Too much politics without development ruining Nigeria’s economy -James

Bassey James, a renowned criminologist, security expert and cleric, is also the National President, Southern Youths Development Forum. James, a man passionate about Nigeria, Niger Delta region and empowering the youths for leadership is worried the way Nigerians are playing politics to the detriment of development of the economy. He believes that unless Nigerian leaders change their approach to politics it may take a while for development to come. He also speaks on the much talked about restructuring and the war against corruption by the President Muhammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) government in this interview with PATRICK OKOHUE.

Nigeria recently had its 57th independence anniversary and many people expressed concern over the slow level of development, arguing that the country is not doing well; do you think the country is on course?
Nigeria is on course, I thank God for keeping us together, and I believe we will continue to be together. I want to appreciate the founding fathers of Nigeria for coming together to fight for the independence of this great country

and I believe their efforts will not be in vain and that we will continue to sustain the integrity of Nigeria and for our young men and women to support the idea of a strong nation,

we believe very strongly that Nigeria will grow from strength to strength, glory to glory, God willing and we will achieve those things that are laudable and those things that will keeping holding us together as one nation.

One thing agitating the minds of many Nigerians is the issue of restructuring the country and the way many are going about it is assuming a new dimension, do you think Nigeria needs restructuring?
I believe that restructuring will bring more development to Nigeria; you will agree with me that almost everybody is saying it. The North is saying the same thing, the South East, the South South, the South West and the middle belt,

in fact, I believe that we will keep the unity of this country and make it stronger if we devolve power, restructure the polity, the economy and the fabric of service.

For instance it is very wrong for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to be going into the villages to look at issues of agric at the local government level,

if there is restructuring the local governments and the states should be given powers to run their education, agriculture and those basic things that are closer to the people and that will ginger development and it will also give every state the opportunity to compete with themselves.

You know we use to have it in the 1960s and the South and the North were in strong competition, with the groundnut pyramid, the cocoa revolution and the oil palm revolution, the regions were developing at very fast pace.

So for me, there should be no fuse about restructuring, I believe that if we restructure the local governments should be able to do local government roads.

In those years we use to see road maintenance officers from the local government, they use to work on local government roads, it is very wrong for the Federal Government to take all the problems on their heads, it is not easy to maintain federal roads, state roads and local government roads.

Restructuring will give local government an identity and the state government will also be able to work on their own, what we have today is that everybody goes to Abuja at the end of every month to collect money, it doesn’t give room for competition or growth.

There is no growth again in Nigeria; no matter the change of government from whatever government it will not solve the problem.

The easiest way for Nigeria to move forward now is to reconsider the identity of Nigeria, let us look at issues that the states can handle, the ones that the regions can handle and allow the Federal Government to concentrate on the issues of foreign affairs,

part of policing, because even in policing we should be able to have up to the local government police, state police, enforce community policing and that will help in checkmating crime, because the community leaders knows those who are good and bad and the village heads will be empowered.

I remember those days when we were very young, my father at the age of 60 or 70 was part of those they will call on every two weeks to come and guard the community roads and it was beautiful then and I think it is necessary for us to go back to that era so that we can bring development to the country.

Look, today in Nigeria we are talking of a population of almost 180 million people, in the next two years we may be talking about 200 million people, it will be difficult for the Federal Government to control everything.

Let the Federal Government take responsibilities in some areas and the state governments take responsibilities in some areas.

There are many suggestions about how to handle this issue of restructuring, while some are talking about a return to regional structure, others are talking about restructuring along states lines, others are also saying instead of having headache over it the 2014 confab dealt with all these issues take it and implement even if it will be adjusted to meet present challenges, what is your view?
Well, the 2014 confab report to me is a good report, but will it be accepted by all Nigerians? Because a lot of people say it was hurriedly put up by Jonathan (President Goodluck Jonathan) for the purpose of the 2015 election, even though I do not agree.

But, be that as it may, whatever report the Nigeria people are going to agree with should be brought to the fore so that the people can sit down and discuss.

Nigeria is the biggest country in Africa, Nigeria is the most important countries in Africa and one of the most important in the world, our population is a threat to a lot of countries, as a result I want us to keep the identity of Nigeria, because we are stronger together as Nigeria and the call for separate countries out of Nigeria is not the solution.

The solution to me is that let us use the 2014 confab report or any of the other reports and projections, whatever means that will bring unity and equity to the polity, to the Nigeria nation, I am for it.

We have tried in our own way to convene a national youth conference, believing that we should be able to talk to our youths, because when you talk about war, when you talk about kidnapping and all sorts of crimes, these are done by the youths, not the elders who are 60 or 70, so the Nigerian youths should be carried along,

by the grace of God we are prepared to do a conference in the North, South East and South West to see how we can build the Nigerian spirit in our youths, so that by the time the issue of restructuring is put on the table, the Nigerian youths would have seen the need for the development, the unity and the oneness of this country.

