Dr. Gift Worlu is a senior lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Choba, River State. In this interview with ROSEMARY NWISI, Worlu dissects issues relating to Niger Delta and more.
Militancy in the Niger Delta
They hide under the fact that the place is underdeveloped, despite being the owners if the economy that the country is running on, yet the people they are killing and destroying their environments are their own people. They have not killed anybody who is one of the people that are collecting their oil and money, they end up make money for themselves and not their people.
We have seen situations where while under the cover of militancy, they make money for themselves, get contracts from government and use the money to develop themselves. They do not use the money to develop the communities they claim to be fighting their course. What a deceit!
Rivers’ Neighbourhood Watch
The fact that Governor Nyesom Wike went ahead and signed the bill into law despite the misgivings against it shows that he has no regard for public opinion. This was a bill that failed in the court of the public.
First three years of President Muhammad Buhari-led Federal Government
The Federal Government has done well, in the period under review. I am satisfied in the way it has re-directed the minds of Nigerians in the way they see and think about Nigeria.
The change agenda of the government is worthy of note and should be embraced by everyone that in concerned about the country. The present government is investing the resources of the country appropriately to develop the country’s critical infrastructure to grow the economy through massive industrialisation. Investors’ confidence in the country has also been regained extensively. I really do give credit to him.
The present Federal Government inherited a country that was already battered and almost rotting away, President Muhammad Buhari has been in the process of rebuilding every aspect of the country since he took over office. There is need for Nigerians to be patient with him and support him to do such a job that will recover the country back to its feet.
Agree that in the efforts and process of fixing the country, many people are undergoing hardship and a kind if suffering, but it is momentary. If we are patient, in no time, we all will begin to smile again because the result of the work being done now will definitely bring comfort to everyone.
Good governance
It is not about blaming anybody, casting aspersion on people, federal or state governments; it is about changing the way government is being run. There is need for the country to move from the traditional way of running government of waiting and sharing of allocation and internally generated revenues monthly, to a modern way of investment, business-orientated government, economy.
Countries all over the world work with their businessmen to look out for markets, businesses they can discover and explore to generate revenues, but Nigerian government is not doing that. We are only depending on oil. One day this oil will dry up, if it happens there will be war in Nigeria, there will be pestilence people will eat other people to survive because there is no food, there won’t be salary for anybody.
We leave in a country where everybody is depending on oil money, if we don’t change the way business is done, Hunger will kill people in this coming, we saw it during the recession two years ago, when it happened governments were not able to pay salaries for several months, people died.
Why did that happen? When we had excess crude, what did we use the money to do? We shared it, everyday roads are being constructed, people are getting titles for doing nothing, whereas in other parts of the world, people receive titles and awards for new discoveries they make — people who have grass to grace stories, who out of nothing made something impactful to the society. But in Nigeria, we celebrate thieves, criminals; those who stole our commonwealth and move them overseas to develop other peoples’ economy when our youths are jobless and roam about the streets.
How then do we ask the question, how we got here, when we live in a society where criminals are celebrated, where excellence means nothing, merit means nothing. We live in a country where some people are treated as special. Some people are above the law. What do we expect?
We will have to change the way business is done; that is what the whole change mantra is all about. We need to change all the tribalistic stereotype we have in the country.
When will it be that a Nigerian will see another Nigerian and treat him as a unique and responsible individual instead of hanging a tag on him?
I want to see a Nigeria where everybody is equal before the law, I want to see a Nigeria where people are given positions based on their contributions, and not by who you know in leadership of any cadre.
Throughout Jonathan’s period we were complaining, now we are complaining under Buhari, after Buhari, we will keep complaining because we have not changed the way business is done and that is what this Federal Government administration is preaching.
Fighting corruption
The government is fighting corruption the much he can. The argument that corruption fight is lopsided is not true. This is because since the fight for intensified under this President Buhari-led government, it is only people that have questions to answer that are invited, ordinary Nigerians who did not participate in the looting have not been invited, it is the duty if those invited to go and clear themselves.
In as much as we ask that the government should do the corruption fight in a more transparent way that would alley the fears of many Nigerians, I do not see any justification so far that the fight is against perceived political enemies as being insinuated in several quarters because there are PDP members who have not been invited even with heavy allegations led against them.
There are also APC members who have not been invited, there are also APC members who have been invited and are facing trial, the same way some PDP members were invited and are facing trial, with this you discover that at the end of the day it is idol talk that corruption fight is lopsided.
The controversial cattle colony
I am not in support of the idea for state to create cattle colony for herdsmen. However, creation of cattle colony is not a policy but someone’s idea. Nigerians need to grow to the point where we can listen to ourselves; if somebody thinks about the idea for cattle colony, it is just an idea. Other people may think is a family business, it is an idea, people think about ranches, the traditional cattle routes, all these ate ideas, people’s ideas, but the challenge we have is that we have transited from the traditional society, to the primitive society then to the modern society.
We live in the modern society, but we do not want to let go traditional practices, that is where the problem lies. It is not only in the area of cattle rearing we have this kind of challenge, if we go to the villages you will see people who are supposed to be civilised people, still doing things that are primitive, and when we have this kind of contradictions we will have crisis. Because some personal are still laying claims to the traditional cattle routes, some people are thinking that even though we are both civilised society, even though this is how they do it in the civilised world. Our own case is different.