Hon. Hamed Ipoola Omisore is a lawmaker representing Ifako/Ijaiye Constituency 2 in the Lagos State House of Assembly. In this interview with OLASUMBO OTAGBO, Omisore, who is the Chairman, House Services and Special Duties Committee, talks about the Nigeria of his youth and other interesting issues.. Excerpts:
THE Nigeria of my youth. This country was a beautiful place. At least, I still have fresh memories of the country, starting from 1955. In 1955, my father already marked me out to be an Alfa (a Muslim cleric). He enrolled me in an Arabic school, and while I was there, I saw my father’s cousin enrolling his own children in a primary school. But at that time, Awolowo came up with free education in the west and I followed my father’s cousin’s children to enroll in a public school. That marked a turning point in my life. At that time, we had free meal in schools, and all over the west, the children were taken off the streets.
I remember in 1956, new coins came, brand new metal coins and the whole nation was agog. At the time, Awolowo, as the Premier of the Western Region, was ruling from Ogbomosho down to Ugheli in Delta State and he was building post offices and other projects. The post office you see in Ile-Ife is of the same design with the one in Ibadan, Ilaro and everywhere. The government was tarring roads it called trunk A. It is the road they now call federal road.
I remember that I grew to know Western Nigeria Radiovision Service, a radio with wire. My father had, and they paid monthly rent to the rediffusion. It was called Western Region Radio Vision Service, and whenever they wanted to listen to news, everybody in the neighborhood would come to our house. At the time, not many people had television sets. I also remember that in 1963, the Western Rovers, our football team in Ibadan, played against a club in England called Sheffield Wednesday. It was the first time a white man’s team was touring Nigeria. They beat us 8-1 in the game. What I am trying to say is that the only television set that my uncle had was placed at the balcony of an upstairs and about 500 people were downstairs watching, shouting, it was memorable. When we were young, the opportunity of watching film was almost impossible. I remember that there used to be a company called Pearl and Dean Films. They had a mobile cinema that goes from one village to another.
At that time, our Obas were like gods. I grew up during the time of Oba Ooni Aderemi, and we had fables around him, that he was untouchable, he could talk to lions, he could talk to tigers. We saw him as a real second to God. And you dare not look at him in the eyes. We heard a story of a man who looked at the king and ran mad. We heard stories of those who disobeyed the king and died. In those days, there were lots of myths around the obas. But today, the obas are just like the packer we use in packing waste. In Nigeria of that time, we cherished farming and every family had a farm. If your father did not have a farm, you would be ashamed to tell your friends. What it means is that your father is lazy.
The economy
We were the food basket of Nigeria. We were known in the west, east and the middle belt. But today everybody is waiting for oil. It is now the national cake and we have refused to exploit other natural resources. We have turned our youths to lazy drones. I don’t even know if they still farm these days. Nigeria of old was quite different. When you marry in those days, you marry for love. But now it is different. In those days, you cannot marry without an intermediary; somebody must go and know who the person is. But today, even on facebook marriage is consummated. All those things can turn around a nation.
Technical and agricultural education
Before independence, all the regions had agricultural institutes where people were taught how to farm, where farm yields were made better, where research was conducted. We still have the IITA in Ibadan. Trade centers were everywhere and polytechnics are supposed to be technical schools. But today, polytechnics award HND in history, HND political science. We lost it because technical education is technical education, and not until they stop all those courses and let polytechnics run basically technical courses, we will not get out of it. There is a big difference between Nigeria of my time and today’s. All secondary schools were community-based. It was not a question of the rich and the poor. In those days, Nigerians were their brothers’ keeper. If you see a small child who is supposed to be in school and he is not, you will lash him and take him to school yourself. But today, call a small child and he will abuse you, morals have gone to the dust.
Elections
In those days, your vote would count. I remember that we used to stay where they were voting. The voters would vote for the people they knew would deliver. I am not saying they didn’t influence voting, because even at that time, the obas could sit down and send errands at night to support who they wanted to be there. I grew to know that the local government was called the Ooni-in-council, the Oba-in-council. The Oba was the head of local government in those days. The obas sat with the other councilors. But civilization and greed have damaged most of these things.
Religion
Before independence, religion was not a problem in this country. I never heard about any war caused by religion. Today, religion has divided us, even down to the family unit. I think the country is in trouble. We got it all wrong from independence because our leaders made a fundamental error. We had what was called Government Reserved Area (GRA). The White men felt superior to the blacks. They also felt unsafe. And so they created a GRA where they lived and blacks would not be able to worry them or come near their class. After independence, our leaders should have dismantled the GRA system, but instead they moved in and became untouchables too. They created class, but this time, it was blacks against blacks. Secondly, the police system was wrong. In England, you will never find a barracks for the police. But because the colonial masters were oppressing us and they felt that if the police is near us, we can attack them, they built barracks for them, a system that has continued till today. In England, the police live with the people. If the police live in your neighborhood, how can a thief come there to rob?
One of the ways forward is that we should do away with this class system, where the gap between the government and the governed is too wide. We must stop a system in which a councilor will earn more than a professor; a councilor, who holds a secondary school certificate or less, earns more than a medical doctor. We need to return to stronger regions and a weaker center in order to make Abuja less attractive, to the extent that if they call you to come to Abuja, you will say no. People rush to Abuja because it is rosy. We should revive our local government system. What is the business of Abuja with agriculture? How can somebody be in Abuja and formulate a policy for my father’s farm? It is all deception. We should cut down on cost of governance by making sure that the governors, the honourables and other political office holders earn less. There was nothing wrong with our old national anthem. We should go back to it. I saw them singing the old anthem at the CONFAB, and you will see that it has a deep meaning. For education, we need a revolution to change our educational system in such a way that morals should come back. If we lose morals, then we have lost everything. We should think again and see how we can bring back morals. When I went to England in 1971, they were under recession and I met an educational system that placed high premium on technical work. They were awarding degrees in building, carpentry, jewelry and footwear and tailoring. We need to develop our industries. Some years back, you would see a tailor with 21 apprentices. But today, all you see are young men riding okadas. The president and governors should educate people to go back to what they can do with their hands. We need to do a lot to turn Nigeria around. Those who predicted that Nigeria will end in 100 years knew what they were saying. In those days, people used to come from Ghana and Ivory Coast to buy things here. But today our industries have run away. Dunlop is no longer here, Michelin is no longer here, Cadbury has moved, Lever Brothers have moved. Those who didn’t move are doing skeletal work here. What we need to do is to look at our system. The government should create enabling environment for private men to thrive. Government should expand more area of freedom of tax so that people can invest, they should give almost 100 percent tax free to those who can employ 100 graduates, because at the end of the day, if these people are employed, they will pay tax to the government. The world has become a global village. You have cable television everywhere. You see your children dressing pants down, and they say it is sagging. You see pastors wearing earings, we have lesbians, gays everywhere. Such nation cannot, but be cursed. Even if our government says it is not going to sign the law, but those in the corridors of power are doing it. What am trying to say is that we need a national conference on morals. Let those who steal public money be forgiven, let there be amnesty for those who have stolen the nation’s wealth, provided they can bring it back. Let them have 25 percent of what they brought back, and then use the remaining to create employment for the youth. You gave amnesty to militants. I think amnesty should be given to corrupt people for them to come and lay down their stolen wealth.
