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Chidi Obineche
Frontline nationalist, elder statesman and First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi speaks on the purported plot to Islamize Nigeria as touted by former President Olusegun Obasnjo and others, revealing how the attempt failed when they were in government in the First Republic.
He speaks further on the Igbo question and how the country is being run, saying Nigeria is run without a constitution, among other sundry issues. Excerpts.
As a frontline nationalist and First Republic minister you must have been a witness to the vow of the late Sarduana of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmaddu Bello to pursue an Islamic and Fulani agenda in the running of Nigeria. Today, there is great apprehension in the air following the widespread killings and rampage by Fulani herdsmen. Do you think with the benefit of hindsight that this could be in pursuit of the actualization of that vow and agenda?
Of course, it is obvious. I won’t say it has been achieved. But it is vigorously being pursued by the present Buhari administration. I have been saying it. The Fulani herdsmen atrocities have increased in intensity in recent times. The attempt to get a cattle colony is in pursuit of that goal. What is happening in Benue State is part of it. What is happening in Borno State, the Boko Haram thing is part of it. The Jihadist ambition of the 19th Century stopped at Borno. That is why you don’t have Emirs in Borno and environs. Those areas were not conquered by Othman Dan Fodio. That is why you have the Shehu of Borno, the Lamido of Adamawa and other titled rulers different from Emirs in those areas. So, the quest is to Islamize those areas to conform to Uthman Dan Fodio’s brand of Islam. That is why there is so much unease in these areas. That is why it is difficult to defeat Boko Haram in those areas. That is why the counter-insurgency efforts are not yielding fruits. That is why there is no serious effort to defeat Boko Haram. In Benue State, the Sarduana launched an Islamist programme to Islamize the area in 1961 – 1962. They tried to introduce and enforce the reading of Koran there. But they could not overrun Benue State. They stopped at a place called Nasarawa. Nasarawa State today is an entirely Muslim state. Their strategy is that if they want to overrun a place, they plant a herdsmen colony first. It is a long- term programme. That is if you bring in one hundred herdsmen Muslims to a place, and you encourage them to marry two, three, four wives or more. In 10 years that single family will multiply prolifically and with increased population rising up to 50,000 per the 100 families in 10 years, they will be let loose on the indigenous populace, begin to contend for certain rights and land and embark on converting the indigenous population to Islam. It is a crude, archaic method they use. In Lagos, why Ahmadu Bello Way was so named in Victoria Island is because the road leads to the Bar Beach. The programme was in pursuit of the dream of Ahmadu Bello to dip the Koran into the sea. Today, what they are doing now is very obvious. Bayelsa State and Rivers State, they want to take them desperately by force. They want to take all these places by force whether anybody likes it or not. It is part of the same programme. If this country slips into religious crisis the way it is going now, nobody knows when, how and where it will end.
You said the fundamental Islamic expansion was launched in the First Republic? Apparently, there was no attempt to contain it at the time, which could be why it has started again?
(Cuts in) It was contained in Benue State. The reaction of the people was fierce and resolute and it was contained. The late J.S Tarka rose up with his people and it was contained, snuffed out.
If it was contained, how come that it is now growing more and more entrenched without much resistance? Could it be out of fear of the past or mere passivity?
The way it is launched now, by giving the herdsmen sophisticated weapons, is the real issue at stake. This is a very dangerous and explosive situation. They are being protected officially by the government. In our own time, it was a government of the NCNC (National Council of Nigerian Citizens) and NPC (Northern People’s Congress) and Tafawa Balewa who was the prime minister was not totally in support of that. It was the Sardauna’s programme from Sokoto. Balewa was from Bauchi and he was not in support of that. That was one of the reasons it did not succeed. The NCNC as a partner in the government would not have it and tempered the aggression from certain radical northern Muslim elements.
The way things are going now; do you think Nigeria will eventually succumb to a Muslim state just as it happened in Turkey over 400 years ago?
It is not easy in this modern time. If it will happen it will take a lot of blood. It will go beyond what we are seeing today. It will take a very long time to achieve. But it could happen eventually because of the way it is. Many Christian Nigerians are committed to just one wife and even now, you young men limit yourselves to two or three children, the population explosion is curtailed. But in Islam, they are committed to four or more wives and unlimited number of children and this helps in the Muslim population dwarfing that of the Christians. So, the northern Muslim family can produce four or five children in a year, while the southern Christian family can at best produce one child in a year. So, in a very long time, when we would have left here, they may, in what would appear to be democratic processes take over the country completely.
Let us go to the renewed quest for Igbo presidency in 2023.There is a clamour now that the Igbo should produce the president in 2023. Others are saying that instead of that let the Igbo produce the Senate president or deputy Senate president in 2019. What do you say to that?
