Bishop Leonard Umunna, general overseer of Bible Life Church Worldwide, in this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, spoke on the need for Nigerians to return to God by seeking his face; the political leadership in the country, and why corruption still persists in the country, among other issues. Excerpts:
How may you compare Nigeria of the 60s and Nigeria of today in terms of quality of life of citizens and quality of leadership?
In the 60’s when Nigeria got her independence, wherever we went, everything was in order; the air was free and soothing. Anywhere you went you would see the European touch. In those days; we had health inspectors move around. They would just come and begin to inspect everything including cooking utensils in the kitchen; and those who were found dirty were penalised. Government was interested in the health of the people. Things were done properly. Those were the days when a whole village would gather to welcome one of their own that just graduated from the university. It was a communal thing. In my place also, those who went on training to become Catholic Reverend Fathers were adored. Those were the days when every October 1, was marked with fanfare by all Nigerians; with great show of patriotism. School children went for march past without any fear of anybody carrying out a bombing attack on anybody. We used to look forward to such occasions with great excitement. School teachers and principals were highly respected. But all these changed after the war. We now began to talk of who do you know? Merit disappeared; we began to talk of whose son are you; what tribe do you come from? Like the illustration I had always given; the Nigerian aeroplane flew on Independence Day; it went up and crash-landed; ever since it hasn’t taken off again. It is so bad that every succeeding government appears worse than its predecessor. They would come with lofty promises just as they have started again now; deceiving people, but the truth is that they have always failed to redeem their promises. They are promising again now that they will give you Eldorado, but we know them. I have told Nigerian leaders that the solution to the myriads of problems facing the country is in changing the name of Nigeria and changing the constitution, these are the two solutions to bring back the country from the utter hopelessness it had sunken. I have told you that Nigeria as a nation vibrates a number that is very dangerous; and something must be done about it.
Each time people talk about Nigeria, it is lamentation and regret. Even those in government see hopelessness that’s why they always pass the buck. When do you think Nigeria will leave the lamentation arena?
We must take advantage of now, because it could soon be dark and late. I have said it before and will not stop saying it that to come out of our present predicament or quagmire or whatever you may choose to call it, we need to permanently change the name of Nigeria and the constitution; within one year of that change, there would be a new spirit, euphoria, enlightenment, and change of heart would begin to take place. I changed my name – I used to answer ‘Nwogwugwu’ but when I came to this knowledge, I changed my name to Leonard; and within one year the things that used to happen to me negatively, vanished and I began to see and experience progress in my life. So, if Nigeria can change that, that would be the permanent solution to the problems; but there are half measures – there’s need to get it right in leadership. Nigerians must be allowed to elect their own leaders. The practice in Nigeria has always been the selection of leaders by the cabal. They are the ones who will agree on the person and then tell us to vote for formality sake. The way out is inculcation of discipline of vision and of burden. I keep asking, where is the blueprint – as we say master plan for 20 years. These are the things that should be formulated and incorporated into the constitution so that no president will come and bring his own. These things are very important, the president can bring his own good ideas in addition to what is already in the constitution, not that somebody will just assume office and begin to do as he likes to the disadvantage of the people and the country.
We must institutionalise discipline and attitude. We must spell out what an acceptable attitude should be in government. For instance, the criteria for the appointment of chairman of the INEC must be spelt out and not that somebody will come as a president and side-step the criteria and begin to bring other considerations, particularly those that are parochial and self-serving. If you go to UK today, once you are on the street, there are CCTV cameras monitoring you. The cameras will take photographs and deposit at the right place; and this has helped them and other countries in combating crimes. We have our own satellite, what has it sent to you or of what use is that satellite? Yet we see all manner of preventable atrocities being carried out openly in our society.
As a newspaper person, how has our satellite helped you to do your job? They bought CCTV cameras and put them in Abuja; what has the nation benefited from it? To what use have they put them? These cameras are there yet they are bombing Abuja. They say Boko Haram is infiltrating Nigeria; have they caught any of them through the use of the CCTV cameras? What we see now is that instead of going after criminals using the instrument of power of the state, leadership is now criminalising and demonising some individuals while ‘sanctifying’ some others depending on where their support lies.
Why is it that corruption persists in Nigeria?
It is because there is no punishment to act as deterrent to committing crime. People do not see anything to fear that can discourage them from doing evil. The Bible says because sentence against evil doers is not carried out immediately, people’s minds are set to do evil. The result is people do more harm. The good ideas are there but if you bring them out, they will not work because the system is corrupt. I think they call it systemic corruption. We have to fight the corruption not the way they are fighting it which itself is deeply corrupt. I keep saying, mobilise the people, let it not be vindictive and let it be done in a way that people will be checkmating themselves; preventive measures put in place: all the rules and regulations that are making it easy for people to loot and escape must be corrected by way of good policies or workable constitution; having experts or technocrats/professionals in politics, and people of integrity with track record in the police; Judiciary, Legislative and Executive arms of government.
Are you satisfied with the political leadership of this country?
APC, PDP, etc., cannot make it except by the re-foundation of Nigeria; the foundation has been broken. The people who took over did not make proper preparations before taking over. They did not possess and exhibit the qualities that gave the colonial masters success, though, their initial intention was to keep colonising us. All that Nigerians should do now is to get the right people, not the selfish ones, not on tribal sentiment but people of integrity/good track record, better constitution and good training of leaders, preparing them ahead of time. Put up a law by the National Assembly for a broad restructuring of the nation through articulated constitution. In the Bible, most kings were selected through critical search for the best, e.g. Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, they set out to search for the best, that was how Daniel, Meshach, Abednego, were discovered. They fished them out ahead of time, trained and prepared them with good constitution. Whatever else we are doing is just cutting off the branches on the tree and leaving the root. No nation can do better except its foundation stands. I’ve said this earlier, God is not interested in whether you are a Christian or Muslim, whether you are military or civilian coming to rule, but the heart, the attitude or character. Without principles and discipline, nobody can really succeed or maintain success for long. So, whether APC, PDP or any other party, they are all made up of same Nigerians, the difference is that they are in different groups, basically looking for where to better their own lives. You can see how democracy is favouring politicians and politicians are making it now, just as ‘militocracy’ favoured the military.
