Time would reveal my next...
join the protesters now?
Because this is another season and it is the turn of young people to take their destinies in their own hands. Check what I’m about to tell you because there are people who took snapshots. I participated in this #ENDSARS march in Abuja when lawyers blocked the Attorney General and Minister of Justice’s office. I went there and spoke to them. I went to the Attorney-general and spoke to him and they disperse. I don’t do things for publicity stunt so that people could see me. Deep rivers flow in majestic silence.
A lot of Nigerians believe APC has not done anything on restructuring since coming to power, despite having it in their manifesto. Do you also share that view?
Well, they have done something on restructuring but not as much as one would have expected. But you cannot say they’ve not done anything because under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nasir El-rufai committee was formed to look into the issue of True Federalism and restructuring. They made fantastic, formidable recommendations to the government and to APC. Why the government has not implemented it and what is hindering them, they will have the questions to answer in the days to come. But they still have the opportunity within the next one or two years because there is no army that is as powerful as an idea whose time has come. I’m emphasising geo-economic restructuring so that we don’t put the cart before the horse. Nigeria needs redemption right now and we are praying to God to redeem this land so that it can be properly restructured and it can be better than it ever was in our trajectory.
Do you think Christian leaders will support you if you decide to run?
I don’t know. I do not expect everybody to support me. Not everybody supported Joe Biden; not everybody supported Buhari. Some will support, some will not support. That does not make them my enemy. We are all differently persuaded. Those who are fully persuaded that I have something to offer will support me and those who think otherwise will support other people. Our prayer and the prayers of patriots is that may the best candidate win, and may the best of the North, South come together to deliver our nation from the grip of the wicked and men who think public service is a means to great wealth, without knowing that there is such a thunder from heaven that will blast the head of those who prosper and who become great at the expense of the ruin of their country.
Youths are saying older politicians should stay away from the 2023 general election. Do you think the youth can do it alone?
Many of them are misguided and they have not been students of history. The youth have significant roles to play but not at the expense of the older ones. America produced the oldest presidentelect in our history at the age of 77. We need both the old and young. Like two hands, you can’t use one hand to clap. A bird cannot fly with one wing, so we need both the old and the young. The Bible says that your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions. If the dreams like the insight of the old men into the visions like the foresight of young men is what produces stability in an even society. Without the collaboration of both, it’s a waste of time. The youth cannot do it all by themselves. When they said they have no leader, it is because they don’t trust themselves. Leadership requires trust. Wherever that happens, you are playing what I call ‘class suicide’. In the book of Judges, chapter 19 verses 20, 21 the Bible recalls that there was a time in Israel when there was no King and every man did what pleased him. By Chapter 21, a whole generation was wiped off and they had to look for the remnants that are left; they had to marry for them so that the tribe will not be wasted. It will trust to give and take for them to select leaders amongst themselves. Every nation deserves the leadership it gets so the leader deserves the types of followers that follow them. I think from what happened after the Lekki situation, there have learnt now that they need to reorganise and restrategise again. They did well within the first five days, unfortunately, they dragged it perhaps too long and if you linger, you will litter. Like the Yorubas will say ‘T’a ba pe lori imi, esin keesin lo ma bani nibe’ (When you tarry for too long defecating, all kinds of houseflies eventually perch on you).they would have learnt from some of the mistakes they made and they will do better things in the days to come. I encourage and support that we must do things from the ambit of the law and order.
Some leaders, especially in the South—west are saying the 2023 general election must not hold until Nigeria is restructured. Do you think that is possible?
Those who are saying that know that we cannot continue to do the same thing the same way and expect a different thing. Learning from the first statement in Alcoholics Anonymous, it is insanity to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result. If you look at them, you can say they are justified. But majority of those from the South-west and South-east who are saying that also know that their own people will also go for election in 2023.
I think both can run together by establishing a Presidential Commission for Restructuring, which will go side-by-side along with any elected government. At the end of everything, we will have a situation that what is coming out of the commission will be released to Nigerians to vote on in a referendum to see whether we can evolve the constitution that we the people can call ours. They can go sideby-side without necessarily eroding the powers of the elected officials