Tinubu must reduce fuel price to help the poor breathe – Ex-VON DG Okechukwu

Former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress speaks on the palpable landmine on the path of state governors arising from the Supreme Court judgment on the autonomy for local governments, among other sundry national issues in this interview with OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

How would you react to some state governors’ multifarious plans to circumvent the autonomy granted local governments by the Supreme Court?

In summary, President Bola Tinubu laid landmines for state governors regarding local government financial autonomy, no matter how smart they tried to circumvent the trap.

How was the landmine laid?

We all know how ingenious and smart the governors had been in subverting and breaching the 1999 Constitution. From the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999 till date, all efforts made to amend the constitution to strengthen the overall local government autonomy were violently resisted and truncated by those that had been dubbed emperor-governors. This is why President Tinubu, a veteran politician and former governor with requisite experience, took the bull by the horns and adopted the only option left by heading to the Supreme Court. Luckily, the noble justices of the Supreme Court, who knew how the emperor-governors mangled local government councils’ funds, responded swiftly. The Supreme Court judgment is a landmark judgment which will only be consolidated to overall local government autonomy by the amendment of some sections of the constitution by the National and State Assemblies. Even if the emperor-governors, in their usual unholy bi-partisan alliance, decide to subvert the amendment, the fine points of that judgment will guarantee financial autonomy to our local government councils. Methinks they have come to the end of the tunnel they dug out of selfish interest for 25 years. Truly, any governor who circumvents this landmine, laid courtesy of the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, is in for trouble, especially by the local constituents.

You seem to be optimistic about the powers of the hapless local constituents…

(Cuts in) Yes, you may call me an optimist or whatever, that’s the price we pay in the public domain. The little lesson I learnt from my primary history study is that emperors lose whenever they rate themselves as invincible. This is what is happening to most of the governors who live on the false assumption that they are invincible. Feelers reaching some of us inform that the ante of most Nigerians was raised since the landmark judgment in July 2024. We were also taught in primary class that necessity is the mother of invention. The hunger in the land, coupled with multi-dimensional poverty has prepared good ground for local constituents to ask serious local questions. Before long, some communities will strongly query their councillors as the old excuse that their governor is in charge has evaporated.

Are you aware that some governors, like that of Anambra State, have through the state House of Assembly enacted laws to strengthen its access to local government funds?

To be honest, methink that Governor Charles Soludo is just riding on a vanity train constructed by some political bandits in his corridor of power. Vanity train in the sense that the Supreme Court judgment expressly ruled that any law derivable from laws enacted by the state House of Assembly in breach of Sections 1(1), (2) and (3), 4(7), 5(2)(a) and (b) and 3(b), 7(1) and (3) and 14(1), (2)(a) and (4) of the Constitution is unconstitutional and unlawful. It went ahead to stop other antics like the setting up of caretaker committees or the dissolution of elected councillors.

How can you call Governor Soludo’s advisers bandits?

Methinks one needs better clarification of the word bandit. The ordinary dictionary meaning of the word bandit is one who takes unfair and undue advantage over others. It is in this context that one in my thesis classified our clime as besieged by bandits of multi-colours. If a legal or political adviser deliberately advised Governor Soludo to circumvent the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court on the financial autonomy of local government councils, is it not pure and simple banditry? The banditry in local government council administration is what the Supreme Court judgment has exposed. And I repeat that any governor who fails to readjust will pay heavily, if not by law, but by the local constituents.

Are you saying that the local government council elections recently conducted by the governors are null and void?

Going by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, unless otherwise declared by courts of competent jurisdiction, the elections stand. This is because the State Independent Electoral Commission is constitutional, albeit under the behest of the governor. What I am contending is that with the Supreme Court judgment, no matter under which political party banner a councillor was elected, his constituents now have the unalloyed powers to do the needful oversight function. This is because there were queries by local constituents before on the shoddy manner the local communities were treated by local government councils. But the usual excuse was that the governor is in charge via the joint account and other sundry machinations. That excuse is now lame and rendered inadmissible by the landmark judgment.

Considering the present economic realities, do you think President Bola Tinubu is applying the appropriate remedy to revamp the economy?

