Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade, who met with President Muhammadu Buhari, Tuesday, declared his intention to join the presidential race for the 2023 election.
Fielding questions from State House Correspondents, Ayade said if he emerged as the flag bearer, he will tackle key areas of insecurity, electricity, and unemployment. He said by October 1st, 2023, the Naira rate against the dollar will be fixed and oil-producing companies that produce up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day must have a modular refinery running within nine months.
What was the purpose of the visit?
I am here because I’ve just finished a meeting with the President. And this meeting turned out to be one of my most enthusiastic meetings ever. Well, let me first acknowledge the depth of knowledge and the depth of the intellect that the President exudes. His master hand understanding of the international and global security challenges and dovetailing into the Nigerian situation. And what he has done to be able to stem the continuous incursion of bandits and Boko Haram into Nigeria.
This country would have been in a worse situation but President Muhammadu Buhari given the fall of Afghanistan, given the massive movement of people who have a feeling that the West African province belongs to them by birth, and therefore Muslims of West African origin, and Christians, in their opinion, are infidels and therefore must be wiped out. The President thoroughly tutored on the subject of global security. And I think it will be child’s play for anybody to misunderstand the enormity of the security challenges of this nation.
If President Muhammadu Buhari was not the president, perhaps things could have been worse. I say this with all amount of confidence because I do recall when we used to have bombings even right here in the city of Abuja. The flags that used to adorn most of our Northern states as Boko Haram enclaves have all been brought down. This does not stop occasional incidents of attack here and there. Guerrilla war takes 30 to 40 years to end. The Algeria experience is too recent for us not to remember.
And so having discussed the national security issues, we also moved into 2023. It is also clear in my discussion with him, but on the fact that he swore to an oath, to uphold due process and to abide by the constitution of Nigeria and the electoral process towards the arrival of a candidate representing our great party, the APC, and subsequently present before the election for 2023.
As a sitting governor, I also know that I also am a leader in my own small world, in my own state as governor of Cross River State and leader of APC in Cross River. It’s only common knowledge that if somebody comes before me as governor, and propose to me that he wants to run for the office of governor, I have a duty to wish him well. But candidly, the right politics must be ethical. So it’s only natural to approach the man on that seat to seek his opinion as to what is his own calculation for your own fate?
Because leadership is given by God; God anointed President Muhammadu Buhari as the leader of our party and the leader of this country at this time, it is politically insensitive, completely non-African, not Afropolitan to walk into a man in the lofty of his seat and tell him I want your seat. I think by African morality, if we’re to customize democracy, to reflect the confines that are specific to Africa, it will require consultation, and seeking a direction rather than declaring a position.
So, I didn’t come before President Muhammadu Buhari to seek to declare, to run for the office of the president of Nigeria. I came before him to seek his direction, for me to understand how to align. I sought his direction because I believe that, as a Christian, the Bible teaches me that power only comes from God. And a man God has put in position is his angel, is his mainstream to access Him, God.
And so I come before President Muhammadu Buhari as a servant of God supplicating for a direction for proper alignment. Because this is how true democracy is practiced. Because it is not an election. It is a family, the party is an association of people. So you must first come before the leadership of that your family to seek direction. So I sought a direction with an intent to support the president to assist in my own way to contribute for him to produce his successor, who would understand his government and know-how to continue with the programs of its government.
But the good news is, the President says, you are governor from the South-south, go out there too and consult. I am happy that you didn’t come here to tell me you want to run, you came here to say you want to support me. Let me watch you as you go out there.
So I want to announce to all of you, that has secured an opportunity, a window for a trial and I do so at the instance of the president; and I’m willing to stop at any point where it becomes necessary, that I find that my interest does not align with the directions of the president.
At this moment, as I speak with you, without my request, the President has said yes, I have heard you very well, you have spoken well. I’m happy you didn’t come here to tell me you want to run for president. I’m happy also, that you will recall very well that I have visited your state several times even when you were at the other party.
And this is a point I must emphasize clearly. Because Mr. President came to Cross River as his first working visit in 2015. I was in PDP, I’m from the South. I’m a Christian, everything on the other side of himself, and because the president said he belongs to no one but to everyone, he made a Christian state, a Christian governor, a Southern state, a non- APC state as his first working visit state. So no wonder, I also moved from PDP to APC, in my respect for his leadership, and personage. So, I am also giving it out as a lesson for those who know what is called loyalty.
So, I want to announce to all of you that I, Professor Ben Ayade, governor of Cross River State, God willing, will go out there. And also try to affect the process of bringing value to support the president to see that the next president of Nigeria is in tune with his projects, and his key projects and ensure that they are sustained and continued. And those that have not reached the finish line, take them to the finish line and develop an agenda that can indeed show that he had laid a master plan for the progress and prosperity of this nation.
