CHIEF Alex Chiedozie Ogbonnia, national publicity secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, speaks with KUNLE ODEREMI and IMALEAYO OYEDEYI on the state of the polity, power shift, festering insecurity crisis in the South-East, among other topical national issues.
Some Nigerians claim that things have never been this tough and bad considering security issues, socio-economic challenges facing Nigerians. On your part, how will you assess the current state of the nation?
It is precarious. It is precarious in the sense that one is not sure of tomorrow, or even sure of what will happen today. War time is even better because you will know where the bullet is coming. But now, no one knows where the bullet is coming from. I am only talking in terms of security now. Secondly, in terms of the economy, the naira has lost its value, and those who are being paid salary with it can no longer feed. Apart from those who are working, but can’t feed themselves and their family, those who are not working are many more in number, which is what you call unemployment. Even some of those who are working are under-employed. That is for today. Tomorrow and the future of our children are not guaranteed. The kind of future we have is a very bleak one.
Above all, the corporate existence of Nigeria is also not guaranteed, because of what they call enthno-centricism, which implies someone putting the interest of his own ethnic group over the entire nation. It is so saddening how Nigeria has prioritised the interest and love of one ethnic group. Ideologically, religion has torn Nigeria apart, so that is why you have polarity of both Christianity and the other religion. In fact, there are also micro-movements within the Islamic faith. So, I don’t know from where you want me to begin to analyse the current situation of the country, because there is a problem in every part of the country. Even some people are suggesting that we should handover Nigeria back to Britain.
But how did we get to where we are today? What exactly went wrong as we started well as a country in 1960?
It is poor leadership. In those days, we had someone like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who had a vision and mission to accomplish. As at that time, Awolowo was educated. He was a lawyer and an economist, while Dr Nnamdi Azikwe was also informed. But they chose Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who was a Teachers Grade 2 (TC II) holder, and they continued like that. Later at another time, Awolowo presented himself; Azikwe did the same, but they ended up choosing Alhaji Shehu Shagari. And when people were clamouring for someone who is fully educated and probably a degree holder, but somehow, they chose our friend and man, who is there now. But the man is overwhelmed, because what we have now is non-state actors everywhere, taking control, like you have in the South-East, where they say nobody should come out on Mondays. This is because if you don’t have the state actors in charge of the security architecture, non-state actors will overtake the streets and start carrying out the duties expected of the state actors. These are some of the problems we are facing.
The challenges confronting the country appear overwhelming but a lot of people say those problems are not unsurmountable. So, what do you think is the way out: the short and long term solutions?
There is what we call a critical juncture in every society. Critical juncture is always brought about by circumstances beyond the control of an ordinary individual. So, it gives the opportunity to reflect, think, reorganise and redirect our thought process and agree on where to follow next. In Nigeria, we have come to that juncture now, where we should sit down and look at where we can go from here. It has become clear to all and sundry that President Buhari can no longer manage the security situation of the country. It is also clear that the country’s economy is in comatose and that nothing is working.
So, what we have to do now is to come together and find out where to go from here. The basic thing which has appeared in this country is injustice and promoting mediocrity over merit. This has been the major problem. But if we all can withdraw for now, come together and see how we can bring in equity. And then search the length and breadth of the country for competent solutions based on merit as against mediocrity and religious sentiments. If we can do all this, with time, we will throw out terrible leaders and get credible leadership that will articulate programmes and ideas. And things will start moving rightly for the country. A good leader will come with equity, justice and make quality decisions. And it will be easier for Nigerians to trust him. The likes of Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu are agitating, not because they like agitation, but because of the way things are panning out in the country.
How do you mean?
I said so because their agitation is based on the level of injustice that has been going on in the country. That is the basis of their agitation in the first place. The fact is that if things had been working well, the men wouldn’t have been agitating. The Yoruba wouldn’t naturally wish to leave Nigeria if things are working well. The Yoruba people have high self-esteem and know that they have dignity, which they must always maintain and not allow anyone to undermine. And I like them, especially for the roles they have been playing in union activism, including that of NADECO.
But in spite of this, the Yoruba people have been given the opportunity to have authority and manage the resources within their land. Moreso, they are very accommodating and they promote the Nigerian economy very well. But the problem is that you have someone who is the President of the country, but has kept the positions of the Inspector General of Police, the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff within his own Fulani ethnic group and exhibits reckless abandon to other groups in the country. That kind of lopsidedness is really worrisome, because it is really not good. Even if he may not mean Fulanisation, the actions appear to be working towards that. The reason Nnamdi Kanu is getting support all over Igbo Land is because of the injustice that the current administration has meted out to the Igbo region. But the president doesn’t seem bothered about this and that is why the people are agitating more. I am an Igbo, part of Ohanaeze and know what goes on in the streets.
The other day that Buhari visited Imo State, we asked our people to come out and receive him. And when he came, we told him to let’s see whether his coming can form a new understanding between his administration and the Igbo. We let him know that what we hate is injustice. And we appealed to him to have a change of mind, not just towards the Igbo alone, but to the entire Nigerians, because injustice to one is injustice to all. If you have been a director in the public service, for an example and you see someone you are far better than being promoted above you to the position of the Permanent Secretary. You know that you understand the work more than him, but your only issue is the fact that you are a Yoruba man.
