Dr Moses Iloh is a consummate administrator, social critic and humanist. In this interview with PATRICK OKOHUE he speaks on Buhari and his second term bid, the menace of herdsmen across the country, the issue of state police and the moral decadence among the youths as well as other issues of national importance.
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida recently cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against seeking second term in office, What is your position on this?
My opinion is that President Muhammadu Buhari will do better if given a second term in office. I think the ongoing first term is an experiment. This is the first time he is ruling the nation as a civilian person.
Buhari was scared of impeachment and most of the time, they cautioned the President to thread carefully, because of democracy. I think with his one term of trial and error, if given a second term I believe he will do better.
What you are saying now is that despite the opinion of these two former leaders you still want a second term for Buhari
Yes, he is constitutionally entitled to two terms, we need to give him a chance, he is currently experimenting with democracy having been Military Head of State before.
By the time he enter second term everything will be smooth, he would have mastered the tenets of democracy. Having got this experience now, I think he should be given a second term.
How do you see the killings by herdsmen across the country and who do we blame for this menace?
The point is that herdsmen feeding their cattle should not have been a problem. It becomes a problem because Nigerians want it to be a problem.
It is clear that Fulani herdsmen are nomads, they move from place to place but they have no right to kill anybody. And when they get to your territory, they are there as guests.
They feed their cattle for two or three days and they move on. So I think what is happening in this case is that the people are trying to be nasty. It is not the problem of the Fulanis but that of the government.
The government is at fault here. It is the fault of those who give the herdsmen guns. Fulani herdsmen never had guns in the past, what they had is what they call Kabilo . That is all.
But how did the Fulani men who rea shepherd came about sophisticated weapons like AK47 rifle. I think the government should be held responsible because government needs to find out who gave herdsmen those guns they are carrying about.
But the government didn’t want to know the source of weapons being carried by the herdsmen and by that allowed many people to be killed. It is pathetic, it is one serious error.
All the governments both local, state and Federal should be blamed because a man that is not supposed to have a gun is having sophisticated guns.
Government needs to investigate that. First, government needs to take the gun from him, arrest him, and then investigate how he came about the gun. But nobody is doing that and we allow herdsmen to kill a lot of people. So in Nigeria, one man is equivalent to two cows, human beings are no longer of any value.
Many people believe that the solution to the insecurity problem in the country is the introduction of state police. What is your position on this?
My position is not different. I do not believe that the Nigeria security situation cannot be improved by the government .Why don’t we increase the number of police? Equip them well before sending them on duty.
But life is nothing to our government, I believe with good organisation, the local government chairmen themselves can improve security.
All the killings in the country is due to laziness of the government from the federal to the local. What kind of country are we having that people will just kill and go. I think the fault is that of the government. We need to get ourselves organised security wise.
There is high level of moral decadence among the youths in this country. What is solution to this?
The problem was caused by the government. When we were growing up, you come a minute late to the school, you would be flogged. They taught us in the school, honour your father and your mother.
They taught us not to steal, when you did a wrong thing at home, your parent brings you to school and you are flogged. But we have gotten to a situation where moral instruction is removed from the school’s curriculum and that is a sign that the country is dead.
What can a school boy not do nowadays, they can do anything. So if the government wants to save Nigeria, it must return moral instruction back to schools.
As we are preparing for a general election next year, what is your advice to be electorates?
Nigerians should know that anybody going into politics is doing so for one thing or the other. It is either he is going there to serve or he is going there to steal.
So if you see a candidate, check out why he is into politics. Is he into politics to steal or to serve. Most politicians in Nigeria are into politics to steal and they steal and go away with it.
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