Dumebi Kachikwu was the presidential candidate of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the last election. In this interview monitored on The Arise TV by TOPE SUNDAY, he picks holes in the proposed N8000 palliatives of the Federal Government to cushion the effect of the petroleum subsidy removal and also speaks and other topical issues.
You were quoted to have said that the country is in disarray, but members of the APC would not agree with you. They will say that after all President Bola Tinubu is going to make available for six months N8000 to 12 million Nigerians, and by extension, about 60 million will benefit. Can you enlighten us further?
First of all, I didn’t say the nation is in disarray. I believe that our president is in the “Na mi be this” phase. You know, when people typically enter the office, they can’t believe they’ve entered the office and they go through this phase where they deal with hangers-on with friends and family people coming around them to congratulate them and because of that, they take their eyes off the ball. And in the case of Nigeria because we are hemorrhaging, we are bleeding, it becomes difficult to understand how a president has wanted this, all his life can afford to act in a manner that suggests that he doesn’t have this sense of urgency towards solving our problems.
I expected that this president in the first two weeks would have put his cabinet list out there for Nigerians to start vetting these people. I expected to hear and see a lot more policy statements in the different areas that are pressing. We saw the removal of subsidies in petroleum. I campaigned on that. But I believe that Nigerians should not suffer for the failures of a few people; for the failure of the governments not to be able to manage the process of subsidy. Now what we should have done is remove or suspend subsidies temporarily, while putting in place a stronger, more refined process that ensures that people don’t abuse subsidies.
We also see, like you just mentioned, what’s happening with the cash transfers they are about to do. We saw the last government do that. We saw how it failed. We saw how it was abused. And I expect that this government would have come up with a much better plan. Some people believe that if you give money to the lower class of the economy, the money activates the economy and has a better multiplier effect on the economy.
But in the case of Nigeria, N8000 to how many people does absolutely nothing. And I don’t understand how the President could have bought into this again. Our president, or any president can only be as good as his advisers. I don’t know the people who are advising him, but I believe they’ve gotten it wrong. He’s made some good steps in what he’s trying to do in terms of refining the exchange rate. But again, you come, take a step and take two steps forward and take 10 steps back. Well, like I said about the exchange rates, if we see what’s happening at the ports now, the government is now using the new exchange rates to tax to assess imports into the country. What this means is that we have escalated costs for every good that’s coming to Nigeria, that triggers inflation. The government benefits from inflation, but the same government says they’re fighting inflation.
I expect that the government should have looked at that critically and said what do we do with this window? Because that is what impacts the economy, the first step into the economy. We do see agriculture when they said they are declaring a state of emergency into food security, but the actionable plans towards food security did not so much address food security in the short term.
Okay, so a lot of these things are like good sound bites, but if you drill down, they take us nowhere where we should be. I’m hoping that if he puts in place his cabinet we can start seeing more coherent and more sustainable plans and better plans that deal with our current situation in Nigeria today.
What would you have done differently?
For someone who wants to hit the ground running, he ought to have his cabinet list ready from day one. He’s not done this one. A lot of people are disappointed. I’m also disappointed that he’s not done this, granted that the Constitution gives him a latitude of about 60 days or so. So, we’re waiting for someone who understands that this country is bleeding. He ought to have done this from day one. If we look at the issue of palliatives, it should not have come after the removal of subsidy. Palliatives should have been factored in if you are going to remove the subsidy.
Now, whatever palliatives you want to put in place, Nigerians for the last one or two months now, almost going to two months, are already suffering the effect of the removal of subsidies. So, if you’re going to put in place palliatives now understand that Nigerians are already suffering. Are you going to put in place a palliative of N8000 for the eight million households you said? In the American District of New York, the minimum wage for one hour is about $13. In Nigeria, we are saying to ourselves that the poor are poor, and their status quo is poor and N8000 is what they are worth.
I believe that money should be put into infrastructure that affects everyone. I believe that what this government ought to do is start bringing in mass transit systems. I believe that this government ought to say our structured or formal transporters should use NNPC stations and buy fuel at a subsidised price.
