Buhari taking Nigerians for granted on insecurity – Oyebode – TheNigerialawyer

A professor of International Law and Jurisprudence, Akin
Oyebode, in this interview with TUNDE
AJAJA, speaks on Nigeria’s foreign relations, the
challenges facing the country and the future of Africa.

The President once said the herdsmen killing
Nigerians were from Libya, and some people have also said that the
insecurity in the country is being fuelled by the influx of
foreigners into the country, aided by the ECOWAS protocol that
allows freedom of movement of persons among members states. Do we
blame the protocol or it’s just an excuse?

I can’t speak for President Muhammadu Buhari; he has more
information than my humble self, but I am aware that Cameroon and
Chad are not members of ECOWAS, so if he says the Fulani coming in
are from outside, we should look at it critically. For me, Buhari
wants to be clever by half by talking of invaders, whereas he’s
just shopping for an excuse to justify the tyranny of his kinsmen
who want to impose themselves on the country. But, let me give you
a bit of background; the Fulani originated from Futa Jallon,
Senegal, Mali and to some extent Guinea. Even Usman dan Fodio,
their arch-priest or father confessor, was not a Nigerian. The
Fulani had no state or homestead in Nigeria. They overran the Hausa
states in the 19th century and imposed themselves as Emir on them
and Usman dan Fodio himself said he had to come and dip the Quran
in the Atlantic but the Yoruba people stopped him in Osogbo. People
know the Afonja story in Ilorin, and even in the northern fringes
of Yorubaland or places like Ikare and Auchi, where they wanted to
impose emirs. They wanted to impose themselves and they continued
blaming the British for stopping their thrust towards the southern
part of the country. So, maybe they (Fulani) wanted to re-establish
their caliphate over the whole country and transform Nigeria from a
secular state to a caliphate. I don’t know what their plans are but
I read things from so-called Miyetti Allah and the people who
romanticise about overrunning Nigeria. Some of them even claim that
Nigeria was ordained by God to be theirs and they have a sacred
duty from providence to reclaim what was given to them. If
overrunning Nigeria is their game plan, then you can’t point
fingers at others as being foreigners. As we say in my town in
Ekiti, everybody knows his father’s house. If they can’t point to
their parents’ houses, then, they would continue to look for places
they can overrun.

Are you implying that the Fulani are
immigrants?

The fact is that Nigeria seems to be chafing under the intrusion
of non-Nigerians who kill mercilessly because they don’t have any
affinity with any of the ethnic groups inhabiting Nigeria. So, they
have been very cruel and inhuman in the way they deal with the
farmers. The conflict is almost beyond the comprehension and
capacity of Buhari, who is a Fulani. Atiku also claims to be Fulani
– because people are disputing the circumstances of his birth – and
that was why I didn’t vote at the last election because it was a
choice between two Fulani, so I didn’t bother. I was most times
analysing on the television. However, Buhari might want us to
forget the fact but some of us will not forget. We know where his
sympathy lies. He claims to be a nationalist, but he’s not. The
Fulani know how to protect themselves. For example, when people
talk about the necessity for Buhari to rejig the security
apparatus, they don’t know who they are talking to. He even
confessed a few weeks ago that he has to appoint the people he
knows; his kinsmen. It is a Fulani dominated government and that
has cost him a lot of credit such that many people don’t believe
him anymore because he wears tinted glasses to analyse everything
going on. Buhari is taking people for granted, but the Yoruba are
the most widely educated people in Nigeria; they are wise and so
they can see through all the shenanigans of the Fulani potentates
who want to impose themselves on the rest of us.

Still on the issue of insecurity, the issue of
porous borders has always been a subject of national discourse, how
do you reconcile that with the ECOWAS protocol?

