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 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, July 26, 2004.
Nigeria’s disintegration will
be good omen if...— Wada Nas
Alhaji Wada Nas was Minister
for Special Duties during the Abacha regime. Then his name was synonymous
with controversy. “In fact, I was given so many names for that - like
Wada Noise, Wada Nonsense and Wada the NADECO Minister, the alarmist and
so on,” he once enthused, asserting that should he be given another
opportunity to serve the nation, he will still be the same person. Till
date, he remains an ardent admirer of the late Sani Abacha and staunch defender
of his infamous regime. To him, “Abacha was the most courageous leader
Nigeria ever had”. No wonder during his time as a special duties
minister, he was both notorious and popular for sounding alarm bells on
alleged conspiracies, especially by NADECO. And at the time, it was sacrilegious for anybody to
canvass any position different from Abacha’s. In particular, Nas was wont
to cry blue murder at the mention of a So vereign National Conference,
the agenda so dear to the NADECO elements. Since the demise of Abacha in
1998, Nas has remained a key player in Nigerian politics, especially with
his trenchant criticism of the Obasanjo administration and consistent
commentary on knotty national issues. In the political landscape, the
party, which he single-handedly formed— Peoples Salvation Party (PSP)—did
not fare badly during the last general elections. It won the chairmanship
seat of Kura local government area, Kano State, and four councillorship
seats in the state. Surprisingly,
Nas recently made a volte face when he jumped into the Sovereign
National Conference bandwagon, which he now believes is the panacea for
the existence of Nigeria as one entity. In this interview with the Kaduna Bureau Chief, Sukuji
Bakoji, Nas bares his mind on many burning issues. Excerpts:
You
have been in politics since the First Republic. How would you describe
the attitude of the political class vis-�-vis the present democratic
dispensation?
Since the sad events of January
15, 1966, which is the worse form of June 12’ ever in our history, the
political class has never been the same again. In fact, its rank and file
became one of the greatest casualties of those events, which in turn
badly and negatively affected the quality of democracy and political
practice.
The murder of Prime Minister
Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the
Sardauna of Sokoto, his counterpart in the Western Region, Chief Samuel
Akintola, and the Federal Minister of Finance, in a bloody military coup
of that day, marked the beginning of the decline of the political class
as a relevant force in Nigeria’s policy. Matters were never helped by the
support given to those events by some elements of the political class.
Let it be noted that the very
military formation that threw them out of power had to use them during
the Gowon era to stabilise the polity but in a second grade position. The
political mighty of the era, such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mallam Aminu
Kano, Mr. Joseph Tarka, Alhaji Ali Mungono, and others, too numerous to
mention, were brought into government to clear the mess created by the
military itself.
With Gowon gone, they too were
brushed aside during the Obasanjo era when they were kept on the
sidelines. They however bounced back during the Second Republic to take
their rightful places. But this was short-lived. When the Buhari regime
came on board, the age of technocrat-politicians, or if you like,
political technocrats started gradually to emerge with practicing
politicians once more completely sidelined to the far background. This
continued in a modified form during the Babangida era when academics were
massively brought into political participation. This was the age of
professors in politics. Again, members of the political class were
consigned to the sidelines. When Babangida secured Awolowo’s avowal not
to participate in politics again, little did it occur to us that the
political coffin of this class was being nailed.
Soon, the age of ‘new
breedism’ occurred, but looking at it with hindsight, not so much for the
purpose of grooming up-coming political practitioners, but more on the
entrenchment of the political wing of military ruling class, from which
it is yet to recover.
There was a short-lived shift
of focus during the Abacha era. Like General Gowon brought into
government the members of the class, after their overthrow, General Sani
Abacha also brought them on board after their overthrow in 1983. Again,
this was short-lived as they soon gave way to a motley class of technocrats.
The regime of General Abubakar
Abdulsalami, as short as it was, was nevertheless very pronounced in
exposing the reduced status of the political class. This was when the
‘agbada’ wing of the military ruling class reduced them to nothing when
General Olusegun Obasanjo was manipulated into position against the much
favoured Dr. Alex Ekwueme who served as Vice President under Alhaji Shehu
Shagari during the Second Republic. It could be said that he was the most
senior politician of the Second Republic, the military ruling wing
imposed Obasanjo on them, an agenda which has started unfolding very
gradually.
