Diette-Spiff: Military Interregnum Helped To Shape Nigeria

King Alfred Diette-Spiff was pioneer Governor of Rivers State under the Yakubu Gowon military administration. In this interview with LEO SOBECHI, he looks back on the events of first military coup in the country and the present socio-economic challenges trailing Nigeria’s political development.
• I Did Not Prepare To Be Governor, It Was Thrust On Me
• Nigeria’s Fiscal Federation Promotes Indolence

Fifty years ago when the first military coup took place, what did you make of it?
That coup when it was first announced was hailed by the country. But as newspaper cartoons started going out, they gave a wrong colouration that led to the desire for retaliation. Some national heroes were killed and it was given an ethnic coloration. This made some elements to plan a reprisal. I say so because I was in Lagos, in late 65 and UPGA (United Progressives Grand Alliance), was having its way, not allowing the Akintola group some votes. So when the military music started playing in January everybody hailed the whole exercise. But then it became clear that it was one-sided. From that stage the nation now realised that the initial coup had coloration. Of course, the minorities had been yearning to have their say in the country, pressing to have states created. That yearning was given vent when General (Yakubu) Gowon created twelve states. That took place in May 1967.

At the creation of states, (Colonel Emeka) Ojukwu’s reaction was also to declare a state of Biafra and something had to be done to stop him. So police action was ordered and that went on to thirty months war, which finally ended January 1970. Nigeria has learnt quite a bit from that but the younger generation does not know enough about that struggle. Because when you hear people say what they say; you can get the meaning of what I say. It only goes to show that we are not educating the younger generation. We set up unity schools, NYSC (National Youth Service Commission), set up this set up that; but the orientation of youth has not been enough. Instead, people still see themselves as belonging to the north, south, east and west; taking it down to their states only. There is still a lot of orientation to be done and the youth of Nigeria need to be given opportunity to sit together, work together, play together and share thoughts concerning this nation.

The British put the collection of tribes together, which they called Nigeria. Can we fuse it into a country? That is the big question. The Confab of 2014 went very far to get people talking and this time it had people who had been in government and major players and decision makers, concerning the future of Nigeria. All were given the opportunity to sit together, articulate their thoughts and put it together as a report. That conference also, called for all past conference reports and went through them with a fine tooth comb and sifted it out to see what was useful and what was superfluous. And all those are included, the issue of states again came up; whether we should go back to regions was frowned upon. The issue of local government being created or to be run by the federal government was frowned upon. Local government is a thing for the states to create for themselves specifically for administrative purposes, not something to be used by the federal government for revenue allocation. The whole thing is whether the structure should be one tier, two tiers or three tiers, form of government to run the federation.

And when you look around, talking about democracy, how many presidents have Cameroun had? Ahmadou Ahijoo was there for long time; after they brought Paul Biya and he is there forever! When you talk of democracy, we have done very well compared to our neighbouring countries. Things are discussed; not one party system, where everybody says yes. And once people are charged they are guilty

Also, these were considered and very well debated. And the creation of more states for instance, was more popular. Fifty states were recommended. But more importantly states were allowed to fuse; those that were not viable were allowed to merge with other states. And if they find that that union did not work, to demerge. So there is a lot flexibility, which went into the system. Various categories of human endeavour were included in the composition of the conference and our common prayer was: O! God of creation, direct our noble cause, lead our leaders right and our youth the truth to know. In fact the second stanza of our national anthem was what we adopted as our morning prayer every day. It should be actually implemented and not thrown overboard. So much money and time as well as brain power, were expended on that work. So it needs to be revisited or the morsels lifted up for it to be looked at for implementation.

Basically, the nation has seen its days of bounty, excess crude, high prices and all the way now it has nose-dived. It has come to the dangerous configuration. We really need to have all the egg-heads thinking together to salvage the situation. It is not a matter of guess work. We need to have the control of our finances and so on, with seasoned hands and we have to look before we leap. All the moves to recover monies taken or spent by earlier governments some of which could be classified under security votes, is not an easy thing to ask people to refund such amounts. Even if you jail them they could not produce the money. This should however serve as a deterrent as questions are being asked of people. They should clear the air. Such monies when recovered should also be put into proper use and not allowed to fritter away again.

