Arewa quit notice well planned by North
Chief Chekwas Okorie is the National Chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP). He believes that even though President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded flashes of success in some areas, he has failed to deliver on many of his promises to the people. In this interview with WILLY EYA, he also spoke on the quit notice to the Igbo by the Arewa youths, stressing that the country is running out of time.
President Muhammadu Buhari has just completed two years in office, what is your assessment of his administration so far?
I would start by being charitable to him by saying that his single-minded approach to fighting corruption is visible and to that extent, changing the attitude of public officers. His efforts in the Agric sector are noticeable particularly in food crops. Those are the areas that one can give him some credits. But generally, his performance is abysmal and very poor. He has not delivered in the area of the economy. His promise to create employment is moving in the opposite direction; there are job losses and companies that were growing and employing people are collapsing and workers are finding themselves again on the streets. In terms of national unity, he has encouraged nepotism via his appointments and this has escalated division and suspicion among Nigerians that are not from the northern part of the country. It is to that extent that his government has caused far more division among Nigerians than any other government that I can remember. We can go further than that and say that in the area of security, Nigeria is passing through a period when there is absence of protection of lives and property which is the primary responsibility of any government. The primary responsibility of government is to provide welfare and security of lives for the citizens. Life has become short and brutish. Nigeria has never come this close to being destabilised. The nation is at the brink. Time is almost like running out of Nigeria and President Buhari has very stubbornly, arrogantly and provokingly refused to consider the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference organised by his predecessor, Dr Goodluck Jonathan that are aimed at dousing the tension and balancing things in such a way that there is equity and fair play in the country. But he brazenly announced that the recommendations have been consigned to the archives and not minding that about N7billion of the tax payers funds was spent in organising the conference. I think Nigeria is going through a very terrible leadership under President Buhari and we cannot wait for the next general election in 2019 for Nigerians who have become wiser to decide how to go about the issue of change. I am not sure that this is the change they were looking for.
The issue on the front burner of public discourse now is the quit notice by the Arewa youths to the Igbo to leave the 19 Northern States. What is your reaction to the development? What do you think are the conspiracy theories surrounding that order or should we just accept the order on its face value?
We cannot accept the order on the face value because the roots to it had earlier been given by Northern elders like Junaid Mohammed, Professor Ango Abdullahi just to mention a few of them. Their views have been pointing to the fact that they were stoking the fire of discord in Nigeria. I could not rule out the fact that Mohammed, Abdullahi and others working behind encouraged their youths to embark on this very irresponsible line of action. There is no doubt that the youths from the South East, the Igbo nation are far more frustrated than some of us because they are the younger ones who we do not have any explanations to make as to why our situation is this deplorable. And out of the frustration in all parts of Nigeria, they have decided to go on demonstrations but have maintained a civilised system of non-violence. So, if they feel sufficiently provoked by the agitation of Igbo youths, they can embark on their own civil agitation without threatening anybody. The Igbo youth never threatened to force the North out of the South and they never threatened to cut off the pipelines that supply petroleum products to the Northern part of the country. The Igbo people never threatened to disconnect the so called national grid and the power supply to the North. All these are options but the Igbo people never went to that direction. They are only asking that they be allowed to opt out because they feel that they have been alienated and shortchanged in every aspect of governance. And so for the North to respond to that by threatening violence and even giving a date for the Igbo people to leave the North is most irresponsible and ill-advised. I am saying this because I am aware that Igbo people have been living in Gusau for instance for over 400 years as we speak. So, what are we talking about a settler and non-indigene. Is it the person who has been living there 400 years before you came or the people that just came there? As we speak, there are more than three million people living in Kano and they have over N43 trillion investments in the North. It is not the type of thing you just wake up one day and say you should pack and go home. If you want to divide Nigeria, you can separate without shedding blood. These are things that are happening all over the world. The idea of confiscation of people’s property is primitive and many countries who have parted ways, the people who had invested would not have to carry their investments from one point to another. They can operate from anywhere. The youth of the North who are making these threats did not sit down to look at the disadvantage that would come to them. Look at the backlash. The Southern Kaduna people say they are not part of it. The Middle Belt people say they would stay with the Igbo. The Oduduwa people say this is the beginning of their realisation of the Oduduwa Republic.
The Niger Delta people say this will be an opportunity for them to now have their own Republic. So, where does that leave the Hausa/Fulani people? They are not looking at the Nigeria of today. They think they are in Nigeria of 1967. I think as an elder statesman, my option would be that we restructure this country and make Nigeria the pride of everybody. So, the threat by the Arewa youths is an ill wind that would not blow anybody any good especially those who are threatening. They are not in the right position to threaten anybody.
But it appears that each time there is a major crisis in Nigeria, the Igbo are used as the scapegoats. The threat by the Arewa youths is trying to lay a foundation for what happened to the Igbo in the North between 1967-1970.
It happens even in ordinary life. Some people work hard and those who are lazy would tend to blame their failure on other people. Look at the situation in the country today. Just a couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the number of people who registered for the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in Kebbi State were 68 and in the South East, the minimum you have is 60,000 in Ebonyi State but in other states of the South East, you have 70,000 or more registered candidates. But in Kebbi State, those who registered are only 68. So you ask yourself, what has the government of that state been doing from the time the state was created to now to post that kind of result in terms of people who are going for WASCE? And when intelligent people like the Emir of Kano and the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Turaki Adamawa and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other progressive people speak out on the backwardness in the North, rather than listen to their wise counsel, they tend to think that they are traitors.
It is a tragedy that strange bedfellows have been clobbered into one country since 1914, and over the years, we have tried to bring a nation out of this multitude of nations without any success.
Many insist that the only way forward is to carry out a restructuring of the country. Do you agree with this position?
The solution to the many problems of the nation is either restructuring or disintegration. It is either we restructure or we part ways without shedding blood. But for me, I would prefer restructuring.
But the problem is that some are so adamant to changing the nation from what it is?
These are people who believe that the present structure was the product of their conquest of Nigeria. This is because this present structure was by military fiat. There was nobody that sat anywhere to agree that Nigeria would be a 36 states structure, neither did we sit anywhere to agree on the 774 local governments for which the overwhelming majority of them are in the Northern part of the country. All these came by military fiat. Nobody sat anywhere to agree on the revenue allocation formula of Nigeria.
Nobody sat anywhere to agree or even the actual population of Nigeria and the landmarks that include desert areas in the factors for revenue allocation.
All these things are by imposition and we have been living under this type of imbalance and injustice over the years. And any attempt to bring about equity, some of them who are benefitting from the obnoxious structure would always resist it. So, for me, it is not surprising when some people kick against restructuring. But I have also asked the question, what advantages have the present structure conferred on them all the period they have been enjoying this lopsidedness.