Looking at the regional security outfit (Amotekun) being put in place in the Southwest, do you think it’s a solution to solving the problem of insecurity…?
(Cuts in) It’s a concept in the right direction. Well, those who put it together have done so in other to network the security situation in the Southwest and I think it’s the right step in the right direction because…you see, Nigeria is such a huge country and the security challenges are different from place to place, so the architects here must have taken into cognizance the peculiarities of the security challenges here. In the colonial period, for those of us of the older generation, apart from the Nigeria Police, which was for all parts of Nigeria, we had the regional police in the Southwest, while the native authority police were in every local government, in every major town. For example, I live in Akure, there was Akure native authority police, Ado-Ekiti native authority police, Ibadan native authority police, etc, so every town had the police. Now, the uninformed will say you have too many police forces that you are dividing the country, but that is wrong. The British gave every local government, every town a police force, even individual towns had a police force because they recognise that that is the most effective way of policing communities so those that have put together the Amotekun security programme for the Southwest have taken the right step in the right direction to localize security and ensure that those who are in charge of it know the terrain and are familiar with the threats that are peculiar to Nigeria. Yes, it is the right thing to do and I hope that other parts of Nigeria will do the same thing, over-aggregated national security apparatus is too large to be effective and so I will recommend that every region, every zone, if possible every local government should have security organisations policing their place. I am the Olu of Ilu-Abo, a small community in Akure North Local Government, we have our vigilante group, we are far less than a local government, we are not community police, you see…different people have different ways of protecting themselves, so we must allow this individuality to blossom forth so that we can feel, be confident, be assured of securing our home. The police that we have now are still too large to secure in your bed at night, so we need to bring it down to our small towns to enable those that know the environment and its people take care of security.
How will you react to Nigeria’s rising debt profile?
Again, it is worrisome because our ability to service debt, especially external debt is not increasing on the contrary, with the worldwide trend of de-emphasizing hydro-carbon fuel that is oil, which is our major export to pile up external debt now is frightening because our ability to service that debt which depends on how much oil we can produce and sell will be diminishing in future because most major economies who buy oil from us are diversifying away from oil to gas, to solar and other renewable sources of energy. Therefore, prudence, common sense urge us not to accumulate external debt, especially when this debt is not being acquired to create access that is directly productive that will enable us to earn income to service and repay it. All in all, I will advise that the government should adopt a cautious anti-debt policy for managing its external resources.
You sound as if you have fears for the country?
Of course, I have. I have a lot of fears for Nigeria. Let me put it this way not to waste many words: I started attending secondary school in Lagos when I was 14 years in 1953, I attended Igbobi College in Lagos. I will travel from Akure, by myself alone to Lagos to attend school at Igbobi, at the end of the term, I will travel back alone to Akure. I did that for five years, that was in the 1950s, now at 81 plus, going to 82 years, the Federal Government itself will not allow me to go to my farm alone, so at 14, I was free to travel alone from Akure to Lagos, no problem, but at 81, I am not allowed by the government itself to go alone to my farm behind my house, that summarises the situation. There has been a dramatic and fundamental change in the security situation in Nigeria, so this is my fear, that unless you do something fundamental the fear will continue. And then when you hear of people coming in from other countries, without any visa and our government say they will be given visa on arrival there is danger there. You know that before a visa is issued ordinarily the issuing authority must have found out as much as it can about the person they want to allow into the country. This is to make sure that the person poses no threat or challenge to its citizens, but now the government is saying that people who we don’t know, you don’t know what is their intention, they will arrive here and without vetting anything you will allow them into the country, that is a very frightening development, I hope the government will have a rethink and for the sake of all of us cancel this decision, it does not make sense, it’s not advisable and these people who are coming in as I said earlier, they may be terrorist, they may be armed robbers, they may be agents of foreign saboteurs, destabilizers, insurgents, etc; you just let them into your country, that is at the security level. At the economic level, we have millions and millions of unemployed youths, many of them graduates, well educated, we have no jobs for them. Now, we allow an open-door policy for other Africans to come in and compound that problem. We can hardly handle our unemployment problem, we are now asking others to join….I don’t understand the thinking behind that, it does not make sense, it’s a double-edged sword, it will compound the security situation. I hope the government will have a quick re-think. Yes, it is good to accommodate others but…when I was in government we played major roles in the liberation of many African countries, we managed liberation movements in Southern Africa and all that, yes, I was personally involved in all that, but you do whatever you are doing for other African countries without compromising the interest of your own people. Our responsibility is first and foremost for our citizens, Nigerians, therefore, you must not allow the concept of our being a big brother to make us do things that will expose our citizens to more danger and difficulties than they need to face.
