I will eradicate poverty, make Nigeria a global investment destination if elected President, says Mazi Ohuabunwa

Pharmacist (Mazi) Sam Ohuabunwa is the President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), President of the Association of Corporate Governance Professionals of Nigeria (ACGPN), the Convener of the New Nigeria  Group (NNG) as well as a presidential hopeful on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

 

Ohuabunwa is also a bundle of talent, multi-skilled, proven servant leader, entrepreneur, lay minister, social worker, Nation builder, writer and author.

 

In this interview with NGUMAH ISAAC, he speaks on his vision for a New New Nigeria and his blueprint to fully achieve it insisting that he has the credentials and capacity to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari if elected in 2023. Excerpts:

 

 

What is your view on the clamour for restructuring by some sections of Nigeria?

 

I think that is a reasonable request to make. I believe that those who are making it, they  mean well for the country because every system that has problem, every system that is not working as it suppose to, what  to do is to restructure it, re engineer it  to revive it. So I think that the Nigeria system as it is currently set up is not working efficiently, it is not working for all, it is working for a few people but we want to restructure a country that will work for all, work for the poor,work for the rich, work for the strong, work for the weak where everybody can feel part of, you know a real ownership, for the country to be properly organised, it is inviting the activities of the sub national and other structures. Right now,  there is too much concentration of power at the centre so I agree that there should be restructuring, I think it is inevitable.

 

 

The issue of insecurity has become worrisome, how do we address is as a nation?

 

Well insecurity in the country is worrisome and must be a matter of concern to every Nigerian and much more concerns our leader who have the primary responsibilities to secure the nation. So when they are not able to live up to their task, what can we do? Complain and ask that they wake up because the primary reason why we have government is to secure lives and property and when a government cannot do that adequately then that government becomes a suspect, so it is incumbent on our government at the state and federal. The state governors can say that they are called the chief security officers, that is what the constitution call them so  they need to work with the federal government to secure our nation and securing this nation requires three things: first, we should create job for the unemployed, it’s one thing that must be done .Secondly, expand economic space so that investment can flow into the country to create business, to create jobs and to create wealth and to ensure that all forms of injustice, inequity, unfairness are removed. Many people,  many parts of the country feel marginalised, feel not properly integrated into the country and managements so it behoves the government to try and remove all forms of injustice whether they are real or perceived so that everybody can bring up their mind to support government not only to move our economy forward but to make sure that we get a higher level of security.

 

How would react to the trial of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho in Benin Republic?

 

Well for me,government has laws and government has rules and if anybody offends the law of the country he  is subjected to justice and it must be fair justice until you are proven guilty you are regarded as innocent. Our judicial system says that you are innocent until you are proven guilty, both gentlemen should not be treated like they were criminals fellows or people who are criminals, they are suspected to have committed one crime or the other in the state, and the state have to prove them beyond reasonable doubt. But haven said that, for me there will be more Nnamdi Kanu so there will be more Igboho if we did not change these perceptions of injustice, iniquity and fair play. As  long as there are injustice in the system people will rebel, people will raise their voices and not everybody will follow the same pattern. Some  of us are just using dialogue, others may have other method which may be offensive to the people in power or offensive to the rule of law. I will not support violent or takeover of violence, I believe that it is important that the government of this country and our leader’s look for ways to persuade people who feel unhappy with this nation, they need to find a way to persuade them otherwise, you can imprison all the Igbohos in this world, all the Kanus, it will not stop agitations because of the fundamental errors, until you deal with that fundamental errors if you treat symptoms, the symptoms go and come back.

 

What is your view on the ban on open grazing in parts of the country?

 

I believe it is a logical thing to do because we have found a situation where open grazing of cattle is causing too much pain on Nigerians. Today because of open grazing you see the way people talk about Fulani herders,  there is a great risk that Fulani herders, an ethnic nationality is been subjected to, many of them who are not herder’s and even when they are herder’s they are not criminal herders, criminal herders are using the opportunity of open grazing, they come from Chad, Mali to cause mayhem on behalf of cattle herders. I think it is right to stop the open grazing to save the malign, the current castigations of the entire Fulani ethnic nationality as if that they were all herders killers men. Two, we also found out that it is causing pains because there is a conflict going on between farmers and herders. I have watched it happened that cattle walk into farm and eats up the crops, the cattle does not know who is the owner of the crops farm, he doesn’t care. I have seen it happened with my own eyes while driving along the wheel track I have seen it  in Bauchi, in Jos, in several parts of the country so I think it is also terrible for cattle to be roaming up and down and destroying farm. Thirdly, we also believe it is outmoded all over the world, those who do cattle business no longer do open grazing, they create ranches which is a more better orderly way to raise cattle. Fourthly, if you do ranches you can produce better beef, better milk and also create quality of life for our cattle rearers the kind of life roaming inside bushes inside forest, they are Nigerian, they are entitled to something better. If it is the way their grand father did it, every body great father walked around without car when there was no car but there is car now, we cannot continue walking around because our great father was walking around on foot even without wearing shoes. The world is changing and it is only right every body changes so I think it makes sense without any politics or any ethnic or religious colouration, we should change our styles of grazing, raising cattle, we should do ranches not open grazing, we have seen that the criminal herders are killing people all over the place with their AK47 rifles and giving bad name to cattle herders. So to avoid all this, let’s put cattle in a place where it can be regulated, we see the herders we see their cattle and we can make sure that they are not been infiltrated by violent extremists herders.

