Aganga charts path towards improving industry, trade and investment
With 17 parastatals, it would appear the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (MITI) has the largest number of government agencies in the country. By the way, I have always searched in vain for the meaning of the word ‘parastatal’ in any good dictionary, to no avail. I guess I must have missed the golden opportunity of knowing what it means or how we came about it in our civil service lexicon at the fourth edition of the media workshop for industry, trade and investment correspondents and senior editors of the local and international media held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, from November 7 to November 8. The workshop, with the theme: “Building a Greater Nation Through Sustained Transformation” was attended by the minister, Dr Olusegun Aganga, the permanent secretary, Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, as well as directors in the ministry and the heads of its parastatals. Since the event was well attended by the heads of the parastatals, it should have been a good opportunity for me to ask them what the word means and how come it is only in Nigeria’s public service that it has gained currency. Anyway, there will always be another chance.
And, talking about parastatals under MITI, one is not talking about some of those idle or irrelevant agencies of government but very crucial ones, especially in the area of developing the economy and weaning it away from its perilous dependence on oil and the vagaries of the international oil market. Here, one is talking about agencies such as the Bank of Industry (BoI), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Industrial Training Fund, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN), among others. The credentials of the heads of most of these agencies and parastatals are equally intimidating. Indeed, this was the impression I got on the very first day of the workshop when some of them delivered their papers and answered questions from the participants.
In this respect, Dr Aganga took the heat off my zone when he reeled out the academic and professional attainments of three of them, including that of the CPC boss, Mrs Dupe Atoki, on the second day of the workshop. Mrs Atoki, apart from the many national appointments she has had, had also served the African Union in diverse capacities including: legal consultant in the drafting of legal instruments; member of election monitoring/observer team to several African countries; commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, as well as the chairperson of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Africa. I singled her out deliberately because when she started her presentation and kept talking about challenges that are not making the consumer king in our (kind of) environment, I already gave her presentation the title “Lamentations of the CPC boss”. She however redeemed herself by the time she touched on the achievements of her council, particularly the celebrated case of the 39 air passengers allegedly abandoned by one of the airlines in the country without compensation or apology, which the CPC took up and over which it was challenged by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). I am waiting to see if by the time the matter is resolved by government, the passengers would still retain their crowns as the kings that they should be.
One thing that cannot be taken from the minister is his business-like approach to issues. Another is the open-mindedness with which he took questions at the workshop. For instance, when I took him up on his automotive policy, his response was not totally satisfactory to me but he had his own point. My issue is with the state of infrastructure, particularly power, which is crucial to the success of the dream of a cheap Nigerian car and all its accompaniments. While I thought we should have sorted out the power problem first, at least; he felt otherwise. My concern is exacerbated by the fact that some of these things crisscross one another; it is not something for a single ministry to determine. In the specific case of the automotive policy, loans and interest rate (CBN) will be involved; the power ministry will be involved, etc. The danger is that all the ministries and agencies involved might not have the same passion and commitment to the project, which will invariably tell on the end-result. However, the bone of contention over our respective positions is which comes or should come first. It was not a fundamental question of the desirability of the dream car.
There have been some firsts in the line of Aganga’s achievements. But I take personal interest in one. For the first time in about 100 years, the ministry has switched over from manual to automated registration of industrial property through the Industrial Property Automated System (IPAS) to improve the integrity of registration of trademark patent and design in the country. As the registrar, commercial law department in the ministry, Salman Mann said, “The automation is modern technology that would make it easier and faster for our staff and applicants in line with the international best practice as well as put the registry on the same footing with other registries in the world. It’s going to enhance our revenue and block all leakages and no process can be skipped in the course of the registration”, he said.
In essence, a ministry like MITI is not one to be left in the hands of just anybody. It is a strategic ministry that should be handled by a pragmatic helmsman who knows his onions, especially in the country’s diversification efforts, given the recent developments in the oil sector. Without sounding unduly alarmist, we must begin to think creatively and vigorously too of viable alternatives to oil revenue before we start drinking the commodity or before we start hawking it like we do pepper and groundnuts, seeking buyers at rock bottom prices.
However, there are a few things that I noted at the workshop which I cannot but touch on since two days were not enough to tackle all the relevant issues that arose from there. One of these is my observation that the ministry too believes this impression that the country’s huge population remains one key factor attracting investors into the country. This may be working for us now but there is need to caution that things must keep improving economically for this to continue to be, because what is important in the final analysis is not the absolute figures but the vital segment of the population; that is those with the ability to buy or make effective demand, as the economists would say.
The point may be made that if the ministry is this efficient, how come we are not beginning to see or feel the impact? Perhaps the answer can be explained by the fact that things are so bad that the impact of little drops of water here and there from a single ministry cannot be felt immediately. The important thing though is that the minister appears to know what his job entails and has charted a course that he believes would take the country to the Promised Land, at least from the point of his own portfolio.
Another important point that should be stressed is that whatever the major decisions reached at the yearly workshop should be summarised and implemented. In addition, the implementation must be well monitored, say quarterly, to see the progress made on them. Otherwise, the workshop would be like any other talk shop that the country is notorious for. I do not think there is any other country where seminars and workshops are held the way we do in Nigeria. The sad thing about it all is that we allow the papers and resolutions to gather dust in government shelves.
All said, one can only hope that the minister’s case would not be like that of the cockroach that wants to dance, wriggling its waist, but which the prowling fowl looking for cockroaches to devour would not allow. Succinctly put, my fear is that much as the minister seems passionate about the government’s transformation agenda; his passion to transform industry, transform trade, and transform investment won’t end up making him a victim of political transformation. We once had a power minister that many of us thought was leading us out of darkness only to wake up one morning to be told that he had to go. Yet, many people who do not know their left from their right are still sitting pretty in office where they are consuming unproductively at the taxpayers’ expense.
