•Nigeria needs urgent restructuring, constitution amendment
Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, Iba Gani Adams, has insisted that Nigeria would never work with the current presidential system, which he says breeds corruption.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Iba Adams, who is the leader and National Coordinator of Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) said the group could help curtail insecurity in the South-West within six months if the authorities give the permission. He also spoke on the hardship in the land, implementation of Oronsaye report and other issues.
Insecurity has become worse in recent times with kidnapping in Kaduna, Sokoto, Borno, Ekiti, etc. What is the federal government not doing right?
The situation in this country calls for a total overhaul of our constitution, but I don’t know why the authorities are shying away from it. The more we delay in doing that, the more we have more collateral damage to the country. If you are a student of global politics, the focus of international community on Africa is South Africa; outside South Africa, it’s either Kenya or Ghana. About 20 years ago, if the international community wanted to relate with Africa, the fist country that would come to their mind was Nigeria. That is no more. Maybe the Federal Government has not noticed that the most populous black nation in the world is not reckoned with any more.
The economy is draining day by day and it is getting into a coma to the extent that an average person finds it hard to eat one meal a day. The elites are complaining, the entrepreneurs are also complaining. The only very few people that are not complaining are political appointees, who are living and feeding on the government. The government is fuelling their cars, the government gives them accommodation, the government gives them estacode if they are travelling; everything they need to sustain their family is provided for them by the government. These are the people who are not complaining now. For the businessmen, the import duty, tariffs, multiple taxation are ruining their businesses.
On insecurity, it is getting beyond the government. The two important things in governance are security and electricity. If we have stable electricity and security every other thing would fall in line. You would have a very good economy, investors can freely move around 24 hours and they would be happy to invest more and to do business in your country.
The third issue is a stable policy. For the past 40 years, Nigeria has not had a stable policy. The Federal Executive Council will sit and the programmes or policies of the previous government are jettisoned forgetting that government is a continuum. If there is a good policy by the past government, the next one should follow it, or just do a minor adjustment and continue with it. The foreign investors are not sure of what would happen to their investments because of unstable policies by the government.
One of the problems fuelling insecurity is daily increase of unemployment. We are churning out graduates every year; about 70 per cent of them are not getting jobs. Some brilliant ones who cannot uphold their integrity join internet fraud, which Nigerians call Yahoo Yahoo. That alone is giving us a serious bad image in the international community. When you travel to foreign countries and introduce yourself as a Nigerian, they would be curious to do any genuine business with you.
Look at the minimum wage. I’m very surprised how a civil servant can sustain himself with a monthly salary of N30, 000, when a bag of rice now is between N85, 000 and N90, 000. For a family of five or six, their major foods are rice and bread. Even in the private sector, about 80 per cent of their workers earn less than N30, 000 as salary, how would they sustain their families? This is a country that doesn’t have free education; the public schools are dying every day. The public health sector is also dying every day. Even people earning N30, 000 monthly are aspiring to send their children to private schools. Tell me how they would not be corrupt as civil servants or anywhere they are working in order to give their children quality education. In a family of six, there is no way in two months time that one of them would not fall sick And because they don’t have confidence in the public health sector, they are forced to go to the private hospitals. Most of the doctors in the public health sector have built their own private hospitals where they direct patients to. The politicians are now building private hospitals and employing doctors to run for them. The same way they are also building their own public schools, which means they are not keen in developing the public sectors.
From this analysis, the only way Nigeria can move forward is to decentralise the structure of government. What kind of decentralization do we want? I’m talking about true federalism. We have a structure that we can lay a foundation on. We have six geo-political zones. If we don’t want to call it region, we can call it province or any name. These zones, regions, or provinces will be the second layer after the centre, while the states will be the third and the local governments, the fourth.
All these four layers of government would have their policing and even the court of law. We can have in our constitution that a murder case cannot go beyond the appeal court. In the US, Supreme Court is in every state. I don’t know why we should only have one Supreme Court in the federal capital. Cases will be piling up every day. If a land matter goes to the Supreme Court it may stay there for about 30 years before judgement would be delivered. If a business transaction goes to Supreme Court, it can stay there for 40 years. The issue of judiciary should be viewed seriously in the context of federating units. The only case that is given speedy hearing is political. If it is not political, that case can last up to 50 years. I saw some of the cases in the last election moved from high court to Supreme Court. The issue of Emefiele and currency redesign, I was surprised that it didn’t take up to two weeks before it got to the apex court because it is political. If a case is about business transaction, land matter, will, chieftaincy, it can take the Nigerian judiciary up to 40 years to resolve even when the parties have died in the process.
With restructuring to true federalism, all those issues would be resolved.
Now, you are taking oil from the oil producing states to be shared, but the solid minerals coming from some parts of Nigeria are being sold in Dubai. When you go to Dubai, there are some shops they display gold from Zamfara- 24 or 19 carat. The money made from that gold is not being brought to the central pool to be shared by all the states, but you are taking oil from the oil producing states and you are sharing it to the all the states including FCT and the centre. About 70 per cent of taxes in Nigeria are generated in Lagos and shared to all the levels. Lagos consumes about 65 per cent of petrol in Nigeria; the same with electricity and followed by Ogun State and these are generating revenue that is sustaining this country. It is not only oil alone. Even those who don’t allow alcohol and tobacco consumptions in their states also partake in the sharing of VAT from these products. Nigeria is a country that is living on the basis on injustice. When you are living on the basis on injustice there is no way you can move forward.
