Interviews
Benue of Our Dream has been Relegated, I’m coming to Rebuild Benue Afresh – Shija
A leading governorship aspirant in Benue State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Terhemba Shija spoke to newsmen on his plans for the state if given the mandate next year.
Our Deputy Editor, Orkula Shaagee reports.
You are obviously not a new name when it comes to Benue politics or even Nigerian politics.
But for others who may not necessarily know much about you, kindly tell us more about yourself Sir.Shija: I am a scholar. I am also a politician. I am a writer. I have been around for sometime. As far back as thirty years ago, I won elections into the National Assembly; then, I was just 32 years old.
Consequently, I served in government as as Director Liaison office in Lagos. I have also gone into academics anon 17 years, I have been a lecturer at the Nasarawa State University Keffi where I am currently a professor of African Literature and Critical Theory. Of course I have schooled around here. My first degree was from Calabar in 1985. My second degree was from the University of Maiduguri in 1988; and then my doctorate degree at the Benue State University (BSU) here in Makurdi some 18 years ago. So I have been a home boy; I have also been a national figure. Occasionally, I have had reasons to represent this country and the state outside the country. So I have been all over the place. I have been a ready vehicle and vessel for people to use here and outside this state. Those are the basics about me.All right. Let’s get to know about your community development initiatives or projects where you come from. Let’s begin from Mbaduku community; that’s your immediate enclave and then Vandeikya local government area and Jechira as a block, Tivland and then Benue -what you have done over these years from the beginning of your political career till now.
Shija: Well, that’s an intricate question. You know, basically, we are children of the world. I wake every morning. I switch on my telephone. I discover that my WhatsApp is filled up with messages from different groups. As you have tried to specify, I come from Nyimangbagh.
There’s also a Nyumangbagh group, a Mbaduku group. There’s also a Kunav group. There’s Tiv group, and there’s also a Benue group. So, at different levels, at different segments one has an identity. So these aggregation of identities are in fact what represent modern day living. I will not be able to chronicle at different stages what I have done but I will be able to tell you that in practical terms, anywhere I find myself, I have been able to contribute positively. I won’t tell you specifically that while I was Commissioner I gave so many people jobs from my own home or my own village. But I can tell you that I have been an agent of change at whatever level I have been given a job to serve. Basically, my position now is to serve Benue and I want people to view me as a Benue son, a detribalised Benue son, somebody who is altruistic and is ready to provide development.
Okay. So, why did you move to the All Progressives Congress from the PDP. Politically speaking, you have more friends there and you have achieved their more. Why did you defect to APC?
Shija: Well, first of all, what are the basic differences between APC and PDP? There are people that populate these parties. The people have their own characteristics, their own idiosyncrasies. And they have their own approaches to life. So people go to places they feel convenient to win elections.
That is to say that there are no strict ideological differences amongst the many political parties and I guess there are as many as 30 or more. Now, I want to give you a little history of what has happened in this last or current dispensation of politics. It in fact, it all began in 1999. And in 1999 what happened was that virtually all politicians of different persuasions- marxists, socialists, capitalists, traditionalists- all came together to form an omnibus political party. At that time it was the PDP; I belonged to it. Now, this party was formed without any specific commitment to any philosophy or ideological thinking. Now the purpose was to galvanize all politicians to take power from the military who were so reluctant to leave power. And even at that, the military generals at that time decided that they were going to get a Military General to head that political party. That’s why General Obasanjo came in as the first President of this dispensation. Now, afterwards, elections were held, people won. They performed. There were those who performed well and there were those who didn’t perform well. And there was a need now to find ideological soulmates. So it’s not surprising that people have been moving from one place to the other in search of where they belong, in search of where their friends are. And consequently, its very clear that those who belong to the left are going to the left and those who belong to the right are going to the right. I belong to the left. A little to the left because this is where I began. It had the same ideological leaning with the very first party I won elections in. That was in 1992.
Now moving on, you recently unveiled your people – oriented blueprint, right?
Shija: Yes
Ques:You backed your presentation with facts and figures with a special emphasis on Benue’s rich Agriculture. What are the thematic areas captured therein with specific timelines of achievement?
Shija: Well, the catch word in the blueprint is “Agenda”. I have always emphasized that the Benue people have an agenda, so much in contrast with what other scholars and academics have said. Most Tiv scholars, most Benue scholars will sit in the public place and say we don’t have an agenda. I imagine that we have an agenda. We have always had one.
J. S Tarka had an agenda. You remember in the first Republic there was this aphorism that Sardauna of Sokoto was sitting somewhere in a chair in Kaduna and is putting his feet on the chair of the Benue people, the Benue valley. Now, basically, it was to capture a situation where we also need to have a seat. We also needed to have a centre of development . A hub for commercial activities. For political activities. So JS Tarka was looking for the Middle Belt region so that he would also become Premier of the Middle Belt.
Today we have more than we bargained for; we have Benue State which is a narrower region which is a subsector of what we were looking for. So we have an opportunity to realize our agenda. We have an opportunity to build Benue in such a way that we have to emulate what we thought was going on in Kaduna or in Lagos, in Benin and so on and so forth. We have an agenda. We have to build Benue. And that is what I want people to know. Now when Benue was created in 1976, which is precisely about 46 years ago, we were so lucky that the Military came in. All they did was to set up temporary Infrastructure. You know the Ministries that we have, some were still living in those shanties that Colonel Abdullahi Shelleng erected. They did some temporary sites just to kickstart the state. But when AperAku came in 1979 three years afterwards, he started laying some permanent structures that will signify that the agenda that the Benue people had was on course. Look at the structure of the State Secretariat for instance, you know it’s solid. Look at Government House. Look at the Hotel Aper Aku started building, a ten storey building 40 years ago. No other person has built a five storey house since then. So there were solid structures that were built by the founding fathers of this state.
