Engr. Mustafa Bello, a former Minister of Commerce under President Obasanjo’s administration, in this interview, gives a rare insight into the leadership style of the former President, and his ministerial and other experiences.
Could you give a history of how you joined partisan politics?
During late Gen. Abacha, five political parties – UNCP, DPN, CNC, GDM, and NCPN, were created by the government and thrown out to the citizens to choose which to belong to. Three of us; myself, Alh. Abubakar Magaji, and Dr. Shem Zagbayi Nuhu, who was later a Deputy Governor in 1999, met and agreed that there was need to develop a new political culture in Niger State. The Nupe speaking zone had never had a governor then, it was either the Hausa speaking zone or the Gwari speaking areas, so we needed to give the Nupes a chance.
And the best way to test our strength was first, by going into the weakest party, strengthening it and challenging the strongest, the UNCP then, so we formed a group called the Niger Political Forum, which formed a committee chaired by Alh. Ibrahim Issa Ladan to give us a report that will guide us on a way forward. They did so, we presented the report to a larger group who recommended that we joined the weakest party of the five, or the NCPN, which we did.
We started going round to brief our seniors, the first was Gen. Babangida, who, I remember, looked at me and said ‘Mustafa, even you’ I said ‘Sir, if the right people don’t go into politics, the wrong people will continue to have their way’ and that is essentially what we are seeing happening today.
President Olusegun Obasanjo won and he sent a letter to the governor to send three names to look at so as to make one his minister, so our governor said since we initially had an agreement that I will be the ministerial nominee, there was no need to send three names. But some people, who may have had ulterior motives, claimed that President Obasanjo may object, but Gen. Babangida called late Kure and advised him “go and ask Mustafa to give you two other names of his choice to make the list of three,” so I gave two names, the three were invited to Abuja for a ministerial retreat. There, Obasanjo just wanted to know the people and listen to their views or opinions on the type of system to guide his governance, so after going through all the screening etc. we were sworn in as ministers on June 30th, 1999.
So, what are some of your experiences as minister?
Immediately I was sworn in, I sat down with the Permanent Secretary and Directors of the Ministry in the first briefing session at which I realized that there was indeed no Action Plan after two or three such sessions held on weekly basis. As a result, there was the need to develop one using materials from the Presidential inaugural address, the PDP Policy Document as well as the Vision 2010 document.
Eventually, when I realized that the in-situ capacity to develop the Draft Action Plan did not exist, I sat down myself, sketched what I wanted us to achieve over our first three years in office, and shared with the Permanent Secretary and Departmental Directors for input, including the Chief Executives of Agencies under us. At that time, we had CAC, NEPC, the Consumer Protection Council, NEPZA, Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, Tafawa Balewa Square Complex, and Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority. Some of these agencies were inaugurated after my assumption of office as they only existed in law and not operational.
I thereafter presented my Action Plan to the cabinet. I remember the president was out of town on that day, it was the Vice President that was chairing, he said ‘Mr Minister you actually don’t need approval for something that was assigned to you as your responsibility, so go and implement and then report implementation. I thanked the cabinet for the “No Objection” and we immediately swung into action; one of the products of that Action Plan today is the CAC of today. When I assumed office, it was completely analogue or even pre-analogue.
Remember when President Obasanjo first came in 1999, he came hyper-sensitive on any corruption issues. Before becoming president, I was later made to understand that he had an application to register a company with CAC which had been in process for a long time. So, when he became president, he set his first trap at the CAC to use as an example. He gave his boy, following the registration process, some amount to use and push the process fast and it worked. Within a week or two, the Registration Certificate was out. Surely, a dormant “Volcano” was activated.
There was then a call from Mr President; ‘Mustafa, go and fire the entire management of the CAC and when you do so, come back and let me know what you have done’. At the end of it all, the office of the then Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Alh. Yayale Ahmed, managed the process through due process and they were asked to leave.
