Calls for Nigeria’s restructuring and true federalism deafening, any difference between the two?
The call for restructuring in the country today has become a recurring decimal. There is no one who is not talking about it today but I think what we need as an entity is to look at the structure, if it is working for us.
Again, if you look at it, the agitation is much more profound now
because of the political appointment that appears to be lopsided. I am
of the opinion that the problem with Nigeria is more of leadership and
when I am talking of leadership, I am not looking at it from the context
of the President or the governors but leadership at all stages of our
lives. Given the kind of leadership we have, even, if we restructure and
we still have the kind of leadership we are having at the moment, I
don’t think it will impact positively on an average person in the
society.What we need in the country is to bridge the leadership deficit we
have and involve more people that will be ready to serve. If you are in a
position to get into a political party, especially, the ruling party,
get involved and you are able to get an appointment, overnight you will
become a millionaire.That is not the kind of society we want. In other places like the
United States, when you see a millionaire, if you trace his background,
you will see that he has added value to the society, his source of
income can be traced. But most of the overnight millionaires we have are
those who got bogus contracts from government and that is not
development and it is not sustainable. There is no doubt, we need to
encourage those who are in their comfort zones; who are not interested
in stealing government funds and are ready to serve but the reality is
that the present structure does not allow that because they will need to
join a political party and may be compromised and may also be scared
away by perpetrators of violence.I want to give kudos to the 8th National Assembly for the independent
candidacy included in the constitution amendment. I hope it will allow
some people to come out and contest elections and not to go through the
rigour of political parties’ primaries bedeviling with violence,
corruption and non-adherence to the rule of law.When we talk about restructuring, I think the centre is too large and
the resources there appears to be too much. It is my opinion that
things like state policing should be handled at state level. If you look
at it, it is the state governors who fund the activities of the police
in their respective states.Nobody can deny abuses here and there because I remember very well
some years back in the broadcast industry, everyone was scared that if
they allow private broadcast stations, they will influence elections,
but that turns out to be a wrong assumption. In my opinion, if we allow
state police, Nigeria will be better policed. The fear that during
election it might be abused is real because somebody might control them
at some point but we need to find a solution to it.
What thought do you have for Nigeria’s presidential system of government?Presidential system is far too expensive for Nigeria, even, the way it is done in America, it is taking too much of America’s resources. Definitely, it is too expensive for a country like Nigeria. We need a hybrid of some of the provisions we have in the 1999 Constitution and what we have in the 1963 Constitution and devolve power to the states but we need to be careful because at the national level we have some semblance of checks and balances because the National Assembly at some point called the executive to order but with respect and I stand to be corrected, that is not the situation in most of the states in the country.
Most of the state houses of assembly are just like parastatal under
the executive arm of government. If we devolve powers and continue in
the way we do things, we might even be worse off; so, we need to
separate the noise from the real issues.
What do you think about the various agitations vis-Ã -vis the proscribed IPOB and many others?We need to look at the agitation of Indigenous People of Biafra from the social and legal angle. The impression I had was that IPOB is registered in Nigeria. The Terrorism Act specifies how an organisation can be declared a terrorist organisation. What the Army did was wrong and I think they later came out to say they didn’t say that much. It is for the Attorney – General or the National Security Adviser to approach the court on what they have done.
From the legal perspective, save the fact that IPOB is not registered in Nigeria, then Nigerian courts don’t have jurisdiction on it. That it is not a registered organization is a different thing entirely but the reality is that IPOB is in Nigeria. On the social aspect of it, there is a belief that if the activities of Boko Haram had been curtailed, we wouldn’t have had a series of killings we had in this country, particularly in the North-east. So, to that extent, outlawing IPOB would have been a precautionary measure.