The fact remains that your cooperation with the man being made the Permanent Secretary will be minimal. You won’t be able to cooperate with him fully, because we are human beings. And there are certain instructions he can’t give to you because he knows that you are his superior in intellect. Can you see the defects? It goes from there downwards, so injustice is catastrophic. You think you are doing it to Mr A, but it will eventually affect the whole body, because what happens to a small part of your body affects the whole body. That’s why injustice is very pervasive and doesn’t help matters. That is the problem.
Then, do we need, if you like, a national conference to address some of these critical issues in Nigeria’s quest to attain nationhood?
Yes, for instance, when you talk about rotation of powers. It was discussed at National University Commission (NUC) Event Centre at Abuja in 1998, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties were being formed. I was there. The person, who spoke for the whole South as a whole, not even the Igbo alone now, was Dr Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory, while the person who spoke for the northern region was Alhaji Abubakar Rimi. And then it was agreed that there will be firstly, transfer of power, from the North to the South, and that thereafter, it will be rotating between the North and the South. It was agreed. And that was why all the parties worked towards the South and narrowed it to the South West. Then when the South finished now, it had to go back to the North, based on the agreement. It went to Yar’Adua.
Even when the man from Rivers, Dr Peter Odili, did everything possible, Obasanjo said no, you are my friend, but it won’t come to you. The man pulled a huge sum of money into it, but they still said no, that the agreement was that it must be rotated between the North and the South. Alex Ekwueme, Dr Okadigbo, and Chief Bola Ige were there, because at that time, it was not PDP. In fact, what PDP is today was supposed to accommodate both Chief Bola Ige and the rest of them. But Bola Ige said that he didn’t want to see Nwobodo, because he represented Borno State for General Sani Abacha to remain as President. Chief Bola Ige was against that. Ekwueme told him that see, we have people in the South East, who want to be President, but this didn’t go down well with Chief Bola Ige, so they pulled out to form the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
But by the time the discussion went on, I was working with Alex Ekwueme. Bola Ige was the man who coordinated the South West. Solomon Nack coordinated the North Central. Ekwueme and his followers coordinated the South East. One other person from Rivers coordinated the South-South. And when the presidency ended with Yar’Adua, it came back to Dr Goodluck Jonathan. Then after South, it went back to the North again, which is now Buhari. It is expected that after his tenure, it will come down to the South again. And the region it is supposed to go is the South-East, because the South-West has had it, the South-South has had it too. So if the presidency is coming to the South now, it should go to the South East, which will be equity and justice at work. But there are some people in Nigeria that because of selfish interest and inordinate ambition will like that the presidency should not come to the South East. They begin to raise all forms of nomenclatures about the Igbos, because they are agitating for the injustice in the country. But as a credible Igbo, I want to assure you one day, Nigerians have come to a consensus is that the Igbos like the Yoruba are very resourceful people.
How do you mean?
The Igbos are resourceful and they can transform a place from nothing to something. They have the capacity and ingenuity to change the environment. And if the Igbo brightest minds are brought into governance, you will see prosperity, wealth creation, employment. Meanwhile, the Igbos have a way of complementing the Yoruba. In fact, the alliance between the two races is far deeper than what people know. Do you know that during the war, all the properties that the Igbos had in the West, none was ever seized? Even Brigadier Adekunle Fajuyi, while trying to defend an Igbo, lost his life.
These are some of the emotional things that the Igbos can never forget. Above all, the Yoruba are hospitable people; there is hardly any Yoruba community in the country that you won’t find an Igbo man living comfortably with his children speaking Yoruba. And they never ever embarrassed or harassed them to go. This is what we celebrate in the Igbo land. The hospitality in Yoruba land is enormous. And this is what the Igbos and the Yoruba have in common, because the Igbo too are also hospitable and accommodating.
The security situation in the South-East seems precarious, with the spate of killings. How best do you think we can address the problem?
One thing I want you to note is that the Igbo youths are not happy with the treatment that is being meted out to them. There is a pronouncement President Buhari can make today and everyone in Igbo land will start jubilating. When Ihejirika was made the Chief of Army Staff, I didn’t know him from day one, but everybody became happy. Same thing happened when Senator Ike Ekweremadu became the deputy Senate President dramatically; everybody in the region began to jubilate. So, there is a pronouncement the President will make today and the Igbos all over the world will begin to jubilate. And there will be that collective conscience from people as they will be saying, ‘My friend, things are better now.’ But every day, you look around and you can’t find any Igbo among the service chiefs, even in the Fire Service or Civil Defence. No Igbo man is found worthy anywhere. Is it good? So the President knows the pronouncement he can make now and every Igbo man will be jubilating. Besides, what you call insecurity is the expression of the peoples’ anger at what is happening in their region. Most of them don’t have a platform you have given me now to express my feelings. So it is only through violence they can vent their anger.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Lagos Is Second Least Liveable City In The World For 2021
Lagos is the second least liveable city in the world for the year 2021. This is according to the most recent annual ranking put together by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)…
CLAIM 1: A Twitter user claims UNICEF said any efforts to block children from accessing pornography might infringe their human rights.
and then