…says Executive Order 10 strongest decision ever taken by a Nigerian president

Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) is a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). In this interview with select journalists, he speaks on the Executive Order recently signed by President Bola Tinubu for direct remittance of oil and gas revenues to the Federation Account, the 2027 elections and other national issues. FELIX NWANERI reports

How would assess the state of the nation vis a vis the economy?

We are at a point, where the country is distracted by the politics of 2027, and it is unfortunate because Nigerians agree that things are not good. Generally, things are not good but I am happy that finally, and I say this with considerable delight because the type of work that we do is not what we people see. What we do is very intellectual and intangible. What we do is called development law and even economists don’t understand the relationship between Law and Economics.

So, the link between law, legislation, constitution and economy is something that our economic planners don’t understand. In the last 20 years or more, we have been talking about how to upgrade our laws because the key thing that drives an economy or development is a leader.

So, we are hoping that in 2027, we will have competitive politics because it is only by competitive politics that we can get the best result. But one of the key things we lack is revenue. So, on the monetary policy side, I am compelled to give the Minister of Finance, Olayemi Cardoso, very high marks. He has steadied the economy, lowered the rates and strengthened the naira.

But the question would be: What about the fiscal side? The fiscal side is not doing well because we are borrowing. Let’s say we are making an income of N100 and paying debt of N90. That leaves us with only N10. So, N10 for 200 million is not enough, we need to strengthen our income. That’s why I am excited about the Executive Order 10 because we’ve been shouting for a very long time and asking whether people in government don’t read section 44(3) of the 1999 Constitution, which makes us owners of our oil and other natural resources.

This means that crude oil sovereignty belongs to Nigerians. But why is that we have abdicated our crude oil sovereignty to two actors – the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the International Oil Companies (IOCs). If you read the Executive Order very well, you will find out that the NNPC was gulping 70 per cent of our crude oil resources. So, when we wrote something about clawing back our oil sovereignty or taking ownership of our resources; immediately I saw Executive Order 10, following word for word, I was absolutely thrilled. It is the most foundational piece of policy ever because we need money.

So, that’s one thing why it is supported. There are a few problems; those can be addressed either by the Supreme Court or the National Assembly, whether the Executive Order can override legislation – the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). In the PIA, you have many parts that give NNPC money, but in that same PIA, the NNPC is made a private company. The question then is: Can a private company continue to take 70 per cent of our revenue? Therefore, kudos to President Bola Tinubu for finally realizing that this was a big error because the Executive Order 10 is going to add a lot of money to us.

Besides the Executive Order going to make more money available, what else should Nigerians pay attention to?

When I was talking about the potential of Nigeria touching N100 trillion about six years ago, they said it was not possible but now we are talking about N50 trillion. The way we are going, we are going to hit N100 trillion. For a country like Nigeria, N500 trillion a year is nothing but we have to harness our resources. When the Minister of Finance under President Muhammadu Buhari said they were going to borrow money, I asked them to look at the value of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Probably, the Nigerian Railway Corporation is the largest land owner in Nigeria.

The quality of Nigerian politics is so low. It is about vandalism; it is about fighting, it is about bribe taking, all sorts of bad things, and no focus on issues

It was last valued in 1975 and the value then was N20 million and that value is still in the books toady. But the Nigerian Railway Corporation is potentially worth N500 billion. So, you see failure of the government to harness our resources. But I am beginning to see the 10 ideas that I gave to President Tinubu coming to fruition. That’s the essence of the Executive Order 10 and why I support it.

How can the Executive Order be given more power because the PIA is an Act of the National Assembly?

I have suggested and written to the Attorney General that he should go to court, and I think it should be a straight forward issue just as I suggested to the deputy speaker that he should go to court to free the local governments from the grip of the states but President Tinubu went first.

So, I suggest that the Attorney General present the matter in court to ask: To what extent are those provisions in the PIA that impinge on revenue, constitutional in view of section 44(3) of the Constitution? That’s one way of going. The second way of going is just to make a major of the PIA to let it be clear where we stand with the NNPC. The NNPC is there creating policy, interfering with up-stream and downstream operations.

