Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina has spoken on current
national Issues including the grazing bill,Fulani Herdsmen ,the trip to China etc.He
spoke on Radio Continental,a Lagos a radio Station.Here are excerpts from what
he posted on his facebook page
"Maybe you didn’t hear the
President when he spoke. When the Agatu crisis happened, he decried it and said
he was going to ask for security briefing on it and something will be done.
And when we were in Qatar, Aljazeera did an
interview with the President, and the matter came up and the President spoke on
it. He said this herdsmen and farmers clash is as old as time and it is endemic
in the country. He said that something would be done about it.
The Federal government, the state governments
and even the local governments will consult, and that was how this ranches idea
came out.
What I see in Nigeria is that at times people
want a talkative President that is speaking every day and he will speak to a
point that people are even tired of hearing him. The Presidency is the last
point in any country but in Nigeria, they want to make it the first point of
comment. No, it should not be like that.
I remember that when the Mile 12 crisis
happened in Lagos, the crisis had been curtailed, Governor Ambode had done more
than what was necessary, he had even made a broadcast. And somebody called me,
asking why the President has not spoken on Mile 12 crisis.
Are we not in a federation again? Why should
the President speak on Mile 12 crisis where there is a Governor in the state
and he had handled the issue satisfactorily?"he said
Let us talk about the China trip. What took
you over there and what happened there?
As you know, China has a surfeit of
infrastructure, while Nigeria has infrastructure deficit. What took us out
there was how we could benefit from this surfeit that China has in terms of
infrastructure, particularly rail, housing, agric, solid minerals, all the
sectors in which Nigeria needs improvement. How can China be of benefit to us
was what took the President and his delegation out there.
And I must say that it was a splendid visit, a
visit that inspired every member of the delegation. And you know when you get
inspired, you then begin to aspire. We saw so many wonderful things in China
and we began to ask ourselves; when will our country get there? But then we
aspire to also get there. God is great, I know we will get there.
When do we actually hope to see the specific
materialisation of all these MOUs that we had signed in China?
Well, it is said that the journey of a
thousand miles begins with one step. We have taken that first step, like that
man who went to the moon and said one single step but a giant leap for
humanity. We have taken that single step that may become a giant leap for
Nigeria, but a lot will depend on us. What happened the last time was that the
former government went to China and signed exactly the same agreements that we
have just signed.
Thereafter, they went to bed, nothing was done
because most of the agreements have what you call counterpart funding. That was
the time Nigeria was awash with money. Oil was selling for 100 dollars up to
140 dollars per barrel. We could have met our parts of the agreements easily,
but we didn’t pay. Now, oil sells for 30-40 dollars, and we have signed the
agreements again.
The difference is that a government with
integrity will keep whatever agreement it has signed. And we know this is a
government of integrity, the counterpart funding will be paid and when that is
done, China will move in. Without Nigeria fulfilling its own part of the
bargain, China may not come. But a lot depends on us and I believe that this
government has all that it takes to keep its promises.
Did you actually borrow money from China?
Borrowing money was never on the table. I will
tell you the story. One news agency ran a false story that we went to ask for 2
billion dollars loan in China. The story was concocted in the imagination of
the reporter. And I called that reporter and asked him where he got the story,
and he apologized to me. You filed a false story, which you know is
unprofessional and unethical. The next thing is to retract that story. He
didn’t. We issued our statement that we were going to China, and this is what
we were going to do.
You will not find loan anywhere in our
statement. We stated what we were going to do and that was exactly what we did.
But unfortunately, Nigerians at times just hear the first word and believe it.
In fact, a Governor based his own tomfoolery on the fact that it had been
published that a 2 billion dollars loan was going to be taken.
Loan was never on the table and no loan was
taken. What happened was there were investment deals. And in investment deals,
you know it is not everything that is going to be a grant or a dash. You have a
part to play. That is what happened in China.
In which aspects of the economy will these
deals happen?
Various aspects, One, power. There is a deal
to generate 200 megawatts of electricity at Shiroro that is going to be solar
driven. That is for power and then you have in transport. There is going be a
road, -Lagos-Ibadan-Abuja, different from the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, that is
going to be built for 1 billion dollars. And then you have an export free trade
zone in Ogun State worth one billion dollars also. You have an agric project in
Kogi, and you have a housing project in which 27 storey buildings will be built
in different parts of the country.
On the currency swap, people will love to
understand what that is exactly about?
I have some ideas about the currency swap, but
I don’t fully understand it, as I am not an economist. I have spoken with the
CBN people in trying to understand it, but it is work in progress. When I spoke
with the CBN, what I was told was that when it is fully done, there will now be
an education process for Nigerians. But the little I can say about it is that
Yuan will now be a currency of trade between Nigeria and China. They are going
to advance us some billions of Yuan, which we will put in our external reserves.
It is not going to show in our balance sheet
as a country. It will be used to finance trade between Nigeria and China. There
will be less pressure on the naira and less pressure on the dollar. That is my
layman understanding of it.
What is keeping the budget from being signed?
