- Cautions NLC over bogus demand for salary increase
- Suggests corporal punishment to checkmate corruption
- Says NNPC unnecessary in oil production value chain
By Pleasure Onohwakpo
A first class Royal Father in Delta State and retired Air Vice Marshal, His Royal Majesty, Lucky Ararile, Ovie of Umiaghwa Abraka in Delta State, has expressed support for the various economic policies which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is putting in place to lift the country from the doldrum, especially the attempts to stabilize the naira.and increase production.
HRM Ararile who made his position known while fielding questions from newsmen in his palace at Abraka on Saturday October 28, 2023, stated that it is important to allow the naira stabilize at a realistic rate so that government and potential investors can plan ahead with it.
The retired professional Air Force pilot, stated that whether or not the naira is stabilized at N1,300 or N1,500 to the dollar, does not necessarily matter, for as long as it will maintain that stability to allow for planning and investment assurance.
“But I might say upfront that with all the steps he has taken, as far as the economy is concerned, I’m 100% with him because there is no other option.
“We should have done this probably forty years ago. Babangida got it right when he introduced his programme. Unfortunately, he introduced it through the instrumentality of the IMF. But you see, we live in a world where there are standards, there are institutions, there are authorities that are in charge of certain things internationally. IMF is the authority in the world for monitoring monetary issues that concern nations. And they have the data, they conduct studies, professional papers, quarterly papers, on all the countries of the world. So, their opinion is not something that you can influence. It is not biased – take it or leave it, they give it to you.
“When Babangida introduced the structural adjustment programme (SAP) this was how the intellectuals criticized it. One of the problems in Nigeria is that we don’t allow the professionals to do their jobs. No, we will not take IMF, they shouted. IMF was right during Babangida’s time. When he started, Labour Unions and intellectuals made Babangida to compromise on the steps that ought to be taken. So, we did not implement the IMF programme. It was abandoned. If we had gone through it we would have not been where we are now. It is like a doctor who tells you that you are going to take a particular medication for 21 days for a particular disease. You must take it for 21 days. But if you take it for one week and you say you are now feeling better and you say you are not going to take it again, when the disease will come back, you are going to take that medication for another six months. That is where we are now”, he said.
The Royal Father noted that there are numerous advantages that will accrue to Nigerians from the current devaluation of the naira, saying that the case for foreign goods by Nigerians will be put under check.
“I am hearing that the federal government is making effort to make the naira appreciate. I think that is a wrong message. The first step is to stabilize the naira – whether at N1,300 or N1,500 to the dollar, it doesn’t matter. The Italian Lira exchanges for 1,835 to the dollar. From the last time I checked, the Italians are not complaining about the quantum of Lira to buy a dollar. It is the stability that matters. So, if in the next three months or in the next three years, the naira will remain N1,500 to the dollar, then you can plan.
“And part of the reason why I’m happy for the current naira devaluation, our penchant for foreign goods will die naturally. A country of 220 million people, we don’t produce as much as Belgium. Our GDP, that is the total worth of our production in Nigeria is about 560 billion dollars. Belgium with a population of 12 million people produces 650 billion dollars worth of goods.
“So, you can see that we don’t produce anything. We are just sitting down on our asses saying that Nigeria is African giant. We don’t know that we are actually Lilliputians. And even the foreign components of our little production is not actually produced by us.
“Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron produce the oil and thereafter informed NNPC, this is what we produced in a month, this is your share. NNPC does not even know what is our share. NNPC will remove their own for what they claim they have worked even when they do not do any work. They remit the remainder to the CBN.
“What I’m asking is: why should NNPC be in the chain? CBN should be reconciling with the oil companies and pass the money to the federal government. Why passing through NNPC that is not producing anything? But all these things are deliberate so that they can continue stealing”, the monarch said.
The monarch also expressed optimism in the Nigerian economy, saying that the dearth of dollars could be addressed through different sources.
“The beauty of where we are now is that we have alternative sources which we can explore to stabilize the currency challenge. The President was talking about $10 billion coming to stabilize the currency. By now, we should be talking more than that because we have so many alternative sources – we have the special IMF drawing right which is our entitlement. We have not even asked for that. Locally we have the LNG which they say is going to give us $7 billion.
“Even the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, NEITI has not hammered on the fact that we have not been able to account for the money that is coming from the LNG.
“Before the Okonjo Iweala’s regime, nobody heard anything about money coming from LNG. After that we started hearing of $3 billion coming from LNG as dividend.
“Every year, we do budgetary allocations and we say we are going to use $70 as crude oil price benchmark or $80 as benchmark. What about gas? We don’t know how much they sell the gas per cubic metre, we don’t know how much LNG is making. It is a limited liability company, yes, but we are shareholders, we should know their yearly balance sheet and how much dividend goes to each shareholder per share.
