By Monsuru Olowoopejo
CHIEF Tola Adeniyi, a former Managing Director of Daily
Times of Nigeria, Plc, in this interview with News Agency,
bares his mind on the challenges confronting the nation
and possible solutions. Adeniyi, who is set to launch a
book referencing some of his media works gave reasons
for making the publication at this time. Excerpts:
Why did you publish this book at this time, considering
the state of the country?
I am bowing to pressure from friends, colleagues and the
younger generation, who want to know about Tola Adeniyi
and other details about the country and wish to have it in
a permanent form. Journalism is history written in hurry
but once they have it in a book form, they can always
refer to it.
In over 50 years of writing, I wrote over 20, 000 articles.
The first edition is ‘ Nigeria in the belly of Vultures’ . The
second edition is titled: ‘Nigeria in the belly of Vampires’
and the last edition is ‘ ’Nigeria in the belly of the Military:
1966 to 1999’.
With the topic of your book, Nigeria in the belly of
Vultures, what does ‘vulture’ symbolise?
It means those that have killed Nigeria. This is because
vultures do not eat fresh food but dead animals. Some
people saw that Nigeria was dying and they began to feed
on it. They have gone beyond vulture and that was why I
titled the second series of my book, ‘ Nigeria in the belly of
Vampires’ .
They have started sucking the blood of the
country and commenced their activities before President
Muhammadu Buhari came to power.
And rather than the president ending their activities
completely, they became emboldened. We have vultures
everywhere. Aside the local vultures, the British and the
Americans are on the throats of Nigeria and they are
ready to suck the blood of the country. I think Britain and
the United States of America, USA, are among the
vultures sucking the nation.
What should Nigeria do to get out of the grip of the
foreign vultures? Should it align with China?
That was what affected many of the first generation of
African leaders because they shifted alignment to Russia.
Nigeria isn’t stable enough to align with anyone. The
leadership that we have seems not to understand
international politics.
And to buttress this, in the current
government, we have former Ekiti State governor, Dr.
Kayode Fayemi, who is a leading expect in international
politics; rather than make him the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, the Buhari administration asked him to oversee
mining. It is a misplacement of priority.
At this stage of our democracy, why are we still battling
with such challenges?
Nigeria is a building that has been cracking over the
years. And it is a building that is about to collapse. What
everyone is doing, specifically, is to patch it to prevent it
from caving in; except for few years when it was learning
how best to seat and crawl.
It has been a tale of woes. But when the Obafemi
Awolowos, Nnamdi Azikiwes and Ahmadu Bellos were
tending it to sit down, it had some stability. This is
because it was experiencing regionalism, self
determination and healthy competition, allowing the
component parts filled with people who were selfless,
genuine and focussed than those who took over from
them.
Nigeria is a country that had good beginning, specifically
in the hands of those who ruled it from independence to
1966.
Even before then, we all knew that it was a house built on
a mirage because the amalgamation was a fraudulent
document. And we all knew that sooner or later, the
country will go the way other amalgamations like India,
Sudan and others went. That is unless leaders of thought
quickly join hands together to rescue this building before
it finally collapsed.
Can the Buhari administration rescue Nigeria before it
collapses?
The present administration has failed woefully. It is
unfortunately headed by someone who doesn’t believe in
Nigeria but a cabal. He can’t claim to love the country by
his antecedents. What he has done in the last two years,
he cannot claim to love Nigerians that are slaughtered
daily by the herdsmen under his watch. I believe he isn’t
doing anything about it. But if he claims to be working
tirelessly to address the issue, it is all pretence and
pretentiousness. He cannot claim to love the country if he
parades the degree of nepotism, the like that had never
been seen in Nigeria’s history, which is the worst form of
corruption.
This government parades corruption, insensitivity,
impunity and shows unconcern about to the sufferings of
Nigerians. It cannot claim to be working in the interest of
the citizens. Buhari has failed Nigerians and it has no
business seeking for re-election in 2019, considering the
insecurity that had enveloped the country in the last two
years.
What do you think Buhari can do to end the mirage of
challenges facing Nigeria after 57 years of existence?
The best solution is that governments; both federal and
state, must stop to exist. We need to restructure before
anything. If we go ahead to conduct the 2019 election, we
will be electing public office holders who will be unable to
pay salaries, improve security and parade impunity.
They will continue the same insensitivity. So it is
continuity into oblivion. Thus, there is no way any
reasonable Nigerian should support the call for continuity
for an administration that does not care about security of
lives and property of its citizens.
So we should we not go ahead with the 2019 election?
What I will advocate for is a national government where
each ethnic group will be represented. Buhari could still
be retained to complete his term while the national
government takes charge of the country’s affairs and
restructure the country. It will not be affected by religion
and nepotism because the government will include
everyone from different backgrounds. But if that fails, I
believe that Buhari isn’t the only candidate that can
represent the North.
They should present another candidate and not Buhari.
The candidate should be someone who is well travelled
and broadminded. He must also be someone who
understands the arithmetic of Nigeria’s politics.
If you are asked to suggest any candidate, which one
would you recommend for the north?
I cannot suggest anyone for them, though I know quite a
number of leaders from the north but I am not in the
position to do that for them.
When do we start the national government and how many
years do we experiment with it?
This administration cannot continue to lead the country. It
is wobbling. So, we must start the national government
now. If he dissolves his cabinet today and asks every
group to send their representatives, it would be done.
And the national government could last for another one
and half years. It is easy for any country that wants to
arrest its challenges. We don’t need 20 years to plan to
have a national government. And I don’t think Buhari is
interested in doing so because his mind isn’t tilting
towards that.
You were one of the die hard supporters of Buhari. Are
you going to support him in 2019?
I had Buhari’s photograph on the screen of my
telephones since 2003. I have never for once sat down
with the president but I shook hands with him when he
was the head of state at the instance of General Abisoye.
But in 2014, I founded a group called Global Intelligential
for Buhari. We were 19 in the executive. Among the team
were Dr. Babatunde Segoe, Prof. Durotoye, who was the
secretary-General of the group,
Mrs. Ojikutu was the
leader for United Kingdom. I was the chairman. Our head
office was in Canada while we had branches in United
Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Australia, China and
United States of America, USA. We campaigned and
sourced for funds for him. We held our meetings through
tele-conferences. After raising the funds, we sent the
money to director of his campaign team, former governor
of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, now minister for
Power, Works and Housing. After receiving the funds, he
wrote an acknowledgement letter thanking us for the
service we rendered.
Asides, I wrote more articles than anyone on the
immediate past administration. It was on how it failed to
address the challenges facing the country and why
Nigerians should change the ex-President, Goodluck
Jonathan. Looking at the present administration. I have
told the administrator of that platform that he should
change the name to Global Intelligential against Buhari.
So, why the change of name?
The reason is that he has disappointed us. What we had
hoped for was not what we are experiencing now.
If your group is persuaded by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to
sheath sword, what will your team do?
I will thank Tinubu because I respect him; he is a
wonderful aburo (brother). But I will remind him of the
nepotism the present administration has committed
especially in its kitchen cabinet.
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