‘Nigeria must decide on state police, subsidy’

• Senate confirms 18 nominees

AS the Senate yesterday continued the screening of the ministerial nominees submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari, two of the 18 candidates, screened and confirmed, immediate past governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu (Delta) may have emerged ‘the stars to watch.’

Both nominees had Senators listening with rapt attention due to their knowledgeable, incisive and comprehensive analyses of issues close to their hearts. The other 16 nominees who were also screened and confirmed include: Aisha Alhassan, Lai Mohammed, Ogbonnaya Onu, Kemi Adeosun, Kayode Fayemi and Amina Ibrahim.

Others are, Audu Ogbe, Chris Ngige, Hadi Sirika, Udoh Udoma, Solomon Dalong, Ibrahim Usman, Suleiman Adamu,an engineer, Abubakar Malami, Abdulrahman Dambazzau and

Kachikwu, NNPC GMD

Osagie Ehamere.

Fashola, the first nominee , spoke for an hour, passionately espousing his belief that the Nigerian police for effectiveness.

According to him: “There is a necessity first to decentralise the police. The number available to me is that we have probably a police force of about 500, 000 for a population that is heading towards 180 million. We are under-policed and even if the Federal Government decided to take on the responsibility on its own, can it really do so on the micro level that is necessary for the state, the local government and all other levels?”

He recommended a compelling urgency for decentralisation, saying: “I have made those recommendations to some of the committees of Constitutional Amendments where I was privileged to make representations. But the arguments about why we should not decentralise the police, with due respect distinguished senators, do not go far. They did not address the fundamental responsibilities that the government has. Such argument that government will abuse state police for political purposes pales before the fact that the abuse of political power is not as important as the loss of life.”

On security, the former governor said: “The purpose for which government exists, to protect the citizens and their property. This is the toughest job that any government can have. It is the challenge that leaders across the world are facing, terrorism, crime and others.”

He likened the matter of security to a competition between an administrator and criminals saying: “My attitude was to see criminals as my competitors and in a competition my desire is to win. I will use my resources to win and steal the competition and outmanouvre my competition.

“In this type of competition, my job as a governor is to ensure that nobody died; my job is to ensure that nobody is robbeded so I have no magic to do the job because for every citizen that is robbed I have failed. So I have to be right every time and the criminal have to be wrong.

“But even when the criminals were right, what is important is to demonstrate to our citizens that weren’t without solutions and when there is an incident and we are able to resolve it means we can now put a lot of confidence in the citizens.

“This is a pattern that we didn’t follow. It was Federal Government architecture, a federal police arrangement. There was time the police operated without enough equipment including arms and ammunition. In my interaction with them this was the kind of complaints I got from the officers and it was clear to me that this is not what the state government alone could do so we have to involve the stakeholders in the banks and other institutions. I made some of the stakeholders, particularly those in the bank to realize is that if you can bulletproof your banks and care about your workers and customers can you bulletproof every home? If you bring some of these monies and put it in the security trust fund it will help.”

“I will never attempt to personally take credit for the works that you have mentioned that happened in Lagos. It was a collective effort including that of my predecessors in office and it is a continuing effort. And so it would be extremely inappropriate and immodest of me, and they would even allowed it if I attempted to take personal responsibility for all of what happened.”

The former governor also cleared allegations of corruption leveled against him, saying: “As governor of Lagos, I didn’t sign cheques. None of my commissioners signed cheques. I didn’t sit in awards of contracts. There is a Tender Board that handles contracts

The unfortunate thing about money is that it always raises suspicion, even among brothers. In all, nobody has said I have personally enriched myself.”

On the issue of taxation, he said: “Before we decided to increase taxes, we must first optimize the capacity to harness what is increased.”

On the concept of loyalty, he posited: “Loyalty is a very strange concept. May our loyalty never be tested. If your loyalty is tested, you might end up taking a bullet for your own children.

In public life, I have remained loyal to causes I have signed on to. Nobody can accuse me of going back on my words.”

While he tendered apology over the deportation of some destitute Nigerians during his period as governor, he explained: “In a federation, the right to free movement is not absolute; it carries with a responsibility not to be a nuisance. Those moved to their states of origin were those who asked to be taken home.

I have tendered public apology and I still tender it today in the interest of national cohesion.”

The other ‘star’, the GMD of NNPC Emmanuel Kachikwu, spoke on reforms in the corporation, the subsidy regime, petroleum assets management and the unbundling of the state oil corporation, which he heads.

