Veteran Nigerian journalist and former presidential aide, Laolu Akande, engaged pioneer chairman of the All People’s Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande in the maiden interview on his TV show, ‘Inside Sources,’ which aired on Friday, December 22, 2023, at 9:00 am on Channels TV. The outing has since enjoyed some rave reviews. Below are seven takeaways from the interview:
1. Nigeria does not have a true federal constitution:
“The federal system is a very difficult type of government but it is a must constitution for diversity. You cannot use a unitary government among diverse ethnic communities. You don’t need a federal government for a one ethnic nationality but in a multi-ethnic nationality like Nigeria, you need a true federal constitution to make it work well but because the leaders don’t want to be educated about what leadership really means,” Chief Akande said.
2. Former President Muhammadu Buhari failed on his promise to remove fuel subsidy:
Chief Akande said, “So, from the beginning, I was uncomfortable with Buhari having the subsidy in his hand. The subsidy ought to have been removed in his time; by now, Nigerians would have been used to it and it would have been smooth.”
3. Nigeria is moving in the wrong direction:
“Nigeria has been having a stunted growth and today the sources of its nutrition is in deficit. The nutrition for a good polity are infrastructure and human capacity, both we seem not to have in the right direction. For that reason, I don’t see Nigeria in the right direction to growth but with the recent attempt to change the situation, let’s hope Nigeria will be strong enough to bear the change.”
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4. Religion and ethnicity can harness Nigeria’s growth:
“The two factors are useful elements in community development but it depends on the user. With the right kind of constitution which we don’t have, religion and ethnicity can complement the efforts of the community makers, you can call them politician or statesmen, whoever wants Nigeria to go forward can use religion and ethnicity to promote the understanding of the community towards a common goal but the way the constitution is now, we need a true federal constitution.”
5. APC is not the same as PDP:
The former acting national chairman of APC said the PDP was formed as a result of military incursion into governance. “Military inclined minds formed the PDP,” he said.
6. Nigeria does not have a constitution now.
Chief Akande noted that Nigeria’s constitution is fickle. “We have no constitution now. What we have is the understanding. We have now is that the federal government takes a decision and the rest of us queue behind it, that is why you see a market woman whose stall has been blown away by the wind, say we voted for the president (Tinubu), come and see flood (in our market) but that is a local government job and should be directed by the state governor, it has nothing to do with the federal government but because the constitution is not well defined, or simply defined see how long it takes, it is too long.”
7. A leader must understand the people:
“A leader must understand his people and you have to be very educated about the geography of the placement of your people, about the history of your people, about the sociological setting of your people and about the variance in culture, until you are able to get, you can not be a good leader.”
