In this interview with Stanley Ugagbe of The News Chronicle, Convener of Africa Covenant Rescue Initiative (ACRI), Richard Odusanya shared insight on the birth and role of the platform. He also harped on certain national issues.
TNC: Thank you for accepting our interview invitation. The Africa Covenant Rescue Initiative (ACRI) platform in which you are the convener was put in place by African leaders to rescue and facilitate efforts in curtailing the lingering conflicts in the continent of Africa. Can you tell us how it works and some of the feats it has achieved since inception?
Odusanya: First and foremost, let me begin by way of introduction and how it all started. It was the burning desire for a genuine change and how to better the lot of Nigerians and Africans as a strong united front that birthed the idea of LEADERSHIP RESCUE INITIATIVE (LRI), and subsequently AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE (ACRI), fully blown advocacy groups, which came to fruition. Afterwards, a new journey of national rebirth began to redress the anomalies of the past years. It started with Leadership Rescue Initiative (LRI), and our first major outing was an event in London, when we co-hosted the first year memorial anniversary of Prof. Chinua Achebe in London where His Lordship, the Bishop of Canterbury, Bishop Justin Welby gave the keynote speech.
It is on record, that one of the greatest achievement of ACRI was to successfully engaged the 8th National Assembly ‘parliament’ to legislate in favour of June 12 as our Democracy Day celebration as against the junta’s preferred May 29. Thanks to the support and input of the leadership of the 8th National Assembly headed by H.E, Distinguished Sen. Bukola Saraki, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, Sen. Ayim Pius Ayim former Senate President/SGF, H.E Dr. Okwi Nwodo, Malam Garba Shehu, Bashorun Dele Momodu and a host of other patriotic fellow compatriots too numerous to mention. Although, the current political gladiators and the bureaucrats manipulated the event, shut out ACRI, despite submitting a well thought out work-in-progress ‘unification’ documents to very senior government officials with the hope of fostering a greater unity. This was not to be.
TNC: Poor leadership, poverty and underdevelopment have continued to ravage Nigeria. As a platform that is focused on these thematic areas, how has ACRI helped in providing panacea to these deteriorating issues?
Odusanya: The issues of poor leadership, nepotism, corruption, killings, infrastructural decay, Job loss, 33.5% unemployment, insurgency, kidnapping, banditry and others, did not start with the present set of political actors, successive administrations laid the foundation. I have written about the fundamental flaws in my recent ARTICLES; it all started with mismanagement and plundering of our resources, squandering of riches and the flamboyant styles of leadership. This is part of the reasons why we need to put a system in place that will effectively checkmate the excesses of public office holders, civil servants and their collaborators in the private sector. How do you explain a nation that earned as much as 400 billion dollars from just one source of revenue in less than a decade and yet nothing to show for it. This is unacceptable and there is no justification for it. We need to hold our leaders accountable.
TNC: In a recent article, you noted that “The recent happenings in Mali should serve as a wakeup call to our compatriots’ across the divides considering Nigeria is faced with same security and corruption issues”. You implored Nigerians to engage through the platform of ACRI (rescue mission) to avoid what happened in Mali. How will partnering with ACRI help mitigate or eradicate the security issues rocking the nation?
Odusanya: To be freed, both the liberator and the enslaved have roles to play. The enslaved must feel contempt for his chain. The liberator must show understanding of the state of the enslaved. The liberator must also have a solid plan and roadmap of what should be achieved after emancipation. The capacity to break free, think clearly, and go beyond the mental slavery of the mind is prerequisite in nation building. Influence is the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone. And Influence can come through power, societal status amongst other means. In line with the above, a new book titled “NIGERIA NEEDS A NEW NATIONAL MODEL” has just been published by Lambert academic publishing company Germany; the book is a compendium of our articles, which highlighted the shortcomings and defects in our system.
Interestingly, the average Nigerian mind is so twisted that change is almost incomprehensible! That slothful thinking is mostly perpetuated by religion and crippled academic institutions. As things stand, the greatest positions of influence in our society are religion, politics and music. In that order. Those who currently occupy these positions are SMART, contrary to popular opinion. They know how to tune the mind of our people to stop them from thinking rationally. They know how to pull our strings such that we rely on sentiments rather than rationality when making decisions. Partnering with AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE (ACRI), a fully blown advocacy group will bring about a revolution of values and eliminate conflicting interests militating against our collective progress.