Subsequently, Adasu came in, did extremely well but had a short time. And then Sen. Akume came in. I was also part of that administration. I was also part of the administration of Adasu because I was a member of the National Assembly. So these Patriots came in to build on the vision that the Benue people had. Akume, for instance, built the specialist hospital, what do you call it, Teaching Hospital and College of Health Sciences. You can see that these Infrastructures have fast degenerated. They’re in a state of disrepair. You can imagine that consequently, Governors have come in but have not done as much. So it appears that that dream has been abandoned. The Benue of our dream has been relegated. Now, Prof. Shija is coming to rebuild Benue afresh so courageously. We want to start all over and modernize Benue to that standard that those people who fought for Benue conceptualised. And that is what we are working on.
Ques: So, let’s look at the areas there, like Agriculture which you mentioned. How do you intend to achieve that, because every aspirant comes with the promise of making Benue an agricultural force in Nigeria and food basket as well but most of the times we have issues of budget processes and lack of implementation and all of that. So how do you intend to do that?
Shija: Well, it’s easy to sing a song on Agriculture because everybody says Benue is the food basket of the nation. Even if there’s an empty basket, we imagine it is the food basket of the nation. We have also constructed an edifice in the center of town to remind people that they are walking or driving through the food basket of the nation. Now it’s extremely difficult to talk about development in Benue without mentioning Agriculture. Because at least 75 percent of the people are involved one way or the other in the Agricultural chain business in Benue. And of course, we inhabit a land that is extremely rich. Thirty thousand square kilometers of arable lands which we have only been able to use only 35 percent.
Now, to imagine that our land is dissected by two prominent national rivers- the Benue River and the Katsina-Ala Rivers which began from Cameroon and terminates in Benue and at a confluence somewhere in Gbajimba, you know we are extremely blessed. We have the potential to feed this nation. We have potential to secure this nation in food production. We have a potential to raise enough agricultural produce and process them into finished goods and sell within the West African sub – region. So we are potentially rich. But we have been unable to explore that area of industrialization. Now, it’s not surprising that everyone talks about it.
But what are the plans?
Shija: I, first of all, want us to know that there are certain things that try to inhibit the realization of those goals. One, Land administration. Yes, we have this land but who’s land is it? Who gets it? Because you can’t just go and get your hoe and start digging somewhere. Before you know it somebody will bring out a cutlass to get you off. So Government needs to go into land administration and make sure that land is available somehow to those who are willing to farm. Government has to intervene and make sure that people have access to capital to farm. All these are embedded in my blueprint.
Government needs to intervene in the fact that once food crops are produced, they’re either sold or eaten or sent into storage facilities or sent into processing industries. Or sent into places they can be harnessed into international quality, finished products to be sent abroad. This has to be done with the intervention of the government. And of course Government also has to intervene in the export of this. The present administration was thinking in that direction but were naive about it. They only imagined that you could build an International Airport and everything will fall into place. But I think there’s an export tradition.
There are protocol you have to undergo before you get into the Export market. We have to observe all these things. Another thing that is inhibiting massive food production is Insecurity. Most of the arable lands in this state are insecure. Farmers have ran away. Others are staying in IDPs camps. We have to tackle the problem of insecurity headlong and make sure that lands are secure enough for people to go to the farms. And very importantly, we seem to rely on olden ways of farming. People have gone beyond that. There’s Technology. People have introduced various scientific ways of farming. And the basic one is irrigation. Nobody does irrigation farming here. So Benue people harvest only once a year. It could be more. It could be two times. It could be three times if irrigation farming is introduced which means that we are going to produce more than we have been producing.
But in any case, have we been doing badly? No! Benue is currently the leading producers of Cassava in the country. And remember, Nigeria is the leading producers of Cassava in the whole world. And if Benue is the leading producer, producing more than 25.6 percent of Cassava produced in Nigeria, then it means that Benue is the leading Cassava producing region in the whole world. We are second leading producers of Yam. We are first in the production of Citrus. Talking of Oranges and other varieties. We are first in the production of Soyabeans. So we could even do more if we consciously embark on an agricultural programme that will single us out as being the food basket of the nation. Remember also that there’s another strategy of specialist Agriculture. Those colonial days, colonial masters handpicked certain regions that were good at production of certain crops. Benue for instance was for Beniseed. And there was massive production of it and Soya beans. We have to go into that; make sure that we mount a campaign for the production of certain crops we know are doing well. And then throw them in the International market. This is what we are going to do.
You talked about insecurity as one of the reasons why we are not going to farms. How do you plan to tackle Insecurity? This administration took some steps like enactment of the Anti Open Grazing Law, creation of Livestock Guards and Community Volunteer Guards as well. But it seems the problem still lingers in many communities in Benue. So many people want to know. This is the crux of the matter. The attacks on Benue people and farmers by the herders. How do you plan to tackle that, Prof. Shija?
Shija: Thank you very much. Anywhere I go, in my campaign, I make sure that I address that issue. I try as much as possible to make it less complex for people to understand. One, it is difficult to talk about insecurity in public because security matters sometimes are not to be broadcast. But I tell you the basic things that need to be done.
