THE clamour for restructuring of the country has become most pronounced over the years. Where do you stand?
I strongly believe in restructuring. When you look at restructuring, it means you will sit down to decide what goes where in terms of allocation of resources and revenues from Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission. I remember that in the Western Region, when my grandfather was there, the region was lending Federal Government money from cocoa.
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The region was richer than the centre. But the presidential system has destroyed all this. And they did it intentionally so that our people would not have enough money to upstage them. They destroyed our education system as well as other credible things. So, what we are saying is, what is the Federal Government’s business in agriculture? Put up the policy, give money to the states and local governments and let them go and utilise it. Then there would be healthy competition between the states. What obtained years back was that the regions were in competition. The Easter Region would say Second to None, the Western Region would say First in Africa because of the ways they were developing. But today, they have destroyed the whole thing. So, we can restructure so that all the regions could be able to develop at their own pace.
The 2019 general election is about three months away and people have said many things including that the elections may not hold or they may not be free and fair. Any word for the political class?
My candid advice is to the incoming politicians: they should have the spirit of service; that they are not coming for selfish agenda but to serve the people. They should have the mindset of selfless service like Chief Obafemi Awolowo. What do you need four cars for? Two cars are okay; one for you and the other one for your family. So, if they have spirit of service and they really serve selflessly, Nigeria will be the better for it. That is the truth of the matter.
Secondly, ahead of the 2019 elections, politicians should be warned to do things right in order to prevent mass revolution. We know of countries where it was the civil uprising that swept the government out of power. And if things go worse, revolution cannot be ruled out in Nigeria.
What is your take on the recycling of old people in government, which some argue has been affecting governance in the country?
Well, what I will say is that it is high time we adopted the system whereby the youth with younger and versatile brains come up to rule this country. My children, whenever I have problem with my phones of whatever brand, you will see the way these three, four-years old would handle the fault! I cannot do it with my age and my experience and exposure. Whenever I exhausted my data, I will just call on them to help me out because it seems they had got special training from the womb that make them more advanced than us technologically. And the way we are talking and seeing things, they are not seeing and talking that way. They are more current in global events than us.
So, we should encourage the younger ones, who now have better ideas about how a country should be governed to come up and take the leadership mantles of this country. We should do the right thing and stop engaging in blame game.
As far as I am concerned, I want the old people to allow the vibrant younger people to come up and get involved in governance. When we have 40-years-old people, who are already professors in this country, what else do you want 80 years old people to be doing in political offices?! Let this older politicians take the back seat and handle advisory roles behind the curtains. After all they have been there since independent. What else do they want?! They should step aside and allow the younger ones to take the centre stage.
Are the youth ready for leadership roles?
That is the challenge now. Are the youth ready for service or are they still dreaming of riding bigger cars and living in big houses in Lekki or Victoria Island in Lagos or choicest areas in Abuja, Kano, Port-Harcourt or Enugu? Anybody who wants to rule this country must have in mind service to the people and not because of affluence. When you want to serve, you should remember your people are suffering and you want them to see you as a disciplined person. Your lifestyle should be the type that every person around you would want to emulate. You have to serve as a role model in your immediate environment.
The youth coming to office should be ready to eradicate the idea of long convoy to safe cost.
What baffles me is that all of us travel abroad and we see what is obtainable there. We go to Britain; we go to America and we go to France. Where did we see what we are practising in Nigeria? The money that should be used in taking care of the masses is being squandered on the retinue of cars and aides. Everybody here would have police escort. There was a day I was in the train in Britain with Mr. Cameron. He just sat quietly by the window reading newspapers. And that has not taken anything away from his image as the leader of that great country. Nobody stood up for him.
People still put the blame on the presidential system of government we are operating. What is your take?
If we are asked to go for a referendum now, I will mobilise and campaign for a return to a parliamentary system of government. The presidential system has brought corruption and all other vices into the country. We waste a lot of money and resources on the system. We are not ripe for it. Even Britain, as advanced as they are, still practise the parliamentary system of government. It is only in the United States that the presidential system appears to be working well, having passed through many stages before the system became institutionalised. We have not got to that stage. There is general indiscipline here in Nigeria. There is no amount of policies and manifestoes that will reduce corruption under the system. The best we can do is to let Nigerians decide their preference. If I were the president today, I would come out and say, ‘I have done my best and my best seems not enough, and so I suggest we go back to the parliamentary system. And if Nigerians so decide, then, we should conduct a referendum.’
Sadly, we missed that opportunity. Some people just woke up and foisted the presidential brand on us. There was no referendum to decide that. In the parliamentary system, Chief Obafemi Awolowo became a member of the parliament representing Ikenne in the Western Region. He became a Leader/Premier. Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola contested from Ogbomosho, he became a member of the House of Representatives and Opposition Leader. My grandfather, Chief Dauda Soroye Adegbenro contested from Ifo in the current Ogun State got to the parliament and became a Minister. Awolowo appointed him parliamentary Secretary and then Minister of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. These were the people voted for at the grassroots and they knew their people’s needs. If any of them was not doing well, others would accuse him and remove him because they were all the same in the Chambers.
But here now, we have the executives doing whatever they like. We also have legislators who screen ministers before appointment and then after appointment, the ministers become their landlords that cannot be controlled any more.
In fact, in this country today, the parliamentary system is the sole solution to all our problems.
Despite efforts by the authorities to stem the spate of killings in parts of the country, the trend appears to subsist. What should the government do?
Let government continue to invest heavily in education. When you educate the people, you have made them to be intelligent and would know the evil effects of drugs. Can an educated person strap explosives on his body to kill himself?
Then, massive youth employment is another vital issue. You know when you educate the youth; you will engage them with jobs. And government cannot employ everybody. Then, government should encourage enabling environment for private sectors to set up industries like we had in the past. Only industries are capable of employing thousands of people.
So, a country of gainfully engaged youth would always be peaceful.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
I must confess that it has not been easy at all the way we see things since this government came to office. They try to do their best, but their best has not been enough.
In fact, one aspect that is getting everybody worried presently is the volume of lives that we have lost in this country in the last three and a half years which is too enormous. Thankfully, however, the government is putting in a lot of efforts to see the killings stopped and there are positive results towards that angle.
Let us remember that President Muhammadu Buhari is just a single person. So, it is our collective responsibility to rally round him and his administration to help him succeed in all his efforts to make Nigeria better for all and sundry.
But the government should come out with more bold plans to stem these killings especially in the North and the poverty aspect of it, many Nigerians are suffering now.
and then