The agenda started unfolding
when Obasanjo became barely tolerant of them. If you look around today,
there is hardly a politician of the Second Republic, let alone that of
the First Republic, who matters much in the current dispensation. Of
course people like Solomon Lar, who started during the First Republic,
are still being kept, though at a distance, for one reason or the other,
as also Richard Akinjide. There is also Maitama Sule in some position. Of
others, such as Ali Mungono, Adisa Akinloye and a few more, perhaps even
their pension benefits are not being paid to them. In effect, members of
the political class of the First Republic have since been confined to the
dustbin of history, with their opinion on issues not even being sought
except for those who might be used to achieve some objectives. Obasanjo
started routing them out when he made it impossible for Chief Sunday
Awoniyi to become the national chairman of the ruling part PDP. The
reason, of course, was that Obasanjo would not accept such a principled
personality as a check on him. What is more, with him around, the spirit
of the PDP position was part of the greater plot to decimate the relevance
of the political class.
This has now been achieved
after Obasanjo formed his current cabinet. Evidently, it is a cabinet
composed of neo-technocrats on whose shoulders he hopes to build his own
political structure. Consequently, he did away with the core G34 and PDM
elements within the PDP, completely sidelining them out of political
existence. In fact, the current government, as represented by the Federal
Executive Council, is not PDP’s but Obasanjo’s, thus representing a
classical displacement of the political class from the affairs of the
country
Take a look at these names:
Jim Nwobodo, Jakande, Rimi, Goni, Solomon Lar, Balarabe Musa etc. Who
among them is even being consulted today? In fact, except for Solomon
Lar, who some say has suddenly abandoned the progressive cause, they are
all being seen as ‘enemies’ and not even political opponents. So, they,
too, are out of reckoning and it is no wonder that the quality of
democratic practice has considerably declined.
To hit the class the more, the
National Chairman of the ruling PDP, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has been reduced
to an adviser just to render him a dependent crony. Could Awolowo have
accepted that degradation under Akintola, or the Sardauna under Tafawa
Balewa or Zik under Okpara or Aminu Kano under Rimi? What happened to
Audu Ogbeh by that low-level appointment is a terrible blow to the
political class.
The point being made here is
that of the number of experienced politicians of the First and Second
Republics only Vice President Atiku Abubakar is left alone, to hold the
banner and only time will tell if he will withstand the growing rank of
military politicians in ‘agbada’. Will they allow him to survive?
Increasingly, since Obasanjo,
our democracy, if we could call it so, has been the affairs of the generals,
with the people like Adamu Ciroma, Falae, Shinkafi and others put at the
sidelines. Even by that fact alone, the coast has been cleared for the
military politicians to remain in power for perhaps as long as it pleases
them except if Atiku, and the new breed politicians in the Government
Houses, who in actual fact control the various parties, rally around to
block them. Put differently, except for Atiku , who is that member of the
political class that can withstand the military politicians? When I look
around, I can’t find any. He remains the major symbol of the political
class. Even then without the willingness of the governor to rally around,
how much will remain of the remnants of this class in the next few years?
Others have since lost hope
that no civilian politician could make it in the next 20 years. Thus,
even before wearing the boxing glove, the remnants of the members of the
ruling class have developed a weak knee and cannot therefore withstand
the assault rifles of the military politicians.
In the face of this, we can
clearly see the eventual decapitation of the political class, some of
whose members have already surrendered to the firepower of the military
politicians and may therefore be rendered inconsequential in the years
ahead. How much will this affect the quality of democracy and politics
remains to be seen, but if the current state of affairs is a correct
reading, then we know what to expect.
For such in the last five
years, the quality of democratic practices and political values have considerably
declined and this is not without substantial input from the current
managers of the polity who believe that for democracy to be properly
operated, it must function by authoritarian tactics. With experienced
members of the political class substantially reduced to ‘beggars’ of
democracy, there will be free rein for it to remain under the protective
custody of militarism for years to come.
Thus, the new breed political
class has a lot to do to mobilise to ensure that democracy and true
political practices are constantly kept on track. Boldness is what is
needed on their part to ensure their own survival as the polity is most
likely going to drift towards militarised democracy. With their guidance
and resolute determination, the emerging militaristic content of the
polity could be moderated. For them to remain relevant, they have to do
that.
You read the
national dailies the way you read the Qur’an. Hence there is no story of
note that does not attract your attention and comment. Recently, a media
statement was credited to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, that only President
Olusegun Obasanjo has the sole power to choose his successor in 2007, not
even the ruling party. What’s your reaction to that statement?
My reaction to that statement is
simple. Really, I was so frightened; l’ ve almost lost hope in the whole
system, l mean democratic system of this country, if at all there is one.
How could that be? One person, a very senior person in the party, in the
hierarchy of the party to come out and said it is only the president who
will pick his successor? And he even went on saying that not him (Tony
Anenih), it is a very weighty statement. So that means that there is no
democracy in the PDP which is the party that is ruling in this country.
