Ned Nwoko, is a former member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives (Aniocha North/South and Oshimili North/South) and founder, Ned Nwoko Malaria Eradication Foundation. In this interview with 365Daily’s Gabriel Atumeyi, the billionaire advocate of malaria eradication in Africa bares his mind on the recent threat to his life, as well as his dream Sports University, the Paris Club refund, politics, and other related issues.
You alleged a threat to your life because of a land tussle in your ancestral community in Delta State; can you tell us about it?
Of course, that is it. Just because you have disagreement over one or two things does not mean you should plot to kill people. You have no right to somebody’s life. There are certain ways out of this. The first is the kingship issue, which was resolved about two weeks ago. The traditional rulers have chosen a new king, so we are all supporting the choice of the traditional rulers. We hope that in the next two weeks, he will be enthroned. The other issue is about land. It is not really an issue. It is just a propaganda by them. They were trying to hide under lies and hatred. There was never any issue about land; land was properly applied for and properly processed through the late king and his chiefs. All the chiefs are still alive today. Committees were set up and MOU was signed with the town and we got a Certificate of Occupancy for the land and then we did everything properly. So even they, the other side being supported by Gabriel Ogbeche, wrote a petition to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), about this same land issue and even in the police report, I was absolved by the IG’s monitoring unit. So they just wanted to cause crisis in the village. The police report also said they should be prosecuted for lying and misinformation.
On the Chieftaincy matter, in 2017, when the king died, one of his sons wanted to become the next king but I wouldn’t support him for reasons best known to me and all the chiefs were supporting me. They felt he wasn’t qualified to be their king, just as it was proven by the traditional rulers’ selection. They didn’t select him, so what he did, he brought in over 30 thugs to unleash mayhem and terror. Killing two people and destroying 29 houses. Notable chieftains in the village and some of my relatives were maltreated in the process. They later identified the thugs who were arrested and charged with offenses and for killing the villagers. Fourteen of them. And they appeared at the Federal High Court, here in Abuja. The trial is ongoing, so they were remanded at the Kuje Prison. I support their prosecution and that is where the alleged plot must have begun to fester before it got to my knowledge.
Let’s look at politics. What is your view of the state of the nation? There is an agitation that the 2023 Presidency should move to the South. I saw a report sometime back and your name was included. How would you assess the 2023 presidency clamour?
Let me start by saying I am not one of those that believe in Hausa or Igbo president, or Yoruba president. I just believe that the best person should be elected to address the many problems of Nigeria. There are many problems in Nigeria. The ball is actually in the court of the people. At the right time they must decide if they would continue with the status quo, the way things are being done, or are they going to go for new brains, new ideas, new policy makers that can make a change in the economy of Nigeria. The problem of Nigeria is not really about tribes or religion or true federalism. Or whether we have a president from Anambra state or Adamawa state, or Lagos state. Those are not the issues. For me, I always talk about the problem of Nigeria coming down to the economy of Nigeria. The economy of Nigeria is really not an economy in the real sense of the word. You know, if you look at the indices, other countries, where people are gainfully employed, where there are opportunities for everybody, we don’t have that in Nigeria. The economy of Nigeria is at a standstill. Just because people are buying cars or buying airplanes or building houses doesn’t mean that the economy is moving. Graduates and even nongraduates abroad, when they get employments within three months of being employed, for instance, they have access to financing, access to credits. So, a young graduate or artisan or driver who has a three-month salary should be able to get facility from the bank. To get financing, to get a mortgage to buy a house. A house that is commensurate to your salary, your income. You should be able to get finance to buy a car commensurate to what you are earning. Everything about the economy is wrong in Nigeria. That is to say this is the problem of the fiscal sector. The fiscal sector is the biggest problem we have in Nigeria. The banks are not functioning as banks. There are no mortgage companies. There are no finance houses. The insurance companies are dead. The sector is dead. The stock exchange is almost dead. It is just there ceremoniously. Any government that focuses on the economy, this area would make lot of progress for Nigeria. In fact, this area alone can employ no less than 10 million Nigerians within two years if properly managed. The banks cannot on their own be imposing interest rate of 12 percent, or 14 percent or even more. Government has to come in and regulate them and fix interest rates, and it is a very simple thing to do. Government should have a taskforce that will deal with this sector. Once it is done, you will see the economy growing.
