Chief Nosakhare Isekhure, veteran politician, journalist and activist is the Chief Priest of Benin Kingdom. In this interview with newsmen, he articulates his positions on topical political issues in the country. Excerpts:
You participated in the National Conference convoked by President Goodluck Jonathan last year. Do you have any fear about the implementation of the report?
Our worry is about people who are narrow-minded and fail to recognize that, that conference was the most effective conference among all the conferences we have had in this country in the past 54 years of Nigeria’s independence.
Apart from President Jonathan, nobody has had the courage to bring people of our category together, who were not partisan during their discussion. They came to the conference with opened minds and discussed the ways they think we can move the nation forward without any interference or intimidation from any quarters, not even from President Jonathan.
At the end of the day, we came out with a proposal that this country needs to be governed within the context of the rule of law; that the nation should be restructured in a way every part of country would have access to their resources and contribute to the national cake in a positive manner rather than depending on other nationalities.
We also acknowledge that there is no state in this country that does not possess any resource that can contribute to the national cake. While some are hiding their resources, others are dispensing their own.
But that is not the way to go. We should be able to harness all our resources so that we can effectively develop the country.
Implementation of the report
Nosakhare-Isekhure
That is what we compressed as the conference report. And it is the man who wears the shoes who knows where it pitches.
It was President Goodluck Jonathan who set up the conference, received the report and we believe he is the only person who can also have the courage to implement that report because he saw the vision that we needed to talk to ourselves and we did talk to ourselves.
And we are now saying this same man who believes in consultation should be given a huge opportunity to actualize that dream by implementing the recommendations of the conference. That is the reason many of us have chosen to support President Goodluck Jonathan.
But there are indications that some Benin Chiefs don’t share this view of yours. How do you hope to reconcile these views?
Although a few narrow-minded people might not like my endorsement of President Jonathan but I cannot follow the agenda of one person.
My position is in line with the agenda of Nigerian people especially the good people of Edo State. Nigeria is bigger than any individual; what should concern us is what will benefit the general interest of Nigeria as a whole.
I am happy that many responsible Yoruba people are also thinking along this line; they have come forward to say they will vote according to how Nigeria will move forward and they believe Jonathan represents that process. You cannot change a performing government; it will not add to any development of our country.
I believe Jonathan has done well; we should give him another opportunity to complete his works.
When the general elections were recently postponed many people claimed that it was engineered by the ruling party, as we approach the new dates are you confident there won’t be another shift?
Well, we are not security officers; the president is the chief security officer of this country. We have different kinds of security agencies and they send reports to the president on a regular basis. And if security reports suggest that there will be chaos and suggestions to the effect that the elections should be postponed, the president has a constitutional obligation to adhere to those advices by doing the right things.
If he fails to take the advice and there is upheaval, the people will hold him responsible. I believe we were all winners in the postponement of the elections; no one is losing.
It has given all the political parties a huge opportunity to go back to drawing board to re-strategize and prepare better.
There has been this controversy about the position of the Benin Palace over the endorsement of presidential candidates in the coming elections. What is your take?
The Oba of Benin is not a politician; the Oba of Benin does not participate in partisan politics. We have said that time without numbers. Anybody who wants to see the Oba of Benin, either as a politician or political party is free to do so. He will sit down in his palace, listen to them and at the end he will ask one of the chiefs to brief them.
Usual prayer
President Jonathan
And the usual prayer has always been whoever will bring good things to us or Nigeria, let that person win. In the palace, there are members of different political parties. The Oba of Benin does not give instruction to us to go and vote for a particular political party or person.
He has never done that and he is not ready to do that now or in the future. We should not make any attempt to drag the name of the Oba of Benin to partisan politics.
How then do you consider the position of Chief Edebiri who recently said that the Oba of Benin had endorsed Gen. Muhammadu Buhari?
This matter has been raised on several occasions. Chief Edebiri is a traditional ruler in Benin; he has a right as a person to belong to a political party and express his personal view.
But his personal view does not represent the position of the Oba of Benin or the Bini’s interest. No one person can direct our people to vote for a particular political party or candidate. It has never happened and it will never happen.
The Bini people are Nigerians who have absolute rights to decide who to vote for in an election. Some people try to do what I did many years ago but I keep on saying that my position then was personal and when I was invited to a Tribunal, I told them so.
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