By Akoma  Chinweoke

Former Central Bank Governor Charles Soludo, recently, claimed that the government’s poor management of the economy had resulted in the loss of N30 trillion.   According to him, his estimates are based on rough calculations covering oil theft, money that ought to accrue to foreign reserves, unbudgeted oil subsidy payments, Customs duty waivers, leakages through self-financing government parastatals, unremitted sums by the NNPC, among others, Expectedly, the allegation triggered a combative response from the Minister of Finance, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngtozi Okonjo-Iweala, who described Soludo as Nigeria’s worst CBN Governor ever.

In this interview, Mr. John Patrick Egesi, a shipping economist and President of the Nigerian Institute of Shipping (NIS), the oldest manpower development body in the Nigerian maritime industry, sheds light on the raging issue.

How do you react to Prof. Soludo’s claim which links the rot in the country’s economy to poor management by the Jonathan government?

I must congratulate Professor Soludo for his unique ability to make himself the centre of attraction. I am sure that this special ability of his must have greatly contributed to his being brought to national limelight by President Obasanjo. Under a vain but ridiculous guise that “I have been too busy with extensive international travels…” he opened up a tirade of abuses and denigration of President Jonathan and his administration, signing off his attack with a theme used by a former president after attacking President Jonathan, “…truth will only hurt! Be assured that those of us who are prepared to die for Nigeria will never spare you or anyone else this bitter truth.” For some strange reason after perceiving the hate-filled disdain for Jonathan shown by his “truth”, my mind travelled to Nazi Germany where, in pursuit of some “truth” of eugenics, German scientists and philosophers slaughtered six million Jews to ensure the purity of their beloved Germany which they were ready “to die for”.

In spite of his pretenses, it was obvious that he wanted to very seriously damage the President politically enough to make him lose the forthcoming election. He anticipated this accusation when he commented that 95 percent of the people have already made up their minds. Being a Nigerian politician, he knew that most South-easterners, Niger Deltans, and Middle Belters may be difficult to price away from the president, he decided to cast his net to the South-west by first citing Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s prowess in objective electioneering before going on to pair one of their own, General Obasanjo (his benefactor), with IBB as “the two presidents who made the most fundamental transformation of the nation’s economy.”

While most informed Nigerians cannot but agree with Soludo’s comment on the role of IBB in the liberalization of Nigeria’s economy, most, while believing that OBJ must have meant well, will be more reserved in pairing them. I hope that Soludo remembers that IBB was the most unjustly vilified head of state by the intelligentia, mostly in the South-west because of his structural adjustment programme. Those of us who supported him at the time were considered unpatriotic. Today, the same class of privileged people is on the prowl against the first true civilian president after Shehu Shagari.

As for the statistical percentages Soludo threw up to put his mentor on top of the hip, common sense demands that proper analysis be made in the far future by those who did not benefit from either of them – that way objectivity will be truly objective. There is, however, certain visible indicators like roads and rail constructed, improvement in power generation, development   in agriculture etc. that one can use to do a cursory comparison.

You are among the few who has scored the Jonathan’s administration high. Why do you have so much confidence in him as the right man for the job?

In my book, President Jonathan, in all honesty, appears to be well ahead of OBJ in his first term. For the first time in 25 years, one can leave Lagos by 6am and arrive at Enugu by road before noon. This was not so throughout the eight years of OBJ. This amazing feat was repeated all over the country – which includes the dualization of Abaji – Lokoja, Kano – Maiduguri, Lagos – Ibadan express way. For inhabitants of Lagos where I live, the President’s most important achievement is not in the federal roads, although the improvement in Oshodi – Apapa is almost finished, but in the remarkable improvement in power supply. In fact there are now parts of Lagos where there is minimal interruption of power supply.

Every Nigerian knows that lack of power has cost us a lot through making our attempts at industrialization patchy, goods and services production very expensive, but for privileged international air travelers like Soludo, the fixing of our power sector will not necessarily create jobs or impact the economy positively. To prove his point, he argued that Greece and Spain are in a mess in spite of their power and infrastructure. What the learned professor failed to ask himself is what would the condition of Greece and Spain have been without power and infrastructure?

