Hon. Musibau Kolawole Taiwo, popularly called HKT is a former member of the House of Representatives (2019– 2023). In this interview he expresses optimism that things will be better for Nigerians after they have made significant sacrifices in 2024. The lawmaker, who once served as the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, criticised youths for not meeting expectations when appointed to public offices, among others. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpts: 

 How would you describe the year 2024 in Nigeria based on the economic challenges in the country? 

God has been merciful to Nigeria, the problems facing the country are doubled elsewhere. The external or global economic meltdown and our own economic problems really affected us in the year. Yes, the new government introduced a lot of reforms. There is no way you will solve a problem without having to sacrifice. The year of sacrifice was 2024 and it has to do with inflation. This also has to do with our consumption. When consumption is more than production it is always difficult. We know that the inflation was caused by the removal of fuel subsidy on one hand and the floating of the naira on the other hand. President Bola Tinubu promised that things would start picking up and we started seeing changes towards the end of the year with reduction in the price of fuel or petroleum products. What was sold for about N1,200 mid 2024 is now sold below N1,000 and it keeps dropping. Things that people think would not work have started working. The Warri Refinery in Delta State is back, which means we are having more supplies so also the Port Harcourt Refinery in River State. You know when supply outweighs demand it will show in the pricing and we know this would have a positive effect on inflation. Most of the projections say we will have a stable naira. You can see that the dropping of naira is slow, which means they are meaningful. They are not the ones that were artificial. For the first time in Nigeria, we are seeing ourselves as we are. That is the positive aspect of what happened last year. There was no borrowing to stabilise the naira. We are seeing ourselves as we are, which is the starting point. Even if we want to drive ourselves better, at least, we are not ourselves as we are. We are expecting so many new things and great things for Nigeria. 

But some people feel that with the way the government started, they ought to have done some friendly things based on what happened after their economic policies… 

Are you saying that the government is not trying in the area of interventions? There are lots of interventions that are going on and this is not supposed to be limited to the Federal Government. Nobody lives at the federal level, it’s an administrative set up, people live at the local level. Local government chairmen in Lagos State are doing a lot, particularly in cushioning the effects of inflation that was caused by some of these policies and the state governments are trying too. Towards the end of last year, we heard about ‘Sanwo-Olu Cares, Sanwo-Olu Cares.’ They give up to N500,000 to people to assist them. We cannot go back to Egypt because we have crossed the Red Sea. The economy has made much progress that is why you see those droppings. They have made good promises. Take for instance, the naira and kobo business for oil, it’s going to affect our petrol chemical business that takes about 40% of our foreign earnings. Those were things that were solid in those days and those are the things that would bring immediate succour and we have started seeing them. When the prices of fuel start going down, we will see it in some of our domestic consumptions. It’s not that the government is not doing anything. 

In Regards to youths development and employment, it is believed that the youths are being left behind and so they take to crime. How best do you think this government should handle this? 

I don’t know what they mean by saying that the youths are left behind. Some youths have been appointed as ministers and some of them are commissioners. The youths ought to be the strength of the nation and everybody should look up to them. But they are not doing this, some of them go into corruption and do a lot of fraudulent things and wasteful spending with the way they flaunt illicit wealth. That even makes the elders afraid of them. I was at the University of Lagos recently and I told them that it’s their responsibility to come up with a syllabus that would give jobs to the youths. Some of them are doing this already with entrepreneurship training and make them to be risk bearers. That’s one of the ways to solve the problems. The business of the government is not to provide jobs for the people. It’s to provide an enabling environment for job creators to thrive. These are people that are graduating from the universities and are prepared for the reality of life. 

How do you react to the fact that some multinationals left Nigeria due to epileptic electricity and high cost of raw materials? 

Inflation is not limited to Nigeria. In business, you make your decisions the way you want. There might be some other things that they considered. There are conditions for localisation of industries. If those conditions are not met they might decide to go. Prior to this time, people complained about electricity, but now they don’t talk about that again, they talk about the high tariff. Our electricity is better now though the collapse of the national grid affected their performances lately. While some people say it is normal, some people say it is caused by saboteurs, but you don’t blame the government for that, the government would want to sabotage itself. 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is being accused of stifling the opposition such that if anybody criticises the government, they would say the person wants to sabotage the government, how would you react to this? 

I don’t think that is true, if you come up with a positive criticism by proffering a better way of doing things, then it would be appreciated. Take for instance, the New Year speech of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, is that criticism. That is turning Nigeria to the United States of America where the incoming president, Donald Trump can tell so many lies. You don’t tell lies when you are criticising. When we were in the opposition, President Bola Tinubu used to criticise some policies of the government, and when you fact check them, you will see that he was telling the truth. Let them fact check the speech of Peter Obi, you will see that about 90% of what he is saying is nonsense. Is that criticism? 

The President has been accused of tribalism as people say that most of the key appointments were given to the Yorubas. We heard that the northerners might not support him for a second term in 2027? 

I don’t know where you get that from. I don’t know the means of collation of data for such. The government is trying to look at all these. The Federal Character Commission even said that this administration has done the best of balancing all these positions compared with other administrations. Are you saying that Yorubas should not be given positions because the President is a Yorubaman? When former president Muhammadu Buhari was there, most of the heads of those forces were Hausas. 

But President Bola Tinubu ought to correct that…. 

He should now put people that cause problems for his government in top positions? The National Security Adviser (NSA) of the nation, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, is a Hausaman. He is the adviser of the President on how to set up his security. All the heads of the armed forces, the Chiefs of Army Staff, Air Staff, Naval Staff and that of Defence Staff belong to the different tribes in the country. One of them is a Yorubaman, we have another one that is Igbo and we have a Hausaman. What I know is that there is a tribe in Nigeria that feels that they must get more than other tribes in the country. If the government wants to balance it, they would complain that they are being shortchanged. 

Let’s talk about local government autonomy, your party is insisting that elections be held in the 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs in Lagos State, is this not against the principle of autonomy? 

The constitution gives the states’ power to create local governments and there is a process that the state would follow to do this and then make returns to the National Assembly for their concurrency before the listing. The State House of Assembly passed Lagos State Local Government Creation Law and it has been tested at the Supreme Court, which did not invalidate the law. The constitution says that it’s after the creation that the state should proceed to the National Assembly. The National Assembly can either agree with the request or turn it down, which they did not do. For not doing that, the law exists. If they had turned it down it would have been another matter. So why would you want us to kill a law that has been tested at the Supreme Court. If you say they are not existing, then you are killing a law that has been tested at the Supreme Court. 

…But they are not going to be given money 

Nobody is asking them for money at the federal level. The chairmen have areas that vote for them and if you were voted for by half of the local government, you take the money for the half and send that of others to them. That is the arrangement that we have. Even the Supreme Court did not remove the supervising role of the houses of assemblies from them. The House can still come up with guidelines on that. They are clearly demarcated local governments that were created by a law that has been tested at the Supreme Court. Our case is different from that of other states.