Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade spoke on his achievements, constraints, and plans for the Southsouth state on the Television Continental Programme, “Platform”, anchored by SAM OMATSEYE.
How would you sum up your three years in office?
I like to sum it up by first saying ‘I give God the grace. I give all the glory to God for keeping us alive to see my third year anniversary. And also very importantly, to thank the people of Cross River State and to say in summary I understand the challenges of my people; addressing and focusing on their needs and in three years, I have done what I think I can to ensure that I reduce tension and poverty in the state.
Well, that’s quite brief. You had one and a half years to battle in court. How did that affect your capacity to operate as a governor?
Well, sadly, it’s almost a tradition in Nigeria that once after election, you have a year or two to go to court whether the point is valid or not valid. As a lawyer myself, I was very sure that I had no reasons to be in the court but unfortunately, it has become an ordeal that every politician goes through. And it just shows the backwardness of our times. And as a country, we’ve just come to a tradition where it has become a clear cycle – from elections to court, from court to elections, elections back to court. And so, that cycle has not allowed us as government the luxury to focus on governance. And so, what we have is primordial politics focused on personal interests, developing narratives that are otherwise not pristine, not based on the needs of your people. The court ordeal itself is a huge distraction. And for one and a half years you will never never feel certain that you’re a governor until you’re out of the Supreme Court and that’s the situation here. So, literarily speaking, the first one and a half years, I found myself in a macabre dance. You’re never sure of where you’re going because as you all know in Nigeria, you never know when you’re out of the court. You know the law is not looking out for the truth, it’s the facts. And the facts can be constructed. So, I’m shocked for such an insignificant issue, that it went all the way, from the high court through the court of appeal to the Supreme Court, taking one and a half years of my credible time, facing unnecessary exposure and stress. But, I’m happy that that is all put behind us and I’ve done a catch up to be able to find a recovery space for myself. And I’m happy three years down the line, I’ve a lot to show for the three years in office.
Well, before we go to that. One of the things that grabbed headlines in your first days in office was the fact that you were employing so many people in government as advisers and so on. Was it an ego thing or were you just trying to show that you’re a people’ man by getting all of these people? What jobs are they going to do?
Basically, I hold a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and my core area of speciality is developing economics. In sluggish economies and in very backward circumstance and situations like Nigeria, with excessive population, with youth unemployment hitting the ceiling, nay government that understands the sociology, the anthropology of our people will recognise the fact that there is no infrastructure, there is no development programme that comes before food on the table. And so, the expansion of government, creating so many appointments was to allow me an opportunity to reduce the social tension and allow every young Cross Riverian an opportunity to find food on his or her table so that I can focus on the re-engineering and a solution architecture that can construct a new horizon of opportunity for the people.
Is that Ayade’s version of stomach infrastructure?
