Daniel Kanu
Former President of Aka-Ikenga, the Igbo intellectual think-tank, Dr Sylvan Ebigwei, has taken a critical look at the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and concluded that nothing has really changed.
In this exclusive interview with Sunday Sun, the renowned consultant dental surgeon also spoke on sensitive national issues, including the fight on corruption, cross-carpeting in Nigerian politics, state of the economy, and security challenge, among others. Excerpts:
When you reflect back from 2015 when President Goodluck Jonathan left office till date what are some of your reflections in terms of the changes you are excited about?
I must confess that when the present administration under Buhari came on board, many people were happy because of his stance on corruption, but as we know when you fight corruption, corruption will fight you back. Initially, there appears as if there was a change, but now I think the present government is being subsumed by the spate of corruption that they are fighting. So, I can say in terms of corruption index there is no change because people are still stealing as usual and it reflects on the society. The society is becoming poorer and poorer and those who are rich are getting richer and richer. Those who are supposed to be persecuted for haven drained this country are now left loose, all walking free. So, no matter what you say, no matter what you do the country, all over now, everybody knows that corruption is no more being fought as it should be. It appears there is no motion whatsoever. Look at the election we just had, it’s a complete reversal of what happened in 2015. For me, there was no election and most of us that voted are regretting of voting.
If you are talking about the economy can we, in all honesty, say its better today? The economic index, according to many of us, is what your money can buy. If you are receiving N1,000, what can N1,000 buy during the past administration and what can N1,000 buy during this administration? That is the only way to measure if there is any change in the economy. The economy may be booming for some people, but to some others, the larger population, I don’t think they gained anything so far because everything has spiraled upwards in terms of cost. The masses are suffering whereas the advantages being gained by political office holders are getting higher and higher. To me, things have not changed as such for the common man because the common man is still struggling and things are getting harder. This administration should get the right people into the government to redirect this economy. You can see how we have been involved in borrowing spree. The last amount from the budget office shows we have borrowed N24.4 trillion. It is sad.
You have said in some of your interviews that unless the pecks of office of public servants like the politicians are reduced that the country’s problem would continue. Throw more light on it?
Yes, the emoluments, take-home pay for an average Nigerian politician is so attractive and because of that huge attraction, many politicians are ready to kill, maim, cheat, lie and commit any atrocity in order to be there. They will lose their sense of value if they feel that they are losing. So, all they need to do is to cross to the winning group where they feel they will continue with political relevance in terms of getting their financial largesse. There is no country in this world where the legislative duties or legislators take home what the Nigerian legislators are taking for doing nothing. The politicians themselves know that they are doing nothing; they know that they are on part-time. They are not working throughout the year like other civil or public servants. Many of them do not attend up to even 70 times in a year, but look at their take-home pay? To me, it’s nothing but fraud. And because of this very attractive high pay, nobody wants to lose such money, therefore, they want to maintain themselves at all costs and some will prefer to die in office than contemplate losing an election. If they sense that they are losing in any party the next thing is to cross to another party where they will continue to maintain their stand and status quo in office. Unless this country does something, I mean if this country wants to move forward, if Nigeria wants to produce good politicians, the right type of politicians, those with the love of the country at heart then we have to drastically do something about the emoluments and incentives given to the politicians. If we continue the way we are going, I am afraid. I have put in more than 49 years as a doctor and still scratching, but if I am a politician now, I can afford to pay more than 1,000 doctors from my own take-home pay every year. More than a thousand doctors can be paid from a politician’s salary in this country and you think such is normal?
What do you make of the cross-carpeting from one party to another by the Nigeria politician?
I see it as a very shameful thing to do. It portrays that many of our politicians are still primitive minded. Primitive in the sense that you equate a primitive man with one of the major attributes to self…which is me and me alone no other person. A primitive man wants it all alone and that is why we say that many animals are primitive because, in the animal kingdom, it is the survival of the fittest. Any politician who leaves his own political party after being duly elected on a party platform and crosses to another party either because his party is in opposition has no value. His own value borders on self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, and personal interest, all joined together. One may ask: why is the politician cross-carpeting? The politician is cross-carpeting because of the fear of losing his position either as an opposition member of the party that is not in government, therefore, the pecks of office is not getting to him/her, so they prefer to join those that have the yam and the knife. To me, they have no scruples, no shame, no values, and no interest for the common man except personal interest.
What of in the area of security challenge?
Ask yourself are we more secured now than before? Insecurity is worse than before. I can say the only secured people now are people in the Southeast because the military and the law enforcement agencies have done quite a lot there. So, Southeast, Nigeria has relative peace now in terms of security. Many agitators are still in the Southeast, but they are not carrying arms, they are just children, some have not witnessed a civil war. So, they just carry the banner and make their demonstration, but that does not constitute any form of security breach, but my worry now is that the Boko Haram they claim have been degraded the upsurge in their activity is very worrisome. We have not been having this problem of Fulani herdsmen this way. They have become another source of worry to the nation, all over the country and not much is being done about it. We have not seen any one of them prosecuted or imprisoned. A lot of blood is being spilled today and this is not good for the nation. Security outfit should not be the exclusive reserve of one region, the heads of various security outfits should have a national spread because that national spread will help to bring ideas and techniques through which most of these crimes are busted and even stopped before the deal is initiated.
