We are heading towards economic collapse if we do not reverse leadership model

As Nigeria struggles with a myriad of economic issues, most recently recession, Segun Oyegbami author of the book ‘Reversing the Rot in Nigeria’, speaks with FRANK ELEANYA, on why leadership and good governance is critical to reversing the rot in the system. He also talked about his book and other critical issues in the public sphere.

Tell us about your upbringing and how much role it played in the book

I went to the best secondary school that was available at that time, and it is Comprehensive High school, Aiyetoro. It was a school built to give the best in vocational and academic pursuit. From there, I went to Government College and then University of Ilorin, where the cost of feeding was N70 and it was worth it. Looking at how things have become and knowing the fundamentals, I was moved to put pen to paper, to straighten things out.

What exactly did you set out to achieve with your book?

Ultimately, a better country that we can all be proud of. The depth to which we have sunk as human beings is such that we have to take steps to reverse it. I have emphasised the point at which we started going down and until we correct that fundamental flaw, we cannot get out from the hole we have been digging for ourselves since 1975.

Are you saying it started going wrong in 1975?

Badly wrong. In 1975, we decided to destroy the economy with the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) which has been highlighted in the book. It was the first step towards our economic collapse.

Wouldn’t some argue that it was because the Government wanted everyone to participate in the money coming in from petroleum?
It is all in the book. It is a must read for all intelligent and concerned Nigerians about how we have gotten to the pit where we are. We can argue that it was a good intention but the said good intention has not led us to betterment and the way it has been shielded from the public, one is forced to conclude that the idea was not all honourable.
In the book, you talked about Obasanjo, Jonathan and Buhari; and it seems like you do not see any leadership model in any of them. Is there any leader in mind whom some of our Nigerian leaders in position can emulate?
No. The leaders in Nigeria have thrust themselves on the country and they have not done well.

What picture of a leader should we have in our minds while reading this book?

Nigeria from the beginning has been a contraption put together by the British, with the indirect rule. We had a chance to produce a Nigeria we would be proud of but our tribal and primordial instincts have made different leaders that have emerged to espouse their own tribal interest over a truly Nigerian interest. We have seen that to develop a truly Nigerian economy we need to be honest with ourselves. One that does not give any group advantage over the other, and with this, Nigeria will move forward. For example, the use of our oil. Our petroleum is a peculiar product, which equates to blood and the way we have been marketing it has put us in a huge mess as it is been seen as our national cake being used to advance the interest of the leader in power. The petroleum distribution fund is a lopsided way of distributing our oil which has destroyed our economy. We have poisoned the blood stream of the economy.

I was in a meeting and one of the members at the meeting said that the problem of petroleum is the sharing and what should have been done was to allow communities go in there and deal with their petrol and bring back taxation. Do you see that as a model that would have worked with petroleum?

That is really out of tune with petroleum rather it concerns resource control and my book has no political connection, it’s purely economic. It has nothing to do with resource control. The exposé of my book is that the distribution of petroleum is purely economic not social.

You mentioned subsidy in your book which boils down to the economy. What economic model fits Nigeria; capitalism, socialism or both?

Both make more sense and if there is going to be any subsidising, it must be across board meaning every individual must have access to it.
From the onset, petroleum subsidy has never really existed in this country for one day which is clearly stated in my book. The subsidy element has always been in transporting fuel to different parts of the country especially in the North that is, the cost being borne by the Southern consumers to transport it to the North. The question is, why is the cost being borne by one side. For instance, the subsidy was about to be stopped in Obasanjo’s regime and it was discovered that Guinness, Lever brothers and Cadbury were transporting petroleum product to the North at about half the price the government was using to transport it thereby becoming uneconomical thereby causing inflation.

This partial deregulation that was just done, was it a good decision, where you have N145 and can sell from…?

There was no deregulation. If there was, there would be no Government influence on price rather those who bring in the product would say how much it would be sold based in the cost of transport. It is a rouse.

So, you are saying that the right thing to do is totally deregulate?
Yes, if this Government was sincere from the inception, it should have deregulated its PEF and PPRA. What they need to do is strengthen their DPR so that they would check product quality. Also,to revamp, the Nigerian economy, they must not have dual foreign exchange rate because it is an avenue for fraud and favoritism. If there is Government influence on allocation of foreign exchange based on different exchange rate and the allocation of license based on favoritism, we would be where we are. 

What about PIB?
Petroleum Industry bill which is good and it’s all a part of introducing transparency in the distribution of petroleum.

We have a debate going on in the country about the Asset sale… Though you didn’t mention this in your book much, it could weigh on oil distribution and the economy.

Asset sale is the last thing any responsible Government should contemplate because it is irresponsible to want to dispose off assets to raise liquidity. It is very unfortunate.

What about people seeing it as a way of government leaving business alone for the private sector to run?

The NLNG is being run like a private business giving dividend to government. It is when you scrap enterprises like PEF and PPPR that we can say government is leaving business for the private sector.

In the introduction of the book, you mentioned that the book is not a sequel. The country is in recession, how do we get out of recession?

We are heading towards a collapse not a recession, and it is proper for us to recognise the grounds of the Niger Delta Militants rather than call them thugs. The fight against corruption in our country has not begun by our government, we are pretending to be fighting corruption and improving the petroleum issues. 

What has been the public’s reception of the book?

We are just putting it in the market and we hope people would read it. I don’t know how long it would take but I have done my part.