Tejiri Ebikeme/Francis Sadhere
It was a very interesting gathering of Nigerians from all walks of life on June 12, 2014. They all gathered and spoke their minds on the state of the nation. The occasion was the formal opening ceremony of National Reformer Newspaper’s office in Warri, Delta State and a discourse on the state of the nation.
At the June 12, 2014 discourse, Nigerians from various fields spoke from their heart of hearts and suggested ways forward for the nation. At the discourse, all the participants accepted that the country was in a deplorable condition and needed to be redeemed by all Nigerians irrespective of their political, religion, social and economic background.
Most of them identified corruption as one of the worst things that is happening to the country. They said corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of all aspects of the system, advising that the only way it could be stamped out was for the Federal Government to muster the political will to enact laws that will flush corruption out of the nation.
While some of the speakers blamed the Boko Haram insurgency on lack of unemployment in the nation, others blamed it on bad leadership. Others still, blamed it on some group of people from the Northern parts of the country who want to make the nation ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaker after speaker stood up and expressed their anger on the state of the nation.
The speakers disagreed on many issues but were unanimous on the issue of finding solutions to the sea of problems plaguing the country. They said Nigerian leadership must muster the political will to set this right for the nation and they should also stop playing politics with every issue that comes up.
Special Project Director, Delta State Governor’s Office Asaba, Mr. Onuesoke Okpako Igho Sunny, spoke vehemently on the issue of Boko Haram. He did not believe that the unemployment was the root cause of the rise of insurgency in the country.
He believed that the rise of insurgency in the country was because some people from the Northern part of Nigeria were bent on making the country ungovernable for the present leader, President Jonathan. He said Jonathan was being challenged from every corner because he is from the minority group in the Niger Delta region.
He said; “They are saying that Jonathan is not qualified to be the President of the country. And by this, it also means that everybody from the South South and our children yet unborn are not qualified to be the President of this country. So I want to say that Boko Haram is aimed at President Jonathan and nothing else. And I want to say that I speak as a Niger Deltan. I want to say this based on the issue of Boko Haram and not that I want to indoctrinate anybody, that the emergence of Boko Haram was never as a result of corruption or leadership problem in this country. The issue is that some people from the Northern part of this country do not want him. But I want to tell you that whether they like it or not, President Jonathan is going to contest the 2015 elections.”
While speaking, Chief Jeffrey Ojogun, former Chairman of Benikrukru Community, Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, blamed the woes of the nation on ethnicity and personal interest, saying that the North were trying to hold the nation to ransom by not doing anything about the Boko Haram insurgency.
He said; “We all know what is happening in this country. It is all about interest. If it favours you, you will say it is good and if it does not favour you, you will say it is bad. That is our mentality here but when you go outside the country, it a different ball game.”
He blamed oil companies in the Niger Delta region for the poverty that was pervading the region, adding that multinational oil companies do not care about the welfare of the people of the region and they have not done anything tangible to reduce the high rate of poverty in the region.
He faulted the North for saying that the oil that comes from the region was for everybody, stressing that the north should appreciate what the Niger Delta region was doing for the country as they were the ones feeding the country with the oil that is being exploited from their backyard.
He said; “Some people from the North will say that the oil is for everybody, but the oil is not for everybody. It is from the South South because we are using our resources to feed the nation and they are not appreciating it. We have a president that is from the South South where the oil is coming from and yet some people are trying to frustrate him. The Northerners have so many oil blocs and they are quietly operating them and nobody is questioning them, still they are saying the president is not good. What Boko Haram is doing now is not good enough and some of the northerners leaders are not doing anything to stop it.”
Chief Ojogun said further; “I am from a very rich oil community. Oil companies have been operating in my community for ages, yet we do not have anything to show for the oil wealth that is being taken from our land. It took us a great deal before we forced the oil companies to give us power.