Practically all houses in Nigeria are built and bought by cash. That cash is not helping anybody. It is just sunk in there. That cash is not part of the economy, you the owner of the house cannot use it to borrow money. To say take this house and give me facility. Abroad everybody goes on holiday, and those who can’t afford it, take finances from the bank to go on holiday. When you come back, after six months you pay. So, this sector, the fiscal sector, should be the driving force of the economy. When people are gainfully employed, they become responsible citizens. You know, we talk about Boko Haram, we talk about herdsmen, we talk about 419, and the rest of them. But the fact remains that this people did not choose to become those things because they love it. It is principally because of the economy. The pain they feel, the frustrations they feel. The bitterness they feel. So, there is urgent need for the government to focus on the economy because when the economy is good, when people are gainfully employed and receiving proper salaries, including journalists like yourself, they will be more law abiding, crime rates will fall, things will work out well. The few times I have had interviews in the UK, and elsewhere, with BBC and the CNN, you know what? After the interviews, they send money to me. They pay me for appearing on their TV channels. But in Nigeria, it is not like that. So, it is part of the economy. That is not to say it is the fault of government. It is the fault of the system. We are lucky that we have a very good country, geographically speaking, the weather is beautiful, we produce many things here. We just need to address the economy properly, and you will see the difference. In the UK, a graduate gets a job and gets a mortgage of financing, they are more likely to stay in their jobs for 10 to 15 years, 20 years. They become disciplined, they don’t want to lose those jobs because lack of it leads to trouble. So, it pays them to be honest and work hard. There they have a clear vision of what life holds for them. But here, there is no clear vision. Everybody is running around in circles and this is not good. The time will come when you will have to choose the right leadership that will give you what you want. Let me say this, I admire current President Buhari. You know why I admire him? I love honesty and he is an honest man. Yes, age may not be on his side. Poor health might be a problem, but we all have these challenges. If he had become a president at a younger age of say, in his 40s, there would have been a lot of difference. You know what he did as a military head of state. It is not just about the president being a good person, everybody around him needs to cue in and deliver for the interest of the people.
Can you tell us how you came to be associated with the Paris’ Club refund?
Paris Club work began as far back as 2002 with Boni Haruna, Jolly Nyame of Taraba state. Governor Kure of Niger state, now late. Peter Obi of Anambra state, Elechi of Ebonyi state, Ohakim of Imo state. These were the governors that gave me the support. You know, it began from nowhere. In the House of Representatives, there was a day I had a meeting with the president and others. We welcomed Wolfgang. Wolfgang was the World Bank President. He came to Nigeria and from nowhere, he said that Nigeria was owing 35billion dollars. Between two weeks, we had a meeting with Atiku Abubakar, the then Vice President of Nigeria. Atiku said no, what Nigeria was owing was less than 2.5 billion, but I felt that the two of them were wrong. That is why I made further case for the president to review all our foreign loans and you know, the rest is history. Through that work, with the help of the Ministry of Finance and others, we were cleared from foreign loans. But before then, many of the governors could not deal with the monthly deduction from their allocations. Direct deductions were being used supposedly to finance foreign loans. But one thing that Obasanjo did and I give thanks to him, was that as soon as I told him that federal government should stop deducting money from the monthly allocations of states, he agreed. That meant that states had more money to deal with things. So, the next challenge was to work out how much the states had overpaid overtime. For example, by the time I began doing the work, according to the federal government’s figure, Abia state was owing over 500 million dollars. Abia state alone. I am using Abia as the first state alphabetically. By the time we went to court in London and other places, we discovered that Abia state was owed a refund of over 300 million dollars, and the same story went round all the states. The Local Governments never borrowed any money, they never borrowed any penny. But the money that was meant to be shared between the three tiers of government, what they call first line charge; They would, every month, take money. If there was about one trillion naira to be shared among all the states, they would take about 10 percent to service foreign loans. I said that was wrong, you cannot be taking money belonging to the three tiers of government to service loans that the local government did not take, so I took the federal government to court as well.