Talking about carrying the youths along with regards to your Southern Youths Development Forum, what are you really looking at doing and how soon do you intend to kick start that and do you intend to bring the government into it?
By the grace of God, it will be soon, we have been talking, we have been holding conferences and seminars on the unity and peace of this great country, because we believe that Nigeria is our country and we must all come together to build this nation.

We are planning to have a very big conference in December by the grace of God in Akwa Ibom State, we have reached out to Professor Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa,

because we want to partner with many groups so that we can come together and talk about the unity of our great country and we are also reaching out to the youths of our great nation,

but we want to start in Akwa Ibom State, we are not just going to talk about Nigeria, we will talk about enterprise, how the youths can be engaged in business development, how the Nigerian youths can engaged in building enterprises and also be engaged as peace ambassadors.

We are extending invitation to the Prof Wole Soyinka Center and many other centres, so that we can use such platforms and see how we can reach out to more youths.

We will talk to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and other such development agencies in Nigeria, also the Arewa youths, Oodua youths, Igbo youths among others, we wants to see how we can build a united Nigeria, we want to see how we can build a nation devoid of crisis and that starts with the youths.

Elections will come in 2019, if we don’t prepare the grounds for the youths to understand the issue of togetherness and the needs for unity, the youths can be used and we don’t want our young men to be used again to cause mayhem and violence, destruction in our country.

For instance in the Niger Delta region where we come from, the Southern Youths Development Forum have been spending time and resources to reach out to spread the gospel of development and love and I am happy to say that till today the Niger Delta is very calm and I want to thank the President, the Vice President,

the Niger Delta youths and the leaders of the Niger Delta for the peace they have been able to sustain in the Niger Delta region and because there is peace in the Niger Delta region you can see that there is a lot of development across Nigeria today,

because oil is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, so when there is peace in that region automatically it reflects on other parts of the country.

How do you intend to organise the programme to ensure that the government or even politicians do not hijack it for their benefits?
We will invite political groups and leaders, but we are not asking for funding, we are not even asking the Federal Government to fund it, all we want is to give opportunity to ministers of the Federal Government to come speak with the Nigerian youths.

We are going to send invitation to Ministers from the Niger Delta, from the North, governors of the region, political leaders of the APC, PDP, APGA, PPA, all the political parties will be invited.

You see, the issue of Nigeria has gone beyond political parties, because parties will always come and go, PDP was in power for 16 years and today they are no longer in power, APC is in power today, nobody knows who will be there is 2019, but Nigeria is bigger than PDP, APC and all the political parties put together.

Remember we use to have Action Group, NCNC, later parties like GNPP, those are now out of order, so we must build a nation that is seen to be carrying development at heart, it is not the issue of political parties.

I want to appeal to Nigerian politicians, because we have problems, the major problem in Nigeria today is politics, politics has eaten into the fabrics of our national cohesion, today nobody is talking about development, everybody is talking about party, everybody is talking politics, no physical development in most of the places, everyday Nigerians wakeup to talk about party, about issues that are not sustainable, forgetting that no government can stay more than eight years, so we must be able to build a nation that will last for ages.

I have been involved in the management of youth programmes for a very long time; we have held seminars in Abuja, in Lagos, in Abia, in Enugu, in Port Harcourt and so many other places.

Politicians can only hijack your programmes when you go for funding and by the grace of God we will not allow anybody to fund this National Youth Impact Conference, because we believe that we have to build our nation. Nigeria is bigger than any individual and the peace in Nigeria is the peace in Africa, peace in the world.

Look at what is happening in South Africa, our young men are dying almost on daily basis and so many are dying across the Mediterranean Sea, so there is need for us to develop Nigeria, talk about the structure, talk about business, talk about empowerment, talk about the issues that would keep Nigeria together.

The President’s wife only recently expressed her frustration about the dearth of equipment at the State House Clinic and many are saying that if there can be that level of lack in the State House Clinic that it is evident of what Nigerians are going through on daily basis, monies are voted for projects, yet nothing is done and the money is not seen, how do you think Nigeria can deal with this situation and develop its infrastructure to world standard?
I want to thank the President’s wife, I want to commend the daughter of the President, infact if I have my way we will send invitation to the daughter of the President to come and speak at the youth programme, because it is this kind of mindset that we are looking for in our youths.

For the wife of the President to speak out in that manner, it means that they mean well for Nigeria, so they must come out to talk to Nigerian youths and see how they can use their position to influence the greatness of this country.

For me, the decay in infrastructure is so sad, there is no road in most of the communities, in most of the states, federal roads are completely out of order, the East West road is out of order, you cannot have an easy ride from any part of the country without having to spend hours and days on the road.

I think the government should declare a state of emergency on roads and that is why we are saying for instance that a minister of works should move round the states, round the country to see the state of the roads.

The minister of health should do the same thing. You know, if Aso Rock clinic is bad and the President’s wife had to cry out, to me it is not worth hearing and she said that out of frustration.

