Dr. Lade Adunbi
By Chido Onumah
Dr. Omolade Adunbi is a political
anthropologist and an Assistant
Professor at the Center for
Afroamerican and African
Studies (DAAS), University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
U.S.A. In this interview with
Chido Onumah, he examines
corruption, the national
question, and political violence
in Nigeria amongst other
national issues.
• What is your assessment of
the current situation in Nigeria?
Nigeria is in a state of rot. A rot
caused by being held hostage by a
cabal that is bent on destroying the
country. A lens through which to
see Nigeria is that of a sick person
who suddenly found himself in a
hospital. At the hospital, he was
given wrong diagnoses and of
course wrong prescription. Each
time the patient takes his
medication, his condition keeps
getting worse and the physician
keeps conducting tests upon tests
without the patient realizing that
the physician is actually not a
trained physician but a fraudster
parading himself as one. This is the
situation in which Nigeria, a country
rich in human and natural resources
has found herself today. In spite of
the abundance of those with the
right expertise to tackle Nigeria’s
problems, the cabal that has held
the country hostage will not allow
Nigeria, the sick patient, to be
treated by a trained physician. Until
the patient frees himself from this
fraudster, he will continue to fall sick
while his peers are making their
lives better. This is my assessment
of Nigeria of today.
• To what extent are you
worried that the unsettled
question of nationhood
continues to dominate public
discourse in Nigeria?
Am I worried that the national
discourse today is about the
unsettled question of nationhood?
Any patriotic Nigerian should be
worried about this. I am worried
because after more than 50 years of
nationhood and almost a century of
having an entity called Nigeria, we
ought to have moved beyond
questioning our ability to stay
together. Some will say, if you have
been married for over fifty years and
the marriage is still enmeshed in
discord, then you are not
compatible. But the issue is not that
of incompatibility here but that of
social inequality. When there is an
increase in social inequality, people
tend to look for ways of fending for
themselves and the process of
doing this often lead to discord with
a capacity to degenerate into what
some might call ethnic divide. When
this happens, many will begin to call
into question the idea of Nigerian
nationhood itself. The other way to
reflect on the question itself is to
argue that Nigeria has never been a
nation, so there is no point talking
about whether the discourse of
nationhood is dominating the
political landscape or not. The
question then will be why is Nigeria
not a nation? Nigeria is not a nation
because it is an imposed entity. This
may not suggest that it does not
have the capacity to become a
nation, but after over 50 years of
independence, it is yet to clearly
demonstrate that it has that
capability of becoming a nation.
What we see today is a situation
whereby people continue to see
themselves not as Nigerians but
more importantly as Birom, Igbo,
Hausa, Fulani, Ijaw, Ibibio, Yoruba
etc. People continue to cling on to
their ethnic cleavages rather than
clinging on to the idea of Nigeria as
a nation. If you look critically at the
history of formation of many of
these ethnic groups, it is not as if
they all started through a process of
homogenization. Many can be
considered as a hybrid of many
traditions, cultures and practices,
but living together over the years
and with the right leadership, many
began to see themselves as one.
For example, if we look at the
Yorubas of Southwest Nigeria, the
development of Yoruba orthography
helped in shaping a Yoruba identity.
Prior to the development of Yoruba
orthography, many would either see
themselves as the Oyos, Ifes, Owos
etc with a common ancestry which
can also be interrogated or
questioned but developing a Yoruba
orthography helped in making
people believe that they are at once
a Yoruba person before being an
Oyo person. Same thing can be said
for the Igbos, the Hausa/Fulanis and
others. So, nations are formed
through commonalities and
unfortunately, the only thing we
have in common in Nigeria today
can be categorized into two. Those
who are extremely rich because of
their access to our commonwealth.
This group constitutes less than 1%
of the population. The second
category is the more than 99% of
the population who are extremely
poor and continually pushed to the
margins by the less than 1% of the
population. The tragedy of the
whole situation is that this group,
who for many years have been told
that they are different and
compartmentalized into being
Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw, Birom,
Zango etc do not see their destiny
as being tied together. Rather they
see their destiny as being tied to a
representative of the less than 1%
within their community. That is why
when that person who has been co-
opted into the less than 1% group
comes home to talk about
marginalization, those who should
chastise him will be the same
people who will be ready to die for
him not knowing that he is in fact
one of their oppressors. Therefore,
the less than 1% of the population
who constitute the oppressing cabal
have succeeded in manipulating
and transforming what ordinarily
should be a national psyche into a
local, ethnic or communal psyche.
