Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, nationalist and Nigeria’s first Minister of Aviation and the last surviving member of the Zikist Movement, died in November 1 at the age of 93. In this last interview with KUNLE ODEREMI weeks back, he bared his mind on lost opportunities by Nigeria since 1960, the current state of the country, 2023 general election and the future of Nigeria.
Now that Nigeria has attained 62 years of independence, what step do you think the country can take to reclaim its lost grounds?
Each time we get to October 1 of every year, I do remember the country’s Independence Day with sadness. I have been never happy with the day, because the sacrifices of the founding fathers and their efforts have been abused, destroyed and rubbished by people. When we went into the struggle for the independence of the country, the struggle was mainly in Lagos when it was the capital of Nigeria.
The likes of Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdii Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and a host of them led the struggle, except a few like Mallam Raji Abdusallam and so on joined from the North.I belonged to the NCNC party, which took part in the struggle and we believe in a revolutionary way of pursuing the struggle. Then, we were victimised, we were imprisoned. In fact, I served my first imprisonment in Benin at the age of 21. And I had another imprisonment at the age of 23 at Enugu and so on. The like of the Tafewa Balewa and others did not take part in the struggle. It was only when the British decided to review the constitution in 1952 that was when the North floated a political party, which they called a party of their own: Northern Peoples Congress (NPC).
Their policy then was a party of the North and for the Northerners. But not quite long, the leaders from the Southern compromised and agreed with the North that Nigeria should be granted independence on October 1, 1960. But the British government had before this time caused a big trouble by amalgamating the North and the South, such that nothing culturally would bring them together. But the North and the South later worked together. And independence was achieved. Before then, we had agreed in London that the independence should be granted in 1966. We were handed a caveat by the British that if any region in Nigeria should object to the independence of October 1, it should be postponed indefinitely. And this was written into an agreement.
But in 1959 when the final election was held to form the parliament to usher in the independence, they gerrymandered the constitution in such a way that the NCNC had the highest number of votes: 2.6 million votes, the NPC had 1.59 million votes, while the Action Group polled 1.6 million votes. But instead of the largest party forming the government, the North threatened that they would invoke the laid-down caveat if we do not agree that they should produce a prime minister. The NCNC with its 2.6 million votes only got 94 seats, while the AG got 77 seats. But the NPC, with its 1.59 million votes, got 143 seats. Do you see the gerrymandering like that? You go forward, you die; you go backward, you also die. But the nationalists from the South said, we will compromise positions, because we are not fighting for personal benefits, but to have a great country of our own that we will manage. And so, the British governor appointed Alhaji Tafewa Balewa as the prime minister and we got our independence and everybody was happy.
But six years after, we set up the Nigerian army to defend the country against foreign invasion. Then, the economy was good. Everything was functioning well. Workers were being paid. Employment was there. The universities were also running well and there was no oil money at that time. It was cocoa from the West; palm oil from the East and groundnut from the North. Dr Azikwe first of all set up the University of Nigeria at Nsukka; Awolowo set up the University of Ife; and later on, the Sarduana set up the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Everybody was happy with what was going on, but shortly afterwards, the military took over, killed the Prime Minister, killed Okotiebor, who was representing the NCNC at the central cabinet then. They killed my own cousin, the Commander, who was in charge of the armoury, because he refused to give them the keys of the armoury. So, they shot him in his house in the presence of his wife, who he was preparing to take the hospital for baby delivery. And that was how the atrocities continued with the Igbos being massacred and killed like mosquitoes in the North. It resulted in the Civil war.
After the war, the military took over the country and started creating states, abolishing the federal system which we created through true federation. They also call their own federal system, but what we are really practicing now is a military system, whereby the entire control of the country’s resources, power and projects is done by the centre. And when you control all these, what else remains? So they rendered the whole states useless. In fact, all the 36 states in Nigeria today were created not by the constitution, but by the military government ruled by northerners. Not a single southerner was a head of state when the states were created. So, what we truly have is an illegal and lopsided federation.
God really blessed Nigeria with abundance of mineral resources, gas and everything. And all these are mainly in the South. But they are all controlled in the North. And not the entire North, but by one small tribe, the Fulanis. They came and dominated the Hausas, who were in the majority in that region. Now, they are saying that they want to expand as their ambition is to rule the whole of Nigeria. I could remember that immediately after independence, the Saudaurna of Sokoto said the country called Nigeria is a gift being given them by their forefathers, the late Usman Dan Fodio.
