National Confab Not Solution To Our Problems – Kukah • Nigeria’s problem is managing its diversity Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah always speaks frankly on national issues irrespective of how such comments may be taken at the high places. Recently, he was a guest speaker at the 6th Anthony Cardinal Okogie Annual Lecture, where he spoke on “Calming The Storm: Witnessing in a Time of Insecurity.”After the event at the McGovern hall, St Agnes Catholic Church, Maryland, Lagos, he spoke on some national issues. According to him, the proposed national conference is not the solution to the country’s myriad of problems and called on ASUU to find a way of looking beyond pecuniary consideration and call off the strike. Excerpts. What is the solution to the insecurity in Nigeria? There are certain things that cannot be dissolved immediately. Building a nation is not an easy one. Nigerians should understand and appreciate the fact that building a nation under democracy is more complicated. The people involved in the process were not necessarily perfect or elected because of their expertise. Against the backdrop of what we call insecurity, violence is one dimension. There are other manifestations in the process. So, the first thing to do is for us to reaffirm our commitment to democracy and living in a democratic society. Secondly, to appreciate that democracy comes with its own challenges. Managing the challenges is what governance is all about. In the end, it is that all of us cannot leave the management of insecurity to government agencies alone. We may say, there is little we can do but even the moral support is also important. I think we are involved in a war situation, therefore, those who can pray, should pray and those who are involved in the war, we should pray for them and if there is information we can give, we should be courageous enough to give it out. For instance, an old man, a Muslim whose son came to tell him, he was a member of Boko Haram, the old man handed his son to the police to be dealt with, the police killed the boy. He felt proud having done that. It may be an extreme situation, but it also means that the kidnappers or Boko Haram are our sons and daughters. It is a question of whether we can place Nigeria over and above any of these configurations. Nigerians have been calling for a national conference. Now it is here, what is your impression about it? I don’t know what you mean when you said, ‘all of us have been calling for a national conference.’ Though few newspapers have expressed interest and those who read newspapers in Nigeria are not up to 10 per cent of Nigeria’s population. So, when people say, they have been calling for a national conference, I don’t know what they mean. However, national conference is here, it is a question for those who have been calling for it; what are they going to do? I have not called for a national conference, so I don’t have an opinion. I don’t believe it is the solution to our problem. There are those who believe in it strongly, now it is here, let them go ahead and do what needs to be done, if it will bring solution to our problem. What is the solution to our problem? What would solve our problem is the understanding of the problem itself. The first thing to do is to analyse our problem with a view to locating what is wrong with us. What we do in Nigeria is meet a doctor and tell him we have malaria. What else do we want the doctor to do when we have already told him what to do? Talking is not what would solve our problem. In any case, we have been talking on a daily basis; the newspapers are full of stories, churches and beer parlours too. It is a freedom we are taking for granted in Nigeria. This is not available to people in Somalia, North Korea, and Syria. So, talking is not about people sent by politicians who gather in a place. I think the first thing to do towards solving our problem is to realise that it is not a problem that could be solved by inoculation. Secondly, it is after the diagnoses of where the problem is and who is hurting, then we can mobilise the resources required to deal with the situation. Now, all us are talking at the same time and 95 per cent of us are clueless about what the issues are. We must admit that, may be, we don’t understand all the issues, but think we have all the answers. We have to appreciate that it will take us much longer time to resolve the issues. ASUU strike seems intractable. How can it be resolved? For me, I feel sad about the ASUU strike. There are two ways of looking at it. ASUU is gradually losing its position as a major contributor to the process of democratisation. We cannot democratise without the intellectual community. We cannot democratise without the elite. The university community is vibrant and important part of the democracy. I think ASUU has radically lost a lot of support in part because many of us don’t understand what the issues are. The point to make is that one cannot have a win-all situation when one has a problem of this nature. I think ASUU must appreciate a situation that beyond a particular point of the negotiation, something has to give; children need to get back to school and for the people in government, their children are not the ones suffering, so, one cannot be having this type of problem without recreating children for Boko Haram, armed robbery and kidnappers. These children have to survive. It is a much more holistic view of the whole thing, put personal interest aside and figure out benchmark on how to resolve the issues. The issues didn’t start with President Goodluck Jonathan, they would not end with him, but it is to segment these issues and figure out what kind of solutions to proffer. I believe that if President Jonathan who came from the university community could not resolve the issue, I don’t know who else. So, my feeling is that Nigerians are losing patience and unfortunately confidence. Our children are now stranded in different parts of Africa. Some of them have no business in those places. The idea of university as a community is losing its credibility and for me, those are the issues. But government entered into an agreement with ASUU in 2009, which it reneged. In fairness, I have spoken to people who know. That is not what I’m hearing. I’m hearing slightly different conversation. I don’t know the details. What I’m saying is that everything should have an end. Negotiations are never ended. When one has got everything one wants, it is no longer a negotiation. Negotiation is all about give-and-take. I think beyond a particular point as I’m seeing it, the victim, ASUU in this case can actually become the aggressor depending on how well the issues were dealt with. It is in the interest of ASUU to find a way of looking beyond pecuniary consideration and figure out the minimum position that needs to be in place as one cannot get 100 per cent in a negotiation. What is your take on the thinking that diversity in terms of tribes and religion is a major threat to the existence of the country? This is a good question and we can deliver a lecture on that. Diversity has never been a problem. It is a source of beauty. The Bible says; ‘Jacob’s coat was beautiful because it was a coat of many colours. Nigeria’s problem is in managing its diversity. If one has variety of foods and eats much of them, it becomes a problem, or one with much money without knowing how to use it. Managing diversity is about identifying who has the capability to do more. A country as rich as Nigeria, for us to turn around to say diversity is a problem is a disingenuous assessment. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world. It is the most diverse nation of the world. Every country is struggling to get strangers into their environment. The British would be nowhere in their country without tourists, the French too. No country would continue with the kind of image we have projected of Nigeria. We need visitors to come to Nigeria. So, as journalists, we must be careful the way we talk about our country. The image we project of the country is the image everybody would see. It is time for us in Nigeria to appreciate that we’re not the only ones suffering. Our governments are not the worst in the world; our politicians are not the worst in the world. We have problems but if we remain steadfast and honest with ourselves, we will understand that the problems of Nigeria are the aggregate of all the bad things all of have thought of. I think, until we all take our mind away from thinking only the police or Sovereign National Conference would solve our problems, we’ll be nowhere solving the problem.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 09:20:20 +0000
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