In this interview, a former Governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, speaks on national issues while canvassing support for the President Bola Tinubu’s administration. Excerpts:
Sir, can you give a general appraisal of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, especially against the backdrop of the current economic crisis in the country?
First of all, I would say that the economic crisis in the country is perennial. We have been living with it for quite some time and the causative factors obviously precede the administration of President Tinubu.
However, one is not oblivious of the fact that the current high cost of living in the country is unprecedented and I would say that there are two major causative factors.
One is remote, the other is immediate. The remote has to do with structural imbalances in the economy that have failed to respond to earlier measures taken by previous administrations in addressing them.
It is the cumulative effect of these persistent structural hiccups that made the Tinubu administration resort to a rather radical approach but unfortunately, there is an incongruity between the radical measures and the underlying structural issues.
In other words, the existing socio-economic structure does not have the capacity to absorb the radical measures being taken by the Tinubu administration.
Can you dwell more on the radical measures you are talking about?
The major thing is the withdrawal of petroleum subsidy and the floating of the naira. By the time the Tinubu administration began to implement the subsidy withdrawal policy, neither the micro nor macro-economic units had the capacity to absorb them.
For example, personal incomes were too low for the households to absorb the sudden and sharp rise in the prices of goods and services resulting from the equally sharp increase in the price of petrol. At the macro-economic level, there arose a mismatch in demand and supply and we can go on and on.
“I have decided to remain calm and watch the situation and I similarly appeal to fellow Nigerians to remain calm and let’s watch and pray and continue to give our support to the administration”
So, do you think the Tinubu administration did not act properly in withdrawing the subsidy as some critics say?
Not at all. Nigerians were and still generally agree that petroleum product subsidy should be removed. It was a campaign issue among all the presidential candidates in the 2023 general elections and each and every one of them said emphatically that they will remove subsidies if elected.
In any case, the Buhari administration did not make provisions for it in the 2023 budget. So, President Tinubu had no option. If you can remember his words, what the president said while he was speaking after his inauguration was, “subsidy is gone”; which means it was already gone before he took over. I am not saying that he should be exonerated from the unintended consequences of that policy but the point I am making is that as a policy measure, subsidy removal was inevitable and as I have earlier said, the administration preceding this had already removed subsidy by not making provision for it in its last budget.
But critics blame the administration for not putting adequate measures in place to enable Nigerians cope with the difficulties the subsidy removal has thrown up?
To an extent it would appear so but remember that I have just told you that subsidy removal was already a fait accompli before President Tinubu came on board, in the sense that no provision was made for it in the 2023 budget by the outgoing administration.
So, it is likely that under the circumstances, the new administration did not have enough time to put up measures that would adequately cushion the effects of the subsidy removal before implementing it.
But I think the administration has put up a good fight but as I said earlier, it is battling with perennial structural issues.
So, generally speaking, how would you score the administration?
First of all, I am amazed by the uncommon courage the president has shown in taking some of the measures that have resulted in the current difficulties.
Personally, I believe it will not be for nothing. I believe that something positive will definitely happen. A president has a helicopter view of all aspects of a nation’s life. What we cannot see standing, he can see even while squatting. I do not believe that any president would simply want to punish his people as some of our people claim.
I have decided to remain calm and watch the situation and I similarly appeal to fellow Nigerians to remain calm and let’s watch and pray and continue to give our support to the administration.
If you were the president, how would you have handled the situation?
Your question is rather hypothetical and I don’t like answering hypothetical questions. The reality is that I am not the president. But we now have a situation whereby everybody claims to have the answer to every problem facing the nation.
We have a cacophony of voices on television. Everybody has become an expert in economics. The mistake some of us make is to think that those in government are daft and that they know nothing. But no matter how learned or knowledgeable you are, you can never know or understand a system better than those operating it.
I am not saying that people inside the government know it all or should not take advice from those outside. What I am saying is that it is wrong to go about saying that those in government just sit down and watch.
You would even hear that governors collect monthly allocations from Abuja, pocket it and walk away. Such allusions are too ordinary, and I get amused when some of your colleagues mouth such things.
The question they should ask themselves is, if you meet your counterparts from other countries and you begin to say such things, won’t they laugh at you? Won’t they ask you where you were as a so-called watchdog of the society and governors or other government officials for that matter pocket public funds and walk away?
Elsewhere, journalists don’t just go about making such claims, they use the powers given to them by the constitution to make sure that such things do not happen or if they happen at all, the culprits are brought to book.
I am not saying that corrupt practices might not be going on but I am worried about the use of extreme hyperboles that effectively trivialize the issues and even ridicule the entire nation.
