His Royal Highness Asara A. Asara is the Aki IX of Obanema Akipelai community in Ogbia local government of Bayelsa state. The delegate, nominated on the platform of the federal government at the ongoing national conference in Abuja, is noted for his comments during the debate on president’s speech that “Only in Nigeria do unusual things happen without commensurate punishment to the offenders.” In this interview with EMEKA NZE, Chief Asara reiterates Nigeria punishes small criminals while society celebrates big criminals for flaunting their ill-gotten wealth
Level of sanity at conference
You know my country and your country, our country is a talking country. There is nothing that we don’t talk about; everybody wants to talk but to do it right becomes a problem, that’s why we a talking country. There is nothing that is not criticized, everything, all Nigerians want to comment, whether they know it or not, good or bad, that’s why those people who were criticizing or who were thinking that Nigeria would be pulled down by the people who were coming to the conference were also right and those who feel there is need to sit down and talk were also right. This country is a forced amalgamation- nobody sat down and agreed that we should come together; we came together at a time most of us were not there. However, we have been able to manage this country for 100 years and so many things have gone so bad, so many things are happening and the president in his wisdom was also of the school of thought that there should be no discussion. But after a while, he realized that the country being a democratic government, he himself decided that what we need is to sit down and discuss. So I think the doom prophets have been disappointed because Nigeria is still moving on and the conference is on course and by the grace of God we shall conclude
Way out of impunity
The solution is for all of us to agree that we are Nigerians. Except all of us agree that we are Nigerians, impunity will continue. In a country where one man will think he is born to rule and another man is born to serve, cannot be a country and that was the Nigeria of the 19thcentury. Today we are in the 21st century and anybody who thinks he will continue in the way he used to be is in a dream world. That’s why I used the word “impunity” because there are some people who feel things should be good for them and not the next person, they want to control Nigeria the way they want it; Nigeria should go the way they want it and other people should be watching and looking at them. We are saying that Nigeria cannot be the way they want it.
If at all we are going to agree to live together, then there is need for one to respect one another; I should respect you and you should respect me to feel that this country belongs to all of us because as I said at the conference, “I am a better Nigerian than some of the people who claim that they should control this country”. I have no other place at all. My parents are both Nigerians. There are some who claim to be Nigerians, but their parents are not Nigerians. Some people came from outside of this country and because of our porous boundary they came in and they are trying to claim Nigerian better than myself who is the owner of Nigeria. A man who is sustaining Nigeria, you are trying to deprive me and I said “no; it is unacceptable. If Nigeria belongs to you, it belongs to me. ” Except we are not prepared to stay together, when we disagree everybody goes his way. I have travelled round Nigeria, I have seen Nigeria. I love this country; it is a beautiful country but I don’t know whether the people who Nigeria decided to give this place to inhabit are human beings, if they are human beings some of the things happening today will not happen.
Putting an end to sacred cow
I don’t know the sacred cows you talk about. I deal with everybody as I see you. If anybody wants to make himself a sacred cow, then we should ask him whether he is a better person than the other person who would not call himself a sacred cow. I think it is left for government to know who is a sacred cow and who is not a sacred cow but as far as I’m concerned there is no sacred cow and I have not seen one. I have not seen anyone who has committed an offence and has not been punished except you tell me that one Mr A committed this and he was treated as a sacred cow.
You may have forgotten that it is only in Nigeria did we have a Head of State who allegedly could not account for N12 billion oil windfall; only in Nigeria did we have a president who used his powers as president to privatize some companies belonging to Nigeria in his own favour; only in Nigeria did the incumbent president say that Boko Haram has allegedly infiltrated his administration and they are walking free. How do we come out of all these?
Do you know any of them (Boko Haram)? If you know them mention the person(s) so that we can discuss him. As for me, I don’t know anybody who has taken away N12 billion and did not account for it. It is now left for us, for you and me. When they are talking about corruption, all of us are corrupt. There is no one Nigerian that is not a corrupt person, even in the churches, all of us are corrupt. But who is accusing who? That’s the problem we are having. Every day you see in the media, you see those presenters accusing people they themselves are corrupt because, if you give them money what they will talk about you is different from the man who has not given them money. So who is not corrupt?
