Presidential candidate of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) for the 2019 election, Mr. Tope Fasua, speaks about a better Nigeria with passion. His campaign dubbed the revolution of ideas saw him traversing 33 states.
While many backed the COVID-19 lockdown ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari and governors in affected states, Fasua, an economist and businessman, strongly advocated for a reopening of economy, saying Nigerians many of whom operate in the informal should return to work to keep the country afloat.
In this interview with KEMI YESUFU, he speaks on the way out of the many challenges Nigeria’s faces, advising that the Federal Government invest in a foundation of human capital development. Fasua an author of six books also believes the global COVID-19 lockdown, which saw oil prices crash to an unprecedented low, leaving Nigeria’s economy in dire straits presents an opportunity for the actual restructuring the country needs.
You canvassed the reopening of the economy after weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown. Do you stand by your call, seeing the chaos that followed the first two to three days of the reopening, as well as the number of new cases of the disease on a daily basis?
I don’t know what will happen to change my position. But for now, I stand by it. The chaos that followed last Monday and Tuesday should have told us that what we did was right. Imagine the thousands of people that besieged the banks. A lot of them were at the bank to collect the little money they had, some were at the banks to get their ATM. All the while they were at home in agony. What kills more than loneliness and agony? We heard of one or two people slumping at the bank.
People fail to see the connection between economy, finance and health. But there is a very strong connection. Many people could have developed different ailments stuck at home. Many people hadn’t seen their loved ones for weeks. You saw a lot of people walking through Asaba and Onitsha to meet their loved ones because the Niger Bridge was shut for days. So, I stand by my advocacy of opening the economy, not because I believe the economy is more important than health. But also because as documented, in that interregnum where people were locked down in their houses things happened that weren’t documented. One, a lot people were afraid of visiting hospitals, out of the fear of COVID-19 and the inability to move. Therefore, they didn’t take care of their health. Globally, we heard of the increase in domestic violence, child abuse or people dying of other diseases in their homes. The reopening of the economy came as a huge relief for many. I saw the mama put with people around them selling their food down the road. Where were people like them during the lockdown? We saw the people at the banks; you then ask who did government give the palliatives? How was the money meant for palliatives spent?
Your answer focused more on the human aspect of the COVID-19 lockdown. As an economist, I thought you would be more concerned about the dire straits Nigeria has found itself in. We have crashed oil prices; the Federal Government has taken huge loans, as well as resorting to the taking from the rainy day fund managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority…..
It’s still all about the human factor. Like I said earlier, we fail to see the link between economics, finance and health. Aside from this, the issues you raised are part of my concerns. The skies are falling. We have the scenario where crude oil price fell. This is the only thing that Nigeria sells. Not only was the price of crude oil down, our government agencies went to sleep for weeks. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) knows people won’t pay tax this year. Where will they get the money from? FIRS was sending out tweets for people to pay their taxes in advance. But they can see that they are going to miss their target by a mile this year. So, the model of shutdown wasn’t well thought out globally. I have heard it said that this (pandemic) is a war. Do you sleep through a war? Who are those fighting on our behalf? Now the question is, how does Nigeria get out of this? We have a scenario where the current situation is still being treated like a partisan issue. There is no broad based coalition of people with ideas on what we can do. No matter how they want to do it, my message is that we have to be equitable. Whatever we have to share, we need to think of the estimated 200 million people in Nigeria. We should focus on the most vulnerable. This is not the time for frivolities as they are used to. The idea may be that the little that is available, a couple of people would sit on it and just to behave like they used to. The result is that you will zombify the people and then precipitate some kind of asymmetric and spontaneous violence, which we have never seen in these parts. Our people are not violent. But nobody should push them.
The Federal Government cut the 2020 budget, even as it is thinking of reducing the benchmark price for oil. What aspects of the budget would you advise the Federal Government to retain or cut?
