Mr. Babatunde Ereola was a member of the Constituent Assembly (1988-89), publicity secretary of Bamanga Tukur presidential campaign organisation in 1989 and one of those who engineered the creation of Osun State. He spoke with Musa Odoshimokhe in Lagos on national issues.
Having served as a member of the Constituent Assembly, how would you want Nigeria governed?
I’m an advocate of devolution of power. This is because power at the centre has always been misused. Leadership has always been the bane of the country. Although people have been coming out to rule the country, those who have good intention to serve have not been given the chance. It is those who are not prepared that have been ruling.
Right from the First Republic, the late Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa did not want to be the Prime Minister. He was sent to the centre by the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. Ahmadu Bello wanted to be at the region and that is what we called qualitative leadership.
When the military struck and took over power, my father was in Parliament too at that period. The level of debate and other things were well coordinated. I want to say that at that period, Nigeria made some level of progress. I think the problem we had was the military incursion that derailed the democratic process. In fact, democracy had never been perfect all over the world, even in America. If the military had not come, and since democracy is trial and error thing, democracy would have grown naturally here in Nigeria.
So how did the military incursion affect the political scene?
When General J T U Aguiyi Ironsi came in, I think that was when sectional politics got more entrenched in Nigeria. The Igbos were lining up behind their leader, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, the Yoruba behind Awolowo and the North were behind Ahmadu Bello and Balewa even though they were dead. This now brings us to the issue of national character, quota system and all the jargons in our lexicon which has not been done on merit again. This I will say has been the bane of our political development.
If leadership has been the bane of Nigeria, then what is the way forward?
This issue of leadership is what we have to examine critically and that is what should be the concern of everybody. We need an entirely new orientation and this is why I subscribe to the call for a national conference. This is desirable because right now there is the emergence of various militant groups in the country such as the Odua People’s Congress, Egbesu boys, Ijaw Nationalist Congress, Arewa and the latest; the Boko Haram. Well, we should not get the formation of these militant groups wrong. Some of them are not criminal in nature and their agitations are genuine and borne out of poor leadership. Their emergence calls for concern and I believe it is now time for the federal government to convene a national conference to determine how Nigerians want to stay together. People are agitating for state police because of the security lapses in the country, law and order have broken down. Nigerians are no longer safe. right now, there is nowhere in the country where one is safe. Our leaders find themselves in leadership position not because they are more qualified than others or because of their intelligence but because they have perfected ways of how to corner power.
What are your expectations from President Goodluck Jonathan?
At this stage, he should initiate a policy that will ensure adequate power supply. It should be a policy that can even allow a local government to generate electricity for its locality. Again, he must ensure effective and adequate security. This is essential because people need to be protected and those giving useful information about criminals should be protected too.
The situation we have now is bad because no sooner than security information is released, it is divulged to criminals. People need proper orientation and that is why we need to flush out criminals who are now parading themselves as politicians in government.
Again, my candid opinion is that if the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua was alive to complete his tenure, he would have made a difference. But with President Jonathan I have the hope that Nigeria still has the opportunity to be a better nation. President Jonathan at this stage should be courageous and take a strong stand on the way forward for Nigeria. He should be bold and be a states man.
Government is talking about removing oil subsidy…
Nigeria leaders should be careful about this. They must not take Nigerians for a ride. I could recollect what Venezuela’s High Commissioner to Nigeria said. according to him, the oil in that country is a natural gift which must be enjoyed by the people. The same principle should be applicable to us here in Nigeria. Removing oil subsidy can cause problem and it could lead to chaos. Our leader should not think that what happened in the Arab world cannot happen in Nigeria.
Nigerians are hungry and angry, there is no employment and anything done now to compound the already tense situation could lead to crisis. The president should try his best not to dance to the tune of some selfish people who may want to use this as an opportunity to run down his government and make it unpopular.
Original post:
‘Why toying with oil subsidy is dangerous’