Presidential system, without full accountability is pure fraud- Shittu

• says Oil is good, but oil is gone

In continuation of our chat with the National President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, in respect of development in the country, particularly the maritime industry, the ANLCA Arrowhead talks on the spillover effects of IPOB and the militants and noted that a Presidential System without total accountability is pure fraud, even as he stressed that while oil is good; oil is gone!
Presidential system without total accountability is pure fraud- Shittu
Excerpt please:-

Let’s go off the issue of cargo facilitation, let’s look at the issue of our monolithic economy, economy built on oil and the way it is been sabotaged. As a Nigerian, what’s your advice for government? 

I was a young man in the fifties, I was born in 1950 and 10 years after, I was beginning to see how life is, because I was staying with my parents. Though I was in school, I knew what the government was then about. I knew the setup of the country while growing up. It was in this same Nigeria that I saw the military come and go, I saw their attempt in 1979 to go back to democracy. But I may never understand what informed Nigeria’s jumping away from parliamentary system into presidential system; a Presidential system that is not even taken holistically.

I saw the Prime Minster of India, addressing the Congress in America; and behind him was the Speaker of the House of Representative and the Vice President of America who is the President of the Senate, so as to breach the gap that could arise, like it’s happening to us now, and turning everything to look like it’s between ‘we’ and ‘them’, which is like it is existing presently between the ‘executives’ and ‘legislature’. These are people who have practiced for more 200 years!

We see Cameron before everybody, going to the legislature every day, to go and answer questions. They say people are cross carpeting and it’s not good. Okay, are people not cross carpeting now?!

The greatest means of defrauding a nation is the presidential system of government that does not have room for total accountability. What is the meaning of Security Vote for an individual that the constitution says he’s not accountable to anybody? What have you done? You have simply legalized corruption there; and since you’ve been hearing about EFCC, have you heard about any former governor being asked to come and account for security vote? No now! That’s why (former Oyo State Governor) Oluloyo said if you are a governor for 3 months, you can never be poor in your life! It is because of the Security vote.

So, coming back to Nigeria, I’ve never ruled in government before. I’ve never been part of them before. But I think we have the same collective responsibility to take blame for how Nigeria is today; because most of us that were at the time of franchise were not thinking  or looking at what we vote ; or of what the individual we were voting can do. Nigeria now became a country that does not rely on votes for change of government, or change of leadership. But rather, how much can you buy? So, it’s like a wound that’s already festering, if you just put bandage on top and a cream, you would only be creating more problem because the problem would merely be digging deeper down. What they do is to scrape the dead scale, apply the balm and then only can you bandage it.

So, that’s why it may actually be hard for us optimize the dividends here. We need to make a complete U-turn. Niger Delta Avengers of yesterday just came up to start blowing up installations. You are now talking of restructuring; something we would have done quietly amongst ourselves. What is restructuring? Nigeria remains Nigeria with heavily centralized government. There are still several governors with all their retinues of wastages. Several of the small, small States can be governed by one person, who could be called the Vice President; and all these states Governors could be like chairmen local governments. We can then go into derivation; and there would be competition amongst States. We have seen it before.

So now that we have tested parliamentary; we have tested the presidential system, and seen its financial implications, why can’t we take one that we know would be better than what we have right now? For that is what has percolated to all aspects of Nigeria’s economy; whereby money rules, money talks; whereby the church does not want to know where your money comes from; the Pastor or the Imam does not want to know whether you killed somebody to make money or you stole the money anywhere. Once you invite him and he sits down in your house and prays; the next thing he says is that God has answered your prayers.

We eulogize people with fake income, nonvisible income; and I’ll continue to repeat that if Civics had not been removed from the curricular that people like us benefitted from; and that makes us think and talk like this; and people would probably look us and ask: ‘is this a Nigerian’? Let me tell you, I don’t collect money that does not belong to me. What for?

My father taught me: if anybody comes and gives you money that you have not earned, there’s a consideration. I grew up with it; and I tell all my children exactly the same. So, some of us still derive satisfaction from whatever we have. I don’t want to buy helicopter. I don’t want to own a plane. I don’t want to build too many houses; the ones I have is enough for locational purposes; and as investment for my children, it’s enough. I am 66 now and I’m praying to God to enable me to clock 70 years in good health, so that I can start enjoying my retirement, because I won’t have any hassle.
How many of us are planning for that?

