(Culled from My Morning Show Arise TV Interview of Sunday 25th August, 2024).

Today unlike most days I am dressed from head to toe in white… White emblematizes and epitomizes peace, but here I am opposed to the peace of the graveyard contrived and procured by supporters of the present watch who are desperately dividing our Country on ethnic, regional and religious lines.

Some have taken our national debate to an abysmal low. They argue that since the North was largely quiet throughout the 8 years of locust superintended over by Mohammadu Buhari, the South should and must oblige Tinubu who is a President from the South. This sickening argument is chiefly the reason for the peace of the graveyard that pervades our space. When you call for accountability, when you ask Government to give primacy to public interest and due process the low haters of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu retort with we do not care, what did the North do when Buhari took our Country down Golgotha. To them it appears not to matter at all if Tinubu takes our nation down the deepest abyss. The minders and supporters of the present watch are increasingly creating an ogre and a dragon, and the segment of the media that abhors voices of dissent like mine in the name of protecting their pecuniary interests, are callously emboldening, enabling and fueling the making of a dictatorship albeit inadvertently, be not deceived when it becomes full blown it will come first after the media and free press, before it comes for people like me… I have therefore chosen to help rupture the peace of the graveyard. I have come here to get some justice for the Nigerian people, to advocate for freedoms, to remind the government that the primary reason it exists according to the constitution is the protection of lives and property, and to guarantee an enabling environment for people to pursue their businesses and fend for themselves. If the government fails to do so, the right thing to do is to challenge the government to wake up and sit up, and not to romanticise the government by branding protests and protesters and colouring dissent with regional and religious brush. The right thing to do is to ask the government to be responsible and responsive, and not to hire people to threaten others not to join protests against a non-performing government. The right thing to do is to ask the government to eschew profligacy, waste and wanderlust and not to procure a band of so-called ex-militant agitators to threaten those opposed to Akpabio and Tinubu as though the people of the south are better under the present watch. I have come here today to rupture the peace of the graveyard that threatens our collective peace.

You cannot spend almost 25 billion in building a house for the Vice President when Nigerians are hungry and ask me to be quiet because Tinubu is from the South. You cannot spend 150m dollars for a new Presidential jet, buy a new Cardillac Escalade Beast as though our President were a Hollywood Star or a Mob Kingpin in this austere times and ask me to allow him because he is from the South. You cannot throw money around to stifle legitimate protests, heat up the polity and proceed to procure the peace of the graveyard through threat and blackmail and think that all is well. The greatest threat to Tinubu’s Presidency are those who are telling him that all is well in the face of spending over 100billion naira on vehicles for the National Assembly members, for the First Lady’s Office, for the President’s and the Vice President’s office whilst asking Nigerians to endure and tighten their seatbelts. The enemies of the Tinubu Presidency are those who see the voices of dissent and critical thoughts as enemies of Mr. President. Sometimes I worry about how badly ensconced by haters Mr President is, why does he think that it is right to give the Contract for the Lagos Calabar coastal highway to a Company in which his son or himself has interests, does he think that Nigerians will keep quiet and look the other way? Does he think that we are a conquered people? How can his nephew under his watch buy up the downstream outlet of the NNPC LTD with him as the Petroleum Minister and some think that we must be quiet because Tinubu is from the South. The ‘allow Tinubu because he is from the South’ argument is sickening and deepens the pervasive peace of the graveyard.

If the Tinubu Presidency is seen as a Southern Presidency by his minders albeit against the spirit of the Constitution, why is Nnamdi Kanu still in detention? Why do the soulless acolytes of the present watch pander to ethnic, religious and regional embers when it fits their parochialism? Since my Dear Friend the Governor of Enugu began the process of pushing for the effective return to work on Mondays in the South East, what has the Federal Government led by a President from the South done to help that cause? Do the sycophants mouthing Southern Presidency not know that tied to the Sit-At-Home in the South East is the Call for the Release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Custody, and why are those calling on Ndigbo to shun all manner of protests against the Tinubu Presidency not calling on Mr President to release Nnamdi Kanu. Only Truth and Justice can rupture the pervasive peace of the graveyard that falsehood engenders, and truth, only truth can lead our nation the path to true and lasting peace.

Some friends have told me that The Restructuring I have been calling for for decades is what Tinubu is presently pushing, that under Buhari the DSS had 5 Directors from the North and only one from the South, that today there are 6 Directors, one from each of the 6 Geopolitical zones, and I ask how does balancing the control of the levers of power by the elite for the elite put food on the table of the masses? How does elite control of the levers of power mean restructuring? Folks, falsehood cannot guarantee peace it can only contrive the peace of the graveyard. What Nigeria needs is True Peace predicated on Justice, Equity, Fairness, Truth and inclusiveness.

The other day the Deputy Speaker of the House Of Representative shamelessly in a terribly low video message called out the Igbo not to join any protest, that they Ndigbo will ultimately become the victim… A Deputy Speaker descending so low to proudly fan ethnic and regional embers and we wonder why we are in the present mess. The Senate President instead of fulfilling his constitutional duties is paying groups in the Niger Delta to threaten anybody that calls for his impeachment. How sad! And we think that fanning ethnic and regional embers will do Nigeria any good. Why should a government be the divider-in-chief instead of the Unifier-in-Chief? I am here to show our people the way to true peace and development.

Government must be accountable for every money it spends. Government must cease to divide Nigeria and Nigerians along regional and religious lines. Government must eschew nepotism and bigotry and become the unifier-in-chief by carrying along every section and segment of the country, and government must eschew nepotism, profligacy, looting, kakistocracy, kleptomania, greed, waste and wanderlust, such and no other is the pathway to lasting and enduring peace.

Along with over 25 NGOs, CBOs and CSOs that have reached out to us since my piece captioned ‘I Shall Query What Goes On In The States, And I Shall Also Demand Responsible And Responsive Leadership At The Centre’ went viral, the COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT is putting finishing touches to a protocol that shall fervently demand good governance across the 36 States and the FCT, Abuja. We shall pursue rectitude and commitment to accountability at the subregional level as well as the Federal Level, and such is our unalterable commitment to nationhood.

Over my head I see a New Nigeria in Horizon.

I’m CHUKWUDUMEBI.

Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr.
Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT. A Good Governance Advocacy Group.