PBAT’s tough economic policies a prerequisite for restoration of real Nigerians – Akande

Dr. Victor Oluwasegun Akande a former lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly representing Ojo Constituency 1, has described the tough economic policies of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led administration as an inevitable antidote required to jolt Nigerians back to reality of who we are and what we can do. He also expressed his views on other sundry issues. Excerpts;

How best will you assess the Nigerian polity as the year 2024 rolls bye, giving a holistic review of government policies and its impacts?

Year 2023 and 2024 cum 2025 is showcasing end to an era and the dawn of a new beginning. We all know that the economic situation of this country has never been so good. In fact, the country is bleeding seriously and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited a nation enmeshed in a very serious economic jeopardy, it needs to be resuscitated. But we can only resuscitate a hailing economy or dying country, when you are able to version out very good policies that would affect the masses positively, but unfortunately from day one, having understudied situation of the country and the policies the former administration put in place that are not beneficial to the nation, the administration started on a very strong tone, strong foundation and strong policies.

The first policy was initiated on the first day by the declaration that subsidy is gone. It takes a bold heart and someone with a large heart to make that decision knowing that the decision can take the country to the cleaners. This is because most of the people who are benefiting from this are found in the corridors of power and they might not allow that policy statement to work and they would do everything to make sure that the policy does not see the light of the day.

But with the knowledge of that, is it expedient for a leader to still go ahead with such stance not minding the likely negative economic repercussions?

That was why I said it took somebody with a large heart to make such decision. President Bola Tinubu did not do trial and error. If it were to be trial and error, he would have failed. He didn’t want to try to see if it would work or not, he just nailed it on the head. The era of subsidy is gone. Fuel subsidy and several other things that were being subsidised were reviewed. Dollar was being subsidised, consumption tax and so many other things were being subsidised. People thought it was only fuel that was being subsidised. If you want your people to enjoy, you have to subsidise many things that are being imported. It will affect the people positively, but it will deflate our pockets negatively as a nation. When we say subsidy, it’s not only fuel, it’s all the barrage of many products, which was why it hit the general public because we had been living in our own shadow of economic reality. We thought this is the way it is, but we didn’t know that was not who we were. We are not economically bouyant so, it collapsed. Thank God for President Bola Tinubu, who actually allowed us to know who we are. If the government didn’t remove subsidy, we would still be living a borrowed life, and a life of pretence. We thought we were good, but we were gone. We are just like a house that is standing, but the walls of the building is not made with cement, it was made with shafts.

One would have expected a gradual removal so that when you removed fuel subsidy, you would not float the naira or increase taxes, the whole thing just hit the masses at a time, and this affected more than 90% of the population

Prior to the coming to power of President Bola Tinubu, do you think he did not understudy the economic policies of the country? Don’t you think he did his own research and he saw where the shoes pinches and he felt that the best thing was to hit the nail on the head. If it had been done gradually, we will not get to where we are today, we would not face the economic reality and we will be pretending that all is well. Secondly, it caught the perpetrators of the dastardly act unaware and it would take time before they adjust. He needed those little time to hit the ground running. How many years have this administration spent in office and when they inherited the economy, juxtapose what they inherited with what we have now, is the country going down or reviving?

So, what have been the gains of these policies specifically?

What have we gained, we have started orientating our psyche, poverty is awakening who we are and what we can do. Everybody is now running to see what he or she could do to survive. There is no more wastage like before, you now regulate electricity and fuel, we are now at alert.

Is that not hardship?

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No, it’s economic reality. We are not poor, and when people say we are poor, you see churches everywhere in Nigeria, but in advanced countries, they count industries, not churches. In the past, because life was so easy, people used to sleep in the church, how many of them do you see in churches now, when they are hungry and planning how to get money or how to maintain their families. We have now woken up to economic reality. There is no more wastage on the part of the people or the government. If the government wants to embark on any wastage now, people would raise an alarm and they would find a way to cut it down. They might not do it directly, but they would listen and dance round it and withdraw unlike what they used to do in the past, so there is a responsive culture now. But most importantly, we are reawakening that tendency of leadership and ability to think in all of us. The government is now churning out policies that would impact on the people positively. They removed subsidy and floated the naira, and this brought hardship on the people. But they are trying to strengthen the naira unlike before when we thought the money was there, meanwhile we were using money to buy money and defend our naira so that it would not fall, which later brought financial burden on the country. The repercussion is more hardship on the people, which is what we are suffering today. This was based on poor policies of the past.

When subsidy was removed, we were importing fuel, now we have Dangote Refinery and the Port Harcourt Refinery is now working, why is fuel still expensive?

