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•Igbophobia holding Nigeria down
Elder statesman, Chief Chuks Muoma, (SAN), is a former Legal Adviser of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. In this interview with OGBONNAYA NDUKWE in Aba, the Chairman, Igbo Lawyers Association (ILA) accused Nigeria’s political leaders of creating unwholesome society in the country.
The eminent lawyer also said that failure to work as a team by South-East Governors, has made Igboland remain backward in development since the end of the civil war in 1970. He further spoke on other contending issues.
As Nigeria’s 63rd Independence anniversary approaches on October 1, how do you rate the country’s democracy and politicians? Do you see any progress from your active political days?
What I see presently in Nigeria is not progress. It is retrogression. We are going backwards and not forward. I must say that this is very unfortunate. It has never been perfect when it comes to getting the right people in leadership in this country, but it’s getting worse, towards the extreme. As a young lawyer, when I came back from the United Kingdom, I was very vibrant politically. Soon after, I realised that I could not be accommodated in Nigerian politics, because I abhor corruption, fought against it and spoke against it. When I realised that I was a minority voice and that my security was even being endangered, I quietly withdrew from politics to live a quiet life and I am currently enjoying that life very fulfilled.
It may interest you to know that I was one of the founding members of the defunct Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) in 1978. I moved on from NPP to the National Republican Convention (NRC) in 1989 and became the old Aba Local Government Chairman of the NRC. By then, Aba had one local government council. As time went on, I discovered that in Nigeria, people go into politics because they need material wealth and I was not impressed. It wasn’t the idea I got in my training back in the United Kingdom that one should go into politics to make money.
I equally discovered that Nigerians go into politics because they’ve failed in their respective professions. Look at our political class of today. Who are they? How did they become leaders? What do we have in politics today? Failed lawyers, failed engineers, failed doctors, failed administrators, failed accountants and all manner of failed people, who run into politics because, according to their respective views, it’s the easy way to make wealth. Since they’ve failed in their professions, there is only one platform where they can gather to make easy money and that’s Nigerian politics.
I don’t want too much money, but I’m satisfied. God has given me all I wanted and I live without anxiety. I had had the temptation of joining that unnecessary acquisition of wealth, but I rejected it. I’m a philosopher and at my age, getting to 83, I’m not sick. To me, a happy life is a life of peace. I live without anxiety and fear. What can be better than that? Only with clean hands and positive thinking will you always be happy. The best protection a man has is clean hands. People go into politics because they’re constantly hungry, not hungry to eat in its real meaning, but they want too much. Their ambition for material wealth is insatiable. It’s unhealthy. They want abundance all the time. They don’t want to be comfortable or rich. They want to be massively rich, with many houses everywhere. The quest for stupendous wealth is the problem of Nigerian politics.
So far, what’s your view about the Bola Tinubu-led administration? Do you see hope for Nigeria?
I’ll always wish that Nigeria succeeds because I want a better country. But let me reiterate that the problem of Nigeria is that people are never satisfied with what they have materially. What’s someone the age of Tinubu doing in the Presidential Villa of a country like Nigeria? Come on. Are we really serious here? Just as I am now 82, going to 83, I’ll be nursing the idea of taking up a political position such as becoming a president? What will be my input? What can I offer that a younger person I know cannot do better? Though I’m still intelligent, do my advocacy in court and have a sharp memory, what am I going to acquire power for if not to get more wealth considering the dirty politics I see here? Is it really necessary for someone of my age to be in power right now? Is that fair to our younger generation? What happens to playing advisory role? These are the questions Nigerians should ask themselves whenever this desire for power takes over them.
What’s Tinubu looking for in Aso Rock? Listen, active presidents don’t sleep. Their phones are regularly on and busy with calls. Can Tinubu endure it? What are we even talking about here? People will always refer to President Joe Biden of the United States of America, without noting that the United States has a cleaner society than ours. I am sure that Nigerians can assess the current government experientially. Nobody should tell anybody how the administration has been, so far, because it is written all over everybody’s face, despite how much anybody tries to pretend. Nigerians don’t need much lecture to know the administration’s performance so far. I don’t know why people look at themselves and do not realise that they’re aging and need to step aside. It’s just selfishness and greed. And look at where it has handed everyone. We’re all feeling it.
From the party primaries to the main campaign, he insisted it was his turn to rule. What do you make of that?
