•Wants to know where restructuring will lead
Nigeria
•Describes some of Buhari’s ministers as
misfits, Says the way to recovery is for
ministers to be experts or knowledgeable
in their assigned areas
•TSA is contributing to the recession

Tanko Yakassai, 90, is Chairman, Northern Elders
Council, NEC. He was Liaison Officer to President
Shehu Shagari (1779-1983). He is also a founding
member of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF. In
this interview, he blames the entire problems of
Nigeria on the three military coup de’tats of 1966,
1975 and 1983, as he forecasts that getting out
of the current economic recession may not be
soon. Excerpts:

Nigeria is 56 today but things have gone wrong
and Nigeria has disappointed the world. Some
people think that part of the solution to our
problem is restructuring the country. What is
your take on this?

The problem with people calling for restructuring
is that they have failed to tell us what they aim
to achieve. What are the details? What is Nigeria
going to look like when we restructure it? What
could be the initial and aftermath expectation of
their dream if Nigeria is restructured?

They are only making and shouting slogans. Restructure!
Restructure! Some of them are calling for ‘True Federalism,’ as if
there is anything like True Federalism. The truth is that every
federation in the world is unique, because of
several factors. So, I think the agitators of this idea
need a lot of work to convince Nigeria about
what they need to achieve, not driving
Nigeria into a hole.

Looking back these years, are you happy with
the Nigerian polity of today?

I cannot be happy. Who is happy with the Nigeria
of today? I am one of those who called for the
independence of this country. Then military
came and destroyed all the efforts that our
founding fathers did in building this country.

There are three coup de’tats that did a lot of
harm to this country: The first was the 1966
coup; the second was the 1975 coup and the
third was the 1983 coup.

Each coup destroyed a certain aspect of
Nigeria’s political life and values. Each coup
destroyed some political aspects of Nigeria’s life.

The first coup destroyed the political clout; the
political parties that our founding fathers
laboured to create. At the same time it
destroyed the system of government in the
country. The 1975 coup, of Murtala/Obasanjo,
destroyed the Nigeria Civil Service.
It destroyed security of tenure in the civil service
of Nigeria. When they came they started
dismissing people without following due process.

A Permanent Secretary would leave his home for
the office. Before reaching his office, his name
was already on the radio that he had been
dismissed, just like that without any excuse given
him.

Because of that the Civil Servants who were
once loyal to their service and their country,
decided to look for money for themselves. They
reasoned that they could be dismissed anytime
without any retirement benefit. They decided to
look for money so that they could have security
for themselves and their children in the event
they were suddenly dismissed. Corruption took
root in civil service.

The 1983 coup destroyed the political class and
institutions created by the disciples of the earlier
political leaders. The coup destroyed the effort
to rebuild political culture in Nigeria. The
implication was that we ended up in most of
Nigeria’s life with a military culture of
governance.

Name them: Buhari, Babangida, Abacha,
Abdulsalam. And if they were not in Khaki, they
were in mufti: Obasanjo, Buhari, they are still
military men and they rule with military
mentality. So, in a nutshell, these are the major
things that set us back or destroyed Nigeria from
the fast pace developments we were witnessing
after independence. And things cannot be fixed
overnight. It’s going to take time. It is going to
take time to re-establish order and right the
wrongs.

You have attempted to capture how we got here.
What is the way to recovery?

The way to recovery is to allow political culture
to flourish uninterrupted. It is only a democracy
that can build a democracy. Unfortunately in
most part of our lives it is the military that has
dominated, not democracy. The military are
limited in their training, in their psyche, in their
mentality; their ego is military.

This is why you direct all national funds from the
banks into a single treasury account at the
Central Bank without taking into consideration
the wider effects of that policy. Government’s
agencies put their monies in banks under certain
conditions which are both benefiting the banks
and government. And it is from these deposits
that the banks lend out to people and corporate
bodies at an interest rate, and they go into all
manner of businesses creating wealth and
employment.

But, suddenly, you decree that all the monies
must be taken to the Central Bank under a
Treasury Single Account, TSA. In the first place,
government loses the interests that were
supposed to accrue to these accounts. Again,
the banks lose revenue and they will not be able
to pay to government the taxes expected of
them. The banks dwindling finances mean that
they will not be able to pay their workers, and as
such they have to cut down their work force.
So, government loses money through loss of
interest rate, taxes and job losses. This is the
military mentality I’m talking about. Policies are
not well though-out but just ordered out. The
TSA could have been implemented carefully,
phase by phase and the effect on the economy
and society studied to decide how best to
implement it or not.

