By Lawrence Enyoaghasu
Mr Goddy Uwazurike is the National President of Aka Ikenga and a delegate to the last National Conference. Speaking recently, he faulted President Muhammadu Buhari on his decision to extensively tackle corrupt leaders. He believes that the solution to the problems of Nigeria is restructuring and not the fight against corruption.
The call for restructuring of Nigeria has become a major issue of public discourse. What is your take on that?
I will tell you in all honesty that change is very constant in life. And it is also something like restructuring; which is changing what is already in existence into another thing. So, the call to restructure Nigeria should be a welcome development to every right thinking person because all over the world, restructuring is going on.
Presently, the Southern United States is still talking about how to meet and become an independent country. Also, remember that Canada has been on this for more than a hundred years of their independence. Same way, Catalonia, a part of Spain, never wanted to be identified as that. They have been fighting for their independence since time immemorial. Catalonia is where the Catalonian boys, Barcelona are. That area is called Catalonia and people like to be called Catalonians and not Spaniards.
If we come down to Nigeria, our structure has been our major problem. The call for restructuring has always been there, in the 1960s the call was by the North. Nigeria ought to have gotten independent three years earlier, but the North were not ready and swore that they would not be part of independent Nigeria.
Later, it was the turn of the Yoruba, while the military was dominating, they started making moves for Oduduwa Republic. And when Obasanjo was ruling, the northerners clamoured for Arewa Republic till Jonathan’s regime. So, when people say that there will be no restructuring in Nigeria, that means they are not facing the reality. At the national conference, we discussed restructuring in different ways. Some, we called devolution of power. And we said that the central must not be over burdened as it is today. That was why it was a conference of eminent men and women. So, if you say there will be no restructuring, that means you are hitting your head on the wall and when it eventually comes, you will be the first victim. However, restructuring is important in this country at all levels.
What do you think would be the advantage of restructuring that were highlighted at the last conference?
At the conference, we emphasised the issues of the six zones as basics for federal character, in that anything that goes to zone one, must go to zone two. In other words, we said let there be equal treatment for all the zones. Two, we said all elective offices must be based on zoning. Then, we said all the political parties must actually be based on zone, which means power must rotate among the zones. We protested when APC wanted to change the rule of federal character, arguing that the only way that there can be peace and equality is to maintain zoning and we insisted that when it comes to zoning, we must face the reality just like I mentioned. Have you asked yourself why any time any elective position goes to the North, it is always occupied by the Hausa/Fulani man? What of the Basha man? Why can’t he come out? Is he not a northerner, what of the Berom man; what of Tiv? Are they not from the North? But if it were to be zoning, the Tiv man knows that he is from North central. The same thing will go for the South east; we have the South south. If it is not tackled, the Yoruba in the North central will not have anything. Then, the other part of the North, especially North east, North west, will have all of them. So, as far as we are concerned in the centenary conference, we looked far into these things and other problems, confronting Nigeria because we are not a homogeneous nation. So, we have how to ensure that everybody is carried along. In our conclusion, we agreed by consensus that all parts of the country must be carried along. And that the power in the central must reduce, so that you do not have the president of Nigeria, signing contract for borehole in my village. Then, what will the governor be doing? We agreed that the central must be run as it was between 1960 and 1965 when the Federal Government was only managing our foreign exchange, Central Bank, handling armed forces, controlling federal police, handling customs and immigration.
What will then be the function of the regional government?
In those days, the regions, for instance, the South east region controlled oil resources; then the money for crude oil was being paid to eastern region, then they would pay some part of it to the Federal Government but that is not so today. We agitated for that because resources are best managed by the local government. On the other hand, it is one sided to South. In the South, the Federal Government controls all, but allows individuals to control resources in the North. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Most Nigerians don’t know the number of mineral resources we have in the North and not one kobo goes to the Federal Government from mining of those minerals. So, we took pen to examine all those things out of resource control. Even the federation, we said that local government must go. If states want 1000 local governments, let them pay, we don’t want Federal Government to be sharing money to local government. And, what they said when it came to issue of sharing money, it should be shared between federal and state governments.
You made mention of the North not bringing what they make from the minerals in their area and the Federal Government not getting to pay all from the South south, South east and South west, why the imbalance?
The imbalance is what I call the willingness in the North, the owners of the land controlling their products. Those who own the mining company are from Asia. They sleep inside hotels and get the poor masses to work for them. They sometimes don’t employ Nigerians, rather Nigeriens and Chadians. After mining, they pay their workers peanuts take profit, then the rest of the money goes to the owner of the land. Whereas in the South, if crude oil is found at the back of your house, you will lose your farmland, house and everything that was once in your name close to the crude spot. If that happens, the person has no other choice but to seek job from those who have taken over his land and properties; that is if he was lucky. This is the origin of militancy in the South south.
Is it the right time to be discussing restructuring when the government has corrupt leaders to battle with?
Let me use the British as example; if they are in a weak position, he would say “let us take it off”; then in a strong position, he would tell you that it is a matter of principle.
In the two situations, he wants to take off the matter either way because of selfish reasons. I say it today, Nigeria is seating on a keg of gunpowder, postponing any discussion is like compounding the issue. Let us talk about it now and probably it will be settled.
Let us talk about it now and have everlasting peace rather than chasing corrupt leaders or so. Battling corruption is not the purpose of government; governance is the purpose of the government. Corruption is an aspect that should be dealt with by the anti-corruption agent of the government. The government has forgotten the hierarchy of needs; the stomach comes first. The stomach infrastructure is the only policy that can never fail in any policy. The governed have to have food in their stomach before cheering for the government for battling corruption. Unless the government faces what it has to before things can be normal in this country.