We thereafter organized an open and transparent process of recruitment of a new management that saw the appointment of Mal. Ahmed Al-Mustafa as the new Registrar-General of the CAC. With him, we were able to push forward the transformation plan of the CAC of the analogue years to a fully digital, customer-friendly Corporate Registry based on an IT-Architecture I personally designed. The CAC that was drawing from the public appropriation as at 1999 is today a contributor to the Federation Account.
We similarly subjected the Free Zones Authority to a holistic x-ray that transformed it to what it is today, an entity that is self-financing. The Consumer Protection Council that existed on paper, we turned around into an effective vanguard of the public and today known as a Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. The Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority that also was existing in law was put to operation and today equally self-financing. The Nigeria Exports Promotion Council that was equally inactive was given life through a Presidential order, secured by me, that allocated 0.5 per cent out of the 7 per cent surcharge collected on all imports into the country to assist it fund its Exports Development programs.
By 2002, at the completion of the life of the 3-year Action Plan I presented to the cabinet, I prepared a report accounting for the implementation of the Action Plan and filed with the cabinet secretariat. Luckily for me, the day the memo was listed for presentation was actually exactly three years on the dot from the first day I presented in 2000. I solicited for the absolute attention of my cabinet members for the importance of the report, and presented my action plan implementation account. By the time I finished, many members of the cabinet raised their hands to speak. I recall Gen. T Y Danjuma spoke first and said ‘Mr. President, I thought when we left government in 1979, I had seen my last best, but I did not know that I was yet to see that last best. Mr President, I think you should commend Mustafa’.
Then how did you find yourself at the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC)?
In November 2003, at about the time CHOGM Meeting was to take place in Abuja, I was on my way to Mozambique to attend the World Economic Forum Southern Africa Meeting, when I got a call from President Obasanjo asking; ‘Mustafa, have you reported?’ I asked Mr President; “Report where Sir?”, and then I think he realized he’d not even spoken to me about an appointment, he said ‘ok where are you’ and I told him he said, “see me when you return”.
I must state that one thing he did for me and others which I would never forget is that if he trusts you, like and appreciates you, he doesn’t abandon you. He will always look for you without any prompting or solicitation.
When I returned, I went to him and he said ‘Mustafa I want to send you to NIPC’, I didn’t say anything, he repeated it three times with no response from me, so he got up and said “when you make up your mind, come back to me”.
So, as I left him, I immediately proceeded to Gen. TY Danjuma to share with him what transpired and explained to him my worry -from a ministerial responsibility to a subordinate to a minister of the same ministry I was superintending, and secondly people would think I was desperately looking for something to do when in reality I wasn’t.
Gen. Danjuma immediately said, “Mustafa, go and do it,” I don’t think the president meant to lower or reduce your worth, I’m sure he wants to raise the status of that office, help him solve a problem, and he sees you as the only solution.
I left him and went to Mal. Adamu Ciroma, explained the same and he said; ‘Minister, if the president says you should go and head the people who sweep the streets, go and do it, it’s an honour for him to even recognize you’. I left him and went to see Mal. Sani Zangon Daura on the same issue, he too said go and do it, I went to Alhaji Sule Lamido, he said ‘why are you wasting time, go and do it’. I went to Malam Lawal Batagarawa, he too said go and do it, ‘look at me, I dropped from a minister to an SA’.
So, after about two weeks, I went back to President Obasanjo and said, “I am now ready,” he said ‘okay, the first thing I want you to do is go and fire all the directors in that office. And anybody who stands in your way clear him, I will stand by you.
My challenge on such a Presidential instruction was that of having to balance between discharging such instruction and evaluating the consequences on him as a president, given the fact that most of those directors came from one zone of the country, the North-East.
I however went ahead and organized 3-month long review meetings with the directors of all documents produced by consultants on the NIPC in the past but were not implemented. As the reviews went on, decisions on recommendations in those documents were taken by consensus, meaning all directors were part of the agreement.
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