Well, it’s food on the table but hands on the plough. So, it’s actually not stomach infrastructure. It is indeed an opportunity for us all to come together and let’s prepare the dish. But to do so, you have to first have something in your stomach to hold yourself. And so today, we have a lot of creative inventions from this same young people that people thought I was just over-expanding government. Again, it’s also an Ayadesian Theory. it’s an advanced college of thought which originates from myself which is an effort to resolve the conflicts between Adam Smith and Keynesian economists. Adam Smith believes that let the forces of demand and supply calibrate price. Keynesian Theory thinks that it is completely different to allow things go uncontrollable because all circumstances are not equal. Therefore, government must calibrate and find a way to intervene. And that’s why there are things like pay checks, expansion regimes and all like that. So, there must be a deliberate effort from government to get involved and intervene to create an opportunity for society to survive. That is what explains bail-out. That is what explains pay checks. That is what explains all sorts of social packages which runs in conflict with Adam Smith. But, to what extent will you take the Keynesian Theory before it gets to the point where it becomes cataclysmic? So, what I have done is to do a psychedelic and cardiscopic balance between the Keynesian Theory and the Adam Smith Theory. And that’s where the Ayadesian Theory came in, to moderate the extreme nature of the Adam Smith Theory and also to reduce the excessive sociology that characterises Keynesian Theory, which says, government must intervene, government in my concept, must take people during recession, hunger and pain, government has to expand to accommodate that pressure that comes with recession. I was sworn in under recession, so I could see the difficulty. The oil price was nosediving at a very incredible speed. It was very clear that the harbinger of extreme poverty was becoming orgasmic and if nothing is done, we’re going to have a social tension that will degenerate into fulltime criminality on the streets. By the way, Ayadesian Theory is myself, Ayade. So, it’s my postulations and I’m sure I’m going to do that in my Phd in whatever I choose to do it, by my second Phd. So, I came in to say, look, I need to find a way to get all these young people to work. When they work, as they’re working to earn a living, whether I really need the service or not, it allows me time to focus, to create a private sector, an industry driven economy. Cross River State had become too dependent on federal allocation and so there was no creativity to find an alternative expression of capacity other than waiting on federal allocation. So, the Ayadesian Theory allowed the luxury of the amalgam of all these young people on the dining table with each person having a whole. Now, what has that helped me to do? I realised under this concept that once I can create the industries, I can then lease out the industries to professionals, thereby government catalysing the existence of a private sector. Then evacuate this excess hands that are taken during recession and evacuate them to the private sector. What have I done therefore? I have agreed that the forces of demand and supply are critical but I have also agreed that the intervention of government is also critical but their intervention must be time sensitive. And so, I periodise it in such a way that governments, particularly states and federal government have a responsibility to be in business. So, if a state is not in business, who would be? If you reserve it for private sector, where is the private sector in Cross River State? Where is the private sector in Nigeria? Perhaps you may mention three, four persons. And even those names, they still depend on government patronage. If government was really to operate without providing beacons for escape, you’ll see that it’ll be difficult for them to breathe. So, you take the Chinese model, take the Singaporean model.
The Chinese have moved from the Mao years, the years of Deng Xiaoping and so on. They’ve kind of liberalised.
Yes, but we’re just 19 years old. But, they started from here, state held infrastructure. If you go to China, the biggest corporations today are state-owned. China Harbour (is) state-owned, the biggest harbour construction company in the world. China Railways is state-owned, China Telecoms is state-owned. I cannot understand why Nigeria thinks that… look when did America have their own private sector? Britain until 1984, they didn’t have a private sector.
The industrial zone that you’re developing, you said it’s about 5, 000 hectares or something. It’s quite massive and it looks like it has the potential for a lot of jobs. Now we had something which one of your predecessors did, which was TINAPA. It was also touted as one of the great innovations of governance at one time. It now lies fallow. Two questions. What is going to happen to TNAPA? The second one, with this massive work you’re doing with the Ayade Industrial Park, what signature are you going to put there that will make it outlive your time so that it doesn’t end up like a TINAPA?
If I had the luxury of time I would have asked you first, what is TINAPA? Because if you understand TINAPA, then it would be easier for me to explain. What is TINAPA?
It’s supposed to be a free trade zone. That’s it.
Okay, so, if from that perspective you look at TINAPA, we have a free trade zone without really federal government giving it the software that allows it to breathe as a free trade zone. It is still illegal for you to operate from TINAPA without being made to pay. They will still shut you down. So, the necessary softwares and infrastructures that’s required for TINAPA to run as a free trade zone has not been formalised and signed off by federal government. And so, when you ship in there, they will still clamp in your goods, you will still have to pay the taxes. Until recently that I met with the new Comptroller General and he had to send a delegation, I was still working through the process where you can now ship goods straight into TINAPA. That has not been there. TINAPA up till today has not been connected to national grid. TINAPA today is dealing with the issue of they don’t have a quay where to land. So, if you’re a free trade zone and you’re supposed to receive goods at no cost, you don’t have power, you don’t even have a landing bay, it becomes far more difficult for you to take off. The cost of TINAPA, to really kick-start in the spirit and the good intention of the former governor is so huge that the cumulative cost of building TINAPA and the attendant loans that came with it is almost crippling the energy that is required to get it back to life.