That slogan “Emilokan” was enough to have stopped him in a saner clime. Why would a man going into an election say it’s his turn to rule? The impression he created was that it was a prearranged election and that the electorate had no choice or say. Is the presidency a divine right that somebody will insist that the Nigeria presidency is his turn? This is the problem we have here. That campaign slogan should have stopped him in a country where things are normal so he can explain to the people how and where they gave him that right or had an agreement that it’s his turn to lead them. I repeat “emilokan” should have disqualified Tinubu in a decent society because it means he’s incapable of leading Nigeria and is only doing so by arrangement. You don’t rule a country by arrangement. Can you imagine people gathering to share leadership tenures among themselves with arrangements like ‘after me, it will be you and him’? What kind of a thing is that?
Seriously, the heavens will never forgive Muhammadu Buhari for the wrongs he did to this country. How can he go into an arrangement about the rulership and presidency of Nigeria, as if it’s his personal property? He has ruled previously as a Military Head of State, why would he not be satisfied with that? Let me see what he will do next. Let me see if he will go to Niger or Cameroon to rule them. Hasn’t he finished his rulership? These are things some of the so-called politicians don’t think of. I don’t know why they’re too desperate for power when they’re aware they don’t know what to do with it when they get it.
Are you comfortable with the level of development you’ve seen in the South-East? Are the governors doing enough?
I think it was an American philosopher, Waldo Ralph Emerson, who said that “the children of the poor, having seen the deprivation of poverty, look upon wealth as a thing of joy.”
Apart from going to school, let all those governors tell us their backgrounds. Is that all we need to make someone governor in our land? Really? What else do you expect from them? You already know why they’re in politics. You don’t go into leadership with the ambition of becoming wealthy. It’s too bad to do so. God is against it. They don’t want to serve to better the lives of the people under them. Rather, it is to better their own lives more and more, because they’re afraid of their past. All our South-East governors are suffering from poverty consciousness. What poverty consciousness means is the fear of the poor of remaining poor and the fear of the rich of returning to poverty. So, both the poor and the rich are afraid of being poor. This is exactly what they’re all suffering from.
So should everything remain this way? Can’t the people do something?
Let me reiterate, we’re suffering from poverty consciousness. The poor people, who are the electorate, need money. Anybody can talk rubbish and give them money and they’ll vote for him, notwithstanding all the rubbish he said. You see, this consciousness of materialism is endemic in our society. How do we solve the problem of hunger and greed? This is part of our problems. If the South-East people want serious development henceforth, they should vote for the character when choosing their governors, not because they’re given money or promised one thing or the other. I know that hunger is too much. I know that in a society where people are very hungry and desperate, there can’t be integrity. Our society is too materialistic.
Unfortunately, the Nigerian society is about money. Maybe because there’s no social welfare programme. Where I was trained in England, there’s a social welfare programme where those who are sick can be taken care of. If one is unemployed, there are some arrangements that will be made for him to at least eat. The late Premier of old Western Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, tried to introduce it, but he was never appreciated because people wanted that money into their pockets. They never allowed him to achieve it. He died with that idea. Now, we have greedy wolves as leaders, looking for whom to swallow. The only solution is true federalism, but they’ll not allow it.
Why do you think political leaders would not allow true federalism?
It is because they want everything to remain unitary, so that more money will enter their individual pockets from the top. Why wouldn’t we emulate true federalism as they do in the United States of America? Why can’t we do what Germany does? Even in the United Kingdom, the components like Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, still have some reasonable autonomy politically and economically, all in harmony for a strong, Great Britain. In Nigeria, the son and daughter of one poor man will jump at the opportunity of a political appointment to make himself, his family and friends permanently rich. Is that governance?
Why is the call by Ohanaeze and many other Igbo groups for their people to invest at home looking dull or largely ignored?
I was the legal adviser of Ohanaeze for some years and that position gave me a better insight about the Igbo and probably, Nigerians. The truth is that an average Nigerian, particularly the Igbo man, will never go into anything that’ll not add money into his pocket. The profit-driven mentality that income resources are more abundant outside is the problem. The Igbo are enterprising. Any place you go and see only one black man, just tell him “kedu,” (how are you) that’s when you will realize he’s Igbo. We’re hardworking and love developing wherever we find ourselves. I don’t think we have love for our own land. We build factories in Western Nigeria, and do the same in Northern Nigeria, but when we come to our own land, we’ll build beautiful houses. We don’t have love for our land.
Don’t you think it’s because of how viable other places are with available infrastructure?
