Honorable Francis Ottah Agbo is a member of the House of Representatives, representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency of Benue State. He spoke with DAILY ASSET team on a number of issues bordering on his sojourn into journalism and politics, and his experience as the chairman of the House Committee on narcotics and drugs.

 MARTIN PAUL & ORKULA SHAAGEE were there.

 You were a journalist, now a politician. What are your experiences?

 Thank you, it has not been easy because politics in Nigeria is murkier than the journalism world and the reason is simple.

In politics, 2+2 will not give you 4, it may give you 22 or 22+, or it may give you zero. But in journalism, it is not as bad as that. The only problem in journalism is that the more you strive to publish, the more you are confronted with three major problems. One is the ever-declining Nigerian economy. If you look at the media map of Nigeria, you will know very well that newspapers thrive more in places like Lagos, Kaduna and maybe Abuja, and the reasons are that this is where one or two activities still take place.

Those who went into Newspaper publishing those days did better because the economy was far better because there were factories but today the factories are all gone, and that is why I salute the courage of the CEO for sustaining the paper.

The second problem is competition. Even in the best systems, the online is a major threat to hard copy. Despite that, it is very difficult to most people, including myself to rely on the online version because I read the hard copy every day and actually do the content analysis; and that’s why it’s going to be very difficult to eclipse the hard copy.

Look at what is happening now, the hard copy is still gaining some level of popularity again; and any medium that is strictly online, it is very difficult for it to get adverts the way a medium that publishes both online and hard copy gets adverts. So, that is why most publishers strive to keep the fire on by way of producing the hard copy.

Apart from the online competition you also have the problems of news print and advertisers not willing to pay for the adverts. So, for those of you who are into it, any iota of support that we are able to give, we will give, and continue to give.

So, talking about experience; as a journalist, I always say I reported politics and that exposed me to a lot of politicians. So, I am simply in a field that I had a premonition that I will venture into it by virtue of the association I enjoyed over the years. I had experience holding meetings with governors, commissioners and former presidents and interviewing them.

So, I have come to a conclusion that journalism is a profession beyond compare, because that’s a profession that if you are in a beat that requires you to interview a president, you will do it. No other profession opens door like journalism.

So, I am in a place I actually prepared myself to be and I am enjoying myself. I have reactivated the contacts that I built over the years; the only difference is that why in journalism if you do good stories or investigations you’re appreciated, in politics every good intention that you have is misinterpreted, and it is a thankless job.

For example, before I was inaugurated as member of the National Assembly I paid millions of Naira to supply high breed cassava stems to my constituents, and some people who were out to attack me started calling me cassava lawmaker, and I told them that unknown to them that was a big publicity to me. It is a good thing that we are talking about local production and you have a lawmaker supplying high breed cassava stems to his constituents and you call the lawmaker cassava stem lawmaker. He is happy that he is doing something different because agriculture is a sector that any lawmaker that invest in it means well for his people.

So, journalism and politics are good because for you to make a mark and empower your people, you must venture into politics.

Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State appointed you his Spokesman, an indigene of Benue State, a rare thing that happens in this country. How did it happen because it requires a great level of trust?

In Nigeria, it is very difficult for a northerner to be accepted in South-South because we northerners are seen as exploiter, they see us as people who have held the country down, who have been ruling them. So, the number one problem you face while in the Niger Delta is you have come to plunder them. So, when I got that appointment, I made sure I restricted myself to what concerned me.

Today they are very happy because when I moved the motion on the problems confronting the Niger Delta the Speaker called me and asked whether I did a research, and one of the things I said was that Nigeria is the only country that relies on oil as its main stay but allows it’s oil terminals to be inaccessible to motorists. That is the irony of this country. Where you get your wealth, you allow the oil Wells to be inaccessible. For people to access them they go by sea or ocean.

If you go to Oloigbiri, you can use it as a metaphor of all the challenges in the Niger Delta. So, I started rolling out the names of the oil terminals in Nigeria that are inaccessible like Brass, Folcados, Bonny, Akoroga and Kaiama. So, all my stay in Bayelsa is a blessing.

I went there in the trying moment of Governor Seriake Dickson. They wanted to jail him and they said he stole N150 million library project funds when I was Editor in Lagos, and the people who wanted to jail him came Lagos and shared more than N300 million, so I refused to take the N3 million that was given.

I asked them you said you want to investigate N150 million and what I seen you spent here is more than N300 million, so are you actually investigating N150 million? I told them there is more to it than what the eyes can see. I rejected the money.

The next day, while other newspapers reported that Bayelsa Library Contract: N150 million missing, I did my investigation and reported that, Bayelsa Library Contract: N150 million not missing – state Attorney General. My story was different because I investigated and got a verified true copy of the handover report and saw that the contract was awarded but money was not released.

So, when I did the story, Dickson didn’t know me but he started looking for my number until he got my number and said I am going to be his friend. But he didn’t make me his Chief Press Secretary because the people said it must be an indigene, until in his second term, he now made me his Chief Press Secretary.

