What We Don't....

The many examples of what we know but don’t apply (1)
Business
Culled from Vanguard Newspaper Mar 28, 2010

In last week’s article, we reviewed some of the pitfalls of not applying the knowledge we already have in enterprise or business. Today, we’ll look at a number of situations that exist in Nigeria today that can only be a direct consequence of deliberate refusal to apply what we already know.

Human Resource Management- The basic function of human resource leadership is to recruit and train the best candidates or employees for any job position.

It is common knowledge that organizations stand to benefit the most when the most qualified and competent people are employed and retained. Although this is a well known fact, in many organizations, people charged with the responsibility to recruit, train and develop the human resource capital end up failing, albeit intentionally, to do the correct thing. More often, you find selections and promotions based on tribalism, nepotism or some other terrible basis. The negative impact of this practice does not show up immediately.

It may take months and sometimes years, depending on the size of the organization for the real damage to become visible. And when it does, it rarely gets recognized as the culprit because other factors often get blamed for the failure.

The non-detection is further exacerbated if the perpetrators of the lopsided recruitment practices are in the top executive level of the organization. Some of these practices can be so sophisticated that it operates at multiple levels with clear lines of responsibility among the ‘gang members’. Although the position may have been advertised in the national media, people who screen the resumes ensure that 90% of the invitees are from a particular tribe. The next step will be to send invitations late to candidates from other tribes, further ensuring that the favoured group enjoy more monopoly. In the interview panel, the kingpins of the tribal warfare prepare for the final battle. Candidates from the other tribes or interest area who miraculously make it to this stage must be 5 times better than the others to stand a 50-50 chance of being employed.

Many non-intended candidates who pass oral interviews are sent offer letters using dubious courier companies. At other times, the offer letters are mailed very late to ensure they are not received on time.

This allows the terrible gang to recruit the preferred candidates on the lower ranking. Similar designs are implemented during promotional assessments. Ultimately you breed an atmosphere of discontent and play acting. It is not uncommon to find that employees from a particular tribe are in the majority when the directors or owners are from that tribe.
Inevitably, incompetent people are made to supervise more competent co-workers. The result; gross inefficiency, worker dissatisfaction, lowered productivity and policy application inconsistency that eventually impacts on the bottom line. The practice also leads many to believe that hard work counts for nothing while connection counts for everything. I have met people from many tribes in Nigeria who are exceptionally intelligent, gifted and skilled. It is really a huge shame that this nonsense continues in our society.

Banking Services- Banks primarily exist to serve customers by providing customer friendly products and services. In almost every bank advert, there’s a phrase or sentence that suggests that the bank exists for the customers.

Or that the bank is a trusted partner in business. Or the bank is committed to exceed the customers’ expectations. In human behavioural science, we all know that people trust and value our friendship if we show our hand of fellowship first. It is for this reason that the saying, “a friend in need is a friend indeed” is derived. We all appreciate people who truly care and are willing to go the extra mile for us. People who are able to demonstrate their love for us measurably become our friends. Better still, we are more inclined to reciprocate the affection or interest of those who not only say they care but really show it, even at their inconvenience. Selfishness, therefore, is a trait that most of us hate in others. It doesn’t matter how good your promises sound to others, they make no sense or have very little value if they are not translated into positive, measurable action.
Our bank executives know this fact too well. Unfortunately, rather than adopt the complete spectrum of two-way expectations in healthy relationships and customer service, they choose one aspect and attempt to make up for the other half by deception. It never lasts.
Our banks start out by promising so much to potential customers.

They use all sorts of sophisticated models to hoodwink customers. Their only motive is simple; customer deposits! Smart dresses, polished manners, sophisticated use of English, vain promises are tricks of the trade.

Bank workers will readily confirm how difficult if not impossible it is to convince a manager or top executive to spend time and money to really study and understand customer needs as a way of achieving lasting market penetration. They simply want immediate profits while conveniently forgetting to apply what they know represents the only way to sustainable profitability.

As a result, they appear to have exhausted all short-term, get-rich-quick strategies to generate funds. From share price manipulation, use of female deposit weapons to Promo and lottery campaigns, the end of the self-delusion game is here. Of course, like I warned some weeks back, they have quietly increased bank charges from regular transactions. Even my trusted bank is guilty of this practice. Check your recent bank transaction statements to verify this. But like all short-sighted measures, the ‘benefits’ from this will soon dry up. These days, bankers, who erstwhile were proud professionals, appear so sheepish and are devoid of any of the traditional charisma or panache. Even the marketers have lost hope. There’s nothing new to say.

The game is up. The very good thing about this condition is that some banks will learn the hard way and come up stronger by doing the right things; facts they knew all along. The slow to learn or stubborn ones will surely face the consequences. Our people have a saying “ You don’t have to tell a blind man that the war has started”. Disasters have a history of wakening us up to reality. May God help us all.
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MUSINGS ON NIGERIA'S CALL FOR CHANGE

Musings on Nigeria’s Call for Change
By Jothany Blackwood - Dean Fresno City College California, United States

A great man once asked me what is it to be a part of something greater than yourself? To discover that meaning is not found in only what you do for self, but for your community. And I believe the answer can be found in how the voices of emerging leaders offers an innovative framework for how people should consider the possibilities for growth, sustainability and investment in their land.

Embedded in this idea is the underlying value that when we invest in Africa, that we are intellectually and financially investing in a stronger global community linked by business, exploration, and opportunities. The lifting of voices to change the country is in many ways a response to the legacy of achievement and greatness that has framed its country’s birth and is now being evidenced in its wrestling with defining itself.

I certainly connect to the power of legacy that drives one to contribute in meaningful ways to your heritage and to add your voice to historical efforts that speak of the power and strength of your people. As a 3rd generation college Dean and 4th generation educator, I have been motivated by people who were committed to positive change and the revisioning of how the world viewed us, who were devoted to the improvement of a global community, and who understood that our work was not done while segments of our populations suffered or were denied access and opportunity.

My family has shared unique historical relationships with the intellectual icons of several generations and that framework is only important for understanding my passion as a humanitarian, an intellectual, and a person of color committed to progress.

My great-grandfather John Whittaker was the1st Chaplain at Tuskegee College, where he was friends with and worked with Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. My grandfather, also John Whittaker was the Dean at Clark Atlanta University and great friends with W.E.B. Dubois who often sought his counsel about issues of the day.

Herein also began my spirit for entrepreneurship as he is credited with starting one of the first banks for African Americans in Atlanta, GA and at the time of his death owned the 2nd largest Black owned Mortgage Company in America. My mother, Dr. Edna Lockert was considered one of the1st African American women to become a licensed clinical psychologist and served as Dean of Counseling at Meharry Medical College, while also maintaining her own practice. She also maintained a friendship with Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. that began as children in Atlanta and continued into their adult years.