Apart from taking them to court on behalf of all the states, at the end of the day, the local government and states were refunded just over 13 billion dollars. They have been refunded everything. So, the issue you heard or read about just came from some individuals who say they are now the new interim management Committee of ALGON. Of course, I know there is nothing like that. They are just busy bodies who just wanted to raise some dust. I don’t need any court order to be paid for what I have done. Because I already have all the judgements and federal government has been paying. So most of the things you read are not true. I just believe that we have some enemies there, who would cause problem by saying things to the media. The fact is that I have done my work and money has been refunded fully to the states and local governments and I deserve my fees, just like you. You work every month, you get paid. Isn’t it?
Let’s talk about the University that was mentioned in relation to the contention in your locality. What will happen to it now?
The University work is going on. We have done almost 95 percent of the work. Everything is going on according to plan. We just missed out of the (NUC) recent list because they have not done the last visit. If they had done the last visit, which they had proposed some weeks earlier, our name would have been there. But I can assure you that the university has come to stay. It is a very unique university, by the way. It is the first university that will offer sports programmes across board. We are looking at Olympic standards sports. There is no such university or institution in West Africa. We have many young talents but nobody supports them to get to where they should be. If you see the sports men and women from America, UK, China, you feel very bad about the state of our own sports men and women. The University would give the very young talented children the opportunity to combine sports and education. I can assure you that by the time we start operations, within 10 years, Nigeria should be able to produce Olympic champions from that university.
Is the University for commercial purpose or philanthropy?
The University is called STARS University. STARS stands for sports, technology, arts and research science. The sports club would be part of the university. It is a talent hunt project. We may have other clubs: swimming club, basketball club, boxing club. That is part of my overview of what a sport university should be. It’s just not about business.
We know you are involved in the malaria eradication project in Nigeria, what is the current state of things?
Malaria is everybody’s problem. It is our own problem, it’s our own pandemic, as it were. The investment in vaccine is ongoing. We are just about signing some agreements with some research scientists in America. I am hopeful that before the end of the year, there will be some results. Just ask yourself, why is it that over the years, African leaders did not bother to invest in vaccines? Just look at the way the Americans and Europeans are investigating in the COVID-19 vaccines because that is a problem for them. But people here in Africa, in Nigeria, look at malaria as if it is not a huge problem but it is. If you look at the World Health Organisation records, it says how over 500,000 people die annually in Africa from malaria scourge. It is a big problem. I just think that the investment in vaccines is one thing. The other thing that we need to do collectively, is sanitation. The clean up of Nigeria must be done holistically by everybody. Clean up doesn’t mean just one day in a month exercise but a continuous effort. You must manage waste disposal to the point where we are now recommending that every local government area must have a recycling plant. That is the only way you can sustain waste management. Clean up, then we can now do the final step, which is fumigation, which should also be done across board. I just feel that this is something that the federal government must spearhead. We are meeting with them, we are discussing with them, we are working on a plan. I believe that by, latest June, the federal government should be able to roll out the plan for dealing with malaria eradication in Nigeria, before we talk about other countries.
Talking about fiscal policy, what is the ideal interest rate you think Nigeria should have at the moment?
The issue about interest rate is, we should be competitive. Banks don’t function in Nigeria, the way banks should function. Banks are there to lend money, not just to take your money. To finance your budget, whatever it is that you have idea for, if you have feasibility study, you know, and it is feasible, you hear of banks making profits of about 400 billion, 500 billion. That profit is for the shareholders. Government can make banks, can actually compel banks to use half of that money to lend to people who want to buy houses, who want to buy cars, who want to buy telephone or wrist watches on credit. Whatever it is. But it will not make any sense if the interest rate is beyond 2 percent. So, I would recommend at 2 percent interest rate, that will still compete. To compete from one percent to two percent. It will become competitive for banks because by the time they start lending competitively, every sector will wake up. Construction industry will wake up. People will start to build and sell. The automobile industry will wake up, people will assemble cars and sell.
In UK, Europe, even in South Africa, as far as you have a reasonable income, you can walk into any new car showroom and you can be given financing that goes with your salary. As I told you before, it is taken for granted but that is something that we all deserve. If you have people that are buying and doing what they can do, life will be better for everybody.
What is your interest in the entertainment industry?
It is about looking for talents and growing them. In the next few weeks or months, you will hear about something called Arena. Everybody has a talent, you could be a footballer, a musician or an actor. We want to give everybody the opportunity to be discovered and supported. I think there are many hidden talents in Nigeria. They are just there, so we are giving them platforms to be discovered.