Nigeria is on course – Senator Ugbesia

Senator Odion Ugbesia (PDP, Edo Central) says at 53 there is cause for celebration but more can be achieved through a national dialogue.

AFTER 53 years of independence, how have we fared as a country?

I will say that we have fared very well in so many areas. For instance, when I was studying in America in the 70s, I would write a letter to my parents and after like about six months, the thing would not get to them not to talk of talking to them but I have spoken to about five people in America today alone and another two persons in London.

I have spoken to my daughter in London twice today. So, that technological development is a major stride that we have made. Can you imagine in the 1960s, how many days it would take you to get from Benin to Abuja, Kaduna or Kano?

We are moving along with the times, we may be slow but definitely, we have moved quite fast and I think that is enough for a developing nation.\

By next year, Nigerians will celebrate 100 years of amalgamation, would you say Nigeria has fared well as a united nation or should the regions go their separate ways?

Let’s look at it from maybe a more philosophical point of view. We have fared the very way we are. This is the way God wanted Nigeria to be, that is where we are today. So, we have no cause to regret what God has done. And since our amalgamation 99 years ago, I think we have done marvelously well.

Can you imagine what life was 30, 40, 50 years ago if you were born at that time? So, I think we have done well whether you like it or not. But it is true that we have challenges but we will overcome those challenges.

Sen Odion Ugbesia

I have had cause to say severally that 50 years, 70 years and 100 years in the life of a nation is small. We are still laying the foundation for growth, we are still laying foundation for solution to some of the challenges that we have, laying institutional foundation to deal with corruption, we are laying infrastructural foundation for infrastructural development.  I think we should continue in the same commitment, with time I think we will overcome all these challenges and we will be proud that we are Nigerians.

There are fears out there that some of the challenges that we are having, especially the security challenges may affect the unity of this country, what is your take?

Anybody who says that will not be totally wrong but we are praying that it does not. It is a plural society; it is the plurality that is beginning to manifest itself negatively now.

But with some concerted efforts, I think we can find some ways to deal with this plurality and find common grounds that will bring about cohesion and harmony in this country.

Solution

I have always said that at every point in time, we should choose the banner of peace, banner of dialogue over any other options available to us and not the option of violence, not the option of demonstration.

I think that is the path that I will recommend. That as leaders of this country-the political leaders, the religious leaders, academic leaders, and cultural leaders should sit down and discuss things that can bring us together and not these rabble rousers threatening fire and brimstone. That will not help issues; we must sit down and talk.

So you are in support of a Sovereign National Conference

You can call it anything, any kind of conference that will promote peace, any kind of dialogue, exercise that will promote peace, that will promote harmony, I am in support of it and that is what I am recommending.

You mentioned “rabble rousers”, expantiate on that

There are those who are threatening that if you don’t do this the country will break, they are doomsday prophets.  You don’t expect governors to talk the way some of them are talking; you don’t expect some government officials to talk the way they are talking. Let us be disciplined.We must not unnecessarily heat up the polity by our unguarded utterances; we should guard some of the things we say.

On G-7 Governors advice to  President Goodluck Jonathan not to contest the 2015 presidential election

Long, long ago, I said it that the governors, the Nigerian governors have become too powerful. Those who drafted this constitution did not envisage a situation where 36 state governors can hold this country hostage because of the power they exercise.

The Nigerian Governors Forum is not known to the Nigerian Constitution, yet they determine the direction of the Nigerian politics.

These G-6 or G-7 Governors, if they were ordinary people, then, we can dismiss what they say. But you cannot dismiss what any governor says in this country because they have become too powerful. How have they become too powerful? It is because they are in control of too many resources.

They can determine the colour and shape of the political process in their various states. That is where we are.

If you are coming to a national convention, those who are coming to a national convention are delegates that are determined by governors. Political parties are functioning in different states according to the whims and caprices of governors because they pay the piper to dictate the tone of political process in their respective states.

His solution to the problem  of wrong people coming to power

The issue of who comes to power, I will tell you the truth. I think we should try to find a way around it. We have to go back to the constitution and see whether there is a way we can curb it.

Can you imagine that the problems we are having in almost all the political parties today is as a result of the Governors Forum?

How do you go back to the constitution since you have already said it all that the Governors Forum is not known in the constitution?

Maybe we can now decide to introduce something about them in the constitution, so as to curb these excesses. I don’t have a solution to it now but I think we must have a way to deal with the powers of the governors who have become too powerful as opposed to some provisions in the constitution.