- says he was devastated when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was arrested by the Balewa government adding: ‘I thought the world would collapse’
Chief Olu Falae, a former presidential candidate on the joint ticket of Alliance For Democracy and All People’s Party, who contested against former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the 1999 general elections, and a chieftain of the pan Yoruba group Afenifere, served in the Ibrahim Babangida military administration as Finance Minister and Secretary to the Federal Government. In this interview, he regretted that the dreams of a prosperous, peaceful, harmonious and greater Nigeria after independence have not been realised 59 years after. But more importantly, Falae, whom the revered late joint leader of both the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, and Afenifere, Chief Adekunle Ajasin, described as sound enough even to be Prime Minister of Britain, made unique recommendations on the new way forward in any meaningful attempt to rebuild Nigeria. He spoke with Adekola Afolabi.
Excerpts:
Nigeria is celebrating 59th independence anniversary, what are your thoughts so far?
It is an occasion for very very sober reflection. I became an undergraduate at Ibadan about a forthright before Independence in 1960. In other words, I belonged to the independence intake to what was University College, Ibadan. An intake that was very optimistic, that was looking forward to glorious future for Nigeria.
But unfortunately, immediately after independence, within weeks, news broke that our leaders had signed the secret agreement with the British Government that should Britain have to fight any war after Nigeria’s independence, that Nigeria would support Britain in fighting such a war. So that was the condition for the independence.
In other words, our independence was a conditional independence, and we were very upset. But within a week or two of the independence, we hired buses in Ibadan and marched on Lagos. When we got to Lagos we trekked and marched on all the way to the Federal House of Representatives and we went and disrupted the ongoing session of the House of Reps, but the police moved in and arrested a number of us, threw us into the Black Maria and locked us up for disrupting parliament. I’m telling this story to tell us that we started on a very rough road.
Our leaders never denied the allegation; what we learnt later was that in order to obtain our independence they were ready to sign any paper just to get out of Colonial dependency.
And then two years later the Federal Government declared an emergency in the Western Region because the party in power then was totally intolerant of opposition. They arrested Chief Obafemi Awolowo and detained him. The night I heard that Chief Awolowo was arrested I couldn’t sleep, I thought the world was going to come over me and thought everything would collapse.
We held Awolowo in such a high esteem but although I as a person at that point was not a member of his party; he was a leader of Action Group and I was a member and supporter of the NCNC, despite that I was horrified that the former Premier of Western Nigeria and the then current leader of the opposition at the Federal House of Representatives had been arrested. To us, it was unthinkable. That was the note on which we started independence and of course people said okay, they would use the 1965 elections in the Western Nigeria to free Awolowo because they were going to vote massively for his party.
The election was shamelessly rigged. If you want to read about perhaps, the woefully rigged election in our history, I will suggest my readers should read Justice (…) report on the 1965 general elections. It was woefully, shamelessly and blatantly rigged, and that was what caused the frustration among the Yoruba people; they voted and believed they gave 90% for Awolowo and his party, and yet Akintola was declared winner of that election.
So, they took the law into their hands and weeti e started. They were chasing members of the opposition, pouring petrol on them and burning them alive. It was horrible. So, that continued until the military intervened in January 1966 within six years of independence, and since then it had been one military government after another and whenever we returned to civil rule the elections would be so badly rigged and it would lack credibility.
So, we were all aware that the more recent elections were not elections at all; it has been buy and sell – See and Buy. So, on the political front our achievement in my humble opinion has been very poor. I’m even ashamed to see that more than 50 years after independence, we are still unable to conduct elections that would be acceptable to most reasonable people, both within Nigeria and abroad. That’s political scorecard.
On the economic scorecard, at independence, we didn’t have too many industries but those we had were thriving, they were booming. There were huge textile factories in Ikeja, Lagos, in Kaduna, Kano, thriving industries in Enugu, and in Portharcourt (Trans and Margin Industrial Layout). And we had a few millions industrial workers receiving their pay on a regular basis. But then, accompanying the political crisis and collapse was economic difficulty, because you cannot have one and not the other. Unstable government cannot run a stable economy, that’s the truth of the matter. Because the discontinuity in government would be affecting industrial and agricultural policies.
