Tinubu’s knee-jerk approach to palliatives won’t mitigate Nigerians’ sufferings - Okubor

Dr. Festus Okubor has served in different capacities under various administrations in Delta State as former Commissioner for Health, Commissioner for Information, Chief of Staff to Governor, Chief Strategist and others. In this interview, he spoke on the removal of subsidy, insecurity, NDDC, Governor Oborevwori’s administration and other matter.

Excerpts:

In his nationwide broadcast, President Bola Tinubu announced some forms of palliatives to cushion the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.

What is your take on the Federal Government’s approach to handling the situation?

The approach is childish. When former President Buhari was in power, he should have made adequate preparations to ameliorate the effect of the subsidy removal, especially when they were aware that the subsidy would end in June. So, they had time to prepare as a party in government but they waited until the subsidy was removed and started all sorts of knee-jerk reactions.

They want to give students loan, how much do they want to give out for school fees which they are increasing everyday? The approach by the government was not well thought out and therefore unlikely to achieve any goal of mitigating the suffering that are upon us already.

Everybody is going to suffer. Somebody who sent his child to school abroad and sold one house to be able to pay the school fees at N400, N500, N600 to a dollar, how is he going to cope now that the dollar is almost hitting N800 to N1000? How is the farmer in the village going to survive? You plant yam, but you need other things, you need tomatoes, transport fare has gone up the roof and who is going to pay for it? Definitely the end users.

Once you have your yam, will you want to eat it raw? You depend on other things, so the suffering is on everyone. They are talking of N500b palliative which could have fixed the three refineries and possibly get them working by now and bring down the cost of petroleum products around the country.

What advice will you give to the Federal Government on how to use subsidy savings to bring the country back on track?

The first step is that they must realize that they do not have the intellectual capacity to know how to apply the savings to stimulate the economy; they should be humble enough to look for help from knowledgeable people. All the savings that can be made from blocking the monumental corruption that has gone on under the APC can be reapplied to get the economy working. When the economy is working, when the production is going on, people will not be interested in what the government is doing.

But they must get people to help them in such a manner that with the support of these so-called savings, there could be an industrial revolution.
Nigeria can feed the world with ‘Akamu’ (pap), we don’t need to call it custard, by stimulating production of maize, ban export of primary products and encourage processing.

So we can process maize to other things. If you are making money from your own farm what is your business with government? The same thing can happen to yam, tomatoes, everything. We can start our industrialization effort from processing our primary products from agriculture. Then, why should Nigeria be exporting crude oil? I believe that the greatest but most difficult decision Nigeria can make today is to make it difficult for primary products to be exported from Nigeria including crude oil.

If we must export oil products, they must be products that our crude has been processed to because that is the only way we can have more industries, employ more people and make more money for the country. Why are we exporting crude oil? It doesn’t make sense and then we are importing petrol, that’s stupidity, that is national insanity.

Insecurity has continued to be a challenge in the country, what is the way out?

It is because the economy is not working. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. When the economy is not working, insecurity is a natural fallout. So, I do not see the end of insecurity when they don’t know how to fix the economy. We will not run away because we have insecurity. If there is insecurity, we have agencies to hold, let them tackle it vigorously. The point is that, you cannot be secure in a non functioning economy.


What is your advise to the Federal Government in this regard?

This Federal Government is very difficult to advise. You can’t enjoy pouring water on a stone in the hope of getting the stone softer, that is a waste of time. But it is our country, the most I can do is to tell them to first realize their incapabilities and look for help from capable Nigerians. What I see in their ministerial list, what I see in this APC government is just a route to nowhere. Let them look for help.

What do you have to say about oil theft in the country?

It’s unfortunate that it is also part of insecurity. There will always be thieves around, but it is our duty to make is difficult for them to steal. It is our duty to make it easier to catch a thief when he comes and it is our duty to ensure that when we catch a thief, we treat him as a thief.

