One of the greatest challenges facing President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is the spate of violence and killings in several parts of the country. In this interview with WILLY EYA, former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Chief Dubem Onyia expressed worries over the situation, saying that Nigeria is gradually sliding towards becoming a lawless nation. He spoke on various national issues.

With the spate of violence and killings in several parts of the country, there is no gainsaying that all is not well with Nigeria. It has never been this bad; what are your feelings with regard to the situation?

My worries are that Nigeria is fast becoming a lawless state. When you take over the mantle of leadership as the President and Commander in-Chief of the armed forces of this country, one of your main responsibilities is to protect the lives and properties of the people. And once a government cannot protect the lives and properties of the citizens, then, there is cause to worry. But let me tell you the most important thing; there cannot be any development in Nigeria if there is no security of lives and property. I have always said that the government needs only to provide two or three points agenda for Nigeria to grow and for employment to be provided for the teeming unemployed youths. Number one that is very important is the provision of power. If any government whether the All Progressives Congress(APC), Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) or any other party can stabilize the issue of power, Nigeria would grow. Also, there must be the provision of security of lives and property for Nigerians and even foreigners. With that, Nigeria would not only stabilize, her economy would grow. When this happens, Nigerians in Diaspora who have money would come back to invest. The crux of the matter is that why most of them are not coming back is because they are not only afraid of what would happen to them and their investments but they are worried over the cost of production in this country which is so high. And that is because of lack of stabilization of power supply. So, if you ask me, what I would say is that any government that loves this country needs to ensure that there is constant power supply and guarantee the security of lives and property of the people. Where the government cannot guarantee the security of my life and investment, it has failed in its responsibility.

On the crisis between the farmers and herdsmen, many have the impression that the Federal Government has not shown enough empathy to the affected communities. Do you agree with that position and are you satisfied with the intervention of government in those areas so far?

When somebody steals a fowl and he is caught, he would be sent to the magistrate court and subsequently sent to prison for maybe one, two or three years. Since we started having these clashes between herdsmen and farmers, and killings in every part of Nigeria, all we hear is that they are insurgents, terrorists but tell me which one arrest has been made since then. Tell me any one of them that has been taken to court. And if you cannot bring any one of them to book, how do you stop that kind of crime. This is because the same Fulani herdsmen or whatever you call them are above the law. It has shown that they can do whatever they want to do. They came to Enugu and killed who they wanted to kill and there were no arrests; it happened in Agatu and no arrests were made; it happened in Oyo and no arrests and so on and so forth. So, once you are unable to bring one person to book, there is no way you can say you are solving the problem. When one life is lost in this country, the government should feel concerned about it. And the government has so far not shown any sign of seriousness or responsibility in terms of dealing with the security situation. I think it is high time the government stopped all these killings by the Fulani herdsmen or whatever you call them. Let me tell you what Gen Sani Abacha said; he said if there is insurgency anywhere and it goes beyond one or two weeks, it means that the government of the day is interested in that lawlessness. I worked with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and we knew how he dealt with the Odi and the Zaki Ibiam crises. So, if the current government is serious about tackling the killings in every part of Nigeria following the herdsmen/farmers’ clashes, we would see it and we would know; and the problem would be solved.

A major talking point in Nigeria today is the second term ambition of President Muhammadu Buhari. Even though he has not come out boldly to declare his intention to seek re-election, there are signs especially from his supporters that he may likely go for a second term. From his performance so far, do you think he should seek another term in office?

Why don’t we wait till President Buhari declares that he would be going for a second term before we start talking. I do not want to comment on it until he makes that pronouncement. Secondly, I am only interested in the protection of the life and property of every citizen of this country. We have a government that we voted for and the government has a responsibility to protect the lives and properties of the citizens and even foreigners. But I am worried about the level of youth unemployment in this country. I am worried about the inability of the government to tackle the main problems bedeviling Nigeria. I am worried about the way the government is tackling this issue of the fight against corruption. This is because it has taken this government two, three years to address this issue and one of their main promises is that they came to fight corruption. How can you fight corruption when the minimum wage of the workers is N18,000. If I work for this country for 35 years, and I have been productive and transparently honest all these years, I cannot even guarantee my pension and gratuity to look after my old age. And you say you are fighting corruption. So, when the government is not interested in ensuring that the disposable income of every Nigerian is worth the life of a Nigerian, then I get worried. When you talk about Buhari going for a second term and all that, I can only but say wait till the man announces it. My greatest concern is the ability of the government to tackle the issue of security of lives and properties of Nigerians, and again to provide employment for the teeming unemployed youths in this country.

The APC recently came out with a report for the restructuring of the country with many saying that it is merely a ploy to win the next general elections. Would you rather that restructuring is done before the 2019 poll?

If they do not restructure the country, it means they are not really interested in the progress and development of the country. The only way we can live as one united country is to look at our problems and restructure Nigeria. There is no reason why you would produce oil in the Niger Delta and there, they cannot even drink clean water; they cannot provide employment but they lay the eggs that we eat everyday. So, if we do not restructure where we can take our destiny in our hands, we are not going anywhere. You set up the ministry of Niger Delta and you put the office in Abuja here and the contracts for that area is awarded here; you cannot put the ministry in Port Harcourt or Yenagoa; that is not right. I am only using the Niger Delta as an example. Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us restructure the country and when we restructure the country, then, we can now say we have a country called Nigeria.

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On the road to 2019, what are the upsets that you expect?

I see a lot of dark cloud gathering all over Nigeria but I pray that there would be sunshine at the end of the circle. The way the present government settles all the issues causing tension now –security, employment, restructuring and all other issues would determine whether the sunshine would come. It would determine whether we would see the bright side of the cloud.

Do you foresee the PDP upstaging the APC in the next general elections?

Let us leave the issue of PDP, APC or whatever it is. We have a country called Nigeria and we all know our problems and we know how to solve them. We have to be honest with ourselves. The thing is that we do not have the political will to go about solving our problems. You are asking whether the PDP could upstage the APC in 2019. Are you telling me that the election is not going to be based on issues of employment, power supply, security of lives and property, economy, restructuring and so on and so forth.

Looking at the time frame now, do you think it is possible to do the restructuring before the general elections?

Where there is the political will, time is not a factor. If the government has the political will to tackle all those problems before us, it could be done within three to four months.

With the dark cloud you talked about that is hovering over Nigeria, what are your greatest fears about the future of the nation?

My greatest fear is on keeping this country united; to have one united Nigeria because our diversity is our strength. To keep the country united, we must do all those things that I mentioned earlier on.