I want one Nigerian who will get up and say “I am corrupt, prosecute me or I surrender my wealth to the state.”Nobody will do that. Here is a country where a person of grade level 4 is driving car and yet he has the guts to accuse another person of being corrupt, how did he come about his money? Look at civil servants buying houses all over the place and they are saying somebody is corrupt, how did you come about those houses. You use one finger to point at somebody, the rest of your fingers are pointing at you, that’s what we have in this country. That’s why I said that it is only in Nigeria is this impunity taking place.
Impunity in the sense that there are some people who arrogate Nigeria to themselves, they appropriate it,“I own it”, that’s impunity. It is in this country somebody will rise up to say,“Look my friend, you don’t own your waters but I own my desert.” So many things are wrong in this country that needed us to sit down and discuss and I don’t see this conference giving us the solutions because we are only there speaking grammar and doing academics. We need practical solutions to the problems that are eating deep into this country. If I’m corrupt then you should punish me but if you don’t punish Alhaji, you cannot punish Chief, that’s the problem. You the journalists know the people who want to kill this country, they bring oppressive laws to govern this country and cut away our wealth and yet their people are the poorest. In fact, I thought that the conference will be able to find solutions. This very people they are their again to stop the progress of this country. When it affects another person’s own they tell you that it is in the constitution it can never be discussed, when it comes to their own it has to be discussed. When the constitution affects me then it is a law, nobody discusses it otherwise it is treason but when it touches them it has to be amended. The president convoked this conference to enable us have a new constitution, but we are not on the way yet.
On workable structure of government for the country
When you respect me and I respect you; you give me my due, I give you your due; when you believe that we are all Nigerians, any system can work, be it presidential, be it parliamentary or even a home grown democracy. The problem is that if someone is given the least chance, he believes his business there is to acquire wealth, they are not there for service but to accumulate wealth and because the country is that of materialism, you want a car to be recognised; you want a car to be given a chieftaincy title and for you to be celebrated; we don’t want to know how you came about the money, that’s not our business; ours is that the man has made it and he will be invited for a chieftaincy title. When we do away with this culture of praise-singing, this culture of promoting the rogues, then people will no longer steal to be recognised. Our problem is that everybody wants to show off, since I want to be seen, the only way is the number of cars and houses I have, the type of dresses I put on, that’s the only way I can attract attention. And then, this is a country that does not reward hard work.
Look at the pensioners who have worked and served this country meticulously and religiously, there is no reward. You return home and your pensions; one man will stay in the office and embezzle it. So when you are serving what do you do it is to steal so that when you retire, you will not bother whether you are paid pension or not and the thief will be sentenced to two years imprisonment or in the alternative N750, 000. I that has stolen billions and my punishment is two years imprisonment or in the alternative N750,000, I will steal. We do everything to cheat because there is no law where there is it is interpreted to suit you. It depends on your connections and how do you get your connections, it’s not money. it is only money when you throw your parties, the whole place will be packed full of people coming to eat and dance. It is the high and mighty that will come and when I commit an offence, do you expect any punishment? There no justice for the down- trodden. If you steal a goat now, it is 15 years imprisonment but if I steal N100 billion, I will be given 2 years or N750, 000 and when i stay for 6 months, i will be released and given presidential pardon. The only way forward, if you want me to say it, is sometimes to take the laws into our hands. When you see your brother or father that cannot account for his wealth, you should not wait for the police, that’s the way forward because we a getting to a point of revolution, I pray that a revolution should not come now.
Are you suggesting capital punishment?
Has capital punishment deterred the armed robbers, if you send them to life imprisonment, 100 years imprisonment, 30 years imprisonment and 15 years imprisonment, when they come back, age must have dawn on them because if you kill the offender, he does not kill the pain.