We have to sit and overhaul our 1999 constitution, not an amendment. Amendment is becoming laughable. About four Assemblies said they were doing amendments, but they were not serious to take the bull by the horn. If we don’t overhaul the constitution, we are wasting our time. There should be a State Police, Regional Police and Local Government Police. We have to shift from the present presidential system of government to parliamentary system. Since Nigeria started using the presidential system, from 1979 till now, we have been having scientific embezzlement; scientific ways of corruption.
Before 1979, during the First Republic, there was corruption, but it was very insignificant. But by the time we brought the presidential system which is very expensive and we don’t have that kind of resources to run it, it gives room for a lot of corruption. We should go back to the parliamentary system where a leader would come from the grassroots, and when they get to the parliament, they would choose the prime minister or it can be in line with the French system. This will reduce the campaign money. If you are serious as a presidential candidate in Nigeria, you must have up to N500 billion. Somebody who mobilised N500 billion to win an election, when he gets there, he would think of making trillions if he is talking about second term. The process of becoming a president in Nigeria is giving room for huge corruption, but when you have the parliamentary system of government you have a limit to spend as a candidate. If we don’t allow independent candidacy, we still encourage god-fatherism. That is the beginning of corruption.
Traditional rulers were killed recently and school children were also kidnapped. Some say that they are not seeing the impact of your office as the Aare Onakakanfo. With more than one million OPC members, why should there be insecurity in the South West?
We have more than six million OPC members, both active and inactive; those who are waiting for a time they would be given an assignment. It was so sad and devastating that three traditional rulers from Yoruba land were killed. Two were killed in Ekiti State and one in Kwara State. The one in Kwara, his community shares boundary with Ekiti. He was a retired Brigadier-General; his wife was killed before him. In Ekiti, the three of them were returning from a security meeting, one escaped while the two were killed. The one killed in Kwara always synergized with other Obas in Ekiti on security.
As the Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, I have limited powers to get involved in the security of a state or a local government without having an approval from the governor or the local government. If I get involved, people will just say, Aare Onakakanfo is a chieftaincy title and is not an integral part of the government. If it was an integral part of the government, it would have been given a role in the constitution to be part and parcel of the security architecture of the state or the federal government. It is a chieftaincy title to represent Yoruba in terms of unity, promoting culture and bringing resources for people to move Yoruba forward, not about going into security issue without the approval of the governor.
The governor is the chief security officer of the state and you cannot jump into his security architecture without having approval from him. If you did that, you would be turned to a criminal. A security person who wants to help the state is now turned to a criminal. If you want to help a state or community that has security issue, you will be coming with not less than 1000 or 500 men. You can imagine going to a community even with 30 people; strange faces, people armed with guns, cutlasses moving to the bush of the community without the knowledge of the authorities of that community. That alone is a security threat. The state security apparatus of that community would attack you before you get to the abode of the criminals.
I have said it at different fora, let me with my own structure complement the efforts of the government. If you allow me to complement your efforts, within six months, the issue of insecurity would come down drastically. I will give you three examples.
Firstly, I was living in Abule Ado before, Festac Extension, and when the terrorists realised that I had left there, they started kidnapping people in that area. The Commandant of Ojo Military Cantonment called our leaders in Oriade and Amuwo local governments, but they told him that they couldn’t do anything until he contacted their boss, Gani Adams. I had a conference call with the commandant and we agreed on operation. There is an Island in between Shoba and Ikotun where these terrorists have become a nuisance in the area; kidnapping, raping and killing people to the extent that they killed a two-star military officer and that was what provoked the cantonment commandant. An operation involving the army and the OPC was carried out and within three days, we dislodged all the criminals in that area; burnt down their makeshifts and asked Omoniles to take over the land. We arrested many of them, and the army handed them over the police and they were prosecuted. That ended the criminality in that area. I don’t know what is going on in that area now. We went there because the army called us.
Secondly, during the time of Badoo in Lagos and Ogun states. They were using stones to kill people and used those stones to do rituals. It was rampant for three months. The Commissioner of Police then called (I had not been installed Aare Onakakanfo then) and invited me to his office and told me that he needed my assistance, that the Badoo issue was giving him serious problem. He said they wanted us to work with them on this issue. After that, we had another meeting with all the leaders of OPC. I brought the five leaders of the organisation in Ikorodu and we now gave insight into how Badoo started. After two or three meetings, we went for the first operation and arrested about 155 suspects. During the second operation, we arrested about 148, and after the third operation, about 460 suspects were arrested. The then Police Commissioner, Mr Imohimi Edgar, set up a panel that exonerated innocent people from the suspects. The people involved in that evil activity were about 148, and they were charged to court. That was how we ended Badoo.