Nigeria has a lot of untapped resources. While the oil was booming all the other minerals were left out. They should be explored. We are paying the price for the neglect. I don’t know why we should be hitting our heads about subsidy. It is most uncharitable for people who are making so much money from the subsidy issue to be instigating the common man, using the common man as excuse and Labour also allowing itself to be led by the nose. I drive myself and I was in petrol station today, in Yenagoa, to top up my tank before leaving for Port Harcourt and here comes the official cars. The military, the customs; they come in and fill their tanks. But all these vehicles are Hiluxes, four wheel drives, fuel guzzlers.

The governors’ entourage or convoy has twenty cars. They have fuel and running, the individual has one car or one motorcycle, so he uses that little amount of fuel while the big companies and government, which can afford it anyway if the fuel is sold at any price. Military will still do their duties; what percentage of the fuel is being used by the man doing vulcanizing or running a tattoo or hairdressing business. It is infinitesimal as far as I am concerned compared to the amount being used by governments and big firms. So who is the subsidy going to, who uses more? The fuel is being subsidized for the big boys not for the low downs. Let’s face it!

The amount of money we had to do the things we did was very little, though the value of money was high then. The thing is that as a military, you know you have a boss even though you are governor. In this case the head of government who is the president whether of the same party or not there is no direct control to kind of censor the governor. It is more of goodwill for governors to toe the line of the president at the centre. And we now have states many of which many are not viable and they are not doing anything or trying to be viable

Meanwhile if this government wants to remove subsidy, some people go to instigate the common man and labour. And they come, shouting. How dumb can you get? These things should be thrown up. Open the market so that everybody gets fuel. Those who want to import let them import it and sell it at their own price, government can import also and thereby control the price plus or minus. But trillions have been paid as subsidy; it is the biggest disservice in this country. The ordinary man should be made to understand. It is like asking a kindergarten to take decision on what the training or the curriculum should be at that age. The ordinary man has not got the capacity; he is being led by the nose to demand that this subsidy be continued. Everything should be done to educate the ordinary man to understand that the bulk of the fuel is being consumed by the big boys. So what has barber got to do with vulture, which has a bald head or semi bald head? To me, if subsidy is removed it goes naturally and more licenses should be given for the building of refineries, including small modular refineries.

Having been involved in government for the last fifty years, I have been out of government for the last forty years; and I am still surviving without any extra preference being given me. So the ordinary man can survive. So let us throw the market open.

Can the Nzeogwu coup be taken in isolation in the national discussion, or together with those of 1975, 1983 and 1985; did coups help or hinder Nigeria’s development?
I think you are asking the wrong person. I did not want to be a governor. They thrust it on me and same with some of my colleagues. The point there is that the coup took place and General Gowon was invited to come and stabilize things. And in his wisdom he went to create states, which assuaged the yearnings of the minorities and gave this country real stability. So whether we were military governors or executive governors, of today; it is the same ten and ten pence. Somebody is in charge, he is giving the orders others are carrying out the orders. How efficiently are things being done? Ours was a military government, it was one military officer surrounded by civilians. Get it, it was a very fluid situation where civilians were the ones taking the decisions. Even the writing of the constitution, civilians did all these things. Were there military lawyers drafted to do this, no! So we really cannot blame the military. At least the military showed that it was a disciplined force. If you cannot take care of yourself what gives you the right to go and take care of somebody else.

So, as much as I am concerned, the military interregnums actually brought Nigerians to see clearly what form of government they want. That is why they opted for the presidential system as opposed to the Westminster system. And all attempts to bring back the Westminster system have been strongly resisted. Nigerians tested the American presidential system and the military, where you have the military president and the channels of communication were more direct. Now you have a civilian president; it is a matter for us to keep improving the democratic principles and make sure we emplace all the checks and balances. It would take time to do; Rome was not built in a day. Nigerians do not want to hear about the parliamentary system, they want the presidential system. And that is the closest to what the military had.

When Zik (Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe) said we should copy the American system we could not at that time because we were a British colony. If we were a French colony, we would have done things the French way. And when you look around, talking about democracy, how many presidents have Cameroun had? Ahmadou Ahijoo was there for long time; after they brought Paul Biya and he is there forever! When you talk of democracy, we have done very well compared to our neighbouring countries. Things are discussed; not one party system, where everybody says yes. And once people are charged they are guilty. Here it is the other way round; you are not guilty until it is proven. So we have made some progress. We should stop being too self-critical atimes. We should pat ourselves on the back and say we have proved it and we are setting the pace. So that is it. Then in the last fifty years, the military has definitely contributed something or got Nigerians to discover what form of government they truly need.