 

Do you support electronic voting?

 

Again, this is something that I am surprised that anybody will raise a voice against. Anyone who wants peace for this country, anybody who means well for our nation, anybody who is dissatisfied with several years of cry that elections are rigged, they are manipulated and that the voice of the people, the will of the people is not what is happening, anybody who is in that group will support anything that will remove opportunity for manipulating election result, of opportunity for changing result and we know that electronic transmission will ensure that votesare counted at the polling boot and transmitted directly so I cannot understand why that should not receive every support. The argument that every where you do not have networks or data coverage is lame because people who are making it are transferring money to their villages and hamlets from Abuja and the money get there and if the money can get there, I do not see how we cannot transmits data from there. Secondly, through the provisions each time you have a system always make an allowance or an  alternative so if this fails, the other one works even the way it is currently done now. When you go to do electronic voting which is using a smart card, if the smart card does not work for you, you are not disenfranchised, you are given an incident form or complain form or whatever name they call it for you to fill and we have legitimate INEC official who sees that you are a registered except that the system did not work. They give you an opportunity to vote and then they report that it is an exception so we can always report any failure of transmission at any polling boot as an exception. If have 774 local government areas and the results come from 750 that there was no issue and only maybe 24 have issues, that will be insignificant to change the result so that is my position. That anybody who wants the progress of this country, who does not like to see it regarded as a backward on uncivilized nation, where there is impunity, where there is the voice of the people, where the will of the people is subverted by a few greedy politicians to support the e- transmission of results. It is good for every body if you succeeded, you succeed, that is the way God fearing people do, we need to become God fearing and God’s loving.

 

What is your view on Media Regulations Bills?

 

I want to tell you that we need some regulations for every aspects of our life because without regulations, human beings have tendency to abuse every system. However, I believe that media already have regulations, we have Nigeria Broadcasting Commission, NBC, you have the codes, you have Nigerian Union of Journalists, you have all rules, right now existing. There are journalist codes and those who have personal provisions so that is what we need to do and strengthen those regulations but to go and start setting up new ones, trying to tie up the hands of the press or to suppress the voice of the people or public opinion or public speech or freedom of speech it is completely outside democratic norms and it is when you have something to hide that is when you start to gag the press. No matter what people accuses you of, the question is: that do they prove it, so it is not what somebody write that is important, it is not as important as proving it. If somebody say something in the media, you take him or her to court, let him prove that what he wrote was right, we have the laws of the country right now where you can sue people who says wrong things about you or who defame you,who malign you so I don’t know why the need for the new laws. The time they are wasting should be spent on doing other things and to improve on investment climate so that both local and international investors come into our country and do business that will generate jobs and take away joblessness and improve the economy, wasting valuable time on such things as new laws to suppress the press cannot help the economy.

 

 

What is your take on calls for constitutional amendment and a new constitution?

 

Which ever, one would have wish for a new constitution because that is the one we want to own,  our constitution.

The current one is not owned by Nigerians, I wish for a new constitution but in the absence of the new constitution let us have a holistic amendment of the current one as the first step, eventually the constitution will be changed, let it be meaning full amendment and not cosmetic.

 

 

What is your stand on the clamour that the South East zone should produce the next president of Nigeria in 2023 ?

 

Well  I support that demand on the basis of equity,  fairness and fair play. In the history of our politics, we have rotated powers from one region to another and today only the Southeast that have not had the opportunity to produce Nigerian president of Southeast extraction and so when people ask that as a request of equity and fairness  they are right and I support them and I also believe that well meaning Nigerian’s who love Nigeria, who want peace are already getting support from the North, from the Southeast and the West so I think the whole country should give the Southeast an opportunity to produce a good president for Nigeria. When they do that not only will they help to make our country workable, productive and prosperous, it will help to remove all forms of feelings of marginalisation, all feeling of discriminations that people from the Southeast have carried from since the war ended. I think that one single act will remove that feelings and unite the country, I think it is justified. Secondly, some people oppose rotation and I think those who oppose rotation are being clever by half. If you say there is no rotation after President Muhammadu Buhari, another person can come from Katsina. if he includes Katsina, I believe rotation is also provided in the constitution, the constitution talks about the federal character principle. The federal character principle applies to different segments of government and public service,  president is usually occupied by one person and he represents a zone or a region. If he finishes he needs to put somebody else there the federal character applied, without that, the federal character principle cannot apply in the office of the president, it is a single office.