Such is the tragedy of the Nigerian
situation and this is why the
question of nationhood keeps
coming up because there is no
nation.
• Recently the National
Assembly called for memos for
the review of the constitution.
Do you think this is the right
way to go? If not, how should
Nigerians go about fashioning a
workable constitution for
themselves?
I have thought about this severally
and I am beginning to think that the
constitution might after all not be
the problem. We have been
fashioning constitutions since the
1900s and here we are in the 2000s
and we still have not been able to
fashion a workable constitution for
ourselves. We have had what I will
call a pseudo democracy for over 13
years now and every four years the
national assembly sets up a
committee to review the
constitution but what have we got
from this? We are fast becoming a
nation of committees. Committees
that help in the process of
siphoning our commonwealth
instead of designing appropriate
policies and programs that will help
uplift our people. If we must have a
workable constitution then my
suggestion will be that it should be
done through a democratic process.
Let all Nigerians elect their
representatives to a constitution
drafting assembly and let the
outcome be a subject of a
referendum to either approve or
reject the new constitution. The
election of representatives must be
conducted by a genuine and
transparent electoral commission
put in place not be the present
government but by an independent
body.
• How would you rate
President Jonathan’s fight
against corruption?
Is President Jonathan fighting
corruption? I am not sure he is.
Jonathan is a product of a very
corrupt process and such a person
lacks the capacity to fight
corruption. In Nigeria, corruption
has become an institution and it is
highly destructive. Corruption as an
institution will make sure that other
institutions that could help
strengthen the nation are
weakened. This is the only way it
can continue to thrive. Of course
you also have the beneficiaries like
Jonathan and others who might feel
threatened if there is a serious war
on corruption. The bottom-line is
that if we succeed in fighting or
destroying institutional corruption,
then we could say we are on our
way to strengthening institutions of
the state. As things stand today, we
do not have a state but what we
have is Nigeria in name and not a
Nigerian state. Strong institutions
are what make a state and not
name recognition. So, Nigeria is just
a hanging on to name recognition
and crying for serious help and
Jonathan does not have the capacity
to render the kind of help that
Nigeria needs.
• What’s your view of his
decision not to publicly declare
his assets in the face of
continued public anger against
corruption in the top echelon of
his administration?
Jonathan’s view that he does not
give a ‘damn about asset
declaration’ stems from the fact that
he is not representing the Nigerian
people. The institution he
represents is comfortable with his
not declaring his assets, so he feels
he does not owe the rest of the
country anything. Jonathan can only
be worried if the cabal who put him
in office becomes uncomfortable
with him. After all, votes do not
count in Nigeria, so he really does
not need our votes to remain in
office. Until votes begin to count
and Nigerians are able to freely elect
their representatives, we will
continue to have leaders such as
Jonathan. So, we need to move
beyond procedural democracy that
we currently have to a more
inclusive and transparent
democratic practices.
• Can this administration be
trusted when the president says
those found guilty in the oil
subsidy report will be
prosecuted? What do you make
of the faceoff between Messers
Femi Otedola and Farouk Lawan
over bribery allegation?
We have had several probes in the
past and nothing happened. The
administration of Jonathan has set
up several committees since its
inception and nothing has come out
of those committees. I remember
when Obasanjo left office, there was
a power probe committee set up by
the National Assembly and nothing
came out of the committee’s report.
So, you can expect that the same
thing will happen to the oil subsidy
committee too. I think the National
Assembly and its leaders have
become what I will call a
‘craftimanipulative’ institution if I
am permitted to use a word like
that. What I mean by this is that
they are schooled in the art of
distracting the general population
from the main issues of social
inequality. So, when you hear that
there is an oil subsidy or power
project probe, the expectations of
citizens are immediately raised,
thinking that finally, something is
going to be done about their plight.
The period of the probe will become
theatrical where the so called
leaders who may think the idea of
shame is foreign will expose their
‘secret dealings’ for a few weeks for
Nigerians to see. Ordinarily, such
public expositions should be a
mobilizing tool for Nigerians but it is
not. If you remember where I
started from, the less than 1% have
succeeded in manipulating the
population to believing that the
reason why there is social inequality
is because of the other person who
is not from their ethnic group.