Today we are enjoying uninterrupted power supply. Some oil communities saw our progress and they felt that they should form GMoUs with other oil companies so that they can benefit from what is being taken from their land.
“But some people felt bad about this idea. Now the oil companies are telling us that they are going to give a particular amount of the money for a particular project and that they are not going to give us any other money apart from that. But that is not really helping us and the oil companies are still complaining about oil theft. It is not as if we are encouraging these people but the fact remains that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. These things happen because there are no employment there for the Niger Delta youths. If the oil companies really want to help their host communities they should give the communities at least one oil well from the ones they have. This is a form of resource control and believe me if we do this for the next one year, things will change for the better and other companies will come to the region to work as long as the people have their own oil wells.”
He also said; “I want to use this discourse to warn that the Sultan of Sokoto, Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Northern Governors and ex-military Generals from the North that they cannot stop the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.
I am calling on the North to forget the Presidency till 2027 and we will not hesitate to cut oil supply to the North should leaders from the region continue to oppose the re-election of President Jonathan in 2015 and using Boko Haram to cause mayhem, especially in the Northern part of the country.
“I want the Sultan of Sokoto to know that we in the Niger Delta are aware of his game plans with some Governors and ex-military Generals from the North to frustrate the re-election of President Jonathan in 2015. I want the Sultan of Sokoto and his co-travellers to take this as a warning that we in the Niger Delta region will resist any attempt by them to stop the President in 2015.”
“The people of the region are not begging the Sultan of Sokoto, Northern Governors, ex-military Generals and other leaders from the region to allow the President contest in 2015, the issue of the re-election bid of President Jonathan in 2015 is sealed, signed and delivered by God. Nobody can stop the moving train of the re-election of the President.
The plan by the North to use Boko Haram to frustrate President Jonathan will continue to fail; we have also seen how the enemies of the President are now using the Governors of the North to destabilize the administration of the President and they will not succeed in this their evil mission.”
On his part, Zik Gbemre described the the country as moving one step forward and two steps backwards, saying that the deplorable status of Nigeria where everything was going from bad to worse and often to the detriment of the poor masses have given rise the Boko Haram insurgency.
He said; “As sad as this may sound, that is the unfortunate ‘reality’ facing the Nigerian populace; where the standard of life and everything in the polity has been on a downward trend of deterioration. Aside the obvious insecurity in the land, which has become a persistent nightmare that has practically rendered our Nigerian government helpless and clueless, every sector of the Nigerian polity, is in a state of chaos. It is as if we are taking one step forward and two steps backward as a developing nation.”
Gbemre said that a critical chronicle of Nigeria’s successive regimes till date, shows that the crucial problem facing the Nigerian masses since independence was, and still is, “how to institute a truly democratic society where the citizens’ general interests and welfare are consistently catered for by the political class within a society that is free from rancour.”
Human rights activist and lawyer, Barrister Oghenejabor Ikimi attributed the problem of Nigeria to its citizens. He said it was Nigerians that were corrupt and the nation was replete with bad leadership and bad followership.
He said; “I have been asking myself for a very long time now that, what is wrong with Nigeria. Not until I read a read a book written by a Former Prime Minister of Israel, which said, ‘whatever is wrong with a nation is the collection of the aggregate of what is wrong with every individual in a that nation’. Why am I saying this? Sometimes in Ghana, a communication minister was talking with a friend and she said that before she retires from government she wants to make a million dollar. She never knew that what she was saying was being recorded.
“That tape went virile and before you know it, the Ghanian Government sacked her. This was a woman that played a very big role in the election of the then president of Ghana. Now let us come back home. Our then aviation minister was accused of spending about 255million naira to buy two vehicles. We all know that she also played a very big role in ensuring that our president won his elections but nothing was done to her. I begin to ask myself, what is wrong with this country.”
On her part, Dr. Omawumi Evelyn Urhobo, President/CEO, Morgan Smart Development Foundation, Warri, Delta State, called on Nigerians to seek the face of the God for intervention, adding that the challenges facing Nigeria were enormous and that only God can lead the nation into the path of greatness.