First, you have to restore institutions of government that have been broken down. The local government system is completely broken down. I don’t know whether they still obtain Intelligence reports. Because these problems start from the grassroots. The Chairman should be in place. The DPO should be in place. The SSS intelligence Officer should be in place. And some of these problems could be nipped in the bud. The local government administration has totally broken down in this state and perhaps in the country generally. So the system is not working.
Gradually, the State government system is equally not working. Therefore, the system needs to be reformed. That’s number one. Number two, there’s a need to keep a watch. Right from the Bible, we hear about Watch Men. People watch over a city. People watch over a village. Yes, the State government doesn’t have a Police Force but you in your house I am sure you have a dog who keeps watch or you have a security guard that keeps watch. Why will a state government not have people who will be watching over the State? The Yoruba states have introduced Amotekun. That’s a prelude to State Police. So immediately I come into office, there will be a watchdog over the state. Call it whatever name. But we are going to safeguard this State from intruders. No two ways about it. The third approach will be that of Technology. It is not only about picking cutlasses to watch over a state.
There are several ways of watching everywhere what is happening and taking proactive actions. The fourth approach is dialogue. For goodness sake, Russia and Ukraine are fighting but are still holding dialogues. Every Nigerian that intercepts or trespasses our territory is a human being. We will ask you why you are doing that to our people. It’s not a question of all out war. We will engage the traditional rulers. We will ask them, why are you not discussing with your fellows across board? This is a multi ethnic nation, a multi religious nation. People are free to travel across board, but are also expected to respect the rights of other citizens. There must be dialogue. I will task the Tor Tiv. I will task the first class traditional rulers to engage one another in dialogue. And remember, Benue is not only engaged in cross border crisis; they’re also engaged in intra communal crisis. And it has been going on for long. I intend to set up a ministry specifically for humanitarian affairs, community development and disaster management. And they’ll be involved in all these.
Ques: Prof. Sir, A Tiv man would say that “”Icam ngi hemban doon u ungwan shazwa u or u nan gber i la”, meaning a song is best when heard from its composer. What did you do when you represented your Constituency at the House of Representatives?
Shija: We were in the house for less than one year, remember? We hadn’t even passed a budget. It was an experimental house; the Military was still in place. General Babangida was still in power. We were inaugurated quite alright but only in name; we were members of the House of Representatives but no budget ever passed through our house. And it will surprise you, my salary was #5000. And in any case, I needed not to be in the house to be of use to my people. As a public servant I calmed down and helped shape public policy in Benue.
During Adasu’s time, we would have had an excellent administration if Adasu had not been cut short. He stayed for just one year and ten months. But he was able to build for us a university. We had College of Education at Oju, and so on and so forth. So, I am not lagging behind. I answer my father’s name anywhere I go. And anywhere I am given an office, I make sure that I perform excellently well. I am a performer any day.
Some people accuse us that we politicians promise a lot, promise heaven and Earth but are unable to implement. That’s true! That’s why we should be worried when listening to all of us. There’s no politician that will come to you and tell you they won’t do this or that. They’ll always promise. In fact, they promise the impossible. But I also want you to know that this world is for dreamers. We dream. And if you don’t dream big, then you don’t belong to this world.
Americans had dream to of going to the moon. And they went to the moon. And if Benue doesn’t have dreamers if Benue doesn’t have people who are thinking ahead of this generation, then we have not started. For instance, in my blueprint, I dream that in the next 25years, Benue is going to host the Olympics Games. It’s a big dream. I believe that in the next 25 years, I may not even be alive but my administration will establish Infrastructures that will be available for Nigeria to host Olympics Games.
We are going to make sure that we have stadiums that are of that quality; racing tracks of that quality; swimming pools of that quality, and all other sporting events. These are my dreams. There’s nothing wrong in dreaming. And there’s nothing wrong in dreaming big. And the implementation. Of course, if I am able to gather the best brains, and I am able to check corruption – one of the bane of development is corruption. I am not a greedy man. Look at my lifestyle, then you’ll know who you are talking about. I will make sure that the right thing is done. And nobody steals our money. Whatever we promise, we are going to do it. And you’re going to smile being a Benue citizen, I promise you that. And then you talk about youths unemployment. That’s true.
Incidentally, Benue happens to be the state in the north that is one of the most enlightened. Our literacy level is 67.7 percent against the national average of 34.4 percent. So by all standards, Benue people are enlightened. We have four universities in Benue alone. We have other higher institutions of learning – Colleges of Education, polytechnics, name it! We have churned out graduates. PhD holders are going on the streets without jobs. That means we have a huge pool of educated people who are unemployed. Incidentally, these graduates haven’t got skills so I have the responsibility to give them skills. I have the responsibility to train them in one skill or the other. To provide the enabling environment for them not only to be job seekers but job creators. And of course, I am not going in to start employing people in the Ministries or other establishments. Those are Service sectors. We are going to the production sector. Industries will be created… and are you aware that the limestone deposits in Benue covers nine local government areas? From Sankera all the way to Igumale. And so we haven’t met the Cement demand of Nigeria. Remember, since the creation of Benue, no state governor has setup a Cement factory.
The one that was set up and later sold to Dangote was setup by the Federal Government. So I am going to setup as many cement factories as possible. Not just in the area of limestone. Are you also aware that we have gold and other solid mineral resources? So what are we doing? While we are there, there will be Centres of Development in Manufacturing sites. People are going to get jobs. We are going to build housing estates there. There will be massive activities going on. That is what I am promising the Benue people. And the youths won’t be idle. They’ll get engaged one way or the other, and crime will be reduced. Because once you are engaged you won’t be the devil’s workshop anymore.
