Developmental Efforts In Nigeria’
you can become a champion and that is why we are saying let us have constitutional conference, weaken the centre, but the politicians like it and do not want the centre to be weakened. If we go back to the way we were before, we were making progress and it was obvious that we were making tremendous progress with little or no resources until we found oil and the military took over. Few people came to write the constitution, things we did not agree with, things that suit them and we say let us review it and many of us are saying no, let us leave it like that. Injustice does not last forever. It has expiry date. We do not know how long it will last but one day, we will find out that we are doing the wrong thing. Look at how many young people we are producing as a nation, look at all the boys driving okada, can’t they do better. What is our productivity on daily basis as a nation? The word poor is lack of productivity. Look at where Nigeria is today in the world indices of economic development! We are regarded as poor people because we are not adding value. The people at the top should galvanise the people, give them an enabling environment and release them to produce and that is how safe all of us are. If we do not produce, we are going to get more Boko Haram. Nobody believed that Boko Haram would be in Nigeria. If you ask me the foundation of Boko Haram, it is due to the economic situation, when people are discontented, what is the value of life? We never had about kidnapping, and we have been hearing of armed robbery, but it has gone to another dimension. All these vices are good expressions that the economy is not doing well. I do not care if you want to go into politics but have something in mind to help get people out of poverty and turn the lives of people around. History will hold several leaders of this country accountable if something happens to Nigeria whether now or in the future. Everybody that has been a leader in this country has something to explain because they must give account of their leadership and what they have done to turn this economy around and give people a sense of future and life.
I was in China a few months ago and I saw the gradual impetus being given to the electricians, technicians and so on.
Let us have power for our children to study at home. Let us have power to start cottage industry before we use power to mobilise automobile that is too far away for us. We are good at taking used things. We are getting used wrapper, we are using used underwear, we are getting used bras, we are getting used cars and trucks, everything that is dead in the world is dumped in Nigeria and we have accepted it gladly and our leaders say that is how to help the masses. People are poor, but they do not use any of such things. Very soon, we shall import used toilet roll. We import toothpicks, what do we not import in this country? Since I was a child, we drank imported peak milk and we are still importing milk. Do we have ranches to grow milk and be able to produce milk? Nigeria has not produced it and we have people who have claimed to be leaders that have led us for eight (8) years. It is easy for everybody to blame everything now on Buhari under his four years. The system has been corrupt and bad. I am not saying it is better today. I am not PDP, neither am I APC. They are all the same. I have seen the same people move around, they are all the same because it is the same people that move around.
A lot of people make issues with the fact that there is the fear that a portion of the country wants to run away and leave the country, and that is why some policies are put in place. Take for instance, the port system concentrating everything in one area. Do you think Nigeria is too big to be one country?
I do not think Nigeria is too big to be one country. Nigeria is not anywhere close to the United States of America. By land size, Nigeria is not as big as Libya. There are many countries that are much bigger than us but the truth is that people are not committed and do not believe we are one country. If you do not believe we are not one, is it not better to go through federalism like they have in United States of America? If you cannot develop your area if that is what you derive satisfaction from, if what you feel that helps your future is to impoverish your people and make them to pay homage to you and don’t get them empowered, if that makes you happy, then let everybody be free. If you go to USA, you cannot find skyscraper in Akinson but they grow chicken and if you want chicken, you go there. I read a story recently that Singapore used to be part of Malaysia. I never knew, I am not that educated, I never knew but each time they went to meeting, everybody accused the Singapore that they were very arrogant and one time they called a meeting excluding the Singaporeans and they expelled them. Singaporeans were devastated but today Singapore is not amongst the third world countries but Malaysia is still among the third world countries. They have made their progress but they will never catch up with Singapore. They put their ass together, the things they claimed they could do, they did it and we have seen it. It was not that they were arrogant but they found a better way of doing things but it was seen as arrogance so that is why I said, let us be one. If you come to our company, I am running a business; I do not know who is Yoruba or Igbo or who is Hausa? I use the strength of my people to get what I want and that is the strength of Coscharis. Go and ask Aliko Dangote if all the people he employed are from the North or if all the people he has are from the South. He uses the best people he has. If you are Japanese and you will give him results, he will employ you. I have Ghanaians working for me who are Directors in my company because I am