Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
USAfrica: “I’ve character, competence and vision to serve as Nigeria’s President”, says Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa
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This is USAfricaLIVE, USAfrica magazine, USAfricaonline.com, IgboWorld and AroAmerica platforms. I’m Chido Nwangwu, and I have the privilege of a live interview with Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa, a Presidential aspirant (for the ticket) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria. What brought you to Kaduna; enroute to Zaria (on April 6, 2022)?
Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa: I’m on my consultation. When I started the New Nigerian Group in 2020, I did 36 States tour (of Nigeria) to ensure I established a new Nigerian chapter in the 36 States of Nigeria. When last November 2021, I announced that I will run for the Presidency (of Nigeria) on the platform of the PDP, I began to consult all the PDP States and the Leaders in those States.
I am in Kaduna today as the 30th State am visiting to meet with the PDP Leaders, the State Chairman, State exco, Local Government Chairmen and other key stakeholders in the State. That’s what I have come to do in Kaduna. I have just completed that. I have six States to go and do another 36 States to complete the second round.
I came to Kaduna by road, I have been to Kano and I came by road from Kano to Kaduna since there’s no flight to Kaduna today because of insecurity problem around Kaduna. There’s no flight, the train is not running, I was determined to come because I have been in most of the States traveling by road… that enables me to know exactly what the issues are, the nature of the roads and feel what the people’s feelings are! I touch base with them. As am leaving Kaduna we are heading to Zaria to have a meeting with Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum. This will be my second visit to his home for us to look at the Nigerian situation and appraise… my pursuit of the office of the President of Nigeria.
Chido/USAfrica: I commend your vigorous dedication and efforts. In terms of the qualities of President of Nigeria, you said the person must be enlightened and must be a visionary, competent, must be of good character, be a man of integrity and above all, has to be courageous.
Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa: You got it.
Chido/USAfrica: Why are those characteristics important?
Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa: They are important because I have taken time to study Nigerian conundrum. I found that the real reason Nigeria is where it is, is that we have not had a leadership (with) those consistency; those virtues… in consistent manner. If you put all our Presidents from the beginning of Nigeria till now, you will see that some may have character but they don’t have courage, some may have competence but they don’t have character, some may have character but no competence. (Some) have no courage to do the right thing. To change Nigeria requires competence, that you can start a thing, finish it and show result — not telling stories. That’s what made me to become the CEO of Pfizer West Africa — starting at the level (of) a Sales Representative. Within 15years, I climbed the ladder from the bottom to the top.
I believe that is the clear manifestation of competence in addition to what God has enabled me to do.
I have character. You can’t become CEO of a multinational company like Pfizer without having character, honesty and integrity.
That’s why when we hire (only for) competence, we have leaders who have no character; they tell you something today and they deny it tomorrow. They have no feeling, they have no empathy, they don’t understand peoples’ suffering. They don’t understand what is happening to all the people. So their character is suspect and therefore they don’t attract appropriate followership,
Thirdly, we need people who have courage. To change Nigeria’s situation involves courage. You may have to step on people’s toes. Sometimes, you may have to work against the current but if you know that’s what is going to lead you there and you have no worry about your personal ego or self interest or even your physical safety, these are what a Leader that wants to change the Nigerian story (need to have).
If you are worried about whether you will receive the next applause or whether you will be physically assaulted, you can’t change the Nigerian situation by playing to the gallery and hoping to do what will make people clap for you! I don’t think that will change Nigeria’s situation.
That is why I put, of course, vision. We are lacking vision; we perish because my Bible said without vision my people perish. Our leaders don’t know where they are going not to talk of where they are taking us to. We are doing trial by error, try this try that, ban this and unban this; all kinds of pedantic economic management principle that have left us, making us to become stagnated, economically, socially and today we are the laughing stock of the world. Countries that we were in the same level in the 1970s and 1980s have emerged, many of them are industrialized, some are World Nation, we are still awkward in development, underdevelopment in every line and enlightenment is critical. We live in a global environment….
I want to build Nigeria that is competitive first World Nation and the only way to start it is you to have a global perspective and enlightenment in order to understand what is going on…. what I meant by enlightenment I feel conscious of the fact that nobody is going to make way for you until you strive; nobody is going to let you pass …. You must show that you are going somewhere so that people will make way for you.
Chido/USAfrica: You promised you are going to make Nigeria an investment heaven, what are the business elements you need to bring to make that possible, Sir?
Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa: First, is to make Nigeria habitable.
(Second is) to make Nigeria visitable. (Third is) you need to have regime of entrenchment of enforcement of law and order.
Where you have safety of life and properties, if you don’t establish that nobody is going to invest.
You must ensure that you have what I call policy stability not policy regime that is fluctuating. Businesses and investors do not like surprises! So we’re going to have policies stability, to have policy stability any policy we want to enact must be well debated, the length, breadth and dept of the stood, prose and cone, those the policies will be affected also understand what the policy and sacrifices are, policies that will require us at the long time and short time benefit making those sacrifices, so we gonna have stable policies not when you start something then people will react you will go back to such hardcore, half bread, policy that have docked Nigerians economic land space.
