Gbenga Akinwande is a philanthropist and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State. In this interview with IFEDAYO OGUNYEMI, the former House of Representatives aspirant spoke on the economic and political developments in Nigeria, challenges ahead of President Bola Tinubu among other issues.
May 29, 2024 marked 25 years of interrupted democratic rule in Nigeria. Politically, what would you say are the greatest improvements we have made as a country?
Well, we could applaud ourselves for sustaining 25 years of interrupted democratic rule. Most particularly, we must commend the military for its maturity to stay out of power. Honestly, the last 25 years have been a total disappointment, when we juxtapose it with what we went through between 1984 and 1999 under the military. No tangible improvement has been made both on socio-economic and socio-political fronts in the last 25 years.
Nigeria is currently in political and socio-economic crises which have been attributed to many causal factors. What part does right leadership play in this?
Nigeria’s problems are both leadership and followership. Ever since, we have not seen any president in our country that has made the right decisions for our country. Many of our previous leaders got into positions without putting the country first ahead of their primitive interests. The post-1999 followership in our country has been docile in nature. The followers have forgotten that they have greater roles in helping to rebuild the country. The fact remains that many of the people leading us in Nigeria both at the national and sub-national levels are grade D and E thinkers, with no capacity in quality thinking, whereas other countries of the world are led by grade A thinkers. The poor-quality leadership recruiting processes in Nigeria are results of poor and docile followership. The economic crisis going on currently in Nigeria is unavoidable and we are beginning to witness a transition where grade A thinkers are attaining leadership positions. The process of changing the course of the country to prosperity will bring some hardships and interregnum as currently witnessed in the country, but with perseverance and endurance, we shall all laugh at the end.
How can it be remedied?
Remedies could be provided when we all begin to show seriousness in the leadership recruitment processes and getting involved in politics, with the hope of getting the best among us into leadership positions.
One issue that has degenerated right in our eyes these past years is the issue of minimum wage. In your estimation, what should be the minimum wage in Nigeria?
I cannot put a figure to that, but minimum wage should be based on reality on ground. To determine minimum wage, we need to put inflation and other economic realities within the country into consideration.
Do you think it is feasible for Nigeria to have a minimum wage higher than N250,000?
Yes. Going by the current inflation and economic hardship, a minimum wage of over N250,000 is advisable; but realistically, it is a tall dream because Nigeria cannot sustain such a wage. What the government should be occupied with now is how to rebuild our economy so that industries can spring up across the country. With that, citizens can have more than one job as applicable in western democracies.
In the past one year, many people have been subjected to hardship occasioned by some of the policies of this administration. How would you advise the presidency in order to give the people a new lease on life?
We should commend President Tinubu, because to me, he is the most courageous and the only deep thinker of all the presidents we have had since 1999. Though, some of his decisions may not have produced the desired results immediately as expected. My advice for the president is to have a rethink on some of those policies, and if possible, policy reversal wherever necessary. I say this because if the hardship in the country continues for the next one year, our party might run into turbulent waters come 2027 general elections.
Prior to the inauguration of President Tinubu in May 2023, I advised the president to run the country as a socio-economic enterprise rather than as a business enterprise. I also advised the president to ensure that local government autonomy should be a reality within six months of his presidency. I am happy today that the president has taken some practical steps on this LG autonomy, but more needs to be done on this autonomy. The presidency needs to come up with universal programmes that can be implemented across the 774 local governments to stimulate, and jump-start economic growth across these local government areas with a minister of state for each region assigned to checkmate the hyenas and snakes at the local government levels that might derail the objectives of such mission.
There has been a recurrent agitation for restructuring and regionalisation, as some believe these will help with moving the country forward in terms of real development. How do you think your party should respond to this?
I totally subscribe to that school of thought, but I think we should just simply go to President Jonathan’s organised National Conference report. If we do this, this country of ours will become a great and serious country.
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