striker07:
[s]Excerpts from Prof. Akin Oyebode's interview conducted by Punch and reproduced with permission from Punch.

Punch: The President once said the herdsmen killing Nigerians were from Libya, and some people have also said that the insecurity in the country is being fuelled by the influx of foreigners into the country, aided by the ECOWAS protocol that allows freedom of movement of persons among members states. Do we blame the protocol or it’s just an excuse?

Prof.: I can’t speak for President Muhammadu Buhari; he has more information than my humble self, but I am aware that Cameroon and Chad are not members of ECOWAS, so if he says the Fulani coming in are from outside, we should look at it critically. For me, Buhari wants to be clever by half by talking of invaders, whereas he’s just shopping for an excuse to justify the tyranny of his kinsmen who want to impose themselves on the country.

Punch: Are you implying that the Fulani are immigrants?

Prof.: The fact is that Nigeria seems to be chafing under the intrusion of non-Nigerians who kill mercilessly because they don’t have any affinity with any of the ethnic groups inhabiting Nigeria. So, they have been very cruel and inhuman in the way they deal with the farmers. The conflict is almost beyond the comprehension and capacity of Buhari, who is a Fulani. Atiku also claims to be Fulani – because people are disputing the circumstances of his birth – and that was why I didn’t vote at the last election because it was a choice between two Fulani, so I didn’t bother. I was most times analysing on the television. However, Buhari might want us to forget the fact but some of us will not forget. We know where his sympathy lies. He claims to be a nationalist, but he’s not. The Fulani know how to protect themselves. For example, when people talk about the necessity for Buhari to rejig the security apparatus, they don’t know who they are talking to. He even confessed a few weeks ago that he has to appoint the people he knows; his kinsmen. It is a Fulani dominated government and that has cost him a lot of credit such that many people don’t believe him anymore because he wears tinted glasses to analyse everything going on. Buhari is taking people for granted, but the Yoruba are the most widely educated people in Nigeria; they are wise and so they can see through all the shenanigans of the Fulani potentates who want to impose themselves on the rest of us.

Punch: Are you of the view that Nigeria should have wasted no time in signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement?

Prof.: As the largest concentration of black people on earth, we have a stake in the African Union. That is why some of us were perplexed that Buhari was dithering over signing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. Finally, push came to shove and he had to sign. I don’t know his calculation but he likes passing the buck. Someone of great insight and foresight would have signed that agreement earlier as a vote for African unification, but again you can’t exceed your limitation. If you are not properly schooled in African politics and if you look at how long it’s taking him to have a cabinet, you put a question mark on his claim to fame as a leader. That was why a country of this standing, worth and promise was like perambulating and sleepwalking on the issue. We used to call Goodluck Jonathan clueless but I don’t know what to call Buhari. Wednesday made it five months that he won election and it’s about two months that he was sworn in, and even though he assured us he would no longer be ‘baba-go-slow’, one just feels sorry for Nigeria. Look at what President Paul Kagame is doing in Rwanda. The enthusiasm and dynamism that one expects from a country of this worth have been lacking and when you now have a cabinet of lacklustre mediocre in charge of affairs, you just hang your head in shame. Quite seriously, I don’t know what (Vice-President Yemi) Osinbajo is still doing there. He is far smarter because I know him; he was my student. A brilliant guy like that should distance himself from mediocrity.

Punch: Are you saying the vice-president should have resigned?

Prof: That’s what I’m saying. He should not have joined him for a second term. For me, he has overstayed his welcome and they are even relegating him to the side. I think a brilliant man like Osinbajo should quit and go back to his ministry or law practice. How does he survive in the welter of suffocating mediocrity that you find there? The Fulani have no little or no regard for him. I would call the whole thing the tyranny of mediocrity; that is the problem Nigeria is facing right now. I feel sorry for the country that we are saddled with such an incompetent leadership, making us the butt of jokes internationally. Quite sincerely, I don’t feel comfortable with what is going on and it’s a very serious indictment if Nigeria can’t throw up a leadership that is superior to what is being offered now. People would just shake their heads and feel pity for us. We only wish Nigeria well. But the time would come when we would have fit and proper persons. This man can’t move Nigeria anywhere; the country is collapsing under him. It’s the young people I feel sorry for; we are at the departure lounge and I have my boarding pass. I’m just waiting for my flight to be called. At 72, that’s enough and out of it, I gave 44 years to Nigeria as an academic. I feel proud to have had that opportunity to serve my country. Nigeria would make it, given the right circumstances.

Punch: Do you see Africa being like Europe someday, in terms of cooperation and economic integration?

Prof.: ....Nigerians will make it any day once they have leadership that is inspiring, but I’m sorry Buhari doesn’t inspire many people. He doesn’t show the requisite personae that could spur people on. Even his claim to integrity has one thing because of the nepotistic attitude that he has in terms of appointment. It’s as if the rest of Nigerians are non-starters and I don’t believe it. In every part of Nigeria there are success stories. If only you look hard you would find them. So, I’m disgusted by what is going on. But like I said, the contradictions in the world would compel Africans to recognise the worth of cooperation among themselves.

Punch: But you supported Buhari in 2015, what changed?

Prof.: Yes, things changed and like I said, I refused to vote during this past election. I voted for him in 2015; I took the trouble to join the queue and vote for him. I thought anything but Jonathan. Jonathan was clueless but now we got a worse person than Jonathan, so I didn’t believe he deserved a second term. Some people taunted me for supporting him but I told them I was extremely sorry. The man is a disappointment and he is severely overrated. Are you proud of a President who takes months before having a cabinet? And when the list finally came out it’s a mixed grill, containing, as they say, the good, the bad and the ugly. A mediocre leader can only have persons not superior to him, whether intellectually or in moral probity.

Punch: Do you think things would be different this time round?

Prof.: No, morning shows the day. He promised not to be Baba-go-slow but it has taken him two months to put a cabinet together. What is the magic about a cabinet? I hear he might pick up anybody who is against him; maybe they would come and pick me up.

Punch: How do you feel when his followers and some others abuse you for your views on him?

Prof.: I survived Sani Abacha, and that is why I respect Jonathan. As hard as I was on him, he nominated me to the Council of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.[/s]

Oksman:


Did you read the interview before striking it out completely? People like you are victims of cognitive dissonance. Your name says a lot about your personality.

GeorgeTheCoder:
Akin Oyebode ? The same one who supported Buhari in 2015 and 2019 ? The leader of the intellectual arm of Tinubu caucus ? He too has seen the light ?
Wonders will never end.