By Sunny Anderson Osiebe
Let’s meet you sir.
Ambassador Chief Gabriel ChukwumaOyibode
is my name and from Delta State. I am an estate surveyor,philanthropist,
businessman, and a politician.
As a stakeholder, what’s your take on the state of the
nation?
Well, for me the administration of
the All Progressives Congress government is not doing very well in terms of
economic policies. The policies so far have been so inconsistent and people are
yet to begin to feel the dividends of democracy especially when it has to do
with the promises which the APC government or as a party promised the Nigerian
people during campaigns. I will score them below 40% so far in terms of
economic policy. You see today, the recession, the economic downturn has eaten
so hard on the common man that it has become very, very difficult for
businesses to thrive and for the common man to earn a living.Its not been easy.
Even people in the villages or rural areas feel the pain and it is
worrisome.
If you talk about security, I could
score them well. The government is doing well in the aspect of security
challenges, fighting insurgency insurgency in the northeast or militancy in the
Niger Delta area. So far, the administration of President MuhammaduBuhari has
done creditably well in trying to stem the activities of the insurgency.
Coming to the aspect of corruption,
I will score him very high because the corruption fight that he has undertaken
so far has yielded a lot of fruits; a lot of dividends in the sense that there
is now sanityin the public administration.People now do things with the
consciousness of doing the right thing because corruption has eaten so deep
into the ways and fabrics of Nigerians. To a large extent even the low in the
society imbibe the culture of corruption and so it is in all strata and as a
result, it has given the nation a very bad image among the League of Nations.
For me today, in the civil service, people now do the job with due diligence.People
now earn their money; they go to work when they are supposed to go to work,
they carry out their responsibility the way it supposed to be done without even
being influenced.
The fight against corruption has
really yielded some positive results; people do things with fear now unlike
previous administrations that people do anything with impunity in respect of
employments, contracts and others. You give contracts to friends and cronies,
contracts to those who can influence them maybe the highest bidder and all
that. But now, due process is being fully observed in procurement procedures.
That is a very big plus to the government because governance must start from
somewhere and in this area I think as people begin to live with that
consciousness of doing the right thing maybe overtime, we would get back to our
lost glory; and possibly if it continues in this form and good economic policy
is put in place, it will also help to revive the economic situation of the
country and get it out ofthe present economic recession that we find
ourselves.
On the aspect of recession, the
foreign policy today is not very palatable; not easy for the private sector to
cope because a situation where you allow private sector, private business
owners, small business owners who want to involve in international trade or
business and they do not have the capacity, the wherewithal to access foreign
exchange, then it becomes very difficult. So, it is discouraging and in other
words reducing the GDP of the country and has also resulted in gross
unemployment situation. Where your business cannot thrive, you won't be able to
meet up with the payment of salaries and when you cannot pay your staff, you
lay them off and that is what has happened to a lot of businesses both the
multinationals, the manufacturing sector, the agricultural sector, educational
sector,all the sectors are affected. I think that government must seriously
look into the forex policy and liberalise it.
You contested for governorship in Delta State in 2015, please
share the challenges you encountered?
I contested for the office of the
governor of Delta state in 2015 under the platform of the PDP. It was very
interesting. Although I have never been involved in politics and that was my
first shot. I went into it because I felt I need to give my people good
governance, I need to rescue Delta State from decay and poverty and provide
quality education to the common man. That was why I went into it.Unfortunately I
went under a political party that is so engrossed with this godfatherism syndrome and political
juggernaut that go into politics with the aim of making money. A lot of people
see politics as business, an avenue to cajole people, tell all forms of lies to
get money and at the end of day they show you the other side of them.
It was an interesting venture anyway
but unfortunately the other side is not interesting because where you deal with
people thinking you are dealing with right minded people, people who share the
same view and the same ideology with you and you never knew that most of them
are sycophants, political stooges planted into your camp to run you down and destabilize
you. That was one of the experiencesI had at the end of the day. It played out
at primaries, where I got to know there are lots of fake people in politics;
traitors, sycophants, liars, all these I got to know and these are the
challenges. I just hope that Nigerian people and the political class will have
a new frame of mind where they see politics as not just a game where the winner
takes all but as a process to give good governance to the people and that is
one of the greatest challenges.
