In this interview aired by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe spoke extensively on the gains of the 2013 Appropriation Bill recently presented to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan, the transformation agenda and other sundry matters. He insisted that Nigerians, will more than ever, rejoice when finally passed and implemented.
EXCEPRTS:
Not many people know much about the President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda. Can you expatiate on this?
I believe that this was a uniquely designed agenda to actually change the landscape of Nigeria, in terms of infrastructure so as to directly affect the living standard of Nigerians and improve the human indices. This is in general terms. But specifically, if you look at the broadcast that the President made on his inaugural speech, he explained that his transformation agenda to include the building of infrastructure; giving greater access to quality education; improved health care delivery and paying special attention to agriculture to ensure food security; jobs creation and of course the delivery of power and to ensure efficient and affordable public transport system including improve medicare for the citizens. These are the broad perspectives for which the transformation agenda is meant to cover.
Going by the key components of the agenda can we say it has the potentials to lift the country out of her economic woes?
It is quite clear; very very clear. What is the greatest programme Nigerians face today? It is power. From power you can lead to many things including jobs creation, wealth creation, improvement of quality of life, poverty alleviation and the rest. It is obvious that, the government has a firm grip on the power sector. The promised deliverables are now on stream. Today, an average Nigerian would testify to the fact that there is a remarkable improvement in power supply in different homes in different areas of Nigeria. It may not be at the same number of hours but definitely, different areas of the country are enjoying power for longer periods. And there is evidence that this is even going to improve better. We are expecting that, from what government has done, this is the first government (ever) that has made a promise on power and is actually delivering on power. It is something that is worthy of commendation because this is an albatross that has been on the various necks of governments and it has been something that appeared to be unconquerable or insurmountable but today we are glad and grateful and we appreciate what this administration is doing in making power delivery one of its major achievements.
Go to agriculture. The effort that has been made in the past by various administrations to widen our revenue base and create more revenue from non-oil sector to remove us from this mono economic product, is beginning to see signs with all what is going on in the agriculture sector. It is obvious that, between now and 2015, over 3.5 million people would have been offered employment in the sector. Today, Nigeria is the largest world producer of cassava and we are now using 20% cassava flour locally to mix with imported wheat for breads and other things that flour is used for. What that means is that there is an increased pull demand from our cassava. And where does cassava from. It comes from our farms where the product is produced by our rural farmers. That is why today, wealth is been created; wealth is been diverted to our rural communities. People will be complaining in the cities about jobs and all that, but I have discovered that, the number of text messages that used to come from my home town from people who send me their accounts number that I should send money for them has fallen drastically. Many of them are growing cassava and are making so much money and are surviving by that.
In aviation, even the blind can see that there is a lot of work that is been done in the sector. Virtually all the airports in the country have been renovated concurrently with terminals billed to be developed. Under transportation, the rail system that resisted or have actually been neglected for so many years have been revisited. The last we heard anything about rail development in Nigeria was over twenty years ago, when the light crew from India came. But today, the rail line from Lagos-Kano is almost 100% completed except for the little part on the Jebba bridge which I think will be over by December this year. The Ajaokuta-Itakpe-Warri line is almost 100% completed. There are also new gauge system that are been introduced into the country. There is Abuja-Kaduna rail line which is 45% on going and one from Lagos –Ibadan which has also been awarded. There is so much that is going on in this transformation agenda that creates so a lot of hope and so much dynamics that it is sure and certain that, by God’s grace, Nigerians will have cause to smile within the next couple of months or years.
In that his inaugural speech, the president said, the time for lamentation is over. This is the era of transformation. We left the era of lamentation when you get to your house and you put on the light and there is darkness, there is no water, there is no light, there is no food. All that time of wailing and weeping and lamentation is gone or is going. We are now entering into a new era of transformation; an era of food security; an era of availability of power; an era of quality access to education, an era improved medical care. All these are part of the transformation agenda.
Going by the estimate budgeted for the transformation agenda over its 5 years period and the obvious short falls in the yearly budget, can we say there is problem with the policy itself or perhaps is the shortfall going to be augmented by funding from subsidy re-investment and excess crude money and so on?
I have read the budget over and over and over I don’t know if there is a shortfall as you may want to say. What I have seen is a budget that has reduced deficit budgeting. I see a budget that has increased capital expenditure. I see a budget that is reducing local debt. So, there is no shortfall as such. Maybe what you are saying which is quite gratifying is that, the cost of the subsidy alone which amounted to N180 billion was extracted which was split between the federal, states and local governments etc. In the federal government aspect of it, N180 billion is what it is and its N30 billion of it is already committed and part of it has gone into maternal care and training. The troublesome Benin-Ore-Sagamu road is been funded directly from this Subsidy Re-investment Project, (SURE-P) fund at the cost of over N65 billion. In this year’s budget, another N180 billion is already been provided for the SURE-P project. So in actual fact, there is more money now for capital expenditure than we ever had because the SURE-P is what is voted by the government for capital expenditure combined together will definitely improve our infrastructure and our human development index over the next couple of months.
Under the transformation agenda, the fund for 2013 is supposed to be N3, 0759. 42 billion and the entire capital expenditure for 2013 is N1.545 trillion. Is that not a shortfall?
Compare to the past year, there is no shortfall. If you compare it with this year, you will see that there is a marginal increase. In the previous year, I think (if I get it right) it was about forty something percent but now, it has crossed over to something like 41-42 per cent. It is not a shortfall. There is a 5 % increase in the capital budget over the last year. It is in fact an increase in capital vote this year.