Look at Saudi Arabia, they know where every drop of crude oil is. But I also believe that the failure of the federal government to police crude oil must be because of their involvement in the oil theft. Otherwise it’s not rocket science to police crude in the pipes.


In an office in Saudi Arabia, they can monitor the flow of every drop of crude oil, why can’t we do the same, what is the difficulty, we have the resources, we can devout one day’s sale of crude oil to secure our pipelines real time and online but who will bell the cat?

What are your expectations of the President to practice true federalism?

I know that he did not win the election. I know that INEC was involved in the fraud. INEC was criminally involved in the manipulation of the election. Or do they think we are daft, they can transmit Senatorial and House of Representatives’ results but they are unable to transmit presidential results. They think we are fools but they are the fools not us, not Nigerians.

But the matter is in court, we are law abiding so I won’t say much. But if we are serious as a people and destined to be great, the Director General of DSS and the INEC chairman have no business being in office, they should be sacked. They should know that they failed this country, they failed their children, they failed their generation.

How do you see the handling of Godwin Emefiele’s situation by security operatives?

I have said that APC is a route to nowhere. Emefiele served under APC, he is an APC person. I don’t want to hold brief for the APC but what I do know is that civilized people don’t behave the way APC people are behaving. You arrest a man, you have his passport, he doesn’t pose any flight risk, you have an investigation that is ongoing, if he doesn’t come, you can get an arrest warrant and he is yours. But because you have power, you lock up a man and treat him as sub-human.

It doesn’t sit well with any normal mind anywhere in the world. That’s not who we are. The point is that the DG of DSS must be told that he also has the responsibility to create the right image of Nigeria and Nigerians in the international community.

He has a role in branding Nigeria aright, what they are doing is that they are demarketing Nigeria, they are wrongly branding Nigeria and it will have a further negative impact on our economy. I am not going to hold brief for anybody but we must do things correctly. The same Director General of DSS who was in place when Emefiele was CBN governor, what stopped them from preventing any criminality in CBN? When he was on seat they had the authority so what is this charade?

What is your take on the goings on in NDDC?

NDDC is supposed to be one of the best interventionist agencies for the Niger Delta region but unfortunately the NDDC has been captured by the rascals of the APC, so as expected, whatever they lay their hands on, they destroy. It is really unfortunate but that is the truth. The NDDC as it is today, is not as good as the intention of setting it up and under the APC they will not even go near the true performance of their roles in our lives as Niger Deltans.


How do you see the emergence of Chief Sheriff Oborewori as the governor of Delta State?

My feeling is that of joy because Delta state has been lucky under the PDP, we have had great governors, from Chief James Ibori, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, we have Dr Ifeanyi Okowa who has done exceptionally well. But on their backs, Chief Sheriff Oborewori’s governorship has the opportunity to truly become the hero in terms of solid infrastructural development and expanding on the horizons of growth and inclusiveness for all Deltans. He is a good person and I have had the opportunity to tell people that my impression of him is that of Lion Dove because he has the heart of the lion to deal with issues and he can also be a dove in ameliorating the sufferings of the people. So, I’m happy and glad that he is the governor and I trust that he will do very well irrespective of the nuisances of all court cases.

Considering the multi-ethnic nature of the state, what will be your advice to him as he pilots the affairs of the state?

People say Delta is a multi-ethnic state, but I view Delta as mono-ethnic. Once you have that mindset as a Deltan you’ll treat them well. Our multi-ethnicity is supposed to be a huge advantage and must never be allowed to become a disadvantage and the way to do that is to see the entire state as one, as Deltans, and I am glad that God made the entire state one constituency. I don’t see any issue; we have lived well together, from our party, we have moved to forge more bonds, we have fought together, we have cried together; so we present the best opportunity to forge a united Delta. I see in Sheriff Oborewori as governor today, an entirely detrabalized person. So I am confident that our multi-ethnic reality will not become an impediment to growing the state to enviable heights.