Nnamdi Kanu and his supporters have been agitating for a separate country from Nigeria through the instrument of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), what advice do you have for him?
These children cannot talk of life experiences because they are still young. I will advise them to listen to elders and see what would happen in the next 20 years. They may be shocked to see what would happen if their luck holds out. To see what would happen in the future, they need to stay alive. And the only way to stay alive is to listen to elders who would talk from the point of experience.
Nnamdi Kanu is just gambling with his life and those of the young people following him sheepishly. It is very risky to do such a thing. And you notice that he is operating alone, without any backing. Unfortunately, he is exposing those young ones, and indeed, all of us to an avoidable danger. The earlier he and his group are told the truth and called to order, the better for all of us. They should engage in positive ventures that will guarantee their future.
Arewa youths issued a quit notice to the Igbo resident in northern Nigeria and the authorities did not call them to order. How come none of them has been arrested?
That statement from the Arewa youth was issued from Arewa House in Kaduna, and it was weighty. Statements from that place have always been regarded to be very strong. Historically, that is why I have had problems with civilian governments in Nigeria. If it were in a military government, before the youth finished preparing their statement, the security operatives would have seen it and stopped them. But civilian regimes in Nigeria seem to be sleeping and watching events. When they hear this from me they will say I am trying to indict them on security, but I am not indicting anybody. The police cannot get up and start doing things unless they are given clear direction on what they should do. So, the fact that the statement from Arewa youths was announced is an indictment on the government itself. They were talking as if the North was their personal enterprise or estate.
The North is an integral part of the country called Nigeria, and you can only describe it geographically. That’s why the entire Nigerian Army – made up of all Nigerians – is fighting in the North-East to defeat Boko Haram. If the situation there was for the North alone, why would soldiers of the Nigerian government go there to lose their lives?
The statement from that group of youths is really unfortunate and irresponsible. Whatever might have motivated the statement, if they had thought carefully, they would have known that some of us had cautioned the Igbo youth. We told them that they could not get up and start assuming the leadership of Igboland. You don’t do that. There’s no way the youth can get up and assume the leadership of Igboland when there are still people who fought and suffered to keep them alive.
No matter what anybody thinks or says, the Igbo will always remain an integral part of Nigeria. We didn’t fight in the civil war to destroy Nigeria; we fought because it got to a stage where the only place you could stay at that material time and remain alive was in your own enclave. Nobody expected that the discussion in Aburi, Ghana; Lagos or any part of Nigeria would lead to a civil war. Even the Nigerian government at that time did not anticipate that there would be a civil war.
The Arewa youth said their quit notice was in response to the insults and lies unleashed on Nigerians, especially northern leaders, by Nnamdi Kanu and the IPOB. Would you say they are justified? Is there any way the elders can come in to save the situation?
Governors from the South-East have spoken, southern governors and leaders have also spoken; hopefully, I should take them seriously. But in this country, people tell you one thing and do another. That’s why some of us don’t even know who to believe.
In the case of Nnamdi Kanu, some leaders, including traditional rulers, have told him and his group to keep quiet. It is uncharitable for anybody to say that leaders of Igboland have not been cautioning the agitators. I know that the leaders and elders have been speaking.
But the atmosphere is not conducive for the future of the youth. The situation where a boy graduates from the university, completes his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, and still stays with his parents until he is 40 years or more is unfortunate. He can’t get married because his parents won’t take care of him and his wife. So the possibility of the young man organising his own family is remote. And there’s nothing more frustrating than that. So when the youths are shouting and calling down heaven, don’t blame them.
The only thing we can do is to find a way to give them hope. I don’t believe in leaving them like that or blaming them; we should try to solve their problems. We should show sympathy to the youth, including Nnamdi Kanu. All we can do is to continue to advise them – the road they want to take leads to nowhere. The road to dismembering Nigeria is closed.
How do you think Nigeria can survive as a country?
As it is now, the only way this country can survive is to agree to this restructuring which everybody is talking about. It is now a general opinion. If they go with restructuring and it fails, nobody will be blamed. But when you stick to a policy that is already dead and unproductive, then Nigeria may collapse in your hand and one may not be alive to tell the history. Naturally, in a civilised world, if a system does not work, you jettison it and try another one. That’s the way I look at it.
What does restructuring really imply?
They say that restructuring means different things to different people, but it is not true. Those who went to the National Conference organised by the former President Goodluck Jonathan government churned out certain vital pieces of information. They presented papers that identified and defined restructuring. What it means is that the powers at the centre have to be reduced. This will force various states to work harder and look inwards, instead of everybody always running to Abuja for funds. For how long will you be going to Abuja to get money to run your state? In other words, even people in the villages will be forced to start thinking and doing things. In other words, if your state is producing gold, you would be responsible for that. The state should depend solely on what is produced within its confines. It means that if Kano State wants to go into enterprise with Delta, they have the right to do so, etc. At the end, you find out that governors will not be complaining of not being able to pay workers’ salaries. This is my interpretation of restructuring.
Who will start the process of restructuring, considering the fact that the National Assembly voted against it?
It’s very simple to restructure. First of all, if the constitution we have is not working, it has to be amended. However, it’s not something that will be done in one fell swoop; it will follow a gradual approach. Various states of the federation have to be fully sensitised.
As far as I am concerned, those at the National Assembly have the responsibility to implement restructuring. They are foot-dragging, but they have said they would revisit it. The earlier they do it, the better because they are running out of time. I say they are running out of time because it’s difficult to stop human beings when they are highly agitated.
That’s why I tell people not to go to a riot venue in the middle of it; you could be killed. Therefore, the best thing is to fight the fire with the correct equipment. You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight it with water mixed with other elements. You would find out that when they start talking, tempers will start going down; so the earlier they start talking, the better. People will now start having faith and confidence in the country. There’s something wrong about Nigeria, and if nobody is seeing it, that’s a mistake.