Another challenge I had as a green
horn in the political class was that I never had a godfather and I never had a
sponsor. So, those were very serious challenges that I encountered because I
came out from nowhere. It was very difficult for people to believe my agenda,
my purpose, and my determination for the people. Though I was well accepted because
the people, populace, the electorates were interested, seeing a young and
vibrant man like me coming out on stage but unfortunately I was never given the
opportunity to go for the general elections. Probably, I would have been able
to scale through because my people, the people of Delta State especially the
youths and the women wanted me and gave me their full support; but because of
the political platform which I identified myselfwith, it became very
challenging because of the issue of godfatherism and as a green horn, it was
very difficult for me to convince them and for them to believe in me, to accept
me as their candidate. So, that was another great challenge because if those
cabals in the party, who see themselves as the pioneers of the party or the
owners of the party don’t believe in you or you are not 100 percent loyal to
them, there's no way they can give you responsibility. They give
responsibilities to those they can control so as to be dictating the tune for
them which I was never a party to. That was also a big challenge for me in the
course of the electioneering processes and campaign journey.
Do you believe in godfatherism in politics?
There's godfatherism in politics. To
me I do not believe in godfatherism but mentorship. I believe in mentorship not
godfatherism where you handpick your most loyal person whom you think you can
control when in power. You install the person or impose the person as against
the popular interest of the people. So, for that, I don't believe in
godfatherism;I don't like it and I will never like it but it is good to be
loyal to authorities.It is good to submit to authorities, it is good to have
mentorship but not godfatherism.
How do you think that godfatherism can be eradicated out of Nigerian
politics?
Godfatherism can never be eradicated
from Nigerian politics or from politics. What I’m saying is that godfatherism
with integrity is OK but not godfatherism with favoritism. In the political
class you cannot push away the elders of the party, the founders of politics or
the political movement. You need their political and fatherly advice and
experience to move the political party but they should lead right, they should
lead with integrity, there should be sanity in the system. Am not against
godfatherism but there should be a total reorientation of the system or of the
mindset of the people, have the interest of the people you want to give
leadership to in mind. That is my take.
Tell us about the Gabriel Oyibodefoundation?
Gabriel Oyegbode foundation is a
non-profit organisation. The truth is that I have been aphilanthropist for a
very long time; it is something I like doing as somebody who grew from grass to
grace, as a homeboy I know what it means for somebody to be in want, I know
what it means for somebody to be in plenty. I know how I grew up and I know the
challenges that I faced when I was growing up. So, being a virtue which God has
given me I do not withhold from the common man and that gave birth to Gabriel
Oyibode foundation to enable me reach out to the less privileged; to those who
are in need. That is why Gabriel Oyibode foundation was born.
What inspires you as a philanthropist?
Like I said earlier it is inborn, I
didn't cultivate it, I like sharing and giving. It is inborn, it is a given
virtue. Giving is a very difficult virtue in society today. It is very
difficult for people to give without expecting anything in return, so it's a
virtue God himself gave me. Even when I had nothing I shared the little I had,
and as God continued to bless me, I saw the need of also blessing others. In
fact, it is a covenant blessing and it has always been my prayer to God to
sustain it, to bless me so that I can bless others in my own generation and in
my own time.
You are the chairman of Geotag Oil and Gas, what are the
challenges facing the oil and gas sector?
When we started we talked about
instability in our foreign exchange policy. So that is the major challenge
apart from the dwindling international oil price. For now in Nigeria, with these
two factors, the instability in the oil price and the poor forex situation in
the country, it has made it very difficult to continue in business. Today a lot
of oil giants are folding up in Nigeria because of this challenge we are
talking about. I am not at the helm of affairs of government, I am not the CBN
governor or the Minister of finance, Minister of budget and economic planning
but I expect to encourage employment and to increase our GDP in Nigeria. A better
response should be put in place to encourage every sector not just only the oil
and gas because this policy is affecting every sector. We hope that the
government should look more into that and see what they can do to liberalize
the foreign exchange policy so as to encourage businesses, private sector and even
more investors to come in.
You are a conflict resolution specialist and also a stakeholder
in Nigeria and the Niger Delta region, how do you think the FG can bring relative
peace to the Niger Delta?
