Illuminator9:
I think he's right, Good things Takes Time.

bueze046:
Call him a playwright, lawyer, author or activist
and you will not be wrong. Chief Fred
Agbeyegbe, who turns 80 years on Wednesday is
many things to many people depending on the
angle you are viewing him from. In this engaging
interview, he speaks on the state of the nation,
his experience in the last eight decades, how to
check graft and the way forward for the country.
By Japhet Alakam & Gbenga Oke
AT 80, how do you feel?
I thank God for keeping me this long and I owe
him all the gratitude.


Activities have been planned for your birthday
celebration, what can you say about that?
I was given an award by the National Association
of Theatre Practitioners, NANTAP. The award
was called the Grand Living Legend of Nigerian
theatre. They said they were tired of waiting for
people to die before they celebrate them. So,
they wanted to change the tide by giving me the
award. Some of them have said to me that it is
their prophecy that is taking place now that I am
going to make 80. Let us celebrate people while
they are alive so I am happy to be one of the
pioneer celebrities for this new philosophy in
Nigeria.


You are a playwright, lawyer, activist and so on.
How exactly can we describe you?
I don’t know. So many times people ask me what
I do. I, too, am confused as to what to tell them
but there are people who know me in certain
regards. For example, not so long ago I got into
a waiting room where people were arguing about
who Fred Agbeyegbe is and I sat down and
joined them. They didn’t know me, a lot of
people don’t know me but they know my name.
In fact when some are talking to people about
the Agbeyegbe family, they say they know one of
them and they mention my name even in my
presence because they don’t know me
personally. Some described me as a journalist,
some have described me as a civil defence
person, some have described me as a lawyer and
some as a business man. Whatever they call me,
provided they don’t call me a thief there is no
problem.


Do you think the judiciary is leaving up to
expectations?

When I came back from England 45 years ago,
things were not like this. I think that the mistake
started from 1999. It is from 1999 that things
became even more rotten.
Corruption in Nigeria is not by accident. Even the
1999 constitution that we are operating today is
a corrupt document. To start with, it is a lie that
Nigerians made a constitution for themselves. It
never happened. The contents of that
constitution cannot be something that a willing
people would impose upon themselves.

Root cause of corruption


Therefore, all attempts at stopping corruption
might even be a waste of time until you tackle
the root cause of corruption. I am Itsekiri, I have
never heard the word ‘corruption’ in my
language. Is corruption a Nigerian word? No!
Corruption is an English word.
Those things that make it impossible for Nigeria
to progress are what I call corruption.
Having said all these, are you trying to say
Nigeria was built on falsehood?
I have written poems and several articles on it.
One of the books is called Budisco. It was a play
that was commissioned by the Nigerian Bar
Association when they celebrated 100 years of
law practice in Nigeria. I was the one they
picked to do something to celebrate that period.
Buhari, Idiagbon and Sowemimo, that is what
Budisco means. It also means something vulgar
in Yoruba language. Who is the President today?
The same Buhari. So what explanations are you
looking for? A people get a government that they
deserve. Nigerians are getting what they deserve
because when it is happening to you, the other
person says it is not happening to me, by the
time it comes to happen to you, all the people
who could have stood behind you will be gone.
n 2011, my movement came out to say Nigeria
was a failed state, those who thought they can
patch it and repair it, by the time the Americans
said 2015 is going to be a terrible year, they
started calling them names. Thank God,
Jonathan saved all of them. If Jonathan had
stood up and said that election was rigged
against him this country would have been in
flames.
On NADECO
We live under this illusion that we are operating
a democracy. And the way this country is
organized is that when any issue comes up, Igbo
man, Yoruba man, the Ijaw and Itshekiri, and
other groups would have different
interpretations.


This country is organized such that there will
never be consensus. For example , I am an
Itsekiri man and my neighbours are Urhobo and
Ijaw, but these ethnic groups hardly live in
harmony. NADECO fought against the trampling
of the right of Nigerians.
So we did not come out in NADECO to show that
we are brave, we came out to fight against the
military because we felt they forced themselves
on us. NADECO can function now because it was
put together for a purpose.
How will you rate this administration putting in
mind some of the decisions that has been taken
so far?


