Professor ABC Nwosu is not new in Nigeria politics and Igbo affairs. He served as commissioner in the old Anambra State and a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. In this interview, Nwosu speaks on restructuring, insecurity, the 2023 presidential elections, among others.
You’ve always argued that Nigeria not yet a country. Do you still hold that view?
Some years ago, I granted an interview to a national newspaper where I said Nigeria is a lie. I still stand by that interview. The name Federal Republic of Nigeria is a lie. We’re not a federation; we are a quasi-unitary state. That’s why some silly persons refer to component units as subnational governments. I wish they used it when founding fathers were alive. They forget that there were ministers at the regions. They came together and negotiated a Federal structure. Ahmadu Bello sent his third in command, Tarawa Belewa to go and be in charge at the centre. The 1999 Constitution is a liar and it not a Constitution of the people. We’re not a nation. We’re struggling to be a country. We’re made up of ethnic groups. Nigeria is yet to emerge. We’re being told to be patriotic. To who? To a country that doesn’t guarantee the welfare and protection of its people? If we want Nigerians to be patriotic, we must be patriotic to Nigerians. We should rely on the second stanza of the National Anthem. Nigerians should have the right to life and liberty. Truth exists. Only falsehood has to be invented.
Are you arguing that Nigerians should be loyal to the country?
Its almost a year since the presidential elections. There are still arguments that there was a conspiracy to deny certain persons their rights…
My take is that the Federal Government has put an end to the election. The Federal Government has ruled. If I give a personal opinion, then it’s a disgrace that the chairman of INEC still finds himself on that seat. He’s educated in Cambridge, unfortunately. The current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is my friend. He was in the trenches fighting for democracy, true federalism and restructuring. He took the Federal Government I was a part of to court many times and won. I’m hoping that he’ll bring the same candor and tenacity to bear now.
Tinubu, like you noted, has always pushed for true federalism and restructuring. Do you believe he’ll make the move now that he’s the President?
At the age of 80, I left active politics. I’m only granting interviews because restructuring has gone with the winds. We’ve appeared to go on a wild goose chase. Without restructuring, Nigeria will not make any progress. There are four elements of restructuring.
What are these elements?
First, the presidential powers. The president is too powerful. From about 30 items on the Legislative List of the Constitution negotiated by our founding fathers, we now have 68 items. Nigeria is a negotiated country. We’ve now made the office of the president too powerful. We must devolve power to the federating units.
We must have resource control. That was agreed, not even by our founding fathers. The colonial masters handled it. They argued about 50 percent derivation.
Next, we cant concentrate coercive agencies with the Federal Government. We need to create state police. We had local and state police before the federal police. People argue that state governors will abuse it. And I’ve asked them if the President is not abusing it too at the centre. Under our watch in Anambra State, a governor was abducted by the Federal police. They pretended not to know anything. That was one of the main reasons why Chinua Achebe rejected the National Honours. How can we continue like that? Isn’t it enough for a blind man to see that it’s time to decentralise the Police Force?
The last one is the social status. We’re a disgrace in terms of education and health. When I was minister of Health, Olusegun Obasanjo called for a meeting of African heads of state to discuss about Healthcare. Today, people talk about Africa Plan of Action on Health. It was Obasanjo. I was the minister of Health. I remember we also had a master plan on Transportation. The most important one is education. We must make sure that every Nigerian child can learn and go to school. We must make sure of that every Nigerian child is educated, no matter their backgrounds. If we want a nation, we should have nation-building institutions. Institutions like Federal Government Colleges are very important, though they’ve been messed up. Another one is the National Youth Service Corps. In fact, it should be for two years. One for a compulsory military training and the second year, they train children on literacy. We should also be mindful of the kinds of education we’re giving to our children. I was in Class Two when Nigeria had its independence in 1960. Four subjects were made compulsory. Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and Technology were the subjects I studied. Later, they added Technical Drawing. If our founding fathers were that knowledgeable, why are we the worst today? These are the things we should be discussing.
Since you’ve raised this issue, what would you say about the growing concerns regarding boy-child education in the South East?
