Chief Olabode George, former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in this interview by MONICA TAIWO, speaks about the state of the nation and what life has taught him, declaring that President Muhammadu Buhari should run away from sycophants in order succeed in office.

You have been in and out of prison, what has life taught you?

My Kirikiri experience is another story of my life entirely; I learnt some lessons. God didn’t say we won’t have tribulations, trials and temptations, but if you trust in Him, all will be well. I preach that now every opportunity I have, even to politicians. I have been there and what is encouraging. Nelson Mandela, in the last book he wrote, said the prison cell is the first place for you to re-examine yourself and rededicate yourself; to recommit yourself to the service of mankind and to God. There is nothing as encouraging as that. Chief Awolowo also went to jail for committing nothing.

When we came out and I saw it; Nigerians are good people they know what is just. They know what is right; they know what is dedication and service to them. That was what kept me going and kept me interested in saying, no we cannot leave these people like this. The whole of Lagos that day was at a standstill.

Right from the prison gate till we got to Christ Cathedral, people were there. In fact, my baby, her mother and my first daughter who were in the car were scared that people would overturn the car, but I assured them they wouldn’t do such. When we got to Christ Cathedral, the church was choked, filled with people. A classmate of mine who became rich because of oil allocation money became bloated and said they should not open the church door for me; I will save him by not mentioning his name. He has become too big for his shoes living on other people’s money. The Bishop, however refused to listen to him.

In fact, Baba Obasanjo who came, couldn’t get to the church; he stopped at First Bank, Marina and trekked down to the church. And then at the end, what did he tell me? He said I was celebrating criminality. You have these experiences in life with your people, but I am happy because I worked with him, not because I needed anything from him, but because I believed in his cause. I was committed and I was dedicated, but all I got was Bode is celebrating criminality. I remembered a journalist came to ask me here if I heard what baba said and that people are waiting for my reaction. I said I don’t believe he said it and if he did, I leave him to our creator. Some of my other ogas, past Heads of State and so on, called me and said we read your comments and I told them respectfully, no more comments. This however is going into the memoirs so that we can learn how people behave and for us to know that the only man you can trust, no matter what is, God Almighty and not any human being.

What do you think is responsible for the pervading rot in our education system?

The moment the government got involved in the control of primary and secondary schools, we lost it. I remember that time, it was first raised by the late Papa Adeniran Ogunsanya in Lagos, I can’t remember when it went national. We cannot get back on track until schools are handed back to the missionaries to control, because that is the foundation for the future of the children of this country and the country itself. Government cannot do it and that is the truth.

Even look outside education and see what is happening with the other parastatals, including the Nigerian Airways and many others. It is high time we knew that governance is not about controlling business people. They can’t control it because there is no consistency. When somebody starts, the next person does not continue; he makes an about turn, completely different from what is on ground and regardless of how far and how good; he wants a new thing. All the policies become distorted. What is ravaging the boys in the South South today is the scholarship scheme that they enjoyed in the past which has been stopped. I am still appealing to the president, let him open up and give these boys their own; there will be peace there. It was the late President Umaru Yar’adua who started this programme to appease those boys in that area to calm down. It is not about warfare in that area; the environment there, to say the least, is ruinous and is bad.

Suddenly, the boys have now seen the effect of their petrol dollar. So, what does it take, if that will bring peace there, allow them to enjoy some part of it. That was what our party, the Peoples Democrtaic Party (PDP), did and you can see the sudden change then. It should be all about government of the people, for the people and by the people. But it is now government of the government, for the government and by the government. That is exactly what it is.

I have been in and out of England and I have studied their system and I have looked all over the world. I even did British and European History in my School Certificate Examination. There was a time the Labour Party took charge of the social welfare programmme and so on; they have done some kind of balancing now on the education and businesses. Government was running trains; they were running airline. They have not sold them entirely; they have commissioned people to run them on behalf of the government and they would be paying certain amount of money to the government.

We did the same thing in the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) with the concession. Before, government was budgeting and spending a lot of money maintaining jetties, dredging and all that. Now it is concessioned out and, so as long as ships come into Nigeria, NPA will make money without a single input of the government. That is the kind of thinking we should have. The government is not a businessman and they can never succeed in business. That is another place where we lost it.

