Oyegun
All Progressive Congress (APC) National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun spoke with reporters in Benin City, the capital of Edo State, on efforts by the Buhari Administration to reposition the country. Ben Ogbemudia was there.
Nigerians are complaining that president Mohammadu Buhari’s foreign trips constitute a waste of resources. what is your view?
What makes me sad is that there are people who do not recognise the fact that Nigeria has almost become a pariah state; the fact that we have no respect all over the world, and the reality that the APC won the presidential election based on the personal credibility of the president; based on the respect he commands, not only in Nigeria, but the world over.
It seems that most people do not recognise the very sorry state of the Nigerian economy. They say we should stop blaming anybody. I am not going to say I blame anybody, but the facts remains that the economy was ruined by the former regime. Fact number three, as if those two were not bad enough, is the reality that, in a few months the price of oil crashed, from about $120 per barrel about $30 to $40 per barrel. these are big problems in a state that was almost broke, the president need, the world’s assistance and the people are complaining.
Because I always use this example, and I will not be tired in using it. Family income falls from N120 to N40, the family will feel the compulsion you will not be able to meet the needs. there will be need for him to take emergency measures to shore off the economic situation of the family, and the president is doing exactly the same thing. Take note that a rapid revival depends on the understanding of the rest of the world.
The president has taken his prestige and time around the whole world to shore-up and polish our image, which has been badly damaged; to make it possible for world leaders to want to deal with a new Nigeria and to get the type of resources and the expenditure that we need badly, because the kind of problem we have are not the type that can wait for one or three years. We do not have the resources to revive the economy. so what the president is doing is a great inconvenience to his person. He is a well trained military officer. he trained abroad and he has been to most part of the world. so, it is not as if he enjoys going and spending sleepless nights in one capital to another.
The countries he has visited are critical to peace in Nigeria or to our speedy economic revival. Think of country like China and the United States. The long and short of it is that Mr. President is getting the world to respect and know the new Nigeria and help in reviving the Nigerian economy.
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose was said to have written to the China Government not to honour President Buhari’s request for loan. do you think that was the right thing?
I hope Fayose did not really do what we are told he did. I don’t think even he is capable of descending into the low depth, but if he did, I feel sorry for him and the people of Ekiti State.
It is almost one year the APC took over the government and the economy’s still in doldrum. what is wrong.?
Well, the budget is around the corner, succor will come, succor must come, because of the president’s personal commitment to Nigerians. he believes in the well being of the ordinary Nigerian. Everything he has done, including the foreign tours, is to gather all the support that is necessary to make a dramatic impact on the economic condition of Nigeria as quickly as possible.
A lot of these things we did not create. Yet the president have pleaded with the people to be patient with him and he is working on all fronts, whether electricity or even the lingering fuel crisis. What is happening now is that arrangement is being made to ensure that we are seeing the last of it.
The major problem Nigeria has is that we depended on just one product, the oil, price, which accounts for ninety percent of her foreign exchange. Both the fall in the oil and the foreign reserves means we cannot sustain the consumer habit that we have. We don’t produce. even the oil we have is like cocoa beans. In 2016, we are still exporting cocoa beans, instead of processing.
We don’t process because of selfish interest of few people who don’t wish this nation well. our refineries have never worked, because it is better for them to import. For the past 16 years, our refineries did not work because they were busy importing fuel and making huge profit.
They did not think of having petro chemical plant for the production of plastics.
So, we have remained a raw material exporting country. Once this budget, which the agents of retrogression had tried to mess up, a few individuals out of pure selfish personal interest has tried to put their constituency projects and trickishly remove projects like the Lagos-Calabar rail project. It means that there are still people in our country who does not want change.
The simple message is that change is not going to come easy because the agents of retrogression are still there.
The APC principle of change must prevail. Change in our perception, change in the way we think. Our assurance to the country is that nothing is going to divert us from the change revolution which we have started.
Did your party underrate the problems in the country?
No. we didn’t underrate the problems but you see, you cannot come into government and stop the clock. Yes we have done a few little thing at the top, but after 16 years the rot in virtually all the institutions in this country is corrupt, so it takes time to put people in this major act to drive the system.
Meanwhile we are doing the best we can to make sure everything moves on well.
There were reports that you will be removed from office. Is it true?
You know nothing like that ever happened. If you are a leader and you don’t offend people, it means something must be wrong with your leadership. you cannot agree with everybody, and you cannot do what everybody want. Some people are hiding behind the media, on something that emanated from outside the party. I needed a rest and I called the media and said I am going away for ten days, the gentle man standing by me will act till I return, and that is the gentle man they said moved to my office.
Saraki is presently facing trial before code of conduct tribunal. is your party envisaging soft landing for him?
What is soft landing when the judicial process is almost completed . Soft landing means we are going to interfere, tell judge the kind of judgment he should deliver. If we do that what is the change we are preaching?
I don’t know about the PDP producing the Senate President. But, starting from where you started, the party doesn’t have anything to do with the court case. we do not know how it originated.
It is a judicial process. And this is a regime of change that believes in due process.
There are allegations of attempts by some people to utter the delegates’ list for Edo governorship election.?
The aspirants did not come to Abuja. to protest any attempt to temper with the delegates’ list.
The party called them and read the riot act to them as regards their campaign. After the meeting, they paid me a courtesy call where I assured them that the primary, will be free and fair as far as I remain the National Chairman of the party. There will be no alteration and the delegate’s list is under lock and key.
If there is any justified reason that someone who is a delegate is late or has left the party, the party will critically look at the reason and effect the genuine change.
