Eseme Eyiboh the former
chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Information, has
attributed the crises in the various sectors of the nation’s political economy
to an entrenched culture of impunity and faulty leadership recruitment process.
In this interview, the former member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who
is now of the All Progressives Congress (APC) speaks on a wide range of issues.
From
all indications, all is not well with Nigeria. How do you feel about it?
The situation Nigeria is in
today is the true situation of the country. There are no pretences about it.
This is the true picture and character of Nigeria in terms of politics, economics
and social. If you want to look at it politically, we have always had this
level of impunity and injustices that had been perpetrated in this country over
time. This is the outcome. The outcome of impunity is the recruitment of wrong
people into right places. So, the institutions are therefore weak.
Because the institutions
are very weak, the driving force of good governance has been weakened. The
result of weak institutions is what we are experiencing today. There are lack
of enforcement, implementation of the rules, budget and other fundamentals of
governance. Then, politically too, political parties as it were, had neglected,
ignored and failed to develop the fundamental processes of democracy; they have
not developed the democratic processes that would be able to throw up men and
women who are nationally conscious.
Other countries of the
world would go to war and do anything to protect the integrity and preserve
their nation. But in Nigeria, what has been enthroned now are religious
cleavages and ethnic championship. So when you have a plethora of those things
as they pertain to national development, you would experience what is happening
in the country today. There would be agitation, insecurity, injustices and all
sorts of things.
You
have well analysed the situation and also given insights to the root cause of
the problem but what is the way forward?
The problem has nothing to
do with President Buhari, Jonathan, Babangida, Obasanjo or any of them. No. If
Nigerians want to have a nation that is respectable, a nation that is on the
development wheel and a nation that wants to benefit from whatever inputs we
throw in, we must first and foremost be ready for attitudinal change. The
attitudinal change of individuals would now throw up a behavioral pattern that
would positively impact on national integrity. And from national integrity, you
now begin to see the sub-national and national governments being driven by this
history of ethical integrity. So, there would be obedience to and enforcement
of the rule of law.
If the political parties
want to recruit leaders or potential leaders for national institutions, it must
be based on the principle of integrity, capacity, competitiveness, innovation
and of course, giving every man his own due. But when that is subdued,
neglected and ignored, it is going to be what you are seeing today.
There
is a growing population of people calling for restructuring the country, what
is your view on this vexed issue?
Many people are talking
about restructuring but the question is, restructuring what? I asked a friend
of mine that is highly educated, a lawyer the other day of his own meaning of
restructuring. Some people say that restructuring means that the South-East must
have six states and that you must restructure Nigeria for the South-East to
have her own six states. But that aspect of restructuring would have to pass
through a referendum. And it would be just for the South- East to also have six
states because they have the least number of states in terms of zones. Some
people understand it that way but some people; their understanding is for
example, in the Land Use act. I am an APC man and my governor is PDP for an
instance. I can now invest in cassava or sugar cane to be able to get raw
materials for ethanol and when my governor realizes that I have made so much
money and I have built my factory in the state, once we are close to the
election in 2019, if I come out to say I
want to be governor of Akwa Ibom to contest against him, he can use the powers
conferred on him by the Land Use Act to revoke the Certificate of Occupancy for
public use and that project would be stalled and the investment would go down
the drain.
To some people, they might
want to look at it that way. They have to decentralize power and appropriate it
to the different tiers of government. Can that be done when governors are now
using local governments as buffet tables? No local government in Nigeria
because of joint account has received anything more than N10 million from all
the money they are supposed to get. If you work into my local government, you
would be competing with grass and you would be lucky if you are not bitten by
any of those reptiles. That is because the chairman cannot even cut the grass
as the money is not even there. When they share it, they give you money for
salaries and give you a little for fuel and all of that.
