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New Page 12
N25bn capital base: FG must tackle
corruption first - Gani
We shall introduce
social security system which the constitution allows and those who don’t have
jobs will be given money to keep body and soul together. We shall give what you
call national minimum living wage not this paltry sum of US$33 per annum which
translates to N193 per day which cannot even buy two bottles of kerosine to cook
food.
So the poor people are suffering while the
country is making money. I cannot understand a situation where the more money we
make abroad, the poorer our people are, the more money we make from the sale of
our petrol, the less money we see. So it means that corruption is still rife and
rampant and therefore the leaders have to pay for this when we come to power. So
I will still contest, I will fight on behalf of the NCP to see that a government
that is clean and has conscience is brought to power in this country. So I will
never stop fighting. But the fact that I am not the leader of the NCP does not
rob me of my candidacy for 2007.
Recently President Obasanjo tabled the
Labour Reform bill aimed at decentralising the Nigeria labour Congress (NLC) but
the National Assembly. What do you make of the proposed legislation that has
attracted mixed reactions from Nigerians?
You see Obasanjo’s move was a reaction to
the activities of NLC against increases in the prices of petroleum products. It
is not that he wanted to decentralise any body. Now the thing that worries me is
that I don’t want to see the president of NLC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in PDP
caucus, I don’t want to see him in PDP environment so as not to give a wrong
impression to the Nigeria people and workers.
Having said that, Obasanjo has no right to
intervene in the labour matter and trying to reduce the potency of the powers of
the NLC in combating the excesses of government. If Oshiomhole comes out
tomorrow to ask Nigerian people to be on the streets against the bill which is
out to antagonise labour, we will be on the streets. We will back Oshiomhole, we
will accept his leadership in that crusade to fight against that bill that has
been presented to the National Assembly because it was done solely to reduce the
potency of the powers of the NLC.
The intention of Obasanjo is not to
democratise anything or the re-organisation of anybody, it is just to punish the
NLC for what it has done. I mean for championing the cause of the masses of our
people against the fuel price increase and that is the reason why I am saying I
appeal to Oshiomhole to please severe his connection with the PDP whether in
terms of meetings. I am not saying he is a PDP man but he should not be seen in
their circle so as not to give a wrong impression to the right people. Obasanjo
does not like labour. You will remember in 1977, when he banned S.U Bassey,
Wahab Goodluck, labour leader number one Pa Michael Imhoudu, by decree he banned
them all and said that they should stop being the leaders of the workers. So all
those who the workers wanted to listen to those years were banned by Obasanjo
when he took power after the unfortunate assassination of Gen. Murtala Mohammed
in 1976.
He used that opportunity to reduce the
power of organised labour. So he wants to do it again now that labour is
championing the cause of the masses. What he did 27 years ago he wants to repeat
now but he must know that we are in a different environment and a different
circumstance. So if he attempts it this time, I appeal to Oshiomhole to call a
strike and Nigerian people will support him because what Obasanjo wants to do is
not to democratise anybody but to undemocratise Nigerian citizens. Obasanjo has
fought other institutions, he fought the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),
he fought all groups in this country but it is labour that is left now of all
the institutions that garner public support and channel public outcry towards a
strike. So we should not allow him to conquer labour.
If he conquers labour, we are all
conquered and that is the reason he is planning to demean labour, by
decentralising labour, I mean the law should not be passed by the National
Assembly. All that the man wants to do by this bill is to ensure that he
achieves his aim and once he gets that power and labour is rendered weak and
prostrate then he will now go for what he wanted, to have a third term. He wants
to amend the constitution of this country so that he can run for a third term
and he feels that labour is likely to oppose that type of thing and he wants to
weaken labour so that there will be no institution left to oppose him when he
brings out his own plan of a third term.
So the National Assembly should be awake
to that responsibility to safeguard the interest of labour, to safeguard the
interest of the Nigerian people otherwise if labour is weakened before the end
of the year, the fuel pump price may go to N100 per litre and before Obasanjo
ends his term, it may go to between N150 to N160 per litre.
Do you support the recent directive of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that banks should increase their capital base to
N25 billion?
Obasanjo’s Reform Programme is flawed in
various ways. But as regards the N25 billion bank recapitalisation it is not the
amount that really counts. It is the monitoring mechanism that is very
important. You know Nigerians have a way of manipulating figures. We are already
hearing that one bank says it has an asset base of N250 billion. We are already
hearing all sorts of stories. Nigerians have a way of manipulating figures.
Don’t forget that whatever we say about the new CBN Governor, Prof. Charles
Soludo is one of the bankers, he is one of the economists, he doesn’t want to
affect the apple cart, he doesn’t want to choke it. He was the chief economic
adviser to the federal government and this government is for the rich because it
is not for the poor, it is not for the masses. So if pressure is brought to bear
on him by his own group of people who are tormenting and terrorising Nigerian
masses through the filth of their wealth, the filth and the stench of their
opulence he will bow to pressure. So it is not a question of just putting the
amount of N25 billion that is relevant. What is relevant is the mechanism to
ensure that the banking industry is not fraudulent. I mean look at what they are
doing to them in the private sector in America in terms of controlling
corruption in public and private sectors. Look at what they have done to energy
giant, ENRON. Its chief executive is standing trial for fraud. There is what we
call attack against corporate fraud in America, attack against corporate fraud
in Britain, in Germany and so on but we don’t have that in Nigeria. Tell me
which company has been taken in for fraud but we know they commit fraud every
time.
Therefore we cannot have the private
sector as the engine of growth in this country because the private sector is as
corrupt as the public sector and therefore they are one and the same thing. So
when you talk of N25 billion in which atmosphere? The atmosphere of round
tripping foreign exchange where nobody is charged to court. Is it the context of
fraud that is being perpetrated by the corporate sector of the Nigerian society?
So N25 billion is nothing when you are talking of monetary value and is
something when you are talking of an environment that is clean. But for an
environment that is corrupt, N25 billion is nothing. So let Soludo deal with
corporate fraud which is rampant in Nigeria and government has not dealt with it
because the corporate sector of the Nigerian society is the one that is
maintaining the fraudulent government and is servicing the fraudulent public
sector. So the public and the private sectors are both corrupt. So you can’t
tell me that you want to increase banks capital base without first cleansing the
banking industry because they can easily manipulate Nigerians and get the N25
billion in a society that is corrupt. And corporate fraud is at the heart of
corruption in the Nigerian society and it is the corporate sector that is aiding
the public sector.
Everything that is being done in Aso Rock and outside it,
in the public sector is being funneled and channelled through the corporate
sector in the society and we know the corporate sector is fraudulent. So Soludo
you say you studied in America, you say that you are the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) man and you say that you know World Bank . Is America not in the
World Bank? Is America not in the IMF? Why is America cleansing the fraud in its
corporate sector? Do the same as the Americans have done, let us know how clean
the private sector is in the Nigerian society, let us know how corrupt the
corporate sector is in Nigeria. So until these things are resolved, please there
is no solution, he has not provided any solution at all, he is Soludo without
solution.
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