“The challenges facing the country presently are quite enormous to say the least. With electricity still refusing to be stable, massive youths unemployment, oil theft still going on at unprecedented scale, the non take off of the steel sector on which our real development is going to be predicated, our epileptic oil refineries that are not functioning up timely, oil subsidy or no oil subsidy, the massive corruption going on if even we call it stealing, the value of d naira that has continued to depreciate against the dollar with the resultant effect on increase in the price of everything being a customer nation that imports everything including toothpicks, we can go on and on in a long list of challenges still confronting us as a nation,” she said.
She decried the impunity with which the Boko Haram have carried out their dastardly activities in the country, saying that it was a sad reminder of the level of impunity with which people who have been put in position of authority in the country, “have continued to inflict so much pain on our psychic by their refusal to carry out their responsibilities to the people they claim to govern by good governance.”
Dr. Urhobo said; “From all level of governance there has been this conspiracy to prevent the people from enjoying the dividend of democracy. The failure of the various tiers of governments to deliver on their electoral promises over time especially at the grass root level, has translated into endemic poverty amongst their people in the rural communities.’
She added that as long rampant poverty that exists everywhere in the country today was not urgently addressed, the challenges of strife and conflict will persist in the Nation and this represents a keg of dynamite waiting to explode anytime.
She said it was sad that the Nigerian woman had been stripped of her dignity and the absence of any ability or authority to inculcate any form of values and discipline into her children had created great concern, stressing that it was her failure to discharge her traditional roles that resulted in the youth restiveness and militancy that was now the crisis in the region.
“There is no evidence of government effort to address the fundamental cause of militancy which is the economic empowerment of our rural women. There is urgent need for a Government sponsored consolidated economic empowerment programs to be put in place for the women at the grassroots to permanently address the cause of youth restiveness and militancy in the Niger Delta region,” she said.
A lecturer in Economics Department of College of Education, Warri, Mr. Ezele Efeme, in his contribution at the discourse said; “The country is enmeshed in corruption and crimes seem to look like our younger brother, unemployment is in our face and the worst of all is the issue of insecurity. The Nigeria value system is so bad that everything we do we worship money. We do not want to look at the people in the people but rather, the money in people. When a man seems not to have money we will say the man is not rich and is not in existence. It is a sad situation. But the main problem in this country is the problem of corruption.”
“The main problem we have in this country is corruption. Please do not ask me how we can solve it. We are singing corruption like a national anthem but what we are doing seems to tell us that corruption seems to be a deity that we are watching. Like I said crime has opened its mouth wide and criminals are eulogized provided they are able to meander their ways. Another problem is insecurity that is spreading like wild fire and we also have the problem of unemployment. We have able bodied youths that do not have jobs in this country and this is not good for our nation. Like one of our speakers has said, these youths are ready to do anything provided the pay is right. We have to look for ways to begin to solve all these problems so that this country will stop crawling and begin to walk,” he submitted.
Delta State former Oil and Gas Commissioner, Barrister David Ekerekosu lamented at the discourse that insincerity was doing Nigerians a great harm.
He said; ‘I am very happy to be part of this discourse put together by National Reformer Newspaper. Sorry to say, but insincerity is the major problem in this nation. We are not sincere to ourselves because if we do, how come some persons from the Northern part of the country have vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan. If we are sincere to ourselves, I see no reason why people will be throwing bombs everywhere and killing innocent Nigerians because a man from the South -South region is now president. I do not see why some people should think that they are born to rule this country forever. This is not fair. Some elements from the Northern part of this country are making the rest of us to believe that, apart from them, other people cannot rule this country. They are saying that how come that one man from unknown riverine community in the Niger Delta region who is supposed to be a canoe carver and a fisherman, is ruling this country. I want to implore such people to do away with such thinking and accept it that we are all equal stakeholders as far as the governing of this country is concerned. Nigerians should be fair and sincere and this is the only way we can move forward in this nation. May God help us all.”
