Leonard Umunna is the bishop of the Bible Life Church (Worldwide) and a Public Affairs analyst. In this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, editor, he spoke on the state of the nation, highlighting issues surrounding Nigeria’s growth at 66; the country’s place in Africa, the debilitating effects of ethnicism and corruption, and his perception of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s capacity to deliver a credible general election in 2027. Excerpts:
Briefly let us into what you think Nigeria has gained, or has failed to achieve, and your assessment of the country at 66?
We Nigerians should daily be grateful to God for our being together still as a nation despite all odds. We have been through these terrible things that have been around us, and one bad Constitution that is bringing this chain of disappointments. I’ve told you that that the name- Nigeria, is bad, spiritually, numerically. It vibrates a negative aura. It suggests that you must always fight to achieve something. Always struggling!
The number is a number that says you must always fight to succeed. The number that is a number that says you will always have trouble with your leadership. The number in Nigeria is a number that always engages in a bloodshed to achieve much.
I think I have made it clear to the whole nation now. That number needs to be changed. And I said if they are thinking of any other, they should get people who know what to do, I don’t want to use the word numerology or that subject, but what numbers mean. They should consult the people and consult God on giving them a better name. You say what is in a name? Everything is in a name. Mine was not good before, but six months after I changed it and banned everybody from calling me that name, after that performance, it began to show up better for me. And today, I am better for it. And I have tried to meet others around me and they are all happy for it. It matters a lot. You say it may not matter for a few. Yes, we should not make law for a few.
We should make law for the majority. For the sake of the majority, they should change that name, change the constitution. Somebody has asked me what kind of constitution I propose. I said they should formulate their constitution based on what they have been passing through. I give them an instruction that once there is something that has happened for the first time, it should be written down and brought before management to bring up something to serve as a safeguard against it. Because history will always repeat that human nature. When you see somebody do bad and you do not raise any voice against it, it is an event. But the second time, it becomes approval. Avoid it.
By stopping it at that first one. They say that if you don’t deal with a lizard with two tails, the one with ten tails would come. How did it jump to ten tails? Maybe, it was coming three, four, five, and you were feeling indifferent about it. And then when they are crowded and become ten, you shout now. They jump here and there and jump on you. And you run away and say it’s too much for me. You did not take action when it began. That’s the way we can use to root out evil in our nation. Put laws that were developed after our needs, not necessarily the ones that we borrowed from other nations.
And when we borrow from other nations, it should be taken as universal and apply to the whole world. We are not outside humanity. So, we borrow from the world. The world applies to the whole world. It makes us safe and acceptable to them. But yet peculiar in our own peculiarities so that we can always achieve success on our own.
Nigeria has a lot of mineral, human, and other resources that anybody can think of. But, at every international event, Nigerian leaders have always gone cap-in-hand, begging for one favour or the other from the Western world. For three consecutive years, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has stayed away from UNGA. What do you think may be the negative effect of such perpetual absenteeism?
If the president sent the vice president, it means he was also there. He is operating a joint ticket with the vice president. On the issue of going cap-in-hand, it has always been so; it did not start with the current administration, but I think that by now we should have stopped doing such things or reduced the frequency and intensity. The world now belongs to the wealthy. If you don’t have the wealth to front or to even give out, people will not see you as a leader. That’s just the truth. Our fellow African countries, brothers and sisters are not happy. They think we have all it takes to take care of Africa. But yet, we cannot even use our huge resources to take care of our own nation and people let alone the continent. Let somebody prove me wrong. We have all it takes. I’m not just talking about oil. Good mineral resources. Good manpower. Good elite population, etc. Nigeria has all it takes to take care of African countries. But we are the ones begging others to help us out. I think that’s part of this thing I said that the Constitution of this nation should address. Because if we get it right, constitutionally, this thing will be easily solved.
Nigeria is going into a general election next year. I want to know your take about the political environment as the country inches closer to that date?
This question is not new to me. Each time, we are far below average in our elections. That’s why this thing is recurring, like a recurring decimal. If we had got it right, we would not be talking about what next, how do we progress from here and all that? It’s like a child that failed an exam, and failed again and again. You cannot make that child to be promoted, except you review what has been causing the serial failures. Have we sat down to ask ourselves what has been causing the failures in elections? The main one has to do with politicians and their ambitions- win by all means; the end justifies the means, and the belief that all is fair in politics. So, I’ve told you where to focus, and what is causing the repetition of these questions being asked, and virtually the same answers.
Despite the warning by the INEC and other relevant organisations against name-calling, brigandage and intolerance, emphasizing issue-based campaign, some politicians and their supporters are heating up the polity with their rhetoric. What advice do you have for them at this time?
Everybody knows the cause of these things. If you did not deal with the first child that entered the house where there is an inflammable liquid, with a match, and you were there watching him without saying anything; and then you saw another child with a match, you said, catch that child with a match. Is it not double standards? You know that the people who know what is happening will say you are an accomplice. You are just chasing the wrong thing. You are not sincere. This is what is happening every time the election comes up. They may even get the best, most honest electoral chairman and put there. But when it gets to a particularly sensitive election, you will see the rule of the game changing. At that point you hear some people issuing orders that people should not mess up things, but they are leaving a particular party untouched and they can have their way. Is that not partiality? That is what is causing these things. Everybody should raise one voice and say, put these laws in order and put implementors. If we have world bodies coming to monitor it, they should be respected and allowed to do their job and submit their report; perhaps, to the world body to approve or say no. We are not able to help ourselves. Anytime we take it to our courts, it’s either our courts are divided in their opinions or it goes the way of the ruling party at that time. This is the problem. Let’s not be beating about the bush.
What is your perception of the INEC and its chances of delivering a credible 2027 election?
Nigeria has a road map, since 1960, 66 years of independence, have we voted a president that we elected? It has never happened. It is always our leaders secretly nominating, once election is by the corner, some people will come together as members of a cabal, and say this man from so, so tribe cannot be the president. And because the rich will always rule over the poor, they have their way. But because what goes up must come down, we go back to square one. To move ahead and make progress as a nation, things must be done in their proper way.
The country has a serious problem that has affected elections and their outcomes. Nigeria is rooted in ethnicism which has gone beyond the three tribes; even within the tribes, there are groups trying to outsmart the major tribes, saying president should not come from a particular tribe. There is also the problem of corruption. We need leaders like Gen Murtala Mohammed. Times are getting harder, we need stronger leaders, who are strongly principled, and will say this is the right thing. It worked before and it can work again.
What is your advice to Nigerians ahead of the election?
It is like, one of the questions you asked me. There have been some good electoral chairmen and some bad ones. If you have a compromised chief electoral officer, no matter what you do, that election must be rigged. Did you hear what I said? Yes. Because he who pays the piper calls the tune. No other. If the current chief electoral officer has done well in Osun, done well in Ekiti, and the FCT Council election, he might replicate it at the general election if given free hands. I’m telling you that if you have just one electoral officer, a compromised chief electoral officer, there is nothing you can do that the election will come out right. One stroke of a pen, everything will be swapped to one side against the people’s will. Things are not working because some people have determined they must not work. That is why despite repeated assurances, it seems that many Nigerians are still skeptical about the free, fair and credible election in 2027. Now, when the person who is at the top and should be regulated by the people who are expecting him to do the right thing for them and for the nation begins to tell you that he is only answerable to the President who appointed him, what would you do? That is why America will always do better than any other nation. They may differ in ideology. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican- they do not bend their electoral rules. They do not joke with their laws. Is it true? Yes. That’s why you see more progress. Nigerians must keep hope alive and do their part by going out and exercise their civic right of voting when the elections begin.
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