Former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Jonathan, Mr. Ima Niboro,
relives his days in government and also gives an insight into life out
of office and why he thinks President Goodluck Jonathan wants fuel
subsidy to be removed. Excerpts:
What do you do in government now since you left as adviser to President Jonathan?
Right now I am not in government. I am
just a good friend and former adviser to President Jonathan. That’s
all. Actually, it has been a period of rest and stock-taking and a time
for putting my life back together from the chaos of active office, not
just in government but at the very heart of power. There are many
options available which I am studying very closely. But most important
is that I am putting together my memoirs, especially of the making of
the Jonathan Presidency. You must recall that some of us were witnesses
and insiders during one of the most turbulent phases of the nation’s
history which was the transition from the Yar’adua years to the Jonathan
era. Those were intense times laced with intrigue and mind-blowing
manoeuvre, spearheaded by a multiplicity of interests for and against
the emergence of Jonathan, first as Acting President and then as
substantive President. I recall the last days of President Yar’adua,
especially the night he was dramatically flown back into the country and
we watched the ambulances and the motorcade heading back to the
presidential villa, with heavily armed soldiers crawling everywhere.
Until we were able to figure out what was going on, some
of us actually thought the military had
struck. I also recall the night of his passage and how I was saddled
with the task of announcing on behalf of the new government the death of
our president and leader. There is really a lot to talk about those
days when the country seemed to hang on the precipice. But what remains
remarkable in my memory most of all was the almost inscrutable calmness
of the then Acting President Jonathan and how he conducted himself with
great dignity and aplomb even in the face of the most provocative
circumstances. His carriage, dignity and conduct saved the nation a lot
more heart-ache that we could have experienced. His deliberate decision
to put the collective interest of the nation above his own self
interest, as well as his obvious determination to ensure that Nigeria
survived the Yar’adua-Jonathan transition saga, was quite exemplary,
indeed. I am sure Nigerians will never forget how the President
demonstrated his love for this nation by refusing to seize destiny by
the scruff of the neck as others might have done to gain the Presidency
no matter the cost to the country. Till today, as an insider who was
keenly aware of the tremendous pressure that was brought upon him by
various groups and interests even from the north, to by word and deed,
declare the Yar’adua presidency over and institute a regime change even
while his boss lay dying abroad, I cannot but doff my hat for him.
Sometimes, I wonder privately what many other Nigerians would have done
were they to find themselves in his shoes. I would not want to dwell too
much on the subject because these are issues my memoirs will deal with
extensively and I think it is early days yet.
Your predecessor, Segun Adeniyi, has written his own account of the Yar’adua years. Have you read the book and what is your take on it?
Unfortunately, I have not read the book
even though I have requested for an advance copy of it. I am, however,
sure that in his usual inimitable style my friend and brother, Segun,
would do justice to the subject, seeing that he was himself part and
parcel of the Yar’adua Presidency and I do not know anyone better
positioned than himself to write this book especially from the
perspective and angle of Yar’adua and that wing of the presidency at the
time.
How would you compare the President Jonathan of that time and the President Jonathan of now?
I see him as basically the same person,
even though the circumstances have changed tremendously. As an
individual, President Jonathan remains calm and focused even if
sometimes inscrutable, that is, it is difficult for anyone to clearly
read his mind and the direction he may go next. As it stands today, the
circumstances have changed because from a loyal deputy he has emerged in
his own right as substantive President of the country with an
outstanding mandate through a free and fair election that remains
unparalleled in the annals of our nation. Jonathan garnered votes from
every nook and cranny of the country; from Nigerians North, South, East,
and West who wanted a new nation, a new vision and a new way of doing
things. The day the election results rolled in was one of the happiest
days of my life. It still remains one of the happiest days of my life
because finally Nigerians were able to, in a free and fair election,
decide who would lead them. Since those elections till now there have of
course been challenges but no matter what, Nigerians must constantly
remember that President Jonathan remains the one and the same person
they voted massively for. He has not changed. He is a hands-on President
who has rolled up his sleeves and is ready to work to liberate this
country from the shackles of poverty, despair and want. The biggest
challenge the country faces today is the challenge of poverty and the
biggest cause of poverty in Nigeria is the absence of power.
Lack of power has led to the shut-down
of thousands of businesses across the country. From the manufacturing
plants in Kano to the textile industries in Kaduna, to the industrial
areas of Agbara, Ota,
Port Harcourt and Aba, factories,
multi-billion naira businesses have hummed to a tragic stop. Thousands
if not millions of jobs have been lost. Without power, even the barber
and the hairdresser cannot maintain their corner shops not to mention
the vulcanizer who must buy petrol just to pump your tires. Power is
central to industrialization and industrialisation is at the heart of
employment generation and the eradication of poverty. This is why from
the beginning the President’s main focus was power, power, power, and
there has been tremendous improvements in the sector. Hopefully in the
weeks, months and years ahead, if the information at my disposal is
correct, things will only get better and better.
Are you convinced that President Jonathan can cope with the multiplicity of challenges he is facing as leader of the nation today?
I am convinced beyond any iota of doubt
that President Jonathan can and shall continue to cope with and surmount
the myriad of challenges confronting the nation. Like I noted in an
earlier interview, Nigerians have gotten used to rule by dictation
rather than to rule of consensus building. I dare say that it will take
Nigerians a considerable length of time to completely shed the arbitrary
past.