So by implication, Nigeria is not a democratic nation. Our government is
not democratic. Our president is not a democrat. I could remember before
the election of 2003, this very person Tony Anenih came out and said that
there was no vacancy in Aso Rock. At that time people were thinking that
the man was not serious.
Therefore, nobody took that statement very serious. But it came to
be that really there was no vacancy, because Obasanjo manipulated
everything. Or everything was manipulated which his connivance and he
proved that yes there was no vacancy in Aso Rock. So I once said that
Obasanjo has the intention of continuing in office after 2007. No doubt
about that. And I even asked people to write it down that this is what
will happen. This has been confirmed by Obasanjo’s statement during his
monthly chat with the media. During that recent chat, he said that he
knew nothing about zoning. All that he knows is that the president will
not come from the Southwest. So this confirms again that Obasanjo is the
president of this country, Obasanjo is more than the chairman of the PDP,
Obasanjo is everything, as far as our political system or governance is
concerned. So I think people must be very careful, otherwise we will end
up having Obasanjo as a dictator in this country. I said it at a certain
time that Obasanjo wanted to be in line with his colleagues like Eyadema.
Obasanjo wants to be there not for eight years, he wants to be there for
more years. And those who are aspiring for 2007 must take note, anything
can happen. The writing is clearly on the wall and anybody can read it.
It is clear that Obasanjo is not willing to surrender power to anybody
come 2007. He will continue with the connivance of people like Anenih.
Unfortunately, the political class is no more now. One can say that the
civilian politicians have surrendered themselves to the military people.
But you are a founding member
of a nascent pro-democracy organisation, Nigerians United for Democracy (NUD),
which formation has sent jitters down the spines of the people at the Aso
Rock, especially with the organisation’s effort to collect memoranda on
the modus operandi for the Sovereign National Conference. Are you now
saying that with NUD in place there is still no hope?
Ah, yes, there is hope. I never
said that we don’t have hope as far as NUD and CNPP are concerned. We
have hope and we have hope for the common people of this country. We need
their cooperation and support. We will lead them. Let them give us the
support we need, the cooperation we need. But definitely unless we hold
this Sovereign National Conference, our problems will never be solved in
this country. We should sit down, discuss. Let us know what will be for
this country or what will this country be. And if during the sovereign
national conference, it is decided that this country should break, let it
break. All that I am always saying is, if the only solution to Nigeria to
survive is disintegration, I wouldn’t mind, if Nigeria breaks today. But all that I
mind is if it is breaking, let it break in peace, not in pieces. Let it
break with the agreement, with the support, with the approval of every
Nigerian. So that is why we are insisting on this sovereign national
conference, whereby referendum will be conducted for every Nigerian to
contribute his or her own view on the matter. You know during the mass
rally, one of our demands was for this government to give way so that
there would be an Interim Government. That Interim Government, its
responsibility will be to hold a free and fair election within one year.
And we know government is very much opposed to this sovereign national
conference and it is even trying to brainwash other people not to support
our call for sovereign national conference. Some people are saying that
what will be the essence of the conference when we have elected people
there in the Senate, in the National Assembly. People have forgotten that
some of these elected people didn’t even win election. Some of them didn’t
even contest election. But they are today not only members of the
National Assembly but also officers of the National Assembly. Some are
leaders; some are chairmen of various committees. So one cannot rely on
them. They have lost touch with their people and their people have lost
confidence in them, no doubt about that. So one cannot rely on them. So
the only answer is the people. The people will come out and decide what
they want. Collectively we have to sit down and decide what will be good
for our country. We have to sit down and decide what is making our
country unprogressive. We have to find out what is it and do away with
whatever it is.
There seems to be no opposition
at all in the country - with the exception of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC). Because all other opposition parties including your party, the
Peoples Salvation Party (PSP), have sunk into oblivion. What is really
happening within the political class? Because you did state earlier that
the political class has failed and seemed to be fizzling out of relevance
and cowed into inaction. Why.?
Really, the political class, as I
said earlier, has so far surrendered or almost surrender to the military
people. And I think the reason for this is the long stay of the military
in the government of this country. Now you find that within the political
class, forget about who played it in the First Republic, even those who
played it during the Second Republic, are sidelined by this government.
They are not consulted on anything; their advice is nothing; it is even
not being sought by anybody. So that is what is happening in this
country. So, we either convene a sovereign national conference, discuss
the issue and try to find solutions to the issues or else what we don’t
want will happen; there will be a revolution. We have reached a stage where we either make a
change in a peaceful way or else change will be made by force, the
Georgian way.
But you are one of the
prominent politicians in the North who initially saw the Sovereign
National Conference as an agenda for the Southern politicians who are
bent on causing the disintegration of the country. Recently you took a
volte face and become a strong proponent of the call for the sovereign
national conference. Why the sudden change?