Sadly enough, by the way we live; we ensure that Nigeria would continue its rolling, downhill. I cant say it going downward to hit the bottom. No! But even then, we can halt it; and that’s the pains some of us are having.
Naira is heading towards N400 per Dollar. As at this morning, it’s N370 to a Dollar. But then, there was a time China was hundreds of thousands to a dollar, you remember? There was a time Brazil could not pay their bills; Japanese yen was also once way down. But their economy picked up eventually and the more money, the more foreign exchange we can earn, the more powerful our currency becomes!

But, are we working in the direction of earning foreign exchange sir?

We are talking of agriculture, how I wish some of these things we are saying were being noted by the government people. Yeah, sometimes you say they read it. But, while I know they read, I also know that anytime they reading and they find something they don’t agree with, they simply jump it. Most of them don’t want to hear or read the opinion of their perceived critics. They would rather jump it, even while they are reading the newspapers.

Looks like you are back to parables. Can you please be more emphatic?

I’ve said it before that the job of Customs Service is not only revenue generation or simple prevention of illegality in import; or anti-smuggling alone. Their job is also not restricted to only trade facilitation alone; but must be equally as an agency of government that contributes to the good planning of the nation.

That’s why you see that the CG is a member of the Economic Council; just as the CGC is also a member of the Security Council. Consequently, I should be expecting the CG to tell government ‘we know machineries are on zero duty, but by the time you pay your VAT of 5%; CISS 1%; then, this policy means this thing is no longer zero percent’.

Why don’t we have any machinery for the manufacture of the following things that come from our agricultural product rather than we let it come in free of duty and taxes then it would be zero duty and zero taxes. Because the duty is zero, by the time you now multiple CISS 1% of FOB; surcharge 7% of what that amount with zero is zero, VAT is the addition of this including the CIF, you must pay something and when you are able to allow so many of this machineries to be around, I will carry my own to my village where cashew nut rots on the ground; all I need to do is process it halfway, because I don’t have the capacity of building juice making factory. Then, I can process it that way in preservation mode; and then, I can now take it to those who do that, and sell to hem while nursing my cashew; and there will be less wastage.

The same thing can be done for orange; and the same for banana. That’s why you see the South Americans live on their agriculture. The fresh banana you see in London streets could come from Puerto Ricoh, flown in everyday, fresh! Why can’t we do it here? Even the planting of flowers, it’s a revenue generator.

So, why should we import took pick? When we have abundant trees? Rather, we are cutting our trees for Chinese people to take and make chairs and table for us to import? As for deforestation, we are going to suffer it one day! There is consistency in illegal movement of wood; go to Sagamu area by the Expressway, you’ll see containers and trailers busy, moving out woods that government is not making any revenue from!

Sir, don’t they go through the seaport or, are you saying they fly them by airplanes? 

You are going back to what I said earlier: the ability of the man who is being paid by government to say NO. Failing to say ‘NO’, actually applies to both the imports and exports.

How would you advice government to handle the current crisis involving blowing up of pipes?

I know it’s very difficult to assuage people who are victims of a bad structure; but we must ask ourselves: why were pipes not blown up in the 60’s and 70’s since there was oil even then too? Have you read the piece, on the history of the revenue of oil? Especially of how it used to be during the time of the military? Let me ask you, there was a time we had 12 States; 6 up and 6 down. Now, out of the 36 States we have, how many are up now? More are up and few are down. Do you also know about the creation of local governments? The number of local government in the South-south and South-east is not up to that of two States in the North, particularly, Zamfara and Kano.

Representation in the National Assembly is by what? Federal constituency based on number of Local governments in the State. That is why two-third of the people in the National Assembly is from the North. Once they have anything of common interest, you cannot go against it: common don’t marry a child was stopped! Allow a child to grow, because of infant mortality and because of the dangers of VVF (Virginal Vesicular Fistula); allow them to go for requisite education was a good idea. Yet, it was killed because most of the Senators are marrying children. It is the structure. And that is why you are seeing IPOB etc.

But if we do a proper structure, like the presidential system we have decided to follow, even though I know we didn’t decide it, on our own accord; if we want to do federal federation, since we are borrowing it from America, why didn’t we borrow it hook, line and sinker? In America, the States are autonomous. They have their Supreme Court, they have their own House of Rep; they have their own legislature; the Mayor of San Antonio is more important than the Governor of Texas, because he is the closest to the people. Under the mayor, you have counties; and the mayors of different towns form the strategic circle before you now go to the State. So, for the mayor, revenue generation, everything is the job of the mayor; he pays tax to the State, the State pays tax  to Federal; that’s why you have the richest State in America and you still see the poorest State in America; each one individually growing at their own pace.

