‘Born-to-rule’ psychosis killing Nigeria —Ezeife

A lot of delegates here are veterans of previous conferences, what do you think of this current conference?I am one of the many or few who ardently called for this conference. In Uyo when we were on a political summit, I wrote a committed, passionate appeal to Nigerians to pressure Mr. President to recognize himself […]

A lot of delegates here are veterans of previous conferences, what do you think of this current conference?
I am one of the many or few who ardently called for this conference. In Uyo when we were on a political summit, I wrote a committed, passionate appeal to Nigerians to pressure Mr. President to recognize himself as the focal point of the people’s sovereignty and convoke this conference. It wasn’t two months after that that the conference was convoked.  But the principal reason it happened so fast is that we found David Mark, the Senate President supporting the same thing.
Why does anybody call for this conference?Only so that we can have Nigeria as a permanent feature in this world. We don’t want the breakup of this country. I love Nigeria passionately and when I say things as they are, some people in this country think I am working against them. When I say things as they are, many of my friends from the north begin to say I am turning an enemy but you see if we don’t change things, we can’t have Nigeria as a permanent feature of the world. So, what this conference is about is ensuring the permanence of one Nigeria.
You said when you say things as they are, your friends, especially from the North misconstrue you. What are these things that you say?
You see, the Generals were mostly from the north. They restructured Nigeria. From making it 12 states to making it 19 states to 21 states to30 states to 36 states was the work of northern generals. In this process, one zone, the Northwest has 7 states. One zone, the Southeast has five states. In the process, Kano and Jigawa have more local government than the entireSoutheast; it is not a matter of geographical mass; no. Governance is about the welfare of the masses, the person, and not square miles. But because they were in power, they favouredtheir places causing structural imbalance in Nigeria. When I was governor,Babangida in his government wanted us to give phrases to describe our various states; Edo said the state is heart of the nation. I called Anambra home for all. Now it has been changed to Light of the nation, it is alright, I prefer home for all because we from Anambra make home everywhere and our own home should be for all.
That psychosis of ‘born to rule’ is what is killing Nigeria now; from there we have found opposition to Jonathan as candidate for PDP, from there Buhari contested for President and Buhari told his supporters and everybody that he must win; if he doesn’t win, it must be rigging.Some other northern people whom you know, many of them said if Jonathan wins, they will make the country ungovernable.
Can you name one of such people?
I don’t know; many of them. The government knows them. Then the result came out, Jonathan won and it was blood shed. Blood shed all over Nigeria; youth corps members wiped out, Igbos in the North wiped out, even some people attacked the emirs as symbols of feudalism. It wasn’t long after they stopped killing people as a result of the 2011 elections that Boko Haram picked up. Boko Haram started, we asked the President to declare state of emergency, he didn’t until after more than a year.
Did you write to him?
We didn’t write to him, we made a suggestion. So, in the process, some people started anticipating 2015 to make sure since he has won now, let’s stop him 2015. Tinubu and Buhari merged their parties, now it has become APC. Atiku joined them in spirits. Seven governors, six Muslims and one Christian said they are breaking out of PDP. That is the first leg of political haram. Book Haram had been there, then political haram started with PDP governors breaking up and forming new PDP.
Why do you call it political haram?
Yes, that is the political wing of Boko Haram; that is the political counterpart of Boko Haram. The objective is the same: stop Jonathan. Whether it is Boko Haram or whether it is anything else, or even what they call cattle rearers, all of them are targeted at stopping the one who was not born to rule who happens to be ruling and therefore the country must be made ungovernable for him and the members of the society must would be made tired of him that blood is flowing. But who is causing the flow of blood; the person who is killing people will turn around and say oh, the president is not worthy of ruling because blood is flowing under him, who is shedding the blood, themselves who are saying it.
Is there any evidence to that effect?
What evidence do you need? Somebody told you I will make the place ungovernable through his extensions of power and you are talking about evidence. There has been consistent move towards the same objective. From the result of 2011 elections and what came out of it, then Boko Haram, then political haram, then cattle haram.
And no one has been arrested?
Yes, no one has been arrested. It is a matter of style; another person would have put people in prison and killed many. But I like the godly, I won’t say Christian, but his (Jonathan’s) godly way of getting things done, praying to God, hoping people will change their mind and do the right thing.
From the scenario you created, how will the conference tackle the issues that you have raised?