Ques: With the backlog of salaries, pensions and gratuities being owed by the current Government. How do intend to solve the issue when you come in as Governor?
Shija: Yes, the issue of pensioners and salaries of workers and high debt profile. I am aware that going to the Government House at this time of our development, I am going to face that. It’s all over the place. The pensioners are there. And something that is very important I want you to listen to me carefully is that it is easy to talk from outside. There’s nobody who’s running that if you ask him he will say he’s not going to pay pensioners and he’s not going to pay salaries. We will all say we will. But the present administration has been unfair to us. They have not given us enough information on what is happening. We don’t know the records. We don’t know the wage bill of the state for instance.
Sometimes the government says it’s Seven point something billion naira. Sometimes they say it’s five point something billion naira. So we don’t even know. We don’t even know how much they make every month as IGR. But I can tell Benue people that despite lack of knowledge of the nitty gritty of what is going on, I promise that I will rearrange the IGR such that even without getting anything from Federal Government, I will fulfill all the obligations I have in Benue. That guarantees that I am going to pay salaries. I am going to offset pension’s arrears. And then we are going to introduce a new pensions scheme. And in any case, it is important that the pensioners are paid in full. Because this money is going to be pumped into the society. And it’s going to create a multiplier effect and poverty will run away from us.
Shija: I think you have really answered the question you have put across to me. The Constitution says local government should be administered democratically. But that the laws that should administer the local government should be made by the State House of Assembly. So as a governor, I have the prerogative to reposition the local government. What I will do is to set up credible institutions to do this. One, BSIEC will be given a new law. A new law will be enacted and the tenure of elected officials at the local government area will be three years. All political parties will be given equal opportunity to canvass for votes and win elections. Credible candidates across parties who win elections will have ample opportunity to plan and implement their programmes. So heroes will be created from the local government too, if they perform well. Heroes mustn’t only emerge from Government House. I will allow local government to function. But I will also keep a close watch of the system through the auditor general for local government. I will make sure that there’s zero tolerance for corruption. We will make sure that nobody tampers with local government money at the state level. All local government funds will go to them to execute their programmes. I will appoint a commissioner for local government to supervise the system.
Ques: Do you have a word for Benue APC members at this time?
Shija: I have been a Benue indigene since birth. I have lived here. I told you from the beginning that I am a home boy. And for exigencies of work, I have gone outside the state. I have garnered experience. I have laboured to develop myself. I have laboured to maintain a certain level of integrity. And I am engaged in this serious business of becoming Governor. And I want them to give me a chance. Yes, professors have come here and they have rejected them. At a point, there was contempt for academics, as if it’s a blessing not to go to school. But they should try a professor for once. And they’ll not regret it. The people of Borno have tried it and are not regretting. The people of Anambra have tried it and are not regretting. I have my identity, my personality and they should look at that. The APC card carrying members should go out on the appointed day and vote for me. Because this is the deliberate way they can adopt to bring up a candidate of their choice. I know there’s a hysteria going on. Certain people come and you see people shouting. But beneath it, there’s also reality. So I want them to know that I am the same old Shija. I have not changed. The same old principled person that insists that the right thing should be done. And I will not change that. I will rebuild Benue. That’s what I will tell my fellow party men.
Recently the president ,Nigeria Association of Auctioneers, Alhaji Aliyu Kiliya, spoke to our Correspondent Raphael Atuu, on the need to reorganised the Auctioneering sector and it’s importance to national economy growth. Alhaji bore his minds on issues affecting the sector and
stressed that only the association of Auctioneers can train and educate the public on the best practices which are accepted world wide, this and many others excerpt…
Question.
Answer. Thank you very much , my name is Alhaji Aliyu Kiliya, the president of Nigeria Association of Auctioneers, am from Zamfara state of Nigeria.
Question, How did you venture in the Auctioneering business?
Answer. It dated many years back,I have been in the business for over forty years, after my retirement from public office from Sokoto state, that is after working in North Western state of Nigeria , as secretary of Board of Survey,, I venture into the business, which I was elected the Zamfara state chairman of the body, I later became the zonal chairman of North West ,which I did two terms and eventually I was elected the National President, I have done my first term ,am going on the second term now.
Question. How is this sector important to national building?
Answer. Thank you very much . You know work is mainly to sell properties out to the public . The National Association of Auctioners have in the past ,raised money to sponsor 2017,2018, and 2019 budgets. This was made possible after I wrote to then president that we should be permitted to sell some national assets to raise money which we did. So,coming back to your question, if Mr president can allow us to do so, we can raise money through sells for the country and raise money to implement the budget, the wount be any need to borrow money for that.
Question, sir,I can see many of your members running up and down about training of the members by another institution?
Answer. Laughter. Is very funny how we play in this country. We are taking about a sensitive organisation which deals with important materials and properties guided by law,operate by given standard rules and regulations ,then someone or a group of persons will come in the name of institution to train people? The truth is ,only experienced members of Nigeria Association of Auctioners led by myself as the president have the right to train the public on best practices of the association .I advise the public, not to be misled by anyone to fall in trouble through short change information by any institution who is soliciting or calling people to come for training.
Question. As the president what is the way forward sir?
Answer . The way forward is for the current administration of president Tinubu to partner with us to increase the revenue for the government. These are things I have done for previous administrations and am ready with my team to do. One thing about the business of Autionering is that ,most of the government officials don’t know what belong to government even after the privatisation. For example, the managing director of Alcon once came to my office to appreciate me for putting him through and the money he made through the association. I also educated most government agencies that core assets remains government properties not buyers and money is made here too.
