…Charges incoming govt to convoke national conference

*Says Jonathan used as errand boy in Aso Rock Villa

By Chancel Bomadi Sunday

HlS Royal Majesty, HRM, Charles Ayemi-Botu, OFR, is the paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom in Burutu Local Government Area, LGA, of Delta State and 1st elected national chairman of Traditional Rulers of Oil and Gas Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON, and now, chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) and life patron of TROMPCON in Burutu LGA. ln this interview, the monarch expresses fears that Nigeria is drifting into anarchy due to greed, avarice, inept corruption and winner takes all syndrome. To halt the drift, he charges the incoming administration of Bola Tinubu to convoke a sovereign national conference of all ethnic nationalities to chart a way forward for the country. Excerpt: 

What are some of the challenges you are faced with as a traditional ruler?

I was enthroned as the paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom on the 2nd of April, 1994, and it has been very eventful and epoch-making and I unequivocally give all the glory, honour and adoration for my earthly sojourn to the almighty God. Traditionally, monarchs are apolitical and do not delve into politics except our traditional advisory roles in ensuring peaceful coexistence, security and development in our various domains, localities, states and the country in general. Naturally, man is a political animal but unfortunately, the revised military indoctrinated 1999 constitution didn’t specify any specific role and we are being relegated to the lowest ebb that even in order of protocol in public functions, local government chairmen are recognized in preference to traditional rulers which is absurd and awkward. 

What’s your take on the current economic, political, social and security challenges in the country?

Nigeria, like the popular saying, is God’s own country and is naturally bequeathed with abundant natural and human resources but incidentally, we are bereft of patriotic, transparent, humane, selfless and responsible leaders that have the interest of the country above their parochial and self-serving interest. That has been the cankerworm destroying the country. It’s an assumed policy of political leaders to jettison their campaign manifestos as soon as they are sworn into office and turn governance into a family business to amass humongous wealth and enrich themselves. To achieve their unenviable greed, they indulge in brazen corrupt practices, nepotism, ethnoreligious sentiment and winner-takes-all syndrome. 

We all are witnessing the inalienable fact that the two major ruling ethnic groups of the country have been turning the pendulum to their advantage by appointing their kinsmen to all the juicy offices and giving out oil blocks for eight years. I hope it will be reverted subsequently by the incoming administration. It was only President Goodluck Jonathan’s era that he was used as an errand boy to the detriment of his minority region, while the two other ethnic groups were calling the shots. Since the exit of military rule in 1999, Nigerians have passed through hell in terms of maladministration, brazen insecurity, killings through killer Herdsmen, banditry, Boko Haram, abnormal hikes in prices of petroleum products, dwindling power supply, and devaluation of the naira. The people are living in penury and squalor and Nigeria is ostensibly in a near state of extinction.

The way forward 

The way out is to imbibe the wise counselling of the famous and indelible inaugural speech of the late President of America, Mr. John Fitzgerald Kennedy who opined, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. That is the greatest challenge to all those Nigerians jostling for political offices in the country. After 63 years of independence, Nigerians are still grappling with credible, patriotic, transparent, selfless and all-encompassing leaders bereft of greed, bias and ‘glutonic’ monsters that will not only be president but also minister of petroleum resources to hold sway the economic life wire of the nation. 

Will the clamour for true federalism solve our problems as a nation?

Nigeria jettisoned the parliamentary system initiated by her former colonial master, Britain and copied the presidential system of government that is obtained in the United States of America, USA, without the rules and policies vis-a-vis true federalism, which has to do with the ownership of resources by the federating states to pay royalty to the central government for the overall benefits of the federation while the states will manage their resources. Recall in the 50s, agro-economy was the main economy of Nigeria, the Principle of Derivation was 50/50, half to the state and the balance to the federal and the 3 regions – North, producing groundnut, cotton; the East, palm produce, coal etc and the West, cocoa, rubber and there were competitive developmental strides in all the regions without recourse to the Federal Government.

In the West, you have the multi-storey Cocoa House, WNTV/WNBS which was the first in Africa, the University of Ibadan, UI, etc, while the North had multi-story Hamdala Hotels, Ahmadu Bello University, etc and the Coalmine in Enugu, Onitsha Market, The University of Nsukka but when the black gold oil was struck at Oloibiri in 1956 and rose to commercial quantity, the principle of 50% derivation funds was thrown to the wind and with the emergence of Nigeria – Biafra civil war, Gowon, then Head of State, used the proceeds from the sale of crude oil to execute the war. 

