1 week ago
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By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Former presidential candidate of New Nigeria Group in the 2023 Election, respected Pharmaceutical Industry leader and former Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, still burns passion to see Nigeria rise up to effectively harness the enormous potentials of its political economy.
Though retired from active corporate management activities, Ohuabunwa at 75 is by no means tired as the adrenaline still pumps strongly in his lithe, well toned body, getting good hours of exercise in the serene privacy of his home, from where he continues to proffer solutions and suggestions on ways to make the country better.
In this interview, while commending President Bola Tinubu for the bold, courageous decisions he took regarding subsidy, floating the naira and the tax reforms in the pipeline, Ohuabunwa throws a hefty challenge to governors of the Southeast on the three steps that could end insecurity and change the socio-economic narrative of the region.
You attended Government College, Owerri, Imo State, in the early seventies. What was it like to be an Oxian?
Well, when we went to secondary school, it was a moulding house where character was inculcated into young people in school. So, being an Oxian meant that you learnt the rudiments of being a whole person. First, you learnt to keep the rules, which is the foundation of discipline. That is starting from the role of God Himself and to the role of man. Secondly, you learnt about relationships, how to relate to people – those ahead of you, those at your level and those below you. You also learnt the consequences of having good or bad relationships. Thirdly, you were taught about the importance of scholarship, because it was considered the ticket to a better life in future and a good job. So, you had to work hard. As Oxians, we also learnt how to socialize and not just be a good, educated person, and how to impact your environment or community through those attributes. In essence, there was a lot of discipline, academic work, mentoring by seniors and opportunities to exercise your other creative faculties. Those were the kinds of things one learnt from going to good schools like Government College, Owerri, Imo State.
As of today, the people who went to the school with you, do they still relate with the school, because it appears to have suffered a lot of dilapidation?
Yes, we do. Most of my classmates are all members of the old boys association. Here in Lagos, we still find those who are left. We see at our monthly meetings and most of us attend the reunions held in the first week of March, every year. Generally, I have seen a lot of interest by the Old Boys to relate to the association and see how we can contribute to make the school a better place. We are generally dissatisfied with the poor outlook of the school and the poor attention the state government is paying to it, and degeneration on the moral landscape which, of course, is not unique to the school. It’s the current contemporary malaise, but the Old Boys are making efforts, year to year, to see how to upgrade the infrastructure in the school, how to help enhance teaching, rebuild laboratories, and give hope to the current students.
As a former PSN President, I want to hear your perspective of how Nigeria got to the point of having the PharmD programme.
Well, for me, pharmacy has evolved. When you learn the history of pharmacy, you know they were called dispersing chemists. It was then a diploma programme at the Yaba College of Technology, before it became a degree programme. And it has moved in that form. America and the rest of the world started the PharmD programme. And some Nigerian pharmacists were already training in America under PharmD and were coming home, interacting with us and the rest of the society. So, it became important that we needed to upgrade so as to be globally competitive. And I think that’s how the concept came.
And of course, for it to happen, the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria had to be onboard. That was when Sir Anthony Akhimiem was the National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria.
So, there were pros and cons. Some people supported the PharmD programme. Some other people, many of them in academia, were not quite sure what the programme was going to do and how it was going to relate to those who were doing the four-year B.Pharm programme and how they were going to relate. There were all kinds of arguments and resistance. On one side, there was internal resistance. On the other side, there was external resistance because the doctors were not, and I don’t think they’re still in support of the programme.
At one time, they took a Bill to the National Assembly, where they said that the only person that can be addressed as “doctor” in Nigeria would be only medical doctors, and no other person. I was PSN president at the time. So, I went to the National Assembly to defend the National Universities Commission (NUC). Everybody was there to fight the NUC. Really, the only people who are doctors are holders of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree. The MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) is a first degree, which they believe is the basis of their being medical doctors. So, they were against the PharmD. At some point, it was very hot, but eventually, the battle was won.
And even those who were opposed, came around to support it, especially when we found a way of upgrading those who had B.Pharm to acquire the PharmD qualification. Some wanted to run the two in parallel. But now, I think everybody is upgrading to PharmD.
During General Sani Abacha’s time, he made it possible for the Pharmaceutical Industry to get support from the PTF (Presidential Trust Funds (Special), which provided funds for pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce drugs for the public hospitals. Now, today, we have the Renewed Hope Initiative. Considering what General Abacha did with the PTF, some people have suggested that the humongous sums being doled out by the First Lady to could be given to pharmaceutical companies to produce common OTCs like deworming drugs, blood building tonics, and others to be used for visible, massive health outreaches that can still positively impact people at the grassroot, build political goodwill for the government and create value for recognized indigenous pharmaceutical manufacturers as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda, rather than just putting money into people’s accounts that cannot be traced. This school of thought believes this can be done in a transparent, open manner that still allows the government to gain political mileage. What is your view on this?
