Before the March 28 Presidential election, you were among those that spoke out forcefully that President Goodluck Jonathan was going to lose. What made you appear that certain?

It was analytics; power of deductive reasoning. Some of us went to proper schools. Education is important in the life of individuals and nations. Nigeria has become a country where mediocrity is being celebrated. In the process, some people think that education is not important. There is nothing as useful in a country as its human capital. And the human capital comprises people who are truly educated. When a man is not educated, he is by all intents and purposes, an animal; he is not a human being. To be a human being has a philosophical definition.

A human being must have a body of a human being, the mind that is educated and an ethical soul. Those three components must come together to give you what you call a proper human being. It is not everybody with eyes and nose that is a human being. Most of the caricatures; creatures in Nigeria do not qualify to be human beings because they are not educated.




If you have gone to a university – a premium university where your dignity has been fully restored, and you did humanities, philosophy, religion, power of deductive reasoning, logic theology as we did in our time, even when you were doing sciences, when you come out in the society, you have the power to analyse things critically. Irrespective of what anybody is saying, you can look at things yourself and come to your own conclusions as what the philosophers call the autonomous man which is the point of self-actualisation of a human being. This starts from when you are attached in your mother’s womb. You are purely dependent on your mother when that happens. On the day of the birth that you are cut and you begin to go through the socialisation processes that make a human being to the point of self-actualisation in the process of individuation, you become a god-man; a man that has the qualities of divinity; a man in which the spirit of God in you has found expression.

That was why in old Greek society, when men were really great, they became god-men. They were gods! The same philosophy prevailed in African society. The Igbo theology substantiates the divinity of humanity. So, when you have gone through good schools, you come out and continue to develop yourself on that path of enlightenment, unaffected by the materialistic nonsenses happening around you, or the pretensions of evil men who are not qualified to be called humans, you can have the power to analyse something critically and come to a conclusion that people will call oracular.

I went to good schools; and I can reason. I worked with President Goodluck Jonathan. He is such a big disappointment – a young educated man that was supposed to have a Ph.D, doing things that do not have any sense at all. It was a betrayal of the educated people.

In what ways?

It was betrayal of all the people from the South. What do you mean in asking in what ways? Are you not ashamed of this out-going administration? Every Nigerian should be ashamed of the administration. I worked with the administration and I walked away. I have said so on television. People said I was fired. But I ask, how can he fire me? How can people that are not working fire those that are working? I couldn’t identify myself with what I saw. I raised issues on whether they were in Abuja to shortchange the people. I wrote memos that Jonathan received copies but he never reacted to any of them. If I were the President and anybody working under me wrote such memos, I would call a meeting and get the issues resolved that day. Have you not heard about the issues of corruption? The middle name of this out-going administration is corruption.

This is the most corrupt administration in Nigeria. And the menace is in every ministry and every department. You cannot run a country like that – where you have over 25 million graduates of various classes of degrees without jobs. We have now taken Nigeria to a level where you have children with three masters’ degrees and Ph.D without jobs but it is fools that are cannibalising the country and want us to celebrate them. When you raise issues, they say ‘if you cannot beat them, you join them’. Why must you join fools? In a country where you have rent seekers, business parasitic human beings, political jobbers roaming all over the place, if you do not have some sane people who are still saying the right things, showing the light, the country will be doomed. Luckily some of us have worked in good environments and cannot soil our hands.

But the impression is that if your Permanent Secretary had stolen N450 million, you should still N1 billion. In some ministries, they even have formula of sharing the stolen money including giving the gate man his own share. Corruption has become the most singular thing that is destroying the fabrics of the society. The President-elect was correct to call it the evil that is destroying Nigeria. Unless you tackle corruption, Nigeria will not go anywhere. You have a federal government that should be having N20 trillion and, as Professor (Charles) Soludo said, N16 trillion is stolen, misapplied or misappropriated and we have just about N4 trillion that members of the National Assembly will waste their whole year talking about and at the end, 90 per cent of it is spent on recurrent expenditure. Incidentally, this is a country where you need, probably $400 billion to address the infrastructure deficit. If you don’t address these, how do you develop the nation? Who would want to belong to such a country?

Were these the issues you raised in the memo?

One single memo in an administration is not enough to address the issues in the country. But we can see the issues in the country every day. Is this country working? The issues are well-known and they have been articulated. While I was working with this government, I could see, from the part where I was, the mess in the country.

Let me tell you the one that is particular to national population. In the election that we just had, President Jonathan knew he couldn’t have won. If he had done anything to say that he won, he would have felt sorry for himself after that. I wrote so before the election. Nigerians wanted change to a level that they wanted anything but Jonathan because he had messed up the system sorely in governance and leadership.

So, it was good that Buhari came through. That is why everybody is happy. But Buhari did not come through because Attahiru Jega (INEC Chairman), did a good work. Jega is very incompetent – grossly incompetent. This is one of the worst elections in the history of Nigeria. In the Electoral Act, there are limits to the amount of money you would spend. But did you see the money people were throwing about? Was Jega not there to supervise those things? That was his role. But he was there seeing no evil, hearing no evil.

Look at the results that came from the states. How was it that in Imo State where the governor, Rochas Okorocha, is of All Progressives Congress (APC), Jonathan would win 98 per cent of the votes cast? It is not possible. How possible was it that in Rivers State where Rotimi Amaechi of APC is the governor, Jonathan would win 99 per cent of votes cast? It should not be possible. But you saw that the trend was like: PDP rig where you think you can rig; APC rig where you think you can. And Jega was just sitting down announcing the baseless results.