I’m from the South East. It is a major worry. The President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has named me as chairman of Education Trust Fund in the South East. What you’re saying is right. The young Igbo boy is looking forward to some people. They don’t look forward to those respected people. It is a problem. Even the apprenticeship is a problem. Those who don’t go to school don’t settle for apprenticeship anymore. We’re working hard to make this right in the South East. The North should do something about the girl-child education. Every Nigerian has the right to go to school and be trained by government. It is a Nigerian problem. Once we achieve these things, patriotism will come. I’m also shocked that the Labour Party has gone a bit tepid from Construction to Production. You can’t get the situation of Nigeria better that we must move from consumption to production. Nigerians responded to it. From nowhere, Nigeria accepted it. Why we’ve become tepid is something I don’t know. We should begin to drum it.
Do you believe that with Tinubu as President, the issue of restructuring will finally be addressed?
What woke me up around 2:30 am is that South West appears to be gloating over the presidency and they appear to have given up on restructuring. I’m on my kneels begging them. This country was nearly burnt when an election was annulled. General Sani Abacha set up a Conference because he didn’t want to leave. About nine people were elected from each state. It was not an appointive Conference. The South West then boycotted it but a few leaders from there participated. I was there. I was running a secretariat for the South East. Ojukwu, Ekwueme and others were there. The outcome of the Conference was published by the Federal Government. It stated clearly that there shall be the Presidency that will rotate between the North and South. And that there shall be three Vice Presidents. The zone of the President would have had the first Vice President in case the President died. If we had that, the issue of the Doctrine of Necessity wouldn’t have been there. The Conference was clear on Resource Control. We argued for 50 percent for host communities. We said in view on our dependence, let us have a graduated arrangement. We now agreed for 13 percent. The current 13 percent derivation was from Abacha’s government. Not everything about Abacha was bad. So, restructuring is good. What woke me up is that, restructuring which is an existential truth about Nigeria is taking a back seat as they gloat about the presidency. Time will pass. If the Yoruba ever raise it again, if they miss the opportunity now, people will curse them. Many non-Yoruba were prepared to lay their lives for NADECO then. The South East will mobilise for restructuring. Restructuring is good for the six geopolitical zones of the country. It is good for everybody. There are unresolved questions. When the National Assembly has this overbearing attitude, I’m tempted to remind them that they begged for votes. That’s why I want everybody to come together and fix this. A referendum is good. Plebiscite is good.
Currently, there’s no provision for a referendum in the Constitution. Are you urging the National Assembly to do that?
I belong to the school that the Constitution needs a complete overhaul and not an amendment. We need a new Constitution. I believe that the new Constitution shall be given legitimacy through a referendum or plebiscite.
We don’t need an amendment. They can wake up tomorrow and make a law that we need a new law. I don’t have to call on them. The arrogance by public officers is annoying. See how our founding fathers are dying. In another 10 years, all the founding fathers will die. The young ones that will take over will die in their own-exaggerated selves. See the scandals for instance now in the National Assembly about the SUVs they’re buying. When ministers then brought Peugeot 607, they were queried by President Olusegun Obasanjo. They behave now as if they won’t leave office again.
Will restructuring address insecurity that has defied every solution?
Why are people looking at things as if they never existed. In 1960, I walked for 7 miles and not kilometres to watch the lifting of the Nigerian flag. The former Premier of Eastern Region, Michael Opara didn’t have a property where he lived. He didn’t have anywhere. He only had one in Umuahia which he got through a loan. He gave it to Ojukwu during the war. When he died, people raised money to build a befitting house for him where he was buried. He didn’t have any earthly possession. Today, how can one man embezzle over N100 billion? And I hear about plea bargains. These things didn’t exist before. Those who know these things ate gradually dying. As we die, the country will die if we don’t restructuring the country. The country now is unheard of anywhere.
What’s the fastest way to achieve these things you’ve listed?
Restructuring can be achieved before the end of the third quarter of this year. Not wasting anymore time. The National Assembly can pass a law. The President can get a team of experts to look at the Abacha 1995 Conference, 2014 Conference and others. They should look at the items and the recommendations. We also have the 1979 Conference. The team of experts should be given one month to get the documents ready. The National and State Houses of Assembly will then pass them. Then the President will arrange for an independent body to give a final yes or no. What’s complicated there? And in a Federation, local governments shouldn’t exist. Councils were created by regions and states. Local Governments were not federal responsibilities. If people don’t want to work, that’s their business. The recommendations of the various Conferences have given us a blueprint.