Senator Benjamin Uwajumogu represents Imo North Senatorial District in the Senate. He was Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly before moving over to the National Assembly. An astute and vocal politician, Uwajumogu in this interview with CHRIS EMETOH speaks on the controversial erection of Jacob Zuma’s statue in Owerri by Governor Rochas Okorocha, put at an estimated N520 million. He also takes stock of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, fight against corruption among other issues.
Are you satisfied with the fight against corruption by the APC led Federal Government and would you say that there has been much progress, even without any convictions?
Of course there have been convictions. Even the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at a press briefing recently confirmed that they have recovered over N230 billion from corrupt persons and not less than 15 people have been jailed so far.
We are fighting corruption from the bottom in the index of corrupt nations, it is not what any administration can be able to defeat in just one tenure, it has become quite endemic in Nigeria and will take quite a lot of orientation to be able to defeat corruption in Nigeria.
But I believe that this government has done a lot and everybody in this country at least knows that we have a President whose integrity is impeccable, we have a leader that is not corrupt.
You know that leadership by example is what we are seeing and of course, I wish the President will react faster to certain aspects of these issues, but he has his own way of doing things.
He takes time to take decisions, but in due course he usually does the right thing. And I believe that he will always do the right thing.
Presidential panels of investigation set up by this administration on cases of corruption have not always come out with results of their findings and this has given Nigerians cause to worry as concerning this government’s sincerity in the fight against corruption, especially when it involves members of the cabinet, should we also see this as a plus to this administration?
Which panel are you talking about?
The SGF Panel is the only panel that was set up by the President for the Vice President to advise him on the next step of action.
I don’t know if the result of that panel was supposed to be made open to the general public, it is to inform the President for him to be able to take decision and I believe the President will take a decision when the the time comes and I don’t want to circumvent them.
Don’t you think that it might be late for whatever action that would be taken by then?
It is never too late to do what is right, the fact that this gentlemen have been relieved of their positions is enough to show how serious the President is.
And the truth again is that until they are found guilty nobody is very sure of what the report is, so how do you know that the report did not completely set them free of the charges against them.
Until we see the report then we know why the President is taking time to take decision on the former SGF, Babachir Lawal and former DG of NIA, Amb. Wale Oke.
The APC government has dwelt so much on diversification of the Nigeria economy through agriculture. Recently the country started exporting yams to other countries, but it was discovered that the quality of the yams doesn’t meet the required standard, so where did we get it wrong?
For the fact that we just started exporting yam we cannot meet the highest standard in quality within the first one year of export. Let us look at where we were before now.
We were importing 7.5 million tonnes of rice, but in the last one year we imported less than a million tonnes, meaning that we are producing more in Nigeria now than we had ever produced in the past.
Currently we are producing more fish. The scale of importation used to be over 7.7 million but now we are importing like 1.5 million tonnes of fish.
A lot of items are now being produced here in Nigeria, agriculture is receiving a lot of attention right here in Nigeria and our farmers are smiling to the banks. Food production is up, so we must commend the government where they have done well.
In the area of agriculture this government has done well. So many things are being done on agriculture.
There are a lot more access to credit for farmers, a lot more programmes for farmers, the Fadama is being encouraged and farmers are getting more seeds for production.
This government has done more than any other government in agriculture and that’s the only way we can actually diversify.
Nigeria just started exporting yam and right now the Senate is about to amend the law which banned the export of food products from Nigeria.
There was a law in 1978 which was a military decree that banned the exportation of farm produce and we are amending it now because we are producing more food now and we are having excess.
When farmers make money from export of their products, they will be forced to produce more, and I believe that with time our farmers will learn the best practice of storage.
If our farmers are smiling to the banks and we are exporting yam as it is without thinking of processing them, don’t you think we are still going the way of oil?
I was in Dallas, Texas two months ago and when I went to an African Supermarket to buy some products, I saw yam flour processed and made in Ilesha, so people are exporting these things, but we also need our business men to learn how to export into America which has about probably the highest demand.
If you go to England and other countries in Europe you will see that Nigerians are exporting to those places.
If you go to Ghana you may see that those yams that are exported to Ghana are transshipped from Nigeria through Ghana.
Some of those issues are also because of drugs and other social practices that Nigeria was being associated with. So usually they insist that these things take off from the port of exit which is the Ghanaian port.
So it is a holistic thing, we need to do a lot of restructuring and overhauling including of our ports, because these are all part of the value chain of export.
Our ports have to play a role and also NAFDAC and all other agencies that are involved in export including the agro agencies.
We have seen videos of people who hide drugs even in yams, some of these things also affect the ability of Nigeria to export.
The Minister of Agriculture recently alleged that foreign investors are making more money in Nigeria’s agriculture than Nigerians, what is your opinion on this?
The reason why he said so is because the problem we still have is the access to credit which our farmers rarely have.
Our normal Commercial Banks are not playing their role well with Agro credit.
There’s no way a farmer can borrow money at even 9% which is the Central Bank approved borrowing rate.
It does not compare well with what an investor who borrowed money from India at 3% or China at 1%, so you find out that a lot of investors in agriculture coming from India or China
they come in here and they are farming on 1000 to 3000 hectres of land and taking money at 1% and you are borrowing at 9-10%, sometimes at 21%, there’s no way both of you can come out the same way.
So that’s why they are saying that foreigners are making more money from agriculture here in Nigeria than Nigerians, it is because of access to credit.
But like I said, this value chain of agriculture is a comprehensive thing. It shouldn’t just be for the Federal Government alone.
I believe the state governments are not doing enough to support the development of agriculture.
If the state governments can do as much as the Federal Government is doing, we will become much better.
If every state can commit to spend a minimum of N50 billion every year on agriculture, this country will produce enough food and as well export in the next three years.
There have been condemnations of your state governor over the recent visit to Imo State by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, and the erection of his statue allegedly at a cost of about N520million what is your view on this?
First of all as somebody who has been in governance and at my age I know very well that no governor will take N520 million and erect a statue. I don’t believe that the state government spent N520 million to erect a statue.
Now as to whether Zuma’s statue should be erected in Owerri, I am yet to study the report of the value of Zuma’s visit to Imo State.
I believe that for Zuma to visit Imo State there must be projects. I have heard the state government talking about an Industrial Park which Zuma promised to bring South African Investors to come and build.
An industrial park is something that we would really wish we can have in Imo State because it will give access to investors to come and build factories in an area where there will be 24hours of power, meaning that there will be gas turbine to gas their equipment. There will be road, there will be security.
Now if Zuma’s visit will deliver that for Imo State, I will erect one statue in my house (all laugh) that will encourage other Zumas to come.
However, I believe that until we hear from the government and see what that visit will bring for Imo State we cannot at this point begin to criticize or to commend it.
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An industrial park is something that we would really wish we can have in Imo State because it will give access to investors to come and build factories in an area where there will be 24hours of power, meaning that there will be gas turbine to gas their equipment. There will be road, there will be security. Now if Zuma’s visit will deliver that for Imo State, I will erect one statue in my house (all laugh) that will encourage other Zumas to come. However, I believe that until we hear from the government and see what that visit will bring for Imo State we cannot at this point begin to criticize or to commend it.
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