WHY SDP IS APC, PDP’S MAJOR NIGHTMARE – FALAE
The interim National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has explained reasons behind recent movement of politicians to the party, saying they had come to terms with the failure of the major opposition PDP and the ruling APC.
Political heavyweights like Prof. Jerry Gana, Professor Rufai Alkali, former PDP chairmanship aspirant, Dr. Tunde Adeniran and Senator Fatima Raji Rasaki were among the wave of politicians to pitch their tents with the party.
Falae, in an interview with the Daily Trust on Sunday, said the SDP had the protection of the lives of the citizens as its central focus, which is why, according to him, it is the party for the people.
The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation also spoke about his role in Nigeria’s adoption of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) under the military administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
He also explained how his party would tackle corruption if voted into power, among other issues.
I replied and said if the Army was to take over government in Nigeria today, it would control the federal government, all the state governments, local governments and, indeed, every echelon of government, so the Army would be in government. But does that make it a party?
Former Secretary to the Federal Government and Minister of Finance during the Ibrahim Babangida regime and Afenifere chieftain, Chief Olu Falae, is the Interim National Chairman, National Working Committee of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which has lately been gaining ground with the defection to it of political heavyweights like Dr Junaid Mohammed, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, Professor Jerry Gana, Senator Fatima Raji Rasaki and Dr Tunde Adeniran. In this interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, 79-year-old Chief Falae contends that failure of the two major political parties - the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) - is responsible for the traction the SDP has been gaining as notable members of the PDP, especially, have been dumping that party for membership of the SDP.
The SDP, from virtual obscurity, has suddenly been growing in influence, with the defection of notable names to it. What is making the SDP the beautiful bride?
The failure of the two so-called big political parties, namely the APC and PDP, and their inability to meet the yearnings of Nigerians is the main reason why Nigerians are flocking to the SDP as the credible alternative. While that is the main and immediate cause of the rapid growth of the SDP in recent times, it is also true that the SDP is a very attractive political brand.
You will recall that in the 1990s, the SDP was one of the two political parties in the twoparty system; the other was the National Republican Convention. The SDP won and controlled majority of the assemblies, and had the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives. It was a brand that was acceptable all over Nigeria - East, North, West and South. People loved and were excited about it.
So when these two political parties, the APC and PDP, started to mess around, the SDP nostalgia set in. It was remembered that once upon a time we had a political party that was acceptable to almost everybody, and which even enabled MKO Abiola to win his presidential election across Nigeria, even as he had a Muslim like himself as his running mate.
That is the kind of brand that people remember and has attracted them to the party, especially as they can now see the failure of the PDP and APC. That failure is pushing people away from them. If there is no pull or attraction in any party, there is the tendency for people to be frustrated and to start what I will call non-democratic alternatives. But, thank God, there is a very credible alternative.
Actually, there is a superior alternative.
How? In what sense?
I will explain. Nigerians tend to assess political parties by their size—how many senators they have, how many House of Assembly members, how many House of Reps members, how many governors, etc.
Those are the kinds of statistics they use to define the strength and quality of a political party. But one party is not superior to another if it can’t address certain fundamental objectives that would lift the society, and if it can’t address the problems and concerns of the people in a more relevant manner.
The so-called big parties and their members don’t even know whether they have manifestoes or not; if they do most of them have never read them. They don’t know what they are supposed to do in terms of what the party is supposed to do for the people.
Politicians quickly forget that the main purpose of government is for government to protect the people from all forms of danger —herdsmen, armed robbers, kidnappers, famine or poverty. Government’s fundamental responsibility is the preservation of lives of the citizens. Now, the party that has that as its central focus is the SDP. So the SDP is certainly superior. The SDP manifesto says the welfare of the citizens, taking care of the citizens from the cradle to the grave, shall be the primary purpose of the party. There is no other party in Nigeria that has such a noble objective. So SDP is a party for the people.
In 2015, I launched my book, which I titled, The Way forward for Nigeria, the Economy and the Polity. In it, I say the so-called big political parties are not political parties at all but a mere opportunistic gang-up for power.
At the launch in Lagos, one person stood up and challenged me on why I should say such a thing, knowing that the PDP was controlling the federal government and many state governments.
I replied and said if the Army was to take over government in Nigeria today, it would control the federal government, all the state governments, local governments and, indeed, every echelon of government, so the Army would be in government. But does that make it a party? So being in government does not make a party; anybody can. A non-democratic force like the Army, or a syndicate of trade unions can seize power, just as a party can seize power through rigging. I told them that if they were defining a party, they should do so in terms of a group of private citizens who have a common objective as to how the society should be governed. That is what makes them a party.