But who will bell the cat?

The government! We should make it a deliberate policy and campaign for it; let them go and give the schools back first. There was a time they handed schools back to the Catholics here. I don’t know if the governments have taken them back, but I know they gave schools back at a time. Also, what about the primary schools where the formative years begin?

I grew up in Lagos that was civil; where ambition was positive and the environment was healthy. We had wolewole; they were the hygiene officers coming round to make sure that all these stagnant water, even the gutters, were clean. We had people working from the City Hall, cleaning and were paid. My family home now in Evans Street, from Smith Street to Olushi Street; they know that was Bode George’s Street, but the Lagos State government completely uprooted the road, saying they wanted to repair it. For the past one year, you can’t drive there. You don’t know who is who; you don’t know what is happening and they bring bills to you.

Look at even where I am staying now, my house at Onikoyi Street is there. When I got there, the Lagoon was directly behind the house. Go there now, they call it Banana Island or Banana Estate; they have blocked everywhere, all drainages. Where are the environmental impact assessments? The Kuramo Waters, by the naturalness of the Lagos Lagoon, is the buffer that takes care of the rise and fall of the tide. Now, they have sand-filled it and some Lebanese and Bola Tinubu are building houses there. So, who is in control? I said we lost it and to think that, some day, the naturalness will riot and there will be an explosion and we won’t be able to contain it. That is why I got emotional talking about Lagos.

Recently, I lost a friend who was my junior in the grammar school. We went for his burial at the Ereko Methodist Church where I was baptized. My goodness, it has become something else; I couldn’t recognise the place. We used to go on a walk in the evening, from Idumota to Tinubu Square where they had no horns, because that is where the High Court is. You could go there and there is no harassment and come back on a walk. But try that now. We couldn’t get to the church. Every inch of the road was totally clustered. It is exploding and what does the future profess?

All you find now is shops and shops; even up to the 10th floor, you find shops and people will climb to get there as there is no lift. I am not a prophet of doom, but to compare what it was then to what it is now, it is like day and night; darkness and light. There is no comparison whatsoever. There is no place for children to do any sports or games; we don’t even have children any more when all you have these days is waking these children up at ungodly hours to take them to school and leave them at the mercy of care givers all day long. This effect is being felt now and so different from my own upbringing. The kind of childhood I had, once you are asked to manage something, it is a commitment and dedication to do what is good; what is justifiable and what will be long lasting after you. But these days, I keep wondering, trying to control my emotions and ask myself, where are we going? We have lost it completely. All people want to do now is make money at the expense of anything. Look at all the jokers; they now come like a masquerade. I am a politician. What does that portend? They do not believe in service to the people.

Where do we go from here and how do we correct these things?

I am 71 and I have said this, even at the lowest levels. When I was in the university, we were eight in my graduating class: University of Lagos, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and while we were writing our final paper, we were given appointments; companies were waiting for us. Nowadays, people complain that there are no jobs. My children who live abroad say ‘Daddy you want us to come to Nigeria. What will we do when we get back?’ When people in the upper-middle class can’t get jobs, what should the people do?

But what is the way forward?

The level of poverty is so overwhelming. People believe if someone wants people to vote for him, he has to give them money. Where is the money coming from? There is no return on his ‘investment’ so he believes that when he gets into power, his money must be recovered. So, he takes back the people’s money- public funds; he takes this money, regardless of the people’s needs.

So it has to be a deliberate campaign, a deliberate effort to educate the people. The man who wants to come to lead you, you are the boss; not him. A politician is a servant of the people. He is to go there to manage the resources to make the people’s lives better. Have we really understood that message? All these junketing by politicians are mind-boggling. Where are we going? Where did we get it wrong? Look at Chief Obafemi Awolowo; we were in primary school when he started his free education scheme. Lagos was not part of the Western Region but we used to envy those people. When I went to Ijebu Ode Grammar School, they did not control the school, but they could make policies about education. It was where I first saw television. Papa S B Osuntolu, an elder in my area, took me to Ibadan to watch football when Liberty Stadium was opened; flood lit. We watched football being played in the night.