You have always said Nigeria needs restructuring?
Yes. For me, restructuring should be in three phases: geographical restructuring, fiscal federalism, devolution of power, this will bring enormous credit to the federating units because the federating units in the first place will start to evolve on their own with their own resources. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Those who think they don’t have money will start looking for money through taxation, through putting fiscal policies that will generate them income etc, and such income will not be wasted by one person because the government is now nearer to the people and the people will start asking more questions on what you (the leader) did with the money and if you cannot explain how you used the money they will remove you out of power and there will be healthy competition among the federating units. If, for instance, the people in the riverine areas are producing ships, the people in the hinterland will start to produce other things like car, airplane etc, to march them. You can recall what happened during the time of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Great Zik of Africa and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, among others. There was healthy competition then. If you do genuine restructuring most of these things will come back.
Is it not daydreaming. How realistic can this be?
It is not daydreaming. This administration is not the last administration Nigeria will have. An administration will come that will look at the problems of Nigeria and properly address it. This present administration may not want to listen, but we must continue to sing the song of restructuring because it’s the only alternative. Right now we are having an unusual political climate in the country. It’s a matter of time; those that will act on it will emerge. The present executives and those in the National Assembly may not want to listen because they are gaining from the present system. Those in the legislature cannot legislate themselves out of power now because of the perks of office, but it must surely happen someday. As at today democracy has been turned upside down. The votes are no more counting and the gains made in 2015 have been rubbished by those that conducted the present election.
But if we have good leaders can’t this country fly without restructuring?
It’s a daydream and I don’t believe in it. People may be good, but when you place them in an environment where the surrounding stinks, such a person or leader can never give the optimal best, never. A bad system will frustrate and corrupt a good leader. There is no way you can produce a white material from a black material unless you bleach it, so Nigeria needs to be bleached in other to produce good leaders and what is that material needed for the bleaching, it is structural change. The geographical division in Nigeria is faulty; it is skewed against a certain group of Nigerians to put them down, so it is a lie. So, to correct it we have to redefine structurally the constitution of this country in terms of federating units. There are two ways. The first one is, convert the six geographical zones into the federating units of the country or create a seventh one to take care of certain minorities in the North. The second suggestion is to allow the six geographical zones to become the federating units and within the federating units are the states. So, any geographical zone will gather the entire ethnic configuration within that zone to determine how they can govern themselves. The representation at the centre will be based on equal representation from the six zones. You have to balance the number of states in each federating zone. So, the states in the zone must be equal so any zone that has a shortfall must have a state to balance it up. Some cannot have seven states, some six while another has five states. The next one is the devolution of power. There are so many things in the exclusive legislative list, you have to reduce them and give them to the federating units. Remove items such as education, health, transport, agriculture, etc, let the Federal Government concern themselves with few items like general defense of the army, navy, air force, immigration, custom and exercise, currency control, diplomatic missions, etc, and a supreme court that is there to defend the constitution of the nation. The third one is the true fiscal federalism. This means that the federating units will take charge of their accruable and pay tax to the centre. We will have two constitutions, the federating unit’s internal constitution and the Federal Government constitution that will involve “we” the people, the 371 ethnic groups that we have in Nigeria. If these things are not done, we will have what Prof Obiozor will call concentric circles of conspiracies against the nation and against the people and against our evolving a truly viable nation. God has given us a large population, what we have to do is to design a way where we can forge this large population into a nation, with respect for one another.
Do you think the agitations in the Southeast by MASSOB and IPOB are proper and realizable?
You don’t underestimate movements like that and you can ignore them to your own peril. It is realizable agitation if they could muster more followership. If you conduct a referendum today you will find out that the East is not happy with their present situation in the country. What government should do is to look into the issues raised and address it. You must address the injustice in the political system or else more agitation will arise with time.
What is your advice to Ndigbo?
They should think home, look inwards. They should look homewards in every entrepreneurial step that they are taking. Nobody is an island unto himself, so Ndigbo cannot be an island unto themselves and that is why they spread all over the country and the entire world, but they should look inwards, put businesses, build industries in the East to create jobs. They should learn their lesson on how not to develop other places and after, you become an endangered species there. How many people from other parts of the country are developing estates and markets in the East? At a time the Jews held a meeting and stopped massive estate development elsewhere and went into the invisible economy, they started controlling gold mines, diamond mines and controlling the economies of the world, but not through estate developments that attracted so much envy, jealousy hatred for them.