YOU CANNOT FORCE A PEOPLE TO STAY TOGETHER FOREVER – Prof. Steve Azaiki
By OKI SAMSON
Prof. Steve Azaiki, OON
Prof. Steve Azaiki is a well-read and well-traveled man. An intellectual that he is, he has manned the Niger Delta University as the former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the university based in Bayelsa state. Also, the coordinator, National Think Tank Nigeria. He was able to grant an interview to Trek Africa Newspaper in which he spoke passionately about the democracy, leadership and proffer that Nigeria should take the option of USSR if she will move forward.
Read on.
Trek Africa: can we meet you?
Prof. Azaiki: I am Prof. Steve Azaiki, OON. Former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Niger Delta University, Bayelsa state.
Trek Africa: What can you tell us about leadership?
Prof. Azaiki: Let me borrow the words of one of the richest man who said leadership is about putting a team together that can help you succeed in whatever tasks that you have. That definition is true because no man can claim monopoly of knowledge but you must be able to pick the best like Lee Kuan Yew did when he picked the best from all round the world to develop Singapore. Preparation for leadership is not just about going to university but opening your mind, your spirit to new knowledge. When you read the opening chapters of the mission statement of African Leadership Forum, it is so profound. It says African leaders have always come to position of leadership unprepared, at best ill-prepared. You have to build it, your integrity, your vision, your core values, your mindset, it is built over time. You cannot ask a shoemaker to do the work of a mason, you cannot ask a tailor to do the work of architect, the last Cabinet was ill-prepared. Audu Ogbeh was the Minister of Agriculture, excellent man but you cannot say just because someone is a farmer, he becomes a minister. To be a minister, you need to understand agriculture, agricultural trade and business and much more. When you have a cabinet of over 40 and you can only pick 3 or 4 performing, then it is a failure. You will never come to this country if you hear the recommendations of US, UN, and others. Chad is attracting more foreigners currently than Nigeria. They are doing something unconventional. Nigeria is a mirror of the problem of Africa – leadership. Any position in Nigeria is for sale, any certificate is for sale. People get Ph.Ds by sale. If you can see tomorrow, you will weep for Nigeria. Any Nigerian that can see tomorrow will seek a second citizenship. Nigeria has not started the journey to development. Mandela, Lee Kuan Yew, the leaders of Dubai have demonstrated what leadership is. When I went to Dubai in 1999, Ikeja is better, when I went back in 2009, they are way ahead of Nigeria. In 10 years, any country can be set on the path of progress. Botswana is one of the fastest growing economies, the whole of Gaborone is less than Lekki but the country is respected because of leadership. Rwanda is back on its track today after the genocide, nobody respects Nigeria again. The world know the record of our leaders with evidence as rapists, criminals, thieves, and we put them forward as our best 11, how can we be respected? We cannot have a country where our youths cannot dare to dream. The solution is we need to retool our mentality in this democracy. The young people do not even know that the vote is their power. Ignorance is much among the youths. Look at the Arab uprising, the young took it because they know their rights. Hundreds of our youths are being killed and we go about eating, drinking and partying. I don’t believe that Nigeria can make it as a country, I don’t want to sound politically correct. We can’t pretend that we have a country. If there is restructuring of this country, few states can spring up just like Dubai because they have this kind of confederating units. Why do you want to saddle Lagos with the problem of Kebbi, let Lagos spring up and make us proud. It is also about time that youths get education for themselves, they can’t get from the universities. Pursue proper education for yourself. Nigeria has two options, one is to go the way of former USSR consisting of 15 countries. Or we go the way of Yugoslavia that fought the most painful wars of this century. They have split to 7 or 8 now. And one of them must happen. It is better to make a choice now.
Prof. Steve Azaik, OON.
Trek Africa: Nigeria is celebrating 20 years of unbroken democracy, has it really helped us?
Prof. Azaiki: In theory, we can say we are practicing democracy but in practice, we are neither here nor there. I don’t believe that we have respect of international community that will make world leaders come to celebrate with us. I believe that we have not done very well in this 20 years. We have just been able to transition peacefully from one government to another and it is happening because the people of Nigeria are disconnected with what is happening up there. When the people connect, it is either we go back to military rule or there will be disaster. We only have a semblance of democracy.
Trek Africa: You have been in the corridors of education, as a stakeholder in the Niger Delta region, what will be your clarion call to your countrymen?
Prof. Azaiki: No nation will make great strides if there is no justice and equity. The people of Niger Delta feel cheated. The fact that Jonathan has become the president does not mean it has translated to positivity in the scheme of things. You know that the oil well behind you is owned by someone who has not even being in your environment. You have villages whose creeks and rivers have been spoiled. Growing up, you just pick fishes from the rivers, it is what we drink, what we bathe with but it is not so today, oil is flowing over it, no fish can grow in such. In the next 20 years, if there is no remediation, nothing will grow in Niger delta. The story is same all through Niger Delta. To imagine that people that rear cat fish in ponds, when while I am growing, cat fish is for lazy families. The people are bitter. The madness that is brewing is organic. Their anger is that you are taking from them and you are punishing them for it. It is not like the herdsmen issue. Let us resolve to reconcile ourselves and pick the option of USSR and not Yugoslavia. You cannot force a people to be together forever. We need to accept a peaceful breakup so that when I see Kunle, Adamu, we can still smile at ourselves and I wouldn’t need passport to go wherever. All kinds of mineral are available, with agriculture we can feed the whole of Africa, we don’t have to depend on oil when oil is already going down in importance. We have sun, wind, we don’t know what to do with it. We are rather complaining about these rich resources God has blessed us with because we don’t know what to do with it. It is about leadership.
L-R: Governor, Bayelsa State with Prof. Steve Azaiki, OON.