In every conflict situation there is
a remote cause of conflict. So, it is very important for government to unravel
the remotest cause of this conflict. If you are able to know the cause of every
problem then you should be able to know the way around it to solve it. Find out
what the agitation is all about then asa good leader you listen to people to
find a solution. When you are able to solve the remotest cause of a conflict
and a crisis situation then you would also be able to know what they want, what
can I do for them to assuage their grievances? This is the right way to go. A
conflict situation is a situation where there is uprising, and uprising cannot
just occur. Aggrieved parties can come up with any form of demand then the
issue is what the demand? Why the demand?And if you are able to find answers to
this then you are on the pathway to solution.
As a conflict resolution specialist,
I will have thought that the President himself or through his delegated
authorities get these young men not only the leaders, even the women to
the roundtable talk, hear their grievances, when you hear them go back and
discuss it administratively and constitutionally. Again, if their demands haveprovisions
in the constitution then implementit. For instance if their demands are 10 and
you promise that out of these 10 because of the present economic situation or
because of circumstances beyond the control of this present administration, you
will be able to do 1 to 3 and in the course of doing 1-3 we would like you to
lay down your arms, stop destroying the environment, stop destroying national
assets, stop destroying the common wealth of the nation. Let us start with
this; I think the people will listen.
Nobody likes war situation and I don’t
think these young men agitating in the riverine areas of the Niger Delta region
are happy in the situation they find themselves and it is like no retreat no
surrender, it’s a do or die affair;“if I die I die, if I succeed I succeed”. They
are fighting for their people not just themselves alone even though they risk
their lives. Many of them die in the process; I don’t think they bargained for
it.It’s just the situation they found themselves. If the government wants a
lasting peace in the Niger Delta region, let them get talking with these young
men. Let them come out with few representatives, they should not be harassed,
they should not be intimidated, it shouldn’t be force for force, that would not
give us result. Force for force will end up in total destruction; you destroy
the economic resources, the national facilities,infrastructure in the Niger
Delta and in Nigeria as a whole because by the time they keep engaging in gun
battles, drilling operations will be disrupted. I don’t think any investor
would be comfortable with that.
Kudos to the administration on the
war against indiscipline, war against corruption, war against insurgency and
the right thing is everything must be put in place and that is when peace will
return to the region. It goes beyond amnesty, promising them amnesty, giving
them stipends makes them lazy. There's an adage that says “teach me how to fish
not giving me fish every day”. I know the government is trying but they still
need to do more much as the economic base, wealth of the nation comes from that
region and much have been taken away from that region and the people expect so
much in return. Until that is done, there’s no going to be sustainable
development in that region.
Assess the performance of the Delta State government so far?
I will score the Delta state government
below average so far because I know I have been privileged to visit Delta State
like two or three times and I have not seen much changes in terms of
developments.
Any plans for 2019?
Well, it is a God given mandate and
I will always go all the way to actualise the mandate but I have not made up my
mind yet whether it is in 2019 or 2023. I’m still watching the political
system, watching the political platforms. Honestly the Nigerian people have
lost confidence in all the political parties in Nigeria today because of the
gladiators and the kind of people flaunting it.
You are a card carrying member of PDP, as a conflict
resolution specialist proffer solution to the PDP crisis?
I was a card carrying member of PDP;I
was disappointed and decided to drop the card. I’m no longer a card carrying
member of PDP. It is because of the inconsistency in the system. I cannot speak
for them at the moment. If I’m consulted as a peace resolution specialist then
I can speak.
Do you think youths are leaving up to expectations in
Nigeria?
What do you want the youths to do?When,
they are not being encouraged. They need encouragement, they need motivation,
they need empowerment and anything short of these becomes very difficult and
that is why the youths take to the streets and take to every form of criminal
activities in other to survive because they are frustrated. You go to school as
a school leaver maybe from a very poor background and your parents don't have
the financial support to continue. You have to earn a living and how do you do
that? No motivation. Your parents are looking up to you but no job and you have
graduated more than 7 years ago. When the youths are not meaningfully engaged
in the society and in governance, you leave them with no option but to take to
the streets and they practice all manner of criminality because they are
frustrated. They could go into robbery, they could go into stealing, militancy
and insurgency and that is exactly what is happening in Nigeria today because
they are not meaningfully engaged, the government needs to give them more
incentives. The present administration is doing its best but they need to do
more. What they have done so far compared to the number of graduates turned out
every day, year in, year out, is not enough. You roll out one million graduates
and you encourage 200 out of them what happensto bethe rest of them? Government needs to take
proper statistics of the graduate youths they roll out every year and make a
proper plan on how to get them engaged; if it's in manufacturing, agriculture,
you get them engaged with the help of the private sector.
