Hassan Jika Ardo is a former Chairman of defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the pioneer chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba State. He also served as Nigeria Ambassador in the Caribbean for three years. In this interview with Sola Shittu, Ardo said the removal of petroleum subsidies by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a shocking one for the oil industry cartel.
Just a month ago a new President was sworn-in after the eight years of President Buhari, what is your take on this?
From the first day Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn-in as the President of this country, we have started seeing the difference. Take for example, the issue of oil subsidy that has brought so much hardship on Nigerians, he has fixed it once and for all. The beneficiaries of oil subsidy were even shocked to the marrow because they did not expect that the country could have a leader with strong political will to remove the subsidy. These are just a few people, less than two hundred, milking the country dry and they are so powerful because of the money they got from oil, but Tinubu has fixed that. Secondly, if you look at the appointment he made recently, he was able to cut across all tribes and religions in the country. He appointed people of competence, people that know the problems of Nigeria and are ready to work.
The advisers he appointed also cut across tribes, religions and regions. The economic decisions he has taken so far can only come from someone with a large heart who knows what he is doing. He has taken decisions that touch the lives of the entire Nigerians, everybody was hit by what is happening. So I believe that Asiwaju with his leadership style will make Nigeria great and better again. I have received so many calls across the globe from people who said they are ready to invest in Nigeria again because they now believe that there is hope in the future of the nation’s economy.
Are you saying that the steps taken by the federal government on the economy are in the right direction?
Of course yes, just look at the stock market today. Since Asiwaju took over, things are changing across the country. Before then there is uncertainty in the air. A lot of people are skeptical about our economy, people are complaining and they are not sure of their investment in the country. In fact investors are running away, but today, the same investors are calling that they want to come back to Nigeria because they have seen hope in our economy. Before, people were finding it difficult to access dollars.
They couldn’t import, produce and do their businesses. I am a diplomat, I have a guest in Lagos now who called me to say he is interested in investing in Nigeria because of the certainty he has seen in Nigeria’s economy with the current administration. All these are the results of the policy of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and he has just started in just a month. Give him one more month, two months, ninety days, one hundred days and so on. You won’t believe what Nigeria would have become. Everything is taking shape now.
Look at the security situation now, the appointments he made has caused a paradigm shift. He has reached out to traditional rulers, met with the Governors, investors and various stakeholders.
What of the impact on the masses? The World Bank said over a hundred million Nigerians are getting poorer …
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(Cuts) Yes, people are suffering because of the high cost of transportation and the spiral effect on food and daily needs but the policies that have been introduced will gradually cushion the effects on the people and with deliberate liberalization of the market the petroleum prices will fall. With the award of import licenses to more people and building of more refineries in addition to Dangote refinery there will be competition and once there is competition, the price will naturally fall. Many of those complaining are ignorant because they don’t have the knowledge of how the economy works. The man on the street only knows that the cost of transportation has increased and that’s what concerns him, but if he goes deep down into the causes of hike in transport fare he will know that it is a very complex matter.
Recently the European Union reports faulted the 2023 general election. What is your take on this?
How many parts of the country did those EU observers visit during the general election to reach that conclusion about the 2023 election? The naked truth about all these international observers is that even if they see good things happening in Nigeria, they will still prefer to turn in negative reports. I come from Subab, one of the remotest areas of this country. No observer has ever visited my place. Some of these people just stay in our towns and cities waiting for people on the field to feed them with wrong information.
The EU has no reason at all to fault our own election because we have to fashion our own democracy. We don’t conduct elections in Europe but we conduct elections in Nigeria by Nigerians for Nigerians. So nobody can dictate to us what we should do in our own country. Most of the time we suffered tremendously because we value reports by external observers but we don’t value our own reports. We are Africans and are proud to be Africans. Why should our domestic issue be subjected to other people’s interpretations? We know that we had a free, fair and credible election won by Asiwaju.
What do you think of our foreign policy which still makes Africa the focus?
As a diplomat I know that Africa is the centerpiece of our foreign policy and Nigeria is the center of Africa. In the entire African continent, Nigeria is the largest black nation with over two hundred million people. What we need is to be able to be on our own so that we can support other African nations to be on their own in peace. That is why you see that Nigeria is always intervening in conflicts among other African nations because we are the centerpiece of Africa. If Nigeria is in trouble the entire African continent is in trouble. God forbid, if we have a crisis in Nigeria today, which country will take Nigeria. We want African countries to be on their own and stop depending on Europe.
What of the effects of our domestic policy recently on brother African countries?
Yes it is affecting them because they are not getting what they want. I mean how can we be subsidizing other countries?
What do you mean by what they want?
I have my relatives who are in Cameroon. They are protesting over the removal of petroleum subsidies in Nigeria because they are now buying fuel at a higher rate. How can we subsidize other countries when our own people are suffering? They get fuel at a cheaper price here and then go and sell it at a higher rate to those countries. So they are not happy because they can no longer get our fuel at a very cheap price. People are protesting in Chad, Niger, Cameroon and other neighbouring countries.
If we are going to pay subsidy, let it be for our own people, let it be for Nigerians not for Cameroon, Niger or Chad. I can tell you that those people you see protesting are conniving with some notable Nigerians to cause confusion and make it look like the policy is an unpopular one. They are using those people that are not well informed to create that impression. Some of them amass a lot of money under the subsidy regime.
Will you then say that this administration is moving in the right direction?
I am one hundred percent certain that this administration is moving in the right direction with the right policy at the right time. I am in full support of what Asiwaju is doing because he is moving us faster than we expected. It will take some leaders years to take some of the decisions that Asiwaju took in just one month.