Now, there are limits to posturing; posturing is like what the Yorubas call Shakara. There are limits to posturing. I am Igbo; I will say Nigeria is not important to me after all I am in China, I am in Russia, I am all over the world, no, that is Shakara. We the Igbo have voted with our feet for one Nigeria and we want one Nigeria to continue forever. We can go to other places but we already have developed Nigeria. We know we are enjoying Nigeria, we marry Nigerian women, Nigerian men marry our women, we developed Kano, we developed Abuja, we developed Lagos, we developed allover Nigeria to the extent that the Hausa man says if you get to anywhere in Nigeria and you don’t find the Igbos, park and go, the place is not fit for human habitation. This is the Hausa man saying so.So, if Igbo say they don’t mind if the country collapses, they are lying, that is Shakara.
What about Hausa Fulani? The North is the reason for the amalgamation of Nigeria. The British were spending money, balancing the budget, bringing money to the North. In the South there was surplus money, they (British) wanted to stop spending their own money, so they amalgamated the North and the South because of resource gap-deficit in the north and surplus in the south, now the gap is wider. If a Hausa-Fulani tells you we don’t care if Nigeria breaks up that Igbos will go back and leave all the houses they have built for us, it is called myopia, short sightedness. The resource gap today is much wider than in 1914 when amalgamation was done. So, the North saying they are not interested in resolving the problems or in permanence of Nigeria is Shakara; posturing, fake posturing. Therefore, their long term interest is the same as Igbo’s long term interest. The permanence of one Nigeria is what should be the long term interest of the North.
Look at the West; Yoruba. Today, finance, dey get am, commerce, dey get am, industry, they get am, much of importation of fuel which is a profitable business,dey get am. Yes, the West may have had their constitution for Odua, national anthem and everything made ready to be independent but the market of Nigeria holds them together. It is in the long term interest of the West to exploit the largest market in Africa and grow than to go and have one small Odua country and pay tax to come into Nigeria, pay duty to export into Nigeria and have a lot of problems not being Nigerian.
Tell me, is it Nasarawa Toto, is it Edo, is it Ibibio, if they look at their interest in the long term no group of Nigerians have interest in the breakup of Nigeria. Therefore, we think the conference is convoked so that we begin to understand ourselves. In the first two days it was like war; one emir said that he can go to Cameroun, his brothers were there, he said when the country breaks up, he has somewhere to go, and many others don’t have anywhere to go.Shortsightedness, political myopia may make some people think that it doesn’t matter if Nigeria breaks.
The small gain you are making short term; throw it away for the bigger things. Igbo people are going to make this country very developed. It is in our blood, it is not the matter of helping people. We made mistakes when we allowed small children to be roaming the streets in Kano and we sent our own children to school.It would have been better for us to pay their fees; Almajiris. In the process, when there is strife, they are given N200 to kill us. If we had developed them as human beings like we developed our children, they will not be available as raw materials to shed blood. Now, Jonathan is doing it; I don’t want Almajiri schools to concentrate on Islamic Studies, these boys and girls must be prepared to face today’s economy. That I very much support.
Why the conference, to give Nigeria a chance to become a super power and to obey God. Nigeria is in this conference in effort to obey God. Many people don’t know why Nigeria is here to obey God. Nigeria was created by God using the instrumentality of British imperialism but Nigeria was created for a purpose. What is the purpose? To wipe out the shame of slavery from black man who share colour with Jesus. How does Nigeria develop and clear the shame of the Blackman? By developing into a superpower among the nations of the world. Then people will look around  like they look around now and see China and Japan, they will look around now and say, oh, these black men, they have caught up with everybody. They are now superpower.
Doing that will raise the dignity and respect of the black man everywhere the black man is. We are also the greatest concentration of blacks on the face of the earth. So, our manifest destiny, which is another way of saying God’s purpose for us, is to develop into a superpower, raise the dignity of blacks and African people and finally wipe out the shame of slavery from our faces. We cannot do it if we don’t have peace, unity, justice and equity. If we are not in peace, look at Borno State; is it where it used to be? It is going backward; if this thing continues, Nigeria as a whole will be going backward. That is not how we can raise the dignity of blacks and African people. The purpose of the conference is not just to keep Nigeria ion the map forever but also to answer God’s purpose and desire for Nigeria. Look, God prepared us for what he wants us to do; look at your country, the climate is fantastic, it doesn’t have extremes. There is no tornado, no hurricane, no cyclone, no extremes of anything. That is your climate. Then look at the resources God gave you with which you achieve your purpose. Material resources; how many minerals do we have, do you know? Even the ones we know, what is the deposit of oil in Nigeria? Nobody knows. For all that matters, Chad area, Bauchi, Sokoto, every part of Nigeria may be pregnant with crude oil, then gold, silver diamond; all kinds of gemstones. Then animals, plants; in the north, parts of the north like Gembu, Jos, we produce apples. What can’t we produce with genetic engineering in Nigeria? Nothing. Animals are surplus. If you come to human beings, God gave us many talents from many tribes. So, God’s design for Nigeria is for unsurpassed greatness, abundant resources. To realise God’s design for Nigeria is the purpose of National Conference.