The third one was Wakili that was killing Ibarapa people. They thought that the Wakili operating in Ibarapa was a spirit that could not be apprehended, but within two weeks, we apprehended his second in command and three people. Within four weeks, our members apprehended Wakili and handed him over to the Divisional Police officer in Igboora.
The issue of security threat in Yoruba land is that the governors are not yet ready to end it. There is a lot of kidnapping in Lagos today; it is rampant, but the media is playing it down. When you don’t involve the traditional generalissimo, what will I do? Should I go and start attacking criminals and in the process, if the criminal dies, they will press murder charges against me? When you kill a criminal, the authorities would deny you. The criminals have their godfathers and by the time they rub the hands of the police, the police would tell you, why didn’t you call us before you went there? We have had thousands of that kind of experience. Some of our members are rotting in jail now in the cause of fighting insecurity and some of them have died from torture in Panti and SARS. You can imagine the position I am now, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, without knowing how to operate on the basis of law. If I breach the law, the Yoruba people will tell you that you didn’t have approval from the governor or the local government chairman. Some would say, did you call us before doing it? The police will ask you, did you involve the area commander, the DPO before going for that operation?
If we get the approval of the state governor, we would go. It is an easy operation and we have the men on ground who are fit and who are ready to lay down their lives for sanity to prevail in our society, but the authorities are shying away and playing politics with this. And I don’t want to play into the enemies’ hands, because not all the politicians are our friends. Even some Yoruba don’t like your face because they know they can’t control you, so we have to be very careful.
What is your impression of the planned implementation of the Oronsaye Report, fears of job losses, etc?
Anything done to cut down the cost of governance is necessary. Reducing or collapsing paraststals is good. There are some parastatals that are not necessary. Imagine a country with about 400 parastatals, and each head will have three official cars maintained by the government; each will have about seven aides paid by the government. The same thing goes for the second in command. Where is the money? A huge percentage of our revenue is used to service debts. Our debt is heading towards N80 trillion, how do we survive as a nation?
There is no serious nation that is doing a serious business with us. Even our foreign reserve has depreciated. During the time of Obasanjo it was $33 billion and I don’t think it is up to $8 billion today. Nigeria owes foreign airlines about $1 billion and it cannot pay that money even when Buhari was in power. It is just recently that it paid about $300 million out of the money. This has made the cost of flight ticket so high in Nigeria. Most of the people who travel abroad for medical treatment can’t travel. To change $5,000 to naira is mindboggling. Cost of drugs has hit the rooftop. The drug we were buying for N2, 000 by May last year is about N18, 000 now. A nurse would not take less than N10, 000 to treat simple malaria, and a gateman is earning N18, 000 as monthly salary.
If we don’t restructure this country we are in trouble. Many leaders are saying the same. Prof Wole Soyinka said recently that Nigeria should be decentralised. Akinwumi Adeshina said that Nigeria must go back to true federalism. He was even referring to West Region, the progress it made. Chief Emeka Anyaoku has been talking on that for about 20 years now. The late Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife was talking about it. Other progressive leaders apart from the common practising politicians are harping on the same issue. Prof Ben Nwabueze was talking about it before his demise. Ohanaeze, PANDEF, MBF, and many Yoruba groups are talking about it, but the political class when they get to power, especially the presidency, can’t take the advice of those who are not in power until they leave that office. When they are in power they believe that anything can go, and their advisers would tell them not to listen to what the elder statesmen are saying. But by the time they leave office their eyes would open. Those statesmen are talking about the ideals of Zik, Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Balewa, etc; these great men with integrity and you without any integrity don’t want to listen. How many houses did these founding fathers have? You, the politicians without integrity want to have five houses in the US; four in Dubai, 50 in Nigeria, etc. Some of them don’t even know how many houses they own. They would be paying the taxes on those houses abroad without sleeping there. You don’t have integrity, what name would your children inherit from you?
Is Amotekun functional as it should?
They don’t have enough powers. You can’t expect somebody wielding dane gun to face someone armed with AK47 and succeed in security. With Pump Action, you can’t kill after 50 metres range. If you are not close to someone, you can’t kill him with Pump Action gun. With AK47, you can kill at more than 300 metres range. If Amotekun is not being empowered to the level of State Police, they can’t do much. They are trying in their own little way. In Oyo State, there are a lot of changes. Urchins and criminals are being chased away from there. I was driving from Epe and there was serious traffic and I had to use the road under the bridge of Aja, and on getting there, the Amotekun pilot van (I’m an ambassador of Oyo State Amotekun) was in front and the urchins starting abusing the Amotekun; calling it names in Yoruba. I was behind and asked why the abuse and I suspected that those were the criminals driven away from Oyo. It was not long they started saying that the way you drove us away from Ibadan , have you come again to Lagos? Invariably, most of the criminals in Oyo State have been chased away to Lagos and they have started constituting nuisance.
I know that some states have local security outfits and they call them different names, but it is not enough. They should be legislated as a conventional police so that they can arrest and prosecute, not only arresting criminals and handing them over to the federal police. Amotekun should be given more powers to the level of state police; it is still just like a security outfit.