2015: North wants power at all costs –Maxi Okwu

As the federal government battles the insecurity situation in the country, National Coordinator of a civil society group, Patriotic Alliance of Nigeria (PAN), Chief Maxi Okwu, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to sit up and fight the Boko Haram sect headlong. The legal practitioner and politician also believes that the Boko Haram insurgency is not unconnected with the quest by power brokers from the North to recapture power in 2015. In this interview, he bares his mind on various national issues. Excerpts:

From your vantage position, what do you make of the current state of the nation?

Some of us are beginning to sound like cracked records on the national situation. It’s obvious except to those in government and their close circle of friends and associates, that the nation is on a spiral into the abyss unless we get a divine intervention as usual.

We concede that we have had an unprecedented 13 years of unbroken civil rule but that is as far as we are prepared to go. If you juxtapose potential and delivery of dividends of democracy, it is an unmitigated disaster. Corruption, mal-administration, and now terrorism of the suicide bomber type, has wrought havoc on the national psyche and fabric. Let me conclude by saying that the last 13 years of the PDP-led administration at the center has been years of the Locust. It’s all the more regrettable that just a little imagination, commitment and patriotism would have given a totally different result. In short, it’s a failure of Leadership.

Do you think that the present administration under President Jonathan would win the war against Boko Haram?

What I think is really beside the point. The present administration of President Jonathan is enjoined by section 14 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, to secure the lives and property of Nigerians. That section states clearly that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. President Jonathan swore to uphold the Constitution. It is therefore his duty to secure Nigerians. He must rise to the challenge of Boko Haram as indeed all other security challenges in Nigeria and defeat it. That is why he was elected to be President. Now forget about those who lobbied him to be president; he on his own volition opted to present himself; he campaigned hard for the job, so he has to be a Commander- in- Chief.

President Jonathan has tried several strategies including overhauling the hierarchy of the nation’s security agencies but the problem of insecurity seems intractable. What is the way forward?

We recall that at the time of the first major security outrage in Abuja on October 1, 2010, we had called for the overhaul of the top echelons of the nation’s security apparatus. You can see how long it took the administration to do that. That is one aspect of the problem. The second is that in this age, security and intelligence have gone global and hi-tech. It’s no longer a matter of brawn but brain. Professor Condi Rice, the NSA to President Bush was never in the US Armed Forces but she served creditably as NSA. This tradition of our using retired military men as NSA must be reviewed. Like we have argued, you don’t log onto the internet with a type-writer.

The nation must call in the aid and assistance of nations that have faced similar security challenges particularly of the fundamentalist, suicide-bomber type. A new security template must be worked out. Key elements of this strategy should include counter-terrorism, better intelligence gathering and processing. Whenever I travel and see all the military fortifications on the road I just laugh. That is just not the way to go. In the long term, we must review our policing methods and emphasize more on community policing. This would require re-assessing the present police structure which is a legacy of prolonged military rule and out of sync with a federal state.

Do you agree with those who insist that insecurity in the North is a strategy by the power elites in that part of the country to recapture power in 2015?

I do not discountenance that argument. It’s clear from past examples that intimidation and or terror has been effectively deployed by some sections of the country to get power ceded to them. I speak of 1999 when the departing military administration had to  appease the South West by ensuring that the two contending platforms of PDP and APP/AD Alliance fielded only Yoruba Presidential candidates. It would be recalled that it was the South West essentially, that sustained the agitation for the restoration of the June 12 mandate truncated by IBB regime. The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) also internationalized the struggle and fought the Abacha regime all the way till he kicked the bucket.

The insurgency and armed struggle by Niger Delta militants also gave them political clout.This must have played on OBJ’s mind when he selected Jonathan to be the running mate of late Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua. The consequential series of events though not foreseen at that time, has now played out in favour of the agitators.

The Boko Haram menace began on a different note and confined to local politics in Borno State. It has now acquired a life of its own, and gone regional if not national. I would not be surprised if some desperate politicians from the area key into its momentum to score politically or intimidate President Goodluck at the very least not to seek re-election.

With the seeming desperation by the North to recapture power from the South, do you think Nigeria would ever remain the same?

No, definitely it cannot be the same again. The battle for the nomination in the dominant political party as at today the PDP, would be intense. President Jonathan as an incumbent has the advantage and should he decide to run, most likely would corner the nomination. However, I see a stiffer opposition to his emergence this time around. Going by the PDP zoning policy, President Jonathan has taken the residue of the North’s unexhausted turn with the sudden death of Yar’ Adua. It does appear that key elements in the North are resolved to recover this at all costs. The sabre rattling from the South South by persons like Chief E.K. Clark, Asari Dokubo and co, is also helping to firm up their resolve. In the event that these northern elements fail to stop President Jonathan’s renomination, I predict they would sabotage his efforts in the general elections, either from within or by joining another party. That is why the present efforts at merger, by Tinubu and Buhari should be looked at more closely.

Corruption is arguably the most challenging problem facing the country today. Do you think Jonathan has the strength of character to fight it?

