Nigeria is today observing another independence anniversary. Can you say the political elite have really met the expectations of the founding fathers?
No, we haven’t. We have actually disappointed them because this country started as a federation but we have since centralised everything. Nigeria was growing at a very appreciable rate, all the regions found ways and means of sustaining growth and leaders at that time had landmark achievements especially in physical infrastructure and institutions that still stand the test of time, 50 years after. But unfortunately, everything started falling apart from the military intervention of 1966 and between that time and now, we have retrogressed, in spite of the enormous resources available to us.Nigeria is today observing another independence anniversary. Can you say the political elite have really met the expectations of the founding fathers?
What can be found in private pockets is an embarrassment and disgrace to any decent human being, especially when you step out of this country. It is a source of provocation and anger. All of these have combined to make Nigeria a worse place than the founding fathers left us.
The military coupists of 1966 mentioned nepotism and 10 per cent bribe taking as part of the reasons for their intervention at the time. But nobody is talking about 10 per cent anymore. It has gone far more than that. Nepotism has assumed a national culture and the All Progressives Congress, (APC) government hasn’t helped matters, at all. In fact, it has worsened it. Years after years, Nigerians haven’t found any reason to celebrate their independence; we have more low-keyed citizens celebrations than we have had actual celebration. Because we are Christians and Muslims, we believe in God, all we have always done is to thank God for keeping us alive and keeping Nigeria together. God has been very kind to us, but I don’t think we have carried ourselves well as a nation even to merit God’s mercy.
So, Nigerians have a responsibility. Now that we are practising democracy, not military regime, the idea of going to vote for somebody you know lacks the capacity to administer the nation and look at other sections as conquered territory should stop. We have so many patriotic Nigerians ready to serve this country with their energy and talents, not people who rely on primordial sentiments and prejudices to corner power and use it to lord it over others. That’s the way I look at it; Nigeria at this stage is still a toddler and we having a stunting growth. Nigeria is retarded. We had a regional arrangement at independence, which guaranteed self-autonomy for the federating regions.
Decades after, Nigerians are canvassing for the 1963 Constitution that empowered the zones. Against the backdrop of agitation for restructuring, is the problem facing us really with the structure or basically bad leadership?
It is both, in the sense that this kind of structure you have now tends to stifle creativity and discourage leaders from bringing out their best. We have a kind of structure that has compelled most leaders to wait till the end of the month to go to the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja and collect their allocation.
So, in that kind of situation, healthy completion and exploitation of comparative advantage of most federating units aren’t being put to use and everything is in the hands of the federal government. We have got to the point where even our roads that cut across states won’t be done and we wait for states to use their meager resources to patch the road and return to the Federal Government. Put that won’t happen if there is devolution of power. So, if we restructure the country we have the challenge to know that we are in a competitive environment.
If civil servants and teachers are paid in one state and not paid in another, that state that isn’t paying will look inward or the people will vote such leader out, because this country is endowed with a lot of human and material resources and if we don’t restructure, the best in our leaders cannot come out.
That’s what I have always stood for. The structure we are having now doesn’t inspire development, it doesn’t stimulate growth and doesn’t encourage creativity. It doesn’t even encourage competition. It makes everybody dependent on the Federal Government and the Federal Government in turn is dependent on oil and so nothing happens.
So, the two must go together and one will engender the other: a well-structured Nigeria will engender better leadership and of course, empower the electorate by ensuring that the votes of the people count and they aren’t shortchanged. It will also encourage the people to elect credible leaders. Nigerians are rational human beings and they don’t deserve the kind of leaders we have. It is an insult to say our people deserve the kind of leaders that they have because they didn’t elect these people. They weren’t properly elected. So, the electoral body has the duty to help us bring into office, people who are ready to serve. If the people are giving the alienable right through transparent, credible electoral process to elect a leader that they want, I can assure you that Nigerians will elect very credible leaders that will make them happy and proud. Nigeria must insist that the right things are done.
Still on the political architecture, President Buhari in his recent nationwide broadcast said the country unity was non- negotiable and called on those agitating for restructuring to approach the National Assembly and canvass constitution amendment. The Senate has also re-echoed Buhari by saying Nigeria’s unity is not negotiable. What’s the way forward?
Sometimes people in office speak out of fear or lack of courage, which borders on lack of patriotism. It makes no sense for anybody to say that the unity of the country is non-negotiable. It is the most illogical and nonsensical remark I have ever heard, because human relationship is even negotiable. Nigeria is a contraption made by colonial masters that brought different people together and clustered them into a country called Nigeria. We have accepted our fate, because so many things had actually
happened even before the creation of Nigeria. We inter-married, we have had inter-cultural exchanges, across borders, centuries before creation of Nigeria.
So, having accepted to be in that geographical expression called Nigeria, the best thing is to continue to negotiate and renegotiate to make it better and more acceptable for everybody. Even marriage, an institution established by God himself is undergoing constant negotiation and renegotiation, almost on daily basis. Where negotiation is lacking, the marriage breaks down. So, I don’t see how anybody will say that a country like Nigeria where people are aggrieved cannot be negotiated. Yes, we must be in unity but it must not be like the Biblical Jonah who was in a dark and uncooperative environment. So nothing is sacrosanct about Nigeria’s unity. It must address everybody’s welfare, where there is equity, justice and fair play and equal opportunity. That will breed not only unity but patriotism. That will make you want to die for Nigeria, if it is prepared to protect you.
So, for somebody to say that the unity of Nigeria isn’t negotiable, the person isn’t being honest to himself. It is a fallacious statement, because there is no country that doesn’t undergo negotiation. Even the constitution amendment the Presidency is talking about talks about the unity of Nigeria, how governors and president should relate. Is that not negotiation? So I don’t understand whether the word negotiation is difficult for them to understand or they are just trying to live a lie.
With benefit of hindsight, would you say the colonial masters, who administered Nigeria actually gave certain privileges to a certain section of the country?
With benefit of hindsight, yes. That’s is now clear because with certain declassified documents from the British archives, it is now known that it was deliberate to have added almost the figure 20 million to the Northern population at that time in order to give it advantage to control the government at that time. And it turned out that it is only in Nigeria that the population of the desert area is larger than the coastal area! It is only in Nigeria that they have that kind of proportion in population, giving advantage of number to people of desert area.
But with the declassification of documents in the British archives, we have now seen why it was so and everything is being done by subsequent government to continue to forge that illusion on the country that the number in the North is greater than the number in the South and they do that by ensuring that we never have a credible population census.
So, this is what has happened. But we have had so many opportunities to redress this but leaders especially the ones from the south haven’t played the right politics and at the end of the day, it isn’t war that would solve it. It is politics and 2019 is around the corner. For those who actually believe that this country can be made comfortable for its citizens, they must come together. To put it in political parlance, progressive forces must come together to overthrow the reactionary forces for Nigeria to move forward. Yes, the colonial masters did that damage but the politicians that took over didn’t help matters. Now that 2019 is around the corner, we must pull forces together to redress the imbalances through democratic means. What I am advocating is that they must come together. It is unfortunate that APC goes with the tag, progressives but it is the most reactionary party in recent times.
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