RESPECTED scholar, author
of “Nigeria and The Lugardian
Hubris”, and two-time minister,
Prof Ihechukwu Madubuike, in this
encounter with Sunday Sun, spoke
on Nigeria at 63, submitting that
leadership is treading the wrong
part, suggesting that it’s better to
collapse Nigeria and begin all over
again.
He spoke glowingly about the
leadership of Abia State governor,
Dr Alex Otti, just as he responded
to the wild comments by Prof Wole
Soyinka that the Labour Party (LP)
never won the 2023 presidential
election but even came a distant
third position, among other crucial
issues. Excerpts:
Nigeria celebrated its 63rd
Independence anniversary on
October 1. What is your can-
did opinion on the journey of
nation building so far?
After 63 years of independence
Nigeria still carries about it the
image of a toddler. Let’s collapse
Nigeria and begin all over again. A
second coming with a new tribe of
patriots who want to belong may be
better than the mess we have today.
The resurgence of fascist tenden- cies in our clime, especially with
connivance of a compromised intel-
lectual and political elite, may soon
spell the death of democracy, like it
did in Hitler’s Germany.
The economy is in dire straits,
it requires something more than
textbook prescriptions to create
employments, lower the inflation
rate and stabilize the naira. You
don’t write a good novel by good
intentions only. It is a long walk,
requiring inspiration and a lot of
perspiration. Nigeria appears to be
in a state capture where liberty and
citizens’ fundamental rights are in
serious jeopardy.
Speak on the continued
insecurity in the Southeast.
Some are of the view that the
insecurity in the Southeast is
imported. Do you share in such
view?
We have security chiefs in the
Southeast who should tell us why
this negative phenomenon has per- sisted all these days. It is beyond the
gesture of the citizenry. We can only
speculate, and the matter is beyond
speculation and navel guessing. There
are experts trained for intelligence
gathering. Governments have enough
resources to bring the insecurity to a
low ebb. We are not mindlessly bound
to violence which insecurity fosters.
All the promises of an economically robust Southeast states remain
a pipe-dream until the insecurity and
violence are done with reasonably.
Our leaders know the truth, they all
applied for this job and should per- form or quit.
Prof Wole Soyinka said
recently that the Labour Party
(LP) is telling lies and deceiv-
ing Nigerians that they won the
2023 presidential election when
they came a distant third posi-
tion. How will you respond to
his position?
This gentleman needs not be the
poster boy of western imperialism.
His quisling mentality speaks of a
loss of personal confidence. Writers
and intellectuals must be ashamed
of fostering images that sustain a fragmented society. With people like
Soyinka public trust is in danger. To
use the words of Prof A. N. Jaffares,
who had interacted with WS years
ago, the laureate probably “needs
some close monitoring”. All that
glitters, may not, indeed be gold. As I
remarked at a platform, the Indepen-
dent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) has created confidence and
legitimacy crises not following rules it
set for itself.
Give a brief evaluation of the
scorecard, so far of your state
governor, Dr Alex Otti ofAbia
State?
Governor Alex Otti remains a star
in and outside the classroom. He,
within these 100 days in office, has
shown that he is a scion of the Igbo cognoscenti and leadership with a
can -do spirit, of past leaders that
left positive footprints after them.
Aba and Umuahia are opening up
with well -constructed roads, a sign
of things to come. That alone gives
hope to an expectant populace that
had given up on good governance.
The hope that the Southeast can
have access, unfettered access, to
the sea through Owazza in Ukwa
Local Government, in our life time,
is another promissory note. The man
can run where others feared to tread.
We wish him well. His success is our
well-being. So far, so good. Otti is
matching promise with action.
Nigerians seem to be dis- satisfied and lambasting the
judiciary in recent times…?
(Cuts in) I can still recall that you
have asked me this question in one
of my interviews with The Sun. I can
still recall my response vividly. And
as I told you it was the revered late
Justice Chukwudifu Oputa who said
that justice must be fair and even- handed. Partiality, offends natural
justice. Perception is very close to
reality, and the general perception
is that some of the things that come
out of the temple of justice are not
even handed. Take for example,
two courts of competent jurisdiction
dishing out contradictory judgments
on the same matter? And as we leave
the hallowed chambers, we chorus:
“As the court pleases”. And we go
on believing that the Supreme Court
is not fallible; it is the individuals,
the justices that are fallible, being
humans. That position immedi-
ately assumes that justice, a moral
principle of what is right or wrong,
cannot be cast on the marble. It beg- gars total acceptance. I am speak-
ing as a lay man, though, who have
sought relief from our courts. The
other complaint against our courts is
the delay in arriving at decisions. It
is now trite to say that justice delayed
is justice denied. But the populace is
helpless in this matter. The dilatory
nature of the judicial process in Nige-
ria seems to rob it off its integrity and
to increase the confidence gap and
trust factor. I plead that our judges be
not just people of learning, but also
men and women of character. The
judicial system they run must radiate
integrity. The Socratic dictum they
have imbibed demands that you do
not see evil and insist that it is good,
even when they say that the law is an
ass. Nobody wants to be an ass, even
as we go along with the negative con-
notation of “ass”. As I opined above,
some of the conflicting judgments
confuse the public and ought not be.
