I think we have reached a cross road, it is either for us as a nation
to agree that we want to live together or otherwise, but we must learn
from the mistake of others. Look at southern Sudan of recent for
example, southern Sudan started their agitation and got their
independence, Silva green and Marshal started fighting themselves.
The
people of Sudan had big dreams because they had oil and fertile land,
they claim they were suffering because the northern Sudan has been
suppressing them through religion. So when it became worse, the country
was divided and everybody went his own way. Unfortunately for southern
Sudan, from the day they got independent, that was the day their problem
started. It is only in Southern Sudan that you hear about five hundred
people will be killed in one night, wiped out in a day and all these
fight is between two people, Marshal and Silver Green. These people
speak the same language and have the same faith. So it is a homogenous
society but because of greed and selfishness of some people, they
destroyed so many lives and villages. Now I read recently that ordinary
in South Sudan people were asking, ‘what is this? ‘So if some people in
Nigeria feel that we should go our separate ways, let us do it peaceable
without shedding blood. One wrong notion I have notice is that, anytime
some people want to make criticism, they will say it is the North that
don’t want to let go of leadership and they have ruling for over 35 year now, because they don’t have anything in
their zone. The British that put us together are not fools, they have a
reason for doing so which is selfishness and I do not think is right. So let us come together and discuss, not in
national conference because those that come in the conference always
have hidden agenda but if the people of Biafra want to go, let them go. They have suffered enough in this country. Let this administration not make the mistake of forcing people to live
where they don’t want to live. When we were kids, we
didn’t know the difference between Christians and Muslim. We used to
love each other and live in peace, families have both Christians and
Muslims before, but they introduced religion in politics, we have seen
what has happened in Kaduna and Plateau, so enough is enough, anybody
that feels they can Balkanize Nigeria, it’s enough, they should go.
You wrote a book some time ago on the large deposit of oil in
the North, in places like Lake Chad basin and Benue trough, what did
you hope to achieve with the book?
My belief is that generations after will know that some of us tried
their best. What remains a mystery is that leaders over the years have
refused to do anything that will better the lives of their people in the
North and looting money.
But what will it take for Nigeria to exploit this oil?
Political will. When there is a will, there is always a way. There
are twenty three wells that are showing signs of carbon. We have visited
the wells in Bauchi, Gombe and the rest. We once took it to Obasanjo
when he was president, he tried to do something about it but so far,
there is nothing on ground. Abacha started and even brought SHELL and
Chevron but when new government came in, they abandoned it. What it will
take is will on the part of government.
Going back to the North-east, what has been the impact of insurgency in the zone?
I think as it is now, we are only able to assess only 10% of the
devastation that has occurred in the region. The devastation that has
occurred in the North-east is multidimensional. Apart from the physical
destruction of city, villages and their wealth, the most devastating
experience is when your values have been devalued. People can come into
your compound and rape your women young girls and in some cases, the men
and burn their houses and properties. There is no way you can remove
that from their memories. If you want to quantify that kind of damage,
what will it be? Their way of life has been damaged forever, they have
to start all over again. The difference between what is happening in the
North-east today and the Biafra war is that, I mention Biafra because I
see that some people are beginning to agitate for the creation of
Biafra again. I see it as nonsense. What we have before us is how to
revive our nation, not what they are talking about…
What will it take to rebuild the North-east
After the First World War, the Marshall plan was established for the
whole of Europe, if they can borrow from that, then we can have a good
beginning. After the civil war, there was no area that was not touched
by government. The government of Gowon brought up the idea of three Rs
which was reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction. We need to
reconcile the people, then rehabilitated the women especially those that
have been rape. They have ben degrade and disgrace and one way or the
other, it will affect them for life including their families. So they
will need a lot of rehabilitation and then government must embark on lot
of reconstruction, homes and businesses that have been destroyed must
be rebuilt and person compensated.
How will you compare the present day senate with the one of your time?
Basically, there is not much fundamental difference but the advantage
this senate has is that it had the opportunity to build on previous
precedent from our time till date. For us we had to start from the
beginning because of the long years of military intervention in the
polity, we had no precedent to follow.
The 8th senate has been involved in one crises after another,
from its leadership to chairmen of committee, what do you make of this?
It is not healthy because it portrays the senate in bad light, it
depends from what perspective you want to view it. For me, the national
assembly is called to serve with integrity and selflessness which they
have. So if we start to reduce it to the issue of committees, then we
have missed it. This is the first time that I started hearing of the
theme ‘juicy committee’. Are you going to that committee to serve or to
make money? To me, I think we are all aspiring to serve our fatherland
in different so that we can leave a good legacy. The question of
struggling for committee is not state manly
This senate set a trend of having a deputy from the opposition, is this another precedent?
As far as I am concern, we are operating under a rule of law and that
rule of law is called the constitution and it covers everything in the
nations. It was clear that there shall be a senate and in that senate,
there shall be a presiding officer or senate president, and they will
chose among themselves. It is stated that it is from the majority party
in the senate. But what has transpired is not secret, what is happening
in the current senate will constitute part of their history, which is
indelible, you cannot erase it.
The president has decided to man the petroleum sector himself
and we know that Obasanjo tried to do that and nothing much was
achieved. Do you think it is the wise thing for him to head the sector?
These are two different people with two different approach to
governance. If you look at Obasanjo, he has never been in that sector
unlike Buhari who was a minister of petroleum and chairman of PTF at a
time. His understanding of the industry coupled with his standing in the
committee of oil exporting nations has given him an edge. We need to
give him support so that he can realize his vision. Please like, share and follow!