“We should know, but now we don’t know. But all of a sudden now, from nowhere, we are expecting $7 billion. Is this the $7 billion that has been missing? And we have the National Assembly which has over four subcommittees on oil and gas, and nobody has raised that issue? It is possible they are not raising that issue of gas because they are in the sharing formula – they are sharing it”, he said.
The monarch cautioned the NLC to be careful in their demand for salary increase, saying that the inflationary consequences will be huge.
“He said: “So, for President Bola Tinubu, he is on the right path. People are saying things are hard, things are hard, I don’t think we have seen anything yet. If this does not work out and the Labour Union keeps insisting on being paid what they are agitating for, the inflationary impact and consequence, we are going to be pursuing Zimbabwe and Venezuela.
“As I speak to you, the interest rate in Zimbabwe is 150 percent. Ghana’s inflation was heading towards it until they got into an arrangement with IMF. It is coming down now, it is around 40 now. If we mess around this time, we are heading towards Venezuela. So, the challenge now is to make the Labour Union recognize that clamouring for more naira and more naira will not help anybody.”
The retired top-ranked Air Force Marshal, averred that corruption amongst public officers could be checked and curtailed by corporal punishment on offenders, adding that the approach is working in other climes.
According to him, corruption will stop if a permanent Secretary for instance, who convicted of stealing N100,000 is flogged publicly in the front of his office and staff, a 100 stroke of the cane. According to him, the strategy is working in countries such as Singapore.
“So, it is our leaders that are bad, not the followers. Go to any place and out in place any system that works and insist on following it, you will see that people will follow you, Nigerians will follow you. Our leaders are the problems.
“For me, I’m not really into this capital punishment. I think that the most effective punishment from my experience, for public servants, is actually caning, that is, corporal punishment. If you get a Permanent Secretary that has stolen N100,000 and within the premises of his ministry there, give him 100 lashes of the cane. This corruption we are talking now will vanish overnight. Not arresting people and go and hide him in Kuje prison, no. Give him lashes publicly. I give you example where that thing worked. It was in 1982, I went on a flight to Singapore. By 1980, I was in Staff College in the United States. So, the ADC to Prime Minister Lin Qua Yun was my classmate. We got talking while we were in the United States. Upon our graduation, he went back to Singapore. Then I went on a flight with C130 to Singapore. And he came to my hotel room. Eating chewing gum is a very serious offence in Singapore. So, he even told me that when coming to Singapore, I should not come with chewing gum. And I said to him that I don’t even chew gum. If chew gum and drop it on the road, it is a Singaporean that will hold you there and call the Police. When you are arrested, you will be arraigned in the court straight away and you are going to be given strokes of the cane.
“If you go to Singapore, you have to obey the law because the law will be applied. Do you know how they do their own that makes corporal punishment very effective? There is a private gazette. If you are arraigned before a court for any offence and you are convicted, they document it. It is a privately-run system that documents all convictions from every court in Singapore. If they pronounce you guilty of anything, your name will be there and the punishment will be stated. The day you are going to jail and the day you are going to come out will be in the public domain.
“The same gridlock we have in Lagos is what they also have in Singapore. It is a very small country and so, there is always traffic hold-ups in the town. People were driving like in Lagos. So, they introduced this canning. I think Corps Marshal of the Nigerian Federal Road Safety Corps, Maj Gen. Halidu Anthony Hannaniya, also introduced canning as punishment for traffic offenders. He introduced it but ours was done haphazardly. But in the case of Singapore, it was institutionalized. Once you commit a traffic offence, they take you to the traffic court and you are sentenced. They will document when you are going to be flogged, the time and the prison. The day you are going to be flogged, everybody will be there including your family members. It is an arena and everybody will see you being flogged. It will be documented that you were flogged.
“The consequence of that is that everybody started obeying the law. It is not necessarily for the lashes. Public lashing is bad enough but the documentation of that lashing is the worst punishment that can happen to an offender. Once you go to someone’s house with your son or even yourself with the request to marry his daughter, the first thing they do is to goggle your name in the gazette. Once they check and your name is in the gazette, they will tell you they are sorry. You see how canning cures such problems in Singapore”, he said.
On the state of insecurity in the country, HRM Ararile applauded the military, pointing out that there is a strong synergy amongst the various services and other security outfits, adding that the days of competition which characterized the Buratai era was gone.
“What I can comment on is what I read from the newspapers. I think there have been some improvements. On the Air Force part from what I have been seeing, I think they are operating professionally. There is top synergy as against the competition that we had during the Buratai era.
“I can also see that within the Army, they are shifting away from the then Buratai very defensive strategy of super camps. I found that the idea of super camp concept, to say the least, idiotic. When Boko Haram started, they were targeting churches, mosques and individuals. That was how Maj. General Shuwa was killed. The same week they killed Maj. Gen. Shuwa in Maiduguri, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police was killed and a retired Comptroller-General of Custom was also killed. So, I found that comment by Gumi that Gen. Shuwa was killed by a Southerner very idiotic. I would not comment on Gumi beyond that.
