ITV Debate: 14 years of Democracy in Nigeria- 1999-2013
Score card: Held on Sunday 2ed June 2013 @ itv studio Benin.Discussants H.E.
Prince Frank Onaivi Ukonga- SDP Leader Edo state, Hon. Peter Eson former
Special Adviser to Edo State Government on Foreign Affairs , and
Director of Public affairs Edo state, Hon. Greg Ogigua, moderator Ace presenter
Mr. Wilson.
Itv Mr. Wilson: Welcome to this Itv debate on scoring the
Nigerian 14 years of Democratic dispensation. As the President of Nigeria is marking his Mid term anniversary and stock
taking, President Goodluck Jonathan has called on the public to score his government
and the democratic dispensation addressed to be more interactive and committed
to adequate service delivery to the electorate.How would Hon. Peter Eson score
the 14 years democracy in Nigeria.?
Hon Peter Eson: I give the democratic dispensation of the
past 14 years a pass mark. I score the era 52%. A lot has been achieved within
the past 14 years in Nigeria in the context of quality service delivery compared
to the preceding era but much more still need to be done…
ITV Mr Wilson: And how would Hon Greg Ogigua score the
present administration at its mid term stock taking. ?
Hon Greg Ogigua; I score the achievement very low at 25%
based on the facts that most of the so called economic growth of above 6 % said
to been recorded by this administration is ambiguous. The sources of the data and
other data gathering and processing instruments in the country is abysmal and the so called
growth might be concocted as against other countries like Ghana and also in
Europe where you can boast of authentic statistical analysis of the economy and
the overall productivity and performance of the government.
ITV Mr. Wilson: His Excellency Prince Frank Ukonga, how
would you score the 14 years democratic dispensation and perhaps the mid term
scorecard of this administration.?
H.E. Prince Frank Ukonga:I score the democratic experience
of the past 14 years in Nigeria at 55% with due reasons of comparative hindsight
of preceding administrations in Nigeria. And here I am not been ambiguous but
specific on the achievements of all the 3 tiers of governments, the Presidency,
the Legislative as well as accessing other institutions and Ministries. In the
past 14 years Nigeria was able to pay
off a huge debt of over 60 billion dollars and we left the debt club,
previously Nigeria was using a sizable chunk of its GNP to service external
debts leaving a very portable sum inadequate to finance the economy but the story is different today.We have above 50
billion dollars in external reserves. Nigeria in the past 14 years also went
into consolidations of many of its weak
institutions like the successful banking consolidation, the telecommunication
privatization and consolidation that made Nigeria currently one of the fastest
growing telecom industry in the world,Privatization of companies, consolidation
of the Aviation, educational, and improvement in the power sector which is
expected to impact positively on the Real Sector of the economy… I think the
macro economic stability has been achieved so far…
Itv Mr Wilson: Do you
agree Hon. Peter Eson with the analysis of H.E. Prince frank Ukonga on the
question of Macro economic stability of the country.?
Hon. Peter Eson: I agree with the analysis of Prince Ukonga,
but then I must emphasize that our currency has been unfairly devalued as against
the dollar and other international currencies at 160 Naira exchanging for one
dollar… when I was traveling to study in the United States some years ago the Naira exchanged at one to one to the dollar,
And when I was working before I traveled I earned less than 100 Naira as
salary and it was enough to pay rents, bills and sustain my family of 4 with my
spouse. But today we earn huge salaries and yet not enough.. which is the
question of inflation caused perhaps by unequal exchange rate and other
reasons…
ITV Mr Wilson : Does Hon. Greg Ogigua subscribe to this
views?
Hon Greg Ogigua: I do not subscribe to both views of Prince
Ukonga and Hon Eson. In the case of currencies devaluation ,it is suppose to favor
internal economy and generate exports, I want to recall when I was living in England we took advantage of the Naira devaluation
to export the Guinness stout lager beer as a bottle of Guinness made in Nigeria
was selling for as high as 3 pounds in England while it was selling for less
than one pound in Nigeria. So myself and
some of my colleagues made brisk business in Exports of such commodities of
Nigeria products due to the currency devaluation. Also countries like Japan and
China deliberately devalue their currencies to encourage exports…
Itv Mr Wilson: H.E Prince Frank Ukonga., You mentioned the aspects of weak institutions in Nigeria ,
how far would you access the strengthening of Nigerian institutions in the Past
14 years
H.E. Prince Frank Ukonga: The past 14 years has witnessed tremendous overall of the Nigeria political economy. As in the democratic institution
for example Prof.. Atahiru Jega of INEC is doing his best to consolidate the Nigerian
political parties in to manageable formidable strong institutions of say 10
political parties in Nigeria and over 35 political parties had been proscribed
addressed for them to form mergers with the ones seeded. Also the Banking
consolidation was a great achievement and you can put your money today in the
bank in the universal banking system of Nigeria and go to sleep, our Banks hav
e branches all over the world , not many countries can boast of this feet yet,.