You’re talking about the sociology of TINAPA, that you cannot operate TINAPA in the way it was conceived when the environment itself did not have enough economic heft to support it. I thought they wanted to support it with a lot of, like the Dubai, like tourism, like you want to have people pouring in. And it’s not necessarily the indigenes or the residents around that were supposed to make it what they wanted it to be but to gain a lot of heft from people who are coming from outside to help the economy.
Again, it would take a full day to simply explain to you why Dubai is a success story. Dubai is at the Middle East. The real centre of manufacturing today is the Far East. The consumption is in Africa and Europe. So, Dubai is in between the west and the Far East. And as Middle East, it serves as a trans-shipment point. Even if you look at your air travels, if I am going to US, I’m actually much more comfortable to go with Emirates from here and get to Dubai, spend a day or two, break it there and use an A380 and fly to the US. And so, there are other factors other than going to go and shop that takes me to Dubai. Dubai also did some social liberalisation that allows people from Bahrain, from Saudi, who come from very strict religious settings to ventilate when they get into Dubai and come back and wear their jeans and T-shirt and feel good. And so, some of those intricacies that if you don’t understand, you will just think it’s a big complex, beautiful shopping mall. No, it’s not a beautiful shopping mall but trust me, with the port that they built, with the duty free status of Dubai, it became easier for a man who is manufacturing out of China to now have a base in Dubai. So that the man coming from extreme west or Africa would stop in Dubai and shop. That is not the case. The name Nigeria is not the first choice for a man who wants to transit. Can he imagine a flight from Washington DC going to South Africa stops over in Ghana, not Nigeria. So, there is a mentality set, there’s an international perception of Nigeria. That factor was not computed in the calculus of the viability of TINAPA. There are so many factors I can list.
That means you agree with me that it was conceptually deficient?
No, I think if that same TINAPA was situated in Lagos, it would have been a success because the first thing in tourism is local purchase power. If you go to Disney World in Florida, Americans flock there. Americans don’t care if there is a Paris Disney. They’re just fine flying from Houston and go to Florida for their holiday. Nigerians would rather shop in London at a higher price than shop for the same good and say I bought it in Calabar. So, there is an inferiority (complex).
Just like the Chinese also do. They prefer to go to Paris to buy Louis Vuitton…
Yes, than to buy the Louis Vuitton in Beijing. So, we have this third world mentality, first generation inferiority complex. That’s why I still once more say I understand, the glitterati of TINAPA is healthy enough. So, what do I do? Do I allow all of that to run to waste, no. And that’s why I fought very hard to get the formal approval from Colonel Hameed who is the Comptroller Genera of Customs who sent a delegation here and made sure that he tidied us up. Today, we can ship into TINAPA. We have big emporia there that are looking for people for us to lease out. But seeing the difficulty in getting patronage for TINAPA. Even now, that I’ve finally approved a contract to link up TINAPA for the first time in history to national grid, it is obvious that it would still be difficult to have a lot of traffic to Cross River State at this time. So, what is the wise thing to do? Either turn it to medical centre of excellence or into a first class university. And that is in the offing which is part of why I was travelling across the globe looking for educational partnership to be able to bring full value. There is a team which is in town today. Tomorrow, they’re going with the deputy governor to inspect TINAPA for conversion into a university of advanced research and of advanced value. That’s possibly one way but it has come with its own pain.
Now, talk about Ayade Industrial Park. You have, very fascinating, this your rice structure, there with the fact that there would be seeding, there would be seedling, and itself is going to be a counter-narrative to what we have in Nigeria where a lot of the rice does not have nutrients. But yours are going to contain and restore the nutrients that can make our rice not just a matter of just filling te stomach with empty things and then you’re going to do that by even exporting for foreign exchange as you said, a way of trying to not depend on national, the hand-out from federal government every month. Now, with all of these you’re putting on, how are you sure this thing is going to be institutionally viable and also sustainable even after you’re out of office?