On his part, Lt. Col. Satchie A. Etoromi (Rtd) said the problem of Nigeria was greed and deception, adding that Nigerian leaders are seeing themselves as higher than every other Nigerian.
“The problem we have in Nigeria is deception. Our leaders keep deceiving us. They see themselves as ‘Oga’ at the top and every other person as a slave. Nigeria is such a place that what works in other countries do not work here. Everything fails here in Nigeria and we say it is the Nigerian factor. We cannot conduct election and census correctly. The only credible election we had in this country was annulled at this day in 1993. So there is a problem in this country, he said.
He added that; “Boko Haram that we are seeing today, whether you like it or not, is being organized by the Northern governors. I said it and I want them to come out and prove that they are not the ones sponsoring them. Some of these governors have openly made some comments that is making us to feel that they are the ones sponsoring Boko Haram.”
“They have told Jonathan that if he contest the 2015 elections, they are going to make the country ungovernable for him. Now Jonathan cannot even tell us whether he is contesting or not. Maybe he is waiting for the last minute. None of the Presidents we have had were told not to contest for second tenure. It has never happened. So why should it start now. Is it because he is from the South South region where we are a minority?”
Comrade Matthew Itsekure, a Niger Delta Activist in his submission, “What we believe is that there is a high handedness from some quarters to shortchange the good people of the Niger Delta. And I said so with every sense of responsibility. I remember very clearly in that protest that I said what is the like of Farouk Lawal doing making laws for you and I. There is a legal maxim that said that he who goes to equity must do so with a clean hand. How can a thief be calling somebody a thief? Only this morning (not today) I read in the newspapers that ICPC has re-arraigned Farouk Lawal and Emenalo in an ICPC court and not even through the normal Courts.”
In his words also, “As for me, once upon a time in this country, we had somebody who spent 16 billion naira on a contract that cannot see the light of the day. Yet the man is making trouble all over the place. I now ask myself, is there anybody that is above the law in this country? Where are the Funsho Kupolukons in the NNPC? Where are they today? Where are the Rilwanu Lukman of this country? How the likes of Danjuma did came about his wealth. Nobody is asking questions. Where is Obaseki? You are saying somebody spent money that is in the budget and you are saying that that person should be investigated. What happened to all these long lists of people? I am saying that they should not investigate here until these long lists of cases are resolved. Nobody is bigger than the other in this country for Christ sake. I am not saying that the woman should not be investigated. What I am saying is that we should go back to our past and look at the steps we have taken to correct these things that we are talking about.”
He added that “I have very many issues to talk about but because of time, I will just limit myself to what I call a clear case of conspiracy against the Niger Delta region. And I say so with every sense of responsibility. The fact is that President Jonathan did not manufacture Boko Haram crisis. As a matter of fact, Boko haram started way back before Jonathan became the president of this country. Why do people think it is Jonathan’s problem? The time you were supposed to provide solutions, you did not. Instead you a vilifying this man for no just course simple because he is one man from the minority that is leading this country. But for the oil in the Niger Delta today, Nigeria will have been nowhere. Now, somebody like Theophilus Danjuma is having a foundation with our wealth.
There is no oil well from where he comes from but today he is using our money to do charity. Meanwhile you and I that are having the oil do not have access to it. The only solution to this problem is permanent resource control. Nobody is saying anything. We should ask ourselves, what happened to the 1963 constitution where they have said that derivation was the order of the day. Why did oil suddenly become a national wealth? There was a time when we were dependent on groundnut, cocoa, coal and others, yet we had progressive development because people were allowed to control their resources. Why in the name of God should we allow our wealth to become a national wealth? This is a question I want all of us to ponder on.”