But again, they have to put in place a very strong stringent process to ensure that nobody abuses that system. I believe that if we were to take this money that they’re about to abuse now, into hospitals in each geopolitical zone, it will benefit the masses more.
I don’t see how 8000 Naira a month will benefit anyone. That money should go into something that all Nigerians can benefit from.
This government in less than two months, is allowing a situation where our senators, our parliamentarians are having N70 billion now, and I just read this morning how the spokesperson of the Senate was trying to justify how this money is going to be used to repair the building.
I will have you go back and look at how much the budget is for that same building every year for the past 18 or 20 years. It’s a shame and if the present president allows this, it would signpost to all Nigerians the direction they want to take Nigerians to.
On N70 billion and importation of bulletproof cars for principal officers
Again, the first question should be why should we be buying vehicles for them in the first place? They should be given a transport allowance that takes into consideration the wages of these people. That’s the first thing. Government should not be buying vehicles for these people. Number two, I wonder what happened to smaller parties like mine, the Labour Party, and other smaller parties when they were discussing this, we expected these people to know and to do better. They all were part of this, and I am not seeing any voice of dissent. Again, we must come to a point where, as a people we need to set an agenda for our parliament, for our government that says enough is enough that we can no longer allow this charade that continues in the name of governance.
How do you justify that kind of expense for cars in an overburdened economy in a country where we are bored with people? The people who we are borrowing from are watching you spend a humongous amount to import vehicles and saying, ‘are these guys serious?’ They’re looking at this, and wondering what type of clowns are these.
How do you borrow money from people to buy vehicles, and SUVs for yourself? You’re borrowing money and your economy is suffering and you have spending such an amount of money to buy vehicles. What’s the budget for the education sector this year? What is the budget for the health sector? Look at how much a few people are spending on themselves and they make all manner of excuses to justify this but the onus is on the Nigerian people; the media must rise and put a stop to this.
We must not just stop discussing these issues. No. We must come out as a people to say this will not happen again. It’s ridiculous.
So, what type of cabinet would you want to see?
Well, I would expect a cabinet that’s not made up of geriatrics because when we see some lists floating around you would see names like Wike and Ganduje and all those people. I hope that this is not what is going to happen.
Cuts in… Wike is not a geriatric
He is not geriatric. But I’m saying that there are people who are political geriatrics, who’ve been in public service forever. Okay. And we have people who are actual geriatrics who should not make that list at all. We don’t expect this President to continue to carry deadwood to try and solve the problems of this country.
The same people who have not done anything for the last 20-30 years, we don’t expect the same people to solve the problems that we have today. So, who do I expect to be on the list? I expect people who have a worldview that understands what the world is saying today. We have a world that is dependent on youth. We have modern technology AI and what have you, the service-based industries that are youths dependent. If you are looking at that, do you expect geriatric people who cannot even do or write a proposal or understand how Microsoft Word works, and what have you to come and start putting in place policies that will help our youth to leapfrog other nations?
Absolutely not. Our President God has put him there. The fact that he is there at that age, does not mean that those who serve with him should also be people of his age who have been in politics for donkey years. I expect that he’ll bring people who have solid thinking caps on; people who understand what it means to work under pressure, who understand the sector crystally who are sector experts.
I don’t want him to bring people who are going to be struggling to understand basic memos that the Permanent Secretary of the ministry will bring to them. We expect younger people, men and women of character, integrity, and intellect.
Will you be willing to work with the President if he offers you a position in his government?
I’ve said this time and time again. Whilst I support the president believing that he’s better for Nigeria, and if the president does well, I will do better as a Nigerian, I believe that is not my place to serve now. I believe that I will better help my government and my people by being the voice of the people and a voice for the people from the outside. I don’t subscribe to the notion that smaller parties like mine, that people should run for office from smaller parties just knowing that they might not win or they will not win, just be compensated with a board appointment or ministerial appointment or what have you. I believe that we must continue to be viable and a strong opposition must be the voice of the people.
