Elliot Uko is the Founder of the Igbo Youth Movement as well as the Deputy Secretary, Igbo Leaders of Thought. In this interview, he accused Dr. Junaid Mohammed of working hard to destroy Nigeria.
Few days ago, Dr. Junaid Mohammed asked Ndigbo to secede if they feel marginalized in the scheme of things, what is the position of Igbo Leaders of Thought on such statement?
No sane person will respond to the character, who clearly needs a shrink; however, his statement confirms to the international community that the new administration could march along a very divisive path with the support of some persons in the North. That is, that some people have sworn that equity and justice will not reign in Nigeria. In other words, actions that lead to disenchantment amongst Nigerians to the extent of making secession and attractive option to certain sections is actually deliberate and encouraged by the North. I am sure the international community has taken note of that. The man does not deserve to be replied.
He is consistently working very hard to destroy Nigeria by denigrating, abusing and overtly provoking Nigerians in order to prepare the ground for another civil war, whether it is a deliberate policy of the north we don’t know, whether he will succeed or not in his quite spirited effort to make sure Nigeria does not survive, nobody knows.
The Igbo Leaders of Thought is insisting that the on-going probe should extend to 1999; why do you hold such view?
Yes, Truth is truth, and sometimes truth is inconvenient. Everybody agrees, those who stole public funds must return same. Nigerians also want them shamed and punished, but the narrative that corruption began somewhere after 2009 is patently false.
Mr. President has unwittingly given the wrong impression, that he is afraid of Gen. Obasanjo. Mr. Femi Adeshina could have told the world that the Federal Government would begin with the last regime but will also probe other regimes since 1999. Adeshina carefully avoided saying that. He told the world the federal government will only probe the Jonathan regime. The operative word here is ONLY. That immediately gave room to small talk in gatherings all over the land, that there could be more to it. The lame excuse that going back beyond Jonathan’s regime will be a distraction actually amuses Nigerians, who remember with horror the brigandage of 1999-2007, the impunity of the era. It is funny to expect Nigerians to believe that the support and hard work Gen. Obasanjo gave towards the emergence of the new government is not directly affecting the selective nature of the probe exercise. Nigerians are all agreed that a purge is needful and corruption frontally attacked, but are split on the issue of singling out only the Jonathan regime for probe.
Half of our population is afflicted by the herd mentality, they are victims of the pre-election propaganda machine narrative on corruption, they want to see Jonathan and his wife their entire team stripped naked, marched to the firing squad, they are simply baying for blood. That’s one narrative. This group shares the same political view of the APC plus those who are easily swayed by the narrative.
The other half of Nigerians populations know that you can’t kill a snake by cutting off the tail, that tail will re-grow after a while; you kill a snake by cutting off the head. They know who and who are the father and grandfather of corruption in Nigeria. They know former leaders who are billionaires in the dollar currency; they know that only a holistic war on corruption will achieve the purpose of sanitizing the polity. But some of them though are afraid to speak up. But the truth is: if the war against corruption exempts certain powerful ex-rulers and they are allowed to keep and enjoy their loot, while only Jonathan and his team are taken to the assizes, then, history will note this probe exercise as tainted, selective and vindictive. The narrative that Jonathan is a demon and a disaster while other leaders are angels and saints is false and unacceptable.
You can choose and target whatever group you want to probe, but you’ll never take away the fact that people will note that the war was selective; you can never take that away from their hearts. They will pass it on to their children and grand children, that the war on corruption by so so and so targeted only so so and so. That he was afraid to probe so so and so. You will never take that away from the hearts of millions of Nigerians from generation to generation and we all know that whatever comes round goes around. That only way to avoid this great division is to boldly probe from 1999 till date. That way, you will not give room to insinuations.
Are you saying Mr. President does not have the balls to do a clean job of the probe?
Yes, it’s obvious he is constrained; he’ll find it very difficult to go beyond the Jonathan regime for very obvious reasons. Even though the government is already showing signs of a government that wants to purge and put a stop to the cankerworm of corruption, the must carry everybody along. Nigerians applaud that. Nobody is against the probe effort. Nobody. All Nigerians are saying is: if it is selective, then the aim is defeated. You can target and deal with any group you want to deal with. Your friends and party man can cheer you on, but millions of Nigerians will note that you are afraid of certain other people. It is impossible to take that away from their mind. They may watch you quietly, but they know the whole exercise was selective.
Don’t get us wrong, PMB means well, we whole heartedly support him. All those who looted in the last regime must be brought to book. Some persons in the last government are said to have mindlessly stolen more that they will ever need. That is evil; they must not get away with that. They are heartless, they should be jailed. Nigerians are only saying: why give a clean bill of health to others who set the standard by laying the foundation for looting. Are you afraid of them?
In conclusion, we all know that the political structure of Nigeria encourages corruption, though that is no excuse for looting, but the fact that we continue to pretend that the structure is not part of the problem is quite unfortunate. Nigeria will never be truly great unless we restructure our polity. Pretending the structure is just fine cannot help anybody. The present structure, simply encourages corruption.
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