Expdonaloaded News; Nigerians need Buhari’s temperament – Col Aminu

Former military governor of old Bor­no State, Col Abdulmumuni Aminu (retd) has declared that only a mad approach can save Nigeria from its present decadence.
The Katsina-born retired Army officer told AIDOGHIE PAULINUS in Abuja that Pres­ident Muhammadu Buhari needs to adopt a no-nonsense approach in order to meet the high expectations of Nigerians.

According to Aminu: “Nigeria is a complex society. You need a mad approach because Nige­rians need a mad man to rule them. Even though they are gullible, they need a mad man to handle them because a lot of things have gone haywire.”
Aminu spoke on this and other sundry issues, even as he said patriotism, changing the orien­tation of Nigerians, instilling discipline into the psyche of Nigerians and combating corruption would help remake Nigeria.
Excerpts…
How do you think President Muham­madu Buhari can restructure Nigeria and make Nigeria great?
The issue of Nigeria is a complex one. You need a mad approach because Nigerians need a mad man to rule them. Even though they are gullible, they need a mad man to handle them because a lot of things have gone haywire. So many! And for you to rectify all those problems, you need to go the whole hog and take a mad approach, a no-nonsense approach.
So, the president needs to go mad to make Nigeria great?
He does not need to go mad, but a no-non­sense approach to handle all these things because so many things have gone haywire, from bad to worse. That is why I keep saying that the peo­ple to handle Nigeria should be the ones that are really patriotic, people who would love Nigeria and Nigerians, who would put aside their person­al interest. They should not allow their parochial interest to override national interest. It is not easy to get these kinds of people anyway, but they are there. We have a lot of them, but how to sift them out of the rest of us will be the problem and that is why I support him for taking time to pick his team and select his men to work with.
It has been claimed or said that a lot of dam­age had been done, inflicted into the country’s affairs – economically, politically, socially and otherwise. Therefore, we need people who really understand Nigeria, who know the country, who know the people better. So, I advise that let us do a thorough screening of people who are coming to work with Mr President.
What areas do you want the presi­dent to focus on in re-making Nigeria?
First of all, the orientation of Nigerians has to be looked into. For any country to be great, you have to make the people understand that first and foremost, the nation comes first in whatever they do. They should leave their parochial interest behind; their sectional, religious, and whatever interest behind, but national interest first.
In the first place, we are not even disciplined. You really have to bring discipline into our psy­che or psychological activities. Today, Nigerians don’t care. Nobody controls them. Unless we take this approach, we are going nowhere and it is only the leadership that can do that. An ordi­nary Nigerian will not do things on his own will. He has to be forced to. When I say force, I don’t mean during application or real force on the per­son and not coerce as well, but will be made to do things that he is supposed to do and the way they are supposed to be done. But today, Nigeri­ans like to be let loosed. So, that iron hand I was talking about, is what is only required.
So, the Nigerian problem is mainly a matter of indiscipline?
Yes. We need discipline, patriotism and a cor­rupt-free society. In the area of corruption, we need to really look deep into it.
Corruption?
Corruption! You will discover that if there is a programme or a project or whatever or anything being initiated by officials of government, you will discover that there are some selfish inter­ests attached or in-built in the programmes and projects. And unless we find a way to uncover all those kinds of dirty activities, we can’t go anywhere. A lot of Nigeria’s money is being si­phoned through those dirty activities.
One of the cardinal objectives for Mr Presi­dent is the issue of corruption. He must totally eliminate it in Nigeria and I think that is the step­ping-stone to achieving greatness in the country. You will discover that in a country where more than 50 per cent of its earnings go to corrupt hands, I can’t see how the country can move for­ward. I am even happy that this country is so en­dowed, so blessed. People have been siphoning money and yet, the country has not collapsed. We thank God for that. Otherwise, the rate and the way money is being stolen from the coffers of government, it is so alarming that really, it is unbelievable.
Are you convinced that President Bu­hari can take Nigeria out of the woods?
Why not! The commitment is there, the will power is there and he is also determined. That is why we have been insisting that the right cali­bre of people to work with him should be looked for to assist him and assist the country. It is not a one-man show. It is supposed to be a collective responsibility. So, all hands must be on deck. He cannot be the minister of agriculture, education and so on. He would have his own representa­tives who are good, who are knowledgeable in the field and who are ready to work with him as much as possible.
How do you see his administration in four years time?
It is too early to assess the president. Just give him time and maybe after six months, one would comfortably assess him.
What is your take on those who said the president is slow in his administra­tive process?
I have discussed that issue. I said it is strate­gic to be slow and calculative. So, there is no big deal there.
What is your opinion about Nigeria?
I love Nigeria honestly. It is a fantastic place. We have abundance of everything – intellectu­als, natural resources, vast land, talented people; everything! In every aspect, we have talents. So, I think it is up to us, especially the leadership, to harness these talents, the resources that God has endowed the country with. I don’t want us to go back to those days when it was said Nigeria has so much money, that money was not Nige­ria’s problem, but how to spend it. That is not the issue. We shouldn’t fall back into that same problem. We need to have in-depth planning on how to do and what to do with our resources. And more importantly, the issue of youth unem­ployment is eating deep into the fabric of this na­tion. That issue needs to be drastically addressed and people should support the government to do that. More importantly, the unemployed too should not wait for government. There are other areas they can venture into. Anything you do in life, you have to contribute your own quota. You don’t leave everything for government. The gov­ernment only provides the necessary infrastruc­ture, security, enabling environment et cetera. But the rest should be ours too. Again, because Nigeria is a developing country, we have not reached that stage yet where we can say we want to leave everything to government. We have to put people on the path to achieving greatness. We have great and good people in this county, so I am very confident that Nigeria will grow from strength to strength.