The truth is that every leader has his approach to solving problems. And that is why there is no leader that is absolutely bad and there is none that is absolutely good. There are always two sides. History only judges you better when you have left office. If you asked anybody back then the sentiment was that Abacha was bad. Nobody would say anything good. When you now go back to all the issues, the military did a lot of great things, which the civilians have not been able to improve upon, that is if they have not even worsened the situation. Truly, what Abacha did for the Pharmaceutical Industry was unique. Fortunately, I was the Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMGMAN) at the time. It was a great thing that Abacha did. He made it easy for manufacturers to produce drugs for the country. He created a chain, whereby the money was available to manufacture drugs and make them available at affordable prices, both to consumers and public health institutions. It was a very unique thing he did through the consultants that were advising him.
Would I recommend it now? Yes. It was a good system because you are able to create liquidity through the chain. So, at the end, the consumer must not only benefit, but the industry is active. That is a model which could be repeated or replicated. This current method of doing palliatives has not achieved its intended objective because of the human nature to cheat and to misdirect. President Bola Tinubu may have meant well, and I believe he did mean well because I don’t think any leader would want to take any decision that is not well intended.
However, the mechanism for implementation may open it up to abuse, which is why the people who were Humanitarian Affairs ministers were the first victims because they had too much money and allegedly soiled their fingers. So, I believe there’s a second thought being given to that method of creating welfare or palliatives or creating some bit of safety net. The government needs better advice so that the impact can be more meaningful, more sustainable and less open to abuse.
Given the general situation of the country and the way things are, some people now feel that talking about Nigeria has started to sound like a broken record. Do you feel that way too?
No, no, no. If we stop talking about Nigeria, then we stop being Nigerians. That would amount to giving up, and none of them is a positive response. The Almighty God created the world by the spoken word. By making us in His spiritual image, He also gave us the power to create with our mouth by speaking into the system and the foundation of Nigeria. The more people that speak, the more the foundation receives the vibration from the spoken words. When you write what I am saying now in your newspaper or a book, you never can tell who may read it tomorrow, act on it and thereby cause a change. So, we must keep talking about Nigeria. Most people desire to see Nigeria succeed. But the general belief is that Nigeria is not where it is supposed to be today.
However, the Bola Tinubu administration has taken some bold steps and made very gigantic, courageous moves to correct the economic trajectory of the country. For instance, in one single breath it removed the subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS) and floated the Naira. These are two things that every past president of the country had dreaded to do. We know how Obasanjo was confronted by Adams Oshiomhole, when he increased the pump price of petrol. Umaru Yar’Adua developed cold feet over it. Jonathan was almost brought down when he increased the price of petrol. But Bola Tinubu has done it, not gradual but total removal; not fixing exchange rate of the Naira against the dollar but allowing it to float. Inflation rose, Naira declined. It takes extraordinary courage and confidence in yourself or your willingness to go down for doing what you believe needs to be done. Somebody has to do it. If by God’s grace, we are able to ride out the storm, then we will see the positive benefits of those two major policies. Now he is working on tax reforms. Not many rulers would take on what you could call unpopular policies, back-to-back and still remain in power. When the price of bread was raised in Egypt or Tunisia, the move brought down the government. The Bola Tinubu administration has done significantly well. My prayer is that God should give us the fortitude to bear the pains, and together we shall reap the gains.
What can the people of the Southeast do to have a homegrown solution to the issue of insecurity?
For me, the matter is not as complicated as it looks. And I have told people who cared to listen that the Southeast just needs to do three things. The first step is that Southeast governors need to form one team and create one vigilante group like the Amotekun in the Southwest and make sure that it is properly indigenised. Take Imo State for example, you get 20 people from each village or town, right at the grassroot, who are then trained, properly motivated and incentivized. They must be properly paid and equipped with quality pump action rifles – the type that current laws allow state governments to acquire. Their work should be focused more on gathering intelligence than engaging in shootouts with criminals. Second step is to bring together the leaders of all the people who are aggrieved or have ideological grievances, to find out what they want and discuss their demands. The governors of the Southeast have more than enough funds to sort out several issues. The money they collect as security votes and spend on different, frivolous things can be better utilized to settle the aggrieved elements, whatever their issues, bring them onboard and then demobilize them. How many are they anyway? The third is to initiate a massive agricultural, developmental, industrial and business expansion programme in the whole of the Southeast. They should declare a coordinated campaign to industrialise the Southeast and commercialise our agriculture, open up the business environment and create such a competitive economic environment that will attract people from Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, who have run away from the Southeast, to start coming back. If you make the Southeast more attractive than where they are now, they will come back once there is agricultural and industrial development. These are the three things I would do if I have the privilege, and these things can be done in six months, to make the southeast a peaceful place.
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