You spoke about ‘born to rule’ mentality, disparity in number of states in the geopolitical zones and the resource gap. What do you want to achieve in this conference as a delegate from the southeast?
We don’t want number of states to be any problem, anywhere, any more. Instead of that, we just say we have not these infeasible 36 states as federating units. We will have about six geopolitical zones as we now have as federating units. We can even double it and say 12. We arrange each zone and get two out of a zone which eventually becomes 12. Therefore six or 12 geopolitical zones.
How do you fund them?
How are the 36 states funded? There will be continuous funding as it is now but there will also be every effort made in every state to produce what the state can produce and have serious internally generated revenue. The people who are producing oil are not saying go home all of us who are not producing oil and get nothing from oil; no. They are not saying so. They are just negotiating for higher money to be given to them. In the past it was 100%. Whatever you were producing you got 100% of it but eventually it became 50%, today it is 13%. In fact, it was one percent. So, if you give them 25% and then go and make effort in Anambra; industry or agriculture, you get more from your own resources. We are feeding from the north now, if well organized, they will get more and export from Nigeria to other countries.
People Are Talking About Single Term For Political Office Holders…
(Cuts in)…I believe in single term for political office holders because it is more efficient. If you go there, you want your name to be immortalized. You work without people harassing you, without going for second term and bribing left and right and killing people even. Six years is alright.
Some people are saying there is a hidden agenda in this Conference…
(Cuts in)…tell me what they say is the hidden agenda.
They say it is a ploy by especially some parts of the south to elongate President Jonathan’s tenure.
Okay, that does not make sense but I can give credit to people that look far in the future. Now, the possibility they are referring to maybe my own papers where I said between this National Conference and 2015 election there may be a clash and what do we do if there is a clash?  For me as an individual, I will have no qualms allowing incumbent office bearers to stay one more year or even two in order to get the country properly planned, a constitution that will lead us to where we want to go instead of rushing to crises 2015 election.
What of the legal backing?
No legality can produce the quality of membership we have in the National Conference today. This is the best representation of Nigeria, best representation of the sovereign people Nigeria. No election could have produced them and they are best suited for nursing Nigeria. Look at me, I ran for president two times; I never crossed a certain point. I quit politics when I turned 70, so, I am not a member of any party. I cannot run for any office now and many people in the conference are like that. These are the best people to produce a new constitution for Nigeria; these are the best people to plant trees that will provide shed for where they don’t need to take shed. They, not being interested in what position they would hold in the system that they are constructing, are in the best position to construct that system. So, those of us who are old and who are said to be in the departure lounge, death can come anytime, we are the people who have no conflict of interest. For example if you take anything we are doing to the National Assembly, National Assembly people have conflict of interest. Clearly, one of the things we want to decide is whether it will be bicameral or unicameral system. If it is unicameral, either Senate or House of Representatives will go; conflict of interest. Beyond that, we say, will it be full time or part time? Conflict of interest; how do you ask a person who is on full term to change to part time and you give him such decision to make? It won’t work. Even the structural imbalance, those who have advantage will go and lobby so that there will be no change. What we are doing in the national conference must have the support of everybody to be of any use.We were talking about 75%, 70%, two third majority (voting modalities for the National Conference); nonsense. A constitution is like this, you take it to the people on referendum, ‘yes or no?’ If I am from anywhere, I will tell my people to vote no if I am not carried along. So, we must produce something that everybody accepts in the National Conference in order to happily go to the people in the referendum to say vote yes.
Do you think three months will be sufficient for the National Conference?
In my view, even with the raw materials available, it is not enough. A minimum of six months is necessary and we can still do so and have 2015 elections in six months. Why it is feasible at all for six months is that 1994 conference the result is on paper, 2005 conference, the result is on paper. In fact, for that one, I was the chairman power sharing committee, one of the strongest and toughest committees and we reached consensus. Not majority; consensus.
What are the key items you want Conference to achieve in terms of recommendation?
More meaningful, larger federating units. Unicameral system, part time legislature, police as zonal matter not state, with a national police also. Go back to parliamentary system or at worse, have a hybrid of parliamentary and presidential system. Of course the military remains one. Drastically unburden Federal Government and then achieve fiscal federalism. These are the major issues. I may have not mentioned some major issues, but these also are the major issues. When your get them, you get Nigeria moving.      
What do you mean when you say more meaningful, larger federating units?
Larger, meaningful federalism means using the six geopolitical zones as federating units or expanding them.Because of problems we see in various parts, restructure them into two per zone, therefore you have 12 geopolitical zones. Fiscal federalism means that the bulk of funds don’t go like today to Federal Government because of reducing the responsibilities of the Federal Government, you correspondingly reduce the funds that go to it.