Since independence, Nigeria has had only few credible leaders -Briggs

Credibility is a responsibility; credibility is something that you are held accountable for. You have to be credible as a human being, in everything that you do, in every work of life, in your education, in your home, your wife has to be able to trust you and take you for your word. It is also needed at the work place.

It is a responsibility and so, government owes us a responsibility of credibility. We also owe ourselves a responsibility of credibility. Without credibility, we can achieve nothing. We can’t move forward, we can only move backward without credibility.

I cannot honestly say that Nigeria in its 55 years of independence and 100 years of amalgamation have had credible leaders.

I think that has been the problem of Nigeria, as a country. There is very serious lack of credibility among our leaders and I think until we, the people, get up and hold our leaders accountable, they will continue to take us for granted.

Politicians are getting away with the concept that politics is a job and that we are the ones that are their servants. Actually, politicians are our servants. It is only in Nigeria that a man will sell his property to go into politics. Abroad, it is only rich people that go into politics. So, until we begin to see politics as a service to people, there will always be this issue of credibility.

And the people are partly to be blamed, because when your brother becomes a minister, you now think that you have arrived, you expect so much from him. The only thing we expect from them is to deliver democracy. And they are to go there and come back to our states, local government and communities and give to us those things that are rightfully ours. It is not a favour. Political service can never be a favour, we are not to be grateful, they are to be grateful that we gave them our power to exercise on our behalf.

I am always comfortable with anti-corruption drive. Nigeria as a country is put together on a platform of corruption from the amalgamation. The amalgamation itself is corrupt. How do you bring so many different people together that speak different languages, have different cultures, have nothing in common and bring them together and say that they are one people? That in itself is a corrupt process. And that is the reason why Nigeria is where it is today. Every military government that has taken over from Nzeogwu’s coup, to date has pointed at corruption as a single reason for perpetuating the coup and yet we have not been able to get rid of corruption.

 But as for today’s fight against corruption, you cannot fight and win corruption in the pages of a newspaper, you cannot go to a television studio and accuse one person of stealing millions of naira from a particular area and live other people from other areas and say that only these people are corrupt, then you are not fighting corruption, you are being vindictive.

And therefore, we will resist it, because that is not just. But there are many people that are corrupt that are sitting on looted resources. I should know, because those resources were looted from the South-South and South-East regions of this country. If those people that looted us 10 or 20 years ago can sit on what they have looted and get away with it,  it is either you declare amnesty for all, or everybody must pay, even the ones that have died.

 It has been accepted that Abacha stole money from this country and they are trying to return the money.  Now, these were said after Abacha died. So, even if the person is dead, let us establish that that person was corrupt. But now if you don’t do that and you say you are fighting corruption between 1999 and 2014, then basically what you are saying is that only Southerners are corrupt, because Southerners ruled within that period. So, Obasanjo is also accused of corruption.

I am amazed that our president will go to Tehran to inform Nigerians that people have returned money. Who are these people that returned money and how much have they returned and where are they from? If money is stolen from Rivers State, it should be returned to Rivers State. If money is stolen from Bayelsa State, it should be returned to Bayelsa State. Money stolen in Rivers State does not belong to the Federal Government, it belongs to Rivers’ people. If it was stolen from the Ministry of Power, it should go back to the Ministry; it should not go back to the purse of the Federal Government.

First, I am surprised that the President will say these things outside, without mentioning those responsible.

Yes, nepotism, tribalism and ethnicity are the major problems of Nigeria. We lie to ourselves that nepotism is not an issue or that it does not exist.

We have to accept it. Look, I’ve said it, I am an Ijaw person that is in Nigeria. But I am an Ijaw person first and I will continue to be proud of that. My heritage is massive, my grandmother is an Igbo woman, my mother is from United Kingdom, my father is an Ijaw man. Now, which of them do I deny? Will I deny that my grandmother is not from Arochukwu in Abia State, that she was not married to Ijaw community? Will I pretend that my mother is not a British woman, or will I pretend that my father is not an Ijaw man? So, these are the things that make me a Nigerian. So, those things first, before I am a Nigerian, but don’t tell me to deny those things and then call myself a Nigerian. So, nepotism is an issue, if we have an answer to it, let us solve the problem.

The only way to checkmate nepotism is to allow the different components that make up Nigeria to be answerable to themselves and that is where I support the issue of self determination. People say self determination is secession, but it is not. If you look at what the United Nations said about self determination, it recognizes the indigenous people. Indigenous people have a culture, language, religion and even their type of food.

Your indigenousness is determined by your geographic location. You cannot be an indigenous person if you don’t have a land. Once a people come from somewhere, you cannot deny them the right to be indigenous. It is a declaration that is guaranteed by the United Nations.

President, Mohammadu Buhari, in September 28, 2015 went to the United Nations and demanded that the United Nations should guarantee the Palestinians their right to self determination. This same President cannot come to Nigeria to start jailing indigenous people, who are asking for the same rights.