And as my family would recite the history of a legacy of service, of building enterprise, of understanding that your greatness was defined by how you impacted the world around you, I have waited to see who would be the great person I worked alongside that my children would recite when telling our familial story.

And because I have been trained to recognize greatness, it is inspiring to personally know extraordinary and emerging leaders whose sincere desire is to work towards the rebranding of Nigeria and to create opportunities where people locally and abroad could prosper.

Each of you can serve as an ambassador in casting the vision for this change and allowing natives and foreigners to revision a different Nigeria. As the sons and daughters of Nigerian soil, one must catapult one’s voice above the uneven perceptions of chaos and corruption to introduce the realities of a nation committed to integrity, accountability, and change.

Through these efforts there has been a parting of the curtain of mystery that has often shrouded Nigeria to others and an invitation to utilize our creativity and efforts in making Nigerians stronger and ourselves as well.

Being a part of something larger than yourself is understanding that we are integrally linked through history, tragedy, and the relentless hope that as Nigeria continues to reposition itself and rebrand its international image; it somehow reflects the best in ourselves, the possibility of whom we can be, and the promise of what will certainly come to pass. A stronger nation, a better understood people, and the realization that we all became better from sharing in its journey.

In a world that values data driven decision making, then we must demonstrate evidence of our excellence. We must work as intellectual terrorists to destroy schema that teaches that somehow race and color are equated with inadequacy and inefficiency and create models that demonstrate the intellect and genius of our people.

The greatest commodity a country has is its people and it will be the ordinary people who respond in extraordinary ways that will provide evidence of that excellence to the world. As an inspirational speaker, themes of community, the value of diversity, and our potential to move in our purpose and impact the world around us is often embedded in what I share and believe in.

So how exciting it is to see the evidence of that spirit in practice. As Nigeria realizes its immense potential, it reflects back to the rest of the world our own possibilities and ultimately serves as an impetus for our own needed changes. It reminds us that sometimes what we’ve been looking for is in our own back yard and that is a revelation that, quite simply, leaves none of us unchanged. God Bless you Nigeria.

NIGERIA: The Cost Of Instability

By Reuben Abati

A qualitative if not quantitative measurement of the cost of the protracted instability in which Nigeria appears currently trapped offers a bird's eye view of the seriousness of our national circumstances. There is already an international consensus that Nigeria is an unstable country. The last time we enjoyed any form of stability within the polity was ironically during the Obasanjo administration. For a long while under the Obasanjo Presidency, there was a lot that the people could be hopeful about. We looked forward to tomorrow, and the government in spite of its many shortcomings kept promising us that it was laying the foundation for a better future. Being such a religious people, and being all so enthusiastic about democracy, we looked forward to that tomorrow. Many Nigerians in diaspora returned home to be part of a process of renewal. Obasanjo could not solve the problem of power supply or roads, but he gave Nigerians the telecommunication revolution which ten years later has transformed our lives in every manner.

Then, there was the EFCC and the ICPC, two anti-corruption agencies which under Obasanjo gave hell to corrupt elements in the corridors of power. The achievements of the two agencies may appear mixed and uneven, but there was a strong awareness in the land about the need for probity and integrity. Openly, people talked about how the fear of the EFCC had become the "beginning of wisdom." With Dora Akunyili in NAFDAC, the determined war which she waged against fake drugs and their peddlers also struck a special resonance among the people. Nigeria also regained its stature in the international community. Obasanjo enjoyed foreign policy adventures and he worked hard to reposition Nigeria internationally. In retrospect, there was stability also because there was a President that people could relate to, a Presidency that appeared to be working, an Obasanjo that took his assignment seriously if not too seriously. Love or hate him, you could not ignore Obasanjo with his rambunctiousness. People admire a strong, healthy President, not a weak, ailing one. Obasanjo lost much of the mileage and the goodwill of his presidency, however, when he gambled with the idea of a Third Term in office. That singular event shook the country and the people's confidence in the future; Obasanjo further worsened his track record when he imposed an ailing President on the country.

But since President Yar'Adua's assumption of office, this country has been stumbling. The instability that has overtaken the land is at great cost to Nigeria and its people. The first dimension is the sovereign cost. The uncertainty in Nigeria has eroded its stature in the international community. In the eyes of the world, we are the country that nobody can be so sure about its future. Political developments and policy directions in the county have assumed a monthly or yearly cycle. Nothing is certain. The world could not see the Nigerian President even when he was said to be in good health, now that he is ill, he has become completely invisible. Not only does government reverse its own policies, it appears unsure of where the country should be heading. There is no greater advertisement of this uncertainty than the country's failure to hold credible elections. The unpredictability of the political sphere makes planning near impossible for every stakeholder in the Nigerian economy. For sure, the economy has been reduced to a play ground for speculators. Apart from the oil and gas sector which will remain attractive for as long as the oil wells are fruitful, the major investment that still comes to Nigeria is portfolio investment that is short-term investments. This is real to the extent that some of the so-called big businesses coming from South Africa, China, and lately the Middle East, have no real structures on the ground. The average investor in the Nigerian economy under the regime of instability is interested only in quick gains. The failure of the administrative system has created so many loopholes which such buccaneer investors can exploit. They bribe their way through the system, they make sure that there is nothing concrete that can hold them down, they violate laid down rules and they make their profits which they promptly expatriate. They may not even pay tax. They are not called to order because nobody is paying enough attention to the rules. When such buccaneers are caught out and they are sanctioned, which is rare occurrence, they simply play the Nigerian game that they have mastered so well; in due course, there will be a favourable court judgement declaring that they have the right to do business in Nigeria on their own terms! Foreign or local investors cannot play such games in countries where there is a certainty of the rule of law.

The second major cost of instability is the infrastructural deficit. Government being so preoccupied with politics has not been able to provide the necessary infrastructure that will turn Nigeria into an enabling environment for business. No regular power supply. No railway. No good roads. This drives up the cost of doing business. The cost is passed on to the consumer and where the company can no longer cope, we have had cases of companies and other institutions relocating away from Nigeria to other countries. So much money is often allocated for infrastructural development, in fact at nearly every meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation in the last two years, contracts have been awarded for the implementation of this or that project, but there has been little evidence of performance. So distracted is the administration that unspent funds are returned to the treasury every year. Political stability is so critical because government is the biggest player in the Nigerian economy. Constant changes at the top, absenteeism and conflicting signals destabilize the polity. It should come as no surprise that many of the Nigerians in diaspora who rushed back to the country with the return to civilian rule in 1999, have gradually returned abroad. Others who still wish to return to the fatherland are carefully studying the situation at home and hoping that Nigeria will begin to solve its many problems of power supply, insecurity and so on. What they are responding to naturally and negatively is the instability at home. The uncertainty at home translates into the uncertainty of their own future should they return.

