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Rights activist and Convener, Country First Movement, Prof. Chris Nwaokobia, shares his thoughts with ISMAEEL UTHMAN, on the nationwide protest, the way out of the challenges confronting the country, among other issues
What critical issues stimulated your declaration that the protest was long overdue in Nigeria?
Nigerian people are facing hunger, unemployment, food scarcity, inflation, and insecurity, to mention a few challenges. Before 2015, insecurity was largely restricted to the North-East, scanty in the North-West with a few acts of terror in Abuja. But since after May 2019, what we have seen is a democratisation of terror. Terror has become a national spectacle; no region is left out of the insecurity challenge.
It is a tragedy of sorts. Currently, there is a new business apart from corruption in the government, which is kidnapping for ransom. With all of these, to keep quiet is strange, though the Nigerian people have been marooned or chained, manacled, and gagged. I think that the young people, the Gen Z generation, have risen up to challenge the status quo and ask for a better deal. Chapter 4 of the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees freedom of assembly, freedom to hold contrary opinions, and freedom to protest, albeit peacefully.
So, I advocate that the government should engage with the people, especially the young ones. The government should stop provoking the young people by threatening them on the protest. The government should stop deploying state resources to compromise young people. If you go around and look at the news media, you will see young boys and girls addressing press conferences, condemning the nationwide protest, and dissociating themselves from it.
Everybody cannot be part of the protest. Have you ever seen any protest in the world where everybody is involved? Why are they trying to lower the moral and ethical bars of this country? I have a big concern about how the government handles these things. We already have kidnapping for ransom as a monstrous, albeit demonic business in Nigeria, very soon young people will begin to threaten the government with protest, knowing that dollars will start rolling in because the government will try to compromise the process.
The people in power are messing up with everything that has to do with our dignity, integrity, credibility, and values as a people. I think that what we must do as a people who truly love Nigeria is to ask the government to address the fundamental issues raised by the protesters. That’s the way to move our country forward.
But insecurity has been with us since the era of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Why blame the All Progressives Congress government alone?
I know there was insecurity from Olusegun Obasanjo down to Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. But it has got worse under the APC governments. We have spent more resources in the name of fighting insurgency and ensuring security under the APC.
They have messed up everything that has to do with the security of lives and property in this country. That’s why several people can’t even travel by road from Abuja or Lagos to some parts of the country. What the government should do is to improve security of lives and property and stop threatening those who are disappointed with how things are.
Things seem to be getting worse with every successive administration. What do you think is responsible for this?
It is simply because of the failure of successive governments, and that is why Nigerians are beginning to ask and demand new margins and leadership. Nigerians are asking for the restructuring of this country because most of our people are losing faith in the Nigerian enterprise and leadership as presently constituted. So, the challenge, more than ever before, is a call for government and leadership to restructure this country and allow true fiscal federalism, devolution of power, and resource control.
When you do that, people will begin to have strong faith in the Nigerian enterprise. People will begin to believe and see that Nigeria does not belong to a few people or a special class of individuals. When you build that faith, patriotism will grow, and Nigerians will begin to have greater love for their country; people will invest in the country and crime will reduce. That is why some of us, who know that President Bola Tinubu was one of those calling for the restructuring of Nigeria, are asking him to begin the process pronto.
If he does not, very clearly, his administration will be worse than that of Muhammadu Buhari, and the circle will continue unbroken until Nigeria is restructured to allow devolution of power and true fiscal federalism, where the component regions of this country will control their wealth, contribute for the upkeep of the centre, fix internal and connecting roads, grow their individual’s economies, and create what you call healthy competition as we had in the First Republic. Except that is done, every successive regime will fail compared to the one before it.
Do you think Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi would have done something differently and positively?
Anybody who emerged and made restructuring of the country and our economic protocol the chief responsibility of the Federal Government would have done better. Any government that emerged and ensured that we had healthy competition among the states and the component region would have done better. Any government that emerged and believed that the time had come to go back to the Independence Constitution or the Republican Constitution of 1963 would have done better. But had Obi or Atiku come without those fundamental reforms, they would also underperform like Tinubu is underperforming.
How do you respond to critics who say the planned protest is politically motivated?
Every protest that calls for human rights, makes demands for a better deal and asks for reforms is ab initio political. In other climes, such protests are funded and populated by the opposition parties. I don’t know where this wrong intellectual norm came from. What protest is not political? You’re criticising a sitting government; that makes it political.
A protest against hunger when you have a government in place is political. No protest calls for human rights protection, good governance, job creation, and a better deal for the majority of the people that is not political. The question is: is the political protest partisan?
Who says that a party cannot support or sponsor a protest? The time has come for us to learn to think deeply and not let people give us false knowledge or half-truths. What is important is that the Nigerian people are saying no to hunger, no to joblessness, no to poverty, no to bad governance.
What is your reaction to those who rallied against the nationwide protest in Lagos, and others who held press conferences to dissociate themselves from the demonstration?
