Minister of Power, Housing and Works, Mr Babatunde Fashola, says the Muhammadu Buhari administration has delivered on most of the promises made to Nigerians four years ago. In this interview with journalists in Lagos, Fashola says Nigerians should expect more, especially with the huge infrastructural projects the government will kick-start soon. He spoke to senior journalists in Lagos. ADELEKE ADESANYA was there. Excerpts:
What were the challenges that you faced at the inception of this administration?
There is no doubt that bad choices had been made in the past before we came into power. For instance, we paid $12bn out in 2005 in order to get debt forgiveness of $19bn, only to go and borrow again. By the time Buhari came, Nigeria was in debt of $60bn and we didn’t have infrastructure. If that $12bn had been used to build rail, power, bridges, these businesses would have done better. Those were the choices we made, and look at the choices they (the opposition) are presenting to you. Also, we made a choice to import rice, sugar, milk and fish. If you look at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s public report, you will see that we used to import $1bn worth of rice annually. Meanwhile, we can plant rice in Kebbi, Ebonyi, Lagos, Niger, Ofada etc. A group of people made a choice that they want to import rice, is that how to create jobs? Who were the people benefitting from this? Thailand, others were their farmers. Let us look critically at the choices we have made. We made the same choice for fish and sugar when we have sugar cane.
But has your government done anything different?
Yes of course. President Buhari said we would produce our own food and from $1bn a year worth of rice, the import bill as released by the central bank for rice has dropped to, as at last year, $18m, from $1bn. From $900m plus for sugar and $900m for fish, the import bill for sugar dropped to $300m and fish dropped to $17m. That is the choice we have made, that the opportunities to provide sugar, rice and fish represent the opportunities for job employment here. Those are our choices in APC government.
Nigerians believe that Buhari’s government didn’t do enough in terms of job creation. How would you react to this?
I will answer with this illustration. In 2010, about 300 people had difficult business terrain; they were owing Nigerian banks about N5trillion. It was a government decision to bail them out. So, the 300 people got N5trillion. It was a choice, so what was the consequence for that support? They have continued to behave the same way. There is nothing wrong with the support, so they don’t bring us all down but remember when Barrack Obama did the same thing, he told them to fly to Washington and told them to drive back, so that they can learn their lessons. Our people didn’t do that here. It’s business as usual. But Buhari’s government said some people had been supported at the top, what about those at the base of the pyramid. Let’s start a social intervention fund. There is poverty in every part of the world. Whether it is extensive or not, it is a question of what you do about it. If you do nothing about it, it will get worse. He decided that people who are out of school, let us help them with N-power; children who are malnourished, let us start a school feeding programme for them. At the end, nine million children get fed every day. And the feeding programme also created jobs for farmers, they supplied eggs, rice, banana and others; that is how an economy should work. Everybody should produce together.
On business, what is this government doing to encourage the SMEs?
Government has brought ease of doing business for people doing small businesses and has allowed them get on with their life. Government employs only five per cent of our population and we are the first to say reduce Government spending. We can create jobs through the 95 per cent that the private sector employs. How can we do that? Make them productive, competitive, able and willing to expand through access to credit.
Anyone that has other programmes for population management and others should bring it up and let us have a debate.
The new deal that took America to prosperity was commitment to infrastructure and agriculture. If you want to build a great nation, you must build infrastructure.
What is this government doing to improve infrastructure in the country?
Infrastructure is like a man who starts life in a one-bedroom flat. He gets married in the same room, fortunately, the first set of children are twins and the room has not expanded. Even more fortunately, the next sets of children are triplets. So, five plus two in one room; what are you beginning to see? If the bedrooms become three and bathroom two, what happens? So flip that around to a man leaving in a one room and after he gets married, he moves to a three bedroom flat and gives birth to only two children. In the way infrastructure defines your life, it also defines the status of the nation. This is the difference between a developed nation and an under developed nation. We must invest in it. The rail networks to relieve the roads have been committed to. The major roads are already on course, the contracts have been awarded.
The Lagos Ibadan express way is better now and it’s still work in progress. On the second Niger bridge, there was no design for the road, we just did it when I became minister. We are paying compensation now. All the models put in place are outdated now. It is now in the presidential allocation fund, it will not be delayed by fund anymore. We would need over 64, 000 tonnes and steel and hope that the Nigerian businesses will supply us. We would need 18million bags of cement. I am sure cement companies are packaging themselves, this is called industrialisation and building the nation back to prosperity.
Those in mining should get ready. Nine surveying farms have been awarded contracts even before the construction starts. This is how an economy is ordered. You have to import things, secure, transport, pay people so all of the banks already smell the money. Insurance companies also know that goods in transit have risk.
Back to job creation. What is the President’s personal programme on job creation apart from N-power and others?
The President has issued an order called Executive Order Number 5 and it seeks to achieve essentially made in Nigeria. Anytime we have jobs in Nigeria, if Nigerians are able to do it, we give the preference to them. We have signed Nigeria first. We need to choose. That order challenges us to do something. We will start auditing those foreigners working here; we won’t check their visa but their work permit.
Maintenance of infrastructure seems to be a major issue in Nigeria. What are you doing on this?
No country builds forever. Design employs about six per cent, construction employs 15 per cent, and governance employs two per cent. The remaining is for maintenance and operations. Maintaining about nine breweries alone employs about 400 people. So if we decide to maintain the infrastructure nationwide, imagine what will happen. Look at the 104 unity schools, one employs about 30 people to maintain it and we got approval to
start.
Maintenance is not a culture it is an economy. We have gotten approval for a national Infrastructure Maintenance Framework and Policy that will be implemented. We are starting with public buildings. Currently, as I speak, our consultant is working on over 180 transmission network to design frame work and safety for them. We are also working on road and it will happen to rail. Those looking for big men, godfathers, we will advertise these jobs you don’t need to know anybody. If you want to use your hands to work, there will be job for you. Your degree doesn’t entitle you to a work, it prepares you to work. Our economy is shifting, we need to build, for those willing to get their hands dirty, there will be jobs. That’s the direction our country is heading to and we potentially can be the biggest food exporter on this continent. We are already exporting food. Farmers are making money. There are still a lot to come. We promised to diversify the country’s economy and it has begun. We have heard from the fashionista, from the entrepreneurs, data processors and government agencies providing the support.