Eventually we had Shagari government which in my view ruined the economy by issuing import licenses with values that were found in excess of what Nigeria was able to earn in foreign currencies, and when you exceed your income you are in trouble. So they battled with it and compounded the problem and finally Babangida government came in which I had the honour to participate and the government had the courage to seize the bull by the horns. It rejected the IMF proposal that Nigeria should more or less return to colonial status by accepting the IMF loan, say the loan would have enable us to pay up our overdraft. The monies were owning the foreigners and be able to continue the normal trading, but the government after several weeks decided that it would not take the IMF loan.
All these took place before I was appointed the Secretary to the Federal Government. The IMF debate ended on 18th of December, 1985 Babangida made a broadcast to the nation. I was still the Managing Director of the Nigeria Merchant Bank as of that date. I’m saying this because people said I introduced Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, to Nigeria. It was military government, civilians don’t introduce policies during a military regime. The people know but then it suits them to pretend that it is not so because they want to pin on somebody something negative, they know it was not true they still went ahead and pinned it.
So, I was still Managing Director of Nigeria Merchant Bank on the 18th of December 1985, I became Secretary to the Federal Government on 29th of January 1986, some six weeks later. But the government announced that they were adopting SAP on December 18, 1985. However, the clarification I made was not because I disagreed with the essence of the Structural Adjustment.
Today, a farmer can sell his cocoa to whoever he likes, that was what SAP brought. If you go to the villages that were abandoned by farmers in 1984/ 1985 because of poor prices by the Marketing Board, they are fruitful today, they have been growing and we have evidence of growth and development. New houses are being built regularly while the old ones are being replaced; these are indices of growth and development. If you observe, the children in those rural areas don’t walk barefooted anymore, they now wear shoes, belts and take very nice bags to schools.
What I’m saying is that on the economy front, we got into a mess by over spending and we had to be pulled back by a very painful structural adjustment programme that we imposed on ourselves by the failure of Shagari’s government to spend only what it had. It was exceeding the foreign earnings of Nigeria and got into debt and the international community was going to stop trading with Nigeria. What would have happened if we didn’t do SAP to resume normal trading?. If the world stops sending wheat to Nigeria for bread and if there was no bread in Nigeria for two weeks, what do you think would have happened . If the raw materials that we are bringing in to run our factories are not sent to us and all the workers are sent out of the factories and ten thousand people move to the streets.
The alternative to SAP would have been horrible, chaotic and a complete anarchy. but the government had to do the needful without becoming a colony again because if he had taken the IMF loan one thing people don’t know is that the IMF would have sent some of its staff to the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Finance to physically sit there and join in running those institutions, dictating to us and turning us to a colonial status.
So, on the economic front, today most of the factories have closed and new ones are not being built. Most important reason for the closure of the factories is inadequate, unstable and expensive power. Government has been struggling with this for years and years and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Government went and privatised power, I supported privatisation and I have always done so because the reason is this, going round people’s houses to read metres and collect tariffs is a retail work which in my view should not be done by the federal government. Such activities are best done by private companies, they can do it more efficiently, while the government spends more of its time and energy doing major things for the country.
Privatisation is good but privatisation before adequate investment had been made in generation capacity to enable us have enough power was a mistimed policy. Secondly, privatisation without letting go of tariff setting, in other words, you say you privatise and let private people take over and run it but I cannot fix my price. What is the essence of selling, you fix a price. If you want to attract more people you lower your price, but if l cannot touch my price, it means I’m a prisoner, that is not privatisation.