There is, third, the productivity cost. The country has lost its capacity for competitiveness. Labour is often said to be cheap in Nigeria, with the average worker earning less than $1, 000 per month, but the truth also is that the maintenance of labour in the country is very expensive. Too many Nigerian workers do not really work. They are a burden unto the establishments they claim to be working for. Because of their poor pay and lack of discipline, many Nigerian workers are perpetually distracted. They are trapped in the cycle of survival. Overworked and underpaid, they further exert themselves endlessly in search of other means of survival, and this has been at personal cost. In many establishments, half of the work-force is nursing one ailment or the other, and if we are to go by the high temperature of everyday language, most Nigerians are suffering from clinical depression. Nigerians don't know how to discuss, they shout! They don't know how to disagree, they rave! The country's disease profile is on the rise, what with the country having one of the highest rates in the world with regard to maternal mortality and infant mortality.

The work culture is in jeopardy in part because the gross instability in the land has made it difficult for the appropriate authorities to address issues of national competitiveness. What is happening in the education sector is especially tragic. Educational institutions produce the strategic manpower for the country, but the level of productivity in this sector has been terrible. It is an unstable sector, bogged down by incessant labour strikes, sabotaged by inadequate funding and over-politicized through official interference. Many of our graduates today can neither write properly nor articulate any position in their chosen professions. Where is the same Nigerian education system that produced the likes of Odia Ofeimun and Peter Enahoro? It no longer exists and that is why when a company like Access Bank puts out an advert for new recruits from Nigerian universities, it doesn't hide the fact that it intends to look for the very best that can be found out of the "best" that presents its credentials. Even that so-called "best" will still have to be trained and retrained. Don't be surprised, many Nigerian academics are also caught in the survival trap, and so there is little time or incentive to help the country build a productive and competitive class.

Fourth, there is the standard of living index of instability. The fact of Nigeria's instability can be found in every street corner, in the poverty that stalks the land, and in the tragic collapse of values. The collapse of living standards has also resulted in the erosion of morals: too many parents these days look the other way when their daughters sell their bodies for cash or school grades, too many parents aid and abet examination malpractices, too many religious leaders are no better than common felons. With the failure of social institutions once considered sacred, the family and religious groups in particular, the land is bound to be unstable. This is not a new problem but it is getting worse by the day, more so as there is nothing any more restraining the people. Under President Yar'Adua, against the background of his sickness and invisibility, hope has taken a flight from our land. Does anyone know where Nigeria would be and what it would be like in the next six months? No one can be too sure. All the promises of the Obasanjo years that the policies of that period will begin to yield great dividends by 2007 and beyond have failed, even all the promises made by President Yar'Adua have now become unimportant. Who is still talking about the seven-point agenda?

If anything the pervasive instability and uncertainty within the polity have strengthened the culture of impunity. With government at the centre violating the Constitution, and explaining it away as the doctrine of necessity, it has become fashionable for other Nigerians to resort to expediency as well and claim protection under the doctrine of necessity. The Boko Haram insurgents considered their rebellion against the state necessary, didn't they? The murderers in the killing fields of Jos have all claimed that they were left with no option but to apply the old law of vengeance: an eye for an eye as the determinant of relationship with persons of other ethnic and religious extraction. Hundreds of people are slaughtered and nobody is brought to justice. It is needless painting a picture of the economy of Jos and its missed potentials.

What should be done? We only need to step back in history and ask the question: what were those things that used to give us hope in this country? What was it about this country once upon a time that attracted outsiders to it, including foreign students? What has gone so terribly wrong that it is difficult to find foreign students in any Nigerian university today? In my days as a student, there were many foreign students on campus, both white and black. They came to Nigeria to seek knowledge. But who wants to seek knowledge in a country where the smart ones are the kidnappers, armed robbers and murderers and the political leadership cadre is populated by mischief-makers? The other questions are as follows: what kind of country do we want? What future do we want for Nigeria? Where do we want this country to be in the next 50 years? It is 50 years since Nigeria got flag independence, yet it remains a country in search of direction. These are questions for all Nigerians but also particularly for Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, on whose shoulders now rests a heavy burden. It is possible for him to go through the motions of being a President; merely going through the motions is the easiest way to do nothing substantial: he can appoint persons into positions, allocate oil blocs, receive visitors, appear on television, and generally give offence to nobody. But it is also possible to be the matador and lay the bull of Nigeria's instability to rest, by creating fresh opportunities for hope. We are a nation that is now in desperate need of hope.

POWER AS AN INTOXICANT

The Nigerian example :By Douglass Anele

In the unfolding charade relating to the appropriate power equation now that the President is incapacitated, the word ‘loyalty’ has become a victim of monstrous panel beating and misinterpretations. People talk as if loyalty is an end itself, not a means to a higher purpose that renders it meaningful.
Genuine loyalty must be manifested within a context which defines the parameters for evaluating loyalty. The way I see it, being truthful, especially during crisis and confusion,is the highest form of loyalty to oneself and to one’s country.
Hence, even if one cannot rule out the possibility that the information minister was attitudinising, given her solid reputation when she was the DG of NAFDAC, it is closer to the truth to say that she spoke her mind out of genuine concern to resolve the phantom leadership problem created by Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence from his duty post.
Members of the ruling elite, especially the ministers (except Akunyili), should be ashamed of themselves for wasting a wonderful opportunity to apply the Constitution in a novel situation. The document is very clear about what should happen in case a sitting President cannot perform his or her functions as a result of ill-health.
The roles to be played by the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly were clearly stated. But rather than do the right thing,the ministers, by hiding under the veneer of inverted loyalty to Mr. President, pretend that “their hands are tied.”
Political vultures and carpetbaggers have been using jejune, sordid and egoistic strategies to create confusion and anxiety.But Nigerians are not fools, because unless someone is a colossal idiot, it is evident that President Yar’Adua is seriously ill and cannot function effectively as the executive President of Nigeria.
The weird manner in which he was smuggled into the country like a piece of expensive contraband or toxic material, if indeed he was in that air ambulance, rankles our human sensibilities, and suggests that something fishy is going on. Why is it that no one, including the Vice-President, has seen him? No matter how bad the President has been physically devastated by his sickness, at least his deputy and leaders of the National Assembly should have access to him.
The people hiding the President are unreasonable. They do not realise that the moment Yar’Adua accepted to be Nigeria’s President, he has become public property , especially in a democratic setting where transparency is a sine qua non. Nigerians have the inalienable right to demand to see, and be addressed,by their President.
Yet, some people still think that the Presidency belongs to the family of the occupier of the presidential seat at any point in time.
Nigerians should rise up in unison and unequivocally resist home-grown colonialists whose folly is destroying the modest gains we havve made in civilian rule since 1999. No matter the pressures from the diabolical group orchestrating the current anomalies and dearth of accurate information about the condition of the ailing commander-in-chief, I still blame his wife, Turai, for not considering the feelings of Nigerians on this issue, although I sincerely sympathise with her.
If the doctors advised that Mr. President should be flown home to spend the rest of his days among his compatriots, there is nothing wrong with that. But if his return is political, the people that made the decision are wicked. As I stated earlier, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua belongs to all Nigerians, not just to members of his immediate family.
Therefore, there is no good reason why Goodluck Jonathan, David Mark and Dimeji Bankole should not be allowed to see the President. These men are adults who, I believe, can handle whatever they might see with the necessary decorum and sense of responsibility.
If Jonathan and others cannot, it means that they are totally unfit to occupy the exalted political positions they are occupying presently. By allowing needless mystery into the simple sobering matter of our sick President, Turai has inadvertently provided opportunity for negative speculations about her intentions and the evil machinations of the so-called cabal.
In addition, the hide-and-seek has almost obliterated the natural sympathy many Nigerians would have felt for her should the President fail to recover eventually. At all events, I do not know how long she can continue to hide our President from us. Perhaps, Mrs. Yar’Adua is a victim of the intoxicating power of power .
But she must remember that the law of karma does not respect status. Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians; the Presidency is neither a family nor an ethnic affair. It is definitely wrong for an individual or group to behave as if the country belongs to it .
We are all stakeholders in the Nigerian project.Consequently, we must resist any attempt to sacrifice our national interest on the altar of pathological egoism and megalomania. One day the truth will emerge, and all those who participated in desecrating the office of the President will be put to shame.