At a level, you are right; it’s a contradiction but you see
Nigeria was a creation of British colonialism. I’m sufficiently
familiar with the trajectory of Nigeria to analyse it. Since we
were created by the Brits, we had to inherit the borders that they
established on the one hand with the French and on the other hand
with the Germans. We were at the confab with the Lamido of Adamawa
and he was threatening that he would go back to his kith and kin if
Nigerians continue to harass him, because the empire of Adamawa was
divided with blue pencil by Lord Salisbury, which was drawn to cut
off 80 per cent of his territory for the Germans. So, he still has
a bulk of his people in Cameroon. Another example of the
arbitrariness of Nigerian boundaries is found along the West
African coastline, where there are Yoruba speaking people, like in
Porto Novo and Cotonou (both in Benin Republic); the Ga in Ghana
and even Togo, and that is why you have someone answering
(Emmanuel) Adebayo, the footballer. In the eastern part, the
boundaries between Cameroon and Nigeria are also not fixed; people
criss-cross. For instance, between Nigeria and Niger, there are
places that claim to be outside Nigeria but the people there owe
allegiance to the Sultan of Sokoto. The classic example is the home
of Prof Abubakar. In his family house; the living room is in
Nigeria while the bedroom is in Chad. So, we are surrounded by kith
and kin. That is why my senior colleague, Prof Asiwaju, who is the
foremost expert on Nigerian boundaries, talks about artificial
boundaries. However, we should not cry over spilled milk if we
truly want a united Africa by 2063, which is 100 years from the
founding of the African Union. People are thinking of when Africa
would be like Europe so that we would have common currency, flag,
free trade area, customs union and an integrated community, which
we have yet to achieve. We are still praying and hoping that a day
would come when the boundaries would be irrelevant because as
Africans our destinies are intertwined.

Are you of the view that Nigeria should have wasted
no time in signing the African Continental Free Trade
Agreement?

As the largest concentration of black people on earth, we have a
stake in the African Union. That is why some of us were perplexed
that Buhari was dithering over signing the African Continental Free
Trade Agreement. Finally, push came to shove and he had to sign. I
don’t know his calculation but he likes passing the buck. Someone
of great insight and foresight would have signed that agreement
earlier as a vote for African unification, but again you can’t
exceed your limitation. If you are not properly schooled in African
politics and if you look at how long it’s taking him to have a
cabinet, you put a question mark on his claim to fame as a leader.
That was why a country of this standing, worth and promise was like
perambulating and sleepwalking on the issue. We used to call
Goodluck Jonathan clueless but I don’t know what to call Buhari.
Wednesday made it five months that he won election and it’s about
two months that he was sworn in, and even though he assured us he
would no longer be ‘baba-go-slow’, one just feels sorry for
Nigeria. Look at what President Paul Kagame is doing in Rwanda. The
enthusiasm and dynamism that one expects from a country of this
worth have been lacking and when you now have a cabinet of
lacklustre mediocre in charge of affairs, you just hang your head
in shame. Quite seriously, I don’t know what (Vice-President Yemi)
Osinbajo is still doing there. He is far smarter because I know
him; he was my student. A brilliant guy like that should distance
himself from mediocrity.

Are you saying the vice-president should have
resigned?

That’s what I’m saying. He should not have joined him for a
second term. For me, he has overstayed his welcome and they are
even relegating him to the side. I think a brilliant man like
Osinbajo should quit and go back to his ministry or law practice.
How does he survive in the welter of suffocating mediocrity that
you find there? The Fulani have no little or no regard for him. I
would call the whole thing the tyranny of mediocrity; that is the
problem Nigeria is facing right now. I feel sorry for the country
that we are saddled with such an incompetent leadership, making us
the butt of jokes internationally. Quite sincerely, I don’t feel
comfortable with what is going on and it’s a very serious
indictment if Nigeria can’t throw up a leadership that is superior
to what is being offered now. People would just shake their heads
and feel pity for us. We only wish Nigeria well. But the time would
come when we would have fit and proper persons. This man can’t move
Nigeria anywhere; the country is collapsing under him. It’s the
young people I feel sorry for; we are at the departure lounge and I
have my boarding pass. I’m just waiting for my flight to be called.
At 72, that’s enough and out of it, I gave 44 years to Nigeria as
an academic. I feel proud to have had that opportunity to serve my
country. Nigeria would make it, given the right circumstances.

Do you see Africa being like Europe someday, in
terms of cooperation and economic integration?

Hopefully, the day would come maybe in the time of my
grandchildren. I’m not an afro-pessimist; I’m very optimistic about
the future of Africa. The contradictions in the world would compel
us to recognise the worth of collaboration and cooperation between
African countries and Africans. I think Africans would throw up
leaders that would recognise the imperative of our coming together.
We would be forced to recognise that whatever success we put up in
Europe, our future is in Africa. I’m a very proud African and I’m
proud of my country. I feel we reserve the right to go to heaven
the way we want. This is a great country; there are Nigerians
working for the National Aeronatics and Space Administration in the
United States and there is hardly any university of worth in the
world without Nigerian professors. Justice Taslim Olawale Elias was
the President of the International Court of Justice, while Prof
Thomas Adeoye Lambo was a deputy Director-General at the World
Health Organisation. Nigerians have success stories if only we can
have enabling environment to self-actualise. Nigerians will make it
any day once they have leadership that is inspiring, but I’m sorry
Buhari doesn’t inspire many people. He doesn’t show the requisite
personae that could spur people on. Even his claim to integrity has
one thing because of the nepotistic attitude that he has in terms
of appointment. It’s as if the rest of Nigerians are non-starters
and I don’t believe it. In every part of Nigeria there are success
stories. If only you look hard you would find them. So, I’m
disgusted by what is going on. But like I said, the contradictions
in the world would compel Africans to recognise the worth of
cooperation among themselves.

