Nigeria will remain on the wrong path until there is a change of mindset in leadership —Liborous Oshoma

Liborous Oshoma is a Human Rights lawyer and Head Attorney at the Liborous Oshoma Chambers.

What’s your overall takeaway from Chief Awolowo’s letter?

The letter has been in circulation on social media for more than five years now. What that says actually is the fact that our issues, right from the time of John the Baptist, have always been the same. But we fail as a people to learn from our experience and we keep believing that if we recycle leaders, then we would have solutions to the problem. And that is why every leader that comes, you know, is always worse than the previous one because the fundamental issues have not been addressed.

In the letter, Chief Awolowo claimed that the political bureau had embarked on a fruitless search for a new social order because Nigerians will remain what they are. He said evil dominates their hearts. So looking at where the country is today, has he been proven right or wrong?

So, like I said, you’ll find out that our problems really have been, like Awolowo said in his time, very fundamental. It is not about a change of government or a change of leaders, it is more about the structure, the structure of governance practices. And then the mindset, the average mindset of the people to governance and government and the politicians themselves. So that was why Awolowo was talking about you can have a new social order, a new political order, without a reorientation of the mindset. So even if you change this government today, this Tinubu administration and bring in a new one, you are still going to have the same set of behaviour, the same set of complaints.

And I’ll give you instances. During Obasanjo’s time, Atiku Abubakar was the Vice President. Atiku Abubakar was Vice President and he wanted to run for office in 2007. Obasanjo hounded him, used government agencies to stifle him. Maurice Iwu was the INEC chairman and acted as an extension, an appendage of the then government. Fast forward to Yar’Adua. El-Rufai had to run out of this country because he was vociferous against Yar’Adua. During Goodluck Jonathan’s time, Tinubu was charged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, not because he wasn’t culpable, but because he was in opposition. And then fast forward to today, Tinubu is doing the same thing. So, that mindset has consistently been there, which was why Awolowo was speaking from the point of view of his incarceration. You remember his treatment by the ruling party? And you remember what happened in the North when the Action Group went to campaign in the North?

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Even in the Second Republic, we saw the 1983 election, you know, with Ajasin, Omoboriowo. So, it’s the same mentality, the same behaviour that we have had. Until we look at the core of governance and then have a reorientation with leaders who truly are selfless, who see governance as an opportunity to serve rather than being served. No matter what we do, we’re going to come back to this same letter even 60 years from now.

So, can Nigerians still dream of a new social order? Is that even possible? Is there any hope of a new social order where everything is done according to the way it’s supposed to be?

You see, the challenge is that every time somebody is in opposition, he preaches a new social order until they get into government. You remember when Tinubu and Co were in the opposition, they preached a new social order where we’ll practice fiscal federalism, where we’ll go back to regionalism, where we will have state policing. They preached El Dorado, and people believed. I have a friend who shed tears on the day of inauguration thinking that a new social order was coming. You remember in 1999 also, when Obasanjo was sworn in, the jubilation that, “Oh yes, democracy has come. Bye-bye to jackboot era of military rule and Nigeria is on the path of progress.” And today, I listen to opposition when they talk as though the moment opposition comes into office, there will be a new social order, Nigeria will be on the path of greatness. I just laugh because they are all the same, they are not different.

So, until that mindset is changed, the country won’t get better because, like Awolowo described, the mindset of the average Nigerian is inherently evil against his fellow man. Talking as an opposition leader then, even some people that were in opposition with him, the Ladoke Akintolas and the rest, they fell out. So look at the crisis in ADC today and the ruling party has latched on to it. It’s similar to when the NPP sowed discord in the Action Group in the Southwest by pitching Akintola against Awolowo. So the spirit is the same. The behaviour is the same, that’s why the end result will be the same. So, I don’t see a new social order. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said even if you remove all the members of the National Assembly today and bring in the youth, is it the Azamen and those ones that are looking for where to pick that will govern differently?

Is the conclusion that there is no hope for the future?

The conclusion is that the people need to first and foremost demand reforms before you begin to talk of a new social order. Look at the local government that is supposed to be closest to us; if you look at the constitution, their functions are outdated, they are moribund and need to be reformed. So, sometimes, they don’t even know which are their functions, their duties and obligations. To the extent that even in some states where the function of the local government concerning advertisements is clearly defined, it has been taken over by the state. Even revenue meant for local government, it took the Supreme Court interpretation to say no, send revenue to them directly. Where do you expect that we birth a new social order where everybody goes to Abuja to collect money? So, we need to restructure, we need to reorganise, and we need a reorientation. We need to reorganise, reorient the mindset to actually believe that a new social order would be possible.