So, it is an impossible kind of arrangement. It can be argued that well in Britain there are agencies that overseer privatisation of water and electricity, yes, they merely overseer and correct excesses, and there already enough investments have been made for adequate generation of power, that is a big difference. We expect the new people who bought this distribution company to correct inadequate investments. Unless the right policies are pursued and we have enough stable and affordable power, the economy is not going to revive, because if you ask me to tell you what is the single most important determinant for growth in industry in Nigeria, it is power.
In fact, power consumption per head or population is taken as a reliable index of development. Think of anything you do without power, in production and others. If we have power in Nigeria that itself would be an incentive for growth. Nigerians are very enterprising and if they have power, they start manufacturing little things in their villages. The small generators they buy are very expensive and they would not want to spend all the money they want to spend on their business to buy generators but if the power is available maybe 5% of your capital will go on power but now it is 50%, does it make any sense? So all in all, my recommendation to government is to do whatever it takes to solve the power problem, otherwise the industrial front would remain stagnated.
So, I have looked at the political scorecard, the financial, industrial performance. Let us now look at the security. Security is the most fundamental for judging a society. Before the British came, human sacrifice was not unknown but when they came there was reasonable security and later we had (Pact for Peace ) that would enable you to travel to wherever you want to go.
Before then, there were Slave Traders, Slave Raiders which they ended. And at the age of 14 in 1953, I started going to Lagos from Akure here to attend secondary school – Igbobi College. I was going from here alone and coming back by myself, but the first time my father accompanied me because I was not there before, then, we saw the journey as picnic, fun, excitement. There was no suggestion of any threat or fear; to go then was exciting. At 14, I was making all that trips all by myself,
But now, at 81, the government is saying it cannot allow me to go to my farm without police escort, that sums up the security situation in the country from 1953 to 2019. At 14, I was going to Lagos by myself but at 81, I cannot go to my backyard without police escort, that is what has happened. What can you do without security. We are asking foreigners to come and invest here, they are not fools , they don’t want to be kidnapped and be butchered in the bush. After all, this is not the only country where we have investment opportunities, there are other countries with security, stable power and good rural roads, they will go there.
The challenge today in agriculture is inputs have become prohibitive. the first time I started using fertilizer on my farm was 15-20 years ago, and then NPK was about N250 per bag, and Uriell fertilizer was N225 per bag, but today the last time I bought fertilizer about a week ago NPK was N6,500 per bag and Uriel N6, 600 per bag; from N250 to N6, 500, that is some 35 times increase in the price of fertilizer. Which farmer can absorb that and make a profit.
Climate change has brought new phenomenon, on the way to my farm are two streams – Ala river and one Oyin river, and in the last 15 years they didn’t constitute any problem, they would flow under their bridges, but in the last five years, at least two, three -four times in the rainy season they overflow their banks, meaning that you will not be able to get to your farm during the period. If you have poultry there you will not be able to bring feed to feed your chicken, and if you don’t feed your chicken in two days they will die.
What I’m saying is that government did not pay attention to critical factor in agriculture; farming anywhere in the world is subsidised. The rural roads are horrible state.
In America, under PL-480 , that’s Public Laws 480, the American Government subsidised American farmers up to 40%, in Europe,it is between 50-60%, but here,it is zero percent. So, those farmers produce rice and maize and they bring their rice here to sell, subsidised at 50% and my own has no subsidy, can I compete with them, can I go and borrow money and produce maize? So, they are just talking as if they don’t know what is going on. So, all in all, we have not done well either in the areas of security, agriculture, and economy. I’m not saying the government has not done anything at all but they have done far less than we expect them to do.
Which area have we made progress since independence?
Well, there has been a lot of quantitative growth. When I was in secondary school, there were about 26 secondary schools in Western Region in 1953, from Lagos to Victory College, Ikare, but today I’m sure we have about … secondary schools in Oke-Aro alone in Akure. So, the quantitative growth is tremendous. The enrolment in primary and secondary schools is very large, the numbers of hospitals and health facilities are very great.