Let President Tinubu make a very clear policy decision that the NNPC is not more than an ordinary oil company and that it should have no regulatory or statutory power of any kind. Let there be a Minister for Petroleum, who sets policy for how we harness our oil. The other thing that I see in the Executive Order that didn’t go far enough but requires careful handling is the role of the IOCs in relation to the sovereignty over our oil. So, they play two roles; they play a commercial role, that’s fine.

But they also have a role over ownership, Here’s how it goes. Section 44 (3) of the Constitution makes Nigeria owners of the oil, but rather than actually own it, the Nigerian government creates a Joint Venture (JV). In that Joint Venture agreement, the Nigerian government cedes ownership, we transfer ownership of our crude oil resources to the IOCs under the fake pretension that the IOCs will do it in our interest. But they don’t. They, in fact, turn around and ask us to pay the so-called cash flow.

So, we pay 60 per cent cash flow, and that cash flow, they determine it. We have no idea about how they create the cash flow. So, what I’m saying is, let the IOCs continue, but let them be limited to work around commercial drilling just like in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia controls 100 per cent of her crude oil resources. Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow anybody to have a say in ownership issues around crude oil.

Here, there are 34 value chains, so our government simply looks at a barrel of crude and say our own is tax oil. They are paid but the international oil companies blindside us, we don’t see the money that is leaking from shipping. That’s why I’m so happy about how Allen Onyema has gone with Air Peace. There is no Air Peace equivalent in shipping but the crudes are on. When it is produced, Nigerians should be told, go and lift it. We don’t. So, you see how we lose money. So, we need to turn it around.

When we say we are poor because we have no roads, we have no hospitals, we have no schools, we don’t have free education, it’s because we have no money, and we are borrowing. So, the idea behind the Executive Order 9, even though I didn’t take part in it, but I can see where it’s headed, is to change fiscal policy relationships from borrowing to funding. There is what’ is called Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR); it will change to Public Sector Funding Requirement (PSFR).

The Federal Government has never drawn up a PSFR to say this year we’re going to build 100 schools in every local government or we’re going to do A, B, C, D, because we have no money. The entire fiscal policy is based on borrowing but I’m happy that the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, now recognises that we can’t go on borrowing, that we must find other means of getting money. That’s the essence of it.

What has changed now that the NNPC is a private company and there is this Executive Order to reroute the money into government’s account?

Secondly, during the budget defence, majority of the MDAs were complaining that they lacked funding. What was the problem? Was it that there is no money to allocate to those MDAs to carry out their activities, and what do you think about how we plan our budgets and release of funds? It’s very easy. The problem is stealing. The budget is seen as an opportunity to pad. That’s the problem. So, when you see it as an opportunity to pad, is it really a budget for development? I’m not sure. So, we need to deconstruct the entire fiscal policy.

It goes back to fiscal. So, we need to deconstruct the fiscal policy and say, how do we raise money because before you spend, you must think about how you raise money. We raise money by looking at the Federal Government Secretariat lying fallow in Ikoyi for 40 years, and which is worth about N500 billion. Sell it and build two hospitals in each local government. So you’ve got to have a plan.

When you have a plan, then that plan drives what you do. Number two, you’ve got to tell the MDAs that you mentioned that you are not a revenue-generating entity. You are a service entity. Take the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for example. NIMASA and Customs, they do two things, but they do one better than the other. They are interested in revenue generation. They forget their job that is prescribed under the NIMASA Act.

So, what I told Zacch Adedeji, Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), and I hope he will do that, is to strip every MDA of revenue generating just like they’ve done in this Executive Order 9, let it be extended. Let Executive Order 10 say to all federal agencies, any you won’t keep. That’s what’s causing the problem. You will not keep a dime. The job of Customs is to enforce customs laws, not to raise revenue; the job of Customs relating to revenue transfer to NRS. You take Customs and you take Immigration, you put them together and you give them a new name called Border Force.

