By Innocent Anaba

Mr. Ntufam Ugbo, a lawyer, is the Executive Secretary, National Planning Commission and also Secretary to the National Economic Council. A former Director with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ugbo was Secretary to the State Government, Commissioner for Finance, Planning and budget in Cross River State.

In this interview, he speaks on law and economic development, his plans for Cross River State if elected the State Governor and sundry national issues.

WHAT aspects of our laws do you think we need to amend to fast track economic development in the country?

Law and economics go hand in hand, law and development go hand in hand. If you create an enabling environment what it means is that your legal systems in place are perfect, you can encourage investors to come in and invest because the legal environment is conducive for them to operate and when that happens, it brings development, so you see the nexus between law and economic development.

When you embark on projects and programmes of governments, governments come and go, but the programmes and projects you established continue to remain, how do we ensure that the law helps us to ensure that progress and development is sustained.

Progress and development

Ntufam Ugbo

What we in the National Planning Commission notice is that when governments come into power, the first thing they do is to abandon what the previous administration did. And to us, that is a loss to the Nigerian populace.

What are you doing about this?

We came up with a law which we call Projects continuity Bill which is before the National Assembly, believing that the National Assembly will look at this bill, pass it into bill so that no administration, whether it is the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) or is the All Progressives Congress (APC), will come to power and will want to abandon what the immediate past administration did.

This is beneficial to Nigerians and not to any particular person or any political party, so we expect that such a law would be put in place so that it will help us in our development efforts, so it will help Nigerians to realise the benefits of their tax money. That is how law can assist in ensuring that there is development, that is how law will ensure that people who are supposed to bring in money and invest and bring development come in when the enabling environment is right, when the legal systems are properly put in place.

That is the relationship between law and development and we believe that we are doing a great job in addressing that.

One of the problems in Nigeria is lack of continuity in government policies. How can this be addressed?

We are trying to see that there is continuity in Government development policies. Remember that we started with the vision 2020. The vision 2020 document about 5000 Nigerians participated in tracking the Nigerian vision. Why did we get all Nigerians from all works of life to participate in that, it is because we didn’t want it to look as if it is Federal Government document, no, it should be a Nigerian document.

So, every Nigerian was given the opportunity to make a contribution to that plan. And when that came up, the States in the same vein, followed suit by developing their own State vision which was derived from the national vision. To ensure that we coordinate and we ensured the working together of the three tiers of Government, we have the National Economic Council which is chaired by the Vice President of the Country with all the 36 States Governors in attendance and you know that the constitution places the responsibility of the governance of the third tier of government which is the local governments in the States.

So, if the governors are in attendance, they are representing the States which they come from. So, this meeting holds every Month where we discuss matters that affect the Federal Government, the States and the Local Governments in one sitting and everything we need to do as a nation, obviously, these things are discussed at that meeting. This is very important and we coordinate this meeting from the National Planning Commission which is an aspect we think we are doing well.

Which values do you think this has added to the governance of this country?

Well, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, a sitting President did a mid term review of his achievements which was published, that is Mr President’s Transformation Agenda mid term report. He published a mid term report where he challenged all Nigerians, saying, this is what he has achieved in the two years of his sitting as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and if anybody doubts what was contained in the report, he is free to debunk it by showing that what is written there is not correct. Up till this moment we speak, nobody has come out to say that what the President presented is not true. That report was was facilitated by the National Planning Commission, they came up with that report.

We have set up a national monitoring and evaluation system for the country which is working very robustly, we have even established a Geographic Information System (GIS) monitoring lab in the National Planning Commission because we know that we are in an age of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which we must apply in running all our processes. We have done all that which is the pride of the commission and it all happened during my tenure as the Secretary to the commission, so, I am indeed proud that we are doing what we ought to do and we partner other organs of government that is available to us like the Joint Planning Board

What is the work of this Joint Planning Board?

The Joint Planning Board is a body where all the States Planning Commissioners meet quarterly to discuss issues that affect the three tiers of government and what can be done. We make resolutions, we go ahead to enforce these resolution and at the same time we monitor what is going on. The National Monitoring and Evaluation that we have put in place, we are also encouraging the States to adopt the same system because it will help us to know what we are achieving and where we are failing, so that once we know where we are achieving well and where we are failing, we can correct the failures and then improve on the positive achievements that we are making. So, to that extent, we are making wonderful contributions and we are coordinating what happens across the three tiers of governments.