I am proudly Nigerian and there is no part of Nigeria I’ve not been
to. I have friends who are Igbos and I am from Ilorin. I relate with
Igbo people and I’ve come to realise that Nigerians have decided to live
with one another. We are neighbours and nobody is going anywhere for
the other. If you go to motor parks, you will discover that Nigerians
have integrated and have decided to live with one another. We all as
Nigerians have common problems which are poverty, lack of
infrastructure, leadership deficit. The problem in Nigeria today is the
elite and they have united in their own way because they have a common
interest, which is parochial at the expense of the state.
So, if you look at it, those who are fanning the embers of discord
and are saying they want to break away from Nigeria are not representing
Nigeria. As a country, we have problem and it is not only the Igbos
that are suffering, every part of Nigeria has problems. We need a
responsive and responsible government in this country to tackle our
problems. What an average Nigerian wants is good life, good governance
and that should not be too much for a responsible government to provide
for its citizens.Would you say the demand by the proscribed IPOB justified?
The problem with IPOB is that they lack leadership structure and they get confused on what exactly they are agitating for. Sometimes, Nnamdi Kanu gets personal in his demands and says a lot of irresponsible things. He says a lot of things that Nigerians are not known for because of our value system.
What IPOB is asking for, if you look at the substance, is what every other section of the country is looking for and that is why the agitation for restructuring and true federalism is profound now. There is no part of Nigeria that does not have one reason or the other to agitate. The minorities in the country who don’t speak the three major languages feel that the three major languages are oppressing them. For someone to say that we are going away and that we have weapon to destroy Nigeria, is not our value system and that is not what we stand for. We all have problems but as Nigerians, nobody is going anywhere for the other.
We should all be ready to find a solution to our problems as Nigeria
is too important for Africa, for the black race and to the entire world
than to just allow misunderstandings to break all of us apart.
Do various regions have equal representation in the Buhari’s government?We need to look at the successive governments and how these appointments are done because there is a constitutional provision as to how appointment should be made either ministerial or in government agencies. It is part of the corruption of the system to say that one ministry is juicy and the other is not. We should discard such argument because it is very nauseating.
Out of 180million Nigerians, we should pick the best minds. Let me give you an example, when Arsene Wenger was asked why he did not include any English player in his team, he said when I pick players, I don’t consider International Passport, I look at competence.
We need to get to a stage in Nigeria where competence will take
precedence. This does not happen only at the federal level but
everywhere. The earlier we look into the leadership deficit of Nigeria,
the better for us all.
Do we really need a special court for corruption cases in this country?The pronouncement by the Chief Justice of Nigeria is a welcome development and long overdue. It is a right step in the right direction. For those who are familiar with court systems in other jurisdiction, there are specialised courts that handle things. Setting up a special court to try corruption cases is a fantastic development.
We need to understand that corruption takes resources away from critical sectors like health, roads etc. and if it gets to a stage where an individual, through corruption, is greater than a state, it will be a big challenge.
So, anything that will curb corruption or curtail it that is being
proposed is a welcome development. At the level of the prosecutor, they
need to do more. The idea of arresting and later looking for evidence
does not work anywhere. The state is supposed to do its investigation
very well before making arrest. We should go beyond archaic ways of
doing investigation. They need to do forensic investigation.The ICT should be seriously used in their forensic analysis in the
course of investigation and more importantly, the courts need
infrastructures. If you go to a lot of our courts, they are dilapidated
and they don’t have tools to work with.The idea of a judge recording proceedings in long hand is not
acceptable. If you go to some African countries, they’ve gone beyond the
level we are in their court system. If Nigeria wants to fight
corruption, they should blame less the Judiciary and address the
infrastructural decay in the judiciary. If you look at the annual budget
of the three arms of government, the Judiciary is always the lowest. It
is only when the court is appropriately funded that it can live up to
its responsibilities.It is important that we understand that the Judiciary is an arm of
government and not a parastatal under the executive and that the
independence of the Judiciary is very important. It is in our collective
interest to ensure that the Judiciary is properly funded and allow its
independence to be able to protect the interest of everyone.
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