So, there have been a lot of growth and development in quantities but the quality is defective because we produce so many graduates of Universities and Polytechnics but how many of them are permanently literate? How many of them are employable, how many of them can find job? So, we have graduates who are not employable, and those who were well trained could not find employment.
I’m not saying government should provide jobs for everybody because I know government’ cannot employ every trained person but government can train youths , male and female, to acquire skills and at the end of the day they can be given financial assistance to set up their own businesses.
Also, government should sponsor a National Apprenticeship training programme. Nigeria is one big nation that has not got any. Abroad, the back bone of industries is national apprenticeship training programme which is run by private people but encouraged and co-financed by government. In other words, all the artisans, mechanics, tailors, carpenters and others, would be encouraged to take on apprenticeship and government will oversee the quality and contents of the training so that by the time the apprentice is leaving, he must have acquired the needed skills.
So, government can encourage private people to set up this and give them some allowances every month for the training of the apprentices. Those are the fundamental things that they should have done to ensure that the unemployed find a place of employment.
So, all in all, because we are fortunate to have oil, we have access to a lot of foreign exchange and income which come to us.
But where did we really get it wrong after we got independence in 1960?
Immediately after independence, the government did not tolerate democratic opposition. The NPC government at the centre did not want any opposition anywhere in Nigeria, so they declared emergency. That was where everything went wrong and the bitterness started. They set up treasonable felony trial for Obafemi Awolowo, they tried him and people reacted. There were crises everywhere, that was where we got it wrong. Within two weeks of independence, we learnt that our leaders have betrayed us. They were pursuing the oppositions, causing crises and violence, then leading to a coup. Then military government came in and there was instability.
Many believe that the various ethnic groups in Nigeria are more divided than before, how can we achieve unity?
I don’t know, but we must go back to the Independence Constitution. The British were here for a hundred years plus, and they observed all of us. They knew us well. They knew that we are heterogeneous society and we need a form of government that would allow us to relate together and at the same time enable each area to be itself. And that Federal Government gave considerable autonomy to the ethnic groups through their regional governments to avoid what I call a pressure cooker explosion. If we are too close to each other, it will cause crisis.
So, let us have one federal government and several regional governments where the ethnic groups would have greater freedom to do what is important to them. But when the military came in 1966, they scrapped the Federal Government and gave us unitary government, and that is what is still happening today, although we call it Federal Government of Nigeria. But If you look at the sharing of power in the constitution, you will know it is a lie. We don’t have a Federal Constitution; there are certain things that must be in the Federal Constitution. For instance, each level of government; federal and state, must be able to make laws, implement and enforce those laws by their own authorities.
For instance, if Ondo state passes a law, it must have government police force to enforce such law and not look to another level of government to come and implement the law the state government is making. What defines a government is the legitimacy in making laws and implementing them by its own power. But this is not so now in the constitution. So these are no governments, they are state administrators because the laws they make cannot be implemented by themselves. They borrowed that legitimacy from another level of government, that is the first thing. Secondly, in a federal constitution, each level of government is supreme within its own allowed authority.
For example, if primary and secondary education are assigned to the state governments they are supreme in primary and secondary education in their states. No authority is superior to them, not even the federal government. But because of our military experience, we believe that in everything the federal government can direct and control all levels of government, that should not be so.
The Federal Government recently set up an economic team, if you were to advise the government, what will be your advice?
What is their own philosophy. Government must have its own philosophy. For example, I believe in a society, there are certain things everybody must have- education, health, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, enterprise etc. But like a communist, If you believe that every mean of production belongs to the people, and no private industry, your team would be chosen to implement your philosophy.
What is the philosophy of this government? What did they believe in. What kind of society are they trying to build. If you want to transform a society as it is now to another better one in 20-30 years, what kind of society do you want to see or create. So, if you don’t have an idea of what you want to create, how do begin to choose a team, to do what? To change the present to what you don’t know or what you have not thought about. Where is your destination! So I can’t advise them because I don’t know where they want to go.
The Hope
