WORSENING STATE OF THE NATION: Only Nigerians can liberate themselves —Okurounmu

Senator Femi Okurounmu is a popular figure in Nigeria’s political space, having been appointed Commissioner for Works in Ogun State decades ago, elected senator to represent Ogun Central between 1999 and 2003 and appointed Secretary General of the Afenifere, a Yoruba-socio political organisation and then appointed the Advisory Committee that midwifed the 2014 national dialogue. In this interview with DARE ADEKANMBI, he speaks on why the youths should organise themselves to upstage the current gerontocratic political class in whom he sees no redemption for the country, Tinubu’s presidential aspiration, among other issues.

THE ship of the Nigerian State is floundering dangerously and this is not the time for elders like you to keep quiet. How do you think the country can be navigated away from this tempest?

Elders like me should not just be talking for the sake of talking. We have been talking for years, but those in authority just turn deaf ears to what we have been saying. They don’t seem to care about what we are saying; they do whatever they like.  So, I think it is better for some of us, like myself, to just keep quiet and be watching them. That is my own attitude now.

The late Cicero of Esa Oke, Chief Bola Ige, who popularised the pidgin phrase ‘siddon look,’ was against people, especially elders like you, keeping mute when things are not going in the right direction. You should not just ‘siddon look’ on Nigeria’s matter.

It is not a matter of ‘siddon look’. We have tried to correct them. We have pointed out all the things that are wrong. And we have done this over the last six years, shouting and talking. When you say the same thing every year and repeatedly for six years and the man you are talking to just pretends he does not hear you, you will be a mad man to continue shouting and talking.

But Nigeria is not healthy and a say-nothing attitude may make things worse…

When Nigerians feel the heat enough, they will know what to do. Nigeria is not healthy, I agree with you. But when Nigerians feel the heat enough, nobody will teach them what to do.

Last week in the South-West, some groups called for independence for the Yoruba nation in the name of Oduduwa Republic. Quickly, the Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, reacted by warning secessionists to stay away from his state. Is dismemberment the solution to the country’s problems?

We are in a situation where people are frustrated and have been stepped upon, humiliated and terrorised and are suffering and nobody seems to notice them. In a situation where people are more of less almost being enslaved and yet their cries are ignored, the people are expected to complain. They can’t be expected to be suffering and smiling. The people themselves should know that the South-West governors can never support whatever they want, because the South-West governors are not independent. They are part of the regime that the people are complaining about. So, the South-West governors, no matter how much they profess to love the Yoruba people, have divided loyalty. So, it will be futile for the people of the South-West to look up to their governors to lead them in their complaint and to share in their frustration. What the governors are saying is expected and it is what I expect them to say. They are not even free to express what they truly feel about the whole situation.

Sunday Igboho was ‘created’ when the situation was getting worse and the political leadership was ineffectual in dealing with the situation. But there has since been a kind of repressing from the Federal Government against separatists… Repression using the federal powers has been the order of the day in the last six years. Whenever the herders come to graze their cattle on people’s crops, maim and rape their women, burn and ransack villages and communities, the Federal Government has always looked the other way.

We have said this over and over again. The Federal Government has never deemed it fit to call the aggressors to order and stop these terrorists and say enough is enough. The Federal Government has been looking the other way and terrorists have been having a field day. But it is when the farmers and the people who are being terrorised react and try to defend themselves that the Federal Government turns all the weight of its superior authority on them. This has been the manner of operation of the Federal Government for the last six years. This is why I said we have talked and talked, but they have refused to listen to us. This is not new. This is what has always been happening.

Therefore, the people don’t expect the Federal Government to change its colours now nor will they expect our governors who still want to be governors, who still want to continue to get approval from the Federal Government because they are under a federal authority, to support their agitation and fight their fight. The governors still want to continue to enjoy favours from the Federal Government. If the people want to free themselves, the governors are part of the people they will have to free themselves from.

Many Nigerians are already counting down to May 28 that President Muhammadu Buhari will leave office. They expect presidential power to shift to the South. But concerns are being raised over the sincerity to allow power to come to the South. What is your reading of the political permutations going on or even from the body language of those in charge now?

My honest opinion is that it is only the people who are politically naïve that will expect any change in the attitude of the political class, no matter what happens in 2023, no matter which of the parties – APC or PDP – wins power in 2023, no matter who among the current politicians becomes president. Nothing will change. The only way we can have change is to have a complete generational change in terms of political leadership. The leadership must change to a new, younger generation, to people with vision, patriotism and commitment and people who can see that what is happening to us in the country today does not do us proud in the comity of nations. Those who want Nigeria to achieve its potential as a great country and be great and respected, particularly from among the youths, must come together now and take over power from the present crop of politicians. The current crop of politicians has failed us and cannot do any better, no matter which of them becomes president in 2023.