Question. What are some of your achievements?
Sir The achievements are a lot ,but I will mention a little , I personally stopped buyers from taken away core assets of public companies away, I also approached Bayero university Kano to have the public and our members be informed on public Autionering education in Hausa,Igbo,Yoruba and English, I was asked to bring the curriculum, we also have a bill at national assembly to regulate our practice, I recovered some government properties taken away by members of the public after government privatised some companies, I printed original registration forms for our members to stop forge members and impersonation, etc.
Question Aside the auctioniing, what other things do you do sir?
Answer. I do many things,am a farmer ,business man and consultant. Am a consultant with the bank of industries, also an agent with the Asset management debt recovery,,Auctionering consultant with the Transmission company of Nigeria, consultant with AG mortgage bank, retained Auctioners with cooperate affairs commission,,registered auctioner with NNPC,,Unity bank plc, and various public institutions ..
Question. Sir. With all these many years of practice and leading the sector from local to regional and national level, do you think you still what to offer ?
Answer. Yes!
Question. Like what ?
Answer. Nobody is tired of serving his father land ,especially if you love it. The sector is part of me and I have contributed all to make it grow to this level , though I have reached where I want it to be, my plan is to stabilise it to level of no misbehave by members, through quality education, practice the business with the laws governing it, working as a team and in unity, discipline of members, and above respecting the constitution of the body,so that nobody can wake up one day to come deceive our members and Nigerians . We also partner with EFCC, ICPC,Police,judiciary and other sectors in the country to operate our business, therefore we need to be always on the right track backed by law.
Interviews
Tinubu Needs Vibrant Media to Uphold Democratic Tenets, Build Progressive Nigeria–Dr Akwaya
The Federal Government has been advised to establish a Special Fund for the media industry in the country just as the one created for the SMEs considering the challenges confronting the news sector. The Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Asset newspaper, Dr Cletus Akwaya said the media is needed to strengthen democracy. In this interview with MATHEW DADIYA, Dr Akwaya, a former Commissioner of Information from Benue State, insisted that the government must discard the idea of treating the media as enemies or as rivals. The interview coincided with the 6th anniversary of the Newspaper published by Asset Newspapers Limited.
The Daily Asset Newspaper marks its six years anniversary since it was launched on the 12th of June. What would you say has been the achievements so far?
Well, it is a going concern. Six years in the journey of a lifetime can be said to be a very short time indeed. What we have tried to do in the last six years, is to lay a solid foundation for an enduring media institution that will address the needs of Nigerians and the needs of the people of this country.
So, if we are to count our achievements in the context of that foundation, then we can say that we have done very well.
Have we achieved our targets goals, our objectives? Certainly not. But as I’ve said, it is an ongoing concern, and every day presents new opportunities and new challenges as well. And ours is to continue to be well prepared, to continue to re-strategize, to re-energize so that we can continue with the journey. Building such an institution cannot be a day’s job and we are not pretending that we can have it all done within a day. So, it is a work in progress and I can say so far, so good.
Looking at the newspaper, when you launched it, a lot of people were doubting the ability to sustain it, surprisingly it has been sustained for six years. What magic have you done to keep it running?
It is magic indeed. Sometimes I even wonder how we have been able to navigate this difficult terrain in the last six years. This paper was launched on the 12th of June 2017. That’s the technical launching – when it went on the streets with our very first edition. And in that year, six months after that, the nation’s economy went into a recession. What that means is that there was no growth in the economy. Rather, it was retrogression and that affected all the facets of the nation’s economy, and I can say it without any fear of contradiction, that the media industry was the worst hit.
Particularly the newspaper segment, in the sense that with the crisis in the forex market which has continued till date, all the input of production for the newspaper were import-based, therefore critical items like the Newsprint, the plates,the ink, the computers, the softwares and all kinds of accessories including the platemakers, developing machines, and so on were all imported. None of these technologies were made in Nigeria. None of the raw materials is found or obtainable in Nigeria. So, we had a problem and it was not only Daily Asset’s affairs.
Many other newspapers faced similar challenges. Though, those that have been in the business for long, probably had developed shock absorbers and were able to contend with the shocks that came with the incumbent economic weather.
So, as a new establishment, we had to, as it is often said, think out of the box and make our mistakes along the line. We tried out some experiments, failed in some instances, succeeded in some others, all of which has brought us to where we are today. We are grateful to our numerous supporters, stakeholders, and staff that have been part of this journey.
The various stakeholders, including distributors and vendors, the printers and all other partners, suppliers. Most of them have to supply on credit and wait endlessly to be paid. It has not been easy, but I can say that with prudent management and superior strategy, we were able to stay on the beat and keep the journey going.
The media industry is transforming very fast, especially with the launch of the online media platforms, posing a challenge to the conventional media. What effort are you putting in place to transform Daily Assets and make it competes with other dailies?
It’s a challenge, not only in Nigeria. It’s a global challenge. With the advent of the internet and its penetration to the nooks and crannies of our communities, it has posed a challenge because the internet has now come with the new media and the social media, which has ushered in the era of digital journalism.
Now, as an organization, we started as a hardcopy newspaper, so we had the printed edition. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that accompanied it, we had to learn new things because of the circumstances. So we introduced the E-paper. The E-paper is a complete replica of the hard copy edition, which is circulated digitally or electronically, and it is very convenient because it can be read around the globe; in Europe, Asia, people can access the e-copy and feel at home, as though they were in Nigeria. What the vendor could not do, the places the vendor could not reach, the e-copy reaches there, and on time.
