Whether we like it or not, restructuring is inevitable – Rear Admiral Mike Onah (retd)

Rear Admiral Mike Onah retired as Chief of Naval
Accounts and Chairman of Military Pension
Board in 2004. Since then, Onah has joined
forces with people of like-minds to move Nigeria
forward. The National President of Ndokwa
Leaders Political Forum, in this interview, speaks
on the state of the nation, saying only lazy
states are afraid of restructuring.
It has been 18 years of unbroken democracy in
Nigeria. How do you assess the growth of
democracy against the back drop that this has
never happened before?
It is a good omen for our democracy. Although
there have been trials and challenges within the
period, we thank God that democracy has
endured – what this shows is that we are
maturing as a nation. Life is about give and
take, nobody is perfect.
My belief is that as we march on in our
democratic journey, we should be tolerant of
one another, I mean the government and the
governed. If we can tolerate one another, we will
be able to avoid pitfalls of governance. God has
also been on our side. We have moments where
democracy has been threatened but God has
been kind to us to enable us weather those
storms.
There is no system that is 100 percent perfect,
just as nobody is perfect. Only God is perfect.
What this means is that we should strive to play
the game according to the rules. Our leaders
should strive to serve diligently. Service is about
giving your best to the people who reposed
confidence in you by electing you to serve them,
but, unfortunately, some of our political leaders
are selfish and self-serving. Such politicians
should, however, remember that they were put
in office to serve the people, and not to indulge
in self-service. It is unfortunate that some
politicians have come to view public office as an
avenue to amass ill-gotten wealth rather than to
serve the people.
What’s your assessment of the last two years
since power changed hands at the centre, with
APC now in control of the Federal Government?
What people should remember is that before
APC took over power, the country was in bad
shape, and Nigeria is a very big country with
equally big problems; so people should be fair
to APC. You can’t blame the party for Nigeria’s
problems. The party inherited a lot of problems
which I believe government has been doing its
best to address, and this cannot be done
overnight.
Nigerians since take a large chunk of the blame
for the present situation we find ourselves in. We
Nigerians are greedy and selfish. We don’t know
how to manage ourselves. Corruption is the
major problem facing us as a nation.
How do you assess the Buhari government fight
against corruption?
This government has been successful in the
fight against corruption. Corruption has been
put in check. I’m not saying that we have
completely eliminated corruption, but at least it
has been put in check. Today, the fear of Buhari
and the EFCC is the beginning of wisdom.
Although some people might say not many
people have been jailed for corruption, the mere
fact that these looters are being caught and
exposed is a big disgrace. I believe that sooner
or later, we will have people being sent to jail
for corruption. You know this is a
democratically elected government, so due
process must be followed, but I’m very sure
that these looters will not be spared.
Buhari has done well in this area of fighting
corruption. He should be given his due in this
regard. What Buhari is doing in fighting
corruption and trying to restore financial sanity
in our polity, no government has ever done that
before.
Exposing looters is commendable. Like I said
earlier, Nigeria is a very big country with big
problems. My expectation of Buhari is that he
should prioritise his programme. He should not
try to resolve many problems at the same time.
Which areas would you like him to give
attention?
Power is the first. Power is the key to many
problems facing us in this country. If there is
steady power supply, a lot of things that are
dead or comatose will be revived. Industries
that almost dead will come back to life. Even
small scale businesses will bounce back to life;
welders, hair-dressers, barbers and other small
scale business operators that constitute a large
part of our population will have something
doing. So, to me, fixing the power sector should
be given top priority by the Buhari
administration. As the saying goes, where there
is a will, there will always be a way. Although
the administrations before him failed to fit power
sector, I believe strongly that Buhari can do it.
Is it not a big shame that with our population
estimated at about 170 millions, Nigeria, the
acclaimed giant of Africa, can’t generate up to
4,000 megawatts of power supply whereas
South Africa, with far lesser population, is
generating 40,000 megawatts power supply? So,
what is the problem with Nigeria? The power
sector is an area Buhari must address with
vigour just like he is doing with corruption.
Is that all or …?
