It is a 53 years of deteriorating fortunes

By Ishola Balogun
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the first civilian governor of Edo State, in this interview sums up his feelings about Nigeria at 53, berating government and successive government for not providing focussed and purposeful leadership to  Nigerians since independence. He opined that the process of peaceful revolution via the amalgamation of progressives will restore hope to the people. Excerpts:

How would you sum up your feelings about Nigeria at 53?

I am glad we are still a nation even though it is not clear whether we live together as a nation. It has been a problem so far and if you want to sum it up, it is a 53 years of deteriorating fortunes. I think we have come to a crisis point. I have said it before that Nigeria has come to the brink several times and she should have looked over the brink and pull back, but unfortunately again, she comes to the brink. And this time, a lot of strange things are happening that make one fearful about the future.

I am an unapologetic believer of Nigeria as one nation. It is a nation put together by God through man’s instrumentality for a purpose. Over 150million people coming together is not by historic accident. It is moreso that the black race world over will have a voice of respect. Unfortunately, we have not risen up to that challenge.

Things have deteriorated to a point where nationhood is doubt, as to whether it is sustainable giving the current realities in the country and the inexorable pursuit of power at all cost by certain people; not even the destruction of the country will stop them. To them, the stability of the nation and the happiness of the people does not matter to them, nothing matters except the retention and acquisition of power.

In the last few days, a spanner was thrown into the works. I am one of those who canvass for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference because it is something I believe in passionately. But when this kind of things are going on, it is wise for the discrete people to ask what is going on? Is there a deeper purpose to this?

Does it have any relationship with the crisis that is currently occurring within the ranks of the PDP or does it have anything to do with the perceived antagonism of the north to the second term ambition of the President? Is it just a warning to certain groups in the nation that a few people don’t de-escalate the opposition? And if it is any of these, what are the implications for the nation? That is what we need to look at.

But, where do you think we got it wrong as a nation?

We’ve been getting it wrong all the time. It was not yesterday, neither was it the creation of the present President. The problems have been part of the nation waiting to be addressed but they have never been addressed because we’ve never had leadership at the centre that is focused, committed and prepared for power; a leadership that will ask himself ‘what do I want to be remembered for?’

All we have had are either accidental or those who shot themselves into office. Abiola would have been the very first because he struggled for power because he had a sense of nationhood and he had a good personal record as a philanthropist and successful enterprenuer.

That would have been the first opportunity to find out what it would have been like to have somebody who really prepared for power and knew what he wanted to do. It does not matter whether it is right or wrong, what is important is that he has a target, an idea to which he is committed. In the process of implementing his idea, you may disagree with him but you cannot disagree with his aim of leaving the nation much better than he met it. So, if you ask where did we get it wrong, I’ll say this nation has been crying for its basic problems to be addressed.

Things appeared to be much better when we were in the regional system, do you think this federal system is paying off?

That is a very critical part of the problem but we have to be realistic, we cannot go back to the regional system of government simply because the state structure already has a vested interest in the project Nigeria that will not allow us to roll back. But what distinguished it at that time was that it was a balance system. It was clear and everybody knew that regions were governing themselves and so, they were able to compete in a very health way. Even the parliamentary system were more flexible than the presidential system that we foisted on ourselves.

So, with the military intervention, the balance of the federation was destroyed and the independent of the component parts were destroyed. We have not recovered from that because of lack of committed and visionary leadership at the centre and until we sit down and addressed these problems, we will go on and on in this way.

That is why I say we must manage the situation should the government decides to go ahead with dialogue so that it is not used to destroy the nation, because that is not our purpose when we say we want a Sovereign National conference. We want to return to the kind of freedom that the regions had a few years after independence.

In a few months to come, we will celebrate the centenary of the amalgamation, yet we are still grappling with how to resolve myriads of problems bedeviling this nation. Some believe that it requires a revolution to get out of the woods, do you you think all present scenarios are a build up to a revolution?

John Odigie-Oyegun

It depends on what your definition of revolution is. I may not define revolution the same way you are defining it. I believe we need dramatic and fundamental change in the way the nation is governed. So, I will say we are in the process of a peaceful revolution already giving the present conflict in the PDP and the surprise and historic amalgamation and fusion of three major parties and spinsters of others to form the APC. I think those are the bedrock of the kind of revolution that is coming. In the APC, we have the critical mass of those who wish this country well, people who have clear ideas of the destiny of the Nigeria nation; people with clear idea of the road to take to that promise land. That is already underway, it is not a revolution of blood and if the process is not impeded through massive rigging because that is what they know how to do to change the will of the masses, then we will have the peaceful revolution which will bring about a government that truly reflects the wishes of the people. And once the people believe in that government and their hope restored to them, the issue of insecurity, unemployment will become manageable.

Of course the know you cannot wave a magic wand and solve all their problems at once, but they want to see you are on the right track to bring the solution to them and they will be patient with you. But if that hope is frustrated, then we are in for serious trouble.

Why is it so difficult to diversify on oil as our sources of revenue since the last five decades?

It is simply, lack of visionary leadership, no commitment. What has consumed this nation in the last 14 years have been indecent personal greed and aggrandisement and it has changed the focus of government from what we can do for this nation to what you can only do for ourselves. Otherwise, this is one of the elementary issues if we are really serious. I wonder why we are still importing petroleum products.

It is because there have been that lack of vision, lack of purpose and total loss of any sense of history, instead of putting themselves in the history of people who changed things fundamentally for good. It is leadership and nothing more. We have not been lucky at the centre.

If you were the President, how would you address the problems of insecurity, abject poverty, social dislocation in the country?

But why do you have insecurity, criminality and all of that? It is simply because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Every day, you read in the newspapers of the fraud that runs into billions of naira and every day we seems to have the believe that crimes can go without punishment, in fact, it seems to be rewarded. Yet, we have Nigerians whose children are around them because they their parents cannot pay the school fees, some cannot pay their hospital bills and others who are out of schools for several years without jobs. Why will we not have insecurity and criminality? Why will we not have people who do not believe in the nation because the nation is not taking care of them? So, as President, you must address the fundamental reasons that give rise to these problems. What are the people’s want. He needs to address people problems and make them believe in the nation. Year in year out, people hear that the problem of electricity will be a thing of the past and yet, nothing has changed. You say the same about health, education sectors.

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