Is Aba not a busy commercial city? Is Onitsha not a busy commercial centre? Is Port Harcourt not a busy commercial centre, is Nnewi not a busy commercial centre? Don’t we have other cities around us here? Please, let them stop talking nonsense. The comfort I have today and got to the peak of my career, did I get it from North or West? I was born in Aba here. My family has been here for over 105 years. My father was here and I grew up here. I decided to practise my profession in Aba. I had all available offers to practise in Lagos and Abuja, but look at where I have gotten to today in everything. My family has roots here and this place has made me who I am and I’ve contributed to its growth. I’m not Ngwa man from Abia State. I’m an Oraifite man from Anambra State. I have friends everywhere, but I decided to remain here and be productive for the betterment of the Igbo man, the advancement of the Igbo race and Nigeria in general.
Other Nigerians accuse the Igbo of arrogance. Is that not true?
As a young lawyer, I said during a programme in NTA Aba, that Nigeria is Igbophobic. Until other Nigerians begin to see the Igbo man as one with them and see the Igbo man who can afford to leave his land and come to their land to stay there and live, as liberal. It’s a sign of love that one will even go to another man’s land and stay. It is, however, shocking that the other person still sees it differently. This thing they talk about the Igbo man being arrogant and all that makes me remember one Igbo proverb that says that some children went into the bush to fetch firewood. When one of them fetched more than the others, they accused him of going to the evil forest to fetch his. This is exactly what happens here. Where some people go and fail, when we (Igbo) go there and succeed, they will liken it to the evil forest, saying we went there to fetch our firewood. My question for them is, why wouldn’t they go to the same evil forest to fetch theirs? The Igbo man is disliked because of his enterprise, his industry and his perseverance. He goes to where people said there’s nothing and brings something out. That brings envy and all manner of jealousy. I said several years ago, as a young lawyer that until Nigeria goes away from Igbophobia, the country will not make any progress. I was a young lawyer, when I said it and it was very prophetic, as you can see today. Nigerians must change their consciousness and attitude towards the Igbo, or we’ll remain where we are as a nation. I say this without apology to anybody. Some people whose names and identities are Igbo from some places, are deceiving themselves that they’re not Igbo. I laugh, because the people they’re trying to impress know them better and they’ll always remind them of their identity when need be.
With the way the Federal Government and its agencies disregard court orders, will you say that the judiciary still remains the last hope of the common man?
There’s no rule of law in Nigeria. The rule of power and money is what is known in Nigeria. I’m glad that I’m sort of retiring. I have a son who’s a senior lawyer, with big chambers in Abuja. He left it to his junior partners to manage and left for London to continue there. All efforts I made to bring him back failed. He refused to practise here. He’s also a solicitor of England and Wales. Sometimes, I want to blame him but some people will say I shouldn’t blame him saying I’m inevitably here in Nigeria just because of my age. That’s what some people say. They said I should allow the young man to talk about his future as his profession will be a determinant factor in that pursuit. Without seeming to be unpatriotic, nothing is happening in this country.
At times, patriotism may lead to stupidity. The truth is that nothing is happening in this country. Some people are not guaranteed one meal a day. For me, I think Nigeria has more beggars than any country in the world. This is a result of mis-governance and some people are leaving the country. Until we change our leadership style, we’ll keep losing sound minds that could have helped to make this place better. We’re going back every day. The judiciary is not independent. The politicians have refused to allow the judiciary to function properly. What about the Legislators and the Executive? How can anybody blame the judges that they can appoint and remove any day? Nobody is talking about Constitution in Nigeria. There’s no separation of power in Nigeria. In England, the Prime Minister doesn’t make appointments of judges. The Lord Chancellor is in charge of judicial appointments, but it still passes through serious legal processes that have no influence of politicians or any one man boasting of that right to appoint. The process in Britain is very unique and it brings serious independent judiciary. The Executive is in control of everything in Nigeria. They control the National Assembly. This is why I said that only true federalism and independent and separate arms of government can save the country. I can agree with people who said that there’s no hope for the coming generation. The political class is greedy and is not willing to change. Just like this their move to intervene in Niger, I don’t support it. It’s their internal problem. When we had our own coups here, how many countries came? Why are they rushing to put Niger in order. What about their own home? You want to restore a legitimate government in Niger? How legitimate are we here? Any Nigerian soldier that dies in Niger, his blood will be on the head of those that sent him and so shall it be.