So the question will be, what if you get to become the president? What are you going to do?
As a country, Nigeria is a very populous country, over 200 million people. A very blessed nation. The poverty we have today is not caused by this administration, it is the failure of both leadership and followership. The process of election of somebody into power has no business with capacity. It has no antecedent with what has he delivered. I’ve been a Senator with 41 bills, which is the highest in the history of the Nigeria senate. While I was a senator and a governor with the highest amount of factories ever built by any government, I’m a professor. I’m a lawyer, a governor, and a Senator. I’ve worked in private businesses, I’ve driven my business a few successes, and in the public sector, I’ve also worked very hard.
I come with a combination of experience, capacity, and intellect. I also come as a man who is divided between a youth and an elder. I have the enthusiasm of a child, yet the wisdom of 60 year old. I’m true, an old head on young shoulders. So what am I going to do differently? My priority is to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to focus on security.
Indeed, the collapse of Afghanistan puts a major threat on national security and put in fact far more pressure on Northern Nigeria with the intent of ISWAP to ensure that they conquer the West African province.
So, priority number one is security. And security will be security, which is based on a digital approach to dealing with issues of security. Indeed, wherever you have a challenge in Nigeria, and you put in money, the problem gets bigger. So, we realize that a non-contact intellectual, digital security approach, using the sophisticated international partnership to deal with intelligence gathering, and focusing on the fundamental root causes of this criminality, banditry, kidnapping, and more importantly, terrorism.
The facts are traceable to two major crises, Boko Haram and ISWAP conflicting with each other, one having its link to Al Qaeda, Boko Haram. And ISIS has a direct relationship with the other group, ISWAP. So, because they have two fundamental sources, where they are at war with each other, it is easy for you to understand the nexus of the security challenge and deal with it and understand the source of all those young men in their thousands that are coming to Nigeria on bikes, trace them to their roots. And I’m willing to take security as a national issue for full discussion in the course of time.
I also have to deal with the issue of unemployment. Unemployment is at the heart of this country. A nation with 42 billion tonnes of bitumen yet imported almost every drop of bitumen, a nation with 3 million tonnes of iron ore yet we are challenged with having flat sheets and steel plates. A nation that is number seven in terms of gas deposits in the world, with Russia accounting for 40 percent of gas supply to Europe. With just 3,425 kilometers of pipeline between Nigeria and Algeria, we can tap into the Algerian pipeline of feeding the whole of Europe and doing over $60 billion out of that pipeline.
To be able to create a no dollar coefficient that will begin to strengthen our local currency, we must deal with the issue of the Nigerian Naira. I do not believe that the forces of demand and supply should dictate the value of our currency. The value of a currency is a reflection of the integrity of the nation. No foreign direct investment can come into a country whose local currency is not strong enough.
If a country like Malta, a country like Kuwait will have an irreversible conversion rate, Nigeria has no business subjecting our currency to the forces of demand and supply, all things being equal, when we know the concept of ceteris paribus, never applies in real life. Therefore, there must be a structural and normative framework intended squarely to address the exchange rate between the naira and the dollar.
By 1st October 2023, our Independence Day, the dollar rate to Naira will be fixed. All the oil-producing Companies that produce up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day must have their modular refinery running within nine months. And if they doubt where they will get it, I’ll give them the direction. I come from the oil and gas industry; it takes $90 million to set up a refinery of 10,000 barrels per day. If every single oil company has its own modular refinery, we will have no business doing the crude oil swap of 450,000 barrels per day.
We’ll have no business sending back our dollar that we have sold our crude to go and import refined petroleum products; we will have no business allowing the dollar a free fall because that is the value of your nation. The value of your currency is the value of your nation. You might have a strategic policy that will practice isolationism as a nation. China decided to trade with you for 30 years to get out of the woods. We must have a framework that guarantees jobs and must mainstream young people into contracting schemes.
We must bring back apprenticeship, we must do massive recruitment into our military forces and provide for them sufficient landmass to grow crops to do the engineering, the design inventions.
Politics is almost merging with our economy. Professors are resigning from the university to run for elections for the House of Assembly. Because while your professor is earning N400,000, a House of Assemblymember is earning over a million. And therefore, there is a dysfunctional structure, with the respect for intellectualism and value addition. Innovation has been compromised and education has been thrown to the winds. Our polytechnics have been reduced to a degree-awarding. We must therefore bring back skills.
So, how have you done these in Cross River?
