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•Prof. Nwala Photo: Sun News Publishing |
Unknown to many, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is the brainchild of Prof. Timothy Uzodinma Nwala, a teacher and activist. Shortly after the end of the civil war in 1970, Nwala, started the East Central State Volunteer Services Corps (ECSVSC), an initiative that was later adopted and adapted by the Gowon military regime.
Following the killing of 10 NYSC members in Bauchi State last month, some Nigerians have called for the scrapping of the programme. But Nwala in this interview says the scheme should not be allowed to die. Excerpts:
As the brain behind the NYSC, what is your reaction to calls that it be scrapped?
The irony of the whole situation is that the NYSC emerged as a movement to gradually, systematically overcome the same forces that have been responsible for the death of these poor chaps. I mean to overcome religious bigotry, political intolerance and ethnic fanaticism. These are the things the NYSC rose to combat and it is these same forces that are now responsible for the death of the corps members. If you call for the scrapping of the NYSC because the youths are being killed, it is like saying, dissolve the security forces because security men are being attacked or being killed by armed robbers. I think it is the same thing.
What I think the society needs to do, is to honestly address the issue of religious bigotry, to address the issue of intolerance, political, tribal divisions and realize that the people responsible for using these forces to divide this country are the politicians. It is not the youths, it is the leaders. Our initial idea was to mobilize the youths so that they can relate with themselves and be able to overcome this thinking.
But the youths are scared. How do you allay their fears?
The message I have for Nigerian youths is to realize that Nigeria is not going to break into pieces as Gaddafi predicted. It is the same message we gave to the youths of Igboland after the war. We told them that the result of the war showed that everybody was meant to live together and, therefore, we must begin to address how we can live together. And the message is that, it is the youths that will help to determine the conditions for this togetherness, not the politicians.
So, my message is that the youths should continue to imbibe the spirit of patriotism, imbibe the spirit of one Nigeria, brotherhood. The challenge is on President Goodluck Jonathan and his men not to be tolerant of religious intolerance and should deal with them squarely, decisively. There should be a law dealing with these people. The State Security Service (SSS), should be up and doing and be able to find out those who are inciting the youths. They are responsible for the deaths of these corps members.
Should the youths be armed?
I don’t think it is necessary. There was a time when we were advocating that youths should be given military training. I don’t think that is the issue now. The youths need to be given more of ideological education of patriotism and commitment.
Would you say Nigeria is stagnant or progressing?
I once described Nigeria as a nation walking in circles. That means, a nation that has refused or that has been unable to make steady progress, progress that is discernible. Take for example, the area of agriculture. We once dominated this world in the production of palm produce, but you will not be surprised if we import palm oil from abroad. That is a case of walking in circles. Instead of making steady progress, we move up, we move backward.
What accounted for this?
I think it is because of the very bad political culture. What I mean is that politics in Nigeria has been a game of vampires. The political class has been very negative in their impact on the development of this country. Democracy, as you know, has hardly taken root in this country. What we have are predators. People are interested in looting the resources and not the development of this country.
You are one of the founding fathers of the PDP, how has Nigeria fared under PDP?
Our initial drive was not so much to found a party. It was to provide a leadership base to overcome Abacha’s dictatorship. Once that was done and the leadership of that movement was the G34, there was a popular clamour by Nigerians and by our friends abroad that the G34 should husband a party. We did that and formed the PDP. The aim was to have a party that would lay the foundation for the development of democracy, that would put military rule behind us. The greatest mistake we made was to have allowed a military man to head that post-military administration. It has helped to sustain military culture in our politics.
If you see what most of the governors do, they are operating like military commanders, chief executives who are a law unto themselves. They are like generals, controlling the people, their resources, their government and everything. That was the major setback, the major factor that led to our inability to move forward as a democratic nation. What we have had most of the time is civilian regime and not really democratic regime. What I mean is that it is a regime supposedly run by civilians and that was why Obasanjo discarded his military uniform and the title of General.
Even some governors who never had military background hold forte as emperors
That is exactly the point I made, that the worst mistake we made was to have allowed a military man to head a post-military regime in this country. That has helped to sustain military autocracy, military culture in our governance.
Do you think the PDP has done more than evil than good?
It is not just the PDP alone. All the political parties in the country have done more evil than good. At this point in time, we are on what I may call the point of a watershed. We are gradually trying to overcome the days of the holocaust. What happened in the last one year is a signal that Nigeria is capable of moving forward. That is why there is a great burden on the new leadership, particularly the one we have just elected.
So much is being expected from them. Thank God the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to a large extent, set a new tone in our electoral system. I hope we can build on this foundation. Once we have a good electoral system, once the people can decide who rules them and we are able to overcome corruption, then we will be able to systematically deal with other factors that hinder development.
Would you say the elections represent a break from the past?
Definitely, in a positive direction, yes.
Repositioning the political parties towards patriotism
Actually, what we have had more or less, in terms of political parties, is like trading companies. These are parties that see themselves as companies struggling to control the resources of the country, power and resources and not thinking of democracy, not caring about their own character. That is why there is no internal democracy virtually in all the parties. What we need are parties that are internally democratic, have internal party discipline and see themselves at the head of the social and political development of the country, not parties that are there to share and loot the resources of the people.
Will the PDP still rule Nigeria in the next 60 years?
It is difficult and impossible to say. What we know is that the PDP will rule this country for the next four years. With the way things are going, anything can happen. The people are becoming very, very conscious. If you watch what happened in this one period that they were given the opportunity to a large extent to decide who governs them, you can see that by next election if this trend continues, things would change. It is difficult to say which party will win in the next presidential election.
Zoning as it affects the South-East
This is a political demand. I am from the South-East. If I tell you that I have not sat down to give so much thought as to the sharing of offices and what goes into the South-East, you won’t believe. I am thinking more of the development of the South-East and not the sharing of political offices. I am thinking more of the state of the agenda that will contain ingredients that will help the South-East to march along with others, overcome the poor infrastructure, poverty, mass unemployment that are ravaging the place now. If you ask me what should be the major drive of the people of South-East, what should be the main focus of their demand from this government, I’ll say it should be on the development of the area.
How would you feel if the four major offices in Nigeria elude the people of the South-East?
I don’t see a situation where the South-East will not occupy one of the six major political offices of this country. That is the essence of zoning, which was conceived in the constitution of the PDP, which I had the privilege to author. I am saying that the posts of the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the party leadership, the South-East can also take one of these key offices.
None appreciation of philosophy in Nigeria
It is because philosophy as a discipline, came into Nigeria through the agency of the clergy. What I mean is that the main philosophical trend in Nigeria is scholastic. Gradually, people are beginning to see philosophy not just as a game of words, but philosophy as a body of ideas, ideas and principles that reflect what I call social reality. Ideas which we derive by systematically and reflecting on events; the forces, natural and social, that is unfolding within your political milieu.
Because of the outright nature and the academic philosophy in Nigeria, people at some point, if you remember, did not think that Africans are philosophers. They didn’t even think that our forefathers had philosophy but through the struggles of some of us, particularly. I was the man that initiated the teaching of African philosophy in the universities in this country and I have written quite a lot.
One of my seminal works is the Igbo philosophy, which was written in 1973. I was one of the first that said brothers, we are mistaken; that our culture is full of very deep philosophical ideas. So, when people look at philosophy as an academic discipline and also look at it from the point of view of the scholastic mode of thought, they miss the essence of philosophy.
Source : sunnewsonline.com
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