You are influential in your area, have money and won an election do not make you a party. Over time, the party will disintegrate because no true ideology holds the members together.
Our common purpose in the SDP is that the welfare of the people shall be our central focus because without that, at the first sign of trouble, we, the members, will all go our different ways. See what is happening not only in the PDP, but also the APC. They are disintegrating.
I hope I have answered your question on why people are trooping to the SDP. One, the PDP and APC have disappointed them. Second, there is a credible and superior alternative for them to embrace.
Many regarded the SDP, until the recent defection to it of notable politicians like Prof Jerry Gana, as largely a southern party. What is your reaction to this?
No, no, no. Where we had won
House of Assembly and councillorship elections were in Adamawa, Taraba, Niger and Delta states, not even in the South-West. We have never been a sectional party. The SDP has been a national party since it was formed.
If it was not sectional, why was it unable to attract notable politicians across the country from the beginning?
Nigerians are becoming more aware of their rights. The PDP lost power and tried to have a convention to elect a new chairman, but that was bungled. Some of their members were not happy with the way the convention went and pulled out of the party.
Some APC members are also in court now. The way they are mismanaging their internal affairs in recent times is a dissatisfaction to some.
Nigerians are watching and following all these. The information revolution on the social media has ensured there is no secret anymore, therefore, the electorate are aware of what is happening here and abroad.
We can see all what is unacceptable to us. Those who had been undemocratic in the internal management of their party are now begging. Things they used to get away with five years ago are not easy to get away with now, not anymore. There are 71 political parties, but we can all see they have chosen no other party but the SDP.
What is your political relationship with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo?
Consultations are ongoing with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement, Chief Olisa Agbakoba’s National Intervention Movement and others. I am optimistic that at the end of the day we will be able to arrive at something positive and constructive.
I want to say with all humility that those who are coming into the SDP know that the party has a leadership that could be relied upon.
There is consistent commitment. The new members could have spread themselves across the 71 parties, but they are concentrating on the SDP.
What will the SDP do to tackle the seemingly unconquerable menace of corruption different from what President Muhammadu Buhari is doing?
I was a presidential candidate in 1999 and I had a 328-page programme which I called New Direction for the Third Republic. We worked out a direction a long time ago. Corruption is often a function of the structure that we operate. If all the food supplies in Akure are kept in one central huge store and you put a saint there as the storekeeper, with time he could become corrupt. Why? Everybody will want part of the food and the storekeeper will start realising the power he wields and how he could abuse it to become rich. There is the tendency for a labourer who controls all the food that everybody needs to become corrupt and rich. Corruption is a function of structure.
But if you have all the food in Akure spread in 50 or 100 shops, will the seller become corrupt? That’s what I meant. In government, we have concentrated all our resources in a unitary government in Abuja. When I joined the federal civil service in 1963, there was no Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Agriculture was purely a state matter. The Federal Government had no reason to be involved in agriculture.
But over time, for geo-political reasons, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture was created without a territory. A government that does not have land of its own now has an agric ministry. A lot of money is being given to that ministry and, of course, people devise all forms of avenues to steal the money. The structure breeds corruption.
If we are given the grace to govern or manage Nigeria, the first thing we will do is to restructure the country to decentralize management. We won’t overconcentrate resources in wrong hands. It is when you do that there will be stealing that will tempt even a saint to become a crook. The present structure encourages corruption.
In those days, in the First Republic, even after Independence, we used to hear of 10 per cent graft demanded by political office holders. But today, both political office holders and government officials are involved in what I call competitive stealing. That is why a very junior staff would be having billions of naira, sleeping on money. It is no longer ministers alone that are corrupt but also career civil servants. It is the system that allows that.
In my own time as a minister, I never had access to cash. In my own time, I didn’t know how a Level 5 officer would have access to N2 billion. As a Permanent Secretary in federal government service, and later as managing director of a merchant bank, Secretary to the
Federal Government and Minister of Finance, I wasn’t dealing with physical cash in all those capacities. Even at the bank, I was not a signatory; there were officers designated according to their categories to sign cheques. As Finance Minister, I only signed state allocations. I signed pieces of paper and was never paid cash. How cash suddenly became the medium of transaction I will never understand. The system has broken down.
So one of the things we would do is to restore the system to health by ensuring that appropriate control supervisions are in place, as it was in the past. That is one.
Number two, the most effective way of controlling corruption is for the leadership to demonstrate transparency, not for me to be preaching transparency when I am stealing funds. Even when you use other people to steal funds, they will tell other people, and other people will get to know that this Oga is just talking nonsense; he is a thief himself. But once they know you are not a thief, that what you are preaching against is what you actually do, they will take their cue from you.
