Billy Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, one of the grandsons of the first Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, in this interview with RAUF OYEWOLE, spoke on why the government must subsidise agriculture and warned against accepting dictates from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in tackling the current hardship.

Tinubu campaigned on the mantra of ‘Renewed Hope’, and this came with a lot of expectations from Nigerians. With what is currently happening in the country, what is your take?
The slogan of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu is good but as far as I’m concerned, I see a big disconnect between the renewed hope, and anticipated hope. From the look of things, you can see that things are hard for the ordinary man. Although we cannot entirely blame the Tinubu administration for this hardship, it is less than a year in office and he has a mandate of four years. It is so painful that Nigerians voted for All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, thinking it would take ordinary men out of the jaws of the elites at least in bringing succour to them. However, nine years later things are getting worse. The government keeps on promising and giving hope.
Things only get better when the government becomes concerned about the plight of the people. What we need in Nigeria now is not the so-called International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is dictating economic directions for us. What we need now is government intervention to halt the rising cost of living every day, insecurity, and corruption.
For the common man, things are not getting better, but I believe with good leadership things can still get better. The problem is not only about removing subsidies, but also application of the proceeds of the subsidy. You can imagine how the IMF is telling them to remove subsidies on energy, fuel and all other things. They have removed it and made more money, but they have put common Nigerians in avoidable hardship.
How many Nigerians are employed? Less than 30 per cent, both in public and private sectors, and how will the remaining 70 per cent of unemployed Nigerians survive? Good and decent jobs are not there. There are two ways the government should look at its policies in fiscal and monetary terms. They are so much interested in how to fix the monetary situation but that is not showing any dividends and that is why you must show interest in the people.
Naira is sliding every day because we don’t do anything; we import everything. The little manufacturing you see in Lagos is just packaging, not much manufacturing. For most of our goods, even the common man knows where fabric is made from Europe, the rich also do that, so there is no way industries can thrive.
Recently we heard that about eight pharmaceutical companies were moving out of Nigeria, why wouldn’t they? Of course, Nigeria is a good and big market, but they can’t operate in Nigeria when an ordinary crook will go to India and copy their drugs, bring it back to Nigeria and with the cover of government make more money. Look at what is happening in allied industries, you buy their tickets in naira, the government cannot give them back in dollars, and this also stifles businesses.
Look at the fiscal problems and fix them, then the monetary as well. If I were to advise the government, I would tell them to stop everything and concentrate on the hunger problem. Concentrate on providing food on the table of every Nigerian. Stop everything and concentrate on fixing hunger.
Recently, the Sultan of Sokoto said that we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder, which is true. And unfortunately for our leaders and politicians, they don’t see it that way. You’re saying people should tighten their belts and prepare for hard times while we see officials of the government enjoying themselves, flying here and there and still doing Owanbe in parties, that won’t help matters. This issue is not about Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo, not about Muslims/Christians, it is about the stomach, and it bites everyone.
I heard the Minister of Agriculture saying that they are about to distribute money for farmers to produce 20 bags of grains and give the government two bags. This was the same nonsense that was done during Buhari’s administration when they could not account for the Anchor Borrower fund and all the interventions. No! We want a well-thought-out policy, not just a government dashing people money to get votes during the next election.

Are you calling for a state of emergency on hunger?  
Yes, on insecurity and hunger, if they don’t do that, I’m sorry for them. If you don’t fight these two monsters making life difficult for Nigerians, nothing will get fixed.
The government has not denied paying about N1tn for subsidy monthly as reported in the media.

How will you explain this?
It has been reported several times but people don’t know what to believe, whether the government is still subsidising prices of petroleum products or not. We don’t refine crude oil, it is just your own part of IMF policy that you must sell at international price. They will never allow our refineries to work because if you have your functional refineries, you can fix the price you sell to your people. That is why other countries’ refineries are working, even the privately owned Dangote refinery, they will never allow him to sell at any amount lower than the international price. That’s globalisation and they should look inward. They should forget this globalisation issue, every country in the world takes care of its people by subsidising one thing or the other.

Energy has been subsidised in Europe and America since the war in Ukraine and Russia. In the United Kingdom, America and other developed countries, agriculture is the most subsidised because they want to feed their people. We wonder where the proceeds of our subsidy go. Even recently we heard discrepancies in the amount that the government pays, yes, the government pays subsidies, I don’t know what they are doing or whether they are fooling themselves because they are not fooling everyone. They are paying for it and they don’t want to admit it. They promised that by the end of last year Port Harcourt refinery would start working but it is still a mirage, and we are yet to see the impact of the Dangote refinery.
I think what we lack lately are leaders who have the love of the country, if you love your country, you will not allow any organisation to dictate to you what will not benefit your people. There is no other way to come out of this mess than to develop a unique and indigenous solution. Listening to the IMF, World Bank and others won’t help solving the problems. They are capitalists, and there is no welfare package in their thinking. Nigeria is not a capitalist state, it is a mixture and we must balance it.
If the whole world can subsidise and bail out countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, I see no reason why this government cannot bail out people at this moment. We have to think inward and do this for the betterment of Nigerians rather than the betterment of other countries or their capitalist masters.

How will you react to the relocation of some federal government establishments out of Abuja to Lagos and criticisms that followed this decision?
I can say that we partly do not trust ourselves, otherwise this decision should not have become an issue. This goes to show how divided we are as a people.
Unfortunately, the government did not do its homework very well. Government agencies concerned ought to have given better reasons for their decision instead of saying they don’t have housing and office accommodation.
Lagos is the commercial capital of this country. Some key government agencies will function better in Lagos. I see nothing wrong in doing that, whether in Lagos, Bauchi, Port-Harcourt, Sokoto they are all parts of Nigeria. Once it is done in good faith and on merit, no wahala. But that goes to tell you the level of mistrust and the timing of doing those things. The government needs to do more to educate people about its policies.
Again, some people are complaining about insecurity in Abuja, and I told them they haven’t seen insecurity. Because if care is not taken, Abuja will ‘kill’ our states, every crook and criminal in Nigeria goes to live in Abuja.
This is because, nothing can be done in the states, even in my state I have to follow my governor to Abuja to this and that person. We are concentrating too much power in Abuja, it is affecting the states and making them redundant. Governors don’t stay in their states again because it is only in Abuja that they can get some things done. That is one of the reasons for the increasing rate of insecurity in Abuja. Kidnapping is thriving over there because that is where kidnappers get N10 million, they hardly get that amount in my state.
The government must come out clearly with policies to reduce the overbearing influence of Abuja on our states and that will help to reduce insecurity and develop other places.
For example, someone has served two terms in a state, and after his tenure he relocates to Abuja, he has built a mansion for himself in Abuja, and moved his family and that is all. If you want anything done in the states you must go there.