With the kind of projection you have for Africa, do
you feel it’s needless to review the protocol?

My view is that as a pan-Africanist, I’m perfectly in favour of
opening up African countries to other Africans and I’m against
xenophobia like you find in South Africa. One reason I have refused
to go to South Africa is their attitude. I had been invited to give
lectures but I declined because of the visa conditions. I’m not
angling to go to South Africa. You can’t have an omelette without
breaking an egg, and my choice is that we leave that protocol on
freedom of movement as it is. It might be a testament to the future
and as lawyers would say, in futuro, but it’s looking towards a
better future for West Africa.

If we are to leave the protocol as it is, how do we
address its huge contribution to the insecurity challenge in the
country?

We should tighten our surveillance system using electronic
gadgets, not just CCTV. All sorts of things could be used to
monitor ingress and egress, as lawyers would say. In this country,
we don’t even know how many we are; we only live by guessed
estimates. Sometimes you hear that we have 201 million people but
some of my friends say we are not up to 100 million because,
according to them, the economy of Nigeria can’t sustain 200 million
people. So, let us do an accurate census, but you know there are
forces raged against an accurate census because it would expose the
lie. When we have an accurate census, it would be the beginning of
our journey to modernity. With that, you would know who is who and
you can do proper planning and management of the economy. We also
have to re-organise ourselves and have proper police, custom and
immigration systems. If I were President of Nigeria, one of the
first things I would have to do is a proper and accurate census,
for planning purpose. Until we have an accurate census we have not
started the journey to modernity. There is no part of the country
without resources that can be tapped to generate money, so we don’t
have to go cap in hand in this feeding bottle federalism, as said
by Ike Ekweremadu in Toronto during a lecture. He said every month
end the states would carry their feeding bottles to Abuja for
replenishing and it was a very metaphorical and accurate picture of
the situation in Nigeria. We have to reconfigure Nigeria to earn
the respect we deserve.

It would seem other African countries are taking
Nigeria for granted, with attacks launched against them in South
Africa and Ghana?

You remember what Abike Dabiri said a few weeks ago when she was
reacting to the case of the UNILAG professor that had to leave
Ghana. She said we would not pay them back in their own coin. We
are bigger than that. The Ghanaian President ought to apologise to
us because if we were to kick Ghanaians out of Nigeria, how would
they feel. But we don’t want to re-enact that tit-for-tat
situation. We are very liberal in Nigeria. It is better to thrive
in a better union like West Africa than ‘what-I-have-I-hold’. Like
Michelle Obama would say; when they go low, we go higher. We can’t
descend to others’ level of myopia.

It seems Nigeria is usually at the centre of
mistreatment by other African countries, like South Africa and
Ghana, is that the best Nigeria could do?

Nothing comes without a cost and we have to pay some price for
the role we are playing in Africa. Like I said, tit-for-tat will
not help us in Africa. There are not as many South Africans in
Nigeria as we have Nigerians in South Africa. If we say all
Nigerians there should come back home, we have almost 40 per cent
unemployment in Nigeria and 70 per cent of our population is young
population. It’s true that South Africa has more capital investment
in Nigeria than we have there, so it’s not a very streamlined
relationship and so it might be cost prohibitive for Nigeria to
retaliate against South Africa. I think we have to use diplomacy to
impress it on them that we bore the cost of their liberation, and
that was why Nigeria was called a frontline state even though we
are so far removed from the struggle. There were times Thabo Mbeki
and Nelson Mandela stayed in Nigeria, and many of their citizens
came to school here. Nigeria paid tremendous dues apropos South
Africa’s liberation. I think we have to push the envelope to remind
them that we played our role when the need arose and they are not
the ones to pay us back in counterfeit coins.

Why then is the Nigerian government not doing the
needful; rather what we see is that our government only condemns
the attacks?

