NIGERIA MUST TURN BACK TO SANITY - PHILIP ASIODU

Icheoku just read an interesting interview recently granted by the once super permanent secretary, Philip Asiodu, to a Nigerian Newspaper. Icheoku found some of the issues he raised and canvassed therein quite interesting and here are some excerpts:- 

1. "Whether somebody who has been an Army General, a head of state, a presiden­tial candidate three times has been educated up to school certificate level is in the front burner. Again, running towards an election, for a major party that wants to win, to say before hand, by two leaders of that party – the chairman and the head of their campaign organization, suggesting that if they lose, it is because they were rigged out of it, and there­fore they will reject the elections and set up a paral­lel government. What does that mean? A parallel government? They will set up a government and say Mr B is now the President? He has a parallel army and all that. If I win, it is okay, If I lose, I reject it. 

2. "So, these things, I see are ominous. And then you have some other people threatening that this our son, if he is not given a second term, then there will be hell in Nigeria. These are ominous signs, and for the people of Nigeria who saw the destruction of the promise of independence, because in the de­cade before independence Nigeria made unparal­leled progress, it is sad. After independence, for the first three or four years we were doing well. Then we had the disaster of the 1964 elections which was boycotted by The United Progressive Grand Alli­ance (UPGA) and you know what happened."

3. "The Nigerian senator earns four times the salary of the president of the United States, and when you take the salaries, allowances, constituency provisions and all that, it is out of this world. And our Gross Domestic Product is only 50% that of the US. These are scandalous things, and the pursuit or attainment of political office should not be the route to be in the first list of rich men."

4. "If the British had left it so, we wouldn’t probably have had this situation in which at independence, the Northern region was more than 2/3 the land mass of Nige­ria, and of course they didn’t have the resources in terms of budgets, because part of the justification for amalgamation was to have the surpluses of the south helped to run the country so that the British treasury didn’t have to pay. Don’t mind the rubbish by some pseudo intellectuals who are suggesting that Northern money was used to develop oils in the South. Rubbish. Even as late as after indepen­dence, in the Bins Commission, which led to allo­cation of resources, the whole idea was that enough money should be given to the Northern region to be able to assure minimum levels of public service which we already assumed is in the South. So, there was no time in the budget where the North was in surplus and was contributing. And two, since the beginning of the oil industry, there has been 100% concessions. Oil companies invested. They didn’t take money from the Nigerian treasury. The 12 states created by Gowon were to address this Northern imbalance. Even those 12 states, the North East is almost 1/3 the area of Nigeria, but at least it was different from where the North alone could have the majority. 

5. The British role in the pop­ulation census is yet to be analyzed, but a lot was done which probably was not fair. But we ended up with a situation in which the North voted solidly for one political party, it could dominate. Or, if it just takes one, or two allies in the south, it is done. Politically this was not okay. So, that was one of the underlying reasons for the political difficulties. You know the middle belt was in open rebellion. The Army was deployed there. Then, the west, be­cause of the elections was in open rebellion (wetie) The East? People were not too happy in Calabar/ Ogoja/ Rivers. So, first, Gowon had to address that. And when the Northern region agreed that they will have states, then six states were created in the North, and six in the South. Of course, there was also an element of strategic thinking. If the East led by Ojukwu was insistent on secession, the promise or the creation of independent states of Cross River and Rivers was absolutely necessary."

6. "In these days of 115million mobiles, with in­stant camera, we can’t go back to the days of “fel­low country men and women.” When you seize the army signals and you announce that you’re in charge, who will risk his life?. You wait. But now, I will take my phone and call the Brigadier next door and say ‘don’t mind him. There are only eight peo­ple in NTA with him, and he denounces him.’ The possibilities of any coup now is remote. If anyone tries it, the state of preparedness and the transport factor will degenerate into an anarchy with more than 20 warlords controlling different parts of the country." 

Icheoku adds however that the super perm sec forgot that cell phones make use of towers to function and that they could be yanked off from cellular network as well in the event of a military coupists deciding to fallow communication; but we sure understand the emphasis he was driving home with the choice words deployed.