Forty-five years after Nigerian civil war, the country is treading on a path that is capable of leading to another crisis. This is the apprehension of governor of old Kaduna State, BALARABE MUSA, who, however, attempts solutions to the cloudy situation, in this interview with BENJAMIN JIBRIN.
What is your impression on the situation of things in the country today? Are you in any way worried?
BALARABE MUSA
Yes. It should worry everybody, particularly those that are informed, those that are looked up to for guidance and leadership in Nigeria. The situation is very terrible. The state of the nation is negative in almost all respects. It has reached a stage where one cannot see a peaceful and democratic solution that can work.
The situation, as it is, is no longer the question of where did we get it wrong. What remains now is the solution.
But we cannot solve anything until we know where we got it wrong. Specifically, we have to know the root of this negative state of the nation.
From your understanding as an elder statesman, where did we get it wrong?
First, we got it wrong because of the socio-economic and political system that is directly responsible for all development in the country. Both the system and the leadership are based on self-interest first and public interest second in a country where there is no established ideal and established standard for achieving the ideals. Under this circumstance, it is inevitable to have this kind of survival of the fittest. You can see because of this system, how we landed with this disabling level of corruption, stealing and criminal waste of resources; how we landed with this level of unemployment and poverty, how we landed with this level of insecurity; how we landed up with this level of organised violence leading to loss of lives and property. You can see how we landed with a situation of the leadership of the country being made up of largely thieves. We landed with this abuse of incumbency; we landed with this level of impunity by those in power. We landed in a situation where you cannot change the government and the leadership through election. We need free, fair and transparent election leading to a legitimate government but we cannot have it.
If we cannot get a legitimate government by election, what do you think is the solution?
We should be preparing for what can follow. Yes. Something must follow because this situation cannot continue. Let us understand what may follow and try to understand how we can handle the matter when it comes because it is bound to come. There must be fundamental changes. We have virtually reached the end of the road. Something must happen. Let us be prepared for whatever will happen and you can be prepared only by estimating or intellectually and honestly analysing the situation and foreseeing what can happen and doing something to manage what can happen so that we can survive as a people and as a country. But something must happen. This negative state of the nation can’t continue forever.
Nigeria has been alternating government between civilian and the military. At any given time, the political class has always said that the military is not helping matters.
It is not honest now to say that because in terms of patriotism, in terms of concern for the people and the country, there is not distinction between the military and the civilians except that you can openly criticise the civilian government and get away with it but you can’t do that with the military government because the military government holds the gun and they can use that gun. That is the only distinction between a military government and a civilian government in our experience particularly since the second republic. Take the situation now, it is supposed to be a civilian government but is there any qualitative difference between this civilian and the military governments? No qualitative difference at all, except as I said the civilian has no gun.
It is surprising hearing this from you given that you members of the political class have always said that the worse civilian government is better than the best military regime.
That is preferably. But you don’t always get what you prefer. You will always gets what the concrete realities dictate.
So, what is your dream for Nigeria come 2015?
Well, my dream is that someday the Nigerian people will stand up and demand for their rights by any means possible.
What is your assessment of the national conference?
What is the use of this national conference, which cannot deal with the issue that brought about the state of the nation, which they are debating? The root of the negative state of Nigeria is the socio-economic and political system controlling all development in the country and the political leadership inevitably produced by the system. Most of these are based on self-interest first, public interest unlike what we had before from colonial time to the first part of the second republic when public interest was primary, enlightened self-interest second and we registered progress continuously. During that period, we didn’t have this level of corruption, stealing and criminal waste of resources. We didn’t have this level of unemployment, hunger and poverty. We didn’t have this level of organised violence leading to loss of life and property. In short, we didn’t have this negative state of the nation because public interest was primary, enlightened self-interest was secondary and the state or the government played the leading role in the economy to ensure peace, equality, dignity of the human person and even development of the whole country. During that period, nobody could steal a kobo of public funds no matter who he was, and get away with it. Nobody could organise violence and get away with it but all these changed after the first two years of the first republic.
Who takes blame for this, the military or …
No, it is not the military because the military was never elected to do anything. The military imposed itself like the kings who fought wars to create territories. That is what the military is. Those responsible are those who have been elected by the people to take care of their welfare and progress. They should be held responsible and they are not conforming. Specifically it is the civilians in Nigeria today as represented by the President of the country, the Governors and the Local Government Chairmen. All the three have now failed. That is why we have this negative state of the nation.
