Comrade Ayo Olorunfemi is a former Secretary of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN). He was the arrowhead of those who fought for the salary relativity in the civil service in 2010, and also played a prominent role in the struggle for the N18,000 National Minimum Wage. Soji-Eze Fagbemi spoke to him on the stand of state governors against the N18,000 minimum wage, job creation and deregulations. Excerpts.

You were one of those who fought for the realisation of the N18, 000 minimum wage but the state governors are crying of paucity of funds and inability to pay. Now that you are aspiring to become a governor, how will you handle the situation?
If anybody is saying there is no money in this country, it is a lie. Let any governor come out and tell us what he is using the money for. Is he using the state money for necessary things, or things that are not important, and will not plough back to the system? When you have business that doesn’t plough back into the system, you will continue to complain that there is no money because you believe that you have free access to money. Let’s take the human resource aspect of it into consideration. The salary of workers, the minimum wage is now N18, 000; I don’t see any reason why any state will not want to pay that N18, 000.

But the governors are complaining; don’t you think they might have genuine reasons which you should put into consideration before you venture into the race?
What I am saying is that I don’t expect any state to complain of lack of fund. They have a budget, they have an allocation. What should bother them is how to effectively manage the allocation, and the resources they have within. If they do it properly, blocking all wastages, I can assure you that the money will be more than enough. And secondly, if they are investing and ensuring that there is a plough back in whatever they invest in states will not complain of money to pay the workers. They are the ones doing the work and making the money in the first place, so their interests should be paramount to any governor or government. Realistically, if we consider the rate of inflation, N18, 000 is even too small for the workers as minimum wage. But it is okay to at least  take care of immediate family of six in a month.

The issue of deregulation and removal of fuel subsidy is a sensitive and a topical one at present. The governors also hinged their payment of the minimum wage on this, as an aspirant, what is your opinion?
We only need to be sincere with ourselves. Just three days ago, somebody was telling me the event going on in the petroleum sector and the level of corruption and sharp practices surrounding the importation of fuel in this country. People take the fuel from Port Harcourt and Warri and put it on the sea to later reappear in Lagos as imported fuel.

This is where our subsidy money has been going; it is pure round-tripping. Government has a point to say they want to remove subsidy because they cannot actually stop them.

You cannot send police, soldiers or navy to stop them because those who are doing it are also in control of the security agents. However, a fact still remains that if you want to remove subsidy, you must do it at the right time with certain mechanisms put in place.

What are these mechanisms?
For instance, if you remove subsidy now, you will inflict serious hardship on the people. Therefore, it is better you don’t contemplate it for now, but you can plan ahead for the next four years. You can start doing this by removing the monopoly of Nigerian Railway Corporation. The Act that set up Nigerian Railway Corporation should be repealed and one that will deregulate the railway system in the country be brought in just as we did in the NITEL and the communication industry. This will allow the investors to come in, put their rail from Lagos to Abuja, Kano to Abuja, Port Harcourt to Abuja, and put in fast train that will not take more than four hours from Lagos to Abuja. We should also encourage the rail system to go round the major cities and introduce mass transit system.

The type that can work effectively well or the big luxurious buses with air conditioner. We should also make sure that electricity is working perfectly. Once we have all these in place, you can remove the subsidy. Let the price of fuel be N500, I can assure you that I will not use my car and I will still be coming to office. I will not need generator to power my house, and will sleep in a better condition. The factories will not need diesel to power their machines; they will produce at minimal cost.  So, Nigerians will welcome the removal of that subsidy, and before you know it, competition will begin. Nigeria can then concentrate more on the exportation of crude, while the little product we are refining locally in Nigeria will be enough for us to utilise locally. Before you know it, investors will come in, build refineries and produce the finished products and begin to export from here.

These are the things I believe we should know. We should all cooperate with few people in government who want to ensure that there is a transformation in the country. I think we should appreciate the National Assembly led by the Senate President, David Mark who said no to subsidy removal. I believe they are also considering these mechanisms. It is the same PDP that said no because they control the National Assembly. The Executive says yes, we are going to remove the subsidy, but the National Assembly that is being controlled by the PDP are saying no, which means they are actually listening to the voice of the people. So, as it is, I will expect President Goodluck Jonathan to put in motion machineries that will assist us in doing all those things that are necessary before subsidy can be removed.