By Charles Adegbite
DR FREDERICK Fasehun is the founder and president of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), and chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). In this interview, he bares his mind on the intervention of the military in Nigeria politics 50years ago, saying they have introduced violence through their long stay. Excerpts:
How would you describe the military intervention of January 15, 1966?
The military intervention in 1966 was well meaning but they stayed for too long. We thought they came to correct the political situation that was rampant at that time. Nobody knew they came to replace. And they stayed long until their visit was unwelcome. The country is still suffering from the effects of their long stay till now.
They didn’t allow our politicians to learn from their mistakes. Instead of correcting mistakes they became mistake makers themselves. What they came to correct they didn’t correct. They became worse and worse until Nigerians forgot what democracy was. We are still suffering from that long stay up till now. That is why we render a system where Nigerians still don’t know what democracy is. But we hope and pray with the new government in place; the government that was part of system that upturned democracy in those days, they would have learnt from their past mistakes to allow democracy to grow.
Why did you say Nigerians still don’t know what democracy is?
Democracy is purely about rule of law. We don’t have rule of law now. I mean, the President should not arrest civilians for detention. But that is happening now. Democracy is the accepted government by the majority of the people. We started cheering them when they came in, but few months after we started gearing at them. That is not democracy. Democracy is government of the people by the people and for the people.
Now it seems those in power now are in power because they can intimidate. That should not be. We love their government and they should love the people in return. In democracy nobody should be intimidated. You have your rights to defend, unfortunately it seems nobody has the right. And those who are in power seem to have the power to intimidate.
You mean the present government ?
Yeah!
Are you saying that the President, being a retired general is carrying over this into democratic governance?
That is the reason I used the word intimidation. It means leopards don’t change their spots. There are countries where military have ruled. For instance in Ghana, the people have suffered what we are suffering from. They have derived some benefits from their military rule. Ghanaians have gotten government discipline, unlike what we have here. People bake the law in spite of the presence of military.
If that is the case, don’t you think if Buhari adopts the method Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings (rtd) used in Ghana by killing corrupt leaders you will have cause to complain more that this?
Discipline is not necessarily through killing, intimidation and denial of rights. As a matter of fact, allowing the people to enjoy their rights is the true beauty of democracy.
Looking at the style Buhari is using to fight corruption, which one do you call intimidation and how do you think it can be corrected?
It can be corrected by the President himself. He told us at the beginning that he belongs to nobody and he belongs to everybody. Many of us were jubilant when he said that. But show me an Igbo man that will tell you Buhari belongs to him. When we saw the lopsidedness, we said there was imbalance. We complained that there is lopsidedness in the distribution of appointments. And there is no way you can talk of democracy in this land without Igbo participating.