Theirs is to look after us in a new border force entity, not to be raising revenue. Every time you see the Comptroller of Customs say we have exceeded our revenue target; that’s not their job. The money should go to the Federation Account. Now, when you strip these MDAs of making money, they will focus on their jobs because they will now know that the NRS is the one that will sweep everything in.

When all these things are swept in, they go to one place only. What I’m saying is not rocket science but nobody wants to do it. If you put the money there; you will find that we will surpass the N500 trillion that I have personally set as a target. When that happens, what Adedeji said that the budget cannot be funded because of money will become untrue. Then, when you bring your MDA budget, you will not pad because you have no dime. They will be asking you, how do you intend to defend Nigeria’s maritime waters? How do you intend to prevent smuggling? How do you intend to do your work properly? That’s not the issue now; the issue is about money. So, we’ve got to change the narrative.

We’ve got to make the agenda of government to perform for the people. And then we have to make collection of revenue somebody’s responsibility. I don’t know that the Minister of Finance can really account for 90 per cent of the revenue of Nigeria because it’s all scattered. The money will be available, and once it is available, you will find out that we can pay school fees. You will find out that we can give medicare

free. You will find out that we can build roads and other basic things that you see happening around the world.

Part of your recommendation is that the NNPC should be sold or privatized. Does this not translate to the Nigerian government transferring its sovereignty as regards to its oil resources?

What I’m saying is that the NNPC ought to have a long time ago been a simple private company. But the truth is the NNPC became the private funding arm of Nigerian presidents. If a president wanted money, he would call the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC and say, I need money. It got to the point where a certain president, I won’t mention his name, was approached by a certain a South African president to fund their sugar refinery and he turned to the NNPC to do it. The NNPC is the easy source and that’s why it has lasted for long. So, it’s a full credit to President Tinubu because what he has done is a very strong decision. If you know the cabal inside the NNPC; you will agree with me that Executive Order 10 is the strongest decision ever taken by a Nigerian president. The NNPC is now not going to be a place that people would want to go. I know about one particular GMD of NNPC, who did not know that his driver was watching him as he was packing dollars inside one bungalow. Whenever he goes home at the weekend, he’ll pack it. He couldn’t give the driver or say, okay, you hold this $10,000. The driver reported him and they put him in jail. Where the money has gone to today, I don’t know. So, NNPC being stripped; I spoke before, I don’t know what parliament that was, but Aminu Tambuwal was the speaker that time, I said NNPC should be scrapped because that thing is an evil force. It’s like mosquito draining all our money. Think of it; 70 per cent of our revenue was being swallowed by one agency and giving us nothing but high fuel price, fuel scarcity, all of that, and then doing deals. Look at what Dangote is suffering. That will tell you the power of NNPC. How can somebody say, I have a refinery here; I can feed the entire Nigeria, but you are telling

him to go and sit down. You want to regulate and give licenses for importation. Those importers were part of the cabal. Those men can put down N1 trillion. They can say Mr. President, for this is your election, just hold this N2 trillion but allow Dangote Refinery to die. That’s what it is. Yes, absolutely. Don’t you see how Dangote has aged? Can’t you see? You think it’s a joke? He is my very good friend.

The guy is the man who should be Nigeria’s Man of the Year for the next 10 years. I know that the impact of what he has done is not being felt, but it is coming. The other day, I wanted to buy pounds for my daughter abroad, so when they said it is N1,900 to £1, I was shocked because it has been at N2,005. So, the demand for forex is down. That’s the benefit of what Dangote has done, but it was the cabal that fought it. However, the wisdom of God descended on Tinubu and he did the correct thing.

That’s why I’m hoping that the 2027 elections will be competitive because personally, I couldn’t care less who Nigerians elect. I am not campaigning. The point I am making is that we need money, we are bleeding, and if this is the beginning of how to expand our resources, it makes me very happy. Some of the things I’ve been saying here, some of you know that I’ve been saying it for a long time, sounding like a broken record.

