SENATOR Abdallah M. Wali

Chairman Senate Committee on Economy

Senator Wali Comments:

Senator Abdullah Mohammed Wali (PDP Sokoto South) is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, an Economist and a holder of a Masters Degree in Business Administration. He was the first Senate Leader at the beginning of the Fourth republic who stepped down when Senator Evan(s) Enwerem was impeached in 1999
In this interview with Sunday Vanguard's Emmanuel Onyero he dives into his unorthodox economic solutions to the Nigerian economy, makes a passionate case for subsidy for the Nigerian farmer and affirms his belief in the ruling party As Chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee, how will you assess the Nigerian economy?

The economy has not been performing, as most of us would have wanted it to perform. In fact, the Nigerian economy in the last two or three decades has not witnessed the kind of growth that we have seen in economies of other developing countries like Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kuwait and other countries with similar background with Nigeria some three and a half decades ago.

In the last two years, really the performance has not reached any appreciable level. We will just say that there is zeal on the part of government, there is commitment, but it appears that the policy framework has not been perfected, to the point of seeing the direction that one can say is focused to the point of pushing the economy forward.

What will you blame for the lethargy in the economy these past decades?

Well, it is not that the economy is going down and down, it is just that it is like business as usual. That is to say that there is no appreciable improvement. So, in the kind of situation we are in, where we are desperate, for the Nigerian economy to pick up, because all the parameters are in favour of Nigeria. If you look at the population of Nigeria, look at the land mass, you look at the raw materials, you look at even the capacity, they are all indices that should ordinarily have been harnessed to see that the economy moves forward. So, I believe that the greater problem lies in refocusing of the economy in such a way as to gear it for rapid economic take off.

As Chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee, member of the Finance and Appropriation Committee and a member of the ruling PDP, what efforts have you made towards helping the refocusing of the economy?

Let's say that we participated (the National Assembly) in the last Nigeria Economic Summit Group which is a forum whereby the participants, both in the private and public sectors of the Nigerian economy, gather together to bring up ideas as to how to move the economy forward. We participated and we shared the kind of ideas that come out of the discussion.

I believe that emphasis should be given on improving the economic capacity of our lower layer of society and because we continue to complain of lack of capacity utilisation in our industries, the closure of so many manufacturing outfits. These are tendencies of the kind of purchasing power that exists in the economy.

Our per capita, income, one of the lowest in the world, has just hit the $300 level, (it has been below $300 for sometime), so you see the purchasing power is not there, there is no way the manufacturing outfits can even sustain their levels of production.

So, I believe that if the government address itself to the larger part of the population, from the records, even during the summit, presented by the Ministry of Agriculture, more than 70 per cent of the Nigerian work force, of the Nigerian active workforce live on Agriculture. And what you find is that from independence to date, there has not been significant improvement in the agricultural production of the average farmer in Nigeria.

It is not enough for you to say that we have a private sector led economy, government does not want to interfere, you have to develop policies that make people first become productive, become independent, able to feed themselves and generate income. It is what I call the layman's approach, because you are not talking about indices here, you are talking about the basic facts that will really get those people to come up. You have to do something directly towards them that physically that you can be able to see that you have put up mechanisms that can make them grow.

How will you assess the Senate in the past year?

I will say that it is fair enough. I always give the performance of the present Senate against the background of lack of immediate precedence. You see, in every set up there is what is called start-up cost. It is always there in everything you do. So in the fourth republic, it is a completely new Senate, new National Assembly, new government. But of course the executive as everybody knows, and the Judiciary has always been there except that they are elected or come by military fiat. The National Assembly has not been quite there. So, whatever kind of standards we expect the Senate to have, these first two years may not provide that kind of level of attainment that you will see in the future years. But I will say that so far, so good. I believe that performance against that background is fair enough.

I think towards the tail end of the Senate, there has been some effort at reorganizing the system in the Senate. The Committees have become a bit stronger, for instance, in this year's budget, emphasis is being given to Committees. That Committees should be funded for whatever kind of activity that they want to embark rather than the formerly centralized funding arrangement in such a way that you needed to re-convince and re-convince the leadership before they agree to a certain proposition that the Committee feels it should take in order to achieve its objectives. Now, there is more of liberalization in decisions to Committees

How will you assess the ruling People's Democratic Party?

The PDP has been assessed, as having so many problems from inception it has not been able to manage success. As with many organizations, managing success has not been an easy thing. You hear people talking of many things. I believe that the party has not been as stable as we would have hoped for. But I also believe that the strength is something that can be used to patch up all kinds of differences. You see the competition from other parties is weak and so, that strength the leadership of the party can easily use it to its advantage so that it continues to address the simmering crisis one by one.

The people, I believe would want the party to be the best party that they can continue to associate with. The alternatives are not strong. Although people have started voicing out options of other parties, I always believed that I would rather stay within and see how to improve whatever is within, because if many people are not happy with the performance of the party it then means that those people should be able to have some level of influence within the party. Right?

If you think of lets say creating a party, if you are strong enough to create a party, and make a meaning out of it, then you should be strong enough to be able to influence changes within your own party. So, I believe strongly in PDP. Very strongly and I believe that all the crises within the party are things that can be resolved within the party.