Sheriff Shagaya: Our Biggest Problem in Nigeria is Unemployment

Sheriff Shagaya is a businessman and Chairman, Salman Shagaya Foundation. He speaks with Hammed Shittu in Ilorin on a wide range of issues, including security challenges, rising unemployment and what motivated him to float his foundation

In view of the rising insecurity in Nigeria, what is your advice to the government?
Nigeria’s problem is not from today, we all have to understand that. The feeling that there is somebody in power now and he is doing badly and we want to change him is not from today. The foundation has been bad. During General Yakubu Gowon’s regime, he commissioned a Peugeot Plant in Kaduna and another plant in Enugu. All these were investments that we hoped would provide jobs for people. When last have you heard that a factory was opened anywhere? You can drive around Ilorin and all the warehouses you will see, were once factories. When these factories were closed, so many jobs were lost. We have a lot of work to do in Nigeria and our population is growing at an alarming rate. We are just manufacturing children, no jobs. It is scary and before we know it, Nigeria’s population will be about 300 million people.

A lot of work needs to be done and if we don’t start now, I hope it would not be too difficult to handle. Imagine active young men having nothing to do. So, I don’t think it is this admiistration’s problem. This is not a political thing where APC and PDP will start blame game. They all need to sit down together and think about the future for us young people. Most of our leaders got free education during their time. It is almost impossible to get free education now. Look at public schools, no roof, no window, no chairs, not toilet and lizards on the walls of all the classrooms. How can someone function like this? How many people would you find in the UK going to private schools? There is no need for it. Because teachings in public and private schools are the same, and the public is free. So, why would I go to a private school? The same doctor that will treat me in private hospital when I go, is the same that is in the public hospital. That is why they have peace.

You ran for House of Representatives in 2015 and lost, are you still interested in politics?
No one knows tomorrow. Today, this is what you are doing. Tomorrow, you may decide to do another thing or you remain the way you are. So, only Allah knows. But for me, I don’t know. I leave it in His hand, He will guide us right.

Like it is often said in the political circle, if your people should approach you tomorrow to come and contest to become governor, what would you say?
I will tell my people that I will pray about it for God to guide me. When I get guidance, I will prepare my people.

If you have the opportunity to be governor of Kwara State for 24 hours, what would be the singular priority of your administration?
The singular thing will be security.

How would you go about it?
It is difficult for me to say this and that. I think the biggest problem we have in Nigeria today is unemployment. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. If you have one on one interaction with criminals and bandits, some of them don’t want to venture into that. They will tell you it is part of frustration of not knowing what tomorrow will bring, not knowing how to put food on the table for wives and kids, that led them into the act. So, I think the problem of unemployment should be tackled. There are too many unemployed people in Nigeria. It is ridiculous. That is why there have been simultaneous issues happening all over Nigeria; from the North to the South.

And they all have common denominator -unemployment. One needs to understand when a man cannot take care of his family. You are going to push him to the extreme and when a man is at the extreme, he can do anything. We need to build industries and people need to be employed. If I’m working in a steel company or soap making factory and I’m to resume work early in the morning, you can’t come and meet me and say let us go and do this operation in Ibadan.

You won’t even meet me at home. There is unemployment in European countries, but people that are not working are protected with unemployment benefits. So, no matter how bad it is, there is something for the unemployed to feed with till they got a job. So, when you go to Europe and you see everywhere looking calm, it is because the government has provided social security. If I’m protected, you can’t come and meet me to carry a gun. Why would I do it? Even people that are bandits are also scared. Nobody wants to die. It is so sad the situation we are in Nigeria. When you wake up in the morning, all you see is bad news. May Allah protect us all.

In 2019, people of Kwara State voted massively for the APC. How would you assess the Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq-led administration in the last two years?
I don’t really like to comment too much about politics because I don’t want to be misquoted. As you said, this is the second year. May be when the governor finishes his four years in office, we can write our assessment about him. I can’t assess somebody in two years. But from what I hear, the governor is doing a lot.

What political party do you belong to at the moment?
I’m not a politician. I’m party-less. I’m an observer just like you journalists. I’m not a card-carrying member of any political party.

When politicians want to garner support of the people, they become philanthropists. Are you saying that there is no correlation between your kind gesture to the people and your political career?
I can 100 per cent guarantee you that my foundation has no political colouration. If I ever find out that gestures are being made to people because of their political standing, then it will not be that easy. This foundation is just to help the people. It has nothing to do with any party and it would never have anything to do with any party.

What is the real motivation behind setting up your foundation?
When I got into politics in 2015, I was actually involved. I went round everywhere. One of the things that shocked me the most was that one day we were driving to Asa Local Government Area. I can’t remember whether we waited to drink water or buy something. I had an interaction with an indigene of a community along that route and within few minutes of our conversation, it amazed me the level of poverty that confronted us. They needed little from the large portion available but they had nothing close to it. And that was one of the saddest days of my life. We all live in Abuja and Lagos. I was wondering if this is how people have been living for years. They have never seen light before yet they were happy, and yet there is so much going to the state and these people are not touched. But during the elections, politicians come to use them. During the 2015 elections, they claimed we lost. After that, I wondered what I could do to make an impact in the lives of the people. My foundation is one of the most important things to me. This is one of the happiest points in my life. People ask me what makes you happy.

