Why I supported Abacha - Daniel Kanu

Daniel Kanu was the leader of Youth Earnestly Ask For Abacha, which campaigned for the late General Sani Abacha before his death in 1998. Daniel went underground after the episode and not much was heard of him afterwards.

But, Daniel still believes that some of the things they were trying to address in the country are still there and that the on-going National Conference is one of the ways the problems confronting Nigeria could be addressed. He speaks more in this interview he granted recently.

Some years back, you were in the vanguard of calling on the late General Sani Abacha to transmute to become a democratic government. Same issues you had used to argue for Abacha to continue to democratic leadership are confronting us, nothing seems to have changed. With hindsight, how do you see that call today?

I am Daniel Kanu, a Nigerian from Imo State basically son of the soil. In 1997, I was the National Co-ordinator of an organization that wanted the implementation of the Vision 2010. That Vision had several components, there were social, economic and political reforms involved in it. We supported the Vision 2010. We believe that for the Vision 2010 to be implemented there was the need for the originator of the programme, General Sani Abacha, to contest and become the President for proper implementation.

What we feared will happen was what happened when Abacha died. The Vision 2010 was abandoned in several respects. Let me commend General Abdulsalam Abubakar for at least implementing a portion of the Vision 2010, which is the transition programme to a democratic government. That’s the root of the democracy we have today in Nigeria. The other parts were abandoned. The budgetary reforms, the industrialization, political development etc were all abandoned.

The problems as at that time were such as unemployment of youths and graduates, poverty, ethnicity and religious challenges etc. Like you rightly noted, the problems of 1996, 1997 and 1998 are still the same problems today in 2014.

To a high degree, I feel vindicated but I’m not rejoicing because the nation is not where it should be. Yes vindicated, but unhappy but I wish Nigeria is better off than it is today.

Let’s visit the Vision 2020. This is coming from where you called for Abacha to continue. We’ve had two constitutional conferences and now, a National Confab. Are we not running round the same circle? What hopes do you have in the current confab?

To achieve success, you must have a roadmap. All successful nations of the world have some sort of roadmaps. I believe that if Nigeria was disciplined enough in the past to have followed a roadmap, irrespective of what it looks like, we would have made it. We would have been better off than we are today.

Today, we have challenges of terrorism, unemployment, poverty, corruption, mass illiteracy etc These issues would have been minimized to its bearable low level.

I believe implementation of any roadmap is the best for any nation that wants to succeed. It’s like building a house, good but strong houses are functions of good plans.

Building a country is like building a house. A house built by good architectural design, manned by well trained masons, supervised by engineers, finished by tillers etc will come out strong, straight, beautiful and fulfilling even to the eyes.

If you build a nation without a roadmap, there will be mistakes along the lines of development. As you are fixing one area, another is collapsing. So, we need a plan to follow to develop our nation.  

I hope that the ongoing National Confab will be able to come up with such a plan. However, I have some concerns.

What are these concerns you have about the National Confab?

My concerns about the National Confab, first of all, I have to commend President Jonathan for creating a fertile forum for Nigerians to come together to discuss issues affecting our nation’s existence, past, present and future. That’s quite commendable. It takes someone with guts to do it.

I’m afraid that most of the people in the National Confab were part of the problems we had in the past. I believe that if you want a different result, you must do things differently.

We had people who did nothing about these same issues, when they had the opportunity. Now you call another conference and all of them rush there. Moreso, Mr President can’t control all those who go there, then, they rushed there to just discuss and come up with old ways of doing things. It bothers me stiff. It gives me grey hairs. It gives me great concerns.

We don’t want to be bystanders, watching things as they transpire, sit down and complain. That’s why we are coming out again as the New Deal Organisation to contribute various programmes and activities that are required to proffer tangible solutions. That brings me to the introduction of the New Deal Organisation’s; Parents Against Crime Together (PACT) and the Youths Against Crime (YAC) programmes.

These are two separate programmes we intend to bring to Nigerians and intend to run and approach the National confab to re-awaken them to their responsibilities and try to drive the process.