 

What is your view on Buhari’s leadership style?

 

Everybody has their style of leadership, what is important is the ability to produce result’s, styles may differ but results is what we measure. So every leadership style is accessed by the results it produces and so our president, you can see the results he is producing so you will be able to assess whether his style is good enough, something he could do better but that is the way to measure leadership. Style is not as important as the results it produces that is what is important.

 

Many people are saying that the country is at crossroads and may collapse. Do you think so?

 

I believe the country is facing existential challenges based on the level of insecurity we have, which is going round the whole country. I was reading of kidnapping, snatching in  Bayelsa state, they kidnapped somebody, the mother of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG so insecurity is not restricted to the Northcentral or Southeast, but is all over the country and it is because we have not been effective in managing our security. So people are being encouraged to continue the fight against the nation or the people. This country is in a  straight jacket  almost moving to the precipice and needs to be brought back, It is still redeemable and I am one of those who want to see what we can do to prevent  our country from collapsing or breaking apart violently, we must redeem the country.

 

Should kidnappers, bandits and terrorists be granted amnesty by the federal government?

 

Well I don’t think that should be, they should serve their sentence maybe after they have served their  sentence and then they show remorse and they have been properly corrected and they stay in the correctional centres then you can consider a reprieve. Not when you just take criminals and you forgive them, it is not setting good examples, criminals should face judgement when they have received their judgement,  you can show some mercy in terms of the length of the punishments. If those people should show remorse and you can see they have really repented from what they have done. Outrightly granting people amnesty, when they have committed crimes against the state for me doesn’t encourage the ability for you to set good examples.

 

 

How would you assess the State of the nation?

 

State of the nation is precarious,  our economy is not doing well even we have some slight improvement from the recession but the recovery is very slow and then that is not good enough poverty is increasing today. Nigeria has the highest poverty rate and the number of poor people in the world, jobless, number of unemployed people is so high up to 32.5 percent of the youth population,  our inflation is high, foreign exchange value is almost getting to zero. Nigeria Naira is loosing its value everyday and there is insecurity in the land, the state is down, fortunately those who lead us don’t go to our market their children don’t go to our schools, they don’t drive on the roads we drive so they don’t feel what we feel that is why there is a disconnection between any of our leaders and the people governed in their world, we live in our own world. We need people who understand the problem of the country to come and fix it and I belief I understand the problem of the country.

 

So what qualities do you think the next president of Nigeria should possess inn2023?

 

Nigerians should allow the best candidate to emerge, if the zoning opportunity is granted Nigerians should allow the best to emerge and in getting the best to emerge we must be sure that we have people who have shown pedigree of hard work, people who have shown competence in what they have done in previous activities,  years of influence in their vocations in their professions, show what they have accomplished,  they must be people who are visionary who can think of tomorrow and fashion out a future. Thirdly they must be people who have good character because without good character their competence should be ruined so we need to work at their integrity. Are they men of honour?  What kind of character do they have?  Are they servant leaders? Are they autocrats or are they democrats you know? We look at the issue of courage, do they have courage to do the right thing or when they see the right thing to be done they are afraid? So we need detribalized leaders, enlightened self leadership,  any leader that will come on in 2023 must know how to grow wealth, project the economy, get everybody working,  must know how to heal the nation,  how to bring relationship among the different segment of the country. I am proposing a liquor on you who will take on our government from the third world to the first world and a Mandela who will unite the different segments of the country that is what I expect that should happen in 2023 and  Nigeria  should be looking out for the kind of character.

 

Can you give us details about your presidential ambition?

 

Okay, I believe given  the situation of our country and the fact that we have failed to realise our growth objectives,  the fact we have failed to realise the dream of our founding father and many of us  who have played all kinds of supportive roles have found that we haven’t been able to make the  progress instead we are retrogressing . So I am motivated to offer myself to serve the country in the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and my ambition is to start a new Nigeria because the old Nigeria doesn’t seem to be working for everybody. It is working for a few people but for most it is not working so we are starting a new Nigeria that will be a third world nation , that will move away from this chronic position at a third world or developing world but to effective and developed world, that is our primary mission.