Before now, people who traveledl to their various villages on holiday may not have had vendors to supply copies of the printed edition of our newspaper, but the e-copy has solved that problem. We introduced the e-copy and that technology during the lockdown because people were not allowed to go out, vendors were not allowed to sell the papers, so we introduced the e-copy and it is doing very well. People get the E-paper delivered to them, and people come to our website at the www.dailyasset.ng to subscribe and obtain e-copies every day. That’s the innovation that we did.
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As you mentioned, the online media is one of the developments, and so we are not left out. We built a robust website and the Daily Assets website has a very commendable traffic from around the globe.
Sometimes it amazes me that when I go at the backend of the website and I try to analyze the patronage of the website, region by region, I discover that more people from outside Africa are reading our paper. You have readers from Australia, Canada, Russia, The Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, and sometimes from Asia reading our newspaper.
Oftentimes, I discover that apart from Lagos, the traffic from these countries outweighs the traffic from Nigeria.
I asked myself, is this paper an international newspaper? Because the readership online appears to be coming more from outside the country. So it speaks to the credibility of the paper, the quality of our journalism and production, and of our news and our style, which is breezy, friendly, also stylistic because we’ve trained our reporters in a manner that we present our news stories in a language that is easily understood by all. You don’t need to have a dictionary by your side before you read our stories.
We appreciate that we are not writing academic papers. We write in a way that the language is clear and there’s clarity of presentation in the way we handle and treat our news, so all this has been going for us. There are developers around the social media platforms, we have linked our website to most of the social media handles. Our website is linked to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and we are also linked to WhatsApp.
We are researching the possibility of linking with more social media platforms, so that wherever you are, whichever choice of social media is friendly to you, you can still access our website from there. So, that we have been able to do. Yes, the general feeling is that the online revolution will lead to probably the death of printed newspapers, but as a player in the industry I beg to disagree.
If you pick some of the advanced copies of the West, where the penetration of the internet is almost 100 percent, and where it all started, that’s journalism wise, even though the online appears to occupy a lot of space, more and more newspapers are being established. Where the circulation figures dropped initially with the advent of the social media and online media, the circulation figures are returning to their earlier status.
Not exactly in terms of the quantum; but rather than be on the decline, it is set for recovery so progress is being made. Readers have come to understand the distinction that exists between the online media and the traditional media. In the context of the Nigerian society, we have laws that still give traditional media the upper hand over and above the new media. And those laws cannot be changed overnight. It will take a very long time before our society or our legal system and the national assembly are able to repeal those laws.
For instance, we have a procurement law in the country which makes it mandatory for the procuring agencies of government to place tender notices in national newspapers. It’s a law, and there’s nothing anybody can do about that that place such advertisements in the national newspapers.
We have also by our laws, that alternative methods of service or judicial papers that quote someone’s subpoena and adders, notices of court and adders, are served when published in the newspaper.
These are the privileges that the online or digital media is not yet enjoying because the laws have not been repealed. In cooperation of trustees and even certain companies, and even dissolution of companies are winding up and receivership and so on, all of these before they can be consummated, the laws provide that communication or publicity must be made in the newspapers.
You have issues of change of name, for instance, all of these things must come to the newspapers. So, in a way, the newspapers still have a role to play. And then, the generation that grew up reading newspapers is still the generation that is in charge of Nigeria. Our president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, growing up, even though he schooled in America, back home in Nigeria, computers were not available when he was growing up. The newspapers were there, however. Former president Buhari and all other persons in leadership positions, especially the public sector leadership are people who grew up reading and relying on newspapers as a major source of information.
Before the advent of the online media, this is the orientation they had through their growing years and it has stayed with them. They are only adapting to the new media. The newspapers will continue to have their relevance for reference, for research because they are more reliable and sometimes they can be more legally acceptable. This is because the online media is so much more prone to manipulation. News items that are put out, in as much as they get to readers instantly, or as soon as events occur — which is the greatest advantage — may not be verified and could be changed at the whims of whoever is disseminating the information, unapologetically.
You will see an item you want to rely on the information, and the next minute, the information is changed and there is no apology. How then do you rely on this? Also, you have people residing in countries outside Nigeria, around the world posting materials online that are consumed in Nigeria. It is for this reason that even litigation is finding it difficult to catch up with these people who infringe on people’s rights in this regard.
Because, number 1: which jurisdiction are you going to apply in dealing with people who cross the red lines? If the person who made the posting resides in the UK, are you going to use the UK laws to try him, because the item emanated from the UK, but was consumed in Nigeria, so which jurisdiction are you going to apply in trying to bring justice.
So these are some of the challenges with the new media. So, we understand all of that and we believe that the public is also coming to terms with the fact that the newspaper is the father of journalism. The newspaper started journalism, and remains the father. The electronic, new media and others that may even come; the African proverb goes, “the son cannot be older than the father”.
Having spent six years so far, where should Nigeria be looking at Daily Asset and where do you want it to be in the future?
A lot has happened in the last six years with Daily Asset. We started as a weekly newspaper on June 12, 2017. We chose that date deliberately because this newspaper is to be a voice to the voiceless, and will stand to defend the tenets of democracy of a free and liberal economy, and of the rights and liberties of citizens.
So that people, irrespective of their creed, of their ethnicity, of their orientation, background, class or anything, should have a voice and should be able to have space to realize their God-given potentials and we are to support citizens irrespective of who they are, and to also hold the government accountable in line with the provisions of the amended 1999 constitution.