running as an entrepreneur. A country has to be run like a business, use your best people to get best results. I will never be Coscharis. People say this thing you are doing is not fair as you do not follow your people. I am not running a church and this is not politics, it is about entrepreneurship. Somebody said why do you make a plateau man your second in command and my response was let other people do what the Plateau man can do and I will employ you or whether you come from Lagos State or Anambra, it is immaterial. I go to the hospital where the doctor has competence and knows better to fix me. We do not go to the hospital and ask the doctor, are you a Muslim or a Christian, a Buddhist or a free thinker? If you are a freethinker, don’t touch me! It is only when the things that matter to us, we play down our religion and ethnicity, but when it comes to our country, it becomes priority which is very unfortunate and I can tell you we are disobeying the law of God. A law is inherent in creation and it is about obeying principles, no matter my theory and logic, I do not need a prophet to prophesy to me. I do not need a witchdoctor to protect me because if I violate the principle of gravity, death will be eminent. Nigeria is violating the principle of using the best people they have to get the best results. If we do not promote the principle of excellence, what do you think will be our best results by using people who are not competent, our weak people as our front runners? I have met the best brain you can find in the country from the northern part of Nigeria, but they will not give them opportunity that is why I said I blame politics for what is happening in Nigeria not ethnicity, it is politics. I know the capability of somebody like El Rufai and the Sultan of Sokoto, I know seasoned people. They can stand anybody in any part of the world. Do you know that a guy born in Sokoto, a northerner is the designer of General Motors in USA, one of their top designers? He is not an Ibo man or a Yoruba man, so why should people claim that we are weak. The things you claim belong to you; you do not want to claim you are strong. They say, we are backward, who told you that you are backward, empower your people, give them what they require and you will be amazed to see what comes out of this country. God blessed this country better than many other countries. If you promote excellence, everybody will work towards it. You will see someone that will come from behind and beat the man who is in front. Did America ask the boy, you are a Muslim, so, you cannot design cars for us? They are looking for the best brains and anywhere they see it, they import it. You can keep your religion and your beliefs, it is immaterial but what people are looking for is what you can produce. There are people like me who will not talk because they will say I am an Ibo man and so on, therefore we live in mediocrity and nobody is speaking out and I am over 60 now and anything that I do not achieve now, is it when I am over 80 years that I will achieve it? If I have opportunity to speak, I go to places to talk to people, I go to universities to say do not fight ethnicity, fight politics. Politicians have used you and have got you confused. It is not about the east or the south or the west. It is about politics. We play politics with the lives of the people and that is what I am fighting against.
Nigeria is still grappling with food insufficiency. Instead of going comprehensive with agriculture, the talk is about rice and selecting foodstuffs?
Let us even find enough carbohydrates to eat. So rice is important. Let us grow yam and cassava but few years ago, before Buhari came, we were having bananas from Cameroun in malls at Abuja. Are we not supposed to be ashamed that we were importing bananas? We can grow apple in Plateau State because we have the temperature and the atmosphere to grow it. We should be exporting food, exporting fruits; let us do that one first before we talk about building aircrafts. If we cannot feed ourselves, we have no foundation. Let us have good three square meals produced by us. I can accept, let us spend 10 billion dollars to buy spacecrafts or whatever, but let us not spend 3 billion of dollars to import food. Statistics clearly show that people at Cotonou are suffering because the President closed the border for about two (2) weeks. The highest rice importers are in Cotonou. Nigeria needs to feed itself. So Buhari has tried. If he solves the food problem in Nigeria, I will give him credit for it. Another person should come and solve the electrical problem and not that when he leaves, another person will come and scatter what he has done because that is part of the problems we have, there is no continuity. Let us be consistent. If PDP come tomorrow, let them say Buhari has tried in agriculture; give Buhari the credit; continue his policy of agriculture; add your own! Not when you come, you scatter it. Jonathan started auto policy, where have they taken it to? It has been left in shambles, if something should be encouraged, give Jonathan credit for it, make it work; add your agriculture to it. Nigeria is making progress and that way, it shall add up and everything will come up into place. Do not say this is another man’s policy, you let the whole thing die off. Let us be consistent!
A law is inherent in creation and it is about obeying principles, no matter my theory and logic, I do not need a prophet to prophesy to me. I do not need a witchdoctor to protect me because if I violate the principle of gravity, death will be eminent. Nigeria is violating the principle of using the best people they have to get the best results. If we do not promote the principle of excellence, what do you think will be our best results by using people who are not competent, our weak people as our front runners?