What’s your take on the recent protests against economic hardship?
Were the protests against hardship or against alleged bad governance?
Well, it was tagged End bad governance protest. What is your take?
There we go. I don’t think protesting against economic hardship and protesting against bad governance are one and the same thing.
The end bad governance appellation polluted the intentions of the protests which were ordinarily good.
Once you say “end bad governance”, politics comes in and people become alerted. Whether you like it or not, every administration, no matter how bad you think it is doing, would always have those supporting it.
Once you come with phrases like “bad governance”, some people get alerted. You must have noticed that as far as many people are concerned, not only those inside the government, the protests were an attempt to change the government of the day. Right or wrong, no sitting government will allow itself to be uprooted and thrown away just like that. Personally, I am not happy that the somewhat political coloration of the protests has unintentionally obliterated our general appreciation of the significance of the protests.
Protests are legitimate and in the present circumstances, Nigerians had every reason to protest but like I said earlier, elements of partisanship, not just politics, were brought into it. Be that as it may, I believe that the administration is not glossing over it. I believe the president got the message and he said so.
You are a leader in the South East; did you support the idea of your people staying away from that protest?
Why not? Of course, I supported the idea and the reasons given for that. Some people accused the Igbo of egging other parts of the country on but later refused to join the protests. That was not fair at all. The Igbo have been in protest since the end of the civil war.
The IPOB issue is a form of protest. Before IPOB, there was the MASSOB which was also a form of protest. So, to say that the Igbo are afraid of protests is quite unreasonable. We have so many headaches in the area.
Still in the South East, how would you rate the administration of your state governor, Hope Uzodimma?
I am not Governor Uzodimma’s PR person so it is not my duty to begin to tabulate what he has achieved but let me say something many people outside Imo State do not know.
Uzodimma inherited a situation that was worse than what any of his predecessors, including my very self, met. He inherited what I may call a void, in the sense that there was no institutional memory on how the state was run for a cumulative period of almost ten years.
By the time he took over, there were no documents on how the state was governed from May 29, 2011 to January 15, 2020, the day the Supreme Court declared him the authentic winner of the March 9, 2019 governorship election.
There were no handover notes in the state for close to ten years. I wrote the last handover notes in the state when I was leaving office in 2011. The fellow Uzodimma took over from did not receive any handover notes from his immediate predecessor and did not give Uzodimma any, given the circumstance of his exit.
So, Uzodimma came and was wondering where to start from. So, I was the only person who could tell him what was in the state by the time I left office in 2011.
In other words, I was the only leader with an institutional memory of the state of affairs in the state for close to ten years. So, I had to make sure I made myself available. Besides the fact that we both had a shared vision of how the state should be when he first ran for that office in 2003 with me as his running mate, my philosophy is that past governors should work closely with incumbents for the overall interest of the state and its people.
So, I decided to make myself available and he encouraged me not just because we are political allies but also because he realized that a synergy with me would be in the overall interest of the state and its people.
Apart from the above, Uzodimma took over almost at the same time the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Most of the governors who came into office in May 2019 had put in at least seven months before the pandemic. Yet, he was able to take off well to the extent that Imo recorded one of the lowest numbers of cases of Covid-19.
So, you think he is doing well?
So far, so good. If he is not doing well, I have no business supporting him. In the countdown to the November 11, 2023 governorship election that returned him for a second term, I wrote an open letter to the good people of Imo State giving reasons why he should be re-elected and followed it up with visits to critical opinion leaders.
One of them was that he has this striking understanding with the federal authorities and which we must exploit further instead of bringing an entirely fresh person.
Today, I am vindicated. Let me give you one illustration. Shortly after his re-election, he was able to get the Federal Government to allow the state to take over an electricity project it was doing in the state. Even though power has been removed from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent, the Federal Government had no difficulty in allowing the Imo State government to take over its power project in Egbema. That was not for nothing.
A brand new fellow would not have been able to get such a concession within such a short period of time. And the governor is running with the ball with a state-propelled independent power project. He quickly set up the Imo State Electricity Regulatory Commission which is working day and night. As I talk to you, the power project that will give Imo State 24 hours of uninterrupted supply of electricity is billed for commissioning in the first quarter of 2025. That will be quite revolutionary and if he succeeds in that, as I believe he will, the story in Imo State will be entirely different.
But it is believed in some quarters that your decision to work closely with the governor is because you are nursing the ambition of taking over from him at the end of his tenure in 2027. How true is this?