So, I think we should encourage ourselves to be doing that. If you’re from Benue State, you can appoint a Zamfara man to be your Chief Press Secretary or any other position. The take away here is that we should deliberately grow the peace of this country. In South Africa they call it Obontu, and that philosophy must be enthroned here. The former Attorney General of Kaduna State, who is now late was from Nembe in Bayelsa State and that is how it should be.

In the cause of your practice as a journalist, what challenges did you face that you would like to share with us?

One of my challenges is that most politicians don’t keep to their words, and that is my major problem. I ran an election in 2015 and was almost going in, and someone asked me to step down that he would support me in 2019, but when 2019 came, he asked me if I want to contest. So, it is a major issue.

Number two is that it has been difficult for me to be accepted into the main stream. If you say it as it is, most politicians will not be comfortable with you. So, my experience is that most politicians don’t keep to their words; and my experience is that because of the many years of broken promises, the electorates have now turned elections into a bazar and they ask for money openly. If you don’t have money, they don’t vote for you, so you see yourself going into vote-buying. That is the irony of this country, that is a major threat to democracy in this country because if a politician spends all his money buying votes, when he goes in, he would like to recoup the money to pay the debts.

So, my charge to the electorates is that they should search their conscience and vote for people who can turn things around for them.

What was the motive behind the distribution of cassava stems to your constituents?

I actually wanted to enhance food sufficiency and also wanted to link my people to the global world so that the world will know that they have sophisticated cassava stems. so, I saw the need for my people to enjoy improved varieties, as well as improve the economy of the grassroots people, many of whom are widows and orphans. don’t forget that by December this year, the first disbursement of the four years salary I donated to them will take place.

How do you think the electoral process in the country can be improved upon? Of course, you mentioned vote buying, but there are others like the role of the security agents and the electoral umpire – INEC?

First and foremost is the Electoral Act amendment. Like the Speaker said the Electoral Act has to be amended and sent to Mr. President for assent. Let’s go back to electronic voting, if we do that, we will solve a lot of problems, but the issue of vote buying I don’t know how we will do it because of the declining Nigerian economy.

If we must tackle the issue of vote buying, we must tackle it using the tool of education because if you tackle electoral fraud by way of rigging, before electorates go to vote they will ask for money. But I want to say that amendment of Electoral Act and massive education will take care of it, and the economy has to be good.

A governor once told me that I should not blame governors who don’t embark on projects execution because he once gave scholarship to so e students to study abroad, but on the day of election the parents insisted that he must give them money.

What have you found in the narcotics and drugs since you assumed as the chairman of the committee?

In fact, let me tell you that 24 hours will not be enough to discuss drug addiction in Nigeria. The situation in Nigeria today is that if we fail to destroy narcotic drugs addiction, narcotic drug addiction will kill Nigeria. Over 90 % of crime and criminalities in Nigeria are as a result of narcotic drugs addiction. Unfortunately, while the consumption of narcotic drugs progresses at geometric progression, the means and strategies for combating narcotic drug addiction are slowly; and the reason is simple, the organ and structure put in place to combat narcotic drugs is the NDLEA, but the NDLEA having been created in 1989 still lives on charity. They don’t have vehicles, sniffer dogs and scanning machine, the two that they have were donated by foreign nationals and it was only recently that they started receiving vehicles from state governors.

The NDLEA as I speak now still uses arms and ammunitions used during the Nigerian civil war. The most recent weapons used by the NDLEA are the ones manufactured in Kaduna. Vehicles distribution in Nigeria is one to six local government areas, so, it is an alarming situation. We have only 8 sniffer dogs in this country and they were donated by the Germans.

Since creation, the NDLEA has never conducted nationwide recruitment, so personnel availability is two personnel per local government. The only recruitment they are to do now, which has just been approved. They are now in the ministry of justice and the envelope system is that the money goes to the ministry and they now give them their envelope. Now they have N8 million that they use to as salary for officers, so when the ministry gives them the envelope, they pay staff salary and every other thing suffers. So, how do you fight drug traffickers in that kind of situation? You don’t have arms, vehicles, you are not motivated and even understaffed and under-funded.

So, drug addiction is a major threat to our nationhood and if we don’t work hard to tackle it, we are going to be in trouble.

What do you think the Nigerian economy stands to benefit from the January to December budget cycle being pursued by the National Assembly?

In the last tenure Mr. President kept saying that he had a confrontational National Assembly, and my thinking is that didn’t do much in the last four years and everybody knows it, such that even the Nigerian military resorted to spiritual warfare in their attack on Boko Haram. So, there is the need to give absolute cooperation to the President because if the economy is good, it is good for all of us irrespective of part A or party B.

So, the whole idea of January to December is that the Executive feels that it will be better for Nigeria, and that was the budget cycle in those days. So, everything they want should be given to them.

Now, to answer your question, it will give confidence to investors, stabilize the economic sector and enable the Federal Government to release everything because they have been complaining about the failure to release the budget 100 percent to the ministries, agencies and others.

If the budget cycle is from January to December, the expectation is that the economy will pick up and investors will not be left in quandary as to what will happen to the economy.

So, we expect that the Federal Government will sit up properly and do the needful and take Nigeria away from the back Waters.