From the results we had, you could see that probably it was only in the South West, particularly Lagos, that what people voted was what was counted. The president was lucky that he did nothing to claim that he won, else he would have been sorry for himself because Nigerians would not have taken that. Akin Omoboriowo purportedly won election in Ondo in 1983, but he could not enter the state. Jonathan could have been the most unfortunate man in the world, if due to manipulation, INEC had declared him the winner. He would have been sorry for himself.

So, the best thing for him was to lose the election because Nigerians don’t want him anymore. Nigerians wanted change. PDP knew that. That was why they postponed the election from February 14 to March 28. But before that March 28, they messed up even more by bringing vicious attacks on personalities in ways that were not necessary. I had never seen an election like this – never!

So, the demerits of this out-going administration are so many that we do not need to waste more time discussing them. I think we should now be looking forward, listing out what APC and the President-elect should do. But if they come and do not do them, we should also be talking about them because Nigeria has passed the level of “born-to-rule” or “who owns Nigeria?”. Nigerians are well aware, the social media has brought everybody on. The media, despite its failings in investigative journalism, at least, engages people. So, the era where people could come and do whatever they liked in governance, is gone. As for Buhari I know by reputation, I do not think a man would run for an election four times for the fun of it. But the work he has to do, is huge. I don’t envy him. He will become a hero in Nigeria if he addresses the issues he has to address. There are major issues to be discussed. When Buhari comes, we will put those issues on the table.

Number one is population. Nigeria must have accurate biometric census if anything would work in this country. This is because the problem of Nigeria from 1960 till date is because of false population census. Jega hasn’t got the population census with which to authenticate or otherwise the voters’ register. So, the voters’ registers in the country, for all intents and purposes, are forged. They are based on falsehood. To justify the falsehood, in some places, you saw eight, nine, 10-year-olds given Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs). The word “permanent” cannot be, because it was based on false demographic figures. It was based on forged voters’ register. So, there is nothing permanent about the voters’ cards people have now. When Nigeria conducts an accurate biometric census to really know what the census of the country is – and nobody really knows that for now – then the NPC should establish a population register and the accurate population democratic characterisation from where you can now take those who are above 18 years, and you give them a PVC, that will be verified and authenticated, by national population data. And for this to be on-going accurately, you must establish a vital registration parameter with 21 indices from the 200,000 localities in Nigeria and link it to the static accurate census figure. So, the everyday birth and death, coming in and going out, as well as internal displacements will be updating the register. With this, every day, you can know the population of Nigeria. Some days, it will increase, other days, it will decrease, depending on the rate of immigration or emigration. That is how it is in a civilised country. That was the programme we wanted to do in NPC, but Jonathan did not want to give it attention because he had thought that during election, PDP would rig from every state. That was why he was more interested in pandering to people like Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso. Where is Kwankwaso today? Those were the people who betrayed him.

The other day, it was announced that Suleiman Abba had been removed as Inspector General of Police (IGP). And I asked: “what did he do?” Don’t you see that Abba’s removal showed bad intention – that he was put there to rig election? A pragmatic president should have left him since he had lost and had conceded defeat. But to have removed him when he had less than two months to go was being mean. A leader cannot be mean; a leader should have broad shoulders. By removing him, the president was saying: I put you to rig for me, but you did not.

So, the election was not free and fair. You cannot see the result and say it was free and fair. There was no election in Akwa Ibom, from what I saw in the media reports. There was no election in Rivers State. Kano could not have had election and Buhari would win 1.9 million. But what was happening was ‘if Enugu brought false figure for Jonathan, Kano would bring false figure for Buhari’.

That is not election. But why everybody is happy is that at the end of the day, it led to change because Nigerians wanted change. But you cannot say that Jega ran a good election. Jega did not conduct better election than Professor Maurice Iwu or the others before him. The man is incompetent.

The issues surrounding the card-readers, not being switched on or not being linked to the system and other discussions could not have come in a system that is well managed. I said it before the elections that Jega should get the results from the polling booths and not just announce anything. But he just did the contrary. People who know would tell you that there was no election. In the whole of South East and South South, the figures were written for Jonathan. Also, in most of the North East and North West, the figures were written for Buhari.

It was probably in some states in the North Central and South West that you could see what looked like real voting or contest. That was because of the inefficiency of Jega and his INEC and ultimately, the inefficiency and incompetence of President Jonathan, who was supposed to be supervising them.

When I read about 10-year-old children given PVC, I blamed the president. His security agents are supposed to be everywhere. Where were they when Jega was giving nine-year-olds PVC? Where was he when they were using false voters’ registers? Jega came to ask me for data to update the voters’ register and I told him there was none; that Nigeria had never done census before and that I did not want what NPC was doing to be linked to politics; but we could help him in some ways to give him something reasonable by calling people to brainstorm but there was no figure. I reported this to President Jonathan but he did not do anything about it. He was rather pandering to people he thought would rig him back to office.