Arise, O Compatriots

Arise, O compatriots…” (Booooo!)

THAT was the second time it was happening. When the Nigerian National Anthem was played before the commencement of the World Cup qualifier between Nigeria and Mozambique in Abuja on Saturday, October 10, 2009 , rather than obeying Nigeria ’s call, a large section of the football fans booed.
And only last Saturday they also hooted rather than sing when our anthem was played before the start of the FIFA Under-17 soccer championship between Nigeria and Germany.
It is unprecedented even in this country whose many musicians have told Nigeria off in tones ranging from the mild (Nigeria is a Sleeping Giant) to the vicious (Nigeria jagga-jagga, everything scatter-scatter).
Yes, a good number of musicians have sung patriotically about our dear Nigeria , but deep inside they know there is really no other basis to boast or be proud of Nigeria apart from the fact that this is the only country we have. Traditionally, it is anathema to own up publicly to the fact that your mother is a bad cook even if she is.
I find it very disturbing that it was in Abuja, the seat of power and capital of Nigeria , that this open expression of disgust is coming from. Abuja has the best that Nigeria can offer, and its residents benefit from its ambience whether directly or vicariously. If Abuja residents can boo at the National Anthem, one of the symbols of this nation, then what do they expect the displaced people of Bakassi, Niger Deltans and other deprived groups to say?
It is obvious that the beef of Abuja soccer fans against Nigeria goes beyond the consistently poor outings of our national teams in international championship soccer.
The free-fall of Nigeria in soccer, the only aspect that binds us together, is a symptom of the disease in a system that increasingly has little or nothing to offer its citizens as dividends of governance.
Last Sunday, the Minister of Defence, retired Brigadier General Godwin Abbe and his colleague in the Ministry of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, met senior editors at the Sheraton, Ikeja.
A prominent Abuja bureau chief of an equally notable national newspaper, during the question and answer session observed that our media managers knew that a lot was wrong in our preparations to host the world but chose not to report them.
When Madam Akunyili had the opportunity to speak, she thanked the editor profusely and remarked it was exactly what re-branding Nigeria was all about. It is a matter for debate as to whether Nigeria’s public affairs (the good, the bad and the ugly) should be laid bare or concealed in the name of re-branding.
I am not quite sure whether concealing the ineptitude and corruption of our public officers which led to those disgraceful shortcomings was more patriotic and in the nation’s greater interest than disclosing them.
However, one thing has become clear: Usually, those who carry megaphones proclaiming the greatness of Nigeria and pontificating about their own patriotism are usually public officers-in-office.
Few of them continue to spread the good news when they are no longer in office. It is their job to do so because their public office ensures that they enjoy free of charge the very things that ordinary Nigerians have to pay through their noses to afford (and those who cannot afford have to do without).
Apart from the fact that Nigeria is “our own dear native land”, those who run the affairs of the nation have not justified their call on us to obey when we hear “Arise, O Compatriots”. We cannot elect our leaders.
Our leaders are the ones who put themselves in power over our votes, and they are not willing to reform the electoral process to give us our power back.
Why should we listen to Dora Akunyili’s re-branding campaign when she was the one the Yar’ Adua regime mandated to announce to the nation its refusal to implement changes articulated by the Justice Muhammadu Uwais Panel?
How can you re-brand Nigeria when you retain the President’s power to nominate officials that will conduct elections in which he and his party are partakers?
Today in Nigeria, citizens have to provide their own electricity. They have to send their children to private schools if they hope to give them good education. They have to arrange for their own security to reduce their chances of being victimised by criminals. And now, the latest act of “self-governance” which the citizens have been forced to adopt is provision of their own roads!
We have complained bitterly about the state of federal roads in Lagos , especially our economic main artery (Oshodi – Apapa Expressway) and our petitions fell on deaf ears.
The roads around Berger Bus-stop and flyover had become so deeply scarred that it was a nightmare for those of us working in Vanguard and The Sun to get into and out of our premises. I expressed the fear that a fuel tanker might fall into one of these gorges, dump fuel and ignite a fire that could consume everything in the vicinity.
Happily, someone decided to take up the challenge by dumping tipper loads of laterite to close some of the holes. The bottleneck has cleared and potential disaster averted, at least for now.
There is a contract between the state and its citizens. The citizens obey the law and pay taxes. The state provides basic amenities, good governance and security. But when the state is no longer forthcoming with its indebtedness to the citizens it loses it authority to call citizens to pay their civic debt.

THE POLITICAL JOURNEY:Chief Mbazulike Amechi

Cover Stories, Interview with Chief Mbazulike Amechi
Feb 13, 2010


By Ochereome Nnanna

*Why Zik did not work with Awolowo
*The genesis of agitation for COR state

Getting to the country home of Chief Mbazulike Amechi in Ukpor Nnewi, was no easy task, even in a Jeep. But when we eventually got there on Wednesday, February 3rd 2010, we met a man of 80 plus a couple of months still standing tall, still handsome and still very sharp in the mind and memory. Our mission was to encounter him in this interview to get a clearer picture of some historical issues surrounding the early political life of Nigeria before it degenerated to the sorry state in which we find ourselves. When I was through with him, he autographed three of his books which I have since found to be invaluable for the better understanding of Nigeria’s early beginnings. It is my pleasure to present to you, Chief Amechi, A PLEASURABLE READ.