First, as I have just told you, there is no way I could have turned my back against a Hope Uzodimma administration and I gave you the reasons. Second, nobody should be surprised that meanings are being read into the fact that I am probably the most visible around the administration compared with his other three predecessors. But the fact is that I am not doing it because I want to take over from him, I have given you the reasons why I decided to be around, especially as he encouraged me to do so. You do not need to be hanging around a governor to nurse an ambition to run for office.
Those you need to go to are the people. And I know that the governor realizes the fact that my unalloyed support for his administration is not because I am nursing an ambition. I can tell you that today in Imo State, there are people who are nursing the ambition to succeed Uzodimma that are not seen around him. Some people have tried to create the impression that because the governor has shown interest in what one or two fellows are doing, then he has endorsed them as his possible successor. That’s a wrong interpretation of the situation.
But Sir, there is still a strong rumour in the state that you will be throwing your hat in the ring for the 2027 governorship race?
What is a rumour? Won’t it surprise you if such rumours around me, Ikedi Ohakim, do not exist? If anybody comes out to say that I am going to run for governor in 2027 will he or she be said to be guessing wrongly? Personally, I don’t talk about 2027 because I believe it is too early, apart from that, it would amount to a distraction to the governor. In other words, I will be contradicting myself by saying that I am working for him to continue with his good works and finish well and at the same time talk about who will succeed him.
But others can talk on your behalf and already one or two influential personalities in the state have been canvassing for your return. How about that?
Can you name those that are campaigning for me?
Two prominent indigenes of Owerri zone, Bob Njemanze and Paddy Obinna, elder brother of Archbishop Obinna, have come out strongly to canvas for your return, claiming that it is the easiest way for their zone to get power. From Orlu zone, Ralph Obioha, an elder statesman and former presidential aspirant, has also come out to canvas for your return. This is strong evidence that some people are already rooting for you. Are they not?
I was governor for four years and of all the 305 electoral wards in the state, there is none in which I did not have supporters or those who worked with me.
We are in a free democratic world where people can legitimately have their own ideas on how things should go and sometimes go about canvassing it without necessarily doing eye service.
I do not think we should quarrel over people trying to express their thoughts on matters concerning their environment either as individuals or as a group.
So, if any individual or group indulges in any tendencies that would suggest that Ikedi Ohakim should be governor again, do you think they should be crucified? Right now, there are serious debates going on in the state over power sharing. Do you think it is possible that names like Ikedi Ohakim will not be mentioned in one way or the other? But to cut a long story short, I am not talking about 2027 yet, and I have not told anybody to talk about it on my behalf or to campaign for me.
Sir, you made mention of restructuring but there has been this back and forth about it. Why do you think we are not making progress with it?
More than ever before, restructuring has become inevitable. Some people were pretending but it has become clear to everyone that we cannot continue with the present structure if Nigeria must survive. The Patriots are right in asking for a new constitution though that is not the first time. Restructuring and change of constitution or some of its provisions is not one and the same thing but we need constitutional changes, whether wholly or partially, to effect restructuring.
For instance, restructuring may need going for a referendum but the current constitution has no provision for a referendum. The president was also right in the way he responded to The Patriots, led by our highly respected Chief Emeka Anyaoku. I agree with him that he should be given some time to first fix the economy but that should only be in the short term.
As far as I am concerned, no meaningful transformation of the Nigerian economy can take place without restructuring and I am certain that President Tinubu will ultimately work towards that because I know that he believes in restructuring.
“I am not talking about 2027 yet, and I have not told anybody to talk about it on my behalf or to campaign for me”
Are you suggesting that we should return to a regional arrangement?
We do not need a regional system to operate a truly federal structure. But if in the process of restructuring some states that are geographically contiguous and have cultural affinities decide to merge, that should be encouraged. We have a whole lot of work to do and we need to go about it with level headedness. It is not something that can be achieved with a week-long protest. It is a long distance journey but we must start now.
Your Excellency, the security situation in the country seems to have defied any known logic. It deteriorates everyday despite claims by the government that it is on top of it. As a former governor, you are probably familiar with the nuances of the security challenges in the country. Why do you think the government is finding it impossible to handle the matter?
I don’t think it is correct to say that the government is finding it impossible to handle the security challenges in the country. I am aware that quite a lot is being done and that a lot of progress is being recorded. The Police Equipment Fund, for example, is being put into effective use through the acquisition of sophisticated equipment that are being deployed all over the country.
But since these equipment are not purchased off the shelf, we give the authorities time to place the order and get them into the country. But I am aware that as of today, all the divisional police headquarters in the 774 local government areas in the country have been linked up to a central monitoring system for effective coordination. And let me seize this opportunity to commend the new Executive Secretary of the Fund for the innovations he has brought into its management, especially by making it easier and attractive for corporate bodies to be part of the programme.
