Odumakin: Nigeria on the Verge of Collapse

The Publicity Secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, has warned that given the political and economic situation, the country is on the edge of collapse.

Odumakin who gave this warning when he appeared on The Morning Show, a programme on Arise News, a sister media outfit of the THISDAY, said that Nigeria is on a death troll and gradually becoming a failed state, while the political leadership seems not to be concerned.

According to him, what the country lacks are visionary leaders like Chief Obafemi Awolowo who could have steered it out of the abyss. He recalled that the former Premier of the old Western Region had in 1966, while in Calabar Prison, in a book warned against making the country a unitary state, adding that what Awolowo warned against is manifesting right now.

He said the machinery of government right now is groaning under bureaucratic overload. “Everything has collapsed. In fact the country is dying,” he said.

“Why we do not know that the country is dying is because a country does not die like human beings. A human can be alive right now but the next minutes he is dead. But a country dies gradually. While this is taking place, many people are too busy to take notice. Nigeria today is dying. Beyond the political situation, we have to rejig, we have to renegotiate Nigeria.”

He insisted that what this means is that the nation needs to be restructured and urgently too. “We have to re-address the power issues in Nigeria.”

He also insisted that the idea of having a centralised police system in the country has been counter-productive, saying that it would be better if the country allows for a state police formation that is controlled and answerable to the state government.

He addedc that a situation where the state governor gives the police commissioner orders but the commissioner has to get another order from the Inspector General of Police in Abuja before such orders can be implemented does not augur well for the country and had been counterproductive.

Odumakin who is also the Secretary General of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF) made it clear that he is not looking at the issues affecting the country from a partisan point of view but from a nationalistic angle.

He urged Nigerians to admit that the country is not only in crisis but a failed state where law and order has broken down and bandits are in control.