* We ‘re paying for missed opportunities

Former Director General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Apostle Hayford Alile, in this interview with Vanguard spoke on how Nigerian economy has fared since independence, security challenges, political economy and issues in the financial sector especially the Nigerian capital market among others. Excerpts:

BY PETER EGWUATU & CHINEDU IBEABUCHI

hIS assessment of Nigerian economy since independence

As an emerging economy,in 1960, Nigeria was doing well but unfortunately, we got it all wrong because of the discovery of petroleum and a lot of rent we collected from it. So, we forgot the developmental curve we were supposed to go through. Instead of developing the agricultural sector we were into earlier we jumped over it because of the temptations stearing at us.

In the late 1970s, we  betrayed ourselves as a post industrial economy and forgot agriculture. In early 1980s, we started to import food ranging from cassava, Rice, fish and so on. In the late ‘80s, we even started to import palm oil from Malaysia. So, I will say that after going through this valley, we now begin to recognize that 70 per cent of our population is still in the rural sector and unfortunately the predominance of the 70 per cent are our grand fathers and grand mothers who cannot cultivate any longer. The youths have abandoned the rural areas for the urban area seeking the industrial sector to absolve them.  I think we have done badly by jumping the developing curve to declaring ourselves a post industrial economy. But I am very happy that this present administration has recognised the importance of agriculture in our emerging economy. I just hope that a lot of interventions being carried out in the agricultural sector will be properly managed.

On military interventions as cause of the decay
There must have been a reason while the military came in. They came in possibly to correct certain things they felt were wrong. Unfortunately, it was a self imposed assignment. There was no public sector management. Theirs was to manage gun and ammunitions, not really the economy and society. So they took upon themselves things they were not really trained for. In the process, they missed a lot of opportunities. So, it has become part of our history. But it slowed us down.

You get the government that you deserve. Nigeria is so blessed and at the same time unblessed by having that 1960 independence on a platter of gold. You and I were born by a woman who had to shed blood before we were born. Any good thing coming, if you don’t shed blood, you won’t get it. Our three leaders in the 1960s, our Patriarch Azikiwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello signed an agreement with the British called the “ Anglo-Nigeria Defence Pact” that they can use our Airspace to test  British planes, which was one of the pre-conditions for independence. For other countries seeking independence, they would have refused. I was the Secretary General of National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) then. I got to know of such an agreement.

We discussed it at  our executive meeting that we must oppose it. We organized national strike.  Our national leaders then talked to the British that we don’t want it. So for the military to have intervened, a lot of things were in decay. If they intervened and quickly conducted re-elections, we wouldn’t have been where we are now.

On the Boko Haram menace in the country
Whomever they are, they are not robots or machines, they are humans created by God. And God does not command them to kill any human being. So my duty as well as that of other religious leaders, Christian or Islam, is to pray for peace to reign. But for whatever reason, they are not supposed to be doing what they are doing. In addition, the government has the duty and responsibility to protect lives and properties of the people and they must use whatever strategy to curb insecurity. We have a lot of work to do to take our people out of poverty. And for Boko Haram to complicate and make situation in the North worse, they should stand out and tell the almighty God, this is not what you destined for us.

Apostle Hayford Alile

On the banking sector
Bureaucracy also crept into the banking sector. We need to take a second look at the role the banks are playing, that is, the Nigeria Agricultural Banks of the past. These developing banks need to be set up and managed properly to tap into the emerging sector of our population called the entrepreneurs. Nigerian youths are very creative. The Micro Managers and policy makers of our environment need to capture this useful sector of the population.  These developing banks should be equipped to support them.

His assessment of the stock market over the last 51 years of its existence and whether it has performed up to expectations

I won’t say yes or no. All the market in the world in the last three years dipped. The Nigeria stock market is not interlinked to the major market of New York, London, Tokyo so that if anything happens to those ones, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) remains insulated. But unfortunately, we made a mistake here.

All the banks loaned money to some of the stock brokers that they did not bother to investigate who they were. Just a few years to the turn down of the market, the international portfolio managers came into the market to exploit the high performance of the market. Yes! Market is market and should be perfect with minimal interference from micro managers.

I remember when privatisation was taking place in UK under Margaret Thatcher, British Petroleum was being privatised and Kuwaiti Investment Organisation bought about 20 per cent then. Lady Thatcher, who was overseeing the privatization exercise, had traveled out when the deal was done. When she came back, she cut the deal and reversed it in the interest of Britain.

We ought to have done the same thing here. I still remember that I once sought the assistance of our NSE President, MKO Abiola at that time to talk to our Military President Ibrahim Babangida, to amend our Investment Act to tolerate portfolio investors in the market. And he obliged to give us a new law. So he gave us a new administrative write up for portfolio managers intervening in our market. However, in a free market like that, there are some dangers as experienced in our market over the last three to four years. When I was there, if a foreign investor wants to come to the market, I tell the Broker to go and find out from his client if he wants to stay in this economy; not just to come and speculate.

Unfortunately, afterwards, a lot of speculators were allowed to come in. And immediately they found out things were not in the right shape, they quickly sold. From the arithmetic I got, those speculative hedge fund managers came to the market with about over $1 billion. But the value had climbed to over $3 billion Dollars when they sold off. So, they created a black hole in the market.  That black hole is still there. We pray that the new management at the exchange will be able to do something good and turn the place around.

How did the NSE perform during your period as Director General?
When I had the opportunity to work for the Stock Exchange then, I used to hear of captains of industries. But I found out that these so called captains of industries are not entrepreneurs, except for few people like Akintola, Ojukwu. But most of those who enjoyed the limelight were not entrepreneurs, they were Commission Agent. As at that time, we had about 30 companies listed on the market. They were primarily foreign promoted companies.

Only about two or three of them were Nigeria promoted companies in the likes of The Nkalagu Cement factory, etc. So, we had to work hard to see that more Nigeria promoted companies were listed. That was why we had to set up a second tier securities market in the late ‘80s, with some relaxed listing requirement to accommodate Nigeria entrepreneurs to come to the markets and raise long term capitals, with a view to expanding and graduating their companies to first tier market. In the last few years I spent in the NSE, out of about 34 Nigerian companies listed on the second tier market, about eight of them graduated to the first tier market. I believe we still have a lot of Nigerians who are entrepreneurs and who can be given incentive to come to that market to raise capitals for expansion or introduction of new ideas and partner with large foreign companies.

But we should not lose the focus on agriculture because we are still basically an agricultural country. By and large, I think we have tried to see that within the next four to five years, we reverse the trend.