Imagine if any member of the first family is sick in the night and you cannot take them to the State House Clinic, this cannot happen in any part of the world, at least some people should be sanctioned.

Look, education sector is bad, the road network is bad, even look at the airways, today we don’t even have a national carrier, this was not caused by Mr. President, it has been part of the problem in this country, no light, no water, nothing, there must be a solution to these problems.

One issue that is plaguing this country is corruption, the government said they are fighting it, yet many people are complaining that it is not effective; do you think the war on corruption is on course?
The President alone cannot fight corruption, I must confess to you that his team is trying, I must commend the EFCC and the other anti-corruption agencies,

but they alone cannot fight corruption, every Nigerian must rise to the issue of fight against corruption in Nigeria. I have said this severally, let the war on corruption start from the local government.

If you start it at the local government you would have succeeded in eliminating corruption from Nigeria up to 30 or 40 percent.

A man that has not seen one million naira before, a man who was never known to have any business before suddenly he becomes a local government chairman and before you know it he is building hotels everywhere, that is why there is increase in the number of people that wants to be local government chairmen.

Let the anti- corruption war start at the local government, the moment you become the local government chairman give account of your assets, when you leave you do the same and it is given to the EFCC or any anti-corruption agencies, before we move to the states and the federal.

If we don’t do that we cannot succeed and also at the federal parastatals, government agencies or businesses, you might have discovered that most of the big people in government are the ones running businesses.

Nobody can go to any ministry today to quote for any job, you will not get it, so in Nigeria today, it is either you are in government or you are a poor man, that is why every Nigerian wants to go into government, but some of us don’t want to go into government, we can survive outside.

Any country where people promote politics and present politics as a means of survival cannot survive, so we must begin to look at what is going on at the local government level, let us start from there.

Let us tell all the 774 local government chairmen to give account, let us call for the account of the local government in the last 10 years or in the last five years and let Nigeria have a programme where citizens themselves can have access to what is going on in the local government.

We are trying to incorporate a citizens’ right initiative, a programme that will incorporate if approved work with so many agencies, at the end of the day it is obvious that President Buhari alone cannot fight corruption.

So, everybody must come on board and for me I believe that the EFCC should also extend the fight against corruption to other Nigerians, invite them to become anti-corruption ambassadors, involve the pastors, imams and various religious leaders and other stakeholders,

let them become anti-corruption ambassadors, some people can be posted to local governments, some can be posted to state headquarters, the situation is really very sad.

Somebody who was never known to be very productive, never known to be a business person just see himself or herself in government and before you know it is already living larger than life.

Today, everybody is a politician in Nigeria, it is not good, 180 million Nigerians cannot all go into politics, we will have problems if we do not resolve these political issues in Nigeria, there is too much politics in Nigeria, that is why the National Youths Impact Conference must be convened so that we talk to our young ones, people just leaving schools.

In the next five years almost five million Nigerians would have graduated, all of them are not going into politics, we do not want an implosion or explosion in Nigeria, there is need for us to build enterprise, for government to build enterprise.

For instance the Central Bank is trying to do a programme, though it is a good initiative, the Central Bank of Nigeria should not be directly involved in the business, they should engage banks,

if you are a graduate and you are interested go to a Nigerian bank and get a loan, not Anchor Borrower programme, we have had NEEDS it didn’t work, we have had other programmes that didn’t work, all these things is going back to politics.

Let the Central Bank Governor develop a programme with the banks, so that people can access funds from banks, not from Central Bank, I have never seen anywhere in the world where the Central Bank directly take charge of businesses, it is not done anywhere.

You were recently appointed into the board of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, what is it about and what does that entail?
I must tell you that I was happy and at the same time shocked when recently I received a letter of appointment from the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, I was so happy.

For me I think it is part of what I am already doing, I am happy to identify with the group, you know Prof. Wole Soyinka has become a very strong voice in the world and for the centre to find me worthy gives me a lot of happiness and I will ensure that I support the team,

work with them and have a partnership with it for the Southern Youth Development Forum and the Southern Polytechnic, by the grace of God we have put a programme for December, I think that this is one of the great things that has ever happened to me and I will put all my experience to bear on the group.

Quote
I want to appeal to Nigerian politicians, because we have problems, the major problem in Nigeria today is politics, politics has eaten into the fabrics of our national cohesion, today nobody is talking about development, everybody is talking about party, everybody is talking politics, no physical development in most of the places, everyday Nigerians wakeup to talk about party, about issues that are not sustainable, forgetting that no government can stay more than eight years, so we must be able to build a nation that will last for ages

Quote 2
The Central Bank is trying to do a programme, though it a good initiative, the Central Bank of Nigeria should not be directly involved in the business, they should engage banks, if you are a graduate and you are interested go to a Nigerian bank and get a loan, not Anchor Borrower programme, we have had NEEDS it didn’t work, we have had other programmes that didn’t work, all these things is going back to politics. Let the Central Bank Governor develop a programme with the banks, so that people can access funds from banks, not from Central Bank