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.
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