Nigeria’s progress not commensurate with her potentials, says Nwabueze

Being concluding part of Prof. Benjamin Nwabueze’s interview with BERTRAM NWANNEKANMA at Nigeria’s 55th Independence anniversary. Excerpts.
IHis eight-year rule from 1999-2007 is appropriately described as “constitutional dictatorship.”

In 2015, we then made the mistake of electing another former military commander and head of the Federal Military Government in the person of General Muhammadu Buhari as “civilian” president. What is being experienced under him since then bears out that a person, who has spent greater part of his life as military commander and Head of the Federal Military Government is unlikely to be able to shed the attitude and dispositions implanted in him by his antecedents.

President Buhari claims that he is a born-again democrat, but his actions so far as President belies his claims. A true democratic president could not rule the country for four months without ministers as ordained by the Nigerian Constitution and could not say by public statements that ministers are there simply to make a lot of noise. These are his words and that civil servants do all the work and provide the continuity needed, implying that ministers are not necessary.

He fails to understand that in democratic governance, civil servants have no political responsibility. They are not supposed to be seen or heard. It is the President with his ministers that are responsible to the people for governance. The ministerial list is said to have been transmitted to the Senate on Tuesday and as at Wednesday, September 30, the list has not been made available to the public. Several of the actions taken by the President since his inauguration in May 2015 are supposed to have been taken or done in consultation with the cabinet ministers.
What are those things the older generation of leaders and founding fathers did well that the current generation has messed up?

The founding fathers laid a good foundation for national unity expecting their successors to build on that foundation. Today, the foundation for national unity is much weaker than it was in 1960. National unity is today more of a mirage than it was in 1960. It has been confounded by the 30 months civil war from 1967-1970 and by the growing incidence of corruption especially, corruption of buccaneering or piratical type, which was unknown at independence in 1960, which has caused great loss, impoverishment and damage to the economy.

There was certainly corruption before 1960 and from 1960 to 1970 but not corruption of the buccaneering type. Corruption of this type is a product partly of the intrusion of military rule for 28 years out of the 55 years of Nigeria’s existence as an independent country and partly of the discovery of oil in the country.

The so-called war against corruption has until now been a mere make belief. The country yearns for decisive action against the canker worm of corruption. President Buhari since his inauguration seems to have infused some crusading spirits into the war and for this, he is hailed and idolised by Nigerians from nearly all walks of life, although the crusading spirit is consistent largely in talks and less of concrete action. We are still waiting for concrete action.

But there is a fear that the concrete action may be over-shadowed by the promptings of vendetta. That is to say, actions motivated not by desire for justice and the recovery of stolen money. The prosecution of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki seems to bear this out.
The circumstances of the prosecution seems to suggest that the motive is to settle scores with Saraki for defying the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s choice of a Senate president, to deal with him for setting up a Senate committee to probe the power sector from 1999 till date contrary to President Buhari’s decision to restrict his war against corruption to the immediate administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and Saraki’s other political activities.

It is important to resist the temptation to turn the anti-corruption war into an instrument for witch hunting opponents who are just critical of government. In a nutshell therefore, I have hopes and disappointments about Nigeria. I believe that in spite of bungling by the administrations that we have had so far, Nigeria will survive as one polity. Whether it will emerge as one nation, one has reasons not to be so optimistic.

What are your major regrets and suggestions?
I have addressed this question earlier, but I believe that the greatest obstacle to Nigeria becoming one nation is not corruption but the North-South divide with the religious divide implicit in it. We have to fight these pernicious evils in this respect. It is disheartening that President Buhari has shown an inclination to pursue an Islamisation/ Northernisation agenda as evidenced by his speech as President-elect on May 2 at Queen Amina Hall, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and as evidenced by his recent strategic appointments, 31 appointments in all, out of which 24 went to the north, seven to the south, four to the south-west, three to the south-south and nil to the south-east.

The President owe it to the country as President to give up this Islamisation/ Northernisation agenda and to work assiduously towards realizing our aspiration for one Nigeria.

What should the President do immediately to restore our values?
It is all really tied up. You know our values have suffered greatly in the 28 years of military rule. It is the greatest harm military rule has done to Nigeria. One is talking in terms of moral values, the incidence of armed robbery, kidnapping, examination malpractices, cultism, etc. all these have practically desecrated our moral values in what they were before independence.

Our university system is completely rotten. Today’s graduates from Nigerian universities with an exception of few universities are not much better than secondary school graduates. The value of our currency, the Naira is becoming increasingly worthless with N335 exchanging for one British Pound Sterling as against one Naira to one Pound that used to be the exchange rate.

There is also the danger of insurgency and terrorism as manifested by the Boko Haram insurgency and terrorism. These are major challenges for the President. We need a new Nigeria free from all these desecrations of our values.

The President needs to launch a social and ethical revolution. The country expects this of him. To succeed in such a venture, he needs to mobilise Nigerians of all ethnic and religious groups. Social mobilisation is one of the most difficult tasks for a president in a young ethnically- structured country like our own. And we all wish him success in this difficult venture.