1960-1966 remains Nigeria’s best government – Martins

Chief Kenny Martins has said that the best government in Nigeria so far is that of Sir Nnamdi Azikiwe  and Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (the 1960-1966)

Martins said that: ‘It is hard to point to one point of departure or at what point we missed it for the simple fact that every succeeding government has always, either rightly so, or perceptively so or wrongly so has always been adjudged worse than the one it succeeded, so by extension the best we have had in Nigeria remains the government of 1960-1966, that still remains the best time in the history of the country because after that everything has so to speak in real terms gone down the hill.

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‘This is because when you look at the…let’s take it from the constitution, let’s take it from even issue of indices, let’s take it from the issue of growth, let’s even look at it from the angle of dream and hope, 1960-66 remains our best time. Why is it that when one government takes over, it is believed that they are always worse than the one they took over from, normally you see that Nigeria remains the only country where our yesterday has always been our best.

‘And as I always say, today is so precarious, so turbulent, so unpredictable, and ungovernable that it makes us even scared of tomorrow. Tomorrow is the best, today is so bad and we are afraid of tomorrow, it’s only in Nigeria we experience such. In all other nations their yesterday remains their take-off point, their today is their happening time and tomorrow is their dream and they are aspiring and working towards it.

‘You can see, for instance, in Dubai now, just a few days ago, the first man from space landed back, and they said they have the most number of personnel or individuals who are training, participating and getting ready to dominate the space in so and so time, that is Dubai.

‘Dubai and Maroko were at the same pace, the same status in 1979-80. But see where  they are today? So in a way, I can just point at the departure where we missed it: is it the coup that terminated that government? Is it after Gowon did nine years and then handed over to Murtala and Obasanjo?

‘What really went wrong because Gowon’s government was already going well, there was this five-year ruling plan which Obasanjo and Yar’Adua inherited and they rolled out so much. For example, all the ports we built then, we have not built one single more port in Nigeria since Obasanjo, Yar’Adua left. What has happened?

‘Then you now take it over to 1979 where there was democracy and Babangida also took over. How come that since 1999, which is 20 years till date, the 4,000 megawatts that Abacha left with Abdulsalami is what we are still fighting with? And they now mention some stupendous amount of money, still there is no light. And you and I know that without power, without NEPA we can’t go anywhere. So, where does one say we have missed it?

‘Is it that we did not apply the money to power? I still use to remember it was the first time I ever bought a generator around 1979 and you even forget that the generator is there, but now it (generator) has become stable and you can’t do without it. How can we have economic development without power? Forget about this talk on economic growth, they say they are improving on agriculture, forget about that, where do you store the product, where do you preserve them? Where are the roads to circulate them?

‘So, which industry do you want to run without power? I cannot point where we departed from real development, but the truth is that we have been missing it gradually, each government has caused us some pace in our progress and developmental pace until now we are almost stuck.

‘Late Chief Sam Mbakwe said at a time that we should hand Nigeria back to the Queen to govern, maybe that is what we should do (laughs).

‘But let’s ask this question: what is wrong with our leaders? The problem with Nigeria is leadership. How come that in Nigeria today there is no one single reference hospital?

‘If one, particularly the poor masses with no voice, if there is any major health case today; they need to go round the church, G.Os, go to Dangote Foundations, go to Redeem camp, Mountain of Fire, Winners, some Muslim centres etc to go and beg for money for treatment in India, not even in their country.

‘Nigeria, with vast resources human and natural? Do you know what our doctors are doing abroad?

‘The same people that we train here who go outside and excel so well, operate in the best hospitals, and deliver the best are Nigerians. I have a cousin, he is so good as a neurosurgeon, brain surgeon, but the man sits in his house, he doesn’t even have a hospital, you need him you come, book his appointment where he will treat you, you send plane to pick him, he comes to the hospital, he does the operation and goes back.

‘How come he cannot find a place here to operate his training, service and we can pay because we spend not less than N2-4 billion every year?

‘I see the government saying that they are pursuing agriculture, agriculture is very far, just build us six reference hospitals, one in each of the zones, at about $150 million each, it can pay itself back in three years and then you save not less than $4 billion in the pocket of Nigerians. 

‘It will not stop what you want to do in the agriculture sector because that is a long-term project. First, conserve the one we are throwing outside in medical tourism as they call it. So, leadership is the problem.

‘If a 59-year-old man is a toddler you need to get special care personnel, we call them carer, somebody who specializes in taking care of the invalid or catering for the invalid. We have an invalid situation in Nigeria and we need a leader who can take Nigeria by the bulls and put things in place.

‘Power is not magic, it’s not a science, it’s already there, it’s just connecting generator to wires. In a state like Pakistan, 20 years ago I sat down with the Pakistani Ambassador in Lagos (then they had not moved to Abuja),  I told him we have excess of gas beyond oil and anything else, and even almost beyond water and the man said, (you can still Google it) that in Pakistan, if you want to be a local government chairman, for instance, Ikeja where we are now, the only thing that will give you the seat is that you promise how many kilometers of gas pipeline (the tiny ones like the size of a biro) that you are going to lead into how many homes in the local government, because they run everything by gas, their fridge, air-condition, bulbs, their lights etc, run by gas, so they don’t have power problem, they have enough gas and they are using it.

‘We have enough gas and we are not applying it at all. We need a leader that will help us to apply that, we don’t need to still be depending on oil because there are options. We need a leader who will, at least, pick a five or six point agenda and say: on power, on medical, gas, etc, the person will deliver. We have excess gas that we are burning to pollute the environment.

‘Nigeria needs special care, leadership is the problem. But it is not enough to blame the leadership at the centre, so it’s not the case of one man, it is 36 men and the centre making 37, then you take the local government chairmen who are over 700 in number, I think 774, so we need leaders whose vision can be synchronized to drive the Nigeria projection into the real world, we are so backward.’