When you are a leader, do the right thing because if you do the wrong thing, one day, it will catch up with you, like the wrong voters’ register has caught up with President Jonathan. The things I told him that he did not give attention to were the things that caught up with him. I am surprised that he was surprised that they caught up with him. For me, it was very clear. When you consider the figures on the PVC that were distributed in the six zones, it was clear that what I said was exactly what happened. Leadership is serious business; it is for trained people. And it is a burden. If you are a real leader you can take decisions that are painful to you as a person but you will still take them because of the best interest of your people.

But Jonathan would not do that. He sees leadership from the beauty of the office and not doing the hard job. Look at the reported cases of stealing, petrol and kerosene subsidy scandals and the missing money in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Look at the issue of the organised stealing of crude oil. That was why the security of the coast line was taken away from the Nigeria Navy and given to militants who are part of this organised stealing. All these are going on and everybody is keeping quiet.

You have a National Assembly that does not know how much the members are earning. Why should a Nigerian legislator earn more than an American president? You monetised things for civil servants yet you go with a convoy of more than 20 cars. Some of these people had no car before they went to Abuja. You have private jets everywhere for people without second addresses. At a time, even, Jonathan saw the number of private jets as an indication that the Nigerian economy was buoyant. Look at that!

In some countries, mere accusations against you would make people avoid you. But here, they would honour you with national award. A country that is doing that, has no future. If you have future, you begin to clean the Augean Stable and begin to create models. It is these models that Buhari should mobilise to go and save Nigeria. If he goes ahead with compromised people, he would not achieve anything because those people can easily be reminded of their past. Nigeria has good people. We should find those good people and put them to serve the country for everybody to be happy.

If called upon, would you offer yourself for service?

What do you mean by if called upon? If you even ask me, I will tell you the jobs that I can do. Why shouldn’t I? There are no many people that are as trained as me. Nigeria doesn’t have many CEOs (Chief Executive Officers), leaders that are as trained as me. People like us don’t come cheap. But I can work without salary and I will not take bribe. I will change Nigeria from there. You don’t have to be president to change Nigeria. There is a ministry you will give me and I will create 25,000 jobs in five years. This is not World Bank grammar. I am talking of operations. But you will need data to plan, manage and control. So, if they call me, why shouldn’t I go? How many people are as trained as me? Am I not intelligent? We have to provide our first eleven and make them models, if not Nigeria will collapse on the heads of these people. No nation survives on falsehood. If what is happening continues for the next 10 years, people cannot move freely on our streets.

We need people who can serve the nation and are happy they are serving. I am an en employer of labour. I don’t need to be employed. But I can serve my nation without salary.

You have spoken about corruption, but the thinking out there is that most people surrounding the president-elect are perceived to be corrupt…

You people should be stating things clearly. Let me take Bola Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi for example. There may be other people you have in mind. Tinubu has never been the president of Nigeria. He has never managed our NNPC, nor had he been Petroleum Minister. Tinubu just ran a state. Let us assume he had made money running the state, what should be done is to take Lagos from where Tinubu met it and look at where it is now; look at what Tinubu has done as a man, setting up APC to save Nigeria from the crooks in PDP and you tell me if you quarrel with him or not. I will not quarrel with him.

They say he is tax collector of Lagos. He set up efficient internal revenue regime. Why couldn’t other states do so? Some states only depend on federation account. Lagos has no oil. The money in Lagos was created by somebody and it started from Tinubu. He created the internally-generated revenue that Lagos currently has.

Let us say in doing that, he even took 20 per cent, what did he do with the money? He survived PDP Tsunami in 2003, helped other states in South West to recover, extended it to Edo and some other places, now he has saved us from PDP. In my article ,I said God has forgiven him everything, including his Original Sin.

So, is he your role model?

It is not an issue of role model. Is he an effective political leader? The answer is yes. What about the people who had taken our money outside the country and did not do anything with it? If 90 per cent of those taking our money outside Nigeria can bring the money back, you may not have poverty in Nigeria. I have no problem at all with Tinubu. He is an effective political leader. Buhari is lucky to partner with him, just as he is lucky to partner with Buhari. They really complement each other.

I know Amaechi fairly well. We are not on one-on-one basis, but I have analysed him very well. For a governor in the South South to look Jonathan in the face and say I don’t agree with what you are doing shows the stuff he is made of. Only men do such things. For that alone, I respect him. Again, why is he quarrelling with the president? He said they took oil wells belonging to his state and gave them to Bayelsa and that his people were shortchanged. That is his responsibility. Look at his allocation and go and check what he has done in education and infrastructure. Compare these to the situation in Akwa Ibom, his neighbours. Won’t you score him very well? We have to be pragmatic. Reality is not idealism. You make a success of life by combining the good, the bad and the ugly. Certain bad are acceptable, certain ugly are acceptable to blend with the good. But there are certain people who are evil. The fact that such people as Tinubu, Amaechi, Ogbonnaya Onu and others teamed up with Buhari and created APC to save Nigeria from the evil arrogance of PDP should be commended. For any party, individual and any force that lifted PDP away from Nigeria, God will prepare a special place in heaven.

You seem to have completely condemned those in PDP while lionising those in APC

I would never support corruption in any way and by anybody. Ninety-nine per cent of corruption in Nigeria happens when you don’t have an effective president. There is an inspirational component in leadership and you will see it when Buhari assumes office. If Buhari is inaugurated and his body language alone shows complete abhorrence of corruption as he has been saying, all the 36 state governors will be lifted up. Even if the governors enjoy immunity, by the time their corrupt acquaintances start getting jailed, they will know that there will be no hiding place for them after office. A good president can wipe out corruption from Nigeria.

