Are We Deregulating Or Fixing Prices?
The current war of words between the State security agency and Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu over MASSOB and other similar agitation across the country have become a thing of worry for every discerning Nigerian. Also, in the last count, the Nigerian labour Congress (NLC) is intensely mobilising for show down with the federal government over the recent increase in the price of petroleum products. In this interview with Malachy Agbo, Engr. Ben Akah, a chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, bares his mind in some of the national issues
Do you think the current face-off between the State Security Service (SSS) and Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu over his utterances concerning MASSOB activities is worth it? I think the issue is being blown out of proportion by the government operatives in their style of handling the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) issue. I am an Igbo, and the way I see MASSOB is that it is a gradual consciousness been raised to show the dissatisfaction of that section of the country with the political status quo in Nigeria. What I expect the government to do if I were in their shoes is to address the issues raised instead of being scared by the fact that people are trying to recall "Biafra." As far as I am concerned, Biafra cannot be actualised because nobody has the means, capacity or energy to go through the hog of that painful process again.
For instance, people always say that Igbo people don't go to school. And I ask why is it that the youths of Igboland are not going to school? These guys have what they call role models whom they look up to either in their families or communities. There are many who went to school and came out with First Class or Second Class Upper without job opportunities since their graduation. So these boys look at these graduates and decided not to go to school to avoid being stranded like them. The society don't even present them with means to be self-employed. So when you ask young ones to go to school, they will tell you look that is my uncle who is a graduate and for over 10 years now he has no job. He still begs my mother for money. Is that what you want me to do? In the best of my knowledge, these underlining issues formed the idea of MASSOB's agitation. It emanated as people are saying that these group of people seem as if they are not part of the society.
Whether we like it or not, the said Uwazurike enjoys enamous acceptance among the Igbo youths. Whenever he says, his ideas are generally accepted. He does not talk to top executives in government or very wealthy people. He goes to the cobblers, articians, market women, students and many others who are suffering and dying. They believe that he is the one who has come to vindicate them from suffering and not even their so called 'elected' politicians.
Uwazurike talks about issues that awaken peoples' sub-consciousness. And you cannot take it away from them neither can you suppress it with the use of arms. You can only use persuasion, consistent education and positive action to make the people feel as part of the larger society called Nigeria. This has become a reality because there is no other way this issue can be resolved not by either arresting Ikemba or detaining Uwazurike. Instead, it will only aggravate the situation. The human nature is that the more they are pushed to the wall, the more they become more resistant. I pray the Federal Government does not make the mistake of applying force until they have managed to disabuse the people from this mentality of maginalised.
Do you think that the call for the convocation of a national conference would be a solution to these agitation?
The call for the convocation of National Conference is a very good thing and I support it. What surprises me mostly in that agitation is that even people who support the call here as I am talking to you now would turn against it when they go into government. You see them turn around and say no to it. It gives one the impression that these people are no longer seeing the project from the perspective of the suffering masses. What they could be feeling is that now that they are in power, if National conference comes as planned, they will lose that power. And that explains the dept of selfishness in some of our politicians. I think politics is a service and if you serve well, you would forever be a role model and will live a comfortable life.
I think people who are public spirited, who have decency in their character, who have the integrity and who have purposefulness, should forget about their wrong impression about politics and come into politics to serve. Because that is the only way it can work to bring sanity into Nigeria. The time has come for politicians to be offering services without thinking what they are going to reap from it in Nigeria. There are many politicians who have said in one occasion or the other in country that politics is an investment. And I beg to disagree. I think politics is a service to humanity. The kind of investment that would bring goodness to the people of Nigeria is the type I would encourage every Nigerian to invest in. You create an image that when you leave, people are looking for you and you experience become what you are going to sell. I understand that today former US President, Bill Clinton gives a lot of lectures everywhere but that each lecture gets him about one hundred thousand dollars. I can't boast of any past Nigerian leader that has that status and clout. That's what we should be looking at. I have never seen a person who comes into public office and serves well as a role model and goes home as a poor person or dies in poverty. But no matter the amount of money you pack in you term, for as long as you have not created goodwill and love for yourself and people, the money will finish and you will die of poverty. The only type of investment I can pursue in politics is not putting money today and collect ing it tomorrow morning.
So the issue of national conference is not a myopic talk. It is going to address the issue of corporate Nigeria how the federative units intend to accept and relate to each other. How will revenue be generated and shared and so on? How would people be identified? Is it from where their parents were born or is it where they are living and how and where do they derive benefits? Is it from where they are born or where they live and pay tax in? These are issues that have to be addressed once and for all. For instance, I have lived in Lagos for the past 30 years, all my children where born here which makes me a Lagosian by every right. But here people ask where was your father born? What is your mother's tongue and that is why they feel as if they are not Nigerians. If I live in Lagos and cannot be a Lagosian then I should think otherwise. All these are what SNC should address. I think that when this is done every other thing will follow.