Recently, Former President OlusegunObasanjo came hard on
Buhari, National Assembly and the Judiciary. Was he right by saying that
members of the National Assembly are all thieves?
Obasanjo was once our President and
was a military head of state and an elder statesman, with so much experience.
He has a right to advice the government where he seems that the government is
not doing well. He can lend his voice to the present administration and I see
nothing wrong in that.
What area do you thinkthe legislature hasn't gotten it
right?
The legislature is doing well but
they still need to improve, one thing is to make law another thing is to see
the law being implemented. Our problem today is not all about legislature, we
have good laws even though some seems to be obsolete to meet with the needs of
the present economic reality. We have good laws in place but the problem is
implementation, how well do we implement these laws? How does it affect the
interest of the common man? Where does it place us in the League of Nations? It
is implementation and it has to do with integrity leadership, to lead with
integrity. A purposeful leadership is what we need in line with the
constitution. How much and how well has these laws being implemented? How has
it affected the common man on the street? That is where we are not doing well.
Two, funding of the National
Assembly is a whole lot of fortune. I support those who are agitating that the
legislature should be on part-time basis. I think it make a lot of sense in
other to reduce the financial burden of government because if you take the
statistics of one legislator in Nigeria, it is worrisome compared to the real
economic reality facing the nation today. It shouldn't just be business as usual;
legislators should see themselves as representatives of the people; as somebody
who wants to offer services to his people. Thejumbo pay, and flamboyancy attached
to those offices is worrisome, where one legislator that is going to serve for
just four years or eight years as the case maybe would be earning billions of
naira within the period, and the constituents, the so called people that he's
representing that he’s supposed to give qualitative and purposeful leadership
to, cannot even afford a square meal and wallowing in poverty, it is
worrisome.
In America it is not done that way,
in Britain it is not done even in some parts of Africa it is not also done.
This jumbo pay issue should be looked into so that any man going there will for
the purpose of legislation, for the interest of the people and not to enrich
themselves, and make them stronger
'economically, more popular, more stronger politically. That is not the essence
of being a legislator;a legislator is to make laws that will help the people. That
is why they are there and not to make laws to enrich justthemselves and family
members, divert money into private pocket. I want to agree with anybody or any
group of people that will take up an argument from this point of view, that
they should make their services temporal and not permanent.
What area should the Electoral Reform Committee inaugurated
by President MuhammaduBuhari focus on?
Well, I still believe that we have
laws already in place, good electoral laws. The problem is implementation, if
there's no sabotage in the system like in the Judiciary, legislature, and the
executive, everything will go well. The reform committee should look into
properly empowering all the relevant institutions to be more independent
especially INEC.
The second that is very fundamental
to me as a person, I think the multi-party system is not working. It is
creating a lot of divide because of our diversity. The two party systems have
been tested and yielded positive results in this country and I think they
should look into reviewing it.Two party system will help foster the unity of
this country. Multi-party system will never and never unite this country
because it gives room for regionalization of political parties, when it is so;
it becomes very difficult for people to reason with one voice. Two party system
will go across all political divide, all political interest, alldiversities, if
you are not here you are there and will serve the interest of Nigeria better.
The DSS raid on judges. What is your take?
The DSS did notabuse their powers; they acted within
the law to the best of my knowledge. The judges cannot be seen as thin God
because they decide the fate of people in the law court. They cannot be seen as
untouchable, they don't have such immunity. If a judge is seen or perceived to
be corrupt the right agency to investigate them is the DSS. The Judiciary has
to be checked and that is why there are checks and balances. The lawmakers make
law, the Judiciary interprets the law and the executive executes. If they are
not checked, don't you think they will make themselves a thin God? The only way
to check is for the relevant agencies to do their job which of course is what
the DSS has done, to track those perceived to be corrupt.
END.
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