They are the videos about women we give solar light, food, money to run their businesses. We have 4,000 solar systems we are doing. The system consists of radio, fan and the one that you can use to charge your phone. This system costs me between N200 and N250,000 and I’m doing 4,000 for free for people across the 16 local government areas. There was a man around 82 years old. My team went to the mud house he lives in and he was talking to them in Yoruba that he had never seen light (bulb) before. We complain about Electricity Company switching off electricity here (in Urban Centre) and this is an 82-year-old man that had not seen light prior to now. That gesture was worth more than a billion naira to him. These people (beneficiaries) are villagers who have no contact with the corrupt world that we live in, that is the urban areas. To me, that is precious. That is why I said that my foundation is even more important to me than my business. I don’t joke with it. I can change the whole board of the foundation if I find out that it is being used to advance partisanship. For the solar, we are currently on a thousand people. Since the impact of COVID-19 is reducing and everything is getting better insha Allah, we are moving to 1500 people. We want to start again and it is not a joke. This is something I take very dearly. When you look at the amount, it is much. But the peace you get from it is more than Naira and kobo. So, it is a foundation that has come to stay.

There is a saying that business money cannot be diverted into charity, except you are holding a public office. How do you intend to sustain the foundation?
Those who said so are very right. But you can have happiness when you share the little that you have with people. For people that have money, God has given them the key to paradise. The only thing is for them to utilise it properly. There was a seven-year-old boy that had a hole in the heart and his father through somebody got my details. He sent me the video of his son. In our interaction, he said they wanted to take the boy to India but there was no money. They needed N2 million. Looking at the condition of the boy, I was thinking the boy might not make it to 10 years. He thought of getting N500,000 from me while they will source the rest from family members. I thought within me that if I give you N500,000, there is still N1.5 million left and by the time the family members raise the rest, the boy may not make it to 9 years. I paid for the stuff in India and the boy is fine now. When I came to Ilorin, I went to see the family. I saw the boy very happy and it was amazing. That could be the next President of Nigeria. So, imagine I didn’t do that. You just kill somebody that could take this country somewhere. Charity is not something you start manipulating for political gains. These are all the things I think about before assisting others. I see a lot of benefits in my business from the prayers of those that I assist. And that is also priceless.

As a young and agile person who is doing a lot, what advice do you have for millions of Nigerian youth?
Nigerian youth are frustrated. You can’t blame anybody. I have had an opportunity to talk to older people and they used to tell me what University of Ibadan and others like that used to be; that they had scholarships to study abroad. That by the time they left the universities, they got jobs straight with the Central Bank of Nigeria or amazing companies. There are no jobs now, even if you have First Class or Upper Class. My advice is that we should all keep praying that our leaders will get it right. Every time Nigerians go abroad, they become superstars. There is a Doctor in Houston, I think Femi, who is the only one that can do brain surgery. He went to the University of Ibadan. There is another Doctor, I think he went to the University of Nigeria, who can do a special type of heart transplant. He is in New York. If he was in Nigeria, he would probably be driving a bus, because he may not get a job in any hospital. So, why is it that when Nigerians travel abroad, they become superstars, because I know that frustration can take everything away from your mind. What is left for us as youth is to keep praying, because we are not in charge.

As a major player in the oil industry, there have been concerns over the federal government’s plan to remove subsidy from premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol, particularly at a time that the masses are still grappling with the effects of COVID-19. Would you agree with the government on this?
This is a very difficult question. The current landing cost of PMS as at today is way higher than what we are paying. Saudi Arabia produces 10 million barrels of crude oil per day and the cost of petrol in Saudi Arabia almost doubles what we pay here. Nigeria currently produces between 1.4 and 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day and our own price is almost half of what they sell it in Saudi Arabia. It means there is a problem. So, it doesn’t take rocket science to know this. Secondly, let us look at the other side, which are the people. Is there an alternative for us to go into petrol station and put fuel in our cars? Is there rail system? Train is like an alternative that government has provided to cushion the effects of fuel price on the people. In the United Kingdom (UK), the cost of petrol is about N600 per litre. If I’m in the UK, I think about where I am going. If I’m going far, I will just take a train, because I know the cost of petrol. But I have an option; I can take the train, I can take the bus. In the UK, we have bicycles that we can rent.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
I see myself where my foundation will be, 10 or 15 times bigger, but I will still be in Nigeria. Hopefully, we will have more structures in the system and things will work better. Hopefully, there will be peace, and security and Nigeria will be much better, because I don’t think there is anybody that can sleep with their two eyes closed as it is now.