Today’s a short brief and I can tell you that in every sector as you hear me unfold, you will hear me out one by one, what am I going to do differently. This country is a blessed country by God. Blessed in the abundance of the Atlantic coastline that gives us enough water even if sadifarious, the new technology can allow you to put a turbine to generate electricity even from a saliferous water source. You can use copper-plated blades. The power master plan of Cross River and indeed Nigeria has been concluded to guarantee 24 hours electricity.
Kano and Jigawa have a massive deposit of silica, the precursor raw material for the production of photovoltaic cells, for the generation of solar electricity. I have no business sourcing energy from gas flaring to support the national grid. The vertical mercantile system uses the monopoly of the transmission system, monopolized by the government; we will break that down and ensure that every region has a specific power source. And it will be done in such a way that that power will be dedicated to a service provider, and so the Federal Government hands off from our distribution and ensures that key professionals take over.
Today, a French company is supplying power to a major part of London. It’s a business; power generation and distribution is a business. It must therefore be decentralized. I give you an example. If you brought in a company like Siemens and gave them the South-south region, generate your electricity from the Atlantic Ocean and feed South-south. Put your transmission line, do your distribution and collect tariff and pay a royalty to the Federal Government, just like the MTN. If you go to the northeast and say generate your solar electricity, depend on your silica deposit in Jigawa and Kano.
If you decide also that you will do three major superhighways, starting from Calabar to Maiduguri and have a spur to Kano. One starts off from Port Harcourt and goes through the center of Abuja and hits Kaduna and one starts from Lagos and hit Sokoto. You have three major ways, call it an M40, that will be a ring road. You would have brought those three major superhighways with three major transmissions deriving all their energy from the Atlantic Ocean, State, and feeding up to the Northern part of Nigeria as a stop-gap in case there is any system failure. While doing this, you are also conscious that the gas which otherwise would have been used to drive electric, you will spend time exporting that gas.
I belt the gas refurbishment stations for most of the oil companies, and so have a clear understanding of how a gas plant, the sale of gas, the gas to power price today is about 4.2 to 4.5 dollars per million BTO. The international market is 7.8 dollars per million BTO, making it unattractive for private investors to invest in gas gathering because of the price control.
But if we divert your gas completely into export, into nanotechnology, into pharmaceuticals, and focus on renewable sources only. And put your wind turbines where they belong, and all of these without the catalysis of government money, but the intellectualism of doing business with other people’s money by asking appropriate investors. Day one, we would have reconstructed an economy that has a steady power supply, which creates employment and reduces insecurity.
I choose these three subjects; in my subsequent discussions, I will take on health and the others. But I think these three because that is what will restart and rejig Nigeria, to deal with issues of unemployment, to deal with the issue of power and issue of security. If these three are addressed, this country is on the path to glory.
Part of what I’ve shared with you is part of what I’ve also enjoyed with the President, learning a lot from the sitting president with who I have gained enough experience, I have come before him as a student to learn from the grace of his own experience.
By 2023 you would have completed eight years as governor. What next? Because you said you didn’t go to the president to tell him you are running.
I went to the president to tell him, I am here to join him to support him in the process of producing his successor. And that peraventure, power is to go to the South, peraventure it is to go to South-south. I’m the only sitting governor from the South-south. The President didn’t allow me to finish. And the President says I know you and recounted our relationship. I asked him, can I? Because I’m not here for that unless you say so.
So are you running?
My answer is that I am running because the President has said you go while I watch. As reporters, I want you to report me intellectually. I want you to understand that truly, outside all the cheap talks, the truth is that my approach to the president is different. I will support the President’s candidate. Even though I am on standby, if I’m available, if you’re the choice, I will support the President’s candidate. And the President says you are not outside of my view. Go. I give you a blessing, go and consult, and ensure that you engage with key people while I watch. I think it’s a dedication that I have the right to go and try, to go and declare so I will.
You just affirmed that you are from the same region as former president Goodluck Jonathan. From what he said last week, he appears set to throw his hat into the ring, probably under the APC. If this becomes the case, what are your chances coming from the same South-south?
I have great respect for President Jonathan and so I have no challenges whatsoever. I believe that the party leadership will decide on the appropriate candidate that will take our party to victory. And so, if you heard me well, I am just part of the family, absolutely loyal to the president, seeking to run for the president. And I am running. But at any point in time that the political leadership of my party, the APC feels that president Jonathan is the appropriate candidate that will actually take us to victory, I will turn my support for him.
I am never, ever going to fight the establishment, the institution, the aristocracy, the spiritual vortex of which God has placed a leader of a country. I will never question the powers of the leader of a country. I have never played the politics of antagonism or fight.
“If you know how I became governor, I became governor by offering to support whoever the governor wanted, and by the stroke of luck, I became the candidate. By the same token, I am only here to support the president’s candidate and by a stroke of luck, he said, you too go there and join the race and let me see.
Report from Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