But going back to what the military did to Nigeria, I will say they introduced an unprecedented killing spree and milking of common wealth of the country. As such, the oil well of the country was diverted into private pockets. And the gas wealth of the country was also diverted into the hands of a few people, while the oil producing states continues to suffer. I know this, because I am the only remaining minister of the First Republic and also the last among the early fighters for this country. I believe we can make Nigeria great if we can take proper country of the country.
So, right now ahead of 2023, I will say God has offered Nigerians a very good clear opportunity to retake their country, not by violence, but by ballot. And God has given them a pair that will do the salvation. Let the people of Nigeria tell the other two big political parties to go and eat the looted funds they have stolen all the years and then take back the country. Let them take the country back.
During my time, the youths of my age fought, sacrificed and died to take Nigeria away from the Britain. Now, let the youths of Nigeria today, the middle class and women rally round and take back their country. God has given Nigeria that opportunity now. And they must take it. Let the people who have looted and legalized killings in this country lick their wounds. Every of the Nigerian in the senate take home close to N20million as allowance monthly, while a professor in a Nigerian university earns less than one million naira monthly. Yet, the politicians smile home with N20 million or N30 million every month, legalising stealing.
So, what do you think should be the dominant issues as the campaign for 2023 rolls on?
It should be Nigerians taking back their country from the hands of the looters. Let the Nigerian people take back their country. But, you would agree with me that politicking these days in Nigeria is all about money,
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And that is what has led us to where we are now. In our own time, I won an election at the age of 29, became a federal minister at 30. Yet, I did not have money then. The man that contested with me then was a lawyer, but people took his money and voted for me. So, Nigerians can take the money, because it is theirs. They should simply take the money and take back their country. But if they collect the money and still went ahead to vote in the looters, well, good luck to them.
How can the country address the mentality of criminality ravaging the political space?
That is why I said God has given Nigeria a Third Force and it is only this Third Force that can save this country. If they should take to the other two forces, one is religious domination, the other is religious insubordination. See what is happening in Kaduna State; see how Christians are being killed. Their houses, villages and are burnt. Same thing happening in Katsina and other places. So, Nigerians must not allow to be Islamised. Let Islam be; let Christianity be and let other religions also be. And that is the programme the Third Force is practicalising by bringing the candidacy of Christian and Muslim. If the Muslim/Muslim take over, what do you think will happen? In fact, people will not live. So, I believe God will not let it happen.
But apart from that, there is an ongoing hardship in the country. Look at the price of fuel. It has become very hard to even buy ordinary Kerosene in the country, because Nigeria isn’t benefitting from the global oil price increase that followed the Ukrainian war. And it is because, we have sold our own oil on credit in advance. We have sold a lot of our own oil in advance to get money which has fallen into the wrong hands. We are the sixth largest oil producer in the world, but we are still importing petrol and other products. We do sell at low prices, but it is usually in advance. But those we sell to often sell their own at the current global oil price, which is higher. What kind of country is this?
The elections are five months away, but the menace of gunmen killing people in the South-East persists….
When one man is killed in the South-East, you hear so much noise about it, but when Christians are killed in Katsina, you don’t hear any noise about that. When villages and Christians’ houses are being burnt too, you will not hear anything.But when they kill one man in Southern Nigeria, they make all sorts of noise about. Why is it that it is only in states like Katsina, Zamfara and other Northern states that you hear 30 people kidnapped or killed, without no one escaping? Today, you hear of 10 persons kidnapped. Tomorrow, it will be about 200 kidnapped, and no one will escape. How possible is this? I see them all as lies, just to arouse public sympathy for the North. At the end of the day, you see people buying foods and other things for the Northerners. But there have been a demand that many people have been saying will reduce all the killings in the South-East and it is to release NnamdiKanu. The Christian leaders and political leaders have all said it, even traditional rulers have said same thing. But the government does not want to release him. They simply want to keep him within their confinement, yet they are starving him and denying him of the needed medical attention. They just simply want him to die, thinking that if he dies, things will be soft for them. But trust me, it will be worse for everybody in this country if Kanu should die in DSS custody. I have said it many times that if they government release Kanu today, you won’t hear any more gunshots in the South-East.
How do you see the future of this country against the background of the election that is coming up?
How will I know what will happen as I am not a prophet, though some persons have said they are prophets. I have told you that the only thing that can save the future of this country from breaking up is for them to do the needful. People like me have fought for this country, so I wouldn’t want it to break up. And by God’s grace, it won’t break up.
and then