By Omoluabi 'Bode Adeyemi
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| Omoluabi 'Bode Adeyemi |
Question: The Buhari led administration is celebrating its 1st year in office today alongside the democracy day celebration, what is your opinion on the performance of government?
Answer: Thank you very much, let me first of all wish Nigerians a happy democracy day celebration and congratulate all of us for doing all we have done to sustain democracy in Nigeria in the last 16 years despite the inability of successive government to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the ordinary Nigerians, democracy remains the best most globally acceptable form of government . I must commend the civil society organizations and the members of the media, judiciary, armed forces and indeed everyone for defending, promoting and sustaining the roots of our democracy. Talking about the performances of the current administration, I must say that the Buhari led government came into power at a time that the price of crude oil at the international markets was embarrassingly crashing, at a time our country was faced with threatening security challenges and at a time corruption was so high in the government circle. All of these obvious factors have affected the ability of the current administration to hit the ground running from day one coupled with a number of needless Executive-Legislative animosity occasioned by the emergence of the current national assembly leadership which affected the much expected smooth relationship between these two most important arms of government, but in all of these, the President has demonstrated sincerity of purpose, commitment and high level of integrity that has earned our country international reputation that could engender positive foreign attention to our country. The government has faced and tackled the security challenge in the northeast of the country decisively which has produced a very significant result in the last one year, more than ever before the activities of Boko Haram have been defeated strongly, government have also demonstrated high sense of accountability, transparency and sincerity which is making the government popular among the masses. The anti-corruption war and recovery of stolen funds is another area this government have performed very well, the last one year have been very eventful for the anti corruption agencies in Nigeria. The success of REMITA in implementing the Treasury Single Account remains the most significant achievement of the Buhari administration in the last one year. The fact that a home grown technology called REMITA that serves as the gateway or platform through which the TSA policy is implemented in the best national narrative or story about our country that has ever been said in decades of national development. The treasury single account policy has emerged the most popular, most effective and the most celebrated policy the current administration has ever made in the last one year which has been made to be with the help of the globally celebrated REMITA platform. As we speak the platform has generated trillions of naira into our federation account, it has helped government to gather all her revenue in one account, it has wiped out all forms of corruption associated with income generation and collection, it has created a viable, reliable and sustainable alternative to the revenue from sales of crude oil that is crashing by the day. Before the full implementation of the TSA at the earliest stage of this administration, various ministry, departments and agencies of government operated over 17000 government accounts which made it difficult for government to monitor her income and encouraged waste and highest level of corruption but today the REMITA platform has done the magic. As I speak to you this platform has created a credible and dependable alternative to fund our budget, build infrastructure and carry out the fantastic programs of government. Although it is most regrettable and highly disturbing that the stakeholders that provides this platform and rendering services that sustains the uninterrupted operation of this platform are yet to be paid their agreed fees, this is an issue I expect government to look into immediately and ensure they are paid what is due to them.
Question: The media has been awash with different stories of abuse of the platform, high charges by the platform owners and other negative news about the activities that necessitated the Senate to set up a committee to look into the matter, what is your take on this?
Answer : You see it's most unfortunate and very frustrating that Nigerians do not appreciate a home grown technology that has received the commendations of international communities, as at today, REMITA has received uncountable numbers of award and international recognition home and abroad. In faraway Glasgow, the Managing Director of Systemspecs John Obaro on the account of the success of REMITA was recently honored by African Scotland Forum with the Leadership in Technology Award, conferred him with a fellowship of the Centre for African Policy, Development and Research, Scotland and named a research centre after him, this is most unprecedented. On the issue of the charges, I like to say it that the platform didn't just come from the blues, the service providers didn't just give the 1% on their own, there were series of negotiations and discussion that happened before the 1% charge was mutually agreed upon by all the stakeholders and a memorandum of agreement legally signed by all necessary parties which became binding before the platform became effective, there were also the responsibilities to be carried out by the parties i.e Systemspecs, DMBs and CBN before they could be entitled to the charge, it is therefore surprising and very disturbing that a Senator refused to seek information before rushing to sponsor a motion out of ignorance and or selfish reasons which misrepresented facts and misinformed the Senate, a section of government and the public about the whole issue. This outright misinformation led the Senate into setting up a committee to look into the matter, this action introduced unnecessary, unwarranted and undue politics into the operation that is still smoothly running up till now uninterrupted despite the fact that service providers are yet to be paid what is due to them , the Senate report that was not signed by 10 Senators out of the 26 Senators in the committee had some Senators signed more than once, a careful look at the recommendation of the committee shows that Systemspecs and other services providers were never involved in any form of abuse or mismanagement of the TSA platform as unfairly alleged by the sponsor of the motion, the committee particularly commended the Systemspecs for providing its platform at the nick of time for the running of the TSA. Beyond the politics that have been introduced into this indigenous technology breakthrough in Nigeria the government must continue to look at the agreement it entered into ahead of other inconsequential issues. It's most unfortunate that we are yet to celebrate home grown idea when foreign firms have continued to rip us of trillions of naira, no Senator has questioned the technology and cost implications of BVN that a German firm carried out with billions of naira, no lawmaker has challenged the high charges of MTN, Etisalat and other foreign owned telecommunications service providers, no Senator has challenged the cost implications of all the construction work of Julius Berger and several other multinational firms ripping us of our money in trillions but they have been dissipating energy on REMITA platform that have never failed since the beginning, a platform that has saved us from embarrassment dwindling oil price almost put the country into. I wish to therefore call on President Buhari to call on those involved to respect the agreement and pay the outstanding charges immediately and continue to encourage the technology.
Question: Having convinced me on the success of REMITA, how do you suggest government should promote indigenous technology development to be able to compete internationally?
Answer : I wish to encourage government to begin look inward for home grown technology. Other countries develop their own and ship out. That is why Nigeria is a dumping ground for all manner of software. The software they use in the office of the Accountant General was developed by a foreign company, BVN was developed by a foreign company, the ITGS they use at the Central Bank was developed by a foreign company, so is the ITAS at Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), all the deposit money banks in Nigeria use software developed abroad. These run into billions of dollars put together that go out of the country, it's high time we support and encourage homegrown innovation that will at the same time create job and improve our economy. I also recommend the Managing Director of Systemspecs John Obaro for National honor, in my own opinion,individuals like him deserve to be honored in order to encourage others to come out of their best to make Nigeria proud like him. As you know that the richest man in the whole world attained that status through Microsoft development and his country didn't kill his innovation but encouraged and even exported it, so. I expect our government to begin to think of how to encourage Systemspecs to export this brilliant technology. When government encourage the technology then several other people will be encouraged to innovate greater idea. Our lawmakers must also legislate laws that will promote indigenous technology development.
Question: What is your advice for the government in the years ahead?
Answer: Let government continue to engage organizations like Systempecs that can help government improve her income generation first, then government must make judicious use of every single kobo by investing into meaningful and people oriented projects such as infrastructure development,Youth entrepreneurial development, power, science and technology development and security. Government must make deliberate and concerted efforts to revamp our economy and ensure sound implementation of social security scheme that will be targeted at the poorest of the poor in the society
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