The war on corruption has gone on an armistice with the Goodluck Administration. Maybe it will be continued after his tenure, but for now, no war is going on. My take is that the president lacks the guts to tackle corruption head on. The moment he refused to climb the moral high ground by publicly declaring his assets, as token and tame as that is, I knew it was all over. You may recall his ill-advised retort, ‘I don’t bloody care.’ This about sums it up.

Many are afraid that there might not be a country called Nigeria after the 2015 election. Do you share that pessimism?

I do not, or I refuse to be that pessimistic. I concede that right now the signals are not good, and that we are at crossroads. However, Nigeria seems to be tailor-made for brinkmanship. We have come to such nadir on many occasions but somehow have always bounced back. I believe we shall overcome again. The cocktail of problems confronting the nation now is as a result of fundamental distortions in the polity generated by prolonged civil rule. These distortions have been swept under the carpet by the succeeding civilian leaders who want to just coast on and not rock the boat. Well, the chicken has finally come home to roost.

Do you think the current move to amend the constitution would reduce the political tension in the country?

The tinkering with the Constitution is just like a palliative; it is no cure. The malady afflicting the nation is attitudinal and goes to the very foundations of our union. The structural dimensions of our national malaise needs a total restructuring not tinkering with the ground norm, the constitution. The present Constitution came into being as a schedule to Decree 24 of 1999. It tells a lie about itself where it says that the people of Nigeria resolved to make it. Nigerians never resolved, as it was Abdulsalam Abubakar and his caucus who agreed. Nigerian leaders in the late 50’s at Lancaster House London, agreed on a Federal Republic of Nigeria with certain key elements like fiscal federalism enshrined or understood. With prolonged military rule, all the basics in that agreement have been truncated. Secondly, you now have an amorphous 36 state structure, an FCT which is like a state, and 774 local governments, all these under a ubiquitous federal government. That is not what the founding fathers agreed on. We need to get back to the table and renegotiate our union; period. We delay at our own peril as it is inevitable.

What are the most critical issues that the National Assembly should be looking at in the current move to amend the constitution?

I am an advocate of a holistic review of the Constitution through a popular method.  The agreements must be subjected to a referendum of the people of Nigeria. The formal enactment without doctoring can then be processed through the National Assembly. All the cutting and joining would eventually be rendered nugatory, by which time all the jumbo funds spent on this worthless and barren exercise gone down the drains.

Some are kicking that state creation should not be part of the amendment. The argument to support this position is that even most of the existing states are no longer viable. As one from the South East, do you agree with that position?

I am of the view that we have carried on the state creation exercise to the point of absurdity. But to round up the anomalous situation, maybe we should round up the states in all the zones to seven. That is one each in all the other zones except North West and two for the South East. I believe that the states should no longer be the federating units but rather the zones. If any zone then wishes to waste scare resources on big government, it could on its own create numerous states and LGA’s in its zone. Secondly, we have a bigger absurdity in Local Governments Areas. The military met 309 LGA’s in the 1979 Constitution, and created an additional 465 making a total of 774. These were created without any objective criteria in mind. In many cases, hamlets or a commune of some huts became a local government area, whereas towns and cites were in one local government. Please local government should remain a local matter. Secondly, it should not be an integer for federal revenue allocation.

It seems the dream for an Igbo presidency may never be realized considering that it is most unlikely that Jonathan would handover to another southerner.

And are Igbos ready in the event that such an opportunity calls especially against the perception that they cannot speak with one voice?

In the first place, unanimity is anathema in democracy. Even in heaven, unanimity was not achieved, as Satan and his cohorts rebelled. So why should Ndigbo be expected to speak with one voice? When the Yoruba nation spoke in 1999, did they speak with one voice? When Shagari, Yar’Adua were elected in 1979 and 2007, did the North speak with one voice? It’s only in a garrison that people speak with one voice and not in a democracy. The Igbophobists set up this ‘one voice’ hurdle for Ndigbo so as to pin them down. Some of us reject it please.

As a practicing politician, I am aware that nobody is ever ‘dashed’ power. If you seek power, you go after power. And politics being the art of the possible, you have to find the right matrix to secure your victory. The power calculations in PDP are obvious to some of us outsiders. I would believe that Ndigbo who are members of that party are all the more aware, and I expect them to play accordingly. They should go straight to the ‘cousin’ Ebele Azikiwe and hack out a deal with him. We, outside that platform will be contesting come 2015.

Are you not worried over the infighting among governors of the South East in recent time?

The South East is nearly evenly split politically between PDP and APGA. So why should I be worried? Even if they were all of the same party, individual prejudices and idiosyncrasies cannot be ruled out. So long as it is not unhealthy rivalry, but developmental rivalry, I say it is well and good and all for the better.

Do you support the economic integration of the South East?

I sure do. I believe it should go beyond that to include the other states in the Niger Delta that make up the former Eastern Region. That is the way to go. This ‘feeding bottle’ federalism with everyone looking up to Abuja has to stop. This is one way of looking inwards and tapping local and regional potentials.

Credit: Sun