Definitely, it’s a very tough one. It’s a ‘Catch 22’ situation. But let me just help you to make it a lot easier. Nigerians have mentality set. You build a garment factory, 100% state-owned, if you sell it, you’ve stolen government money. If you keep it, by the time you leave office, your successor may not have the same steam and may not give it the same attention. Over time, it undergoes atrophy, senescence and it dies off. And so, the most reasonable thing to do to balance between your name, integrity and sustain the business is to evacuate each of the businesses that I have set up that has found stability, evacuate it to the full technical professional operators. Luckily, because I’m wise enough, I started my government by starting with my major projects. Contrary to the opinion that one would have thought that I should be more focused on rural roads, rural electrification, rural water supply and that’s what the people would feel, in order that I get re-elected. And I said no, I am not a politician in that traditional sense of it. I am looking at how to bring value. So, if I had started with all of those projects and they have all matured, 12 factories maturing in my first term. I have a full time to now nurse them to full independence and by the time they are fully ripe and now making profits, that time, Cross River State would now divest and recover their money, walk out and you would have created a private sector but government would have initiated, invested and set it up to that level. So, phase one, today, we have company out of India that’s interested in taking over the garment factory. And when they take it, they run it on a model where we have a percentage sharing. And I’m watching them and I’m setting a target, this is how much you’re to deliver to the state government. And if that starts to work, it’s already independent of Cross River state government under my watch. So, it will mature out and become self-sustaining. Look at the rice seedling plant. Last year alone, Central Bank spent close to N70bn on rice inputs under the rice anchor borrowers programme. Today, Cross River State has setup the first well certified seedling centre in Nigeria and indeed Africa. So, if federal government is really sincere and committed to agriculture, the investments I’ve put here would require that more than 50% of all that funds spent on procurement of seedlings and seeds for rice would now come from here. That is over N40bn. That is almost my ‘how many’ years allocation.
Your allocation is N2bn every month, about.
Yes, thereabout.
So, tell me, how can N2bn do all of these?
So, tell us, how has it been? You have answered it earlier that you do some kind of arrangements with people who can invest to come and invest but that does not really explain enough how you get N2bn virtually every month. You’re paying debts on TINAPA…
Let me just help you. Africans must come to an end with this their continuous dependence on money. Naira and kobo have never solved any problem just like when I listen to government talk about Foreign Direct Investment. Foreign Direct Investment cannot take a country out of the woods. No foreigner comes to invest for the prosperity of your nation. He only comes to extort. The true value you bring is when you close your doors and focus and bring in your intellect and bring out the best of your country. Isolationism.