We’re going to ensure that we provide some incentives that will make the return (on investments) higher than the one they will receive elsewhere. That will also ensure that there is free entry and free exit, you bring your money do your business so you can take your money out and not you come here and people will change the policies. Of course, to ensure we are people that respect convenants, when we give contracts we make sure we keep our convenant. And we will have a judicial system that will protect investors.
Those are some of the things we’re going to do to attract investors. But the area of investment focus for us will be primarily in Agriculture, commercial Agriculture, Agricultural processing because that’s Nigeria’s low hanging fruits. Every state in Nigeria has potentials. As I am in the North driving between Kaduna and Zaria you can see large expanses of land; on the right side of my car and left side of the road you see arable land. If you drive between Kaduna and Jos, you see the same, you go between Bauchi and Gombe you see the same, you go between Taraba and Adamawa, (it’s) the same; not to talk about the South’s large expanses of land.
Arguably, you can convert from peasant farming to commercial agriculture, integrating the natives into farming co-operatives so that government can intermediate to provide the machinery, the equipment, the input to do the commercial agriculture. (This will enable the farmers) to become stakeholders in a co-operative farming arrangement.
Second, is solid minerals. Nigeria is blessed and our solid minerals are the least exploited today. They are being exploited by artisanal miners that are supported by predatory Chinese (businessmen), and all kinds of people looking for Nigerian minerals; moving around from Zamfara to Ebonyi State using hoes and shovel to dig as in the name of mining and in the process they destroy the country and they create environmental hazard. Yet, the productivity is so low, the return doesn’t exist and in the process it also grows thugs, lots of thugs and group of gangs who protect those who mine. We will change all that through investors who have mining technology and bring in the Federal, State, Local Government and the community stakeholders in the mining operation. So that everyone can get a piece of the cake but we will all agree on how to bake the cake on a co-operative manner.
The third area of my investment will be on information technology businesses. Nigerians have shown, among the youths that we are creative, innovative, but there’s no support. (They need support) so that we will have Bill Gates of Nigeria and such kinds of people who can create what we are going to use.
Lastly, we going to exploit the oil and gas God has given us. We’re not going to spend time speaking about petroleum, pms or diesel. We will have modular refineries which we will again use the same format structure we use in mining or agriculture. Government will be in partnership with the communities and people that bring the technology and Investment so that everybody can be protected, the investor is protected, communities are protected, government does not lose its revenue. So we are going to do a lot in oil and gas, the top line is refinery, the second line is the petrochemical derivatives from oil and gas.
It will yield us more money than even crude petroleum. But nobody is talking about that except some of the things you see, some bright businessmen like Aliko Dangote…. So we’re going to create many more Aliko Dangotes, many more Tony Elumelus, many more Jim Ovias and more Ahmadu Rabius. That is what we need to do, but we are not going to leave them; we are to link them up with small and medium scale industries that would be secondary and tertiary suppliers of input and also distributors of output, so we can have an industrial complex linking agriculture, linking mining, linking other sub-sectors of the economy that are using IT as central enabler….
Chido/USAfrica: I thank you, profoundly. Evidently, it’s obvious that you have given a lot of thought to the issues regarding Nigeria; just one more minute before we wrap up, what is your vision, what are your hopes for Nigeria in 2023?
Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa: Principally, my hope is that we will have a free and fair election, that will be guided by the new electoral law and the political parties will play by the rule and allow the emergence of the best from their political parties… that in 2023, we will see the new Nigeria we have been speaking about, the nation that is globally competitive. A nation that will work for all, for all Nigerians. A country that they will see as their own. A country that will promote scholarship, that will become a prosperous nation. A nation of justice, equity and fair play. A nation where corruption will be minimized, not by drama or by decree but different incentive that will ensure that people are sensitised and will do the right thing, the ones who will do the wrong thing are discouraged. And, we also have a country where everybody that belongs to this nation will be secured and the innocent will be set free! Thank you, Dr. Chido.
Chido/USAfrica: Thank you very much. I have been speaking with Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa, the founder of the New Nigeria Group, who plans to move the system, the possibilities and potentialities of Nigeria to the next level.
I thank you for speaking with USAfricaLive from Nigeria and safe trip, Sir.
Dr. Sam Ohuabunwa: Thank you and God bless you.
*USAfrica Notes: Dr. Sam Iheanyichukwu Ohuabunwa, OFR, is one of Nigeria’s public policy leaders who has served as Chairman of the influential Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Ikeja, and led several organizations. He was President of the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce, and of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria. He is the founder and former CEO of Neimeth Pharmaceutical. He studied Pharmacy at the University of Ife, graduating in 1976 and attended postgraduate courses in Business and Organizational Management at the Columbia University in New York, and the Lagos Business School.
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