There is no iota of doubt that Soludo’s public encomiums for IBB (and I believe it’s about time) was mainly to give credence to the regime of OBJ, whose opposition to the re-election of GEJ is well known. Even ardent supporters of Baba must have felt uncomfortable at the way the thesis was clearly looking like the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. That was why he termed OBJ’s savings economic ‘prudence’ and poor Peter Obi’s prudence a ‘strategy that brought kwashiorkor’ to great Anambrarians. Peter Obi’s sin among other reasons is that he shows and demonstrates great admiration and respect for the president.

No true academician goes push and shove against people or ideas that may not agree with one’s concept. The danger in doing so is that they might begin to look smaller than they really are. That is the unquestionable philosophy and wisdom behind the saying “pride cometh before a fall”. While trying to show that nothing good was achievable by Jonathan, he retorted to a statement made by the President to the effect that “the problem of Nigeria is not money but the management of resources”, as “half truth” and went on to give the laughable comparison of a man on a salary of N50,000 who wants to buy Peugeot 405 for each of his three sons! Haba for a professor of economics! The discipline of economics is based on that statement by the President.

If one reads the piece by Professor Patrick Utomi, never mind that he was canvassing for his party, the APC, with his references to Keynes, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Nnamdi Azikiwe (in Azikiwe’s determination to bring the poorer eastern Nigeria at par with the then richer cocoa supported western region), he was virtually confirming the statement by one of the most humble man Nigerians have ever known. His gentle demeanor confounds a people who have been used to being bullied and brutalized. His humility and civility is misunderstood as weakness by the proud.

How do you then rate the performance of this administration which has remained a burning issue in the country?

Is one saying that the President could not have done a better job? Definitely not. But when one puts into consideration the enormity of the job of the President of a country as big as Nigeria, which definitely qualifies for what my Yoruba cousins would describe as an atari Ajanaku, that requires a period of learning process one cannot help but better appreciate what the President has been able to achieve in a complex political give and take of Nigeria. Misdirected as Soludo’s thesis appears, it revealed something one could clearly take away.

If you reflect on those Presidents he marked out as the greatest in fundamental economic development, none of them served less than eight years. Obasanjo served far more than that if one includes his first coming. Point being made is that the job of a president requires some time for one to fully make an impact. That was why I found Obasanjo’s attitude towards his own political son, Jonathan, so strange and most baffling. Patience and forbearance makes us better judges of others. I knew it was not mere lust for power that made General Obasanjo want to go for a rumored third term. No. It was to enable him properly finish what he started – and this is after more than 10 years in power!!

Let me end by saying one or two things about the two main parties vying for our votes. First the PDP. If anyone has a right to have a grudge against the PDP, it is my humble self. Its imperfection in the party primaries are well known, even though it is lately doing all it could to correct it. Others have their own myriad of complaints. However it has a certain very important uniqueness going for it. It belongs to all Nigerians in its formation, development, evolution and growth. It would have been wonderful if we had gotten a credible opposition that IBB had in mind when he offered Nigerians equal choice of SDP or NRC so that no single person will claim to be either the party’s founder or owner, who could manipulate the affairs of the party as he or she wishes.

Much as this opposition is needed to make the PDP wake up, one is sorry to say that the APC lacks the national credentials that would meet what I would call the IBB objectives. APC is bipolar, i.e., North and South-west in its formation and mainly Islamic in its initial composition (until some disgruntled PDP members joined its rank) and has powerful founding leaders that still decides who goes where.

This is not the kind of party that for now Nigeria should surrender her hard freedom to. Their presidential candidate might be a very good or even a holy man but I think that he lacks the sagacity or the open heartedness of say a Babangida to preside over modern day Nigeria. Some funny characters are using him to hoodwink Nigerians. It is important that we bear this in mind while judiciously casting our vote. Lastly we should endeavor to start the process of forming a truly national opposition. You’ll be surprised who might want to join. Please do not rule out Jonathan after his second term.