The Proprietress of Chinkelly Schools, Ekpan, Delta State, Dr. [Mrs.] Veronica E. Ogbuagu [JP] described Nigeria as a disintegrated, battered and groaning country where the people are cowards and talk more but do less.
While calling for visionary leaders, Dr. Ogbuagu lamented that the country lacks visionary leaders who have the interest of the people at heart, adding the all that the politicians cared for was how to accumulate power for selfish reasons.
She said; “I was amazed at the figures published by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Vanguard, Monday, June 2, 2014, page 7. Okonjo-Iweala charged Nigerians to ask their governors what they do with allocations.
“The Minister stated that in 2013 alone “Akwa Ibom got N260 billion; Rivers N230 billions; Delta N209 billion; Bayelsa N173billion; Lagos N168billion, Kaduna N97billion and Borno, N94billion. Analysis showed that many Nigerian states receive revenue allocations which are larger than budgetary allocations of neighbouring countries such as Liberia which is $433million and Gambia, $210million. “Shai, Shai, there is God oh”, Nigerian governors!”
Every problem in our country today has its roots in bad leadership. Most of our leaders never really had the skill and competence to lead a nation like ours. Nigeria needs a leader who is competent, committed, courageous, patriotic, disciplined, trustworthy and embedded in the ethos and principles of democracy. We need enlighten leaders with God fearing heart. There is also the burden of bad followership. Leaders cannot be bad unless the followership allow them to be. We are no better than those in top leadership positions. We blame our leaders but fail to be upright in the little duties and offices we hold.”
Dr. Ogbuagu advised the country to look into the future with optimism and believe that a new Nigeria was possible, adding that “if we believe it and work for it, trusting God with whom all things are possible, the new Nigeria which is our dream will be realized.”
Barrister Victor Otomiewo posited that the country was the way it is because the justice system has been bastardized, stressing that Nigerian Judges were more corrupt than the politicians.
He said; “if you know what is going on from the Supreme Court down to the District Court, you will weep for this country. Justice is no longer for the common man. You can go out there and buy your justice and that is why somebody can call you to come and do a thanksgiving that has caused commotion in the Supreme Court.
Take the judgment in Ogboru’s case for instance. The judgment was fixed on Monday and on Saturday I have known what judgment is going to be. So a Lawyer called me from Abuja and told me what the judgment is going to be and I called some people and told them and they didn’t believe. When the judgment came out, it was exactly what they given to me. Sometime the Lawyers come to waste their time in court. The Judiciary is worse than the boko haram because you cannot just bring peace on injustice.”
He also blamed the woes of the nation to lack of sincerity on the part of the government to serve the people, adding the education has been relegated to the background and to the detriment of our children.
He therefore called on Nigerians to rise up and fight for their rights as God will not come down from heaven to fight their fight for them. He took a swipe at religious leaders who he said were fueling the embers of poverty in the country.
Another Niger Delta Activist, Comrade Paul Bebenimibo said “This discourse that we are having today is a very important one. I just want to raise one issue because in Dr. Omawumi Urhobo’s paper, the issue of illegal bunkering was raised and nobody has said anything about it. To be properly put, the practice is not illegal bunkering but the stealing of crude oil. There are so many stealing that are going on in this country. If we look at Nigeria today, we are dependent only on crude oil. The reason why Mr. President is having problems today is not because he is from the minority but because he is presiding over how the oil money should be spent. That is the problem we are having today. Now talking about oil theft in this country there is another one that is happening today that nobody is paying attention to what about illegal mining activities that is going on in this country? Few years ago, an issue came up that led killed about four hundred children in Zamfara State.”
