How do you see the rising insecurity, the economy, border closure and some other national issues that have become subjects of discourse among Nigerians?
The present state of the nation is not what any Nigerian would wish for. No Nigerian will want to say this is how they want to live. No Nigerian is safe. No Nigerian feels safe, and we are gradually watching how security, law and order are gradually going down.
Sadly, we have a police force that the federal government has not bothered to ask how do we get the best after the enforcement of law and order. We don’t have a government that abides with the dictum that law and order is the soil on which everything good grows, and as long as we don’t get law and order right, nothing can grow. What law and order means again is that everybody is under that law, and mustsubmit to that law. It is not what we have in the country now which is double standard and selective morality. We have selective morality and double standard, and once you do that, the society can’t grow.
What we have in Nigeria is a situation where people can belong to a cabal that can break the law and get away with it. Now, a Nigerian is privileged because somebody somewhere believes that he is loyal to him, and not that he is privileged because he is behaving well in a way every Nigerian will be proud of, and this is a big problem for us in Nigeria.
Insecurity will not stop except you have a different mindset from the government in power. No economy can grow in an atmosphere of disorder. No economy grows in an atmosphere of discontent. No economy grows in an atmosphere of divide and rule. The situation in Nigeria today is very ugly. But what is however interesting is that those who create the present situation don’t know any other way, they sincerely think that there is nothing wrong in what they are doing. They believe Nigeria is going on very well, and that some people just like to criticize.
To these people Nigeria is working perfectly well but contrary is the case. Our present leaders are far removed from the reality on the ground. Part of the reason for what is going on in the country today has its root in the cultural belief of our present leaders that some people are supposed to be poor, that Allah has made it that way, but now they’ve created more poor people.
This is a government that has promised to alleviate poverty but they’ve created poverty more than any government in the history of Nigeria since 1960, and there is only one human being that can do it and get away with it, ………
cuts in … Who is that?
It is Nigeria’s current President. The reason for this is because of Buhari’s destiny. His destiny is such that so many things are waived for him. Can you tell me of any president you know that Nigerians have been tolerant of than Muhammadu Buhari? None. That’s Buhari’s luck and destiny. Things are waived for him. He gets away with anything. This doesn’t start when he became President of Nigeria in 2015. It started from the time he wanted to join the Army several decades ago. They just keep on waiving things for him, and that’s his own destiny. Buhari is a child of destiny and I admire him.
Why do you admire him?
I admire him because it is left for us as Nigerians to understand what is his destiny. What is the destiny that Muhammadu Buhari has come to fulfill? Is it a good one or a bad one that will end up bringing a good one?
But which one do you think of?
I think it is a bad one that will end up bringing a good one. I see beautiful light at the end of the day. I see the silver lining the cloud for Nigeria. Nigerians should not despair. Buhari described Nigerians as being lazy, and of course he is very right in his assertions. If we are not lazy, there are so many things we should have been conscious of so many years ago that we are just being conscious of now.
Like what and what?
Nigeria is not one by fiat, it can’t be one by fiat, and you can’t make Nigeria one by fiat. Nigeria can only be one by negotiations. We must learn how to adjust our compromises. That’s the only way Nigeria can be one. When the British amalgamated Nigeria in 1914, their aim was to exploit us. As far as the British were concerned they were just lumping together a group of black people and exploit them, and that’s what they exactly did.
I will continue to talk about this, former Nigeria Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, may his soul rest in peace said in one of his famous speeches that the Nigeria the British were trying to create is only a figment of their own imagination, that they from the North would not be part of it, and he ended that speech with the reason that the people that made up Nigeria are different in so many ways. He delivered that speech at Northern Nigeria House of Assembly. Now if you ignore your prophets, it will be at your peril. Unfortunately, Nigerians ignored that statement, but the fact remains that Nigerians are really different in so many ways.
As a group of different people, we need to sit down together, discuss and talk about how we will stay together in the space thewe found ourselves, otherwise we will run into serious crises, and that’s why we are having series of crises in the country today.
If you call an average Fulani man and ask him the questions you are asking me, he can’t say what I’m saying. He can’t see things the way I’m seeing it. But if you go to an Urhobo man, he may see what I’m seeing or say what I’m saying.
But the beauty of what Buhari has caused in the country today is that all those people who can now see things the same way and all those who have a common sense of justice are now beginning to find themselves to hold hands.
The South-south is now suddenly realizing that Igbo are not their problem because no Igbo man has an oil enclave in their area. Now the Southwest is gradually getting the point where they would realize that Igbo are not their enemies. The Middle Belt who believed that they were part of the North are now beginning to realize that they are not part of the North, and today, they’ve moved away from Arewa saying they are no longer part of Arewa, that they have not been fairly treated by the Arewa – this is the beauty of what this administration is doing in Nigeria today. Buhari’s administration has opened Nigerians’ eyes Igbo Igbo to injustices and inequalities in Nigeria today.
Now all those who have the same sense of justice are now thinking of coming together. Why? Because they suffer the same fate under Buhari’s administration. What injustice has these people suffered, it is double standard. Because of this, you now have Southern, and Middle Belt leaders holding regular meetings, and this has never happened before. It never happened before. But today, these leaders are sitting down together, and they are talking about way forward for Igbo Nigeria.
Is restructuring the way out of all these challenges?
Restructuring can only happen if Southern and Middle Belt leaders don’t relent and keep on insisting on it. We have six geo-political zones in Nigeria, and if four say this is what we want, then restructuring must happen, but if the Northeast, and the Northwest geo-political zones keep on opposing it and say they don’t want it, they can now be told to go and form their own country.
The Southern and Middle Belt leaders can now tell them that we want restructuring in our own country in such a manner that everybody will be accommodated. Now for the first time, the South-south, the Southwest, the Southeast and the Middle Belt have now all realized one thing, and that they all subscribe to the fact that all men are created equal, but this is not the same philosophy from the Northwest and the Northeast geo-political zones. These two zones don’t understand the golden rule, and the golden rule is that do unto others the same way you wish they do to you.