The exact situation is that the legislature
and the executive are still consulting. There has to be a lot of consultation
on this because naturally, a President should not sign a budget that will
become unimplementable. It is even an impeachable offence because they will say
later that he didn’t implement it.
And a President should not sign a budget that
is not in favour of the people. Those budget projections were sent to the
National Assembly, and what came back didn’t in any way look like what was
sent. Projects had been moved around, like the Lagos-Calabar project was not
even there.
It had been yanked out completely. There was
controversy whether it was in the original budget or the corrected one. But the
Chairman, Land Transport committee, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, had clarified that
it was in the addition to the budget. It went in but was not in what came out.
A 60 billion naira project.
How do you implement things like that?
Something that you can't own. What is a budget if it cannot serve the people?
The President now said he would have to look at that budget ministry by
ministry, which has been done. The Ministers have said no, this is not the
document we sent in and this does not favour us. We can’t deliver change with this.
There are some liaison officers of the
Presidency that work directly with the National Assembly. Were they absent when
the National Assembly was going through the budget?
Yes, there are liaison officers of the
President, one liaises with the Senate, and the other liaises with the House of
Representatives. That is what they are, liaison officers. They won’t sit with
the committees. The committees that sat and looked at the budget, they wouldn’t
be there. When it was adopted by the whole house, they wouldn’t be there. They
will only see the document when it has come back. There is not much that they
could have done.
Are you not envisaging a constitutional crisis
now that the National Assembly is thinking of overriding the President. By Tuesday,
30 days would have passed?
I wouldn’t think it would be 30 days by Tuesday
because that budget was sent about two weeks ago. And the constitution gives
the executive a 30 days window. What I will just say is that it is in nobody’s
interest to have a constitutional crisis because the party that is governing in
the centre also has the majority in the two chambers of the National Assembly.
That party has to do the right thing. They need to call themselves, sit down
and tell themselves; we are the party in government, and we must do the right
things for the people.
What is being done to resolve the fuel crisis
as quickly as possible?
On Wednesday last week at the Federal
Executive Council meeting, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu, briefed on the fuel crisis situation. He gave eight reasons why there
is that crisis. If you listen to those eight reasons, you will be very sad for
Nigeria.
A country that has petroleum resources and has
ended up importing 100 per cent. When you import 100 percent, the variables are
not under your control. There will always be glitches along the line, and even
if you solve it at a point time, something else will come up at another time
until you are able to have the variables under your control. How can you have
control? it is when you begin to refine petrol locally.
The Minister also unfolded a plan in which by
2018, the new modular refineries would have been in place, and the four
existing refineries would have been totally rehabilitated. And then by
2019,,Nigeria will not only stop importing petroleum, it will begin to export.
That is the programme, medium term and long
term. But between now and then, things are not going to be perfect. It calls
for the patience and understanding of Nigerians because in the past 20 years or
more, there was a gradual vandalisation of the process.
Everything about oil and refinery was run
down. Everything deteriorated and it led us to this sorry pass. We are in that
pass, getting out of it will not be by a sudden flight. It has to be a
programme that has been laid out now and it calls for patience, support and
understanding.
On foreign exchange, are we going to stick
with this policy that is obviously not working for majority of industries?
It will not be in my place to talk on foreign
exchange policy. It is more of a Central Bank function. The Central Bank is the
one that can talk on the FX policy.
What is the government doing to educate the
people and enlighten them about what it is doing?
There is nothing that happens in government
that we don’t give information about. There is nothing that happens that
Nigerians are not kept abreast with, through the traditional and even the
digital media. But when you have social media like we have today, you will have
the positive side and the downside. Social media is good and all over the world
it is helpful. But then, you have a lot of distortion of information on social
media.
For instance, the loan deal was not on the table in China, but it was
everywhere through the social media that Nigeria was going to sign a 2 billion
dollars loan deal. When we released information and there was nothing about
loan, they still didn’t believe. Nigerians need to decide what they believe and
how they access information form credible sources.
In my days in the media,
before I came on this assignment, I remember we went for an international
conference on impact of the social media. The conclusion of that conference was
that when something comes from the social media, people still wait for the
traditional media before they believe.
They authenticate the information. But
it doesn’t seem to be happening in Nigeria. It is that one in the social media,
which may be incorrect, that people take and they begin to share. It does a lot
of harm to our country. Everything that comes from the Presidency and
government is put out through traditional and social media. But when people
decide to believe things that are not true, there is hardly much anybody can
do. But those that are discerning will believe things that are released from
official sources.
Talking about social media, is there a grazing
bill from this government and that it has passed second reading?
There is nothing called the grazing bill. It
is a figment of imagination of some people .Some people are just there to cause
mischief in this country. What has happened is that the government has agreed
to have what is called ranches for cattle rearers.
When you set up ranches in
different states, cattle rearers don’t have to drive their cattle round in the
wild again and in the process getting into the farms of some people and
destroying their crops. When you set up ranches, it then becomes illegal for
anybody to drive his cattle openly. That is the way forward.
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