Having said this, I must note that every
epoch has its own unique challenges. Sharia was Obasanjo’s challenge,
Niger Delta was Yar’adua’s challenge and Boko Haram is Jonathan’s
challenge and in view of recent developments, we can all see that the
Boko Haram challenge will be surmounted like the Niger Delta challenge
was, and like the Sharia issue was. I must commend the National Security
Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi, for his forthright, hands-on approach to
the current challenges that face the nation. He has gone about his task
with candour and tremendous experience.
Why do many criticise President Jonathan over the issue of Boko Haram?
It is because they expected him to roll
the tanks into Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi and environs, sack the
governors and appoint military administrators as would have most likely
happened in the past. But that practice was completely against the law.
The legal principle of state of emergency in the Nigerian constitution,
envisages sacking of the legislature of the state concerned and giving
the sitting governors absolute powers as chief security officers of
those states.
But like we saw in the case of Borno,
the problem wasn’t the Assembly. The problem seemed to be the governor
himself, because apparently, Boko Haram as a group had problems with the
governor and wanted him out of power at all costs. This even led to the
assassination of his anointed successor. How do you solve that kind of
problem by sacking the state House of Assembly since removing the
governor would be illegal and unconstitutional? So as was the case with
the Niger Delta, Boko Haram presents what on the surface appears to be
criminal but which is keenly socio-political in content and context, and
a solution can only be through the carrot and the stick, the size of
carrot and stick being determined by the objective circumstances of the
day. But as far as I am concerned Boko Haram is a political issue and
must be dealt with politically, very much like the Niger Delta issue was
dealt with politically.
Another contentious issue for the Jonathan administration presently is that of the removal of fuel subsidy. As his former adviser why do you think he is insisting on removing subsidy?
Before I answer that question, I would
like to tell you a story. When we came on board in 2007 - I was then
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the then Vice
President - the first issue that the government was confronted with was
the sale of refineries and the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) had gone
on strike to protest the sale.
The then Vice President Jonathan was
saddled with the task of chairing the Federal Government committee that
negotiated with Labour to call off the strike. We held series of
meetings but I remember one of those meetings very clearly. The then GMD
of the NNPC, Engineer Lawal Yar’adua, sat on my left and another
official of government whom I would not name sat on my right. During
that meeting, Engr. Yar’adua made a passionate presentation on how NNPC
had concluded arrangements to make the refineries work and how selling
the refineries was counter-productive. He was very convincing. But the
fellow on my right kept shaking his head all the while Engr. Yar’adua
was speaking, and he whispered to me, “These are the same lies they told
Obasanjo. We are here again, a new GMD is saying the same thing. Four
years from now, the refineries would be as dead as they are now.”
Somehow, I wanted to believe Engr. Yar’adua, but the reporter in me told
me to believe the fellow on my right, and as things turned out, he was
right. Over four years down the line, are the refineries producing?
With benefit of hindsight, would it not
have been better if they were sold? Would those investors not have
ensured that their investment yields fruit, and would that not have
amounted to local fuel production? Are we not stuck where we were four,
five years ago? Whose interest was really served by the hoopla that
greeted the sale of those virtually dead refineries? Questions,
questions, questions.
Now back to your question, why fuel
subsidy in the first instance? Because we are unable to locally produce
what we require we have to import and we do so at the prevailing
international rates determined by the price of crude, cost of refining
and cost of shipping, etc, back to Nigeria and to our fuel pumps. The
official pump price is N65 per litre, but often times the landing cost
of petrol at the pump is well over N120 per litre. Government absorbs
the extra cost over the N65 per litre and pays it back to the importers
as subsidy. So the question is straightforward, do we keep subsidising
these products and paying off the importers trillions of naira, or we
deregulate the sector, license importers to bring in petrol and sell at
prevailing market rates? On the surface it is easy to argue that Nigeria
being a crude oil producing country can sacrifice this as part of the
benefits that Nigerians should be entitled to. It is only when you
realize that subsidy has virtually wiped out the entire excess crude
account and is threatening to wipe out the entire Federation account,
that you know why the President is worried. If the subsidy payments go
on for one more year, Nigeria would ground to a halt. So the question is
what is the way out? There is no doubt that deregulating importation
will have tremendous impact on ordinary people. But is there really
another way out? My greatest concern in this matter is that responsible
government officials have left the President standing alone defending
the issue of removal of fuel subsidy. Subsidy removal is not a Jonathan
issue, it is a Federal Government issue which even the state governors
insist must go. Why are they leaving the issue for the President alone?
Why is everyone silent?
The truth remains that no matter the
government in power, subsidy would remain an issue. It is a bottomless
pit that drains the national economy. It is a black hole of sorts...
Anything that enters it disappears. Roads, hospitals, schools and very
soon even salaries would be eaten up by this black hole. Sooner or
later, Nigerians would have to deal with this artful scam. Because a
scam it is. If there was another way out, Jonathan would not be
insisting on removing subsidy. I know him that much.
As a former adviser on media to Jonathan, what’s the president’s take on Media Trust publications?
From my experience as special adviser to
the president on media, he reads all the newspapers, depending on how
much time is available to him. He does not discriminate.
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