What the present administration is doing now is that we don’t want to depend on fuel again, let us diversify. Let us look at agriculture, which is where the issue of food security comes into play. Are we doing well as we used to do, how can we learn from these mistakes? There are a lot of various policies by this government to better agricultural activities. Also, how can we encourage the medium and small-scale businesses, what is there problem, how do we come in to help them grow their businesses. There are various policies, some of them had been there, but they did not see the light of the day or get to the end users. These were due to the corrupt nature of the people, who were managing the funds and implementing the policies of the government. But things are changing as many people are more enlightened and many things are happening. We now have a lot of whistle blowers that would cast you if you don’t do it the way the government wants it.

You can see what is happening on the tax bill that has now been suspended. That shows you that the government listens. But the bill is to help individual state and region. You cannot be consuming so much in my area and you want me to share whatever comes in with you at the same level. It’s a regularisation of the tax law and you earn as you consume. If they consume more alcohol in your area, you take more and if it is less, you take less.

People believe that the government has still not plug leakages and that corruption still persist in many places. They say the National Assembly is spending about 25% of the budget, what do you think should be done about this?

Who put the members of the National Assembly there, it is the people. That money they are taking, who are they spending it on? If you are not there you cannot know what they go through. A lot of people put their problems on them. None of them would tell you that his salary is enough to take care of every exigency that comes to his or her table from his people and outside. You can get letters from any state and anybody can come to you for assistance once you are in a public office. What they have is not even enough for them to solve the problems of the people. Yet, people would say you have not done anything. When you give some people money, they want you to buy them cars, if you buy them cars, they would want you to build houses for them or pay the school fees of their children and they would still say you have not done anything. It is our orientation as a people and who we are. You can not wipe out corruption from the human race. Even it is not possible in the United States of America, United Kingdom, or anywhere. You can say it is reduced, but you cannot wipe it out generally.

How in real terms do we plug the leakages?

Let everybody play his own part and the leakages would be plugged. Let me play my role as the boss and you working with me should play your role too. Some people would send your brother to you to give him job even when he is not qualified. The son of the President of the US, Joe Biden was pardoned by his father over the offence he committed recently or else the son could go to jail. You cannot remove sentiments from human race, and this is part of corruption. You padded him for the job because he is your younger brother. We have extended family nature in Africa that leads to corruption. You have so much responsibility that makes the occupier of a position very corruption.

On the matter between Dele Farotimi and Aare Afe Babalola, what do you think are the lessons there for Nigerians?

I would not comment on what is before the court. But it is shameful for any legal practitioner to toe the line of what led to this. In the cause of getting into the legal profession, there is a course they call legal ethics, which lawyers go through and we were taught how lawyers should behave and it is demeaning to see how some lawyers behave in the legal circle. It is a test for the legal disciplinary committee to look into those laws and make them to include these debacles. If what is happening does not serve as a deterrent, more lawyers would engage themselves in the fiasco. It’s a learning curve, we want to see where it could lead the judiciary and the bar. If the people at the helms of affairs in the bar cannot come out to talk and checkmate the imbroglio, then it would be bad. We are talking of discipline. The legal profession is very dignified. We were taught how to talk, which is why we are advocates. People are watching us as it is a respected profession. In the past, young people didn’t study law, it was for old people. Now, if a young person finds himself there, don’t bastardise the profession for those in it or those coming. It is appalling the way it is.

The tax reform bill has become contentious, what do you think should be done about it?

We don’t have a system that captures the taxes, where payable taxes are captured and automated. Go and work abroad and earn $10,000 and see how much would remain from the money. Go and start using electricity and you will see how much you will pay. We waste electricity here, go and try it abroad if you would not come back empty handed. Tax would help us to develop the country. It would pain us, but it’s going to help us. We are shouting now because we don’t have tax management tradition or culture unlike what happens in the developed world. We have many laws that we don’t practise. Now that we want to implement them, many people are shouting because we don’t know. When COVID-19 came, nobody knew there were some laws around it. We now started amending the laws that we have had then with the new laws to make them stronger. That is the issue with the tax laws. They are only amending the old ones to suit the present situation. It was this same tax the various regions used to develop. All that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo did in the Western Region, some of those things they did in the north, when they had the groundnut pyramid and the coal in Enugu were from tax. It’s an opportunity for us to get more money to make the rich to pay according to their status. It will benefit the poor more, but they have not been paying it and they see it as more hardship. They think the government wants to kill them. You cannot do that abroad, you would even beg them to allow you pay, when they catch you. Nigeria wants to develop, but some people don’t want us to develop.

President Tinubu has been traveling to many countries including the United States of America, Britain, France, Dubai and other places, yet he has not been to the states in Nigeria, what would be your comments on this?

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What will going to the states in Nigeria generate for us, how will it impact on our economy? President travels to those foreign countries to attract businesses and investments, he goes there to help the country grow and stabilize the nation. He goes there to tell them not to be afraid of what they hear about Nigeria. He needs their confidence and they need his confidence for them to invest and think of industrialising the country. If he is going to the states in Nigeria of what benefit would that be to us? I believe those saying this are not well informed and they don’t know about foreign policies that would help the country.