Buhari should be commended in the area of
security especially for dealing with the Boko
Haram insurgency, but there are other areas
relating to security which he must address
quickly. Among others, you have kidnapping and
armed robbery on the increase in some parts of
the country. Kidnappers and cultists are on the
rampage, and are having a field day in some
parts of the country. You also have the
herdsmen issue which has become a source of
national concern – Buhari must find ways to
resolve the herdsmen’s attacks on their host
communities. Something has to be done quickly
to avert the herdsmen issue snowballing into a
bigger crisis capable of threatening the
corporate existence of this country.
Restructuring Nigeria has tcontinued to be on
the front burners?
If Nigeria is to move forward and advance as a
nation, we have to restructure. Restructuring is
very important. We can’t continue the way we
are going. True federalism is the way out for us.
What we have in Nigeria today is what I will
describe as federalism in theory, but unitary
system in practice. This is why things are not
working. The fear of those opposed to
restructuring that some states will not survive if
we restructure, but that fear is unfounded.
Are you saying the fear is not justified?
The bitter truth is that many states have become
lazy, they have become comfortable with the
monthly allocation they collect in Abuja such
that they are no longer keen to exploit the
natural resources available in the states for
financial purpose.
From my studies at the National Institute of
Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, every
state in Nigeria is blessed with natural resources
to sustain herself. The problem with Nigerians is
that we are lazy. People are comfortable with the
monthly allocation from crude oil sales. But do
these Nigerians know that one day oil wells can
dry up? What do they fall back upon in order to
get money to run their states when that time
comes? In fact, our over dependence on oil as a
mono-product economy is very unfortunate. We
should have given attention to tapping the
natural resources in other parts of the country.
Now, look at how many states are in a mess
following the crash of oil price. As a result of the
drop in oil revenue, many states can no longer
meet their financial obligations. Many of them
are owing civil servants and pensioners, whereas
if there are mineral resources we are tapping
apart from oil, when oil price crashed, we
wouldn’t have been feeling its biting effects as
we are experiencing it now.
What is your advice to those who have mixed
feelings about restructuring?
We have enough mineral resources to sustain
every state but it is unfortunate that free oil
money has made them to become very lazy.
Our over dependence on oil as our only source
of revenue is not good. It is not a healthy
development for our economy. We should
return to agriculture – I remember with
nostalgia those good olden days of the First
Republic and the pre-independence era when
different regions of the country were renown for
the cultivation of different agricultural products
on a large scale. The South-West was renown
for cocoa and palm oil, The North renown for
cultivating cotton and also famous for the
groundnut pyramid in Kano, while in the South-
East and South-South, you had palm oil and
rubber being cultivated.
Then Nigeria was making a lot of money from
the export of these agricultural products, but
when crude oil was discovered in large
commercial scale, we abandoned these
agricultural products for easy money. It is better
for us to return to the roots. We need to
diversify our economy. Diversification of the
economy is one of the keys to solving the
multifarious challenges facing us as a nation.
The presidential system of government which we
practise has been described as expensive by
some people. Do you agree?
That’s very true. The type of government we
practise is very expensive. The presidential
system consumes a lot of money. A lot of
money is spent on elected officials and other
public office holders with little or no money left
for development.
Under the system of government, you have
duplication of offices both at the federal, state
and local government levels and you have
thousands of officials collecting jumbo pay. I
don’t think the presidential system is the best
for us. We need to reduce the cost of
governance in the country.
Some Nigerians have suggested that President
Buhari should take a look at the
recommendations of 2014 National Conference
organized by his predecessor, Dr Goodluck
Jonathan, in finding solutions to the nation’s
problem. What is your take?
Whatever step that will bring us peace is
welcome. There is nothing bad in Buhari taking
some portions from Jonathan’s Confab Report
and even Obasanjo’s National Confab of 2005 of
which I was a member. It is better to jaw-jaw
than to war-war. Buhari should set up a
committee to look into the 2005 and 2014
confab reports and subsequently take portions
or sections which will help move Nigeria
forward.
There is no time to waste. We can’t continue
like this. We are sitting on a keg of gun powder
which can explode anytime. Let’s all come
round the table and discuss in a harmonious
way how we can move this nation forward. The
time has come for Nigerians to jettison all forms
of ethnic jingoism, unpatriotic acts and other
things which are inimical to the growth of
Nigeria.