Without being accused of playing blame games, let’s not forget that the mangling of our economic fortunes started decades ago, when selfish interest, clothed under the canopy of ethno-religious garb and spiced with corruption, derailed our goals to be the giant of Africa from independence. Immediately we got independence, our leadership assumed the toga of overlords, parked into GRAs and astronomically for decades, subverted the common good of lifting millions out of poverty. This was how the culture of impunity took over with its offspring bandits of multi-colours. Automatically, our public domain became ‘to your proverbial tents Oh Israel,’ where merit and expertise became meaningless, as the more crooked you are, what they termed smartness, the better. This is how our bubbling state-owned enterprises like NEPA collapsed, and our oil windfall squandered, especially after the Arab-Isreali war, popularly called Yom Kippur.

The question is on the current economic hardship. How is the unbearable hardship linked to your submission above?

I am tracing the trajectory of how and why the hardship President Tinubu met on assumption of office came about. It was the culture of impunity with its offspring banditry, which debased our inherited work ethics, thrift and orderliness. We succumbed to an argument that we could not manage our state-owned enterprises. This is why in 1986 the World Bank and IMF, with whom we used to bank our foreign reserves, became our lenders. We succumbed to the neoliberal policy superior argument that we were incapable and couldn’t manage our state-owned enterprises and adopted the nebulous economic policy that the government had no business in business. This was why all the major presidential candidates affirmed that they would remove fuel subsidies, forgetting that this is the only ligament holding the breath of the poor. They even convinced us that the fuel subsidy only benefits the rich, whilst the contrary is the basket case.

What is your assessment of the Tinubu administration in the last 17 months?

President Tinubu is bold and courageous in taking uncomfortable decisions which others were shy to take. Methinks he had chosen an economic route he is convinced will redeem our dear country and pull us out from the economic doldrums. He has also embarked on programmes like the CNG, the national students’ loan, major road projects and agricultural incentives to farmers.

Don’t you think there is a missing link as the hunger in the land is excruciating or is there any solution?

There is no policy without a missing link; the missing link one could point at is that the oil industry seems opaque and should be sanitised to reduce the cost of the pump price of fuel. One had humbly, in a public statement, appealed to Mr President to consider relinquishing the portfolio of Minister of Petroleum so that the Coordinating Policy Unit, headed by Hadiza Bala Usman and other relevant agencies could thoroughly monitor and scrutinise the less-than-transparent transactions going on there. I cautioned Mr President not to fall into the toxic state-capture trap of the petroleum ministry, which made his predecessors fail to fix any of the four refineries in over 20 years. This woeful incapacity to fix any refinery was because the syndrome of African big men played as corruption ravaged the oil industry. The outcome was the loss of over $70bn in importation of refined petroleum products, with is attendant foreign exchange imbalance.

Secondly, simple arithmetic dictates that if Dangote refinery is allocated the over 300,000 barrels per day they announced with instruction to sell at N500 per litre, as TUC advised, the price of food and commodities will fall drastically. And Nigerians will breathe.

How did you come about such postulation?

If crude is locally supplied to Dangote Refinery constantly, the cost of shipping, insurance and sundry charges are off the account ledger. This is a huge foreign exchange saved.

Have you forgotten that crude oil is sold according to international price, which means it cannot be sold cheaper?

This position you posted is an ancient tale, which some experts in the oil industry had eloquently and convincingly crashed with verifiable statistics. The oil pundits argued that a barrel of crude oil contains other derivatives like diesel, fuel oil, etc, therefore the President may consider instructing that the pump price be cheaper to cut the economic hardship. Dangote will make his profit from a plethora of other derivatives and cut the economic pain. The pump price is at the heart of hyperinflation in the country. Secondly, it is a valid argument that every government on earth embarks on one subsidy or the other.

How will the government meet up with other competing needs if the crude price is subsidised?

The crude price is not subsidized per se, what will happen is that profit is augmented from the derivatives and not PMS. The palpable grinding poverty has revealed that the fuel subsidy touches on our lives and by extension Chapter Two of our Constitution – The Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.

What’s the main thrust of the chapter?

Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy is the social contract section of the Constitution, which defines the relationship between the leaders and the led. It is one of my favourite sections and the finest item in the constitution. This is to say that the social contract was thoughtfully engraved in chapter two – Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.

As a critical stakeholder in the South-East, what is your assessment of the administration of the South-East governors in the delivery of democracy dividends?

Let us not forget that some of the governors are new and should be given time before a thorough assessment can be done. Generally, if we look back, none of our Fourth Republic South-East governors can be equated with Jim Nwobodo and Sam Mbakwe of blessed memory performance-wise. By extension, there is no former governor in the whole country since 1999 whose performance is commensurate with the amount of money which passed under him. I had earlier told you that across the length and breadth of our dear country, we are regrettably besieged by bandits of multi-colours.