- Northern youths more passionate about #Ourmumudondo than South-East, South-West counterparts
Maverick entertainer, Charles Oputa, alias Charly Boy, is the leader of the OurMumuDonDo Coalition which seeks to defeat political elitism, corruption, incompetence and redirect governance towards empowerment, dignity and freedom for the people. Born on June 19, 1951, the Area Fada, in this interview with TheNewsGuru.com, shares his thoughts on Nigeria at 57; how things were shortly after Independence and the particular point when things started going south. He also spoke on the forthcoming 2019 polls as well as efforts currently being made by his group to retrieve Nigeria from corrupt politicians who, according to him, are the real enemies of the people. Below are the excerpts…
What can you say of Nigeria as a country?
I’m sure that a lot of people just as I do feel frustrated. There is this air of uncertainty. We’ve have noticed systemic failure and this type of failure cannot be sustained. There is failure in government and leadership. My primary concern is the young people in this country; for them to try and recreate a paradigm shift in the system because things cannot continue like this without something breaking and my advice has always been that rather than stray aloof or hang around in the corridor waiting for handouts, they better be in the same place with those steering the country and talking about their own future which has so far been stolen. Even the future of their children has been stolen by the kind of criminality and impunity found in government.
Since Nigeria attained independence on October 1, 1960, at what point can you say its failure started?
The things Fela talked about in those days have in fact gotten worse. So, I think we started to deviate after the Civil War. Between the Civil War and the early 90’s Nigeria had the biggest brain drain because people were not too sure whether the military was going to leave at all. So the best of the best of us left the shores of this country. The remaining ones went into hiding. There were a few people who were speaking up at the time but like everything else they gradually fizzled out themselves so the political landscape was left to people without pedigree, people without any moral compass. People who had no value, no honour jumped into the whole scene. Then, we lost most of the values we used to hold sacred before the war like: I’m a baby of the early 60’s, I know at that time, if a little boy is naughty on the street, people would ask who are your parents; who is your father. In those days, we worshiped truthfulness, we worshiped people who were straightforward. There was premium for moral standards but immediately after the war everything seem to have gone to the dogs because you can’t have a society that is not built on ideology, on values and principles. You can’t have a government that does anyhow and is controlled by nincompoops, riffraff and people without pedigree.
Are you saying that the problems of Nigeria started with military’s incursion into politics?
Yes. It was then that the decay started to become very visible and the war contributed. A lot of the Easterners then were displaced and were made to start life afresh with 20 pounds.
Do you think the civil war is still haunting Nigeria?
There have been a class war; them verses us, the rich verses the poor, the people in leadership positions verses the led. The led has not been any more useful because they have for a while been docile. They have not bothered to engage the government, to struggle for their rights, to hold government accountable for its action. There has always been this attitude of siddon look.That is why we say: our mumu suppose to don do.
When you say our mumu don do, does that mean you are not satisfied with the status quo?
How can anybody be satisfied with the status quo. The status quo is the problem! The thing that sometimes irritates me about us as a people, I keep wondering whether we realize who our enemies are. We have been so brainwashed by religion, ethnicity and all the rest of it that we forget who the enemy really is. The enemy is not your mother-in-law, your father-in-law, your gateman or your driver. The enemies are those in leadership position who would steal millions and millions of maybe funds meant to build hospital and do you know how many people will die as a result of the money not getting to where it is supposed to get to, to do those things for which it was meant. Those criminals are the enemies. Like I said, I am a baby of the early 60’s, at that time we worshipped integrity, we worshiped people with honour but because of the swap in the value system and the decay in morality, we now worship money by any means necessary and so far nobody has been reprimanded. They have been shouting war against corruption, has anybody been thrown into jail yet? So who are they fooling?
How would the present set of leaders who you have described as the enemies be sacked from the scene?
It would happen through a few number of persons. We are only interested in a critical mass. It is not an all-on-board statistics. Not every slave would want to be freed in the first place. I have come to realize that it just takes a few people to change things. As the PMAN president, it took just two or three of us to be able to change the fate of the Nigerian artiste. The things they are enjoying today can be traced to what we did in those days; fight for respect, fight for copyright… The things is that journalists do not dig up information from the past. Nigerians have a very short memory. A lot of things have happened but it needs dedication, tenacity and people with love of country not to divide the country. Was the resume or resign not effective, didn’t Mr. President come back? Didn’t you see their own supporters who they had to pay? Did anybody pay the resume or resign peaceful protesters? They were not up to 10 people yet it was something that was started in the city of Abuja and spread like wild fire to New York, London, Sweden, to Houston and if Mr. President hadn’t come back when he came back it would have been a movement all over the world. So, it takes a few people to change things.
Have you identified those few people and are you working with them now?
Over the past 40 years, I have been involved in youth advocacy. I have always said that the salvation of this country lies in the hands of exceptional youths. When I’m talking of exceptional youths, I’m not referring to those in Ajegunle or those in Maroko. I’m talking globally because if you go to NASA – the highest security outfit in America, a Nigerian is there. If you go to Havard, a Nigerian is there. If you go to British Parliament, Nigerians dey there. Nigerians are doing well in so many areas across the world. The people who are holding the little pride that is left of Nigeria in the eyes of the world are Nigerian youths. The criminal politicians and leaders when they travel abroad, shebi they go behave because there is a standard. Things work there based on structures and systems not on individuals. Look at Trump, he can’t do as he would want to in America because the system would not allow it.
Now you are talking about system which the clamour for restructuring is basically about, what’s your take on restructuring?
I’ve been married for going to 40 years and it is not an easy exercise and if you desire longevity in your marriage, both partners need to be at their communicative best – talking all the time. If things are not working the way it should work, I think what we need to do is to sit on the table and talk about how we solve the problems and carry on from there and I want to believe that that is what the restructuring is about: how do we carry on as a nation because the world is shrinking.
In clear terms are you in support of a restructured Nigeria?
I’m in support of anything that would move us forward, anything that would create more peace, anything that would create a better environment for our children to express themselves and to have hope not finding themselves in a state of hopelessness.
With this your movement, are you considering getting involved in the political process by maybe forming a political party?
Our mission is about a ballot revolution, our mission is about creating a paradigm shift and all of these cannot be achieved without youth involvement and this is why we are concentrating on the youths. If the youths decide to be careless about their future in Nigeria, there will be no future for them as it would now belong to the older people. So we are trying to sensitize, educate the docile, ignorant Nigerian youths. Like it was said in the Bible: many are called, few are chosen and we believe in a critical mass. Fortunately, the people that are more passionate about this Ourmumudondo things are those in the Diaspora. In Nigeria, northerner youths are more passionate about Ourmumudondo than those in the West or the East. So, something is changing. Like I tell youths, our biggest weapon is the social media because the people we are fighting are like Goliath while we are like David. A lot of us have been brainwashed to be arrogantly ignorant on so many things. We can’t just continue in this mumuness na. It’s enough!
Would you support a youth to emerge President in 2019?
This is what it is all about na. It’s all about us revisiting those values of old to start to promote them.