On subsidy, he said: “If you ask anybody from the private sector whether subsidy should remain, I think you would get a categorical no. So, you can’t embellish that. But having said that and in my conversations with His Excellency, the president, he understands that; he gets it. He has been petroleum minister before. But what I think he is very deeply worried about is if we take away this subsidy without adequate plans on the palliatives, like we have just mentioned, what is going to be the impact on the populace. So, we are having a continuing dialogue on this. I think we are both determined that at some point in time, given the sheer effect on the national economy of subsidy today, something would have to happen on subsidy.

We are doing a number of things. First, we are doing an analysis of subsidy at what number? Do we consume 40 million litters like the data says? Or do we consume 25? My six weeks there shows me that we are closer to 30 million litres than we are to 40. To that extent, that is already a 25 per cent drop in the subsidy number. We have the cost in terms of demurrage; can we be more efficient and wipe that out? That is about 25 per cent factor again. Then we have the bank interest. If we can have financing mechanism that enables us to fund as and when due interventions by independent marketers in this stuff, there would also be a reduction.

But, at the end of the day, the problem with subsidy is that if you don’t handle it well without the palliatives what would happen. What are some of the palliatives? The National Health Scheme touches every Nigerian. Railway development all over the country touches every Nigerian, so does power. Subsidy at transportation points, in things like motor tickets. My understanding is that the president is a lot more minded in attacking subsidy once he is able to deal with the palliative issues rather than simply yanking it out. My duty, in the short term, is first to continue with that dialogue and get him comfortable with it. Two and, more important, is to also help him to develop a comfort factor on those palliatives.

Three, get subsidy to a level to a level where we can say this is the actual cost of subsidy. There is a lot of fraud that went into the subsidy scheme. If you strip it of the fraud, what really is the subsidy. If we carry out an analysis for example and find out that the subsidy element is not more than N10, the question anybody would ask you is, if N10 is too much an amount to give to your citizens. And can you fund that subsidy through other mechanisms.

But if it now turns out, as the data are indicating currently before the research, that you are subsidizing the product at about N40, clearly the ability of state governments to do their work becomes unbearable. There is a research that needs to happen; a dialogue that needs to happen and we are going to get to the end of the subsidy issue.”
The spellbinding performance of Fashola and Kachikwu , notwithstanding the others also had their day .

Malami, in his remarks, said he was making an undertaking to be true to his God, Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) and the President, Muhammadu Buhari in whatever responsibility given to him.

Ngige, who received a rousing welcome highlighted what he said he achieved as governor and senator including the committees he worked with in the 7th Senate. Ngige said he was instrumental to the founding of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998 and that when the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN) was to be formed, he also participated actvely until it merged with others to become the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ngige who described the PDP as ‘a former vehicle’ took a bow and was cheered out of the chambers by numerous admirers.
Dalong, the nominee from Plateau State, on judicial reform, said he would push for corrective reform of the prison system, adding that to move Nigeria forward, the nation must insist on adhering to laid down rules and regulations.

He said Nigeria must examine the history of the crisis in , as insecurity is caused by unemployment and poverty. He said an inclusive master plan is necessary to rescue the situation.

When speaking on the issue of corruption, Mr Dalong said corruption is a generic term and to find the root of corruption, we must examine the existing legal order, noting, “if we do not determine what corruption is, we may smuggle morality into law,”

On the social media, Mr. Dalong said regulation is a very serious aspect of our law that needs to be considered.

Adeosun from Ogun State, on her part, noted that there was need for creative-innovative solutions to add value to Nigeria, emphaisisng on blockage of leakages and urgent need to invest in infrastructure.

“Everywhere that people transact in cash, there are leakages”, She said.

She said the country needed to seek out other forms of cash transfer that faces out physical cash.
Mrs. Adeosun said that there is need to invest primarily in infrastructure, adding that banks are not in business to sit on government money, it’s bad economics.

While speaking about Foreign Investment, she said that the major challenge of is infrastructure.

“We need to establish public-private-partnerships to develop Nigeria’s infrastructure. If we get our infrastructure right, there are opportunities”, She said.

She added that Nigeria has to increase its revenues and improve on things like audits, adding, “Increase revenues, better cost efficiency and seek out other sources of funding to avert recession.”

Senator Alhassan, from Taraba State, debunks the claims that her ministerial appointment is compensation for her failed gubernatorial bid.
She addressed the supposed rumor that she was voted based on sentiment.

Mrs. Alhasasn talked about judicial corruption and cited various forms of corruption that can come about. “The key players of corruption in the judiciary are the bar and the bench”, she said.