I would look at it as prolongation of the lack of capacity by
the government. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs (Geoffrey
Onyeama) did not have the requisite push for that office. His
father was a judge at the International Court of Justice. He went
to Cambridge and he’s well educated. But he wasn’t decisive and
he’s too calm. Locally, we have no radical stance but we are
looking for direct foreign investments and when you are a beggar
country, there is a limit to the dynamism of your foreign policy.
As I said, our foreign policy with respect to that of South Africa
has been stymied by the unequal relationship we have with them.
When we look at the ledger, the debit side is bigger on our own
side. It’s asymmetrical and South Africa has greater potential to
manipulate the relationship than Nigeria could. Those are unstated
facts which nevertheless impinge on the capacity of Nigeria to
influence the course of events in South Africa. Of course, we
invite the South African ambassador but we don’t give him a
dressing down because our capacity to do that is limited. Right
now, we might loathe to admit it but they seem to be calling the
shots and so we have minimal leverage over the course of events. We
don’t have much to fight with, except emotions.

Does it mean we are completely
helpless?

That is not to say we cannot make the necessary noises, but that
will not curb the xenophobic attacks. The xenophobes in South
Africa are envious of the panache of Nigerians. You know we are a
boisterous, loud, brash people and because of that they are not too
happy with the way we are carrying on with our enterprises and
maybe their women. Nigerians exert themselves anywhere they find
themselves while they are not as aggressive as Nigerians. The
resentment at the success of Nigerians in South Africa should be
properly situated so we recognise that success breeds envy. If the
shoe was on the other leg, we would not only scream hell, we would
press the button. But, in this case, what buttons can you press
than to recall your ambassador to impress it on them that you are
not happy with what is happening or you take the matter before the
African Union. We can harass them using international law, but if
push comes to shove, what else can you do than lay aside and lick
your wounds, which is what we have been doing. When your economy is
booming, you tend to have greater respect from other countries and
as you carry yourself, so would the rest of the world carry you.
However, we are still the world’s largest black nation. Given our
population and market, that gives us some leverage, not
considerable, to be seen as an active member of the international
community. But it does not give us the thrust. All we need is to
tidy up at home and give the rest of the world the impression that
we are cleaning up our acts and then we would get the deserved
respect.

This issue also seems to be local because you find
Nigerians working in Indian and Chinese companies in Nigeria being
maltreated. Are we so weak that we also can’t protect our own on
our land?

The point is well taken. Nigeria is weak, relatively speaking,
because we need these foreign direct investments. Whoever dictates
the piper calls the tune. Since we depend on foreign investments
for the wherewithal for our economy, the capacity to criticise or
stand firm to the shenanigans and inanities of foreign investors in
Nigeria is severely circumscribed because you are looking up to
them to provide employment and pay taxes, which is why we are being
taken for granted. There was a time in China that signs hung on
restrooms read ‘Dogs and Chinese not allowed’ in their own country.
There were signs prohibiting service to dogs and Chinese in their
own country. But now, who can try that. If you are purchasing
things from another country, you might have to compromise certain
things. That is the reality of the situation. I don’t want to be
too hard on Nigeria, but foreign policy is a prolongation of
domestic policy. If you have a competitive economy and you produce
things that find a place in the international market, then you
would increase your profile.

Beyond the economy, it seems leadership also plays a
role, because Rwanda now commands a lot of respect in Africa and
beyond not because of the number of their products in the
international market but due to the leadership there. Can we say
leadership is also a factor?

You are perfectly on target. Kagame has done a lot to transform
the image of Rwanda. Little things matter. So, I agree with you
that it’s a combination of factors; your economy and the leadership
profile that your leadership musters. I almost fell off my chair
when Buhari was telling Angela Merkel that the place of his wife
was in the other room. I said the woman (Merkel) this man was
talking to has PhD in physical chemistry and I said this man sold
us short in the international community.

But you supported Buhari in 2015, what
changed?

Yes, things changed and like I said, I refused to vote during
this past election. I voted for him in 2015; I took the trouble to
join the queue and vote for him. I thought anything but Jonathan.
Jonathan was clueless but now we got a worse person than Jonathan,
so I didn’t believe he deserved a second term. Some people taunted
me for supporting him but I told them I was extremely sorry. The
man is a disappointment and he is severely overrated. Are you proud
of a President who takes months before having a cabinet? And when
the list finally came out it’s a mixed grill, containing, as they
say, the good, the bad and the ugly. A mediocre leader can only
have persons not superior to him, whether intellectually or in
moral probity.

Do you think things would be different this time
round?

No, morning shows the day. He promised not to be Baba-go-slow
but it has taken him two months to put a cabinet together. What is
the magic about a cabinet? I hear he might pick up anybody who is
against him; maybe they would come and pick me up.

How do you feel when his followers and some others
abuse you for your views on him?

I survived Sani Abacha, and that is why I respect Jonathan. As
hard as I was on him, he nominated me to the Council of the
Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.