What do you monitor and evaluate?

In monitoring and evaluation, we monitor budgets and programmes implemented by the three tiers of Governments, Federal Government fiscal projects. We develop a monitoring evaluation report every year to tell what ministries and departments are achieving every year and whatever do not achieve, we report also.

Why do you do this ?

We do this because we want to give them an opportunity to see what they are doing, because there is this saying that you do not see yourself, you can only see yourself with a mirror and we being the mirror with which the ministries, the departments and agencies see themselves, we give them that report, so that from the report they see clearly what they are doing right and what they are not doing right from there they know where to take corrections and where to improve. We a also monitor programmes and not only projects.

It is widely speculated that you intend to serve your people of Cross River State as Governor, therefore, you intend to contest for that office in the forthcoming elections in 2015, what is your reaction to this?

Service to me has been part of my life because when I was talking to you about the areas I have offered services here and there you will see that it has always been a life of service to the people, service the nation and all that. And if at this point in time I consider that I have it takes to step up my service to my State, I think I right.

What makes you think that you are the man for the job?

Yes, in 2006 I aspired for the position of the Governor of my State, I am a team player and at the end of the day we agreed and we came together, we worked together to actualise, this dream for one of us who happens to be the current Governor on seat.

Now 2015 is around the corner , the guidelines are indeed out and my people still believe that I have what it takes to give them that leadership and I have been urged to renew the aspiration that I started in 2006 and I cannot let my people down, I will take up the challenge and I will show interest.

There was an advertisement in the newspapers recently in which you were quoted as saying that you reject the Lagos accord of three musketeers, what is your reaction to this?

I was shocked to the marrows when I read the advertisements in the newspapers. I was shocked because I don’t understand why human beings could go to the extent of concoct, fabricating and publish such lies in the newspapers just to undermine other candidates and achieve political gains.

That advertisement did not come from me nor did it emanate from my campaign office. How can I go ahead to say that a government which I am fully part of is a slave driver, it then means that I myself, am a slave driver. Above all, we have done our best for our people and the country in general.

Campaign train

Mischief makers used the photographs of our Governor and that of our former Governor to do that, they made it sound as if it came from my campaign train. It is really unfortunate and this kind of politics must be discouraged by all, the press should always cross check who is sending advertisements to them.

They should always confirm the authenticity and verify the source, so as not to embarrass innocent citizens, defame them or infringement on their fundamental rights.

As an embodiment of economics, law and finance, how do you intend to touch the lives of ordinary Cross Riverians if elected the State Governor in 2015?

At times when you are growing up in life, you go through certain processes that you don’t know what God is doing, but He is deliberately preparing you for certain responsibilities, for the journey ahead, you may never know that. But somehow, some where along the line you will begin to realise that God was indeed preparing you for a great task which He has planned for you ahead.

I started my life as an economist, I was engaged in the Central Bank of Nigeria as an economist where I worked for 24 years. Out of the 24 years, 20 years were with the CBN and four years were the years I spent as Commissioner for Finance, Planning and budget in Cross River State, that was between 1995 and 1999. When I returned to the Bank, I read law and took a Masters degree in Finance which exposed me to all forms of financing options and all that.

As if that was to say look, you are going to face a State that is financially challenged, you should have those views to decide on how you are going to innovatively create some financing that will help to propel development in the State. So, I believe that these background that I had, with the fact that I worked in the CBN, I worked in the International Economic Relations Department of the Bank, I am now working in National Planning Commission where I have to coordinate and direct development assistance to Nigeria, interfacing with development partners and interfacing with bilateral partners from different parts of the world that send one form of development assistance or the other to the nation, that in itself has also placed me in a better position to bring this experience to bear on the people of Cross River State to be able to share the benefits.

As the Executive Secretary, National Planning Commission, which area of our laws do you think we can amend to enhance rapid national development?

Before now, if you look at the first national development plan, the second national development plan, the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), the Vision 2020 and all that up till this moment, emphasis was not much on the private sector partnering with the public sector to bring about development.

Today the area of emphasis is that we must allow the private sector do those things which they can conveniently do so that the government can concentrate on creating the enabling environment.