The media has been specifically charged in section 23 to hold the government accountable. To that extent, we have been doing that. Now, from a weekly newspaper, we transmuted to a daily on November 19, 2018.
This happened just a year and six months after we started, and from there we have not looked back. We have a program for the annual awards and lecture, which has also been running from the first year. We have had the sixth edition, and we are planning for the next edition already.
The annual awards is a platform for creating role models for the up and coming generation. We live in a country where there is a kind of ironic perception that there are no good leaders in Nigeria. Nigeria cannot be said to have all bad leaders.
Yes, we have a lot of bad leaders, but we also have a lot of good people too who are doing well in their chosen areas of endeavors. So, rather than emphasize on negativities, we should also identify people who are excelling in their areas of endeavors and try to project them, so that society should see them as role models, especially the upcoming generation.
So the idea of the annual awards is to celebrate achievers and people that have excelled, not just to glorify them but also more importantly to showcase them to the upcoming generation, so that they can serve as role models and a beacon of hope to society. I can tell you that this program has become very popular with Nigerians.
They are looking forward everytime to when the Daily Asset awards will hold, because these awards are shown on national television and are attended by people from all strata of society, including traditional rulers, political leaders, professionals and experts in various callings, diplomats, students, youth and women’s groups.
A lot of people now look forward to the Daily Asset annual awards and we hope that the next edition will come up in February. We hope that Nigerians will not be disappointed as another new set of leaders will be recognized and honored.
The media industry is becoming very competitive, and many media organizations are looking to having what one can call, a one-stop media organization where you have solutions to the media or communication needs of citizens.
We are coming towards that direction, apart from the newspaper and the various segments we have presented it from E-paper to the online to the printed edition and other social responsibility engagements that we have. We are also about to mount what you can call a Daily Asset podcast and an online television which will also provide visuals to the stories, to interviews, to the news, to documentaries, to special reports that will be aired on that channel.
This is a way of broadening or widening our horizons so that people who don’t find reading newspapers as friendly, may find accomodations in the television.
Arrangements are in place, and in the not too distance future, Nigerians will hear from us and will hear of the Asset Television, which will begin as a podcast that will cover news, and everything that covers the progress of Nigeria and the progress of Nigerians.
We believe that just like the Daily Asset has become a preferred newspaper for many readers, when that station comes on we are convinced that coming from the same stable, it will borrow from the success story of the newspaper, and within a very short time it will become an institution to reckon with. Nigerians have not heard the last of the Daily Asset.
You enumerated some of the challenges faced by Daily Asset and other newspapers in the country, the president of the Federal Republic is also a media owner – newspaper and television. What advice would you give him in terms of support to the Nigerian media industry, considering the challenges?
My advice to president Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not be because of his interest in the media. He is a democrat, we believe he is a democrat and that is why he has this opportunity to preside over the affairs of Nigeria.
And so long as he upholds the tenets of democracy and free speech, which is the cornerstone of democracy, of freedom of association, and of a transparent free, credible and acceptable election, and of a transparent electoral process that attends to the needs of majority of the people, not a select few, and so long as he enthrones policies that attend to the well-being of Nigerians, be they corporate or individual citizens, then a progressive Nigeria will be possible.
And to that extent, the economy will flourish and every other person will find his level to operate. To say that he should favor a particular segment against the other would be undemocratic. He is supposed to be an impartial president, once he has thorough economic policies, the media will also thrive. There was a time in this country where a newspaper like the Daily Times and the National Concord could sell a million copies on Saturdays.
The Weekend Concord sold 1 million copies in a day. There were times The Punch would sell 600,000 copies a day. There were times many newspaper companies would sell 500,000 copies in a day. Those times, we look back with nostalgia, not just because of the new media and it’s challenges we have just discussed, but because of the bad economic policies.
At this point, when he had that scenario, the Okwu Igbokwu newspaper Mill company, in Cross Rivers State was producing Newsprint and newspapers were getting the Newsprint locally. So it was easy to print and sell newspapers at lower cost prices. Now, everything is imported.
So, if the economy bounces back, it will be good to have investors producing the raw materials that we need. That would bring down the cost of production, and a lot of other things may follow. But we need to understand that the media will need certain economic policies that will support the media sector, because the media provides public education of mobilizing the people, informing the people, of giving orientation to the people even on government policies.
So the government cannot but look at the media sector and enthrone policies that the media operators will be able to find a more conducive, enabling environment to operate. Let me add that the newspaper is the most difficult business anybody can run in Nigeria.
The newspaper is the only product I know of, that is produced and sold below the cost price. I am not aware of any other product that a business man would produce and sell below the cost price. Whereas it costs almost a thousand naira or sometimes nearly 2,000 naira to produce one copy of a newspaper, a copy is sold at 200 or 250 naira, and yet people complain.
It is because they don’t even know what goes into the production of the newspaper. And in a situation where the national economy has suffered recession severally and many industries have closed down and the ones existing are only managing to stay afloat, the income and revenue from adverts is no longer coming, then the newspapers are left to be on their own, so to speak.
Unless the economy is rejuvenated, and that cannot be done in a day. If there are some friendly policies, for instance, duty waivers on import of Newsprint and other newspaper production items, that would go a long way in reducing the cost of production. Special funds could be created from the banks for the media sector, just as we have special funds made available for SMEs and agriculture.