Certainly the change was caused by
the ineffectiveness and ineptitude of the National Assembly. In the past,
I believed all that the sovereign national conference will do, our
National Assembly of that time could do it. But now I realize that it is
no more like that. Because, as I said earlier, some people in the
National Assembly, some of them didn’t even know how they went there,
they just found themselves there. Some of them didn’t even contest
elections, but were merely given certificates that they contested
elections and won. So how can one rely on them? They must dance to the
tune of those who brought them there. And those who brought them there
are very much against sovereign national conference. So definitely they
too will oppose it. And by implication, you know, that sovereign national
conference, if it decides that the government should not be there so
everybody will not be there. So you find out that even a local government
councillor will oppose sovereign national conference. Because it will
affect him or her. But that is not something which will give us much
worry because we know the majority. And we know that the hardship imposed
on Nigerians now will be our number one mobiliser. Hardship will mobilise
people to support the sovereign national conference, most specially if
they know this sovereign national conference will solve their problems,
make this country go forward and make us have a real democracy as
obtained everywhere.
But
instead of calling for Sovereign National Conference, some prominent
politicians in the North are calling for power shift and jostling to join
the 2007 presidential race. How do you react to the attitude of your
contemporaries in the North?
Well, anyway, right from the word
go, I never supported zoning. Because I believe that it is only lazy
people who want zoning. Because without zoning, they will never get what
they want to get. They just wait for it to be zoned to their area so that
they can vie for it. So the problem with this zoning is that we will one
day end up having an incompetent somebody as our president, or
incompetent somebody as our governor because of this zoning. I have
always given the example of the United States, the country which
democratic system we are copying now, they never talk of zoning. Zoning
is not in their system, zoning is not in their political dictionary. What they are after is the best,
who is the best, no matter from where he is. Even if from one house, the
father and the son are the best, Americans will vote them. But here
people are agitating for zoning, that it is now their turn. If one could
remember the late Abiola, he
was about to win the presidency of this country. It was never zoned to
his area. He came out, he sold himself, he sold his ideas and he was
about to get it. So why the agitation for zoning? Forget about zoning,
let us come out and sell ourselves to the people, if at all we are
practising democracy. Unless we are practising another thing. But in a
real democracy, no question of zoning at all. That does not even arise.
Even during the First Republic, during the days of Sardauna, Aminu Kano,
Awolowo, Zik and others, there was no question of zoning. They all
contested for presidency Awolowo did, Zik did, Aminu Kano did. They
didn’t wait for it to be zoned to their areas before they contested. They
came out, they sold themselves to Nigerians. If I can have my way, it
will be an offence for somebody to have an elective post by zoning.
But the argument by those
agitating for the zoning formula is that in 1998, the presidency was
actually zoned to the South because of the death of Abiola who was
presumed to have won the 1993 presidential election, a kind of trying to
compensate his kinsman, the Yoruba. Therefore, after eight years, the
power should shift to the North.
You see, if zoning is something
which is good, you will find it being practised in so many places. Is it
practised in America? Is it obtained in Great Britain? Is it obtained in
France and other democratic nations? No! Therefore, zoning is a misnomer
in democracy, that is why these countries are not practising it. So why
should we do it here? Anybody who is fighting for zoning is a lazy
politician.
But as a northerner, is it not
the North that will this
time benefit from the zoning formula?
No! Let it be open. Was Abiola a
northerner? No. He was never a northerner. And he was about to get it. He
got majority votes in the North. He defeated a northerner in his state.
So what are you talking about?
Finally,
as an old player in the political landscape, since the First Republic when
you were elected into the Federal House of Representatives, how do you
compare the politics of yester years and today’s politics in the country?
You see, the comparison is not
there. One can say that there is no comparison at all, only in name.
Because in the past, it was a politics of dedication, politics of
commitment, politics of belief, politics of sincerity. So all these
qualities are no more in the present political dispensation. It is now a
matter of money, politics of money. The game has been commercialised. It
is now for people who have money. No matter how honest you are, no matter
how competent you are, if you don’t have money, forget about being
elected, even into your own local government council. Forget about it.
But if you can get money by whatever means today, go back to your
village, tomorrow you will see people coming to your house asking you to
contest because you will be the best chairman in that area. But note that
this trend cannot continue like that; always to have bad people as our
leaders simply because they have money. This cannot continue, God will
not allow it. They have their days, but the days will be united. We don’t
know whether the change will come during our time or during the time of
the next generation. But you can’t compare the politics of yester years
with what is happening today. There is no basis for comparison at all.
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