From what I have told you, you don’t expect me
to be a pro-Buhari person. But I am neither anti-
Buhari. Like I said earlier, he was the people’s
choice and they voted for him. Whether I voted
for him or not does not stop him from being our
President and he also said it that he is the
President of everybody and that is how it ought
to be.


But I can say that is it too early to judge him, it
was the same type of judgement that Jonathan
got. From day one, even before he won the last
elections, he was told not to contest. Some said
they will make the country ungovernable for him.
And he dared to contest and he dared to win.
And what happened to him, they made the place
ungovernable for him and behold it is the same
people who came back to judge him on
performance after they had told him they will
make it impossible for him to govern. That was
what they did. So the guy had no opportunity.

Achieving change


I say the same thing about Buhari, give him a
chance. I called him a magician and the media
also called him a magician. People think he will
just come and change things overnight, he is no
longer a military man. We cannot achieve change
in two months.
He has been criticized for the appointments he
has made so far. I laughed because a lot of
people do not understand the politics of this
country. All the people he has appointed so far
are all Northerners from his area of this country,
I don’t know if the guy has a choice because
psychologically, he cannot feel comfortable with
anybody else.


He doesn’t know what people are going to do to
him if he comes to Warri to pick me. But I will
tell Nigerians to wait, if he then continues in that
line of appointment then you can begin to blame
him.
Do you think the proposed merging of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices and
other relataed Commission, ICPC, will strengthen
the fight against corruption?


When I heard that President Buhari is trimming
down the number of ministries from 40 to 19, I
concluded that the man is truly a magician. The
ministries are one of the ways we fritter away
this country’s resources.
Why do you need over 40 ministries? Is it that
the work load is so much such that a few people
cannot do it? Is that what government business
is all about? Thank God somebody has come and
has seen reasons to reduce them.

Prosecution of governors


The EFCC and ICPC, were they actually meant to
work? How many governors have they
prosecuted? Is it that there are no more corrupt
governors? What has ICPC done? What examples
have any of those two entities given to us? This
is a situation whereby the institutions are used
to serve the whims and caprices of individuals.
What do you then think needs to be done to
move this nation forward?


There are many issues that divide us in Nigeria.
And it is my hope that those issues will
disappear for things to get better.
Our beliefs are not the same in every aspect.
Sadly, religion has become a divisive tool.
You remember at a time, I lost a cousin to
assassins. He was Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe, how
can you convince me that Nigeria is not a place
where people are killed any how? You may
convince some other people but not me. Also,
the one document that is supposed to bring all
of us together called the constitution is itself a
lie. Any document that tells a lie against itself is
forgery. The 1999 constitution is not our
constitution. We had no agreement on it.
Having criticised democracy as being practised
in Nigeria, what form of government will you
recommend to make the country work?
To make democracy work, we need to have a
redefinition of the content of that word
‘democracy.’ I recently wrote an article that the
Europeans came here last time and certified our
last elections saying democracy is now thriving
in Nigeria.

Meaning of democracy


What did they know and what did they see? I
lived and worked in England for so many years, I
know the meaning of democracy as an English
word and I know the meaning of democracy as a
Nigerian word.
The only thing Nigeria accepts about the word
democracy is that the majority must have its
way. They don’t even buy the other half of that
same statement which says the minority must
have its say.


So those things God has given me as of rights as
an Itsekiri man in Warri, democracy makes it
easy for somebody to come from the desert in
Sokoto to teach me how to swim in Warri river
where God has put me. The time Mandela
started fighting their oppressors and they
eventually got to where they got now, did they
change the definition of democracy?




source http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/07/you-cant-judge-buhari-in-two-months-fred-agbeyegbe/

kodded:
but some of his blind followers are giving him credit for the steady power supply

thewarrior72:

^^^^^ A slave will always be a slave & must defend his master with his life

thewarrior72:

^^^^^ A slave will always be a slave & must defend his master with his life