By Dapo Akinrefon

Mr Shehu Bankole-Hameed is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC.In this interview, he faults the proposed economic summit urging President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint an  economic adviser.

What do you make of the proposed economic summit as proposed by Professor Soyinka?
First of all, a summit is a form of get together; meeting or melting pot or forum for discussion or dialog by persons of very high status in government on some matter or matters, decidedly of great importance. Now that being said, an economic summit in Nigeria will require attendance ; of the various levels of government and most probably their respective private or institutions who have been known in these government circles as economists or of economic value. I hope you are beginning to get the size and manner of the crowd expected.

Now imagine the chaos of arranging such a meeting (cash and logistics) at a time like this. What the president and the nation needs at this time is an excellent choice of economic Adviser.   When in 2008, Obama was put in charge of a failing economy, I don’t remember him calling for an economic summit, rather he had an excellent team of economic advisers.

The Professor Aboyade school of economic thought is still alive, respected and willing to help ; these respected resources are still in University of Ibadan ,University of Lagos and that of Ife. Such a summit will be good as a response to long term economic goals , not the very immediate short term and near term.

As I have indicated, the need for a summit of economic crisis will only arise; if the nation is seriously considering growth along planned or if we as a   nation want to define who we are, or be defined as a go to place for investment and investing

 Shehu Bankole-Hameed

What steps should the President take to improve the economy?
This is a very good question, there is no doubt that our over dependence on oil sales receipts ; which is driven by our need to monitor and manage the balance of payment position ( dollarized) and the craze for imports due to total failure of manufacturing capacity in the land, has led to the poor situation that we have found ourselves. If only the preparation of our budget took into consideration the aspects of internal services and revenues then, the seemingly poor situation will not be as bad. For services to be considered, there must be power; now the government has privatised the distribution of power and not necessarily the generation. If as planned, spending on power projects and road construction, including other infrastructural projects begin, then there will be noticeable improvement in the economy. Essentially the government must begin to spend wisely by deliberately employing people even if these jobs were to be seasonal.

President Buhari’s poll rating has gone down for the first time, what does this signify?
I am not surprised by the lower ratings; don’t forget that we are still awaiting a conviction from the anti corruption war, and the re injection of monies returned or confiscated to reflate the economy. It is unfair though to hold the president solely responsible for non conviction of the many suspected corrupt government officers; there’s the judiciary and the legislative arm. The judicial aspect is to my mind most important. That is not to say that the legislative arm is off the hook ; many of our legislators are just plain opportunistic people, who are not interested in the well-being of the nation or it’s citizens. Their core competences are making noise and demanding more monies for their luxurious live style.

Do you agree with the notion that the president is making anti-corruption his only agenda?
No, not at all, we have heard from his minister of power, housing and works about the plans to inject massive amounts of money in construction, installation and maintenance, including employment. We have to wait on the legislative arm to deliver the appropriations so we can have a working document. The communication minister has spelt out his mission to make Nigeria a hub for IT innovations in Africa, we are witnessing the Finance minister’s determination to ensure a more transparent accounting and reporting system. The announcement by the petroleum boss to split NNPC into various units for efficiency is commendable.

As to the anti corruption campaign of the president, it has remained largely that; we have the case of a very senior member of his party – holding forte at the senior chamber still hanging, while it seems as if Dasuki and his friends are the only ones that are unlucky. A issue that must not be overlooked is the responsibility placed on

EFCC. A question arises, are they positioned to handle the obvious hugmongous nature of the task ahead- capacity and remuneration wise?

Recall, sometimes back saying that the Southwest has been shortchanged, now that Ministers have been appointed, what has changed?

Thank you very much for this insightful question. I’m happy to note that Fashola, and Fayemi are included to bring about needed change by working hard. Yet we notice with interest the clay footedness ( if I can use the term) displayed by these two particularly- in terms of scope of work and capacity utilization. Take Amechi for example, he has injected his kinsman and protégé, what is the response from our own ministers to capacity building? Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t see Fashola or Fayemi appointing any of their own. This either shows that these our representatives are truly clueless. They need to be told in plain terms – there are abundance of qualified hands in the southwest. Do not abandon them.

With the growing rate of fuel scarcity and epileptic power supply, what steps should be taken to address this situation?
This is a very important question, and I’m going to attempt to answer it. As regards the fuel scarcity; we all are witnesses to the efforts of the petroleum sector unions to scuttle any reasonable actions to bring succor. What I find disturbing is the seemingly powerless position of the minister; he needs to make example of these economic terrorists – outright sacks and prosecution – these times are difficult times for our nation and its citizens and as such any groups of people or individuals that threaten our economic or political survival should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. What stops the military being utilized for distribution of fuel? Ronald Reagan did it with the air travel controllers, Thatcher made the miners eat their words and there has been sanity in that sector since then.

In the case of power, I think we have very little generation and extremely poor distribution network. The DISCOS have been a great fraud, we have being taken for a rough ride. I hope this administration has the courage to address the inefficiency in the system. Transmission is said to be handled by a capable firm, a question arising – what is the condition of the equipment and infrastructure surrounding the transmission? The threat of strikes and disruption of work by employees of the power sector, should be addressed as I have discussed earlier.