Arising from his emergence last Saturday in Abuja, as the presidential flagbearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP),
former Governor of C/River State, Mr. Donald Duke, in this breathtaking interview with select Journalists at the party’s national secretariat, he averred that total indigenization of the economy is the path to Nigeria’s rediscovery. Excerpts:
QTN: If you eventually voted as president in 2019 under the SDP ticket, what will you do differently to change Nigeria’s present narrative?
ANS: Well the problems have been with us for a long time, they are not recent problems that crept to us overnight. This is a nation that is probably one of the fastest growing nations in the world, but the economy is not catching enough and diversified enough so there are too many people in poverty and as you are aware, we have the largest number of people under poverty in the world and that in itself is frightening because that in itself is a bomb. We need to grow this economy to engage Nigerians and that is how you rate any government because in itself invariably constitute the biggest security issue. The Boko Haram and the other like groups carrying arms are just symptom of poverty and corruption.
Even the people with jobs are corrupt because the pressure on them is much, so therefore our party and by the grace of God will concentrate our knowledge and resources in growing the economy. As you are today, Nigeria has become a nation of impunity. Therefore our government shall build for every Nigerian a social justice network. If you 200 million people and there is social justice network, tell me, what do you want in life? Everything has been given to you, so we have to grow the economy and you cannot grow the economy when the interest is almost hovering around 30%.
Assuming you want to start a business and a bank gives you N100 million, so you must give the bank N30 million. How much are you going to generate from that business to cater for interest rate and overheads. The SDP controlled government must as a matter of necessity make it easy for Nigerians to find job. It should be a right because anyone who has a job employs and this reduces the stress on governance, so government itself must make sure that they take all the issues that frustrate Nigerians from growing.
Like as I have always said, we must as a matter of urgency solve the challenges associated with gas flaring. Gas is fuel and if you able to capture and solve this problem, why are we still being confronted with lingering electricity problem? My government, if voted into power in February hopefully will make sure that gas is distributed all the country and it will very cheap, affordable and available and Nigeria will grow. Our party will not tie the growth of our beloved country to the price of oil, because like any other commodity it fluctuates. Let it be tied to real growth.
I’m going to take advantage of our incredible population and tap into the present harrowing housing sector and use it also as driver of growth for our country. Does it not sound unbelievable that after 58 years of independence we have still grappling with 17 million housing shortages. With our government at the centre building annually 1 million houses, we shall create about 15 million jobs and that will take 17 years to even catch up, even it is a problem at the moment, it is also an opportunity.
Look at all the things and items that we import into our nation, can’t we put the machinery to produce these things here. If power is available, I’m not even talking about power from the national grid, if you gas as it is in several places, people can tap it and generate their own power available and make interest rate available about three quarter of what we have today across the country will be locally provided and jobs will be created because each time Nigerians import anything, we are simply sustaining job overseas.
Our government goes abroad to borrow money because it is cheaper there, but with a government like ours in charge of the country, we can also do the same thing by regulating our interest and ensuring that credit is affordable.
As government driven by SDP, we will move to indigenize the economy for the good of all, because we need to have this economy built for Nigeria and for Nigerians.
QTN: Your specific strategies to implementing these lofty ideas?
ANS: For instance, you require about 5,000 kilometres of gas pipeline to ensure that there is gas across the country and ordinarily it will cost about $1million per kilometer and that is a $5 billion enterprise to make sure that the gas is available throughout the country and here the gas is yours and you have been flaring it.
When we liquefied gas and export, and few other nations do this, pipe the gas and distribute it around the country so we can afford the $5 billion if we wanted because it is available and this can be built like in 24 or 36 months and so you can build 5,000 kilometres pipeline even without borrowing money.
Secondly, affordable interest rate: wherever demand and supply do not match there must be an intervention, it is an economic decision because if you want more than you can get then you have to curb something so that you will match it because you have a situation where our nation Nigeria is growing so rapidly in population wise but financials are so expensive that a lot of people cannot do business you have to intervene with the banks to make credit available because money is an instrument and it is created by government and so you create instrument for affordability and longevity.
A lot of the problem of funding in the country is short term high interest and that does not augur well for growth because in a country like Japan where they are not even trying to grow, interest rate is zero and so we need it more than they have and because interest is cheaper abroad, Nigerians will rather borrow abroad for local businesses and that is not good because ultimately you will have to pay back in foreign currency but if you are able to borrow in local currency and that is why our government led by SDP will commence indigenizing the economy because if I want to borrow for a factory in Nigeria, we may probably go to international organizations or banks for finance and when you compound the interest that you pay over a 10 year period you are bleeding our dear nation’s economy which is more or less happening now.
I will give another example: look at the foreign airlines in our country and as you are aware, Nigerians travel a lot, so on daily basis monies are remitted abroad. There was a time that foreign airlines operating in Nigeria were being owed over $600 million. Though we may not be able to make enough airlines for every Nigerian, but we also can curb this by having our own airlines involvement in this, this is just an example. Also for example, our elite when they fall ill they go abroad and so school age children travel for education and when they do this, monies follow them abroad. We will curb this drain by indigenizing the economy, we need to do this we have millions people who don’t have jobs and if government does not, it will come back to hurt the nation and this is a sad narrative that we shall reverse.
QTN: Nigeria’s rising debt profile?
Our debt profile to China and any nation for that matter is worrisome. The concept of independence is being able to stand on your own, you are not independent, if you are indebted to other nations and so we need to strengthen our own local base and when you trade there should be a balance because you cannot always export without importing, there must be harmony and if you keep importing without exporting to then the country will hemorrhage and Nigeria is in that state right now.
QTN: On unabated insecurity?
ANS: You are not going to be secured except the people themselves are productive and are not in want and so if you millions of people unemployed you cannot guarantee security because they will do anything to survive. Boko Haram, started from agitation, now it is a business, they kidnap and demand ransom etc etc. If you have a job, a roof and be able to cater for your dependent, while would you fight with anybody because you have a stake in the country, but these people are stake-less, they don’t believe in Nigeria because perhaps Nigeria has not done anything for them.
QTN: Ending present insurgency?
We will deploy two ways on assumption of office in 2019, the first is to appreciate the fact that this thing started from injustice, how did it start? What led to it that exacerbated it and beyond that we have to look at the larger community which is a poor part of Nigeria and they therefore must be empowered. Also the military must be strengthened. We shall motivate the military to take on any insurgence should it arise. All the equipment that the insurgents use are our own equipment, Boko Haram, is organized to import equipment from overseas, they steal our equipment. Boko Haram, has cost more lives than the Nigeria civil war, they occupy territory larger than that occupied by the Nigeria civil war. Boko Haram, is no longer local, it is now international. Our military must be empowered and motivated and at the moment they are not well being catered for the SDP government will all these anomalies come February 2019.