You are known as “The Boy is Good”. How did you come by that name?
(Chuckles). I think it was in 1957. A constitutional conference was taking place in Lagos. I was in the secretariat team of the National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) delegation. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was leading our team. The Sardauna led the Northern team and Chief Awolowo led the Action Group. At the Lagos Marina, the Sardauna had just arrived at the residence of the Colonial Governor. He drove into the compound. Awolowo arrived with his own team and they drove into the compound. As we approached the compound we came down for Zik to enter the compound in a Chevrolet station wagon. As we opened the gate for him to drive in, one big stone landed on the side glass of his car.

The driver quickly applied the brakes. I was in my car together with Chief Fred Anyiam, an old Zikist. As I looked back to see what was happening, I saw a young man dressed in a fine suit pull out one long, sharp dagger from under his coat. He meant to stab it on the chest of Zik. Then I shouted: “this is an assassination! This is an assassination!” I jumped out of my car and grappled with the young man. The policemen who were there looked the other way and everybody was scared. I held him by the hand and he stabbed me in my hand (shows a large scar on his right forefinger).

I was bleeding and yet the white police officer who led the policemen stationed there looked the other way. As I was grappling with the man I shouted to Zik’s driver: “Sam, don’t you see it was your master they wanted to kill? Common, drive into that compound, don’t be silly!” he drove into the compound and I raised the traditional Igbo war cry: Igbo onozikwa ebea e? Igbo onozikwa ebea e?”

At this one Inspector Chukwuma, from Anambra as I was later made to understand, rushed out with a long baton, gave the man a big blow on the head and on the elbow and the dagger-holding hand, and the man slumped. The Inspector stepped on the dagger and then picked it up and I was rushed to the General Hospital in Lagos Island. I was treated by a lady doctor, Dr Ofili. This was relayed in the news everywhere. And when Zik was narrating the story in Onitsha, he kept saying: “the boy was really good”. That was how it started. Since then wherever I come in contact with people they hail me: “The Boy is Good”, and it has become part of my name”.

So it has a noble connotation. But today “The Boy is Good” now means, “He is rich”. He has a lot of money?
Good luck to him.

We hear of “Awoist”. We hear that some people are Aminu Kano’s political disciples. Who is a “Zikist”? What is Zikism?

When nationalism was building up it took a dramatic crescendo when Zik returned to Nigeria around 1934-35. He went to Ghana or Gold Coast and when he returned to Nigeria he set up the West African Pilot and other newspapers. Nwafor Orizu came back and wrote a book on youth and dynamism. Azikiwe means Azi ka iwe (or, the youth are more revolutionary than the elders). It was a source of inspiration to us and we decided to make a radical organisation out of him.

The Zikist Movement was founded around 1944 with MCK Ajuluchukwu as its first National President and Dr Kola Balogun as its first National Secretary. As the organisation grew the NCNC in 1948 tried to revolutionise its activities and drew up what they called the Freedom Charter at the Jos convention. Then in 1949 the youths in the Zikist Movement felt that the NCNC elders were not sufficiently forthcoming in implementing the Jos resolutions. So the Zikist Movement drew up its own programme and passed its own resolution.

The first phase of it was Passive Resistance. After that we would enter the phase of Dynamic Action. And after that we would enter the Total Revolution stage. The stage of passive resistance was to educate the people on their rights and ask them not to do anything that is anti-Nigeria or anti-nation as may be ordered them by the white colonialists. The second stage was to urge Nigerian people to stop paying tax because taxes then were being paid in favour of the British government in Nigeria.

The final stage was to go into demonstrations, to go into positive action and to urge the police and military officers not to obey their white commanders. So, it was decided that the first stage should be given effect in a lecture. We looked for somebody to deliver the lecture and we zeroed in on Osita Agwuna. He agreed to deliver a lecture entitled: “A Call for Revolution”.

He delivered the lecture. Anthony Enahoro was the chairman of the lecture. Zik was billed to chairman the lecture but he sent a message late that he was not feeling well and would not be able to attend. Enahoro, who was then the Editor of The Comet, one of Zik’s newspapers, presided. A few days after the lecture, the authorities pounced on Agwuna and arrested him, seized the text of the lecture and charged him to court for sedition and being in possession of seditious documents and so on. Agwuna was defiant in court. He told the magistrate that he did not recognise his court because the court was an instrument of British imperialism and not a Nigerian court, even though his salary was being paid through the Nigerian tax-payers fund.


*Chief Mbazulike Amechi...Nelson Mandela escaped to Nigeria to stay with me in Lagos for six months

The executive of the Movement decided to repeat the lecture a few days after Agwuna’s arraignment, at the Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos. It led to the arrest of more Zikists: Mallam Raji Abdallah, Obed Macaulay, Fred Anyiam, Mokwugwo Okoye and others. They were all arrested and sent to prison. They made no plea in the courts. This was late in 1949 and it spilled into 1950. In my book: The Forgotten Heroes of Independence in Nigeria, I captured it all. I was in Benin myself as the Assistant Secretary of the Zikist Movement. Henry Igbosua was my Chairman. The files were in my house. They searched my house and found a circular directing us on what we must do.

They arrested me and sent me to Benin prison. I did not know that the Oba of Benin stepped in on my behalf and the case was withdrawn from court. I quickly moved down to Lagos because when the other leaders were arrested it created a sort of vacuum so there was a need for people to come in. Bob Ogbuagu was in Jos.

The Zikist Movement was meant to cause a revolution in the country and achieve independence through revolution, and that was why many of us swore never to get married until Nigeria became independent. We did that because we did not want to bring into the world young children who would be fatherless or to create young widows. We expected to die in the struggle. We were not expecting to survive. We were prepared to die for Nigeria’s freedom. That was the same spirit with Dr Nelson Mandela. When he was being pursued by British intelligence in South Africa, he escaped to Nigeria to stay with me in Lagos.
Nelson Mandela?

Yes. He stayed with me for six months. By then Nigeria had got independence I was a Parliamentary Secretary. I got married immediately Nigeria’s independence was imminent in 1960. When Mandela came to Nigeria with his wife after his release from prison he came here to my house in Nnewi. When he was in prison he was writing me. I still have some of his letters.

After six months, Mandela decided to return to South Africa, saying he was tired of hiding. He said he wanted to go and be part of the struggle. “If I die”, he said, “Many people will be inspired and continue with the struggle. But if I did not die and we won, I will give leadership to the people”. That was the kind of decision we Africa freedom fighters had taken. We would rather die and give inspiration to people who will succeed us or give them leadership. He went back and was sent to prison for 27 years. He came out and led South Africa.