The president is not the first among equals for nothing. He is not number one in protocols for nothing. The President of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is the sovereign, personification and embodiment of the Nigerian state. What he does is very important. If you have a good president, the National Assembly cannot be corrupt. If you have a good president, the corruption in the judiciary will be cleared in six months because he appoints the judges.

You can clean Nigeria up in one year by democratic means. And all that will start from the president. In democracy, you have rule of law. Cases last in courts because we don’t have a president who wants to fight corruption. A good president will uplift every institution in Nigeria.

That is why strong institutions only come after strong leaders. Strong institutions don’t make themselves. It is people who make institutions and put the mechanisms and culture to sustain the institutions. What Jerry Rawlings did in Ghana is still effective in the country, till date.

Here, you have criminals who buy private jets and are flying them. Sadly enough, the president would make friends with them. You will see him in their gathering.

Leadership solves all problems. If Buhari becomes President of Nigeria on May 29, and he wants a formula on how he would re-engineer Nigeria in all the states, judiciary, legislature, local government, I will give him. He just requires to do one or two things to get it right. Nigerians are good people; if not, we won’t survive the locust in the hands of PDP for 16 years. Nigerians are enterprising and hard working. They only need a president that will set the direction where the nation will be fair to everybody. If this is done, I believe that in 20 years’ time, you can make Nigeria a first world country. I have a strategic architecture for that. PDP has set this country backwards.

But we have not tested the APC.

We have not tasted the APC, but Nigerians clamoured for change. The change has come. We should give them a chance. That is all we are saying. We know what they can do to make Nigeria great. If they do so, Nigerians will agree that the change has come. We know the change we want. We also know what we don’t want. If they abandon the change they promised us and start doing another thing, after four years, we throw them out. That is why it is important that we must get our population census right; we must get a proper permanent register because what is issued now is not permanent. It can’t be permanent because it was based on false demographic data. When we set up all those foundations, any government that doesn’t do well, you vote it out.

That is just what has happened to President Jonathan – a man that went to school without shoes; who had opportunities to make Nigeria good for other children who do not have shoes, so that tomorrow they may be presidents of Nigeria. But he messed up the chances he had.

That was what happened to Ikedi Ohakim, the then Imo State governor, in 2011. He got to office and forgot his humble background. Four years after, the people paid him in his own coins.

There must be leadership lesson in all of these instances. You win because people trust you. When you are there, maintain the trust of the people – serve. The biggest thing a man can do is to serve his fellow citizens.

So, we need to give APC chance. It promised us change because the current situation is not good. When they come, if they serve well, we will acknowledge it. If they do not do well, we will tell them. Nigeria has gone beyond the level where anybody can mess it up. That is why democracy is good.

What is your impression on the role of Ndigbo in the last election?

First of all, the votes you saw from the South East were not the votes of the Igbo. Some Igbo people supported Jonathan due to lack of analytics, guided by corrupt, unfocused and criminally-minded political leaders, who pretend to represent the Igbo but represent themselves, and some people listen to them. I don’t belong to that category. But even at that, the votes from the South East and South South were not the real votes of the Igbo. They just wrote the figures. Jonathan could not have scored the votes ascribed to him from Imo and Rivers where the governors are of the All Progressives Congress (APC). It was not possible. But the general tendency in the South East and South South was that they were supporting Jonathan, just as the general tendency in the South West and the whole North was that they were supporting Buhari. That was where I did my analysis and said Buhari would win and it turned out so.




Now, the elections have come and gone. The Igbo supported who they wanted to support. Other peoples supported who they wanted to support. That is the beauty of democracy. That is the first point. But let me warn that the Igbo support in the election should not be limited to the five South East states because the Igbo are not only in these states where they have been marginalised and cut off from the sea and had their oil wealth excised to other states. There are Igbo in the seven states around Igbo land. There are large populations of Igbo in Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Bayelsa, Cross River and Kogi. In these seven states also, the Igbo voted.

There are also large populations of Igbo, ranging from 15 to 20 per cent in every other region in Nigeria. This is because everywhere you go, after the local population, the next significant group is the Igbo. That is why the people who want the Igbo down refuse to do proper census for Nigeria. Even in the false census they do, they don’t want people to put their states of origin and religion. If they allow state of origin, you then add all the people from Igbo states to get the real population of the Igbo.

Many people that voted from the North and South West were also Igbo. The Igbo are spread widely because they are very enterprising people. They are the only ethnic nationality that the whole Nigeria is their home. So, don’t use only the South East to judge the Igbo. The Igbo are more than the South East.

Finally, there are lessons to be learnt. If you want good governance, vote the right people. If you don’t want good governance, stay away; and when they put anybody there, his policies will affect you. What I have said has bearing on the Catholic Church that many Igbo are faithful. The seven themes of the social teachings of the Catholic Church command all Catholics during political issues to look for people who are ethical and vote for them because it is only those ethical people that can maintain the seven themes of the social teachings. That was why I wrote at a time that Buhari is more Igbo and Catholic than those who say he is a Muslim. If Christians are these criminals in PDP, then I would want to belong to another religion.

Also, the Igbo should get organised because politics is a game of numbers. And the Igbo have the numbers in Nigeria.

There is this allegation that at the election, the Igbo put all their eggs in one basket.