Our secondary vision is to build a country that works for every Nigerian, everyone should feel ownership and feel welcome and feel comfortable with living in Nigeria that is the thing. Eliminate poverty, eliminate injustice and heal the nation that is where we are going so to restore our country for its manifest destiny,  cause a change, a paradigm shift, instead of unhappiness, bitterness we found in the country, we need to turn our country around and heal the nation. So when I look at the horizon, I am not able to see much proper motivation of our country to create enabling environment for investments to grow so that every Nigerian will have a means of livelihood  so, that is our motivation. So we want to be sure that we create an investment climate that attract investment and then we ramp up our productivity to ensure that most Nigerians are busy working either for themselves or working for organisations and those organisations are also growing, that is our motivations. And doing that we want to heal the country, bring the south and the east and the north and the west together and make every Nigerian feel ownership. We will take away all forms of discriminations,  injustice against any single person, we are interested in growing a country where the lives of the citizens matter, leaders feel responsible to be able to explain to justify why a single Nigerian should die in harms way without natural death. Any death that will come violently must be explained to the people of the country and all Nigerians must be satisfied that their lives and property are being protected by the government, this is our reason for coming and also we believe that we need to reorientate our country to change the value system. Currently our country has earned so much in a global environment, we are seen as a country who are not serious, the country of dubious, fraudulent people, a country of 419, yahoo- yahoo, a country of endemic corruption and a country that is a joker we want to transform Nigeria to move away from those negatives vices to a knowledge seeking country, a country of justice,  a country of where we will produce what we eat and we will export a lot of food into the international forum, we want to be a country where there is integrity. Nigerians must earn that respect as trust worthy citizens of the country, people should not see us and begin to wait for us to proof that we are not 419 people or fraudsters. You  know, we want to make our country a country where citizens that are patriotic and that patriotism arises from having a country that cares from birth to death. We want to take care of citizens from cradle to grave, the country  must be caring for each citizen so that  citizen in return will demonstrate zeal to protect the nation. Where no one will be maltreated and justice is available to us, we will create a country where there is freedom, not only freedom of the press,  freedom of expression, freedom to travel , to live wherever you want to live, you go to the United States, United Kingdom and you come to Nigeria. Nigerians are indigenes and non-indigenes so all those kind of thing we will like to change all those kind of situations. I believe we have a country going somewhere, we want to have a godly nation, a nation where righteous reign in government, where the people truly fear God and show love to each other and obey the rules of the nation without question. That is a godly nation of discipline, these are some of the things we are thinking and these are the motivations that I am voluntarily making myself to serve the nation. So all the plans and all the documents we put together,  the Vision  2010, Vision  2020, political reform conference and all that we will put into play because these are the strategic documents that Nigeria need to be able to compete and take its manifest destiny of the nation, that is our political ambition and we have a New Nigeria Group  which is the political movement we are using now, it is a group that is enlarging, some people, establish our presence in 36 states, before the end of  August this year, we will be all over the country, selling the vision of a New Nigeria, it  is coming to give hope to some people who have given up hope and that have given up about the nation so we are preaching the message of  a New Nation, a nation of   prosperity, of contended citizen, citizens that are globally respected, and citizens that are at home and hopefully we will use the platform of the New Nigeria and all the people that are running around us to become a third force to properly align with another major political party that is what we are working now.

 

How do you hope fix the economy and address our security challenges?

 

First is security ,and the economy. Economy is going to be fixed  by one simple method and that simple method is what I have spoken to you earlier in the interview. Every economy growth comes from investments, the amount of investments that goes into the nation so we have domestic investments that is generated into the nation, so we have domestic investments or what you call local investments and we have foreign investments. It is this investment that I will use to create jobs that I use to create companies,  businesses  to set up projects,  to create economic activities,  without money economic activities cannot be created. So our primary objective is to transform Nigeria into a welcoming and investment nation, when you arrive at our airport, you see Nigerians, you have a feeling that our  country is welcoming you as an investor. When you are a foreign national trying to do business in Nigeria,  the country will reach you and welcome you and support you. Instead of trying to kill you and destroy you. Since I have done business I have not seen where anybody comes  walks into my office and say Mazi SamI am from government, I am here to grow your business,  plan  your business, get this new business working, nobody. All they come to do is put pressure on you, bring one bill,  bring you one threat from left, centre and fight and we say that we are a country that wants to grow. When we become federal government of Nigeria by the grace of God, we will turn Nigeria into an investment destination where local investors Local investors will be happy to invest in Nigeria, diaspora in the UK, in the US, in China and India will come home and put their money to work because they will be welcome from the airport, their security will be guaranteed and the return on their investment will be also be guaranteed and that is our primary goal to bring investment. Nigeria’s  insecurity is caused by several factors. First is insufficient security personnel. We will increase the number of personnel but not just the number, in terms of training, they will be properly trained so that they are not demoralized, they are not collecting bribes and  then join criminal gangs. Instead of protecting the nation, they are protecting criminals. So just training and empowerment, equipment and motivation, we will also attract support from other countries.

 

 

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