Another thing is: All of you sitting around here, I’m not sure how many are in their own private homes. So, I assume that you all pay rent. Now, if you are able to pay rent, then you can pay a mortgage. Part of what made Margaret Thatcher popular was that Labour Party was saying, we will give you social housing at a reduced rent. The Conservatives said, no, we will give you the house. That’s how Thatcher became popular, so that rent you are paying, convert it to a mortgage.

I am excited about Executive Order 10 because we’ve been shouting for a very long time and asking whether people in government don’t read section 44(3) of the 1999 Constitution, which makes us owners of our oil

But the reason that was possible is because there’s a legal framework. What has made the tax system possible is the modernization of the tax laws that were essentially 1936 laws. What has made this new revenue from crude possible is, again, law. People don’t understand the power of law in relation to the economy. We have not addressed the mortgage system.

Nigeria has millions and millions of houses but there’s a problem. In fact, 95 per cent of the houses have no papers, so you cannot take a loan. You cannot be part of the capital formation of a system where lawyers, doctors and everybody is, like in the UK, where the property market is awash with billions. The government put in £20 billion pounds into the system to make it possible.

So, we have written a proposal which I hope the President will use to create a mortgage market. Now, when you create a mortgage market, you are looking at N10.4 quadrillion. I know you are used to million, billion and trillion but you are not used to quadrillion.

The Nigerian property market is a quadrillion property market; N1.4 quadrillion, but it is dead. It is not playing a role in capital formation. These are the ways in which we have the potential to be a great nation. How can countries like South Korea and Brazil, even United Arab Emirates be bigger than us?

That should not be the position Why is it that some people are afraid to take papers of their houses to the bank?

No, they are not afraid, it’s the law. It’s the way the law is. The law has to be created. When the law is created, then you can go to your bank and say, I work in so and so, this is how much I earn, I’m interested in getting a house.

Then the bank will give you the conditions. Even me, I have not gotten a mortgage, but I have gotten mortgages in the UK simply because they will tell you, all right, this loan you want of N300 million, how do you intend to pay? That’s the question the bank will ask you. I will say I have a property at number 34 Creek Road, Apapa, and they will say: Where are your papers? I will say: I don’t have them. Then, they will say: Why don’t you have them? I say it is the fault of the state government; it takes 16 years to get the papers.

And do you know that in our experience, we found that some of the Certificates of Occupancies (C of Os), are fake. That is another area that the government needs to work on. If it does that, I’ll be looking at turning everyone into landlords. You will not pay rent because you will just pay mortgage. So, we’re hoping that the president of Nigeria in 2027 will be an absolutely forthright person. If that happens, we will say: Why have we been suffering all these years.

Recently, there were council elections in the Federal Capital Territory and there were claims of manipulations. Secondly, there was an assassination attempt on some chieftains of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) during a recent rally in Edo State. How do you see activities of politicians as the nation heads towards the 2027 elections?

The problem with politicians, all of them, is that they don’t play the game correctly. To be quite honest with you, I put a lot of blame on the opposition. The opposition claims that people are decamping but it’s like me saying: Why is my wife dating another man? Who do I hold responsible? It’s my wife. If governors are leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and going to the All Progressives Congress (APC), who is to be blamed? It’s the PDP, but all I see the PDP or the typical politician do is the Nigerian politics.

They visit people who are bereaved or attend wedding ceremonies, when there are lots of issues to talk about. The quality of Nigerian politics is so low. It is about vandalism; it is about fighting, it is about bribe taking, all sorts of bad things, and no focus on issues. In spite of all the challenges, they are not hitting the big issues and that’s a problem. So, our politics needs to improve.

Are you saying that agitation for electronic transmission of election results may not even be the solution to our electoral woes?

The solution is the quality of the politicians. Everything about Nigerian politics is negative. I’ve never heard about any serious policy discussion from any Nigerian politician. I’ve not seen any Nigerian politician going to engage the people like Barack Obama did; house-to-house campaign, telling them what you will do.