You cannot measure Igbo votes by only what happened in South East. Many Igbo voted differently. I was in Lagos and voted for APC. All my workers in Lagos and Abuja did so. So, what happened in the South East will not be enough to judge where the Igbo voted. In the forged figures that they sent, Buhari defeated Jonathan with more than two million votes. A lot of Igbo were in the figure, but they are spread all over the country. But the most important thing is that everybody voted for who he wanted. So there was nothing like the Igbo putting their eggs in one basket.

The second side of the argument is that even if all the Igbo, including me, had voted for Jonathan, Buhari has won. He will soon be the president of all Nigerians, including all the people that did not vote for him, and he said so himself.

It is now left for APC, who did a merger between the South West and the North, as it were, to have a progressive policy, programmes and projects to convert the Igbo to become members of APC, so that it will become a mega party.

The Igbo should also try to join APC to create a strong platform for the region. APC, on its part, should do special programme and projects to attract the Igbo, so that it can really stand on the three legs that hold Nigeria. It is when the APC stands on this tripod, that it will be sustainable. If the party fails to do this and it is comfortable standing on two legs, when the demographic statistics of Nigeria is properly defined, its leaders will see that they cannot win elections without votes from the South East. The Igbo constitute 33 per cent of Nigerian population. You cannot win election in Nigeria, with proper voters’ register, without the vote of the Igbo. So, for APC to be sustainably successful, it must stand on three legs – the Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani. This will foster genuine unity among the people and banish the politics of divide-and-rule. Even if PDP reforms itself, it needs this wisdom. That, for me, is a vision that we shall continue to pursue, so that we shall begin to discuss issues.

Do you see PDP playing effective opposition politics?

The party has been stealing Nigeria dry in the last 16 years. They have also gone to rig election in oil-rich states. And they did it deliberately. So, the way Bola Tinubu used Lagos as base to help create APC, if after the court cases PDP still keeps Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Delta states, it has a base for the governors to keep funding the party for it to be a strong opposition. Again, by the time they begin to play proper party politics, they will register their members to contribute in funding their party, appropriately. It is the members of the party that should be funding it. They should not allow the governors to be funding the party because that was how they destroyed the internal democracy in the party. There is a lot of work to do. But PDP has people to guide it in doing that. They have oil-rich states to be supporting them before they can restructure themselves for the party members to be funding the party.

Now, APC has gone, for the first time, to the centre and has more states that earn their money as Lagos. But if they do their politics and party development very well, in 2019, they may capture Akwa Ibom and Rivers states. That is, if they fail to do so now through court cases. Even the Delta result is in contention. When there is free and fair election, the oil-rich states would be shared between the two parties. The economically powerful states will be shared. It will be governance that would matter. But the basis is that there must be accurate census figure. What we have now is holding down the Igbo man. That is why they don’t want accurate census. That is what has killed Nigeria. But now, everybody’s eyes are open and we shall be shouting until the right thing is done.

Do you think the Hausa/Fulani who allegedly benefit from this faulty census regime would agree for Nigeria to have an accurate one?

Look at the entire North and tell me the advantage you see. Do you like what you see in the North East? The level of literacy is least in the North. The North West has the highest failure rate in WAEC (West African Examinations Council) tests– about 90 per cent. The least is South East, with 47 per cent. They have no advantage. Nobody will have advantage under falsehood. Because these things are built on falsehood and confer sense of entitlement, that is why they are not working. And that is why the region is not developed. They have a few people who, while in government, made money and are living in opulence, but the rest of the people are in total darkness.

An Igbo gateman in the house of a managing director is praying to be bigger than his boss. That culture is why the South East is vibrant. The South East doesn’t need government to exist. It does not mean the Igbo will not be in government to even bring in the entrepreneurial spirit to save Nigeria. But the North has no particular advantage.

It is an intellectual thing – mindset thing. We will engage in this dialogue to prove with historical facts and figures that it is because of the prevailing falsehood that Nigeria is in a mess. And it is better for us to get accurate figure.

If we do so and stop this attitude of sharing cake instead of baking cake, you can tell the South South to keep their oil wealth in a true fiscal federalism. But they should also do the investment to mine it. It is not cheap. After the business of mining the oil and selling it, you pay certain percentage of tax to the federal government. When, therefore, the North East knows that it will not get easy money, it will develop agriculture in the region. The whole North East can feed the entire African continent.

The South East can be based on industrialisation and commerce and become the Dubai of Africa. The North Central can become the power zone of Nigeria. Every region in Nigeria has things (of advantage), but it is this sense of sharing and accompanying laziness that is holding us down.

When the situation is now based on production instead of consumption, value addition instead of useless entitlement, everybody will begin to work hard. Because you need to go and work hard, you need data to plan. So, you need your demographics, you need economic indices. Without data, you can’t plan, and without planning, you can’t make economic successes. You cannot control what you don’t know.

So, there is no advantage in the North. Buhari couldn’t have won the election if the South West did not join him. He would have lost because he could not have become president of Nigeria with only Northern votes. He needed at least 25 per cent of votes cast in at least 24 states to emerge president. The people who put that clause in our constitution did it so that it can be well for Nigeria when it is good for all Nigerians.

