Prof Abubakar O. Sulaiman is a former Minister of National Planning and Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS). In this interview, he speaks on the public unveiling of a book, ‘ A Political Economy of Pandemics and Consequences of COVID -19 for Nigeria’ published by the institute. The special guests of honour at the event holding today are; the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. Professor Sulaiman also spoke on how to end agitations in the country and 2023 politics, among others.
What informed your decision to organise an event on book presentation on the COVID-19 pandemic?
The event today is the presentation of a book that was compiled precisely on the COVID-19 pandemic. The book digs into the genesis, the impact; how it has changed our style of living. The book which we are unveiling today is an in-depth analysis of COVID, its implication on the country’s socio-economic and political life. It is one literary, the first of its kind in Nigeria and of course, in West Africa that stands to look at the pandemic from the holistic point of view. It examines the genesis, dynamics, consequences on our culture as a people, politics, style of living, social being. So it is a literature on COVID-19 and how it has shaped the direction of the Nigerian state. So it is one event, first of its kind and because of the nature of the literature, we have invited stakeholders – executive, legislature, NGOs and CSOs to be part of the event because whether we like it or not, we must put things in proper context. This time, we have invited an array of intellectuals – NCDC, WHO were drawn to put heads together and see how this thing has shaped our lives and how to prevent it.
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There are agitations for secession, resource control among others in the country. What do you think is the solution?
I think it is not in our interest as a people to want to either secede or disintegrate. But we should ensure that the binding force, the binding variables that keep us together must be respected – equity, participatory government, inclusiveness, justice, all these must be seen to be in existence. The various nationalities that surrendered their sovereignty for a country called Nigeria must be included in the running of the government. They must have a say in the programmes of the Nigerian government. They must be given to a large extent equal rights; justice must be meted out to them. Fairness must be meted out to them. Where all these are lacking, there is room for agitations, aggressiveness. We can achieve so much when we bring all these resources together; collapse our resources together to strengthen the country called Nigeria. So it is better for us to go back to the drawing board and call for a national conference or summit of whatever name it is, for all the nationalities to sit down and look at the issues and identify where we are getting it wrong and where we can mend fences. But the grievances of the nationalities are genuine, but then the panacea to resolving it shouldn’t be anarchy. It shouldn’t be violence.
We have had several national conferences but at the end of the day, it’s only a waste of time and resources. Why call for another summit?
We are just 61 years old. You don’t exhaust patience. You don’t exhaust experience. You don’t exhaust perseverance. It is still better through dialogue than through war. It is still better to convene a national conference than take recourse to anarchy. I still believe, yes, in the past, some of these resolutions were not implemented especially the 2014 confab report which is still very dear to me. I still implore Mr President and other actors to dust that document, look at it and see areas they can implement. Look at those beautiful resolutions because they involved everybody. At a point, no one thought the Niger Delta people will get the kind of privilege they have today, but because of sporadic struggle and dialogue, 12 per cent derivation formula, they are being taken care of, NDDC was a product of intensive struggle. So when you have resolutions through summit or national conference, the resolutions must go to the National Assembly to come out in an Act form to give legal backing to it. So in all these, the National Assembly and state assemblies are important to getting the legal backing.
The security situation in the country is worsening by the day. What do you think is the way forward?
Every sane Nigerian must be worried about the spate of killings in the country. We need to do more and in doing more, we need to be sincere to ourselves. The government needs to be more proactive. Our political leaders need to be more proactive and most importantly, traditional leaders, opinion leaders need to be more sincere. The so-called Boko Haram people, the bandits, kidnappers; they reside in our communities. Some of the people in rural areas know these bandits. Government can’t see everywhere, only God sees everywhere. Therefore, those that have knowledge about the enclaves of these bandits, kidnappers, can help in resolving this spate of insecurity by cooperating with security agencies. We must as a people address the issue of insecurity. We must all put our hands on the table and see how we can collectively resolve this issue. Who is giving intelligence? Who is assisting the security agencies? Who is giving information? Terrorists will cease to be terrorists if they know the whole country is against them. So, there must be a national consensus among us to say we want to end insecurity. In advanced countries like the US, UK, they don’t divide along party lines when it comes to the issue of security. When it comes to the survival of the country, when it comes to the defence of their territorial sovereignty and integrity, they agree. But in Nigeria today, you see governors in the North taking a position, you see governors in the South taking another position. When bandits want to kill, they don’t look at you as a Muslim or Christian.
Do you see the current insecurity in the land as a threat to the 2023 polls if not nipped in the bud?
One should be worried about it but I’m very optimistic that we will get out of this mess before 2023. I believe by 2022, insecurity would subside. We had a similar scenario prior to the 2019 elections and a lot of things were done and we had elections. So I wouldn’t want to be pessimistic about it.
What do you make of the attacks on INEC offices in some states?
The attacks on INEC offices and police stations are worrisome; it is disturbing, but I want to believe that they are known and there should be a way around it in form of dialogue, amnesty. It is now left for us to adopt an approach; do we crush them? Do we annihilate them? Do we do extinctions? There are a lot of strategies people are coming up with. So if all these are known, it is just for the military and all of us to devise a means to address them.
Southern governors met recently and called for the devolution of more powers to states. Is this necessary?
Federalism is about sharing power among the sub-national, the centre and the local. Where the centre has too much power at the detriment of the states that is not federalism. So I think the clamour by Southern governors is in line with the spirit of federalism.