So, restructuring is the
issue of decentralizing. It is not a target at any tribe. So, it is generic; it
is a perception thing. But whichever way you want to look at it, some of us are
of the opinion that there should be devolution of power. And that devolution is
also seen from the standpoint that some people are looking to have states, some
are looking for local governments not because such states or local governments
are viable but just because they want to carve out a dynasty where they would
become godfathers. I would like my village to become a local government council
so that I would have the power to choose who becomes the chairman or who should
not be a chairman.
If you ask me to choose a
state, I can choose and determine in my lifetime when my last child would
become a governor. It is going on not because of viability. So, we have to now
make a clear difference between politics and governance. A lot of people still
do not understand that the institution of government has a function under
democratic principles and this of course has its own limitations. But
governance is a vehicle; it is a process like development which must be done in
such a way that the outcome would be the derivatives that would impact on the
people.
One
of the major campaign promises of this government is to ensure the security of
lives and property of the people but it seems the APC administration is failing
on that. There are currently security threats everywhere in the country. Are
you not scared by the ugly development?
Let me tell you, even in
America, there is the challenge of security. In the United Kingdom, you hear
about pockets of bombs, guns and knife crimes all over the place. And that is
even where the security operatives are very sophisticated and everybody is
cooperating and all of that. But in Nigeria, our challenge is complicated by
the fact that when there is no national consciousness, there cannot be security
consciousness.
You would live in a neighbourhood and you would hear gunshots
like the recent killing in St. Philips church in Ozubulu, Anambra State and
nobody comes out. Are you saying that people would just come and fire all those
shots and kill all those people as if people are not living in that
neighbourhood? Somebody would go and find out whether the husband is still
there in the house and once the husband is safe, she has no reason to scream
for anybody. Somebody in the neighbourhood would hear gunshots or hear the
neighbour shouting and as the husband and children are at home, he would say
close the windows and put off the light. Nobody would call the security and the
security operatives anyway are also seeing themselves from the standpoint that
they have been rejected by the society because of poor perception.
So, we need to do a general
overhaul; we need to do reputation management of a country that we belong to.
We need to do reputation management of ourselves as a behavioral pattern and if
we do not do that, we cannot go anywhere. As I am talking to you now, they call
it Small Island of Developing states, they are many in the Indian Ocean like
Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, about six of them. The United Nations is now
piloting what is now called Blue economy. If you go to Rwanda, despite the
genocide that took place there, go and see what is going on. They had to even
amend the constitution for the guy to go for a third term. Go and see
Mauritius.
This is Mauritius here, this is Seychelles and you have Madagascar
in the middle. If you go there, you would swear that it is not that place.
Countries of the world like India are struggling with China on how to equip
that place. If India gives one submarine boat, China is going to give three.
So, they are competing in development. Are we doing the same thing here? The
answer is no. The summary of what I am trying to say is that we need some level
of behavioral change. We need to recruit people who are competent. I cannot
seek to become a governor of a state as I speak now because I would not have
the temperament to manage the pressures of all these men who are supposed to
retire by now and they are still roaming about.
Do
you have any fears about the future of the country?
Nigeria is a great country.
Nigeria is an ongoing project. It is a lesson in study. I do not have any fear
about this country. Look, the recession Nigeria is going through now is
different from the recession going on in every other part of the world. Do you
know why? This is because the Nigerian recession is the overthrow of cheap
money, god-fatherism which of course is an imbecility of a godless society. And
it is an enthronement of competitiveness and competencies. Before now, people never
earned money in Nigeria.
They were just taking cheap money all over the place.
When this phase is over, you would now see that people would now be competing
on the basis of competencies, meritocracy and innovativeness. It is no more
going to be a situation where you open a bank account and before you know it,
N100 million is there and you do not even know what it is for and the next
thing is that you go and buy a car and change your accommodation. And you would
be traveling from one part of the world to the other and all of that. So,
people are going to earn money now; they are going to work for it. So, let us
get set to work for it; let us get set to earn money.
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