So, nobody has advantage over the other. It is convenient for some people to say ‘oh, the Igbo are marginalised’. It is a mindset thing. Nobody has more advantage. Everybody is equally powerful, but you have to know your strength. When we know our individual strengths, we begin to tell ourselves the truth and not what is currently going on.

How can the Organised Private Sector (OPS) assist the in-coming government?

The in-coming government has so many issues that the OPS is completely insignificant in addressing them. Do you really have an OPS? What you have are rent-seekers and people who run around, collaborate with government people and steal money, get tax waivers, get concession, get subsidy money, steal with private sector people and share it. You don’t really have a robust OPS. If you check the Nigerian corporate landscape, what do you see? You see banks who steal people’s money and make profit without adding value to anything people are doing, or telecomm sector where the service is poor. The same thing happens in the power sector where people are billed for services not rendered. So, there is really no OPS.

You can have one multinational (firm) here and there. But even then, because Nigeria is not properly structured, they are not doing the right thing. So, the ball is in the court of the federal government. Buhari has to come and step up to be counted. When the fight against corruption is stepped up, a lot of the people in the so-called OPS will be in prison with their collaborators in public service. Everybody will sit up. Fighting corruption will solve 80 per cent of Nigeria’s problems. When, then, you bring demographic, scientific, economic data as well as science and technology and blend, you begin to have economic revolution in Nigeria that will create jobs. With that, you banish crime, stop kidnapping and put the street urchins (area boys) to use.

The moment you address the incidences of multiple taxation, militancy, favouritism, we shall move ahead, because they are signs of insecurity. Once you take care of these factors, particularly insecurity, you cause an industrial economic revolution in Nigeria and then fund it with money retrieved from people who had stolen from the country as well as plug the necessary loopholes.

It is easy with a committed president, who can show you that he is a sovereign who can affect every institution in Nigeria. The president can affect the efficiency in all arms of the government. If it is becoming difficult, we abolish immunity in our constitution, so that everybody can face the music.

Are you done with the governorship of Imo State?

Are you now insulting me?

No.

You shouldn’t ask me that question. I ran for governorship of Imo State in 2007. If I am going to run for elective position again, after talking with you like this, would you expect me to go and run for governorship of Imo State when the problem is in Abuja? I am too big to run for governorship. I am 62. If we support Nigeria to move forward and the day they say the presidency has come to the South East, who are the people who will come out that are credible to run? It is people like us who have the training, experience and good ethical background. So I can’t run for governorship again. But the issue now is not who will run for presidency. Buhari, I believe, will do well, by reputation. He should be there till 2023. Let us wait till then and see what happens.

How would you assess the governance style of Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha?

Rochas is a cowboy! What he is doing in Imo State is not governance. He has brought disgrace to governance. He is my brother. I like him. He is my friend. But he has brought total disgrace to governance in Imo. Rochas has privatised governance in Imo. Why I don’t talk about political problems in Imo is that the state is too small for me. The entire thing is obscene and he makes it up with all these populist razzmatazz. One of the things the Igbo will begin to do is to hold their government to account. What Rochas is doing in Imo cannot be done in any of the western states. That was a comment a former Nigerian leader made while I was discussing with him. And I believed him.

If Abuja is good, all the states will be good. But Rochas is a disgrace in government. He is my brother and friend. But this is the truth.

But he belongs to APC. What about the touted change? Should it not have affected him?

Don’t forget that in his first term, he originally came on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) before becoming a member of APC. Now that he is under APC government, maybe the president, who is his party leader, will make him change, because the approach he used in the first term is not sustainable in the second term. If he tries that system in the second term, we will call him to order.

He has really not done well in government, forget all the caricatures he does with his “my people, my people”, jingle. Leadership is more serious than such empty populist sentiments.

What makes you have such confidence in Buhari?

Personal example! There is nothing as personal example. Buhari had been military head of state. Some others who had occupied the same position simply emptied the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). But he did not. He had headed the Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), but he did not steal. He had been military governor, he did not steal. There is nothing as personal example.

Second, Buhari doesn’t talk much. He is a man of few words. He is measured. But anything he says, he is clear. He doesn’t talk from two sides of the mouth. That clarity of thought and speech mirrors intention. A leader will never do well unless his intentions are good. Everybody knows where he stands on corruption. General Buhari will perform at least 100 times better than Jonathan. So, that change is already good to that level. My only concern is his health, especially on the old age part. But my grandfather lived up to 110, even without being a soldier. So, Buhari can live up to 110 with the military discipline he has and his lean frame.

But I worry for him because fighting corruption will come up against devil incarnates in Nigeria. Everything must be done to protect him. Buhari will be one million times better than Jonathan. Jonathan betrayed the trust of Nigerians.

But the fear, as you know, is that the expectations are quite huge and the economy is bad, especially with the dwindling price of oil.

I don’t fear; I can never fear. Nothing in life should make you fear. It is the eyes of the children that fear the painted devil. You should have the ability to look at any issue, analyse it and deal with it. It doesn’t need fear. The situation in Nigeria is simple. One trillion dollars was reported by African Business Council to have been stolen from Nigeria from 1960 to 2005. For somebody to put a figure on this money, he had idea on who had it. This money is somewhere in asset. It is not mysterious; it is real.

If we auction Nigeria’s oil and gas tomorrow, we can have N1 trillion again. How much do you need to develop Nigeria? A president of Nigeria can raise the money to develop the country in six months. But he should invest it prudently. All it requires are huge physical and social infrastructural projects, huge agricultural projects, huge data projects, and after few months the country will take off.