“What happened were the illegal mining activities going on there that caused the death of these children? Now, nobody is talking about the illegal mining of solid minerals going in the country. Everybody is talking about oil that is being stolen from the Niger Delta region. Imaging the federal government came up and said the country lost about 81 billion naira to oil theft in April alone. If this country cannot secure the pipelines that generates the revenue that the country shares, even those that did not even contribute share from this revenue. The proper thing is if you don’t work you cannot eat. I want to be very careful here today. I want to advocate for the people that produce this oil that we sharing among ourselves that the government should take care of their wellbeing and that is when the other countries are going to get their own dues. Mr. President said recently that our country is not poor. Nigeria is rated as number five oil producing countries in this world. Are we not the ones that are having the richest man in Africa in the person of Aliko Dangote?,” he said also.
According to him, “So, let us look at how the people that are producing the oil will be catered for and that is when things will work well for everybody to participate in the sharing of the national cake. I want to clear an impression given by our learned leader, Barrister Victor Otomiewo, because all along it has been that pattern. When you were in Government you see nothing wrong with it, but when you are out of government everything is wrong. I remember that Barrister Otomiewo was the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in this state. Why should he come out and say that nothing is working in Delta State. When he was there, what did he do to make sure that things work? The problem we are having in this country is that we talk too much but do nothing. I want to advice that people in this country should obey simple laws of the country. Our leaders are trying! It is the citizens that are not trying. Look at the drainages the government provided for us. Do we take care of these drainages? You see people throwing all sorts of cabbage without any conscience, yet we say the government is not trying. The problem of this country is the individuals. If we all do the right things then things will work. I also want to say that we should not say that it is a woman that is ruling this country. For a learned person to that it is a woman that is ruling this country is embarrassing.”
Elder Francis Y. Salifu, the “Omachi-Attah” of Igala Nation stated that: “First of all I want to say that the problem of this country has brought a lot of rot in our nation, and that rot has brought a lot of disconnection in the nation. We are having a misunderstanding of what binds us together and what will move us forward. In 1999, when we were talking about how to develop this nation, somebody talked about development of the Niger Delta and another person asked, what was the master plan for the development of the Niger Delta region? The region has been complaining that they are neglected. Somebody said that we should give the region some oil blocs so that they can use it to develop their states and nobody argued that. The problem we are facing in this country is caused by few Nigerians.”
He also said: “My submission on insecurity in Nigeria, I will say is as a result of illiteracy, ignorance and lack of sincerity on the part of our people. Thank God today we are talking about Boko Haram insurgency. What is the government doing about this insurgency? What is the percentage of the number of the Boko Haram sect? Like one of the speakers said, Boko Haram is the problem of this country but the insincerity of the people at the helm of affairs. Bringing the insurgency down is not a problem. Terrorism that we are talking today will multiply if care is not taking. So let us note that bad government, disunity and corruption are some of the big challenges we have as a nation. If the country is to be ruled by anybody, it does not matter where the person comes from. Let us reduce corruption if we cannot eliminate it.”
“Then, there is power and the abuse of wealth. We abuse power and wealth a lot in this country. We should try and discourage it. Bad policy is another problem that we have in this country. There no policies to regulate the activities of people in this country. Take for example, if you have a case in the court with somebody who has a lot of money, he will go to the court and buy the case with his money. We should rise up as a nation and check the excess of our leaders,” he said.
According to him: “Before I go, let me comment on Governor Uduaghan’s Delta Beyond Oil policy. A lot of people are criticizing him but I think what he is doing is the right step towards the right direction. If we talk of resource control, Kogi State will not be second to none in this country. This is as a result of bad government that we have in Nigeria because if you talk of iron ore, we have it in abundant. Japan did not have iron ore before it became a country of iron. We also have other minerals in the country but we are concentrating too much on oil alone. What is happening in the Niger Delta could happen anywhere tomorrow. So, I will say, let us put the right policies in place and the country will be better for it.”
A Warri-based lawyer, Barr. Mike Ukusare held that: “I want to see Nigeria as a basket and I like to see all of us as eggs in the basket. If at least 98% of the eggs were good, the possibility of choosing one good person to rule this country would be high and vice versa. The problem of Nigeria, like many people here have said, is Nigerians. I do not have problem with APC, PDP, or any party.”