Again, what such probes do is to
turn the light towards ethnic witch-
hunting as the reason why things
are the way they are. Thus, Femi
Otedola and Farouk Lawan are
products of the same corrupt
institutions and I will not be
surprised if tomorrow people start to
think that Farouk Lawan is being
witch-hunted because he is Hausa/
Fulani. The fact is no one is asking
questions about Otedola’s sudden
wealth. How did he suddenly
become a multi-millionaire? What is
his background? Where did he get
his initial capital to start a business?
The truth is both Otedola and Lawal
are beneficiaries of a corrupt
institution called Nigeria.
• How would you assess the
problem of insecurity and what
it portends for the future of the
country?
The truth is that Nigeria is currently
at war. It is only those who are
delusional that will say Nigeria is at
peace and that what is going on are
pockets of violence here and there.
The tragedy of the Nigerian
situation is that a time bomb placed
at the centre of the country several
years ago is beginning to detonate.
Unfortunately, those who can help
stop the degeneration are not in a
position to do so. The problem of
insecurity is neatly tied into the
problem of social inequality and the
continued marginalization of the
majority of the population. When
you have a population that is highly
pauperized by the few elites, the
dignity of the person becomes bare
through a process of Darwinism.
Survival becomes an uphill task and
the resultant effect is the recourse
to ethnic or religious chauvinism.
Religion then turns to opium of the
people and those who cannot stand
the double marginalization hide
under the cloak of fighting for a
God’s kingdom to further
traumatize the aggrieved
population. It is in this context that
I see the level of insecurity in the
country. Just pumping money into
national security cannot solve the
problem. The only solution is to
address the marginalization of the
majority of the population by
addressing issues of access to
education, health, roads, and rural
infrastructure. When the so-called
Boko Haram says it is opposed to
Western education, it is because it
equates Western education with the
institutionalization of corruption in
Nigeria. I see their cry as the cry for
equity, justice, access to education,
health care, good roads and over all
development of the country. I see
them as wanting to be part of an
inclusive process that will address
social inequity in the Nigerian state.
Their grievance is not in anyway
different from the unannounced
grievance of Nigerians out there
who are disgusted about the decay
in their country.
• What do you make of the
clamour for 2015 in light of the
crisis of the Nigerian state?
Politicians will always jostle for office
whenever the opportunity presents
itself. Those who believe Jonathan
will not run in 2015 need to re-
examine their minds. Jonathan will
run in 2015 and the question is
whether the opposition will be able
to put their acts together and give
him a run for the Nigerian money
that he is spending. More
importantly, it is hard to see if the
salvation of Nigeria lies in the
current political system. If the
Nigerian people can rise up and
fight, they may be able to change
the system and install a more
durable democratic system in
Nigeria. We need to rekindle the
fighting spirit of the 1970s, 1980s
and 1990s when Nigeria was the
leading light in democratic
struggles. What Nigerians need to
do is to create an enduring process
that will shield the popular struggle
from the rampaging elite who might
want to take advantage of it and
reinstall themselves in office. This is
exactly what happened in the
1990s when the elite hijacked a
genuine movement for democratic
change and installed what is
presently in place. To guide against
that, Nigerians need to rally round
an organization that will be all
inclusive and ready to take the fight
to the elite and rescue the Nigerian
nation. It is when this happens that
Nigeria can move away from being a
nation recognized in name only to
that of a Nigerian state that will be
democratic, where justice and
equity will reign supreme.
• What role can Nigerians in
the Diaspora play in effort to
reclaim Nigeria?
The role I see for Nigerians in
Diaspora is to be more involved in
the process of reclaiming Nigeria
from the marauding elite that has
taken Nigeria hostage. Nigerians in
Diaspora can liaise with those in
Nigeria to help shape the form and
character of whatever organization
will be put in place to rescue
Nigeria. This category of Nigerians
may need to take a cue from other
Diasporas who have helped to
shape the future of their countries
in the past. There are several
examples to draw from. Within the
African continent, history of
democratic struggle in South Africa
where those in the Diaspora
supported those at home still
lingers in our memory. We can also
draw from various countries in Latin
America, and the Middle East.

I believe we ought to investigate that man's work record. Something just does not add up.