Thirty-five-year-old Adamu Garuba is the CEO of Lagos-based IPI Solutions Nigeria Limited. The Adamawa-born recently declared interest to contest for the presidency in 2019. In this interview, he shares the vision and philosophy driving his aspiration and the changes he hopes to bring if elected president of Nigeria.
Daily Trust: Under what platform are you contesting for presidency?
Adamu Garuba: We don’t have a platform yet. We will decide the platform before the end of this year but our main target now is to make sure that the entire Nigerians understand the message that we are passing because we don’t want to use party prejudice to define what takes somebody to office. We want to make sure that people understand the very essence of why they are voting in their leaders. So, that is why my main focus is not to get distracted by party affiliation, let me just focus on dropping the message once and for all.
DT: What is the thrust of that message?
Adamu Garuba: My main message is structural reform. I personally don’t believe that the current constitution or the system of governance in Nigeria is effective and it is not something that can actually deliver the needed results for all Nigerians, that is why even past administrations and the present one are all limited by design. The system as currently constituted will never allow the government to effectively function for the benefit of all Nigerians. It is not in conformity with 21st century requirements of statecraft and that is why I am putting forward a proposal called structural reforms. We want to structurally look into the system completely and then unbundle it to key it and connect it well to work for all Nigerians. That is exactly why I am contesting for presidency because you know in Nigeria, the power is mostly concentrated in the centre. A mere outfit of the president could change the outfits of many people in the country, including senators, Reps members, state governors down to councilors and even business leaders.
I have studied this statecraft model for the past 10 years and I understand how it can be applied to the Nigerian system and that is why I am coming out to contest.
DT: What is really wrong with the current system?
Adamu Garuba: Many things. In the first instance, we are operating a system that the entire country is dependent on oil. 95 per cent of our Foreign exchange comes from oil and it is this oil money we use to pay workers’ salaries National Assembly members and run the entire economy. This is a very serious problem. Why don’t we create a system that will shift us away from oil? We have a population of 190 million. American entrepreneurs were able to succeed because they have the American platform designed to enable and encourage productivity that is coming from the people. Now, why can’t we create this platform? Why can’t we use oil money to build infrastructure? We have a lot of infrastructure deficit. We have a lot of things we want to change. We want to remove these geopolitical zones in Nigeria and change them to economic zones. We don’t believe that we are a political division. We believe we are an economically integrated nation, we will build nine geo-economic zones in different zones of the country and also make Lagos the central hub which is the 10th special economic zone and the central hub for the entire market of Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
DT: But what is your prospect on the current move towards devolution of powers?
Adamu Garuba: Frankly speaking, I don’t expect anything to happen because if you check what brings about devolution of powers, resource control, it is a clear indication of a country that is disintegrating. The Democratic Republic of Congo passed through the same thing. Countries only succeed when they have their strategic resources concentrated in building the infrastructure so that people can benefit. We want a country where we depend on our brains to build a productive society. We want a country where we have industrial economic zones where we can power the manufacturing industry and give jobs so that we export and improve our standards. We want a country where we are united, coming as one people and using our resources to establish ourselves. We want to build shorelines around the country. We have 853 miles of shoreline in Nigeria. Aba needs the Kano market, Lagos needs Benue, all those areas need to be integrated for us to be one nation. We want to have the capacity to be truly the giant of Africa we are always aspiring to be.
DT: As an advocate of one Nigeria, how best can we strengthen the unity of the country?
Adamu Garuba: The problem is, from the beginning of the country, there has never been a conscious effort to unite Nigeria. The people that fought for independence were great men, very patriotic but their allegiance was to their regions. I am proposing so many things like we have to remove religion completely from politics because religion is also one of the most amplifying factors in this nation and I will even make a proposal of removing church and mosque from Aso Rock completely so that we can just have a place that belongs to all Nigerians, so when I get into the office I can’t be deceiving the populace by taking pictures praying in the mosque and showing them that I am a good guy or maybe a Christian president. Religions should go back to culture and tradition where they belong. This is one of the proposals I am working on and I am telling you in two years all Nigerians would be proud to have a country.
DT: But the system seems to be disposed to gerontocracy as some people would observe, do you think a young man like you could have his way?
Adamu Garuba: Frankly, yes, because this is democracy. We have the power of choice and our democracy has evolved beyond the elitist class, it is completely in the hands of the people because information is now so available to the common man. Even the INEC electoral process is electronic and it is controlled by young guys. I am telling you this time around that democracy gives opportunity to people like me, a young man of 35 years. Just recently, kudos to the national and state assemblies which passed the Not-Too-Young-To-Run Bill acknowledging the importance of young people to Nigeria’s development.
DT: Is this aspiration about passing a message to the elders to give way?
Adamu Garuba: We are not taking over from the elders because my father is an elderly person and I will one day be an elderly person. Why will I support someone who is fighting elders? That is not possible. I will only support people that are giving me a way out of the current quagmire. That is why our central message is about how to get out of the current situation. What do we need to do to defeat poverty? My target is after my administration, we would have Nigerians living above 10 dollars a day because if you upgrade the living standard of the people, you would have more consuming power and by this business will thrive and government will get more money through tax, schools will be better.
DT: How did you find yourself in Lagos from Adamawa?
Adamu Garuba: I started at the age of four. I was enrolled in an almajiri school. I was there for four years. At eight, I started my primary school at Jambutu, from there to Girei Primary School. From there, I moved to Dumbeli Secondary School, and moved to Kano where I started my degree programme. I was rusticated because I was preaching more of one Nigeria. I joined a computer school where I started learning. I refused to go back to school because I was actually questioning what I was learning. I don’t believe it was something that could give me what I need in the job market. So rusticating me really helped. I pushed myself and went to NIIT to study Computer. When I finished computing in nine months, I came to Lagos. I worked in an oil firm for nine months in Warri, resigned and then came back to Lagos because I love computing. I worked for two years and resigned at the age of 26 to start my business in October 2008. Here we are, nine years ago, IPI is one of the biggest Microsoft partners in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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