Posted by By Yinka Fabowale on
Former Oil Minister, Professor Tam David West, has warned President Olusegun Obasanjo not to give in to pressures to extend his tenure in any fashion, saying such a move will be an invitation to cause chaos and anarchy.
Former Oil Minister, Professor Tam David West, has warned President Olusegun Obasanjo not to give in to pressures to extend his tenure in any fashion, saying such a move will be an invitation to cause chaos and anarchy.
Elongating the life of the present administration has been a hot issue recently, particularly after the tacit endorsement of the possibility by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and indications from 28 state Houses of Assembly to back constitutional amendment that may facilitate the game plan.
According to the initiative, which has since been dubbed: Third Term Bid, its proponents argued that it was necessary to enable Obasanjo consolidate the gains of his social, political and economic reforms before quitting the stage.
However, David West, a professor of virology and a noted public affairs commentator, asked the President to ignore those persuading him on the issue, stressing that they were doing so not in his interest or the nation's, but rather for their own selfish motives.
To dare it, David-West submits, is akin to the President stretching his luck too far and inspiring instability that would erode all the achievements he has recorded over the years and throw the nation many years backward.
He tore into shreds the argument that the President should be given more time to finish what he has started, describing the notion as ‘foolish,' because, in his words, "no human being could finish all he wants to do before God calls him away. Do the bit you can, to the best of your ability, at the time God has given you. Satisfy your conscience and your God."
The professor said that although he did not pray for the failure of democracy, he would not rule it out as a possible consequence if detractors succeed in their egging of the president on towards what he termed a dangerous precipice."
Urging the President to vacate at the expiration of his term in 2007 and allow history to judge and idolize him, David-West said, "If you push your luck too far to think you are indispensable, then you are playing the role of God. You are going to offend God, you are going to offend people and there will be instability.
With the price of petroleum hovering around $60 per barrel, Nigeria has been earning more from oil recently than it ever did. How do you assess the management and government spending of the oil revenue?
I have talked about the management of our petroleum enterprise in countless times. That I am still commenting on it only goes to underscore the fact that things have not changed. I have said it before, in a sort of an epigram - that any government that cannot manage the oil revenue of Nigeria is a failure. Crude oil is the mainstay, making up, at least, 95 per cent of our budget and, at least, 85 per cent of our total foreign earnings. So, any government that cannot manage that is irresponsible. It all started during Babangida's regime. Babangida ruined the petroleum industry and no government thereafter has changed it, because the ruination of the industry benefits some people. So, they are prepared to ruin it, so they can grow fat and the common people lean. When I was appointed oil minister in 1984, I was handed down strict conditions to handle crude oil - that was being operated before my time even at the time when Buhari himself was oil commisioner. It was like giving you your modus operandi. Sacrosanct. And what were the conditions? First, you don't sell oil to individuals. Nigeria never sold crude oil to individuals during and before my time. We sold oil to end-users, by that term we mean companies that have refineries. To buy our oil, you must have a refinery. Also, at that time, we had government to government contract.
But what has ruined and continued to ruin the oil industry is that oil has since the time of Babangida been sold to individuals. You can buy oil as if you are going to supermarket. Babangida broke all the rules. Oil blocs are allocated individually and this was sustained under my good friend, Abacha, may God have mercy on his soul. During the time of Babangida, he brought this odious Dedicated Account when all you earn must go into the Federation Account. Babangida had a parallel account which was operated only by him and the Central Bank Governor, Ahmed, a nice man. I don't think he was corrupt, but the system corrupted him. And this Dedicated Account was where your oil earnings were lodged and to be operated by only two persons and that was why Pius Okigbo said $12.5 billion, could not be traced. And Babangida has been bluffing instead of coming out to give account. All he did was to dub Okigbo NADECO.
And when people went to ask Okigbo, he said: "Tell him my signature on the report was authentic," in other words, I stand by it. Fantastic. He has not outrightly called him a thief.
But he did it anyway by saying the money could not be accounted for. The fact that he - Babangida did not address the issue and allowed it to drag for years, shows, to use the words of the tribunal that was programmed to jail me, that a lot of water must have passed under the bridge. That alone disqualifies Babangida from running for the presidential election in this country.
When Abacha came, the liberalisation of the sale of crude oil still continued, although he did not have a Dedicated Account. People, I won't mention names, blocked me from seeing Abacha because of the advice I was giving him.