When the Zikist Movement was approaching the drive for the independence of Nigeria through that revolutionary method, was the same push being applied in other parts of the country? The North and Western Regions?
No. Except in the West. The Action Group elders were like the NCNC elders who wanted to proceed with caution. But there were in the Action Group young people who were nationalists, like Olu Adebanjo, Bisi Onabanjo and so on, who were thinking along the same lines with those of us in the Zikist Movement. For example, when the Queen was to visit Nigeria in 1956 we formed a joint committee of NCNC Youth Association (when the Zikist Movement was banned we changed the name to NCNC Youth Association) and Action Group Youth Association, and these two bodies worked like radical wings of the parent political parties.

In the north, no. There were radical elements like Aminu Kano, Tanko Yakassai, Bello Ijumu, Sa’adu Zungur and others. But they could not form a body in the north to come and join us in the south because the influence of the white rulers and the emirs would not allow them because of their system of governance. If you said a word they would just seize you and send you to prison with or without trial. This was the system they had which the white man saw and allowed them to function under the Indirect Rule approach.

Would you say that the different approaches to decolonisation in the East as compared to the North made the British colonialists to load political advantages against the East and in favour of the North when they were about to go?
Definitely, it was Zik that opened the eyes of people. And then, the radical elements in politics were found more in Igboland and second to Igboland was the Yoruba side. The British colonial authorities did not allow themselves to trust the Igbo man or Yoruba man. The Hausa/Fulani was the man they could trust. And so, they gerrymandered the constitution that brought independence in such a way that made sure that the North had all the powers. If you go to my other book: Nigeria, the Two Political Amalgams you will see the figures I gave there.

In the 1959 election, the election that preceded independence, the NCNC, which was predominant in the East, having 50 per cent in the West and having a foothold in the North through NEPU, scored a total of 2,594,577 votes to capture 94 seats in the Federal House. The Action Group/UMBC alliance had 1,992,364 to capture 73 seats in the House.

The NPC scored a total of 1,992,179 votes to capture a total of 142 seats in the House. So, the constituencies were carved out in such a way that the North would always be in control, and if you look at subsequent delimitation of constituencies and the population figures, the North has always ensured to maintain this pattern of dominance because nobody will like to throw away his advantages voluntarily.

That was a creation of the white man. And two, when elections were over like this and there was no one with a clear majority, what usually happened was that somebody could be called upon to form a government. But in the case of Nigeria it was not like that. Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of the NPC was not called upon to form a government. He was not invited by the Governor General to form a government. He was appointed Prime Minister. Balewa’s emergence as the first Prime Minister of Nigeria was by appointment.

What led to that? They could easily have invited him since the figures indicated they had the majority?
What happened was that even the North was not expecting that. They were afraid. But we knew that the British government wanted the North to produce the Prime Minister because they did not trust an Igbo or Yoruba Prime Minister or anybody from the South.

After the elections and the three parties saw their standings, we were meeting at Onitsha a message came to Zik telling him that Awolowo was sending a delegation for the purpose of forming an alliance with the Action Group. They proposed that Zik should be the Prime Minister while Awolowo would be the Finance Minister. We were discussing with the delegation in Zik’s main sitting room when the telephone rang upstairs. Zik went up to answer the phone. When he was coming down the stairs, he said in Igbo, as if he was talking to someone upstairs: “agwo anyi na ya no bu kwa agwo isi na-buo!” meaning: “the snake we are dealing with has two heads!” When he came down, he told the Awolowo delegation: “Okay. Go and tell Awolowo that we are considering his proposal. We will send a delegation back to him”.

When they left, Zik told us that the telephone that he went to answer was from the Sardauna of Sokoto, and the Sardauna told him that a delegation from Awolowo was with him, offering the North Prime Minister and Awolowo the Finance Minister. This meant that if he got what he wanted from the North he would kick the East out and if he got it from the East he would kick the North out. There and then, Zik and the Sardauna decided that this man was a treacherous person and was not the type of person they wanted to work with in a government that would usher in Nigeria’s independence. It was on that ground that Zik and the Sardauna agreed to negotiate.

During the negotiation the North insisted that they should produce the Prime Minister, otherwise they were not ready for independence. In the agreement signed at the Lancaster House, it was agreed that if any Region said that they were not ready for independence, independence for Nigeria would be postponed indefinitely until all regions were ready. The North took advantage of that. Zik and the top leaders of the NCNC said having fought for independence and sacrificed so much, it was better to allow the North produce the Prime Minister so that the independence would be achieved.

So this was what happened when they got the Prime Minister and the NCNC got the Finance Minister through Chief Okotie Eboh?
Yes.

Isn’t it an irony of Nigeria that when General Gowon needed to build his federal coalition against Biafra, he quickly released Awo from prison and offered him the Finance portfolio which he coveted so much?
You see? Let me tell you how Okotie Eboh got the Finance Minister portfolio under the first indigenous federal cabinet. Sir Louis Ojukwu, Emeka’s father, contested election to the Federal House. Another multi-millionaire like him, one Shodipo from Abeokuta, contested and won election also on the NCNC platform. In those days you had to be a member of the House of Representatives to be appointed Minister. Both of them as millionaires, were expecting to be appointed minister of finance. The way power was shared between NCNC and NPC was by putting all the posts on the table and NPC to pick first and NCNC next until all the posts were exhausted.
They chose the Prime Minster, we chose Finance. They chose Minister of Defence; we chose Commerce and Industry because our people were mainly traders. It was not a question of one victorious party or region sitting down and choosing what to give to the junior partner. We got Finance and gave it to Delta (Okotie Eboh). We got Communications and gave it to Ondo (Olu Akinfosile). Shodipo was bent on having the Finance portfolio. Ojukwu was bent on having it. The NCNC leaders sat and deliberated on this. They said if we give it to Ojukwu, the Yorubas will opt out accusing us of tribalism. If we give it to Shodipo Igbos will feel very bad, and Ojukwu was a major financial muscle of the NCNC. They decided to look for a rich man from the minority areas, and that was how Okotie Eboh got it. Immediately after that, Ojukwu resigned from the House, and I took over his seat.

Let us revisit the famous carpet crossing event, which many people blame for the tribal nature of Nigerian politics. Could you tell us exactly what happened?
Yes. That was in 1952. There were elections to the Western House of Assembly, Eastern House of Assembly, and Northern House of Assembly. Lagos was part of Western Region then, and NCNC was in control of Lagos. From Lagos, the NCNC put up four candidates: Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Olorunnimbe, H. O. Davis and Adeleke Adedoyin. We defeated the Action Group in Lagos and all members of the Western House of Assembly from Lagos were NCNC members.

