Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien, an engineer, is the national chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). In this interview with INIOBONG EKPONTA, he speaks on Nigeria’s 61st Independence anniversary and issues threatening the corporate existence of the country.
Nigeria at 61, how is the journey so far?
Let me first of all thank God for Nigeria at 61. Nigeria has gone a long way to celebrate 61 years of independence and there is reason to thank God that everything is still in order and we are still Nigeria as one and not divided. But it is rather unfortunate that despite the age of Nigeria, we have been going backwards, rather than moving forward. So, it has been a very sad thing for Nigeria. Countries like Malaysia, India, Ghana and the rest that we had independence almost at the same time like Nigeria have gone far in terms of developments. But we are going backwards.
At what point did we miss it because Nigeria did not start like this from 1960?
We started sliding downwards when the military came and took over the country. There was a lot of division within the country as a result of the military involvement in the governance process of the country. This gave rise to sociopolitical and ethnic disharmony within the polity.
What then is the way forward?
I think something drastic has to be done to help the country to move forward. One of such things that Nigeria urgently needs is the restructuring of the country. We need to restructure the country and use states as the federating units, so that each state can develop at its own pace and contribute to the central government and to the Federation Account, rather than pooling all the resources together as we are currently doing and then sharing it from the centre. It is not helping the country to grow. It breeds corruption and nepotism as we currently see in the country. So, going forward, my suggestion is that Nigeria should be restructured.
What form should such restructuring take?
Most of the powers in the Exclusive Legislative list should be moved to the Concurrent Legislative list. This will allow the states to function in many areas. State Police is necessary at this point in time, especially with the prevalence of insecurity in the country. So, these are my major thoughts. You could see the level of agitation from many states and regions who want to stay on their own and you don’t allow these people freedom.
What are your fears if such reforms are not heeded?
There will come a time that Nigeria will eventually boil beyond redemption and nobody will be able to contain the level of crisis that will result from such development in the country. But we don’t want that to happen. If we have to be our brothers’ keepers, we must be able to take preemptive steps to avert crisis. The impending crisis, using a boil in your armpit as an example, if you do not take early treatment to cure it, at some point it will break on its own and that will cause some damage and pain to the body. So, prevention is better and Nigeria therefore should take preemptive steps in time like this.
Overheating the polity over power shifts in 2023, what does it portend?
We could see the Southern governors met and resolved that they don’t want open grazing. They want the presidency to be rotated to the South. The Northern governors also met and they also argued to the contrary that they want rotation of the presidency, that the constitution does not recognise rotation, that open grazing should continue in this 21st century. Myetti Allah also came up with a threat that any state that passes or enacts the open grazing law, that they would go and take over the land. I mean, are we heading towards anarchy or heading towards peaceful coexistence? I think what will make us to live peacefully together is allowing states to run their course and develop at their own pace. This will help the country and this is my prayer for this country at 61.
In the face of all this agitations accompanied with violence in the South, what is your honest advice to the Southern leaders?
There is need for the South to unite and cooperate. The South-East wants to go on their own; the South-South wants to go on their own and the South-West, same thing, including the Middle Belt. Like I earlier said, what will help this country is making the states as federating units and everybody will be comfortable with his own state or with his geopolitical zone. I think that is the only way and all the South-South people; South-East, South–West and the Middle Belt people are saying the same thing. So, I think in the interest of the country, they should heed to the voices of reason and wisdom to have the country restructured in line with true federalism.
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