives moving smoothly, without depending on government.
For instance, people can go into agriculture and make good living for themselves. Let me tell you, in this country, you can go into farming and excel better than people who are battling with white collar jobs in urban settlements. If we can get land and plant rice, cocoa and others, things will be better for us.
If you look at things very well, you will find out that a lot of graduates, who are in Lagos and other urban settlements have hectares of land back in their various villages, where they can plant cocoa, palm kernel and others and these will solve our problems in this country.
Imagine, a gallon of palm oil, which was sold for N6,000 some two years ago, is now sold for N20,000. But if our youths take into this, you will realise that they will be earning good money at the end of every month, and this will be better than sitting in urban settlements, where a graduate earns N20,000 monthly.
Is the National Assembly planning to return the country to the agricultural path?
Yes, of course. That is why you see that when the budget comes, we ask the Presidency ‘what are you doing on certain areas?,. What I am saying is that the House has now deemed it fit to encourage our people to go into farming. Now, we all know we elected government, and government is there to help people. But I am saying that government has failed the people. That is why I am asking government that in this current budget, what are you doing for agriculture? You will find out that the Federal Government will say agriculture is the right way to save the situation and if you go to many states, you will see that they are showing interest. But the question is, is our government ready to help them? So, what we need to do is to get the states and local government to show serious interest in agriculture. Even though I know that government has failed the people, I know that government will come up this time to be able to achieve this. For instance, if you look at the collaboration between Lagos State and Kebbi State, Kebbi has the land. What the state did, they created a big land and gave to different farmers across the state and the government supported them in collaboration with Lagos State, so that the rice can be processed like the ones that are imported into the country. So, to a great extent, government needs to encourage the people. If government gives support, people will do well. For instance, there was a time I was reading in one of the newspapers that importation of rice, wheat, sugar cost Nigeria over $3 billion in a year, and when you convert that, it is about a trillion naira. And with this, you can imagine the number of jobs we are losing. Government can encourage the manufacture of those products in this country by our people by banning their importation. This could be done with a prior notice to the people that, in the next two years, there will not be importation of certain products and our people will start producing them when they know that there is no other means of getting them. But for all these to be achieved, government needs to be up and doing in its responsibilities. Cheap loans and other supports should be given to farmers and young graduates so that they can pick interest in this work. These are the schemes that Chief Obafemi Awolowo did back in the days and people across the country knew how it was helpful to them. And I believe that we can replicate that. If we replicate that, and government gives support to people, that huge amount we waste on importation will be in the national purse and jobs will be created for our citizens.
What should be the expectation of the people on the 2017 budget before the National Assembly, especially with the controversies that surrounded the 2016 budget?
First of all, let me say though 2017 budget is better than the 2016 budget, a situation where 30 per cent is devoted to capital projects is not the best. Look at Lagos State, about 80 per cent of its budget was devoted to capital expenditure. Look at all Nigerian roads, they are bad.
The railway that was built by our colonial masters is what we are still using. I was happy when the President said that the railway would come from Abuja, Kano to Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt to Calabar and the rest.
How can the British that colonised us build a railway 100 years ago and that is what we are still using till today? And don’t forget that a lot of the towns we have, it was the railway that opened them up. Towns like Port Harcourt, Abba, Makurdi, even Ibadan.
So, what we are saying is that if the railway comes back again, it will help the country a lot. It will help businesses.
For instance, people will have better means of getting their products from where they produce them to the market easily. Manufacturers will have peace at operating in Nigeria. But look at the situation today, manufacturers are crying. The budget is not made in a way that it will encourage the manufacturers.
Are you saying the interest of the manufacturer was not captured in the budget?
What government needs to do is to sit down and ask the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria, what it really needs this budget to do for it.
So, if you don’t do that and all you are doing is just write budget every year, without consulting MAN, Nigerian Chambers of Commerce and Industries, and others, they will not get things right.
We need to consult the farmers, experts and the rest of them. We need to go to some areas like Aba, where they manufacture shoes, ask questions, and see how to help them in the budget.
Imagine, the Nigerian Armed Forces are still importing shoes. Why can’t we empower our people in Aba and let all the country’s military personnel get their shoes from them. All they need to do is to give assistance to them and they will produce the shoes.
Also, their uniforms can be given to people who sew cloths in the country, instead of importing them from abroad. We must look at the things we can do here. You can imagine, if people in the police, Navy, Air Force, Army, firefighters, and others get their uniforms and shoes from here, there will be jobs for people in this country and at the end of the day, we will save millions.
Then, we go to Kano, where they are doing leather works and help them so that they can be supplying materials for shoe-making. So, you’ll find out that the budget does not have so much strength and we say we want to get out of recession, how do we do that?
If we keep spending a lot on importation of rice, sugar and the other things, how do we get out of recession because the demand for dollar will continue to skyrocket. Our government needs to go abroad and look for companies to establish here. And at the same time, we have to meet with their demands; whatever they request, we must produce.
For instance, there was a time that the tyres we used in this country were made in Nigeria. Tyres like Michelin and Dunlop. Of course, they were made out of the rubbers we export out of Nigeria and they send them back to us as manufactured tyres. So, why can’t we talk to Michelin and Dunlop and ask them why they left this country?
But we have had reports in which they’ve given excuses, especially about poor power supply
Of course they will say that, but why can’t our government encourage them not to leave by putting things in the right shape. Meanwhile, the implication of leaving this country is that our people working with them lose their jobs.
We need to put our house in order. We need to fix a lot of problems that chase away investors. The problems of gas and electricity need to be fixed quickly.
Again, the problem of the Niger Delta should also be tackled seriously. The President needs to call them and listen to them. With the rate things are going, using force against them will not work.
We need to talk to them and know what they want and settle with them. Good enough, the new budget gives good attention to the amnesty programme.
But in the House of Representatives we have lawmakers representing this region. What are they doing to resolve this matter?
Well, the representatives from the region are talking. I am a member of the Amnesty Committee; there was a time we moved a motion telling the Presidency to negotiate with the Niger Delta people to embrace peace, but it has not been carried out. So what I am saying is that we need to live in peace. Another area that we need to drastically intervene is in the Fulani herdsmen issue. They go to villages and their cow will eat up crops of the village farmers and at the end of the day, all the villagers laboured for would be in vein. And people will now be crying to Buhari that the economy is bad. Whereas, it is the Fulani herdsmen that are making life difficult for the people and that is why I totally support ranching. About a billion naira was voted for ranching in the last budget. What I will like government to do is to create ranches all over the states and routes where these Fulani people can rear their cows. And they must make it compulsory that any cow that comes must be in the ranch. By the time this is achieved, more milk will also be generated from the cow for human consumption. So, government needs to make these people to know the benefit of ranching to their cow. But if government fails to reorientate them, they will just be like the Almajiris that government built schools for and they don’t use it.
Apart from this, while I call on government to take a swift action for the economy to get better, I want to say that individuals should look at where they can get dollars to export. Otherwise, people should think of what to do to get dollars from beginning with mining, agriculture and others.