He added that: “The problems with these parties are the human beings; the Nigerians are the problem. We are the problem of Nigeria because this is the only country where we know that something is wrong in law, the people will tell the governor to do it. Let us take for instance Delta state. This is a state where we all know that caretaker committees for local government are illegal, yet some people went to tell the man to set it up.”
“As I speak to you now, my colleagues who are lawyers are chairmen and secretaries of these committees. Here is a country that we know that caretaker committee is evil, but when it pleases the governor of Edo State, he will set it up and PDP in Delta state will say it is illegal. This is a country where, as soon as you get into power, you spend government resources to fly to abroad. That country that they going to all the time, if the local government chairman there took the money and went away, if the governor and the president there took the money away, will you go there? A state like Bayelsa that was ruled by Depreye Alamiesiaghe who took the money of the state away to London, there is a governor there who made the place look beautiful. Instead of you to make Bayelsa State as beautiful as England you went to carry the people’s money and ran to England. The opportunity we have to put this country in good shape, we always blow it away. We are here busy talking, the people who are in power now were just like us in 1999. They were the ones shouting, government is bad, government is this, they are the ones in power now. Look at our youths today. I will tell you that the generation of youths that we have today cannot solve the problem that we have. All they are interested is money, money and money. So we are the problem. My colleague who was here today, I am sorry I did not share his view that we are buying judgment everywhere. I got judgment yesterday and I did not buy it and I never saw the Judge. Our problem is that we select the bad Judges against the good Judges and that is why we can never have justice in this country. This is the only country where people know that there is a law, but they choose to do what is in their minds. We have a law that says that before expiration of the tenure of a local government chairman, there must be another one that he could handover to. But here in Nigeria, the governors are always deciding in their minds on what to do. So we are the problem of this country,” he also said.
Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo, Executive Director, Nigeria Rebirth Initiative (NRI) posited: “The president should have a rethink and discard all the calls from those who are against amnesty for Boko Haram.”
“It takes two sides to make and have peace, the Borno elders should also play their part by prevailing on the insurgents to lay down their arms and embrace dialogue. They should know that their demand or an Islamic state for Nigeria is practically impossible if this is the only bargaining chips that they have to enter into dialogue with government. To practice any religion or mode of worship is not by force or coercion, it has not happened anywhere in the world and Nigeria cannot be the country to be used as a reference point,” he also said.
In his words: “I know majority of these people are green with envy, when they hear on daily basis the amount of money that is being budgeted for the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, and this might just be some of the root causes of what we are seeing today. In spite of all the jumbo amount of money expended by government for the protection of pipelines we still see astronomical rise in the theft of crude oil, and government losing monies to the tune of N7Bn monthly. No government will survive with this kind of financial hemorrhage.”
According to him: “At the height of the insurgency in the Niger Delta, l opposed the visit of the president, then vice president to the creeks to meet with the militants because it is demeaning and that singular act emboldened these boys to see themselves as untouchables in society and that might is right, and carrying of guns to intimidate and cause destruction of lives and properties and get the attention of government is the only means to an end, and of course they got the attention of government and today we have a different ball game with every ethnic group holding onto one issue or the other to cause havoc and get the attention of government to address them and it goes on like a Domino. And if we are not careful we should be prepared to encounter another group from another part of the country agitating for one thing or the other. And how do we deal with that. Therefore, if the amnesty for Boko Haram sails through government has to device a means to come up with measures to curtail or outlaw ethnic militia. After all some of these people parading themselves as militants and Ex-Militants would have been in prison paying for the crimes committed against the Nigerian state.”