Japan has no resources. Singapore has no resources. Lee Kuan Yew (the late Singaporean Prime Minister) came and found the best Singaporeans from everywhere in the world and encouraged them to come and develop their country. What fear are we talking about? If we start by retrieving Nigeria’s wealth from those that had stolen it, you will have enough money to equip the schools in the country.

How would you assess Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economy?

Okonjo-Iweala is a total failure. She is my sister. At personal level, we respect each other. But as Finance Minister or Coordinating Minister of Economy, she is a failure. It is a disgrace that she is doing that job the way it is. She does not even understand the economy she says she is coordinating. She is rather part of the problem of the Jonathan administration. Don’t exonerate her because she supervised the fuel, kerosene subsidy – the two sources through which corruption took place.

But even beyond that, she is too naive, given her background, to know what the militants are doing with our oil. So, for her to say that she is coordinating the economy means that she does not understand what she is talking about and what is happening. If she knows, she won’t be using that title. Even in the Finance Ministry where she is, she has not performed well; else, the economy would not have crashed. She is a major part of Jonathan’s failure, because she is trusted.

Okonjo-Iweala de-branded herself in this Jonathan’s administration. The economy, under her, is lying prostrate. Part of Jonathan’s problems is that he allowed some unreliable people to have their way through him. He trusted many unreliable people who actually do not know what they are doing. It is either he is not interested in governance, hence he does not care or he lacks the intellect. Okonjo-Iweala is one of those who had their way through Jonathan. And it is a shame. If I were Jonathan, I would have sacked her after a year or two for failing the administration.

This shows that her performance with President Olusegun Obasanjo was rather provided by Obasanjo’s clout and not through her own proficiency.

It was obvious that the international community took particular interest in the election and supported the opposition.

Forget the international community. Buhari was voted president by 15 million Nigerians. There was no (member of) international community in that number. He should rather try to find out what those Nigerians who voted for him and even those who did not vote for him want and begin to work for Nigeria and Nigerians. That is his mandate. If he is doing the right things, any country that loves Nigeria and Nigerians will support him. The way it happens is that if you are performing well and your country loves you, the international community has no choice but to support you. All you need is to serve your country, focus on your country and every other person in the world will come and support you. It is your country you are serving, not the international community.

You don’t pander to the international community. When they see that you are on the right track, they will reach out to you.

Nigeria has what it takes to be made a great country by Nigerians. They are all over the world. All you need do is to assemble them and inspire them to perform. That was what Obasanjo did in his economic team where Okonjo-Iweala became a star. But her performance under Jonathan and the reasons she is giving for failure have shown that it was Obasanjo who performed and not her. There is what you call leadership inspiration. It is a technology, an asset. The human beings you have with ideas who can add value are more important than all other resources in Nigeria.

It’s time we began to look for good people and stop promoting those who come to have their way and talk rubbish, when 25 million Nigerians do not have jobs, and 12 million children are out of school. This is the country with the highest number of out-of-school children. These are time-bombs. Government must be responsive to them and give them meaningful life as Nigerians.


CONCLUSION.

Who fit read all dis stories finish I just scanned and skimmed tru

Who fit read all dis stories finish I just scanned and skimmed tru Am allergic to long stories

Life is toooo short to read this epistle!

This man get mouth sha. He perfectly defined Nigeria in the first and second paragraph.

barcanista:
Life is toooo short to read this epistle!

SHARIAREPORTERS:
Who fit read all dis stories finish
I just scanned and skimmed tru
Am allergic to long stories

these guys i quoted are bunch of 1diots!

after reading the so-called "epistle" and realized that it made mince meat of their otuoke god - with proven facts, they did their best to discourage others from reading it by using reverse psychology!

oduastates:
This man get mouth sha. He perfectly defined Nigeria in the first and second paragraph.

and he perfectly defined the otu.oke drun.kard at these paragraphs:

ollooooooloooooo!!!! Nairaland bot don kill me with laugh!

so if u write otu.oke drunk.ard - the bot will change it to President Jonathan! nnaaammeeeeee oga seun no go kill persin!

[size=18pt]I went to good schools; and I can reason. I worked with President Goodluck Jonathan. He is such a big disappointment – a young educated man that was supposed to have a Ph.D, doing things that do not have any sense at all. It was a betrayal of the educated people.
[/size]
In what ways?

It was betrayal of all the people from the South. What do you mean in asking in what ways? Are you not ashamed of this out-going administration? Every Nigerian should be ashamed of the administration. I worked with the administration and I walked away. I have said so on television. People said I was fired. But I ask, how can he fire me? How can people that are not working fire those that are working? I couldn’t identify myself with what I saw. I raised issues on whether they were in Abuja to shortchange the people. I wrote memos that Jonathan received copies but he never reacted to any of them. If I were the President and anybody working under me wrote such memos, I would call a meeting and get the issues resolved that day. Have you not heard about the issues of corruption? The middle name of this out-going administration is corruption.

This is the most corrupt administration in Nigeria. And the menace is in every ministry and every department. You cannot run a country like that – where you have over 25 million graduates of various classes of degrees without jobs. We have now taken Nigeria to a level where you have children with three masters’ degrees and Ph.D without jobs but it is fools that are cannibalising the country and want us to celebrate them. When you raise issues, they say ‘if you cannot beat them, you join them’. Why must you join fools? In a country where you have rent seekers, business parasitic human beings, political jobbers roaming all over the place, if you do not have some sane people who are still saying the right things, showing the light, the country will be doomed. Luckily some of us have worked in good environments and cannot soil our hands.

