By Shola Oshunkeye and Temitope David-Adegboye
Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa,
has appraised the state of the nation in the past 52 years, x-rayed the
various acts of lawlessness and mind-boggling corruption by elected
officials, and dropped this bombshell: they will lead Nigeria to a
second civil war if not checked!
Excerpts:
Nigeria will be 52 on Monday. Looking back at the numerous
policies rolled out for this country at independence, how far and fair
do you think we have gone as a nation?
We have not gone far enough. Judging by these 52 years, it’s a period
of repeated failures than achievements. We have failed to do what we
were meant to do.
During the regime of Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria used to have a
five-year development plan, which helped this country to move forward a
lot. But something happened along the line and that disappeared. Since
then, this country has been ruled by trial and error. How do we rectify
this?
Actually, we can go on and on having memorable plans, but we’re not
implementing them because of corruption. And if we are not implementing
we continue to crawl where we should be flying.
How do you mean?
Over the years, we’ve had great plans. But these great plans were not
articulated. Where they were articulated, they were not implemented
because of corruption.
Still talking about national development plans, there was a
time the slogan was Vision 2010. Later, Vision 2010 metamorphosed into
Vision 202200. Do you see the goalpost shifting as we approach 2020?
That is political fraud. This Vision 202020 is a fraud and the leadership would not allow achievements to take off.
There seems to be a paradox in this country where government
after government would assemble a huge population of experts in various
fields, but the result does not justify the status of all these people…
(Cuts in) It’s because of corruption! Corruption has incapacitated
government and there seems to be no leadership that can correct it.
So, what do we do to fix Nigeria?
The political leadership produced by the system is based on
self-interest as opposed to public interest. Today, we now have mega
corruption, stealing of the most mind-boggling type and criminal waste.
In our 52 years of existence as a nation, we have been
rolling from one crisis to another, starting from coup and counter-coup
in the First Republic, which eventually culminated into a bitter civil
war. There were other forms of instability. More recently, we have been
suffering under the Boko Haram insurgency. Are all these a product of
corruption too?
Of course, they are a product of corruption. They are a product of
the system and the leadership produced by the system, which has now made
the state of the nation like this and there is no way there is going to
be peace and stability without changing the system and the leadership
from one based on self-interest as it is today to one based on public
interest like we used to have even during the colonial times and the
First Republic, to some extent. That was how we were able to register
some achievements, even during the military regime. But since the Second
Republic, things degenerated and we had this survival of the fittest.
People say it is stupid for us to adopt the principle of
rotation of power; that the emphasis for a nation that is trying to
evolve like Nigeria should be evolution of the best, irrespective of
where that best comes from. What do you think?
Well, merit is good. Essentially, things would be best when things
are done on merit, but there are situations that have to be corrected.
If we rely on merit alone, the leadership would always rely on two
sections to the detriment of others and this would not be good in
uniting this country. Whether we like it or not, we have to use merit
and other considerations, so that every section of Nigeria would have a
sense of belonging so we can all put our heads together for a national
cause. If we use merit alone, there are sections of the country that
would never be able to rule the country no matter what happens. And this
should not happen.
As a farmer, are you worried that agriculture has been totally relegated to the background in our economy?
Exactly! It has been so relegated that agriculture is not even able to sustain us in this country.
How can we then turn Nigeria from a mono-economy nation to a plural-economy nation?
By changing the system and the leadership.
How do we change the leadership?
We can achieve that by serious and special reconstruction of Nigeria,
by striking a balance in the roles of the state in the economy to
ensure peace, stability and progressive human development of the
country. What we can say is the legal role of the state in the economy
like we had in the colonial and the First Republic, which was abandoned
starting from the Second Republic when Shagari came up with his
austerity measures. That is the whole mess, which has now led to all
these mindless privatisation and destruction of the structure.
Where do you think Nigeria would be in 10 to 20 years’ time?
If the present system and the political leadership continue, then we
will have the worst situation on our hands, which is anarchy and
disintegration of Nigeria; and after a long run of anarchy, civil war.
All positive projects in the country will have been destroyed; there
will be nothing left for anybody in Nigeria to hope for, and even fight
for.
Anarchy and disintegration are words people have so heard so often
that they have become clichés. Now, you are introducing the element of
civil war, which scary.
What are the factors that can induce civil war? And are they on ground as we speak?
Well, with this level of poverty, disagreement and insecurity and
this level of corruption, mindless stealing and criminal waste on the
surface, sooner or later, they will lead to anarchy and if not checked,
civil war. Quote me.
The Sun