Again, I can illustrate with my career. I was MD, Nigeria Merchant Bank from 1982-1986 and I say there was no single case of fraud in that bank in those four years.
What did I do? When I got there, I called all the staff members and said, ‘I just retired as Permanent Secretary at 42 years of age after putting in 21 years. This bank appointment is transitional. In a few years, I will fully retire and will be on my farm. I thank God I left the civil service without any blemish and I hope to retire finally from this place without any blemish. Please, I don’t take bribe and I don’t want you to take any bribe on my behalf or for yourself. If you do I will take the money back from you and you will go to jail.’
They understood my message. They knew I meant what I was saying, and for the four years I led them, nothing like fraud was reported either by internal auditors or by external auditors from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The same thing will work at the national level. If the President, ministers and special advisers are honest, bureaucracy will take its cue because workers would know that if they did anything untoward they would pay for it. But once they know the leaders are doing criminal activities they would also do them and that way, you can never, never kill corruption.
When we launched the SDP five years ago in Abuja, I made a statement that Nigerians would have to kill corruption or corruption would kill Nigeria. President Mohammadu Buhari used that expression two years after I had used it. That is the truth. But one can only kill corruption if one restructures the system, if one reduces access to money.
The third measure, which is arrest and imprisonment, is good but that is dealing with the symptoms. The two earlier steps are as more important as having an appropriate structure, honest leadership and detection and punishment of crime.
Those are the three major steps we will take to control corruption.
Demonstration of sincere leadership is, however, the most important aspect. The leaders must not indulge in corruption nor condone it.
When someone closes to you commits a corrupt practice and you do nothing about it, you are encouraging it.
Is the Buhari government not doing enough in its fight against corruption?
Certainly. They have not changed the structure. I still hear of people carrying billions of money. The Buhari administration seems to be doing more about the third step, which is dealing with the culprits.
Leaders of the administration are accusing the PDP government of massive corruption, but who were the people in the PDP government then? They are the people now in the APC - state governors, ministers and a lot of lawmakers. They were there for
As Finance Minister, I only signed state allocations. I signed pieces of paper and was never paid cash. How cash suddenly became the medium of transaction I will never understand. The system has broken down
eight years and even more and then crossed to the APC.
Who was PDP then and who is now APC? Most Nigerians know they are the same people. So when one is accusing the other, it is a case of pot calling the kettle black.
But to many Nigerians, all the political parties, including the SDP, are pot calling the kettle black? How can you convince them to accept the SDP as an exception?
The SDP has what others don’t have. It has managed Nigeria before…
It is the same philosophy. The manifesto is also the same but we are just working on it. The principal officers are still there; many who left have now come back to the SDP.
There is no litigation on the name. The leadership is respectable, can be relied upon and there will be internal democracy. John will not win a primary election and you give it to James; that can never happen in the SDP.
During the last election, a particular party directed its members in a particular state not to hold their governorship congress in their state, that all of them should come to Abuja to hold it. Why? Any party doing that is insensitive to the inconvenience to the delegates, the risk to them and the pointlessness of the whole thing. Why would they not have their congress in their state? It points to one thing.
In manipulating the congress, the party’s leaders, before the delegates got to Abuja, said they had finished the congress. A particular person said the party’s leadership collected millions of naira from him to give him the ticket. He had not gotten to Abuja when they declared the results. That is what their members are running away from and why they are now coming to the SDP. They
The same thing will work at the national level. If the President, ministers and special advisers are honest, bureaucracy will take its cue because workers would know that if they did anything untoward they would pay for it. But once they know the leaders are doing criminal activities they would also do them and that way, you can never, never kill corruption
know there is fairness and obedience here.
You want to go to your father and you are sure you can rely on what he tells you. But if he says one thing in the morning and another in the afternoon, you begin to wonder what has happened to Baba. People don’t want to go to where there is cheating and no fairness.
You served the Ibrahim Babangida regime as a key member of its economic team. How do you divorce yourself from the woes, especially the Structural Adjustment Programme, that many Nigerians still believe that regime’s economic policy wrought on them?
I don’t have to clear myself from anything. I was invited by that government to become the Secretary to the Government and I was seconded by the bank I was working for to do so.
I was invited because of my experience and professional qualification. The economy was in bad shape and the government wanted somebody who could assist them to address the problem and it contacted me. It took two months for me to agree. I actually asked Gen Babangida why he insisted I work with him and he replied, ‘Olu, if you are in my position and see someone who has financial experience in both the public and private sectors, won’t you invite him to help revive the economy and bring back prosperity to Nigeria?’ And I did my best in that capacity.
