Elder statesman and former President General of Ohanaeze, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, has said that in restructuring Nigeria, there should be a clause in the instrument allowing any constituent part that wished to leave the federation to do so peacefully.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, he urged that the exercise be done with before the next general elections in the country.
Sir, shouldn’t we be setting a time frame for actualizing the clamour for restructuring?
Many people talk about restructuring without definition. We had the National Conference 2014, which discussed many things, including devolution of powers. The divisibility or indivisibility of the country was excluded, as we were told that it was a no -go area.
My reservation on that is that if the divisibility or indivisibility of Nigeria was going to solve the problems of Nigeria we have today, then why shouldn’t we go there and look at it? When you talk of restructuring, the scope and meaning must be defined before it becomes meaningful. It is clear that there are lots of frustrations and ill feelings in the country. There are agitations all over the country. Some are peaceful like those of IPOB and MASSOB. Some are very militant, while some are as bad as Boko Haram. There is youthful unrest. If you don’t do something to please the majority of the people, it can lead to general anarchy. Let us be sensible enough to appreciate this.
The marriage of 1914 is one in which none of the partners is still happy. There is agitation in the South East, there is agitation in the South- South, there is murmuring in the South West, and there is serious killing and agitation in the North East. There is invasion in the South East and in the North East. When the situation of marriage comes to that extent and you are telling your marriage partner to leave your house, then the obvious thing is to dissolve the marriage. When the Northern youths gave the Igbo residing in that region quit notice, that if they don’t leave by October 1, they would face dire consequences, what else is holding the marriage? This is in spite of the constitutional provision that any Nigerian can live and do business and own property in any part of the country or outside. We are deceiving ourselves by pretending that all is well. We must realise that all is no more well. We should therefore address the problems from the root. If there were equity, fairness and justice, probably the agitations would have been less.
The function of the government is to guarantee safety of your life and property. It is good to live in a big country, but if living in big country means that you would be slaughtered at will without provocation and justification, then, what’s the essence?
Secondly, you will be denied full citizenship of the country in considering many things. Thirdly, the infrastructure in your area is totally neglected.
Fourthly, you are systematically excluded in the important decision- making body of the country, in spite of the fact that you also pay taxes. Fifthly, you are slaughtered in your home without provocations and your daughters and wife are raped and murdered with no recourse. Your farms are destroyed; herdsmen trample upon your farms crops with no recourse, if this is the lot of some people in the country, then they are certainly better off to be alive in a small country of their own carved out of Nigeria. It is only fair and just to do that. You cannot hold a people down and refuse to acknowledge them as free members of your group. This is modern day enslavement.
Slavery was abolished about 1845, and today… You cannot be collecting tax from people without them having a fair share of what is going on in the country. It is not just right. So, restructuring should include throwing it open to those who want to continue in the federation, and those who want to opt out should be allowed without rancour, and without bloodshed, without friction. This restructuring as I have said should start now.
The President, in his speech, advised aggrieved people to channel their demands through democratic state institutions like the National Assembly?
Whatever is the process that will make it happen, let it be engaged without delay, but we cannot continue to pretend that all is well.
Three former heads of states, Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Obasanjo reportedly met in Minna, Niger State, to shop for President Buhari’s successor in 2019, do you support their concerns, or you think Buhari should seek reelection?
Don’t let us forget that there is God. Buhari’s health is challenged, and let us pray seriously, not pretentious prayers, for him to recover fully. Let him recover first and let him complete his four years. He started well in one aspect of governance, that is, trying to reduce corruption in the country. In that one, everybody gives him kudos, even though, some people say that his hunt for corrupt people is selective. Until he finishes you cannot say that it is selective.
If you have petition about anybody who is corrupt, send it to EFCC, then, if they don’t act you can say it is selective. The system is for all of us to send our petition, and blow the whistle loud, if we have petition against anybody, send to anti graft agency rather being judgmental and sentimental without reasons, without exposing the facts. On that score, he is doing very well. More requires to be done and he needs to be encouraged, because there is corruption in the country from top to bottom. There is no area or sector you look at that you would not see signs of corruption. Let him continue fighting corruption, that is one of the things that would help the country.
If only he can deal a deadly blow to corruption then this country will remember him forever. On the other hands, if his health challenges are such that he is kept under treatment and surveillance for more than hundred days at a stretch, I think he should help and face his health challenges. We keep praying for him let him finish the four years.
If he recovers completely, then he can go for another four years if he likes, but there are areas that he has not done well, let him visit those areas. There is massive unemployment and that is what is fuelling this agitation. If his health challenges continues, he should do the honourable thing and let another person take over. Somebody who will inherit his desire to face corruption should take over.
Should he do restructuring before or after 2019?
That restructuring is before anything else. The process may end in two years or more.
Look at Scotland, which was a member of United Kingdom since 1720/1750 or thereabout, but recently, the UK allowed them to have a referendum, to decide whether they wanted to continue to stay or not, but they narrowly missed it. Southern Sudan and East Timor were carved out in our lifetime in the last 10 years.
Now, it has become clear that if the marriage is no more comfortable to either party, or both parties the sensible thing to do is to split them.
How can Britain be telling us that it is better to stay in a big country, when they had opted out of a big union, and allowed Scotland to attempt to get out of United Kingdom? We must be sensible enough to know when enough is enough; otherwise we go on killing ourselves and disgracing ourselves in our attempt to keep Nigeria one. The song by Gowon about keeping Nigeria one is an obsolete song. Earlier than that, it was the Northerners who sang Araba – to you tents, oh Israel, before the civil war. We must adapt to the changing circumstance of out time. The world now, by the United Nations Act adopted by the African Union and by extension Nigeria, makes provision to grant self-determination to those who want it. It is clear in Nigeria that there are ethnic nationalities that so wish, and there is no need holding them down forcefully.
Nnamdi Kanu seems to be testing the Federal Government’s will, with the setting up of Biafra secret service. Do you think the Federal Government will continue to ignore him?
I’m not in the government and I don’t know the thinking and rationalization of the government. I believe that anything you do you must obey the existing law of the land, or the laws of wherever you are. If those issuing quit notices and hate songs constitute breaking the law they should be dealt with. Nobody should be above the law, or a sacred cow and nobody should be molested when he has not broken any law.
If anybody has broken any law let the law take its course. There are minor and major offences and there are some that you overlook. Law is made for man and not man made for law. There is still freedom expression. But if you in the process of freedom of expression, express a serious threat that you are going to burn down St Peters Basilica, and they see you collecting cans of petrol and matches heading towards the place, you have not done it, but obviously the threat is there and should be stopped. But if you stay in your village and you don’t even leave your village and you say you were going to burn St Peter Basilica, people would just ignore you and know that you are talking through a hole in your heart.