The people of The Niger Delta, the major producers of black gold could not benefit from the 50% derivation fund but contended with a paltry 13% courtesy of the late General Sani Abacha. They were shortchanged due to the powers that be and man’s inhumanity to man. The panacea to a sustainable presidential system is to adhere to the tenets of true fiscal federalism as being practised in developed countries like the USA and until we do that, Nigeria will be drifting to extinction due to greed, avarice, inept corruption and winner-takes-all syndrome.

Do you believe in the alleged islamization of Nigeria agenda by some people?

Like the ill-fated prediction of Mr. John Campbell, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria in 2004, having seen the irretrievably, catastrophic trend Nigeria was heading to, opined: “Nigeria Dancing on the Brink”. Very well, you have already stated that there is an overwhelming feeling about Nigeria being islamized, what else do you want me to say? Have you forgotten that Nigeria is a member of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) courtesy of IBB’s regime way back mid-1980s? What led to Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe’s saga? A very precarious situation where a retired top military brass cried out profusely in a video clip that went viral accusing both the military and people in high places that the country is under siege by foreign killer herdsmen rampaging, confiscating, slaughtering hapless farmers in their hundreds in one day in Benue State and forcefully taking possession of farmlands in the South, East and West. 

Simultaneously, banditry, kidnapping, hostage-taking and the hydra-headed Boko Haram, ISWAP, Al Magreb, you name it. Truly the country’s overrun. That is the pathetic, deplorable and unpredictable state of affairs Nigerians have been overwhelmed with due to the inept, nonchalant, passive and I-don’t-care attitude of the powers that be. It is an absolute charade. If very drastic, unbiased measures are not taken promptly to forestall this ill wind, then Nigeria and indeed Nigerians are heading to total disintegration.

How can Nigeria’s diversity be harnessed for the greater good of all?

To harness Nigeria’s diversity to achieve greater heights and sustainable development is a mirage and indeed a triangle that will be very difficult to straighten. The problems Nigerians are contending with are traceable to the colonial masters through Sir Lord Frederick Lugard, then governor-general of both the Northern and Southern protectorates and Lagos Colony Amalgamated on January 1, 1914. Intriguingly, the problematic 1914 amalgamation of the North and South Treaty was written by the secretary of State for the colonies of the United Kingdom, Mr. Lewis Vernon Harcourt, as directed by Lugard.

But, the multi-billion naira questions clamouring for response are: Who are the Nigerians that signed the Treaty with Sir Lord Lugard and where is our copy? The so-called problematic Treaty expired after 100 years, (1914 to 2014). Hence, in my interview with the Vanguard Newspaper in 2012, I urged former President Goodluck Jonathan to convoke a Sovereign National Conference, SNC, to deliberate and redefine our destiny as a nation but I was quickly rebuffed as it may affect his presidency. Perhaps, it later dawned on him to convene a national conference at the twilight of his tenure in 2014 but his successor has no business to implement it as it was counterproductive to his policies and programs of eight years of abysmal rulership.

It’s quite obvious that nine years after the expiration of the Treaty and 63 years of Nigeria’s independence, the best bet is for the incoming administration to convoke an SNC of all ethnic nationalities to redefine the way forward, politically, socially and economically. It’s then and only then that Nigeria will be given her pride of place in the Committee of Nations.

What would you advise the incoming administration on the Niger Delta region?

The Niger Delta region nay the Ijaws, who are the fourth largest population in Nigeria and balkanised along the coastal belt with its harsh and dreaded terrain is the geographical hub that Nigeria rest on and God in His infinite mercy richly blessed the region as the economic life-wire of the country, with abundant natural resources but unfortunately belongs to the minority region and denied by the major ethnic groups with the acronym WAZOBIA and all the accruing wealth is stashed away to develop the West or the North and the resultant agitation by youths and leaders provided some succour vis-a-vis the establishment of defunct OMPADEC later metamorphosed to NDDC, and the 13% paltry derivation fund under the aegis of TROMPCON against the 50% when agro-economy was the order of the day. 

However, there are discerning voices of gross mismanagement of funds accruing to the oil-producing states by the governors and urging the federal government to pay the derivation fund directly to the host communities who are directly impacted by the pangs of oil exploitation/exploration resulting in acid rains, air and water pollution and destruction of the ecosystem, ecological degradation, famine, diseases, and lack of good health care, accessible roads and tertiary institutions but winner-takes-all syndrome.