I never met Baba Awolowo but I met him through his books. All the postulations, all the documentations and the methodology of governance are in there and if we use it as blue print for all the governors all over the country, it would work. We were not in the Action Group in Lagos; we were with Baba Herbert Macaulay then. Nnamdi Azikiwe was like a son to him and when Macaulay died, the whole of Lagos wanted NCNC. I was in secondary school when they took Baba Awolowo to prison and then, Alhaji Lateef Jakande came. Some people forget that their actions are not for now; it is for the future. Some people fail to realise that whatever anyone does will be written on the pages of history.

We have lost it completely. It is not about the political party; it is about the people themselves. We are sick people. There are few that are committed, but they would not allow them to rule. The clutches of darkness are so heavy that they want to hound you. Was I not hounded to KiriKiri? For doing what? Even my lawyer, he started behaving like a Japanese yoyo, until God gave me Kanu Agabi. I should have known but I am just an engineer; a lot went on underground and before I knew, it was late. With my background, no matter where you put me, I will tell the truth. Now the judgment of the Supreme Court will be quoted as a supra forever. That was God’s doing. They thought they had buried Bode George, but God prevailed.

Is that why you decided to keep quiet?

I am overwhelmed by what I am seeing. I never believed it will get to this level in my lifetime; it stinks. The quality of people all over the whole place leaves me wondering where this country is going. We ought to pray for our leaders because whether they do well or not, their actions and inactions will ricochet down the lines. Where is this country today? We should pray for this baba (President Muhammadu Buhari). I am also saying that, coming from his background as a soldier, he has a commitment to reshape Nigeria and bring her out of these. Our oath is to defend this nation, no matter what. I will advise Buhari not to allow the sub-humans we have to mindlessly derail him from the right path. What would history write on his period of leadership? We must rise above pertinence, silliness, tribalism and unnecessary sentiments. Governance is for the people so let our deeds be a mark point to go on the top of the hill as a light to the people; whatever you do will be on the pages of history.

I told you I never met Papa Awolowo, I met Mama HID though, but I met him through his books and blue prints. I tried to copy some of the things he did when they sent me to Ondo as the governor; history will judge us if we succeeded or not. It’s not for me to say, but I satisfied my mind that I put in my best.

What is the lot of your party now?

Our party PDP cannot go down. Yes we made some mistakes; this party has a solid foundation. We will get it back, we will. People came and asked us to change the name; the hood doesn’t make the monk. Changing name will not change the people, we are the same Nigerians. It is about ensuring that the tenets, the beliefs and the norms of the founding fathers remain and also changing the psyche of the people. We also draw a line and insist that anybody below this behavioural and experience level cannot lead in any capacity in the party or manage the party.

Which way forward for our nation?

I am happy Baba Shehu Shaghari is still alive and General Yakubu Gowon is gracefully aging. General Ibrahim Babangida and Baba Olusegun Obasanjo are still alive. Let this group of people that have headed Nigeria at some point come out, talk and do something.  It is about the people. We have drifted as a nation, but it can still be corrected.

Buhari should collect money from those who have stolen them, but he should not lose focus of the millions that look up to him for survival, basic education, basic healthcare and all. Let him forget praise singers. Government cannot and will not run business successfully because who goes to check their account at the end of the year?; Who audits the government? Concession parastatals; you don’t sell it; then get results at the end of the day. We did that in NPA and NPA was laughing to the bank. We are not asking that you sell, like some voodoo economists were telling government, ‘download your assets … download Nigeria’, as if it is a privately owned property. I read this and asked where we are going. Of course, they retracted this. When you sell out LNG, NNPC and the others; these are not personal assets. When you sell out what belongs to us as a nation, then what remains? Let them try and concession these things out and let experts tell them how much they will get on monthly and yearly basis. Through those, the consumer will benefit, the government will benefit and people will also benefit. I pray that God will lead this man aright. I have been quiet because we are watching, but to say we are happy, I am not; I am scared down.

Tribuneonlineng