The reason given by the Niger Delta militants for their insurgency then, he said: “Has not changed, the Niger Delta still remains under-developed, environmental degradation is still prevalent, disease and oil pollution related diseases are still prevalent in the area, there is dearth of infrastructure, the call for the relocation of the headquarters of the OIC’s to the region did not materialize, the call for the employment of qualified indigenes of the area did not materialize, so what did we gain from the insurgency, safe for the enrichment of some few persons who now see themselves as thin gods and have become king-makers overnight, all because we have degenerated to a level of where anything goes and a society only fit for animals. If these are the things that have happened, what about those that where killed, those that lost loved ones, those kidnapped so on and so forth.”
The same thing could be applied to the Boko Haram issue. I will advise the government to pay reparation to families of those who may have lost loved ones and those that have suffered one form of agony or the other as a result of the Boko Haram insurgent activities.
A Muslim cleric, Alhaji Sadiq Oniyesaneyene Musa held: “This year marks 54 years of Nigeria independence and than 15 years of the current democratic rule in Nigeria with little to show or write about. As long as we continue to do things the wrong way we will continue to get the wrong result. We are taking multiple steps in the wrong direction. Nigeria needs the right steps in the right direction.
“If we do not know where we are going, we should remember where we are coming from. I can still remember in my early days at Carvagina Primary School here in Warri the moral value impact in me, I can also remember at Hussey College also in Warri where Indian teachers used to teach us. They came all the way from India with their families; the educational system was very good then.”
“As at then, we do not know countries call Malaysia and Brazil because they are not in the same level of development with Nigeria. Alas, today is very different. In the case of countries like Ghana, their citizens came to Nigeria as manual labourers and shoe makers. Today they have the best educational system in West Africa.
“Still on education, those who can do it better will not be given the chance to do it either for one reason or the other; you do not belong to us! Meaning you are not from our party or you are not from our cult or you can not steal like us and our secret will be revealed. Nigerians should ask question, what happen to Professor Rukayat Rufai former Education minister under the present administration?”
Earlier, News Editor of National Reformer Newspaper, Francis Sadhere had said: “First of all, we want to thank all of you for making out time to be here today to attend this programme and we want to say a very big thank you for coming because it is not easy as a result of your tight schedule. You are welcome.
It is exactly 21 years today since June 12, 1993 general election was annulled by the former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB). Our choice of today for our discourse on the state of the nation is that we have not been able to get it right since 1993 even though our democracy has come to stay since 1999 till date. But we are not there yet. We pray we get there someday.
We have invited all of you here today for a frank talk, for point blank and straight talk. Let us talk to ourselves on the state of the nation. So many things are wrong with our country, but we as a people are afraid to talk. But talk, we must talk.
We at National Reformer Newspaper have decided to set agenda for the Nigerian people to talk to themselves about affairs in the country. Feel free to speak out today, otherwise generations yet unborn will not forgive us.
The elections are around the corner again and our politicians are on the match again. We are using this discourse on the state of the nation to appeal to our politicians that their campaigns should be issue based and not personal.
We want to implore them too, not to buy guns for our unemployed youths to kill all of us before and after the elections. If we are all killed before the elections, who are the politicians go to lead? Give the youths gainful employments and not guns. We say enough killings in our nation. Boko Haram should halt their activities and allow our nation to know peace. Our politicians should build more schools and not prisons. They should build hospitals, they should establish industries, give us good roads and bridges. They are out with promises again, promising to build bridges for us where there are no rivers. We do not want such promises again.
This National Discourse holding today in the oil rich city of Warri is our own little way of contributing our quota to the sea of problems confronting the nation.
And this is why we have selected Nigerians from various fields as speakers at the National Discourse. The speakers are not going to be guided as the Discourse is going to be point blank, straight talk from the hearts of carefully selected experts, as earlier said.
We are all aware that the nation is passing through serious challenges and this is why we want Nigerians to speak out at this time and come out with solutions.
Once again we thank our speakers for finding time to be here with us today. This is not just about us alone in National Reformer Newspaper, but about all of us Nigerians. Let us join hands to build a nation of our dream as we do not have another country to call our own.”