Generally, the NCNC had a very comfortable majority in the rest of Yorubaland in the Western House of Assembly. The constitution then said that the leader of the party with the majority in the house would be the leader of the House, and when self governance came he would be designated Premier of the Region.

Awolowo quickly mobilised the Ooni of Ife and other prominent Yoruba Obas and said: “can’t you see the danger that is coming on now? If we allow an Igbo man to be the Leader of this House the Igbo man will one day be the Premier of this Region”. His message hit home, and the Yoruba members of the NCNC were lobbied to cross over the Action Group to stop an Igbo man from coming to be the Premier of Western Region. When the House met, there was a red carpet and the Speaker’s bench was in the centre, the government side was this side and the opposition bench was over to the other side.

The NCNC, the majority party occupying the government side, had the red carpet separating them from the opposition. The Governor was then the Speaker or Chairman of the House. He took his seat. Awolowo got up and said he had a matter of urgency to raise to forestall a situation that could lead to riots and anarchy, which he said, many members of the House had decided to correct. One by one, our members got up and said Your Excellency, I don’t want to be part of a situation where Yorubaland would be set on fire.

So, I am crossing over to the other side. He would get up, walk across the carpet and take his seat. It started from Ibadan, where Adisa Akinloye led the four decampees. Adelabu, Richard Akinjide and Mojeed Agbaje, refused to cross over. Adeleke Adedoyin from Lagos, Olorunnimbe from Lagos, and others crossed the carpet. After the crossing, the NCNC majority was reduced to a minority. Okotie Eboh broke down and started crying.

At that time to be a member of the House of Representatives you had to be elected a member of the Regional House of Assembly. That was how the expression: “Carpet Crossing”, came into the political dictionary of Nigeria.

The leaders of the NCNC decided it was no use for Zik to be the leader of the opposition in Western Nigeria; that it was better for him to go to head the government of his own region since the politics of Nigeria had been reduced to this absurd tribal level. It was then that a member representing Onitsha was persuaded to resign for Zik to take his place at the Eastern Region House of Assembly.

It was also decided that Professor Eyo Ita, who was the Leader of Government Business in the Eastern Region House of Assembly, should resign for Zik to assume that position. Eyo Ita refused to resign. Eyo Ita, along with R. R. Uzoma of Orlu and A. C. Nwapa, Ubani Ekeoma, all of whom were ministers at Enugu, refused to resign. So it was not possible for Zik to come in. Another crisis was created, this time in the Eastern Region. Then I was the Secretary General of the NCNC Youth Association which, as I told you, was a reincarnation of the Zikist Movement. During the crisis, I was arrested along with Malam Umaru Altine and five others and imprisoned at Enugu because we insisted that the proper thing must be done…

Which was that…
Which was that these five ministers must quit. The Governor, C. J Pleass, was backing them. The House decided to dissolve itself, so the Governor had no choice but to dissolve the House. Fresh elections were conducted throughout the Eastern Region and Zik became the Leader of Government business and later, Premier of Eastern Region.

That was why the minorities of the East said the Igbos took advantage of their majority and elbowed away Eyo Ita. But the leaders of the Party did not see it in that light. What we were looking at was that it was absurd for the national leader of the Party to be a floor member while an ordinary floor member could be the leader of the government. Naturally, the national leader of the party should take precedence over everybody. The minorities then started their agitation for the creation of the Calabar/Ogoja/Rivers (COR) State.

You mentioned Umaru Altine, the first Lord Mayor of Enugu. Many people just mention the name but they don’t know how a Fulani man became the first Mayor of Enugu. Can you explain it? These days, people are harassed and killed in parts of the country, and they have no right to be elected or get jobs outside their states of origin, especially in the North?
It will interest you to know that Malam Umaru Altine was not appointed. He was elected Mayor of Enugu two times. Malam Umaru Altine was the Vice Chairman of the NCNC Youth Association at Enugu. He identified with the NCNC as a political party. During elections NCNC decided to nominate him at Coal Camp where he lived. He contested and won the election in the same manner as we did that kind of thing in many places. After what happened at Ibadan and the crisis it precipitated in the East, Altine was fully involved with us. He was arrested with me as I told you, and we were imprisoned together. That was in 1952. I shared the same prison cell with him and one Ernest Obianwu and one Akunne Nwanolue, and one Okeke, a blacksmith from Awka.


*Chief Mbazulike Amechi

Later, one M. E. Ogon from Ogoja later came and joined us. When Altine won the election, we decided that this man did not see himself as a Fulani man but a nationalist. And we NCNC we believe in one Nigeria. So, let him be the Mayor of Enugu. In the same manner, John Umoru, from Etsako in today’s Edo State which was then in the Western Region, was presented by the NCNC as a candidate for the House of Assembly, and he won to represent Port Harcourt in the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly. Later, Zik appointed him as Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier. That was the way we saw Nigeria at that time. When the Eastern House of Chiefs was constituted Malam Umaru Yushau, the Sarkin Hausawa or chief of the Hausas at Onitsha, was elected as a member of the Eastern House of Chiefs. He was there until the military coups of 1966.

I must mention that a year or two before the coup, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Region, reciprocated our gesture by appointing one Felix Okonkwo, then known as “Okonkwo Kano”, as a special member of the Northern House of Chiefs. He was the leader of the Igbo State Union, which was very strong. It had Igbo State primary and secondary schools everywhere, including the North.

The term: “One Nigeria” of the NCNC vision, was it the same thing as the One Nigeria of today which emerged after the civil war?
It is not the same thing. In our own time we said it and we meant it. We used it as a slogan but we concretised it in action. During the Second Republic, the NPN took it up. That is the symbol there (pointing to a wooden statue that had a bunched hand with one middle finger pointing upward standing on a shelf in his sitting room). And One Nigeria then was that the North would produce the presidential candidate after Zik was deceived by Jim Nwobodo into believing that the NPP could give him the presidency. When Zik left the National Movement (which became the NPN) we insisted on the One Nigeria policy to the extent that that was what led to the coup of 1983.

President Shagari and the leadership of the NPN agreed that the next president of Nigeria after Shagari in 1987 would be an Igbo man. So, Buhari and the northern hawks said they cannot live to see this. That was why the coup of January 31 1983 took place. Dr Umaru Dikko said that.

That it was not acceptable to him that an Igbo man would be president in 1987?
No. Dikko exposed the conspiracy that led to the coup. That was why they crated him and wanted to bring him back alive and kill him. Umaru Dikko said this was the motive behind the coup; this is where the conspiracy was hatched.

Was this before or after the coup?
After the coup. He was speaking in London before they put him in a crate.