I won’t vote for anything. But I must say that the presidency is not the birthright of any individual, group or section. The presidency is not given as an award. The presidency of this country is not as some people today see it as a birthday present or wedding present. To win the presidency of a country, you have to galvanize the people; you have to strategize, you have to plan, work for it. You have to earn it. Nobody will just get up and say, you people should take the presidency. No, unless it is a military situation where people shoot their way to power by force. But in a democracy, there are constitutional provisions, which must be followed. Even under party arrangement where the office is zoned, some of these parties don’t usually keep to the arrangement. They keep it only when it suits some individuals. So, if the Igbo want to produce the president, they have to reorganize themselves; they have to strategize; they have to plan; they have to work for it; you have to win people. How many Nigerians believe that the civil war against Biafra has ended? They are still continuing the war. What they are saying is that the Igbo are conquered and must remain conquered. They do not want anything or anybody that will stop them from controlling the wealth of this country because it is located in the Southeast and South-south. The feeling is that if the Igbo man becomes the president, they do not know what will happen. Unfortunately, the South-south people don’t seem to be complaining. When they express grievances they will just pump money into them and they will just keep quiet. This is the situation in Nigeria today.
Rwanda just celebrated 25 years of the genocide that happened in 1994. In the Southeast, May 30 is set aside for remembrance of their fallen heroes, but it is contentious. How do you look at the Igbo Question in Nigeria?
In Rwanda, a nationalist took over the country after the genocide and the horrible episode and proceeded to develop the country on all fronts. The world is jealous of him. The western world is worried. They are not happy with him. In Nigeria, the case is different. People who have been in government never gave any thought in developing Nigeria. They never made unity of the various ethnic and religious groups their focus. After 38 years of unbroken military dictatorship, Nigeria has nothing positive to show for it. The military to demonstrate their disdain for development and in order not to let the new generation know how the nationalists and pre-independence politicians acted and fared abolished the teaching of history in schools in Nigeria. So, the issue now is what the military left behind. The military left behind killings, looting, corruption, and balkanization. That is the problem with Nigeria.
Some economic groups have cried out that the nation’s economy is getting worse every day. Even as Nigerians were aware of that, they still voted back the government in power. How do you look at that?
Did they really vote for them? Anyway there is a case in court. Commenting on it will be subjudicial. But sincerely, I don’t really expect anything from the court because of the changes in anticipation of the election. So, I don’t expect anything from that. Did the Nigerian people vote for them?
You said the Supreme Court was reorganized in anticipation of the election. What do you say about the fate of the common man who sees the court as the last hope?
It is just in theory and will remain like a theory until there is an attitudinal change in the people.
Why is no one raising a finger against the difficulties and oddities in Nigeria?
Who will raise a finger? Is it the politicians? Is it the governors who rule the states? The governors are not interested in Nigeria. They are interested only in the enclave they are ruling. They are interested in collecting the monthly allocation accruing to their states from Abuja. They are interested in the wealth in their own states. They collect the local government allocation; collect their own state allocation. When they collect the local government allocation, they send for the chairman of the local government to come and sign and then give him small amount to pay salaries and for imprest.
What is the place of the Igbo in Nigeria today?
Appalling. They are not in the four upper layers of government. The president, the vice president, the senate president, the judiciary are not for them according to those who decide. Take a look at the armed and security services and you will not find them there. All of them are controlled by one side of the country. They give the crumbs that fall from the master’s table to the West and keep the rest. They even refused to allow a good constitution. I have said it many times, but nobody is ready to listen to me. Let me say it again. Nigeria is being run without a constitution. There is no Nigerian constitution drawn by the people now. The 1979 Constitution was not from the people. The military sat on the Rotimi Williams Committee Report. The 1999 Constitution was the same thing. The constitutional conference met, and instead of putting the issues to vote, they sent it to the military Head of State. The military Head of State removed what he wanted to remove, added what he wanted to add, and imposed it on Nigerians as our constitution. Nigeria is being run without a constitution. This is very deplorable and sad. The constitution the Nigerian people wrote was the one we wrote in 1962 – the Republican Constitution. The first military government of Aguiyi Ironsi abolished it and it was sustained by Gowon. Since then there has been no Nigerian constitution. Those in power are just doing what they like. That is why there is confusion everywhere. That is why the country is being ruled on personal whims and no one cares.
What is the solution to the illegality?
If they are really interested in Nigeria, a Nigeria that will grow, they should think of a Nigerian constitution, taking into consideration the peculiar nature of Nigeria; taking into consideration the ethnic and religious differences; taking into consideration the land mass of the North, and the huge population of the South. They should insert in the constitution safeguards for the minority groups in Nigeria, and safeguards for minority interests. Let there be a people’s constitution that will make for peace.
