By Muyiwa Adetiba
The discourse with  Jimi Disu is a weekly inter  view show that is aired on Classic FM every Sunday.

Last week, he and the management of the station, decided to celebrate one year of the show in style by doing a live interview with General Alani Akinrinade, a former Chief of Defence Staff and NADECO chieftain at the Muson Centre.

Because my car radio is permanently tuned to Classic FM, I couldn’t miss the announcement even if I wanted to. So when Jimi called a week to the time to invite me, I already had an answer.

General Alani Akinrinade

The decision to at tend the show can be premised on three reasons. First, Jimi and I have been friends for over 30years and in my book, old friends always take priority. Second, the person of General Akinrinade, has always intrigued me. He is one of those people whose presence you feel every where but hardly meet.

His name came up as one of the heroes of the civil war. His name came up as one of the heroes that aborted a bloody coup. His name came up as one of the heroes of the pro –June 12 struggle, to mention a few.

Even on the social front, I played squash briefly in his Ikeja home in the early 80s sometimes with Soji his brother, and the late Dele Giwa.

The court was always available but the man was not. Except of course, his aura, which hovered around the house; even all the way to Nairobi where I saw a framed picture of his in someone’s house.

The third reason has to do with my love for interviews.  Let me first say that I am grateful for the opportunities I have had in journalism – as a reporter, columnist, editor, publisher etc. but nothing holds a candle to my love for interviews.

Has been, and will always be. That one – on – one feeling as you spar mentally with your subject, coupled with the knowledge that the outcome depends more on you than on the man in front of you is incomparable. Over the years, I have followed accomplished interviewers and their styles.

So you could say that I was curious to see how Jimi was going to handle an interview with a live audience and its attendant distractions.

After all, you do not want your subject to tense up and you do not want him to be too relaxed either because, at the end of the day, the essence is not only to get them to talk, but to talk logically and give you ‘good quotes’ as we say.

Professionally, I think Jimi handled the occasion well. He got his subject sufficiently relaxed, yet alert and kept the rest of us informed as well as entertained. The spontaneous applauses he got, must have testified to how well he handled the evening.

The questions were topical, yet popular. They centred largely on issues like Boko Haram and MEND, NADECO, Sovereign National Conference, June 12, the Military etc.

The general believed that the issues behind the Boko Haram insurgency had been festering for a while and that the late Aminu Kano even highlighted it.

It had to do with the disdain with which the northern elites treat almajiris in their midst and the lack of opportunities that they have. He also faulted the proposed schools for almajiris believing that all Nigerians should be exposed to the same quality of schools.

He said the problems of MEND have not been addressed and the issues for which Isaac Boro and Ken Saro-Wiwa laid their lives, are still very much with us. Nothing, he said, stops their children from picking up arms in future to address these issues.

On the constitution, he said it is a military constitution that even Obasanjo had not seen, let alone read, by the time he was swearing to it.

A true constitution should involve the various nationalities that make up Nigeria adding that there was a need to understand the cultures and work ethics of these nationalities.

He welcomed the merger of some parties saying that a two-political party system was one of the things that made June 12 credible.

And while on June 12, he talked about those who betrayed June 12, confirming that Babangida did not act alone. He also talked about the betrayals in the political wing of NADECO.

He said, and the audience agreed through their applause, that Nigeria was toying with its future by not paying attention to quality education and youth employment. ‘If we are not careful, we will be re-colonised right in our own home’.

I thought he was too optimistic when he said he didn’t believe there could be a military coup again in Nigeria. We can only hope he is right.

For me however, the most salient part of the discourse, was his comment on the civil society which he said must be up and doing and must be willing to organise itself to engage our politicians and rulers.

It was his understanding that some of these politicians even want to be engaged since nobody knows it all. ‘We can have credible elections and thus credible leaders, only if the civil society demands, and organises for it. The election of the Governor’s forum has told us what to expect’ he said.

General Akinrinade has had his day. At over 70, he has played his part. It is time to hand over the baton. Are there willing hands to take it up?