Chief Clarence Olafemi is the former speaker/governor of Kogi state. In this interview with OYIBO SALIHU, he talks on how to get out of the current youth restiveness in the country.
After 60 years of nationhood, where did Nigeria get it wrong that today it has snowball into protest and killing of youths?
Honestly, the situation of Nigeria at the moment is fearful and calls for concern. I have seen this coming a long time ago; unfortunately, Nigerians are the cause of these problems because the military started creating the problems we are passing through today when they ruled the country for over two decades without an iota of plan for the present and future of the country.
The military were trained to fight war, defend the territorial integrity of these nations, but were not trained to be administrators. As such, they cannot deliver good governance. Sadly, they forcefully took over power for a long period of time and they only succeeded in messing up and balkanising the future of the country.
The military were the one that aggravated and almost institutionalised corruption in this country because they were not accountable to anybody other than their boss that assigned public offices to them and they seem to have a written agreement within the system that whosoever comes into government should not probe his predecessors.
So the genesis of corruption was not during the era of leaders like Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Sardauna, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and the host of others who have served us selflessly before 1966.
That was why 60 years after our independence, there was no deliberate attempt by the country to manufacture its own car even when God gave us Ajaokuta steel company which was started by late President Shehu Shagari and truncated by the military junta that forcefully took over power from the civilian government. Nigeria as a country has nothing to show for its intellectualism because we have not gotten the right people to lead the country and we have been handing over a dilapidated government to another government while people who have nothing to offer in the area of good governance were being recircled and problem arising from bad leadership keeps on compiling and the resultant effect is what we are witnessing today. To be honest, I cannot totally blame President Buhari for the woe the country is passing through these days because every former president that has governed this country has a share of today’s problems. To worsen the situation, when the military gave us the opportunity to govern ourselves through democracy, they deliberately handed over to us a constitution that caged us and further impoverished us as the constitution did not create avenues for the development of the country. As it is now, it is practically impossible to effectively review the constitution to effect restructuring. Part of the sensitive areas that can give us a life line can not be amended because of the cumbersome nature of the constitution.
If we continue with this 1999 Constitution handed over to us by the military till the end of the world, we would not be able to amends grey areas that can better our lives. One of the critical problems we have today is the approach to curb the civil protest. Government needed to stop the protest but the approach was wrong and what was applied in Lagos was excessive force which is not allowed in any democratic setting. Using live ammunition where there is tear gas, hot water, pepper and other items that can be used without causing death is wrong. A situation where there are graduates unemployment, where the poverty level is high, where people can no longer shoulder their family responsibilities, there would be continued unrest as a result of grievance from the masses.
Nigerians are asking for restructuring of the nation. What is your opinion?
It is a fact that all the grievances of Nigerians can not be attended to without changing the constitution. I have said that the areas in the constitution that need to be restructured cannot be done by this administration because they don’t have the capacity to do it. To create a ward which is the smallest aspect of our democratic setting cannot be done under this dispensation because of the cumbersome nature of the constitution; we just have to be honest with ourselves. So whenever people are mentioning restructuring, I usually laugh because it is not feasible unless Nigerians are ready to collapse the 1999 constitution and rewrite it and that also can only be done if there is a president who control 75% of national assembly and 75% of the state Houses of Assembly and has 75% of the state governors otherwise, there is no miracle that can be done to effect restructuring as desired by the citizens.
What is your take on the recent presidential broadcast?
The president listed all the things he will put in place to address the demands of the protesters which will cost the country a lot of money to actualise. Apart from covid-19 palliatives which of course is a global challenge, all the youth programmes are issues that erupted as a result of the rot in the system which the president inherited in 2015. But the real problems still remain and the question is how long are we going to divert our resources to put those items in place because they are things that are necessary today as a result of where we have found ourselves as a country. This effort is not a sustainable approach to solving our problems; it is not a lasting solution to our problems; it is like a sick person put on a life support and cannot permanently live on the life support forever because with time, the life support has to be detached and at that point we the sick person cannot live on his own. We are talking about the economic crisis in Nigeria and I am saying that these avalanche of problems did not start in 2015 but the day the military bulldozed themselves into power through the barrel of guns.
The military started running the exchange rate manually without allowing the actual forces to determine the exchange rate and as a result of this scenario, a dollar that is less than one naira in early 80’s suddenly shut up.
The irony of it all is that we are not growing the economy to sustain the naira, so the naira kept crashing. The best we could achieve was when former President Olusegun Obasanjo freed us from external debts, but soon after he left office, this effort was not only suspended, it was completely jettisoned without recourse for the future of this nation. Supposing successive governments continued in that line, we could have achieved successes economically by now. Secondly, we were not growing our industries and we were not reviving our industries that are viable and needed for our economic growth, instead we allowed excessive wrong economic policies to kill the economy of this country.
Again, one of the major impediments of our economic growth is lack of electricity which has forced many viable companies to move out of the country because they could not cope with the use of generators and buying diesel that run into millions of naira monthly. Sadly, we don’t even have the statistics to analyse. I am of the opinion that it is high time the government should address the nucleus of Nigeria problems before we address the demand of youths. The palliative we are putting in place is too temporary to solve the numerous problems confronting the nation.
What is the way out?The government should sit down and plan how best it can grow the economy of the nation because without growing the economy, youth restiveness cannot be solved. Government should also take proactive measures on the issue of security because no investor can come over if the insecurity in the country is high and infrastructure development is poor. There is a need for the government to focus on these areas so that we can get things right because the suffering among Nigerians is becoming unbearable. We have to really sit down as a nation and consider the calibre of people appointed to occupy sensitive positions. Appointments are made based on politics and not on the basis of capability and experience. People who have nothing to offer are recycled from one position to another and this can only retard our development.
What is your appeal to the protesters?
In fact , the protesters have made their point very loud and clear and to avoid more causality if only the protesters are sincere in their quest. They should leave having made their points and give the federal government one or two years to address their demands. I am also advising the government not to allow any loophole for anarchy otherwise the government can come down because of the challenges the country has been passing through in recent time. The president should act before it is too late.