That’s Trump…
That’s the model that has worked for China. That’s the model that has worked for Singapore. The Asian Tigers, that’s the model. I don’t know why Nigeria would continue to say, let’s… Why would we have our currency running at N360 to a dollar (US) when the factors that govern our exchange rate are not domestically controlled? They’re not within our control. The price of oil on the international market is fixed basically which is not a function of the internal economy of Nigeria. So, that’s why countries like Malta, small countries, they put an irreversible, irrevocable conversion rate between their currency and the US as law. Because in economics, if you say, let the forces of demand and supply determine the value of your local currency, you have no forces, you have no control on how to regulate other factors, other considerations. And so, if you take UK for example, there is a deliberate policy to make sure that the Pound remains a very superior currency but the Kuwaiti currency is much stronger than the Pound. What do they export out Kuwait? Nothing. So, I don’t see how Nigeria cannot one day sit and say, sorry, our main source of foreign exchange earning is from oil today and I’m sure that will be so for the next eight years. If that is so, this is the time for us to strengthen the value of our local currency. By the way, if you’re an investor, would you rather come to invest in an economy where you harvest tissue paper called Naira or you rather want to go to where the exchange rate between that currency and the dollar is strong? So that once you make money from there, it means a lot of money out there. I have had this discussion severally. And I think the president agrees with me very strongly that the naira didn’t need to be devalued. It didn’t need to. So, Cross River is focusing on massive production of rice seeds and seedlings including provision of agricultural services, tractorisation, land clearing, land preparation, planting and harvesting from Cross River Agric Development Company, CADCO. Another SPV, stand alone providing agricultural support services. You look at the pharmaceutical factory producing vaccines, drugs, tablets and capsules including syrups and what have you, focusing on the entire Niger Delta. Today, there is no pharmaceutical company in the whole of the Niger Delta. We got one starting today. And I’m just discussing only the factories you see. We’re putting a chocolate plant. The main cocoa processing plant is in Ikom being built by Beaulah which is the number one, the Rolls Royce in the food processing industry. The vitaminised rice plant is being built in Ogoja and today if you go to Ekori in Yakuur, you have our toothpick factory. If you go to Akamkpa here, you have our pile and pylon factory. And then, the poultry farms coming up in Obubra, and then you have our own Calavita, which is our own insta-noodles coming up and then you have Calatika which is our own frozen chicken coming massively. Now, what have I done? I have focused on food. Have you stopped and asked yourself? The world estimates that Nigeria would be the third largest country by 2050. By 2025, Nigeria would be hitting by estimation close to 300 million. We’re not going to have an expanding land mass. Vertical farming is still strange to us. Nobody is looking at food. There is a research work done by Cavinkare of Spain that shows that in Nigeria, West Africa, Africa as a whole, Sub Sharan Africa, the protein-deficiency is so huge that it would take thousands and thousands of factories to come in here to find ways of creating protein needs. So, we took yellow maize cultivation in partnership with a company out of South Africa. And we’re talking to American Embassy. You can see their consular here with me this afternoon to see how we can deal with some companies out of the US for the cultivation of grains. So, just come back in two months when we’re commissioning those plants, you will see what you’re going to experience. There is no way those businesses would not thrive. We have an order for $12m of Cross River cocoa because our cocoa is organic. I have just put an organic fertilizer production plant. I showed it to you. So, all of this on the Super Highway route. The whole intention is that we earn our dollar without looking at oil. You can see that the Industrial Park, you saw the German group, FEE, building the big power plant that would supply all the energy for the industrial park. And that’s why we’re using this opportunity to tell the entire country and indeed the world that if you have a piece of land in the Ayade Industrial park which is off the Super Highway, 15 minutes to the proposed deep sea port and four minutes to the airport, you have no electricity bills to pay because the power is 100 per cent solar with a two megawatts back-up lithium battery. So, you have 24 hours electricity. You will not pay a dime. You have no problems, you have no issues with diesel. Come take the land once you can set industries and create jobs. We’re a population of about four million people with over 65% of active young people under the age of 35. It is cataclysmic for me to focus on putting roads, rural roads, rural electricity when there would never be light, when the roads would run out in six months and when there is hunger. So, I’d rather put factories and industries that create immediate jobs. You were in the garment factory, almost 3, 000 workers. You were in the Rice seedling (plant), almost 5, 000 workers. You can see in a short while, I have created a job bank of almost 10, 000 people within the small enclave. And they’re not depending on government for survival. Even, if government would allow them some leverage and provide them a shoulder to lean on until they find their feet. And I’ve got five years to nurture it to maturity.
By saying that you have five years, you’re saying your re-election is a technicality…
No, it’s a given. You can feel the pulse in the atmosphere. You can feel it. If you’re not doing well, you’re not doing well. This is a state that has never owed salaries. This is a state that since I came in, I am not owing pension. I’ve just authorised the payment of 2014 gratuity, not pension.
