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Guy Ikokwu, a Second Republic politician and a member of the Ime-Obi (inner caucus) of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, Editor, expressed worries over the worsening insecurity in the country, the 2019 general election, among other issues of national interest. Excerpts:
How would you react to the current state of the nation, in terms of the wave of insecurity?
Well, the nation is very divisive at the moment; and the nation is not secured; insecurity in the nation pervades the whole country from north to the south. There are so many killings in all parts of Nigeria as has never been seen before in the history of this country; apart from the civil war. There is monumental corruption in Nigeria unheard of before and you know, corruption was one of the indices that brought about the first military coup of the Yorubas and the Igbos. It was not an Igbo coup; it was Nigerian coup of young Majors.
And it has not abated for 50 years; and the Nigerian nation has deteriorated so much that we have become a laughing stock of all nations. For the first time, we have become the poverty headquarters of the whole world. We have overtaken India. And for the first time, with the level of insecurity that we have; we can no longer pretend about the killings, the kidnappings and the herdsmen who have now been militarised. Never before in the history of Nigeria have herdsmen who keep goats, pigs and cattle or sheep become militarised and begin to kill at random. These are matters which our children cannot understand; because Nigeria has now gone down to the lowest ebb of educational qualifications. But without good education no nation can rise; sociologically or otherwise; institutionally or culturally.
The tourism potentials which Nigeria has such that if we did not have such divisive tendencies and insecurity; tourism alone would have been contributing up to 30 percent of our GDP like you have in other countries like the Middle East and Asia. Look at the Middle East countries like the United Arab Emirate (UAE), who came to Nigeria to learn about our federalism and they used it to create their own federal structure.
They used to come to Nigeria for medical tourism and for other forms of tourism – leisure, etc, but now, we go to Dubai to buy; to rent houses. We have become the laughing stock of nations; and if you read what President Trump wrote recently about black people, and particularise it to Nigeria, I am sure you must have seen it before. If you download it and carefully read it; it is part of my simple answer to some of these issues.
Whether you love or hate Trump, what he said in that article about the black people and Nigeria have made us the laughing stock of the whole world; because in essence, he said that if we can do the right things for our people, we have such potentials that we will be one of the richest countries on earth. But instead, other people come and plunder our country and go away and we can do nothing to them. This is just my take. Today, Nigeria is just moving rapidly towards disintegration. Let me say this. Nigeria is still in economic recession. Anybody who says we are out of recession is deceiving himself.
The 2019 general election is over. In your assessment of the exercise; how would you rate INEC?
The issue is still at the tribunal; election tribunal, which several participants have filed their complaints. So, the matter has become what is called subjudice. Buhari and APC are one of the parties at the tribunal, which is a judicious matter. And no party who is in a judicial matter can take an act which takes him out of a judicial purview. So, there is no reason why Buhari will swear himself in, personally or by the armed forces or by some renegade judicial authorities while his case has not been decided at the tribunal. It is only the tribunal that can say that he was properly elected; therefore, he should be sworn in, but not before the tribunal has done its work. The whole world is watching us. You think they don’t know; of course they know. If you believe in the rule of law; why would you go and swear yourself in when you have an issue in the court? It is as simple as that. If you don’t believe in the rule of law it means you believe in arbitrariness. And arbitrariness has led a lot of countries in the world to their doom. They have broken into pieces. Are we going to be an exception to historical facts? These are the issues.
Some people believe that the Igbo nation has been unfairly treated for so long. Are you one of those who hold this view?
I am not the one to give an answer to that. What I would say rather is that all Igbos in Eastern area of the nation must sit at home on 30th of May as a day of observance; as a day of meditation; not a day when they go out harassing anybody. And anybody coming into your house when you are not hurting anybody; you are meditating and start harming you; is like somebody who came into a church or a mosque and start shooting and killing people who are not bearing arms but meditating and praying for their future; and praying for God’s mercy and sins they may have committed. So, personally, I am calling on all Igbos within our own area of jurisdiction; Igbos in Lagos or Igbos in Kano cannot detect to the people in South East what should be done whether it should be a public holiday or this or that. But if they are civil servants, they must obey the government of the places where they are. But if they are not civil servants, then they are free to do whatever they like in their own houses and apartments. They are not going to injure anybody, alright? That is the rule of law.
The presidency said the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari for a second term in office will take place low-key on May 29, but that on June 12, there would be an elaborate celebration. Some people read political meaning in this; what’s your take?
The majority of the Yorubas are not deceived about it. And those who voted on June 12 knew why they voted and their votes have not been counted. The results of that election have not been gazetted or published by the Federal Government. We are just making ourselves a laughing stock. The world is laughing at us. Look at South Africa; they have just perfected their own election; they have just concluded the election; it was electronically done and there were no petitions and they were not even killing themselves. Within two days, the results were out. But here in Nigeria, you don’t know what was counted manually; you don’t know what was uploaded electronically. There are all kinds of vagaries and rubbles.
You have one million petitions at the election tribunal. Nigeria has received more petitions from this last election than any other one before; which shows gross abuses. External would is laughing at us; as the biggest nation in Africa. Mind you, one out of every five black person in the world is a Nigerian. You can’t conduct a free and fair election. It doesn’t matter who wins or who loses. If it is free and fair, there would be no election petitions; unless very, very few and minor cases; and people would congratulate themselves – winners or losers. This message should actually be sent around. It doesn’t matter whether it is a Fulani man or not. Buhari is a Fulani; Atiku is a Fulani. Buhari is a Moslem; Atiku is a Moslem. Buhari has been head of state second time; Atiku has been in the head of state echelon and the vice president; Atiku has educational facilities and has trained a lot of people, and has invested a lot in education in Nigeria and in the North. Buhari said he has attended all kinds of colleges and trainings; so, he should behave as someone who has done all that. So, what is the problem? These are Moslem – Moslem; Fulani-Fulani; why can’t the truth be told? Why should other people be killed and murdered on such very flimsy, uncoordinated and truncated argument which even little boys and girls in school can see? Look at the Almajiris, people who have no homes; no food and no parental attachment – look at what they are doing now in the North. The oil we are mining in the South, the whole country is sharing it; but look at the gold and diamond in Zamfara, it is only for few individuals. And they import some criminal foreigners to come and help them to mine. When I say few individuals, I mean highly placed few individuals. Some of them former presidents; wealthy individuals – that’s why they are killing themselves in Zamfara. We know the truth; why can’t we always tell the truth? Or what is happening in Kano, Taraba or what is happening in Borno or what is happening in Buhari’s own state – Katsina or even in his own local government and town – Daura.
We know what has been happening in the last two weeks. The President’s governor, Masari, said he’s insecure; the state is insecure. These are not matters to laugh about. Go to Sokoto, they’ll tell you the same thing. Or you come down to Yoruba land; the Yorubas will tell you how many thousands of cells; nomadic cells, that are all over the place with weapons. You think the Yorubas don’t know what is happening in the West? Of course, they know. So, the whole country is now at the edge of the precipice. Once you turn over the precipice; there is nothing that can lift you up again. You continue to fall until you hit the rock bottom, and that is exactly where we are.