People are now thinking of the idea of proper restructuring. The issue is where do we start from? Do we really need a Senate and a House of Representatives? Or is this the time to say, let members of the National Assembly work part-time? When this year started, we were talking about how to renovate the National Assembly complex with N37 billion. They were discussing the status cars they wanted and they got it…We know our people are resilient, but let it not be that on a certain day, anybody that owns a car becomes a target. What we should be cutting down are our excesses. We know about the disparity between the ministry and parastatals. We know about the lucky parastatals where you have GMs who must have their Toyota Land Cruiser. We have frequent foreign travels by public servants in the lucky parastatals on the bill of government. Our excesses are unparalleled and people who observe us from afar wonder if we have a sense of responsibility.
The bottom line is that everything should be frozen and whatever is left should be used for human development. We should ensure that at the end of this period, the humanity of every Nigerian is improved. So the health sector and education should be focused on. From the presentation that was made by the minister of Finance a couple of days back, the expected revenue into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) is cut by a factor of 5. So, if we were expecting a flow of N5 trillion into the CRF, what will come in is N1 trillion. They also pegged the oil benchmark price at $20 per barrel. The minister did say the price of producing crude was reduced to $28 per barrel, with Bonny Light crude selling at $22 today (Thursday May 7th) that means we are running at a loss of $6 per barrel and this even if we get buyers. The price of Bonny Light is ticking up because more and more people are retuning work. So, no matter what is left, it should be locked down on health, education and environment. One of the biggest discoveries of the health sector in Europe is the cleanup of the water table. It was after the cleanup of the water table that, they stopped having plagues.
There are up to 300 ghettos in Abuja. The UN Repertoire on Housing was in this country about six months ago. She did a report, stating that perhaps seventy percent of Nigerians crawl out of ghettos on a daily basis. Do we have plans for basic housing? Food security, security and portable water, we need to lock down our budget on these sectors and reboot our economy from within. Unfortunately, we are waiting for the Europeans, the Chinese and Americans to come back. But I will say the COVID-19 lockdown is the best opportunity we’ve had to take control of our economy and encourage our entrepreneurs to go into different sectors of our economy.
You speak to young people frequently. What kind of advice would give them about surviving in the post COVID-19 world?
They say, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough gets going’. Like people have rightly said, this is actually a war. The chances are the economic war will be much more difficult that the health war. So, if you want to see yourself on the other side, first I will tell you, this is not the time sleep. If you are sleeping at home and you can’t come out for now, this is the time to get fit.
The big thinking is that we are getting into the time where things will be run by machines. People are talking AI, when machines talk to each other. A lot of people are thinking that they have to tool up to be abreast with technology. This is one level of thinking. But it may be a little more complicated than this. The possibilities around technology are important, but you need a much deeper thinking on what’s next after technology. So, we will have is a world of thinkers, those who can persevere. You need the mindset of a warrior at this time. You have to tool up your mind to solving problems around you. This is not the time for cowards.
What are the major lessons you learnt running for President?
I like the fact that I was able to travel around the country. One thing I realised is that Nigeria is joking with the number of children we have out of school. I wrote articles around that time, that we need to escalate this problem to the level of the UN because we can’t solve the problems on our own. I believed that we can’t continue to have millions of boys crawling out in the morning holding bowls to beg for food.
I was able to learn about Nigeria. I travelled to 33 states; I took a lot of risk. I saw Nigeria’s beautiful landscapes. In one day I was in Borno State, it was very dry. It hadn’t rained in the state at that time. From Borno, I went to Yobe. I drove past Boko Haram territory and then, I flew into Calabar the same day. There is something about the deep green lushness of the Calabar forest.
I got to see that Nigeria like I have always known is a country to die for. But like I tell people, vying to be or becoming President in Nigeria is like a death wish, because in order for you to get things done in Nigeria, you have to step on powerful toes. I also saw that Nigerians, who you are trying to fight for don’t actually care for you. They don’t understand what you are trying to do. When I travelled the east, west, north and south of Nigeria, I saw that politics was built around how much you can give. It doesn’t matter how you got the money. Once you can give money, you start to become popular, but this doesn’t mean you will win the election. So, if you have that money, you have to spend it right up the day of election.
Nigerians like a hero. A lot of people are looking for who to die for Nigeria, so that they can enjoy Nigeria. But the only way forward is for people to try. These young people who throw savage comments on the social media should also invest their time in sacrificing for their country.
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