Festus Odimegwu
A former chairman of the National Population Commission, Festus Odimegwu, has lambasted the Nigerian political class, accusing government at all levels of corruption and ineptitude- failings he said are now enough for the Nigerian military to seize political power in the country.
In an explosive interview published by ThisDay last weekend, Mr. Odimegwu said Nigeria had failed and that it was time for the military to intervene to save whatever is remaining of the country.
Mr. Odimegwu, a former head of the Nigerian Breweries Plc, said Nigeria has shown it is not ready for democracy because of widespread violence, ineptitude, corruption and illiteracy, saying the country should instead go the way of Egypt, where the military ousted the country’s first democratically-elected government in 2013.
“Economically, things have gotten worse,” he said. “Politically, when you look around there are many signs that Nigeria is not ripe for democracy. It may not be a nice thing to say, but the signs are there.
“So it is very difficult to say that Nigeria is ripe for democracy because what we are practicing is certainly not democracy. Look around the world in Egypt where the military have come back, Nigeria should be heading towards that way instead of this caricature these politicians are conducting. It may not be a nice thing to say, but we have to decide what is good for us.”
He outlined the problems of a nation he accused of celebrating corruption and mediocrity, and that is tottering on the brink of collapse.
He said Nigeria as a state had failed already. He said what is left is armed conflict from all sides.
“So Nigeria as a state, has failed already. We cannot be saying it may fail. The only thing remaining is for us to carry guns and the way things are going that is coming. God should help the oil to dry up faster, so we can begin to use our brains.”
He accused the government of not leading well and of not sourcing quality advisers.
“Many of the people who have accepted to lead don’t know what leadership is all about. Many of them go there and surround themselves with fools. If you do not know what you are doing but you have men and women of substance that can look at issues critically and deal with issues the way they should be dealt with for the benefit of the country, then Nigeria would move forward,” he said.
He said Nigeria’s recent status as Africa’s largest economy bears no effect on the people as Nigeria had already failed economically and politically.
He said the present government at all levels stinks badly of corruption, and celebrates fraudulent billionaires who should have been executed.
“In the past, you had people within the economic space that really added value; before you could say that this man is a rich man. Before in Nigeria, if you saw someone like Sir Odimegwu Ojukwu and they saw that he was a rich man with his Rolls Royce, everyone knew that he was a serious businessman and everyone knew the source of his wealth.
“If you went further to check, you would see that he was paying his taxes. When you hear that Odutola was a rich man, all his neighbours knew what he was doing to be termed a rich man. The same went for others like Dantata and so on and so forth. But today, you have charlatans and rent seekers parading the landscape.
“People who in sane countries should be in prison are the ones mostly parading themselves as rich men. You have somebody today that nobody knows anything about and suddenly, tomorrow he is rich man with ten private jets and everybody will be applauding him.”
Mr. Odimegwu spoke strongly against corruption, and said he has never stolen and never will, and called for capital punishment for corruption.
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