He dissected the election and Nigeria in and out.

superstar1:
He dissected the election and Nigeria in and out.

i swear that man make brain die!

Nigeria is really a country with overload of intelligent men and women! NL is a practical example - compare to all other African forums, its on NL u will see super intelligent guys proffering solutions even in ways that are so very funny!

thts why it still baffles me that of all the intelligent men and women in naija, why Jona? well sha - 'Goduwin'!

Eziokwu Naija Rocks!

It's a long read but well worth it. This guy is Good and knows his stuff. I doff my hat. He's an asset to Nigeria. Brilliant piece.

superstar1:
He dissected the election and Nigeria in and out.

Source please?

nwaanambra1:


i swear that man make brain die!

Nigeria is really a country with overload of intelligent men and women! NL is a practical example - compare to all other African forums, its on NL u will see super intelligent guys proffering solutions even in ways that are so very funny!

thts why it still baffles me that of all the intelligent men and women in naija, why Jona? well sha - 'Goduwin'!

Eziokwu Naija Rocks!

As caustic as NL is, i have to give it to most contributors in Politics Section of NL, whether based on politics or ethnic arguments. Guys in here are super brilliant.

I have been provoked to read more on issues i never taught i could be interested in. I have done research and study as if i was preparing for an exam, just to separate the truth from lies and propangada.

Odimegwu killed it in that interview. I doff my hat to the Shine Shine Bobo himself. His only problem is he lacks diplomacy in speech.

Festus Odumegwu !... Arrogant, loquacious and superbly brilliant since day-one. I would work under him a thousand times and over than under GEJ. Superbly brilliant, only doesn't know when to shut up.

superstar1:


As caustic as NL is, i have to give it to most contributors in Politics Section of NL, whether based on politics or ethnic arguments. Guys in here are super brilliant.

I have been provoked to read more on issues i never taught i could be interested in. I have done research and study as if i was preparing for an exam, just to separate the truth from lies and propangada.

Odimegwu killed it in that interview. I doff my hat to the Shine Shine Bobo himself. His only problem is he lacks diplomacy in speech.

the highlight is one of the major reasons why he had problems with Jonathan. Odumegwu doesn't know how to embellish words - but truth be told, we all mustn't be diplomatic with speech, we need men like him to create a balance in the polity.

nwaanambra1:


the highlight is one of the major reasons why he had problems with Jonathan. Odumegwu doesn't know how to embellish words - but truth be told, we all mustn't be diplomatic with speech, we need men like him to create a balance in the polity.

He is the Igbo version of Gani fawehinmi and Tunde Bakare. The same way Col. Umar is for the North.

superstar1:

That is just what has happened to President Jonathan – a man that went to school without shoes; who had opportunities to make Nigeria good for other children who do not have shoes, so that tomorrow they may be presidents of Nigeria. But he messed up the chances he had.

GOLDEN WORDS THAT SHOULD BE GLAZED.

The guy talk plenty hurtful things but he spoke truth on most of them.

I think I'll like him to replace jega

I pity the next guy to have a fit of orubebeism

Also the guy couldn't hide his admiration of Tinubu and even Amaechi

Imagine him saying for Tinubu pushing PDP out, he's sure God has absolved him of all sins

Odimegwu na real crazy old man

Seriously if Ndigbo get 10 of this men when fit look beyond ethnicity and voice the wrongs of GEJ, e 4 good.

I couldn't read all but took the 1st 3 paragraphs and the last, I wasn't disapointed. Corruption actually became the middle name of the out-going admin. He didn't even fail to state that those many Igbos that voted GEJ were influenced by bad leadership. He also talked on the hate campaign; damn! Niccur talked about GEJ conceding cos he knew Nigerians were actually tired.

Guy is brilliant. You may not read all, but try reading the much you can.

superstar1:


He is the Igbo version of Gani fawehinmi and Tunde Bakare. The same way Col. Umar is for the North.

GBAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

I only read half, and the guy accurately defined the pathology plaguing this country since 2011. A brilliant chap indeed !

OMG! Can't believe i read it all, this man is super brilliant, he knows Nigeria in and out, and he's not afraid to made known his opinion on all issues, he even blasted okorocha, and praised tinubu to high heavens while subtly agreeing that he pocketed lagos money, but used it for the overall development of lagos and bringing down PDP to its knees. I recommend him to GMB!

Odimegwu is the new SGF!
you heard it here from me.

superstar1:
He dissected the election and Nigeria in and out.

That's right. Let this man be returned to NPC to finish his job.

Love this Odimegwu guy! He no send anybody @ all lol. Brilliant and astute. I hope he gets a "sensitive" position in this GMB's administration maybe return to NPC and clean out that place. From the interview I can almost say he wld relish that!

SHARIAREPORTERS:
Who fit read all dis stories finish
I just scanned and skimmed tru

I did. I never think I can finish it, but was glued to it. The man is a complete definition of a GOOD speaker, bold, collective, not mincing words. I doff my hat sir.

Truly Nigeria will be a great country IF we learn to shed sentiments. Please read it, it worth your time.