We have not left the military era — Mbang, former Methodist Prelate

Dr Sunday Mbang is Prelate Emeritus of the Methodist Church, Nigeria and also a former president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). In this interview by INIOBONG EKPONTA, the octogenarian bares his mind on how Nigeria could be rescued from the stranglehold of underdevelopment 60 years after its independence.

Nigeria at 60, where are we?

At 60, we are still groping in the dark, struggling to find who will lead us. We have not arrived yet. Nigeria is still immature.

What is holding down the country’s maturity at 60?

The sickness of Nigeria is Nigerians themselves. The second sickness is the structure of Nigeria. We have been deceiving ourselves about the structure of Nigeria. When I was a young man, when the colonial masters that were here left us, the regions were looking after themselves. We were Eastern region and all the palm fruits we had we sold; that is why the West had the cocoa house. Do they still have the cocoa house now? No, because they are now running a unitary government. So we must restructure Nigeria and allow states to manage their affairs, then you will see competition.

States must be allowed to manage their affairs. It annoys me every month to see the representatives of the state governors stand in line to collect money from the Federal Government. It annoys me. It never happens anywhere only in Nigeria. One thing I love in about the United States of America is that the local government has police, the states have their own police; the Federal Government only has army, navy.

Why must the Federal Government be involved in the security of the state?

The people in the state know how to effect their security. The thing that they have done now to deceive all of you is community policing. What is the meaning of it? Is community police going to be managed by the people around the area?

These are the questions that I wish to ask. Community policing is one of the deceits that we have in Nigeria. I don’t believe in it and it is not going to work. We need to restructure Nigeria and face the fact that states should pay taxes to the Federal Government.

What is the Federal Government doing about agriculture in the states, and also roads? That is why you see that most of the roads are not fixed; because they are being fixed from Abuja. I don’t think the government in Abuja knows the state of the roads in my village.

What kind of political ideology should be adopted to get Nigeria out of this mess?

We’ve been deceiving ourselves with the unitary structure that was brought by the military. We have not left the military era; we must leave the military philosophy completely. States are so powerful in the United States of America. We are copying the presidential system of the USA but we are not doing one third of what the system requires.

We were doing the parliamentary system and even in the parliamentary system people do things in their areas but the presidential system is that people do their own things. If you listen you hear governors in the USA disagreeing with the president. Will the governors disagree with the president here? They cannot. That is a presidential system. The president talks of a law and the governors say you cannot do that in my state, and that is the end of the story.

Therefore, if we run the presidential system like the USA, let them do it properly. That is another problem with Nigeria. I have talked of citizens; I have talked of structure, now the third one is politicians. It is a disgrace to find somebody who didn’t have any car when he entered politics to then claim to have the resources of purchasing an aeroplane.

Here in Nigeria politicians serve for personal interests. I understand that in the USA, they don’t give politicians houses. If they pay you money, you rent your own house. This makes it less comfortable for people to go into politics to be leaders. Are we prepared to do that?

When you have a corrupt, bad system, all you are going to introduce are corrupt, bad people; they are not going to be useful unless you have one person once in a while that comes in and tries to do a few things differently. Of course, the corrupt system will never allow him to do well.

What is Nigeria’s future then?

They should listen to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. We need a group of sincere, committed Nigerians to sit down, examine Nigeria and produce possible ways of changing Nigeria and those in government. When these ways are produced, members of parliament and executive will look at it effectively, dialogue with those who have done it and implement what they have done. Obasanjo is the one who has started it. He knows the calibre of people who can do the work with him. But once you say Nigerians should do it, it becomes politicised.

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