Then Obasanjo. I don't have to be Obasanjo, to be a Nigerian. I am sure, I don't need him to be a Nigerian but I respect him because of what he has been to me personally. In this very house, Sankore Avenue, when I had an accident, he was coming to visit me. So, I have a lot of good things to say about Obasanjo, on one to one relationship. But I have a lot to denounce about his style of administration, a lot. The Obasanjo I knew 1975 - 76 is completely different. Now, he is Obasanjo, the god. The man that never makes mistakes. Obasanjo that has solutions to all Nigeria's problems. That must go third, fourth, fifth, sixth terms until he dies on stage...He must go…
I still respect him, because I think he has his heart in the right place. But they have made him to feel that he is the Messiah. That he has every answer to Nigeria's problems and nobdy else does. If not, why did Obasanjo not appoint oil minister? Because he believes that evey other person is a crook and only him, the clean one. Let him leave history to say it. Then, he made a cosmetic appointment of Dakoru, Minister of State for Petroleum. I will not accept it. I denounce how he has decided to put the greatest patrimony of the country under his lock and key.
In fact, in one interview, when Wabara, then Senate President, messed up and was to go, I was surprised the President of Nigeria said: ‘I even allocated oil to him, so he can live comfortably, yet his throat was too much.'
I have been to all the OPEC countries with oil wealth. Nigeria is the worst to manage its oil wealth. I have been to the Gulf countries... Only Nigeria talks about oil bunkering, oil smuggling.
Saudi Arabia can produce 10 million barrels a day, Nigeria about two million per day, I have never heard of smuggling elsewhere, but here. In the Gulf as you know, the oil belongs to the monarchy, yet go to Saudi Arabia, go to Kuwait, go to Qatar, their secondary school campus can beat most of our university campuses. There are lights everywhere, even in the rocks.
They use their oil wealth well. Nigeria is so profligate and corrupt. I've not seen any building in Saudi, without a car and television antenae.
In fact, I am writing a patriot's prayer. And the prayer is that God, please, dry up all the oil wells in Nigeria, so that Nigeria can be wiser, because they have made Nigeria to be completely stupid, foolish and profligate, please dry the oil wells up because oil has become a curse to us.
It makes few millionaires and the masses suffer. Is there any reason, Nigerians must suffer like this? You cannot pay pensioners, and some commit suicide! You go to the streets you can see sorrow. God dry it up.
What areas would you want the money spent?
First, education, health and security.
And of course, he being a farmer, is Obasanjo encouraging agriculture?
A farmer - president I expect to devote so much attention to agriculture. The money is there now, the money is there. The standard of education is bad. Don't blame the professors. Nigerians have corrupted education. If you corrupt politics it is okay. But when you corrupt education, then you have finished the nation. Our degrees are no longer respected. Those who scored 270,280 in JAMB, they cannot do 100-level course.
The country is suffering, the mass poverty is so much. I warn people in government, those who are crying, who cannot train their children …Their tears go to heaven and the voice of the people is the voice of God. The tears and wailings of the suffering masses will go to heaven and come down with brimstones, thunder and lightning to consume those that put them in that position.
Has government addressed the problem of the Niger Delta to your satisfaction?
Why should I be satisfied? Didn't they know that the whole place is bad?
But the Minister of Works, Ogunlewe has been talking about constructing roads there…
(cuts in) He is ignorant. How many roads, good motorable roads do we have? It is a nonsense statement. If he talked about providing river craft so that transportation wil be easier for them I'll understand. He wants to go and tar roads in mangrove swamp. How many roads do we have in Rivers State or the Niger Delta? They don't need tarred roads in Niger Delta. They need canals, water transport - that's what they need.
The government has been taking in leaders of ethnic militia, including your cousin, Asari Dokubo…
Yes, he stayed here with me in this same house
Yes, do you see the latest official onslaught ending the tension and violence in that region?
A big No. It is even hypocritical. What they have done is hypocritical and I'll tell you why. Must you wait till people carry arms before you know they are suffering? Must we? In any case, Asari Dokubo stayed right here at Sankore Avenue with me. His mother and my mother were born by the same father. Throughout the time I knew him as a child, he has strong ideas, but I've never seen him with a dagger, not to talk of pistol, or machine guns. He respected me until we parted ways. I wrote something about Asari Dokubo. In fact, if you will switch off your tape, I will go and bring it (went into the inner chamber to fetch a document). In fact, Kingsley Osadolor (of The Guardian) wrote something excellent about it saying if they had listened to me, studied that report, these would not have happened. Now the chicken has come to roost.