IBBcameintoofficewhenNigeria was in serious economic crisis, occasioned by the accumulation of trade debts and external trade arrears, which started during the Shagari regime when import licences were issued to Nigerians indiscriminately. When IBB came, after we had done the verification, Nigeria was owing foreigners N30 billion in trade arrears.
The price of oil we were exporting at that time was down to $10 per barrel. What was coming in could not finance imports for raw materials, medicines and so many other vital things.
So what do we do to begin to reduce the debt? Those foreign banks we were owing guaranteed the shipment of goods to Nigerian importers but Nigeria did not have the money to pay. Since we could not pay, they said they would no longer ship goods to Nigeria. We were trading on the basis of cash on delivery and for one to two years we couldn’t pay so they stopped giving us goods. Even flour for baking bread was stopped. When a country gets to that level, it becomes a big problem.
The International Monetary Fund stepped in and said, ‘Nigeria, you got yourself into a mess. We know you must continue to import essentials like raw materials and we can guarantee you to them (suppliers) that you would pay them, but that’s if you take the IMF loan with its conditionalities.’
IBB gave Nigerians time to debate it on radio and national TV and Nigerians said they did not want to take the IMF loan to get out of the mess. On December 18, 1985, IBB made a broadcast to Nigerians that in the light of their views, the country wouldn’t take the IMF loan. I was still working at the bank then.
Gen Babangida said he had decided to have his own adjustment programme that would allow the government to fund its way and continue to import essential goods. Sale of oil at $10 per barrel would not allow us to pay for imports, so SAP was introduced to allow us earn more foreign exchange from other sources.
Nigeria started exporting textiles and cocoa. If you exported anything you must hand over the money to the central bank in dollars.
Part of the adjustment programme we adopted was that when you sold anything abroad, you must send the money in dollars to the central bank. That encouraged Nigerians to export to earn dollars; it was their money and whenever they needed it, they went to the CBN. It was like going to the CBN and taking back what you had given. It encouraged exportation by Nigerians to earn money in foreign currencies that would be useful for their businesses. It was a measure to ensure we manage our way out of the corner we were. That encouraged a lot of Nigerians to operate what is called a domiciliary account, and in no time Nigerians were earning billions of dollars. It was working even before I came in.
I was not in government yet when SAP was introduced. But because when I came in, I was the spokesperson explaining what it meant, people thought I was part of its introduction, or that I even introduced it.
No. But I agreed with the major provisions that were designed to help Nigerians. SAP was designed by an economic advisory council headed by Prof Aboyade.
Part of SAP was to scrap marketing boards. The marketing board was a government-created monopoly empowered to buy all produce from the farmers and export them. Government would then pay to the farmer whatever price it wanted. There was no competition and as a result, over the years, the price of produce went down and farmers began leaving their cocoa farms. The farmers discovered that the price the board was paying them did not even cover the price of the chemicals they were using to produce their crops.
Would the SDP adopt the SAP policy or improve on it?
No. SAP was introduced between 1986 and 1988 for just a two-year intervention at the time. We used it as a market mechanism; except there was a malfunctioning, we didn’t plan to adopt it. It was done at the time as a reform.
Today, we practise a free market economy. With the SDP, there will be a social blueprint; an economic blueprint will be made available to Nigerians. We won’t leave the people in the dark, they will be involved. They will know what institution to reform. There will be economic planning, too, and people will be free to offer their advice.
We will make adjustments where possible, but there must be serious inputs from the people because the government is about them.
Who are your likely candidates for general elections, especially presidential, next year?
No candidate for presidential yet - and for others. At this level, people want consolidation. They want to see that the party is solid first. Our doors are open. We will soon hold our convention. We will not handpick any candidate. Members will do that themselves. We will ensure it is free and fair and whoever wins will be the people’s candidate.
Would the SDP be zoning offices?
We have not introduced zoning into the SDP. Nigeria’s Constitution does not have zoning but the PDP introduced it. We recognize that it is a matter people are talking about, so our idea or what we support is a zoning arrangement that the President should be rotated between the North and the South. It must not go to the same zone if it is going to the North. It will be made fair among all the areas in the North because it will be an alternate type of rotation which will not leave the Presidency to a particular zone or state.
And if it is going to the South it will be rotated among the zones there so that everybody will have a feeling of belonging.
What is SDP’s gameplan for 2019?
We are putting structures in place, working hard at getting to the grassroots. Because we are a poor party, we don’t have money; none of us is a money bag.
We had been handicapped, but in recent times people have started supporting the party. We will be holding series of addresses where we will outline our programmes for the people.
I am making it clear here that the SDP will bring back economic development, which was abandoned 15-20 years ago. There will be a blueprint on what we will do for all Nigerians.