Are you saying somebody like Senator Bola Tinubu who was in the trenches during the NADECO days and always shows he has internalized the progressive credo  won’t be able to make any change if he becomes president in 2023?

You don’t vote for a man based on what he claims or how he assesses himself. You vote for him based on what he has done and what you can see for yourself. If a man says he wants to go and defend your interest starting from 2023, you have to see that he has been defending your interest in the last six years and even all along. If he has been doing so consistently, then of course you have to vote for such a man. But if you think he has not been doing so, then I don’t know. As Nigerians, everyone is free to make his or her choice.

If he emerges a presidential candidate and he is the only Yoruba man, would you support him?

If in 2023, the election comes to a choice between the APC and the PDP, I will simply stay in my house and not even say a word about politics. Irrespective of whoever emerges as candidate of either party, it will not be worth it. Nigeria will never have a future under APC or PDP.

Anyone reading this interview will see that you are despondent about Nigeria and its future…

I am not despondent about Nigeria. I am giving you a realistic assessment of what is happening and the situation in the country. Have we not seen the performance of APC and PDP since 1999? Can’t we see to where they had led the country and the fate that has befallen the people of Nigeria and Nigeria itself? Do you think a leopard can change its spots? This is a government by people who no longer seek after the interest and the welfare of the people who voted for them. They are only seeking power for their own selfish interest. When people are seeking power only to make money and accumulate wealth at the expense of the people, when the welfare of the masses no longer concerns them, what does it matter if they keep rotating themselves? How does that improve the welfare of the masses?

So you don’t see any difference between PDP and APC?

I am telling you there is no difference between the two. The political persons in power today, whether they are in APC or PDP, are all the same. If you look at the membership of both parties, hardly will you find anyone who has not been in the two parties at one time or the other since 1999. They have just been moving from one party to another, looking for where their fortunes will prosper more. So, they are not governing because of you and me or to see to our wellbeing. They are looking for which of the two contraptions called parties will favour them more in terms of their ambition to make money. That is my own opinion.

It would seem that the two parties are in favour of restructuring now and they have made it their singsong…

That is not correct. Look, even if it has become their singsong, it is singsong of denial because they have all had the chance to embrace restructuring, they turned the other way. They know that the people of Nigeria want restructuring and to make it their singsong now, they are only trying to trick the people again to get their votes. They are not sincere. If a man deceives you once, the man is a cheat. But if he deceives you twice and even thrice, then you are a fool. I don’t think Nigerians should show that they are fools. These politicians have been deceiving us about restructuring and when they get there, they turn the other way.

You have been a senator and handled critical national assignments. What role do you see for the current National Assembly in resolving the crisis we are in; what is your assessment of the current federal lawmakers?

The National Assembly cannot be better than the Executive arm of government because it is the Executive that drives the government, particularly in Nigeria where we all know the attitude of the average politician to money and corruption. The legislature dances to the music of the Executive.

But it was not so when you were a senator in 1999. In fact, the 4th National Assembly, which you were part and parcel of, has been adjudged by some Nigerians as the best in terms of the vibrancy. I recall then that Chuba Okadigbo, the famous Oyi of Oyi, made serious moves to have President Olusegun Obasanjo impeached…

You are right that the National Assembly during our time was never like this. But you can even go far back to say Nigeria has not been like this. Nigeria was not like this in the 60s and 70s. The country has been getting worse and worse, even since 1966. Nigeria was not like this when we had the Action Group and the NCNC and even when we had the UPN, PRP and so on. Nigeria has been getting progressively worse. It has been like a curve that has been going down. The Nigerian experience has been from bad to worse. That is why we need a new generation. The young people should not shy away from responsibility. When a country is in the kind of situation that it is at the moment, it takes a new generation of committed youths to change things. We need our youths to rise up now.

When do you think Nigerians will sing a redemption song? When will the desired salvation for the country come?

The salvation will come when the young people come together and organize themselves and perhaps form a brand new political party committed to redeeming Nigeria. It is then Nigerians will shout that they have got some saviours. You will remember that when people like Awolowo, Azikiwe were ruling the country, they were young men. So, we should not be thinking that only old people in their 70s and 60s can run the country. People in their 30s and 40s can run the country better. They are better educated, better exposed and they have a greater stake in Nigeria. The future of Nigeria and in fact the future of their own children depends on them. So, they should organise because they are in the majority. So, it is very easy for them to win power. All they need is commitment and honesty. If they are honest, determined and patriotic, they can redeem Nigeria.

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