The report is entitled: "The Nagging Security Question - Tam-David West, Asari Dokubo, Obelum and Odili." Obelum was the head of the SSS in Rivers State.
What is the kernel of this report?
The gist is that Dokubo and the rest have been given the licence to do what they liked. The point is that they created Asari Dokubo. He is a Frankenstein monster created by them. The system gave them the guns. The system equipped them to rig elections and to hunt down their enemies. He granted interviews in which he was quoted as saying they would rig elections for Odili but not Obasanjo - that was when they parted ways
In short, we have been hurt by the Nigerian system, marginalised.
But let me tell Nigerians, as I said many years ago at Mainland Hotel, 1988, I think, that one of the greatest questions of Nigeria in the 21st century and beyond is the question of the Niger Delta. Nigeria will make or break with that question. It will make it if it has empathy and sympathy. We are not violent people. If we are, we would not allow the Oyinbo people to come in through the creeks, rivers and the sea. All said, Asari Dokubo, has been arrested. But let his trial be legal, not political. If you make it political, then he's suffering double jeopardy. You created him. The system created political Asari Dokubo. They equipped him with guns to do some jobs for them. They have now used and dumped him. And I warned him. I warned him of bunkering. He said he was bunkering, I said, please don't say that again because it is me your brother that made Buhari to make the decree that every bunkerer is liable to capital punishment. Your enemies would use it against you. He made a lot of statement that he shouldn't make… So, in short, they should not colour the case with political factors…
Can you explain what you mean?
No, I will not explain. They know what I am talking about.
Now Prof. There are talks about elongating the tenure of the present administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Where do you stand on the issue?
(Emphatically). He should not dare it. Look, only I don't want to waste your time. I have over 20 or 30 references I want to use to write an open letter to him, quoting one by one of these, and warn him as a friend. - Warn him in the interest of the stability of Nigeria. I mean every word of this. Please, don't try it. Please I beg you in the name of God don't try it. In contemporary Nigeria, you have been the luckiest, President Obasanjo, please don't try any fashion of third term. All those people goading you into it, are goading you because of their selfish interest - not in your interest or that of the nation. Please, don't try it.
If he does, what would happen?
There will be great instability in this country. I can see it coming. The argument that give him time to finish what he has started is foolish. Foolish and stupid because no person has ever been able to finish all he would want to do on earth. Do you know when God will call you? No human being could finish all he wants to do before God calls him away. Do your work at the time God has given you. Satisfy your conscience and your God and the country.
Talking about instability, are you implying that there might be a coup or something if he tries it?
I don't know whether there might be a coup. Look, who can tell me, let the greatest general, the greatest moralist, the greatest politician, the greatest philosopher, the greatest patriot come and tell me that Nigeria has got a permanent panacea against coup, that coup can never happen again.
But Prof. coup is no longer fashionable and the international community is surely to resist it.
I agree. Coup is no longer fashionable and should not be fashionable. But what causes coup? Coup grows when it finds fertile soil. Coup doesn't grow in the desert, neither in brackish water. Coup grows in well-manured soil of discontent, mismanagement and frustration. If those ingredients are around in any system, then you cannot sit and say, no more coups.
Anything is possible under the sun. Only God has all the answers. But let no human being feels he can play God. Let no man be made to feel he can play God. The deification of a mortal is as blasphemous as the desecration of God. No man is God. As a nation, we believe in God, irrespective of our religions. Only Him has the solutions. He merely uses people to give the answers.
So, I am praying that Obasanjo should not try it. Nobody should go third term. Nobody should make attempt using the result of a corrupted election to change the constitution. The conditions for changing the constitution are clear. So, let not PDP, that rigged elections, with the so-called landslide, or waterslide base its analysis on that because the premise is weak. So, you cannot use corrupted data to make a valid hypothesis. So the 1999 and 2003 abracadabra were all based on corrupt basis. It can give you a quasi or one type of legality to rule, but not the moral right to rule.
Two terms, you should go. Let history idolise you, let history put you on a pedestal. If you push your luck too far to think you are indispensable (only God is indispensable) then you are playing the role of God. You are going to offend God, you are going to offend people and there will be instability.