Don't you think that selection of representatives for the conference would pose a problem?
No. I do not agree with you. From my own native Igboland, selection is made by the people. Selections should be made by the people of the land and not from senators, house of reps, politicians and so on. Our major problem is that we look at people from the perspective of where their fathers were born and so on. If the government does not interfere because if they do, the question becomes how influential are you? I think in this present age, we should go back to the native rules. IBB did something he called option A4 and everybody had to go back to the ward level to test he/her popularity. So until we do that kind of political arrangement where the man that would represent Awka in the federal house is not chosen by the headquarters in Abuja but chosen by people in Awka and Abuja is advised that this is the person they want and they have no choice than to accept the peoples choice. Until that process is put in place even the SNC would be still-born.
Some people are of the view that the MASSOB issue is capable of stalling call by the Igbos in producing the next President in 2007?
It would be very admirable to have an Igboman as a Nigeria president. I will want it too. If not for anything but to say yes that the Igbos are part of Nigeria project. But at the same time, I would like my fellow Igbomen and women a question. This 2007 project have we really worked for it? Can our votes alone win the presidential election in Nigeria? The answer is no. Which means that we have to sit down and negotiate with other federating units to accept first our desire. That the consensus should be given to the Igbos and it has to be a carefully crafted negotiation overtime. I make bold to tell you that I haven't seen people do it. Why should we talk of a president of Igbo extraction in Igboland without reaching out? Don't we think that the south-south that produce much of the oil used in Nigeria should equally have a say about occupying that exalted position? Must they continue to remain in the status they are because they don't have a population? My mind tells me that I must be identified as a Nigerian and be able to say and do what is fair because that is why I said politics requires people who have fairness in their minds and not those who are looking for just personal belongings.
In essence, what I am saying is that the Igbos are due for that position, but it seems the quest is pursued wrongly. Even the way some of my people demand for it is somehow worrisome. They say Igbo presidency as if it is their property. Instead, they should be asking for a Nigerian president of an Igbo extraction. I think it will make more sense to other people than the way we go about it.
Recently, the Anambra State government said it would conduct its lagging local government elections in December. Is it feasible?
I have my doubts but I pray to God that the elections works out well. There must be something that the power that be is not telling us about Anambra State. It is because of Anambra case that the laws of Nigeria is put on its head. It is in Anambra that you see the laws of the land in loggerhead. It is in Anambra that we have made history. So what I don't want in Anambra is for the peace to be disrupted.
The case of Anambra is baffling to me because it is difficult to understand what peculiar interest Abuja is trying to protect in the state. Everybody there believes "Ngige" is the best they've seen. And recognition of that what they did was to embrace the administration. And not to encourage people whose interest are to pull down what the Anambrarians accept as good.
So it is baffling to me I still don't understand it in all other states in this country they will tell you there is a leader of the party which is a governor. The governor is the authority but I still want the Abuja people to tell me if there are two governors in Anambra State? So people should understand that there is a constituted authority in Anambra State which should be respected at all times. That state, if left alone can move very forward but the distractions there are just too enormous.
The labour union is warming up for a show down with the government over the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products. Do think it is timely?
People in authority should always try to respect people's feelings and sensibilities. The interference of government in this issue runs counter with their deregulation policy. This issue has been going on and on and I think it has gotten to a time when it should be put behind us. Let the government not interfere on the issue and we would see how it would look like. But at the same time we must create an enabling environment where people are leading with a vision and purposefully. So that instead of building more prisons yards, we should build more factories and industries that would absorb the unemployed. Many who roam the streets want to work and earn a living. For instance, the government must look at the power sector and try and find a way out of the darkness which hampers development. If fuel is N50 or even N100 a litre which I predict it will come to before this time next year and the least paid worker earns a N100,000 it becomes a non-issue. But when there is not enough income to support the price, then you are invariably looking for the ire of the people. We must reconcile the issue of deregulation and price fixing by the same government. If they are removing the so called subsidy monster in oil, they should be able to subsidise other sectors in the economy. It is done every where. Even in those countries that either advise us or that we try to emulate. It will be insensible to advocate for a total deregulation because it has worked in several other countries without understudying the peculiarities of those countries. In Nigeria, can we boast of a day without power failure. Or haven't we heard of one-year celebration of constant power supply in our neighboring countries. We will not try to emulate such things.
But the federal government is bent on caging the organised labour through the current amendment of labour bill before the national assembly. What is your view about it?
Laws are not supposed to be made for individuals or for particular group of people. As an individual, I have never liked the idea of too much powers that the labour unions have. I believe each individual should be free to enter or not to enter a labour union. Also labour should not dabble into a lot of things they dabble into. The bill was hurriedly passed and the impression that everybody has is that that law is made to tackle a particular sector. A law must be all embracing, carefully discussed. All the stakeholdres should be involved in the debate. But when these laws were made, they were made to victimise the labour leaders on their stand on fuel matters.
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