How well has Nigeria fared 65 years after?
First of all, talking about Nigeria is tiring and exhausting. Every year, we talk about Nigeria’s age as if Nigeria is a human being, which obviously it is not even though it contains human beings. If Nigeria is a human being at 65 and we are still talking about that human being not having anything that it is expected to achieve. I think people generally will just give up. Looking at Nigeria, I am speak from the perspective of knowing Nigeria before it got independence. I knew Nigeria before Nigeria got independence. I was born before then. I am older than the independence of Nigeria. I can recall as far back as when I was in primary school. What Nigeria is today is far from what even we, as children, expected from Nigeria as a country because we believed then that Nigeria will be better from independence if compared to what it was before independence. That was our belief and it has not been so. With colonisation and all of those things, it is sad to sometimes wonder or think that perhaps, the days of colonial rule might have been better in terms of how the government was and how Nigeria was compared to from 1960 to today. Nigeria hasn’t gone forward. It may not have gone back to the colonial days but it has not caught up with other countries in Africa that are developing and had independence before Nigeria. I think Ghana and one or two other countries had independence before Nigeria. A lot of countries, Rwanda, Botswana, that had independence after Nigeria have gone far better. I am laying the ground to justify my disappointment in Nigeria. A country like Nigeria was calling itself, along with other black nations, the giant of Africa. Black people around, black Americans, West Indians looked up to Nigeria as a giant of Africa. They looked at Nigeria as the country that will push the black man up and show the way for the black man. We are the largest black nation in the world. Honestly, Nigeria has let every black person down. How do we become the giant of Africa to a point that we are the most corrupt country in the world. We are the sixth largest producer of oil and gas. We have a large deposit of oil and gas, gold and other minerals. We can feed ourselves. I can remember, Nigeria fed herself; we are an agrarian country. So, how did we go from all these positive expectations, to the point where today, the thing Nigeria is known for is rigging elections. The thing Nigeria is known for is bastardising the concept of democracy, the abuse of human rights. How did we become a nation that can no longer look up to the judiciary and to look any government in the face and tell it you are wrong? How did we become a nation that is operating with a constitution, which was more or less written by the military? We do not deserve the name giant of Africa. When I see the word ‘giant of Africa, my eye takes away the GI and all I see is ant. People are free to say that I am not talking we’ll of Nigeria but I don’t see how I can pretend to talk about what I know is true in a way to give the impression that a lie is now the truth. So, everytime since 1999 after the military handed over and we started talking about Nigeria’s independence anniversary every year, I have been very despondent. You become optimistic when there is something to be optimistic about. It encourages you to be optimistic. The way Nigeria is now, it is not encouraging a lot of people, especially me to be optimistic.
So, who is to blame for the situation your just painted about Nigeria?
The people, the electorates need to stand up for what they know is right, not for politicians, who govern for themselves, their family members, their friends and their cronies. So, we allow that to happen. I remember once former Rivers State governor Amaechi said, “we steal because you don’t throw us pure water”. When I analysed what he said, it boils down to what I am saying about the electorates. That is to say we accept incapable people to take responsibility for governing Nigeria and therefore, allow corruption to breed. Because Nigerians say to themselves, there is nothing we can do about it. So if you can’t beat them, you join them. We should not pick people who are not going to tell us how they are going to make Nigeria progress. You must pass laws, you must make policies, you must develop policies that are going to make us able to manufacture cars from the beginning to the end and sell them in Nigeria like Innoson. If we are not prepared to have people that can do that and we are prepared to have this mentality of it must be me, if it is not me, it will not work. Next year I will still be feeling the same way I am feeling now. I bet you, next year, there will be no progress from where we are talking.
How can the problems be solved?
There is a musical called ‘The Sound of Music’. One of the characters in the musical is called Maria and it was set in the days of Hitler. She was a nun and her character was to look after children. In the nunnery where she was, she was very vocal and very frontal. She always spoke her mind. The nuns got together and they were wondering, how do we solve a problem like Maria? That is really how Nigeria is; how do we solve a problem like Nigeria? It is a question that every Nigerian needs to ask his or herself. If you think you cannot solve the problem of Nigeria, step to one side. If you think you want to solve the problem of Nigeria, step to this side. I think we have begun from where everybody will determine whether they are willing to be part of solving the problem called Nigeria. Nigeria as a country is a problem because we have people who do not deserve to be leaders governing us. Gradually we have come to the point where people who should never be in positions of authority or governance are in government. That is the problem of Nigeria. It is not only one person that will solve the problem of Nigeria. All of us have to be reoriented. If you and I, at whatever age you are and my own age, are not going to determine that, come what may, we must insist on solving Nigeria’s problem, which is really wrong people in politics. If we don’t, your children, my children, even my grandchildren are going to come and meet this mess that we are complaining about.
Does the Niger Delta region have any future in the Nigerian project?
The reason why the Niger Delta can look back and recall people who fought for the Niger Delta region, against the British colonial masters. Adaka Boro declared independence for the Niger Delta people with about 200 men or less. He was not going to win the war because they had no guns, but it was not about winning the war, it was about what drastic thing you do for it to be known that you want a change. That was what Adaka Boro did and that is why we remember him till today. Looking back and also being part of a people in the Niger Delta region that have fought for justice and equity to come to the rest of the Niger Delta, we are worse off today when you look at our environment, the situation of our water, condition of fishermen and farmers, the devastation by the oil companies. The federal and state governments have failed to hold these companies accountable for what they have done. The sacrifices by the people of Ogoni and other ethnic nationalities in the region seem to be in vain. With the devastation caused by the oil companies, I personally do not believe that our people in the Niger Delta region have been treated fairly. The injustice of carting away our resources, the devastation we have suffered, oil spills, gas flares. These things require drastic decisions, but drastic decisions must not come with war.
