In case of break-up, North will be fragmented –Borodo

We will like to have your views on the state of industry in the North in addition to the impact of Boko Haram menace on Northern business? Unfortunately, the industry and commerce have collapsed in the North. As you know Kano and Maiduguri have always been the main centres of business in the North for […]

We will like to have your views on the state of industry in the North in addition to the impact of Boko Haram menace on Northern business?

Unfortunately, the industry and commerce have collapsed in the North. As you know Kano and Maiduguri have always been the main centres of business in the North for many, many years. And the two are now under siege. Because of the insecurity, capital and investment goes where business is safe. If there is no security, you should forget about investment and trade. The two places Kano and Maiduguri rely eighty percent on people who come in to buy. Maiduguri serves Niger, Chad and Cameroon, while Kano is really a supply centre to the North West and other areas. If there is no security in these two places, nothing much could be done businesswise or manufacturing.

What do you think is the best possible way out of this situation?

It’s something new for us in Nigeria. Something we never thought it would happen. But some of us who are in the service in the 70s knew that once you have something like that in Chad, Sierra Leone and Liberia, then certainly the wind will blow. This perhaps explains why Nigeria took the lead to bring peace to these countries but unfortunately along the line after that we relaxed and with our porous borders and a very liberal environment, these things started happening. We underestimated it.

Do you think Nigeria is paying the price for liberalism and the ECOWAS policy of free movement in the sub region?

I think really the laxity on the part of Nigeria authorities is there, and also the misconception that it will not happen to us. We, Nigerians, whatever we tend to do we overdo it. People are doing so many bad things because they think it’s a democracy no one can touch them. But when you are doing that you have to see how you can preserve this democracy. We are also lucky not to have leaders who have stayed in office for twenty or thirty years. This kind of thing will not happen in totalitarian regimes

What do you think should be done to restore peace and stability so as to bring back businesses in the North?

We have reached a stage where I think we should sit with whoever has any grudge; we put the issues on the table we talk. It’s not really in our own character to be killing ourselves. It will lead us nowhere and this is a crisis which force alone will not bring it to an end. There must be dialogue and understanding if we are to move forward. Ultimately, when you have a situation like this it is always dialogue and diplomacy that wins in the end.

The wind blowing in the world today is moving towards integration and co-operation. Now looking at the West African sub-region and recently what is going on in Mali where Tuaregs have overrun two-third of the country and carving a new state of their own. Here in Nigeria we have Boko Haram insurgency which threatens the country’s corporate existence, what do you think is the way out?

I think we are going backwards. Frankly speaking, the world is looking at globalisation and we are looking at fragmentation. From what I am reading in our newspapers now, people are talking about the North, the North, the North and so on, as if we have not been together for about a hundred years. I think it’s not good for Nigeria, and it’s not good for West Africa. You see, it’s the same problem Ivory Coast went through. After the election, some people in the south thought that the northerners are not entitled, they cannot lead. Now in Mali, you see the Tuaregs who really don’t recognise borders, that’s the truth about their own nature, are now carving out somewhere in northern Mali to say it’s their own, they want to make it their own country.  The so-called revolution in Libya is bringing in fragmentation; you find people from Benghazi in the eastern part of the country and some from the west of Libya saying they want to renegotiate their federalism. You see people from the south of Libya (Fezzan) saying they are not getting a fair deal. So these are problems we should have overcome. Unfortunately, we haven’t and it will drag us back and back. And you have to come back twenty years on and start again. Perhaps, the reason for all these was the lack of fairness in the redistribution of wealth, and perhaps there hasn’t been transparency and commitment from the leadership in all these countries. The way forward in the 21st century is globalisation not fragmentation.

Assuming that the Boko Haram crises never existed, what are the challenges facing the manufacturing sub-sector in the North?

Actually the decline started well before the Boko Haram. I became President of Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) in 2006 and I declared on the inauguration day that I am not the undertaker. I didn’t become president to bury manufacturers. We want to give manufacturers their rights and sought things out because we were still breathing. Unfortunately, by that time government was overwhelmed by the thinking and mindset of the World Bank and IMF, meaning that government has no business in business: Let us swim if we can and let us survive if we can, otherwise let us sink. We were abandoned at the federal level and state levels. Many of the states didn’t know what their role was. They had forgotten that the governors before them build the finest industrial areas with less resources and yet I remember the Sharada road, it took the intervention of Chief Lateef Jakande who was Minister of Industries under the Gen. Abacha regime to rehabilitate that road for us in Kano. So the neglect started way before Boko Haram and it come as result of neglect from the federal and state governments. My own thinking is that there are certain things affecting manufacturers that are not the preserves of state governments. But there’s something which a state government could adopt and fight for manufacturers in their own state.  Other states like Kwara under Bukola Saraki have done it. He has promoted re-industrialisation. His government has resuscitated the dam so that they have uninterrupted power supply. He ensured that all the closed industries are restored. The paper plant is running now, the sugar plant is running. Oh, yes! How many governors here up North will take credit for doing something like that? I was chairman of MAN in Kano for 8 years and president of MAN for 4 years and I can’t recall any governor who had visited any of these closed industries in Kano or Kaduna or anywhere. So there’s this total neglect on the part of government.

What do you think the North needs now? Is it more revenue allocation or a Marshall Plan tied to a Ministry for Northern Affairs? Can the North sustain itself if there is a break-up?

First and foremost, I am a strong believer in one Nigeria. And I believe that we have no choice whether you are a northerner, a southerner or easterner.  The moment you split, you understand how many cracks you have in your own house. And if it cracks no state in the federation will remain intact, so that’s one. Survival? Of course, the North has what it takes as a geographical unit to survive. In modern economics I will say there are some shortcomings. One, it’s landlocked and you have to pay the price for that. Secondly, we have no electric power. But I am happy some states have now realised that they cannot wait for Abuja for their electricity needs. Incidentally, in 2007 I delivered a paper on the 30th anniversary of Kano state and I said “Look we are in danger because the railways are gone. We have no electricity and we have no oil, we have to do something about it”. It took Kano state government I will say now 12 years to try and do something on this electricity problem. When people are complaining that why should the government invest in Tiga Dam where you can only generate 15 megawatts, I said 15 megawatts is better than nothing. Have your own and then it’s a learning process, God knows how much you can produce in the future because you have other resources like solar and wind but if you never try it you will always sit down and let them send all the power you need from elsewhere. So the way out, frankly speaking, is leadership and commitment. I wish we have one leader we can all follow and obey. Somebody who is committed, we don’t. And I don’t see any person with the quality of that leader. Some regions in Nigeria today are having that leader. If he talks no matter what Abuja says they will follow him. We don’t have that. However, still states can lead by example. The current leaders can show good example and do the right thing, which will be our greatest salvation not the breakup. Because if you breakup, there will be so many break up from within. Even in one local government, there will be people who will say they don’t want to remain in that local government. So, what do you do? Already in the current states there are agitations, some want to be broken into three and others two. So what happens if Nigeria is not there? There will be so many states. I believe that’s not the solution. We have the resources and have what it takes; we were pioneers in many fields in Nigeria. We showed Nigeria how to do many things and that inherent capacity is still there. All we have to do is roll our sleeves now and do what is right, be transparent, honest and serve our people.