Do you have faith in the outcome of the National Confab because I recall we’ve had several talk shops like this that never yielded any fruits?

I like to have faith. I believe sitting there to talk about things is a breakthrough. It’s up to us, good Nigerians that mean well for the country to rally around you check on conferees if they’re misguided or lose or lack focus to help them remain focused. They represent us. We can guide them in the areas they should go. Our parts as citizens are to ensure the National Confab succeeds. For anything to succeed, you must be critical of it, so you can cover all the grey areas, fix the problems so we can come out clean and sweet.

So, we’re going to criticize them and we’re going to work with them to fix areas that they’re not doing well.

Let me test your faith in the National Confab. For about two weeks, conferees debated, fought and struggled over how many times Christianity was not mentioned in the Constitution and how Islam was mentioned 21 times. These are trivial issues to the Nigerians on the street. Can you have faith in such level of conferees?

It’s interesting that you raised the issue because that’s one of the reasons we had to come out now. Yes, you are right. There were reports in the media of members sleeping at the conference, one playing scrabble etc.

Religion was at the forefront of discourse as well as, leadership, rulership and decision making of this country, ethnicity, threats of walking out if a section doesn’t have their ways etc.

I’ll advise Nigerians to stay calm. You want to test my faith. I believe we can change them. If they’re sleeping, we must wake them up. If they’re misdirected, we need to guide them. I don’t think Nigerians’ problem is religion. Ethnicity is not our problem. Nigerians’ problems, as far as the New Deal Organisation or Daniel Kanu is concerned, is our mindset.

What I mean is we need to go back to family values. We need reorientation on the things that matter to our people. The success and welfare of the citizens is more paramount.

Religion does not feed anybody. Our problem is not how many times Christianity is mentioned in the Constitution or Islam is mentioned in the Constitution. As a matter of fact, they should not be there in the first place.

Government should run devoid of religion and culture. Government is government. The idea of putting traditional rulers in government is like oil and water. They don’t mix.

My dad is a monarch. When people come to resolve conflict, his yardstick for judgment is not based on principles of fairness or rules and regulations. It’s based on Oh! My son, forgive this one, he’s your brother.

That doesn’t address the problem. The problem is, who was right and who was wrong? When you start mixing these issues up, you’ll mess things up.

People should be employed in government based on their capabilities, knowledge, base, competence, performance etc not their religion or ethnicity, until we start making decisions on such pedestal, that is when we can make progress.

Going back to the issue of faith, we need the media. Let me add, the Nigerian media is one of the most vibrant media in the world. They are vibrant and productive.

Are you not afraid that some conferees are bidding to play government script, the reason, we don’t know yet.

To some degrees, a government that sets up a conference must have some level of influence when you give them a guideline and they are crossing the lines, you call them to order.

For instance, Mr President said the indivisibility of the nation cannot be discussed. If there are people making calls for the division of Nigeria, government must be able to have a way of influencing such calls out. Such control must be in the best interest of the nation.

I think Mr President meant well to have allowed the National Confab. Every conferee has an agenda. The most important thing is to stay focused. Ordinarily, I expected conferees to say this is our country no one should pay us. National Confab should be a civic duty.

There are fears that the Federal Government has plans for tenure elongation but they probably don’t know what to do with it. What’s your take?

Reason why I don’t have that suspicion is because we have a Constitution that says Mr President can contest twice. He has only contested once. Every Nigerian has an opinion. The last thing I heard was as Vice President he contested as a running mate to Yar’Adua, that period he was in office as President was not counted.

He has a right to contest for a second term. I believe President Jonathan has a right to contest for a second term so why does he need the National Confab to window dress tenure elongation if that is true?

You told us of PACT. What is in it for the average Nigerians?

Excellent question, the problem of Nigeria is not about the Constitution, it’s about having rules and regulations that govern us. We have enough laws. You can have the best laws in the land, if you don’t have citizens who obey laws, respect each other’s cultures and values, the country will not work.

As of today, some adults, youths and children don’t know that if you take someone’s property without permission that it is a crime.

We believe that our nation’s problem is actually orientation. Every day we sit and complain about our leaders.

April 22, 2014