NIGERIA @ 57 Nigeria has achieved a lot despite setbacks – Tanko Yakasai
Alhaji Salihu Tanko Yakasai is a former Special Political Adviser to a former President, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari. In this interview, he spoke on the achievements of Nigeria in the last 57 years and the challenges the country encountered this journey an
From Yusha’u A. Ibrahim, Kano
Nigeria has clocked 57 years as an independent country; what achievements will you say the country has recorded?
We have recorded tremendous achievements in the last 57 years. People who know where we started the journey from would be able to appreciate this.
By 1960, Nigeria had only the University of Ibadan, which at that time was a college, not a full fledge university. However, in 2017 we have more than over 150 universities, an average of about three universities per year. This is not to talk of polytechnics, colleges of education, professional training institutions and so on.
If you go to banking, by 1960, the entire banks and their capital in Nigeria were owned by foreigners: the British and others. Today, all the banks in Nigeria are owned by Nigerians. Both the banks and their shares are owned by Nigerians.
Take the area of judiciary, by 1960, majority of the magistrates and judges were British or foreigners, but today, from the magistrates’ to the Supreme Court, are all manned by Nigerians.
The number of tarred roads in Nigeria today, compared with what we had prior to 1960, are incomparable.
In the area of business, most of the businesses in Nigeria are owned by Nigerians and in fact Nigeria produced the richest person in Africa.
However, the only area where we have not recorded significant progress is the area of politics and administration, and this is caused by military incursion into politics from 1966 to date. Since then the military have run the country either in uniform or in civilian clothes, and because they have amassed money, they make sure that they prepare the ground for one of their own to succeed them.
However, they did a remarkable job for Nigeria; at least they crushed the rebellion in the East and prevented the splitting of the country. They should be praised and this achievement should be acknowledged.
But in the area of politics and administration, this is not their area; they are not trained to do it. I cannot be recruited today in the army and be a major or brigadier general or whatever. A military man cannot be employed as a politician to do what a normal politician who spent his life in politics trying to identify the problems of the country and develop ideas will do.
So, this is where we have not really recorded appreciable progress. Compare countries that have not been visited by the misfortunes military rule like India and Malaysia. Indonesia and Korea had their own but they dealt with the problem. Even in Africa there are countries where the military did not rule, like Kenya and Ivory Coast. They’ve done better than Nigeria.
Another major problem is that tribal jingoists are a drawback in our political effort, but all the same, we are making progress. You’ll not understand until you are able to travel outside Nigeria that you’ll be able to compare with the progress of our neighbours, our brothers in other countries. But I think we have achieved tremendous success in the area of healthcare service even though there are cases where we cannot handle and people have to go abroad.
Nigeria had little over 30 million people in 1960, now we have 180 million people and the resources at our disposal are very limited. We got oil, but unfortunately we didn’t manage oil properly because we didn’t sweat for it. It was just like gambling money because you didn’t labour for it. The way a farmer or worker in a factory would value his money is different from the way a gambler will value his money. The gambler will spend it as nobody’s business, anytime. So this is the reason why we are not able to make it but. However, we are now realising that gradually and I am optimistic that we’ll correct our mistakes.
Can you recall some of the major challenges Nigeria encountered in this journey?
One of the most important challenges was the attempt to secession which was a threat to national unity. Thank God we dealt with that issue successfully even though there are remnants that are raising their ugly heads.
Before then, the first challenge at independence was producing capable hands to manage our affairs, but we did it successfully. By the time the British handed over power to us, I think most of the permanent secretaries were British, but within a limited period, we replaced them with Nigerians.
The Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (KBE), appointed Alhaji Shehu Shagari as Minister of Establishment and Training. Therefore, we embarked on massive training of Nigerians to acquire administrative skills to take over from the British, and we did it successfully.
There are other challenges, but the biggest challenge was military rule: it was brought about by overambitious young men in the military but they had a fertile ground in the Western Region crisis where human beings were being set ablaze for political differences. This provided ground for anti-democratic elements in the military to stage a coup in 1966. That single act was a very serious challenge to Nigeria and we are still suffering its shortcomings.
How did Nigeria overcome these challenges?
We overcame them, like the issue of the skilled competent people to man the administration, to man the judiciary and to man the banking industry. However, we are still struggling to overcome some of the challenges; like the military incursion, because it came with unexpected gigantic problems.
When the military seized power, they enriched themselves. They suddenly turned out to be the richest people among us. They used the money to pollute the system; and this is still a problem in Nigeria.
When Obasanjo was released from prison, I can’t remember the exact amount, but he said he had in his bank account between N2 to 5 million, but by the time he left office as president in 2007, he was fantastically rich and only him and God know how much he has. That is why you see him deciding who should be president of Nigeria.
He succeeded in forcing Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua, because Yar’Adua wasn’t interested, but he called him and said, “Look, it is you I want to hand over to”. Yar’Adua said he was not interested, but Obasanjo insisted.
Then he insisted Yar’Adua should take Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate, and I suspect he knew Yar’Adua was not healthy enough to do it. When Yar’Adua died, Jonathan took over.
And when we wanted to continue with the rotation system in the military, the then Senate President, David Mark, who was a brigadier general, introduced something which has no place in our constitution called doctrine of necessity to justify power to Goodluck.
How can the country address the recent agitations once and for all?
You cannot address it once and for all. However, you should not to allow it to germinate to become a big problem for the country. When Nnamdi Kanu started it, if to say government handled him very well, the situation wouldn’t have reached this stage, but unfortunately, they did not. The man comes out of detention and says that he is going to sabotage the constitution of the country; this is treason, and the intent to commit treason is equally an offence. Awolowo was convicted on the intent to stage a coup which they called treasonable felony and he was convicted. It was Gowon who granted him amnesty, but the record is there.
Are you comfortable with the way the Federal Government is handling the issue of IPOB?
I am not. If they had taken action days gone by, it wouldn’t have reached this stage. This boy, a nonentity, has not done anything for the Igbo, no single achievement you can recall that that boy has recorded for the Igbo. He probably got money from some anti-Nigerian elements and used it to come back to Nigeria from London. He started it the agitation there.
The Igbo started to worship him to the extent that he will be going round and people will be licking his shoes and the whole governors of the South East would need to invite him for a meeting, who is he? How can you encourage this kind of thing? So, if long ago the government had taken action against him, it wouldn’t have reached this stage. I hope that in the future any indication that somebody is going to subvert the constitution of Nigeria would be appropriately handled by the authorities.