You sound like you are not optimistic about
Nigeria getting out of its present recession.

To be honest with you, I am not. I pray that we
get out of this recession very quick, but I am not
optimistic. I read from our Central Bank Governor
saying that by this time next year we will be out
of recession. But I also read from the IMF saying
that the earliest Nigeria can get out of its
present predicament is 2020.

If the IMF or the World Bank makes firm
statements on the economy of a country and the
Central Bank of that country comes out with a
contrary stand, I will believe that of the IMF or
the World Bank because they are more
experienced than the Central Bank of any
country. That is why I don’t believe our Central
Bank Governor more than the IMF. So, I don’t
think that we shall get out of our economic
problems soon.

Some people say that the kinds of political
appointees by the president is partly responsible
for the present economic situation we have
found ourselves. And that the core north got
more than its fair share. Do you agree with that?
Look, I am a Nigerian who looks at every citizen
as a Nigerian first. I look at Nigeria as a single
entity. Every qualified Nigerian can be appointed
to any office irrespective of where he comes
from. You can never hear me say, ‘there are few
northerners or Southerners’ in political
appointments. All I’m after are good people who
can discharge their duties in the best interest of
Nigeria.

That leads me to say that some Ministers today,
as good as they appear, are misfits in their
present offices. Take the case of the Minister of
Communication (Barrister Adebayo Shittu). This
is a first class lawyer – a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria, SAN. He is posted to a Ministry where
he is learning from the scratch. It is the same
with the Minister of Budget and National
Planning (Sen. Udo Udoma).

He is a lawyer. He is now in charge of planning
and the Nigeria budget. He has to start from the
scratch. Thank God he was a Senator and he
once served on the budget or finance committee
or something. But that does not make him an
expert in that field. It is the same with the
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Barr. Geoffrey
Onyeama), he is a lawyer. That ministry is not
his area of expertise. They are all novices in
their areas of postings and you cannot expect a
contrary result.

If President Muhammadu Buhari should ask for
your advice on how to get Nigeria out of its
present situation, what would you tell him?
I will start with his political appointees. People
should be appointed based on their competence
and be put in the right places. I will advise that
the constitution be amended so that when
Ministers are appointed, the ministry which they
will be appointed to will be attached and
submitted to the Senate.

Also, political parties should not make
manifestoes before elections, but should be
tested on their manifestoes before elections. For
instance, this government came on the slogan of
‘Change.’ They never explained what their
Change meant: Change from what to what?
That is why we are in trouble today. For one and
half years now, this government is still learning
on the job. But if they had articulated and
understood what change they wanted and how
to go about it, they could have achieved much,
not minding other distractions. One and half
years is a lot in the life of a government of four
years.

www.vanguardngr.com/2016/10/how-1966-1975-and-1983-military-coups-destroyed-nigeria-tanko-yakassai/

But coup can be good in some situations.

Most Nigerians will not mind a coup given the current situation.

hmmm

otukpo:
But coup can be good in some situations.

Abi ooooo

God bless you sir
A true Nigerian...
Happy independence day Nigeria

Well, Nigerians voted active participants of two of those coups twice to be civilian presidents. One was voted in 1999 and the other was voted last year. What does that tell you?

Pfft

fiizznation:
In all honesty and sincerity, the first coup did Nigeria a serious damage. It destroyed the political and economic fabric laid down by the founding fathers. And without the 1st coup there wouldn't have been the 2nd or 3rd coup, so Mr yakassai should always get his priorities right before he tries to prioritize Nigerians with half truths. The TSA he is criticizing have absolutely nothing to do with Nigeria's current predicament{recession}. In fact the TSA have kind of minimized the effect of recession that Nigerians could've felt. Nigeria fell into the hole of recession because of the fall in the price of oil{our major export earner} and corruption also played a major significant role in pushing the country into recession.

It is one ball game to say TSA pushed us into recession and it is also another ball game not to mention oil/corruption. Btw who is even Mallam tanko yakassai? Is he not the same person that was serving in the corrupt shagari administration? This man should better go and sleep, he is old. He seriously need to stop talking trash because history will always remember him as someone that played a major role in strangulating Nigeria at her youthful age.

you're just blabbing nonsense

Hos observations lack validity for the simple fact that he criticises the 1966 as responsible for destroying political structure n clout of d country yet claims not to understand or support a restructuring now. What else is the restructuring being demanded for other than reversion to the position obtainable before the arbitrary creation of states by Gowon?