Who is the final arbiter now?
Philosophically, the final arbiter is the creator who created us. He is the final arbiter and he has promised to change whatever is bad but for our sake, the creator has advised us to stand up and change for good. If we fail, he will do the change. If we don’t fail, we stand up honestly, he will help us. Now, if you want the arbiter in terms of the human action, then I can say, what can separate us from the present negative state of the nation and the suffering arising from it is a free, fair and transparent election leading to a legitimate government that will create an honest leadership and inspire public confidence. That can be used to sustain development and peace.
Credible or free and fair election is relative. It depends on the party or the candidate that is favoured. For example, if the ruling party today is defeated in the forth-coming election, they will not agree that the election is free and fair likewise the opposition parties. What do we do?
Well, let us rely on the balance of terror. If the free will of the people cannot prevail, if it is money power that will prevail, if it is the abuse of incumbency and impunity that will prevail then let us try balance of terror.
Balance of terror?
Yes.
Will that save this country?
You don’t choose to embark on balance of terror, it imposes itself like the military regime. Today, if we have a social revolution, it will amount to a balance of terror. The terror of the reactionary ruling class would be checkmated by the popular terror of the people. It doesn’t sound good but it is the reality of life and we have experienced it. At least we have experienced a level of balance of terror. Military coups in the history of Nigeria and every country in the world constituted balance of terror. The civilians failed, they used terror to maintain their position and the military came and used a greater terror to replace them. And it is not impossible for the people to use a greater terror to replace military regime. It had happened in other countries, for instance, in revolutionary socialist countries. It was balance of popular people’s terror replacing military rule or monarchy. You can see the process going on now in Egypt. The civilians are organising terror to checkmate the terror of the military in Egypt. You may describe it in any form but it is the terror of civilian.
Analysts have ruled out revolution in this country because of our ethno-religious sentiments. With this development, do you think we can easily have revolution in this country anymore?
How different are we from the rest of the world? Are we so unique in humanity that we cannot do what others did under circumstances? We are not unique. What other countries did to free themselves from the yoke of terror, we who are not unique, different from the rest of humanity can do it.
With this prediction, is it not obvious that the 2015, which America predicted that Nigeria would not be one, is actually coming to a reality?
It is a threat but it will not be a reality. The threat is not the prediction of America, no. There are two other threats. The government in power is trying to maintain itself in power at every cost and is prepared to even destabilise the country for that purpose. That is the second problem we are facing. The third problem is these gangs of thieves that have stolen the resources of the country. These thieves who have made it impossible for government to perform are afraid of what may happen because of their theft. They may therefore be ganging themselves, arming the insurgents with the help of imperialists to destabilise the country, and if possible, to disintegrate the country so that when Nigeria is disintegrated, split into a number of independent countries, no one of the independent countries will have the guts to face them again. This is because the new government will not have the peace to do it and they will get away with what they have stolen. So, there are three possibilities for the reasons of the present undeniable strategy of destabilising Nigeria. These processes are imperialism, which has already projected the possibility of disintegration of Nigeria in 2015 arising from the general election. There is the government which has been exposed for its bankruptcy and inability to deal with the negative state of the nation and also wants to retain power. They want to destabilise Nigeria so much that there will be election in 2015 or if there is, it is freely rigged like in the past. The third of course, is this gang of thieves who are so rich, even richer than the Federal Republic of Nigeria itself. They can connive with foreigners for their own interest to sponsor an insurgency even greater than the ones we are having today. Remember, there are four insurgent groups in Nigeria. The ones that are now very active are Boko Haram, cattle rustlers and bombers. But there are others who may also take the centre stage like ethnic nationality pretenders because they are not really representing any ethnic group. In this category, the northern pretenders are there, the southwestern pretenders are there, the southeastern pretenders are there and the South-south pretenders are there. But at least we have two in the south that can always emerge to be as violent as Boko Haram, cattle rustlers and bombers virtually all in the north. The two in the south are the Niger Delta militants who are still not happy and can rise at any time. The only thing that makes them a little restrained is the fact that the president is from that area. The moment he is voted out or he seems to be voted out, they will strike. So is the East now talking about Biafra Sionist Movement. With this, Nigeria can be engulfed in a nationwide insurgency leading to civil war at any time. So those patriotic Nigerians who care about Nigeria, who care about the people of Nigeria, who care about humanity should now begin to think critically and plan strategically to save the country.