Compared to when you were on the saddle to now, governors are being accused of corruption and wastefulness without providing infrastructure, how do you take this?
No, that is not a fair assessment. The amount of money we had to do the things we did was very little, though the value of money was high then. The thing is that as a military, you know you have a boss even though you are governor. In this case the head of government who is the president whether of the same party or not there is no direct control to kind of censor the governor. It is more of goodwill for governors to toe the line of the president at the centre. And we now have states many of which many are not viable and they are not doing anything or trying to be viable. Even to explore or exploit their resources and be self-sufficient. Everybody seems to be waiting for the federal government to bring money at the end of the month. Fiscal federation is what we are doing. Instead of the encouraging competition, oil may be found here some other mineral may be found there companies exploiting these things just pay tax to the government and let the locals enjoy from it. Let it make for fair play.

One will not like to say it all for now. I am not in government. As we learned under the military, one does not have to open one’s mouth anyhow. What is burning in my mind as we sit here is that dollar is hard to find. Today the dollar has gone up to N300 to one dollar. It used to be two dollars to a naira at the time we left office, even to the time (Ibrahim Babangida and Aikhomu were there, you can see how ridiculous it is. Dollar is going up. Now some characters are prepared to buy one dollar at N390, but between you and me, if they like let it go for N1,000 to a dollar. If you are producing mushroom for instance, which is exportable and you are producing in large quantities, and you are exporting it, for every dollar you make it would come back. You change it to naira; your pocket will be bulging with naira.

We should be producing things, not just a consuming nation. You sit down; money from cocoa is coming from the west, we all come and share, oil was here we come and share, groundnut was there we come and share. Then we sit down to wait for the next sharing process. It makes everybody lackadaisical, lazy and incompetent; that we could not be bothered complacency. We need to motivate the prime producers and if you make these things export-oriented, they can bring in dollars. And that will stabilize the growth at home because dollars are being earned from our exports not just the oil. So now we see a situation from N120 per barrel, it has come down to below N30. And all the people that have been waiting, are still waiting for handout; using population and land mass and whatever, as a formula. So when the oil dries up, what next? Oil is a wasting asset one day it would dry up.

So the present generation, instead of thinking of something different, they too are enjoying the joke. They become millionaires before they were born. And wealth is not evenly shared throughout the country, which area is poor or rich. Money is going from the supposedly deprived areas to go and serve those other areas. And you sit down and look at it, you start praying, when will this end, in this world or the world to come? These are the things that stir people’s blood cells. If the oil stops flowing, the country will not lose much.

Now the price of oil has dwindled beyond recognition. We need to invest this money on things or whatever revenue we are getting in other little things. The continental shelf is alive with fish; meanwhile we import fish with millions. All the swamps and back swamps and things can be used for swamp rice, upland rice and we should be exporting not waiting to be given rice, which have been in old silos for years and lost their nutritional value. There are too many things. But you see the sensibility and the delicate nature; one does not want to say too much before you start stepping on toes.

What do you make of talks of self-determination, secession and other disparate suggestions for restructuring the country?
No, as I said, historians have not spelt out these things for the young people. The youth; if they know what we saw in 1965, like operation wetie and all the things that happened thereafter. When the coup took place everybody felt relieved. So they need to be educated.

I said earlier we need to have young people sitting down and talking among themselves. We need to encourage young people to sit down and hold their own parliament and start discussing the future of Nigeria. I wish I can see a day we would have a special conference of the young people; let the old ones sit and hear them talking and thinking aloud. That is the way. They themselves come to sit down and be enjoying from our labour.

The rich ones are giving them money to throw about their parents have been used to having this special position and control over everything, so they must continue. Let’s have the young people, NYSC should be having such conferences and things. The young people should be talking among themselves. Let us hear them. Then when they start thinking aloud they would think from ridiculous to the ludicrous and then it would clearly show that they themselves are part of the nonsense in this country. They are contributing to destroying the future in no small way. Because the young people are having champagne baths. The young people because their parents are so rich and affluent they fill the bath-tub with cold champagne, soak themselves and flush it. So they don’t know how that money was earned.