You know, Professor Jibril Aminu has always kicked against that notion that the coup of 1983 was staged to stop Ekwueme from being president in 1987?
I wouldn’t say it was staged to stop Ekwueme but to stop the Igbo.

Aminu says it is not true.
What did he know? He was not in the party hierarchy at that time. He was running the University of Maiduguri. He was not in a position to know what was happening.

Could it be called a Northern agenda to stop the Igbo producing the president?
It was not a northern agenda. There was a group they used to call the Kaduna Mafia. It could either be the agenda of the Mafia or just the hawks in the military and few of their confederates in the civilian class.

The hawks in the military must have been in the vanguard of it because they were the ones who fought the war. Obasanjo was one of them. When in 2006 he came to visit in Amichi in my local government here where the surrender document was signed he said, how do you people expect that after conquering you we come and hand over power to you? Many of the northern officers had that feeling. He said it when he had lost his bid for third term. So it could have been said out of frustration.

You mentioned Igbo State Union, which was very strong and did a lot of exploits. Can you compare and contrast the Igbo State Union and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo of today?
I can only compare and contrast them insofar as I can compare and contrast them in relation to the Igbo politicians of that time and the Igbo politicians of today. At that time, Abiriba Union could invite an erring Abiriba son at Port Harcourt and say: “come and kneel down here” and he would come and kneel down. That was the picture of discipline. But today you find someone whose mental faculty or even natural intelligence is limited. If you tell him to wait, if he looks into his bank account and finds some one or two billion naira which could be stolen he will tell his father, “who are you?”. His own father. That is the mentality of today.

I am not saying this anomaly is found only among the Igbo. It is a growing trend across the board. That’s why there is no more discipline now. There is no more patriotism now. In those days, just like today, there was no part of Nigeria you would go and not find an Igbo man. If you found an Igbo man engaged in a fight, once the news went out that an Igbo man was involved in a fight with someone who was not an Igbo, the Igbos in that area would come out and fight the non-Igbo to submission. At the end, they would ask the Igbo man, what caused the fight.

Then where he was wrong they would tell and warn him to desist from doing such a thing in the future. It is no longer the same now. I shudder to think of what would have happened to Zik in those days when that young man wanted to stab him. If it were today, unless he had his well paid thugs with him who are working for their money, he would have perished. More so, if I had not intervened and I shouted as I did, the policeman, Inspector Chukwuma, would not have responded. He would have been more concerned for the safety of his job and his own skin. I would have perished. At that time, one Igbo man’s problem was the problem of all the other Igbos in a branch of the Igbo State Union. Today the Igbo man will mortgage or sell his own brother to make money. At that time, politics was more for patriotism and nationalism, rather than opportunism and mercenary tendencies. Today, the politics of Nigeria is politics of money. No principles, not patriotism, no nationalism. The same thing has permeated the Ohanaeze. You saw what happened. While the Igbos were saying that they did not want Obasanjo and his third term, the then President General of Ohanaeze, and the Secretary General, along with the PDP governors of the South East, came out with the statement that had have consulted with 50 million Igbos and they all said they supported Obasanjo for third term. See what is happening with the Yar’ Adua case now. Look at the five South East Governors issuing a statement saying that Yar’ Adua is right in what he is doing, without consulting those who elected them.

The present crop of Igbo political actors have no sense of patriotism and are more influenced by material and mercenary considerations than patriotism and national interest.

How would you situate Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria’s history? Was he an Igbo hater?
Obasanjo was a soldier. He fought for Nigeria against Biafra. As a military head of state he handed over to civilians in 1979, which was a patriotic act. Obasanjo was elected president in 1999. How well he performed is for history to determine. But I don’t think he was the best president Nigeria ever had. I do not know if it was deliberate but he did not project the interest of the Igbos. He was there as a Yoruba president and if he did not have love for Ndigbo he did not hide it.

Is this the Nigeria you nationalists fought for?
Certainly not. We envisaged a country that was rich in human and natural resources. We founded a country that was big and had the potentialities to lead Africa. We founded a country where patriotism was the motivating factor. But unfortunately, an unpatriotic military came and intervened and distorted everything. And so from there change came. What we have now is not in any way near the country we envisaged. In our own time there was no oil and gas or mineral resources except coal, copper and tin.

We only had agricultural produce such as palm oil, cocoa and groundnuts. Look at how rich the country is in natural resources and there is nothing we can do for ourselves. Common electricity, common water supply. Even the industries we created with our lean resources at that time have all been killed. They have all died. The only investment you find in Nigeria is in oil and gas.

But a lot of the oil is offshore, and people just suck the thing, give a little part of the proceeds from the stolen oil to people who are around them, people in government, people in the military, some privileged traditional rulers and chiefs and these foreign countries cart away billions and billions of dollars worth of oil everyday. I have here an industry where I process kaolin. I can no longer continue because there is no electricity. I have a generating plant but I cannot afford the high cost of diesel.

There is no security in the country. How would you expect an American investor, a European investor, a Chinese investor, to come and establish an industry in Nigeria where there is no running water and electricity, where they can be kidnapped, where armed robbers can kill them on the road? This is not the country we envisaged. This is a creation of the military, inherited and further developed by an unpatriotic political class raised under the tutelage of the military.

Finally, what should Yar’ Adua do at this juncture?
Before answering that question, I don’t know whether I should not put it back to you. Are you sure that Yar’ Adua is in a position now to understand what I tell him to do? Are you sure he is conscious? What happened is that a few hawks, a few nation-breakers have stolen the issue of Yar’ Adua’s illness to perpetuate their own interest, to run and own the country, even if it means destroying the country. They have taken the country to such a dangerous precipice that the constitution, which is the thing that holds the country together, is being violated with impunity. And when that happens, this country could break up.

The constitution is clear. This is president. This is vice president. If the president for one reason or the other is not able to perform his duties the vice should continue to perform those duties. Then you have one Attorney General, who has no scruples twisting the constitution. You have a jellyfish national assembly just sitting down there thinking of money and passing the buck to the Executive Council asking them to pass a resolution as to whether Yar’ Adua is fit. How do they expect them to do that? All members of the Federal Executive Council were appointed by Yar’ Adua.

The moment they say that Yar’ Adua is no longer fit to continue it automatically means they have lost their jobs. Even Osama bin Laden who is wanted by powerful American intelligence is in hiding. But once in a while when he issues a statement he brings out a tape. Al Jazeera or other world television networks will publish the tape to show he is till alive. Have you seen any tape about Yar’ Adua?

So, who is sure that… well he is still alive because as a Muslim if he dies he will be buried at once…but is he in a conscious state? If he is not in a conscious state, then why should the health of one man hold 150 million people to ransom? If they want to keep violating the constitution because they don’t want Goodluck Jonathan to take over, if anything happens, those hawks in Aso Rock will be the first to suffer.