These are facilities that media organizations should be able to access at reasonable interest rates and favorable conditions to make payment possible. There are various ways that I think the federal government can act to protect the media industry, particularly the newspaper.
It is in the interest of the government to ensure that the media thrives, because you cannot have democracy without the media, and that is why a former US president once said, if he were asked whether there should be a government without newspapers, or there should be newspapers without a government, he would choose the latter. Because if we have newspapers doing their jobs in the way it’s supposed to be done, then there’s no way government cannot be held accountable.
Once government are held accountable, the people will rejoice. And you can see that the media has been at the forefront of straightening our democracy.
You are aware in this country that through the interrogation and reportage of the newspapers, even speakers of the House of Representatives, Senate Presidents were forced to resign, ministers were compelled to resign because of investigative reports that the media brought out about their leadership.
Democracy needs the media, Nigeria needs the media. But for the media some of the so-called elected leaders would have turned dictatorial and authoritarian but were only restrained because of the media.
You are aware that a president was even alleged to try to perpetuate himself in office. In this country, it was only the media that made it possible for such tenure elongation that was unconstitutional to be stopped and nipped in the bud. We need the media to strengthen democracy, but the government must discard the idea or treat the media as enemies, or as rivals.
There is no rivalry, and there should be no enmity. The media is the watch dog of society. If the operators in the public governance do the right thing, the media will commend but if they do the wrong things and expect the media to commend or cover it up, I think that is where they have got it wrong.
They may be able to get a section of the media to do so, but of course I can assure you that the greater part of the media will always stand by its own tenets of objectivity, truth, fairness and social responsibility in the practice and delivery of news, programs and other services it renders to society.
The Minority Whip of the House Representatives, Alhaji Ali Isa JC, has assured that the 10th House of Representatives would work round the clock to halt the hardship confronting Nigerians as a result of the recent removal of fuel subsidy.
Isa who is representing the Ballanga/Billiri Federal Constituency of Gombe state, made this known in an exclusive interview with DAILY ASSET’s Eddy Ochigbo in his office at the House of Representatives.
He expressed gratitude to his colleagues for giving him the opportunity to serve the House as Minority Whip, pledging to serve in the interest of all Nigerians.
He also spoke on other burning national issues.Excerpts:
On his impression about the Speaker of the House of Representatives
“Mr Tajudeen Abbas, the Speaker, is very complete gentleman.
A man that has honor and dignity. The first day after the inauguration of the principal officers, he said his major concern, what the House can do would be to ensure that Nigerians that are facing a lot hardship are supported. He has started a lot of consultations with members. First concern is the removal of fuel subsidy. We are aware that Nigerians are facing a lot of hardship. Workers and even the unemployed are suffering from the consequences of the removal of fuel subsidy. But as a leader who is concerned, the Speaker has personally stepped in to see how we can make inputs that will bring about some palliatives to suffering Nigerians”.On his emergence as Minority Whip, a principal position in the House Representatives:
Let me start by thanking God Almighty for giving me the opportunity to even witness the inauguration and also thank my constituents for giving me the opportunity to be reelected as a member of the 10th Assembly. I feel very honored. I came to the 10th assembly just to represent my people and ensure that they get fair treatment the deserve. But after coming to the tenth assembly, my colleagues who are also my leaders across the country, also decided to give me another responsibility. We in the minority in the House decided to show to Nigerians that we are working together. We have four positions in the leadership, the Minority Leader, Minority Whip, Deputy Minority Leader and Deputy Minority Whip. The four positions; after so much consultations; we in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), were allocated with two positions – the Minority Leader and the Minority Whip, then the Deputy Minority Leader went to New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), while the Labour Party (LP) took the Deputy Minority Whip. We know that we have other minority parties, even though the PDP is more with more than one hundred and eighty members. Other parties are less than sixty but what we need in the National Assembly is have everybody’s vote to ensure that the Nigerian voice is head. So we said let’s start by showing leadership by example. So I thank God and honorable members in House of Representatives across the country for considering me worthy to occupy the position of Minority Whip. I feel honored.
Plans for Ballanga/Billiri Federal Constituency:
I don’t think being an APC controlled state would have any effect. Our major concern is just as I keep saying, now we are in governance, the time of politics is over. As far as I am concerned, it is what we can do that our people can benefit. If I lobby for hospitals or schools in other communities in Gombe state, every individual would benefit, no matter which party he or she belongs. The hardship we are facing does not know any political party. So as far as we are concerned, we will work very hard to ensure that projects are brought not only into my federal constituency but to other parts of Northern Nigeria because by virtue of my position as Minority Whip, I represent the north. The position I am holding is not only for constituency but across the country. So we want to work together, even if we are from different political parties, to alleviate the suffering of all Nigerians. Politics will not distract us from bringing development to our people.
On what to expect from the 10th Assembly and how to avoid becoming a ‘Rubber Stamp’
I don’t want to say much about 9th Assembly because I was not part of the ninth assembly. So I don’t know whether they were rubber stamp or not. But one thing I want to assure Nigerians is that we in the 10th Assembly are going to work for Nigerians. We are going to ensure that the voice of Nigerians will be heard, whether it is the voice of the majority or the minority. We will stand by Nigerians and we would work for Nigerians.
His Message to Nigerians
I will appeal to all Nigerians to be patient. We just received supplementary budget today and the major issue we going to consider is like I said earlier, is what would cushion the effect of the subsidy removal. What would reduce the hardship is now our major concern. So I appeal to Nigerians to continue to give us all the necessary support because this House of the 10th Assembly is the house of the common man. It is the house of all Nigerians.
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