If you go online and google-search now, you will see the best place to live in America, you will see it now, according to State, according to income, according to expenditure and all that. That’s why I am happy to be paying tax, in Lagos now, because I see what Lagos is doing with the money. But, if I choose to go and live in Yobe, because the condition of living there is better and I’m paying less tax, and my life is very sweet; and there is no Boko-Haram, it would be my choice to go there.

So this issue of indigenous stuff, harping on where you come from would have disappeared. That’s what is done in the State. Anything that has to do with the federal, for example, if there is crisis in Lagos or you commit a crime, and you cross over to Ogun State, it becomes a Federal matter. But, if it is within a State, it is the state police that will handle it. And they can be highly effective, because the State Police personnel are recruited from among the community where you are born. If you go to England, the same thing applies. You see a policeman walking along the street, he knows almost everybody in each house; and sometimes, he knocks on an old woman’s door, greet the old woman and asks a few questions all in a bid to avoid crime.
He knows children that are truants from the beginning; and he keeps an eye and watch. Over the year he grows, to know everyone and everything within his zone of operation! Do you have that one here? No! All of us are chasing money now. And because some people are advantaged while some are disadvantaged over certain issues, they will never allow that restructuring to happen. All of us are waiting on Federal allocation. This is not an industry matter. But, don’t forget, you were the one who asked me questions, about Nigeria.

Maybe it is necessary for all of us to suffer like this first. All the States badly affected, they cant pay salaries today! In the past, nobody was thinking of IGR (Internally Generated Revenue). When Lagos State came up with that beautiful, God-given sense or idea; they said, ‘No, we are not going to chase you’; but just think of how much you are worth: go and pay something. People were paying N10,000; N15,000; now, multiply that by the number of people in Lagos and you actually see the IGR shoot up! The GDP of Lagos State is more than One Third of the federation’s, why? It is because they planned ahead. If they did not plan ahead, Lagos would have busted, because there are more non Lagosians in Lagos than elsewhere; and two third of the population of Lagos are non-indigenes. So, where are we going? You have to cater for them.

So, when I hear IPOB people say ‘No, we must create Biafra’; I ask: who is going to occupy Biafra? Are you going to recruit Shittu and his family to come to Biafra? It is you that will go to Biafra. So, to show faith in Biafra, the first thing you should do is to relocate to Biafra and agitate from there! The Niger Delta Avengers are saying that all they want is they want to slide their own country. Okay, let then ask all their indigenes outside, to come back home first, and then let United Nation come and do plebiscite. But, we also know that all these things cannot perfectly work. What we are just getting into is distraction; because at the end of the day, they cannot survive it.

They cannot survive it. Besides, they know their leaders are not part of it. But if we had entrenched true federalism from the onset, then we would have catered adequately, for all the restive youths. We would have factor in the fate of idle hands. But, what do we do to our idle boys today?

Oyakilome, the former police Governor/ administrator of River States once came up with a brilliant idea: once you are a serving National Youth Service member posted to River State, then he takes you to the farm, where they allocate a plot of land for you; and year in, year out, they give you the seedlings; they have canteens where you eat during the day and pay you N10,000 to hold in your pocket. They also give you accommodation. Food was in abundance; and once the harvest is done, you are given 50% of the harvest while the government takes 50 percent. So, whatever you made in that your 50 percent, when you finish your Youth Service, you go home with. You are supposed to use it to start your own farming. But then, nobody wanted to farm. Everybody wants to go to the oil industry!

Now sadly enough, oil is good; but oil is gone. Perhaps, our salvation now lies in restructuring; proper federation, if we must retain presidential. I was thinking when Buhari comes in, we are going to say: ‘Oh, we have reduced the ministers and the Aides to so or so figure! But, do you know how many aids he now has? What for? And all of them are drawing salaries?

Government should have taken the bold step of a salary cut. Slash the salary of a Senator by 50 percent; put the House of Rep at 40 percent; tell me, how many of them would still be attracted to go in there? Why do we kill ourselves to go and get the position? Honestly, once you de-emphasize what they are getting from there, only those who have made it in life; and who truly want to help this country would now go there! I think we started this when Obasanjo, (everything happening in this country you must refer to Obasanjo), came out and raised the salaries of Counselor to N120,000, while professors where receiving N80,000; he said the average counselor was more important than the professor; and who were the counselors at that time? They were mostly rift raft!

TO BE Continued on Tomorrow