Also the deregulation of the Petroleum industry has also helped to evolved Nigerian
multinational Petroleum companies like Oando etal…and the overall privatization exercise of Soludonomics has made the Nigerian economy more competitive of
quasi market driven as against the mixed Keynesian model of yore that was fiscal
driven..i think Nigeria is on course in the context of macro economic restructuring and stability.
Hon Gred Ogigua: I do not subscribe to that view of Prince
Ukonga. Most of the achievements of the macro economic restructuring of Nigeria
was done at the be-heaves of suffering of the masses of Nigeria , the dividents
of democracy has not trickled down to the common masses of the Nigeria. Lots of
people lost out in the Banking consolidation and what would had been ideal was
for the NIDC to be established and allow the Banks to grow to meeting the
required standards but rather we saw a forced consolidation and mergers of Banks
and institutions of strange bed follows; creating unemployment , hardship on
the people. The privatization exercise was also shabily done at the expense of
the masses.And that is why some people preffer the benevolent military dictatorship of Latin American countries as role model for Nigeria.
ITV Mr Wilson : whats your take on this Hon Eson?
Hon Eson: well I would say that Nigeria is still developing
though it appears that we take two steps forwards and one step backward which
is not very good for the polity. The lack of continuity, corruption, lack of maintenance
culture in the context of infrastructural development is also a bane as well as lack of genuinely committed
leadership.
H.E. Prince Frank Ukonga: The question of redundancies, hardship
and poverty in the polity mentioned by Hon. Gerg Ogigua are the reactionary
backlash of the restructuring of the polity and the economy.. normally in any
macro economic restructuring there will be winners and losers but the overall
effect on the polity if well managed with some poverty alleviation package could
have ameliorated the effect on the populace. I think there were several poverty alleviation packages from the administration but perhaps was shabbily implemented
and this boils down to the issue of weak institutions in Nigeria which I wrote
about in my celebrated book 21 PROTOCOLS OF POWER. In Nigeria and Sub
Saharan Africa we have strong individuals and weak institutions and this is
abysmal; we are looking at a situation where the strengthening of the institutions
will continue into the future like the Local Government institution that is closer
to the people may soon become autonomous and be more committed to service
delivery to the people, the Judiciary, the Legislative, the Real Sector are
gradually becoming more assertive and with time may become more formidable.
Same with the military and Police institutions as formidable subordination to
civilian authority and it takes some time for this greatness to take shape. But
we seem on course..Also the Power and education
sectors gamane to tranform the Real Sector is a majour top priority of
President Jonathan administration which is commendable.
Hon. Greg Ogigua: The analysis of Prince Ukonga is
embellished. The power sector has not really unproved spectacularly but a mere rescheduling of power from the rural areas to the cities to look like an unproved generation and distribution achievement. We have been on 5000 mega
watt of electricity generation for the past 20 years and more and what we
expect is a revolution in that sector. And the same thing goes for many other
sectors like the FDI, Economic growth, and what have you. I believe also that
lots of tricks and gimmick is being played to give an impression of overall improvement
of the economy and the polity.We have acute insecurity problems and the
question of National Sovereign Conference and inter tribal relations is still
hanging over our heads like the sword of Damocles…
Itv Mr. Wilson: So whats your parting words in the context
of the scorecard for 14 years of democracy in Nigeria Hon. Eson?
Hon Eson : I still
stick to the 52 % that I have score the democratic experience and hopeful that
we shall begin to witness more improvement in quality service delivery to the
electorate in the second half of President Jonathan 8 th Republic.
ITV Mr. Wilsom : Whats your parting words Hon. Greg Ogigua?
Hon Greg Ogigua: I remain with the 25% score and I was even
rather generous and would expect more
commitment and dedication in the aspect of quality service delivery in the second
half of this administration.
ITV Mr Wilson: And H.E. Prince Frank Uonga, what are your
parties words?
H.E. Prince Frank Ukonga; I would like to see more
consolidation of our weak institutions . I am mostly concerned on the macro
aspects of the country and the economy and if we have strong institutions ,
corruption,unemployment, mismanagement and many ills bedeviling the polity will
become portable and manageable nevertheless I score the entire democratic
experience of the Nigerian state high @ 55% and would like to see improvement
in future.
ITV Mr Wilson : Well we thank all of you for honoring our
invitation to ruminate and debate on the problems and prospects of the past 14
years of Nigerian Democratic dispensation, and we hope that the relevant
authorities would take a cue from the views exposed here today at ITV studio Benin City by the stakeholders in the polity
and act on them to jockey Nigeria to the Promised land of an economic giant by
2020. We thank all our viewers in Nigeria and abroad for staying tuned.
Regards.
Post a Comment