Nigeria’s democracy has been on for 15 years. What are your impressions?
Yes. We have democracy, but we are still very fragile. The National Conference seeks to address the issues. But are we doing it?
I don’t think so. I feel disappointed in the discussions, I think the agenda is overloaded.
The work plan shows that the most critical issues we have been discussing – devolution of power, structure of government have been given only the last two days. I came here personally in order to discuss Nigeria’s political system not environment, not labour and the other issues.
So, I think that on the whole, the national conference has been a bit diffused with too many things. You know when you talk about too many things, you don’t get essence of the discussion.
How did the conference get here?
The programme is so diluted and whether this will give us the answers we are looking for, I don’t know. I doubt it but I will like to be an optimist and would want to believe that whatever we resolve might then go on for implementation either at the legislative or constitutional levels. But already, we know the outcomes. The outcomes are weak.
Basically, the North seems to want the status quo to remain; the South-East was interested in one state; the South-West was interested in regionalism and the South-South wanted resource control.
Does this mean that nothing will change after this conference?
The conference is essentially protecting the status quo. Like I said earlier, the North wants the situation to remain the same, the South-South is fixated on resource control and the South-East where I come from, I think they got it all wrong as their key demand was a state.
So going away from here, Nigeria is the same. I am not sure whether we can change anything. Fifteen years after the rebirth of democracy, I remain very sceptical because what we have as democracy is not good enough.
Why are we finding it difficult to make changes in the polity?
We have got too many issues among ourselves. We are still carrying the baggage of Biafra. We know our problems but we seem to be shying away from the solutions. We are stuck in our ethnic trenches.
We need to think less of ourselves and more about how this country can move forward. It is like a hair cut. If you have a very bushy hair, unless you cut it you cannot have fresh air. Now I understand why America said we would expire in 2015.
Nobody is serious about confronting Nigeria’s problems. You see everybody in the hall there?
We all know the problems of our country but we are all going round and round the solutions. Before this conference, I have been in about 10 government committees, so when they were talking on environment, I was laughing. We say the same thing every time and everywhere but nothing happens thereafter.
We are not committed to taking the bull by the horns. What should the conference do to save Nigeria? Restructure. The structure of Nigeria is wrong. The structure should have taken into account our diversities.
Now this conference hasn’t addressed that, so we are going to carry on with the old structure. Periodically, a snake sheds its old skin and takes on a fresh body.
Nigeria needs to shed its old skin. If it doesn’t shed its old skin and it continues to panel beat itself, it will be heading for destruction.
What we are doing here is panel-beating. We need to address Nigeria’s issues frontally and in a revolutionary manner to bring about some fundamental changes and transformation. But that is not happening here.
We are missing a great opportunity to put our country on the right track and I don’t know what the consequences might be in the future.
News Telegraph.
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