“So, how were they operating? They were choosing soft targets. They had cells. And from those cells they can target United Nations headquarters, they can target markets, target ThisDay office, etc. That was their modus operandi at that time. They were more like gorilla type of operation – very difficult to control. Whether you like it or not, the strategy then for the military was reactive. Whenever they strike, the military follows their trail and try to get them. But they later metamorphosed into a traditional fighting force. Now, everybody knows they are based in Sambisa from where they dispatch their units to attack any targeted structure. So, they were kind of semi-organized. So, how do you move close to where they are and set up what you call super camp from where you will be moving to attack them? Very idiotic! That assignment should have been over, if they meant it, in less than a year. All they needed to do was to recruit if they wanted more troops, call in the reserve, you can see now that the Israelis have called in their reserves. They must be more mobile than the people who were dug in in Sambisa. They would have acquired the type of equipment and vehicles which they can use to move into the Sambisa forest and give yourselves a timeline on when to move in, that is how to fight.
“There was no need to set up one super camp somewhere because even the Boko haram fighters were attacking the super camps and killing their soldiers.
So, presently, I think the military are better organized professionally. You can see the Air Force playing their role in support of the ground troops, sometime independently. When they get information on the concentration of terrorists in an area, they fly there without necessarily informing the Army. That is how the Air Force operate. After they have neutralized those people, the Army could move in to finish the job”, he said.
On the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine, His Royal Majesty, noted that the U.S. which should have mediated had already shown her support for Israel.
According to him, irrespective of the fact that Israel was given a guarantee, Palestine is also entitled to a state of its own.
The monarch however advised the federal government to remain neutral, adding that neither the Arabs nor the Jews recognize the Black race.
“But I will agree that it is a very difficult situation and it is multi-dimensional and you don’t know from where the next aggravation will come from.
“We will see how the invasion of Gaza goes. You can see the failure of the Israelis ‘Iron Dome’. So, there are limits to these technology prowess. So, it is going to be a difficult war. It is going to be a dicey one. But it is up to the world powers to be up to their responsibility.
“As for Nigeria, I think we should play the middle ground. And if you ask me, I would say we should be totally neutral in this matter. If you look at the history of the Black man, neither the Arab nor the Jews is sympathetic to us. So, if two of our enemies are fighting, it is none of our business”, he said
Earlier in his comment on the immediate past judgment of the Supreme Court on the presidential petition appeal, HRM Ararile noted that it falls short of the expectations of most Nigerians, stressing that although Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was adjudged to have won the election, issues that emanated that impugn his character were strong enough for him to have resigned.
He noted that former British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson’s image was not as impugned, before he resigned.
“I think the expectations of Nigerians were on one of the issues and that is the certificate and the person of President Tinubu. So, everybody thought that the facts available is enough ground. But I’m not a lawyer. At the Supreme Court, you don’t present fresh evidence. Whatever evidence you have ought to have been presented at the Appeal Court. And that is why the judgment of the Appeal Court was so thorough. The Supreme Court even acknowledged that, that they have done the job. So, the new evidence everybody thought would turn around the matter, was not accepted, it was not in consideration. So, it was irrelevant to the judgment that the Supreme Court gave. Having said that, we have to congratulate President Tinubu for his victory and for his struggle. But the point must be made that his credibility has been harmed by the series of revelations concerning his person, his character and his qualification. And that is not an issue for him alone; it is an issue for the society to look at – the system that produces persons who do not meet generally-acceptable standards. We have the same issue with Buhari over his certificate. How is it that people who contest either at the state or federal levels, or even at ministerial level are people who are either dubious character or people that are not qualified?
“And we have systems, filtering system. By the time you get to be candidate in a political party, the party should have gone through this thoroughly. Even people who are fellow contenders should have brought up these issues before. How come they didn’t do so? If they did, how come it didn’t work? Why was it ignored to the extent that we now have a President that has been compromised? He is a human being. There is no way he will pretend that he has won and has now become President that he will overlook certain this especially his credibility. I could see that when he travelled to India for that Summit, you could see from the pictures that were taken of him that he did not have the swagger expected of a Nigerian president. And that was why he has been weighed down with the controversies that have eaten deep into his credibility.
“So, in going forward, in order to minimize litigations at the end of all these processes, he must be very thorough, he must set standards. He must put institutions in place to make sure that when a particular institution is failing, another one counters. This is because before now DSS was there and the Police was there. But they were talking about vetting. What did they vet? These are people paid to do this jobs. They are independent. So, what did they vet? Before these controversies came up at every level, even at the Local Government level, all these issues came up. But we have institutions that are being paid by government. So, at the end of the day, if I may summarize, I will say it is an issue of governance failure – total governance failure. That is my take on that”, he said.