TNC: Sometime in June this year, you wrote an open letter to ‘President’ MKO Abiola where you bemoaned the state of the nation emphasizing that “Things have rather gone from bad to worse: an overwhelming majority of our citizens cannot ‘breathe’, more than 50 million of our citizens have tested positive to “hungervirus” as a result of poor leadership, infrastructure decay, hospitals in total comatose, nepotism and many other undemocratic tendencies”. What informed that letter and what did you hope to achieve with it since Abiola is not alive to read your remarks?
Odusanya: Unfortunately, at three scores and one, 61 years after independence and all one sees viewing events in Nigeria with ordinary eyes are hopelessness, chaos and fear. The nation continues to struggle with her attendant challenges and threats of collapse. This was part of the reasons that birthed the idea of an open letter to President Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola GCFR, the novel letter, served as a reminder and wake-up call to our compatriots across the divides for us to change our mindset and imbibe positive orientation. It, therefore, means that, if I placed national interest above my selfish interest irrespective of my religion, region, tribe and language, and you do the same thing, things will naturally fall into place.
TNC: Leadership in Africa particularly in Nigeria keeps deteriorating. Many people believe that it is because those who don’t have the capacity to deliver are being voted into political positions. While some people believe that leaders are to be blamed for the state of the nation, others believe that electorates who are casting their votes for such people should share a large portion of the blame. How do you think the leadership problem can be tackled?
Odusanya: Fix the MIND and you fix the ACTIONS which would ultimately fix most of our challenges and inevitably fix our beloved country Nigeria. We need to earnestly start propagating awareness that promotes selflessness, love, tolerance, cooperation, moral values, discipline and every other positive elements that can induce gradual transformation of the mindset of Nigerians. It is sad that most of our citizens see Nigeria as an enterprise, a cash cow to devour and to make money from and NOT a country to build and serve because there is no feeling of nationhood amongst its people. We have remained dogmatic for too long and my message to my fellow compatriots is to get emancipated from mental slavery of the mind, godfatherism, tribalism, nepotisms, selfishness, deception, electoral fraud, and poverty etc.
TNC: The Struggle for Yoruba Nation is currently a burning issue in the nation. The Federal Government in a bid to shut the movement, clamped down on Sunday Igboho who is championing the movement. What are your thoughts about the agitation and do you really think pulling out of Nigeria is the panacea to the problems of the South-West? What are your thoughts about the clamour for restructuring?
Odusanya: As for the agitations here and there for secession and the agenda of the secessionists; without prejudice to the genuineness of the reasons and the restive promoters, I considered such as a quick fix and may not necessarily be the only card on the table. I have written about the futility of such, several times in my articles. I have also made my positions very clear about RESTRUCTURING. Even if we succeeded in restructuring or divide Nation into whatever was projected by the proponents of separation, it may still give us the same results, if not worst. Until we are able to restructure the minds of our citizens, nothing will change. Because, there is a fundamental issues ranging from capitalism, materialism and self-centered mentality, which needs to be holistically addressed.
TNC: Many people have been critical of the Buhari Government. He has often been criticized for lopsided appointments, one-sided corruption fight, nepotism, inability to tackle insecurity, among others. What is your general assessment of the Buhari regime?
Odusanya: Please permit me to use a part of the recent statement of our elder statesman Chief Ayo Adebanjo, he had said; “I have pondered Chief Awolowo’s words in his 1981 public letter to Alhaji Shagari, and I have found a part to be metaphysically intriguing, even though it has only served to deepen my alarm, such that I believe that I owe it to posterity to place my fears on the record; “the ship of state is fast approaching a huge rock and, unless you, as the chief helmsman, quickly rise to the occasion and courageously steer the ship away from its present course, it shall hit the rock, and the inescapable consequence will be an unspeakable disaster such as is rare in the annals of man”.
Buhari was to be that disastrous rock a few months after the warning. The problem with the rock this time is that the rock is the helmsman of the ship, and he would appear to be DELIBERATELY AND INTENTIONALLY steering the ship to its END.”- NIGERIA NEEDS A NEW NATIONAL MODEL…… ARISE ‘O COMPATRIOTS