Do you believe this proposal as presented by the President can meet the genuine yearnings of Nigerians for speedy transformation?
I think it is something very clear. It is very obvious. If you look at the content of the budget, it reduces the deficit budgeting. It increases capital expenditure. Government has put all mechanisms in place that will help in attacking poverty. All the multi-lateral agencies will agree that one of the best ways to attack poverty is to empower women, especially in developing nations. When you empower women, you actually fight poverty. So government has made a definite approach into women empowerment. It is physically in this budget. Also in this budget, efforts are also made towards jobs creation, employment etc etc which are the real issues that we have to bother with. We also have that unfortunate incident of plane crash and all that.
Government has never overlooked all that. And I think even before the report is out, it is obvious that majority of the local flight operators were running at a loss so the question was what the government had done. Government has now removed the taxes on importation of planes and their spare parts. Duties have been removed so that life becomes easier for the operators. It is an all inclusive budget which has allowed for growth and by the grace of God when the National Assembly passes it, if we are lucky and we are able to commence implementation early in January, 2013 promises to be a year of great or one of the greatest hopes for this country.
What challenges have you encountered in seen that this five year plan is achieved in the transformation agenda process?
I’m an incurable optimist. I see opportunities in the next couple of years. I do not undermine challenges that may come but I believe as Nigerian people, we have both the resilience, the tenacity and the patriotism to overcome whatever challenges that will come our way. I’m very confident that as a nation and that the leadership of the economic team today has some of the best in the world and we are doing things in the world’s best practices and using global trends that other countries have used and have succeeded. Our economy has remained resilient to international challenges. Despite the fact that a lot of issues are going on both in America and Europe, somehow, Nigeria has been spared. That is why we should commend those who are running this economy presently and as long as we cooperate with them and cooperate with the government, I see that, there is a bright future for this country.
When this plan was done, the issue of flooding ravaging the country and the Boko Haram crisis and the likes were not been envisaged. Didn’t you think this could cause a threat in ensuring that this agenda is achieved?
It is not easy for one to look into the future. You are very correct; nobody had anticipated the Boko Haram matter. But it has surfaced and nobody can deny the fact that the government is gradually, surely and steadily on top of it. The incidences have been becoming far and wide. The localization is also shrinking to particular areas. It is not like before where you had bombs in Kano, Kaduna and so many other places across the country coming up at almost the same time our security agencies should be seriously commended. There is nowhere in the world that I have read of, from the Temor rebels in Sierra Leone, IRA in Britain, the one in Magreb, Morocco, Middle East and all those ones in Vietnamese insurgency and so many others, yet there is no where we had insurgency of this nature and within the space of one year, the signals are beginning to appear that it is been curtailed.
The other point you made which I should not ignore is the issue of flood. Never in our history have we had such a devastating disaster in the history of this country. There are 36 states in this country. This flood has affected 33 of them. Several millions of our people have been rendered homeless. Several hectres of farm lands as well roads have been washed away. We cannot pretend that we never know that there will be problems, I assure you and I can assure Nigerians that, government is not sleeping. This government is active, it is anticipating even beyond what people are imagining. And efforts are been made and plans put in place to cushion the possible effect of these unexpected natural disasters.
A caller who simply identified himself as Mike sought to know what has been concretely done on the existing rail lines.
It is a face and it is verifiable that from Lagos through to Kaduna, all that alignment and repair of the rail gauge has been achieved except for a tiny portion of the Jebba bridge. Anybody can check and know that it has been done. The Itakpe-Warri is about 90 % completed. All the materials are on ground. In fact all the tracks have been laid it is just the matter of some 10% of the work that needs to be done. I also said and it is a fact that there is Abuja-Kaduna rail gauge that is been built and it is about 40-45% completed. In fact the Minister of Information took a crew of pres men and they went and inspected that site. I also said and it is fact based on documentary evidence that the new modern railway gauge system between Lagos and Ibadan which covers a distance of 180 kilomtres’ contract has been awarded. These are verifiable facts.
Besides the issue of transportation, some people seems to express some sort of pessimism in the way government is working.
This government has been there for just a little over one year but these problems have been there for 30-40 years. So you can’t blame anybody who is pessimistic. But gradually, slowly but surely when the start to touch the dividends of democracy; when they start to see the improvement in the living condition and standards; when they start to see the fall in the prices of food items in the markets; when they start to see money coming into the hands of rural dwellers, they will begin to believe that in truth, the transformation agenda is on course. But from this end, all we can do is to keep educating and we should keep talking and keep telling the people agencies like National Orientation Agency, NOA, which has local government and state agencies, all these things will be taken care of.
The country belongs to all of us and it is our country. Everybody must play a part and a good part for that matter. The thing is simply that, people should support the administration. That does not mean, when you see something that is going wrong you should not say it. It is when you something that is going wrong and you say it and government quickly corrects it, you are supporting the administration. That was the reason while the government recently held a one day retreat through which the President sat through out unlike the old order where the president come and read his speech and goes away, he sat from morning to 5 pm when the programme was over. We took the views of everybody and we agreed to work together. We are Nigerians, this is our government, we elected it and it has four years mandate, we should allow and support it, cooperate with it to achieve that mandate. It is obvious that the mandate is been executed in a positive manner. You cannot cover everything at the same time but the administration is not doing bad.