It shows how badly our moral values, tendencies for due process, integrity, and sane conscience have been dealt with by the present administration. Many of these young people who addressed press conferences; if you look at them and watch their demeanour, language, conviction, and confidence, you will find out that they are people making statements against the dictates of their conscience.
They have perhaps been compromised to do so. Everybody is not expected to join a protest. Unfortunately, they do not know that whatever they do today will stand in judgment against them tomorrow. I have couched a word that is becoming popular in Nigeria, cashtivist; activist becoming cashtivist. Those are the people who collect money from the government and sit in front of cameras, claiming to dissociate themselves from a protest that they did not plan, a popular protest.
It is all hubris. The time has come for us to talk to the souls and consciences of our young people and ask them to keep quiet when they have nothing valid to say, ask them to stay at home when they have nothing constructive to say or do. The time has come for us to put our country first. I want to say boldly that truth is a pristine street in the city called ‘brotherhood’.
I also want to say that opposition is a beautiful boulevard in the city called patriotism. The time has come for our people to learn to put their country first and to love their country and reduce this penchant for quick gain and money. The only thing you can say about those who are jumping up and down to oppose the protest is that they want cheap and quick money.
We now have pro-hunger protesters. They are hungry and they’re happy. That is Stockholm syndrome; they are hungry; and they are praising their oppressors. They are hungry and for a mess of porridge, they are happy with those who have left them hungry; they are saying to those who are saying no to hunger that ‘you’re wrong’. Nothing can be more demeaning; nothing can be more embarrassing. But I think the values will change when we’re able to fix our country.
The 2020 EndSARS experience is a major fear of state and non-state actors in the nationwide protest. What do you think was responsible for the violence that greeted the EndSARS protest and how can the government and youths avoid a recurrence?
Every Nigerian who is sincere in his or her conscience knows that the violence that ended the EndSARS protest was procured by operators of the state. We know how certain thugs were procured; we saw louts who were dropped in security vehicles, we saw hoodlums who were protected by state operators and asked to infiltrate and mess up what otherwise was a peaceful protest for almost 10 days. My appeal to the government is that they should understand that those protesting are not enemies of the government.
Those who are protesting are not stooges of leaders of the other political parties. The time has come for us to make people understand that the fear of the protest degenerating to violence is only valid if the state operators want to provoke violence. But if you leave the protesters to protest the way they have planned it, it will ultimately be very peaceful.
The only thing is that the protest will bother those who have inflicted hunger and poverty on the Nigerian people. The protesters do not intend to destroy their country, they intend to make their country good, and that’s the reason they’re protesting. Those who are scared of violence are those who intend to provoke violence. Those who do not want a peaceful protest are those who ultimately will procure vandals, bandits, and villains to provoke violence. But I think and I pray that the operators of the state understand that the world is watching, and nobody wants the country to go up in flames.
How do you think the government can address the widespread hunger and poverty in the country?
The government needs to rework the system. The first thing the government should do if it wants to succeed is to implement protocols and processes that border on restructuring. The second thing is to allow or declare a state of emergency in agriculture. States must be allowed to run most of what affects them. Then, largely, make Nigeria safe and secure to attract fundamental foreign investments, and very importantly, protect the farmlands against those whose business is kidnapping for ransom, so that people can go to farms to deal with food shortage and food insecurity.
These are fundamental things that we must do. If we fail to do so, no matter how many sweet words we throw up in the political amphitheater, Nigerians will continue to agitate. No matter how much money is thrown into the space to frustrate the protests, agitations will continue to come again and again. The fundamental challenges of government are to ensure a new deal for Nigerians, make government and governance more responsible and responsive to the people, and ensure the people have cause to smile.
How will you address some Nigerians who feel discouraged by the country’s situation?
When poverty, hunger, and disease become pervasive, people will be discouraged. Leadership must show direction. I think that it all borders on leadership. Leadership must build faith and confidence. Leadership must show that it cares about the Nigerian people. Leadership must show a concern for resolving the many contradictions that hold our country down. Except that is done, it will be difficult to inspire faith and confidence, and that is what the young people are trying to do in the name of protestation. My advice is that they must conduct their protest with the highest level of discipline and decorum.
What solutions do you propose to tackle the poor value of naira and its impact on the economy?
I had talked about the need for the government to ensure that anything we produce in Nigeria is procured in naira. The dollar is not our currency. I thought the government would take that advice immediately, but why would they when they steal and loot in dollars? It has become evident that naira will continue to suffer under the dollar.
One of the instances is when they (government officials) buy cars; instead of going for Nigerian-made cars as every other responsible government does, they buy SUVs and imported vehicles, and they pay in foreign currencies. They steal and plummet the naira against the dollar. The time has come for those who superintend over leadership to become responsible and responsive. They must put the country first.
Unless we deepen the frontiers of production rather than consumption, our quest for a currency that can stand against other currencies will be distant. Our search for that republic that fares well in terms of economy and the value of our currency will be like the wait for Godot if we continue to make the wrong decision.