You just paid May salary on May 1st after paying April salary…
Exactly. And you know, people forget, they say Paris Club. We operated as government for 17 months before the first Paris Club money. In that 17 months, I never owed one day. I have never paid salary beyond 25th of the month even when we get zero allocation. Check the records, there are times when Cross River State gets zero allocation. There was a month when our allocation (was) N800m and I see another state, for the month that I’m getting N800m, another state is getting N12bn, N15bn, N16bn. If I tell you the story of Cross River income, you’ll certainly think I’m mad for the kind of projects because people take every project from the perspective of money, money, money. Please, let’s let money rest. Use your brain for some time. You’ll see the superiority of the intellect over the muscle. Money is too…and I don’t know where it’s coming from. Everything is about money. And so, the black man is adrift in chaos. And so, there is no stability of character because the focus and issues of values are situated and celebrated around money. So, tell me, Ibadan-Lagos expressway, its dualisation started under Obasanjo regime. Today, I hear that president Buhari has just released money for the contractor to remobilise to site. That’s about 97 to 103 kilometres project. I’m doing 148km dualisation in my regime. When I announced it, it looked like it was impossible. I’m 80% complete. I’m done with the earthworks. Asphalting is just commencing. It’s awarded for N31bn. The other job, N167bn. That’s the capacity of intellectual engineering. And if you ask us, Cross River State if they have N31bn, again it’s a subject for you to come for a lecture on how you’re commoditising the intellect and bringing value to the table. How can you be paying salaries of thousands of appointees without owing a bank? In the first instance, Cross River cannot borrow because DMO, Debt management Office, will tell you Cross River State is over-indebted to be able to borrow. So, from day one.
Because you’re paying money every month, like N1.5bn out of your N2bn…
Yes, N1.5bn is just what you see. They’re irrevocable standing payments orders. They’re things like College of Education, things like Cross River State University of Science and Technology, ITF, so many other institutional salaries that do not fall into the traditional civil service structure that comes upon my shoulders every month. But I thank God that he has given me the grace that as I am seated here, I’m not owing and I’m not owing salaries. I’m not owing pensions. Gratuities, I’m paying on as it goes. Again, it is the grace of God but more importantly, the zeal, the commitment, the understanding that every Cross Riverian knows that before I became governor, I was known and I’m known for my personal wealth, from independent hard work, from selling my intellect. From being a consultant in the oil and gas industry, I rose to my own fame. And so, I believe that it is the application of that experience and knowledge that have brought into full utility and that’s why in Cross River State, if I ask them if I should pay salaries now, they would say no. And that is too me, my highest selling point that my people trust me so much that they tell me, where in other states, people are protesting and rioting for lack of salaries, Cross River, you have people protesting that the salary is coming too early and that they are eating off their money. And I take it with grim resignation, with deep excitement and glory to God for allowing me the ingenuity to get that opportunity to be able to pay salaries effortlessly. In fact, my citizens tell me that I have commonised salaries. This thing that is big issue is no issue in Cross River.
Please allow me opportunity to mention that Cross River State has written to the federal government to say when I came into office, because the oil and gas is my core background, I partnered with a company out of Ukraine and Russia and did a deep vision search over the Cross River Sate landscape and have identified all the areas with hydrocarbon deposits. My letters and applications, the reports and every document is before Mr President, seeking and pleading with the federal government to allow us a discretional licence to be able to explore, we’ve done the prospecting, to be able to do the full exploration, getting to advanced seismic and 3D and finalising with extraction. So that, we can indeed produce our own crude oil. That is still waiting. I’m also still waiting for the formal and final approval for the construction of the deep sea port. Now, I’ll like to use this platform to express to federal government, traditionally, politicians focus on only low hanging fruits just to be able to win elections. And you have a governor who is thinking deep and looking into the gaze into the future and because my opening remarks when I was being sworn (is) that ‘I would never let a Cross Riverian go to bed hungry on account of poverty.’ If a Cross Riverian must sweat, he should not sweat out of toil but out of pleasure. He should sweat, say he is exercising not because he is tilling so hard to be able to make a living.