Afenifere, ACF, Ohaneze not serving Nigerians’ interest – Richard

By AWAAL GATA

As a businessman, what is your view on the recession currently facing our country? First and foremost, I don’t know how we arrived at this so-called recession. In the fi rst instance, the indices that would show that the country is in a recession don’t exist.

Th at is because we don’t have adequate data that will pin-point that we are in a recession. In other countries, they have data. Knowing what I know now, all the stories that are seen on the television and in the newspapers about the looted funds and since whistle-blowing started, it is clear that what Nigerians are thinking as recession is lack of free-fl ow of funds. If money is not fl owing, somebody might think that we are in a recession because he is not seeing money like he used to. Nobody can convince me that there is recession.

If you release all the monies that are being recovered from the so-called looters, nobody will complain of recession again. I have said it times and again that corruption is the glue that is keeping Nigeria together. So, anybody that wants to stop corruption in Nigeria must fi nd another way through which Nigerians can interact with one another. Now that President Muhammadu Buhari wants to stop corruption, there is problem everywhere. If money begins to fl ow again, things will be back to normal. Corruption is a societal ill; so for us to remain together and have things working for us, what should we do as a nation? I don’t know.

Th e people that want to stop corruption must have thought of a way before coming out. Th ey should be the ones telling us what we should do. Th ere is a diff erence between minimum wage and living wage. Th ese are two things that are not being addressed in Nigeria. We keep talking about minimum wage; the Labour leaders should talk about living wage not minimum wage. What is minimum wage? Living wage is what a public servant or an employee can use for sustenance for 30 days.

If you pay a Nigeria N18 thousand, we don’t have public transportation (system) that is functional, there is no public healthcare system Richard Interview Mr. Daniel Richard is an elder statesman from Adamawa state. In this interview with AWAAL GATA, the international businessman believes the socio-cultural bodies across the geo-political zones of the country, are toothless and self-serving. He also speaks on the anti-graft war of Muhammadu Buhari administration, vis-a-vis the poor remuneration for public servants, among others.

Whatever the Biafrans are saying, they are making sense to me because somebody needs to sit with them and discuss the issues that are disturbing them and then devise a way of having the issue resolved. that is functional, there is no public school system that is functional, there is no housing system that is functional, yet you expect an average Nigerian worker to survive with N18,000? If you don’t separate the issue of minimum wage from living wage, you will never get things right.

So, this is where corruption comes in because the salary that is being paid can only manageably sustain him for one week, so he has to fi nd any way to sustain himself for the remaining three weeks before the salary will be paid again. As long as this issue is not addressed, any government that says it is out to stop corruption is lying, except if it closes the entire system. Is the ultimatum given to the Igbo people to quit the North by some youth justifi ed? In this country, we are not realists. What I have noticed in this country is that we are not realists.

We are too sentimental. Every Nigerian is always out to push sentiments, and when you are too sentimental, you defi nitely will not get to the fi nishing line. If we were realists, we know that every region has a semblance of leadership, either tribal or whatever. We know in the South-West, we have what is called Afenifere and the Yoruba Council of Elders. I think these are the two bodies that try to manage Yoruba aff airs. Now, there was a time OPC raised its ugly head, but the two bodies did not call them to order, which means they are totally toothless.

In the South-East, there is Ohanaeze. I want to believe that Ohanaeze are the principal actors in terms of settling issues that concern their region. You will hear (Rafael) Uwazuruike and Nnamdi Kanu chanting out their secessionist tendencies. I don’t know what happened to (Rafael) Uwazuruike that made him to leave the scene and then Kanu popped-out. If you are not careful, someday, Nnamdi Kanu will leave the stage soon for another person to take over because they seem to be getting something out of it. Ohanaeze has been there, they have not been doing anything about these kinds of people as true representatives of the region.

If they truly are what they claim to be, why then are cries coming out of the youths? We were here when Boko Haram came up. Boko Haram, they said, are young people who took up arms because of unemployment. Th ere is Arewa Council of Elders, among others, but none of the organisations can call Boko Haram to order. Th e question now is, what are the reasons for having these regional bodies? Why must we have them in the fi rst place? Why shouldn’t government close all these organizations and deal with the youths directly? Whatever the Biafrans are saying, they are making sense to me because somebody needs to sit with them and discuss the issues that are disturbing them and then devise a way of having the issue resolved.

If Afenifere and Yoruba Council of Elders had called Gani Adams and his group to order, maybe we wouldn’t have seen what happened back then. Till today, there is nobody in the North that can summon the leadership of Boko Haram despite the fact that there is an organisation that should checkmate issues that concern the North. So, now, why are they trying to checkmate the ultimatum that the young boys made?

For me, the issue is between the young people, young people in the North and the ones in the South. If young people of Igbo extraction threatened the North and the young people of Northern extraction threatened the Igbo people, it is a ‘one-one thing’. I did not see anything that the young people did that someone would say that they should be arrested. Arrest them for what? When the Biafran boys threatened, why didn’t Ohanaeze respond?

We should have all these organisations closed, so that government can deal with us directly as Nigerians. Any meeting with the government, you will see the organisations purportedly attending on behalf of their regions respectively. What comes out of these meetings? Nothing, because it is not the right people, the people who issues directly aff ect that meetings are being held with. In this, I am not blaming anybody.

How would you rate this administration? Buhari did not come based on the standpoint of the manifesto he sold to Nigerians. It is corruption that actually brought him in. All of us believe mentally or psychologically that if Buhari gets into power, he will cut to size corruption in Nigeria. I have said it before; he is trying, he is doing well as far as corruption is concerned.

But we have to agree that we should not expect Buhari to build roads, water system, railways, etc. because we all agreed that he is coming to fi ght corruption. We all believe that the reason we are where we are now is corruption. Th e man has now come, let’s put infrastructure aside and fi ght the scourge. Once we get to the bottom of corruption, the country will begin to take a proper shape. I think that is what brought him. Th at is what he has been doing. I never expected any other thing from him.

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