…Unveils HSD Policy Roundtable Discussions Series
Former Governor of Bayelsa State and serving Senator of the 9th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson held a Tweet Meet in Abuja with Social Media Influencers and Online Publishers on Tuesday, May 24th, 2021. The social media parley served the Bayelsa State born politician the opportunity to share his views on very burning issues of national interest with the media and the Nigerian people. The issues cut acrosspolitics, insecurity, the economy, etc.
Senator Dickson welcomed all present and those who joined via Tweeter to the HSD Policy Roundtable. He said his Foundation was launched in 2020 and that, the Policy Roundtable and dialogue that comes with Roundtable, will form the basis of the work of his foundation.
The programme was moderated by Ojugo Ojay and Ariyo-Dare Atoye. Asked by Ojay to share his thoughts on the security situation in the country, Senator Dickson said that the HSD Roundtable will continue to talk about the role of dialogue in the national discuss as it affects all aspects of our national life from security to the Economy, governance, etc. He said we need to have this national conversation and dialogue; we agree and disagree within the limits of our national interest. He said it seemed to him that, we have long lost our culture of debates and civic participation and that these values are fast receding in our political space. He said the culture of negotiation, of political deal making; not in the commercial monetary terms such as our founding fathers engaged in when they had constitutional conferences at home and abroad, is fast gone. He said in others words, the act of politics in itself is fast disappearing.
Senator Dickson said these days, politicians are more militant than the militants and the military. He said the act of conversation, consensus building, agreeing and disagreeing on issues, but in the national interest, are fast disappearing. He stated furthermore that, this is one the elements the HSD Roundtable wants to bring back into our national consciousness, particularly when talking about political issues that affect us as a people.
On the national security challenges, Senator Dickson agreed with Ojay on the blood letting going on across Nigeria which he said was almost in all parts of the country. Banditry, kidnapping, Hostage taking, Piracy in the creeks, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in the North East which have to be confronted and defeated. He said this has been going on for about ten years in the North East. Senator Dickson said, there is now a convergence of Islamic State in West Africa Province (IDSWAP) and Boko Haram in the entire Sahel Region and with the situation in Chad, it means Nigeria’s national security challenges with respect to Islamic Terror will even get worse.
Dickson said that in addition to the above, we have secessionist agitations and that these are the areas he wants young people and Nigerians generally to be part of the kind of dialogue that the HSD Policy Roundtable wants to promote. He said with this, we can examine and interrogate the national dilemma in all these forms and that while doing so, to also ensure all Nigerians that there is still hope and that all is not lost. He said, this is the key point we must all take back home, yes, Nigeria has challenges, every nation has its own, the British, our former colonial masters, are still talking about the issues of devolution in the devolved nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As our former colonial masters are still talking about such issues and therefore every nation is a work in progress and ours is not an exception.
He said we must not deceive ourselves because there are issues and challenges that we must frankly examine. He said those who hold themselves out as leaders, must be alive to these challenges and not be playing politics of convenience, they speak when it is only convenient for them and dodge the challenges and issues while they fan the embers of religious and ethnic divides.
He said for example, the secessionist agitations show that there is a general loss of faith in the country. A general loss of faith in the Nigerian dream. He made reference to what he said on the floor of the Senate, that the Nigerian dream did not start today, he said the Nigerian dream started with the likes of Herbert Masrcurlay and perhaps others that came before him. There were also people like Nnamdi Asikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balawa, Ahmadu Bello, Harold Dappa-Biriye of the Niger Delta, etc.
At this point Dare-Atoye chipped in to ask the governor another question: Your Excellency, before we go far into the details, I want to ask, what in your view is the role of knowledge, understanding and history of the Nigerian context in the leadership of Nigeria and could the lack of this understanding be responsible for why we don’t have a grasp of how to find solutions to these issues?
Senator Dickson said he agreed with Ariyo Dare-Atoye’s question that, the lack of understanding, Knowledge and history is responsible for the lack of grasp of ways of finding solutions to these issues. He said this was a part of the problem. In Dickson’s views, it is not an accident that since after the likes of Azikiwe, Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, etc., you have not seen contemporary leaders of Nigeria and Africa writing books. He said he does not know how many of these contemporary leaders find time to read as much. Dickson said knowledge always has a place in leadership because, the leader has to have the requisite knowledge, not only of the past but of the present challenges and then come up with a vision for the future, so that you can have a combination of vision, passion to drive it and compassion to drive the exercise of power.
He said he agreed with Atoye that knowledge has its place, particularly knowing the history of a diverse nation like Nigeria, knowledge of history is indispensable but unfortunately, at some point in our national life, even the study of history was down played and removed from our school curricular. He said he heard that history has been restored in our school curricular and that, the sooner people know more about our nation, particularly those who are offering themselves for leadership, the better our chances of creating a new and better nation based on visionary and compassionate leadership.
Senator Dickson noted that, Nigeria does have leaders who have tried their best and that one of such leaders, Olusegun Obasanjo has taken his time to write a lot. He has always found time to write his experiences, thoughts and actions. He said he has always encouraged as many leaders as he has interacted with, both military and civil, to try and document their own experiences for the benefit of posterity.
Again, Dare-Atoye chipped in a question; Ojay talked about insecurity and we have challenges, your excellency, do you think we have done enough in terms of using technology? This is because some people are asking, why are we not using drones and surveillance technology, what do you think is responsible? Is it that NASS has not done enough in terms of appropriating money or they have not put that legislation in place or is it that there is no synergy? What is responsible for Nigeria with a population of over two hundred million people not being able to surmount this insurgency and uprising that is going on across our country?
Senator Henry Seriake Dickson said specifically, about insecurity and why we are where we are, there are two broad categorizations. The first is historical because the systems and structures that we have adopted are not in sync with who we are. For example, he said there was no role for our traditional rulers in our governance and we are a nation of ethnic nationalities and also a nation of African Kingdoms. He said, you have got to keep this in mind when formulating the basis of our nationhood.
Senator Dickson said what you call Nigeria today, did not just appear from the moon. He said, we are basically, a nation of proud African Kingdoms with our own systems and ancient civilizations. He gave examples with the Karnem-Bornu, the ancient Bini Kingdom (with the King’s bloodline running primogeniture for almost a thousand years), these kingdoms have been around for a thousand years or more. He said, before the British came, the Binis were speaking Portuguese in the Benin Oba’s Palace, there is an old Church built in the 18th century, (The cathedral is the oldest worship centre in Africa and was established by the Portuguese before they started the Roman Catholic and other churches. The reigning Oba of Benin, Omo N’ Oba N’ Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, worships at the cathedral. The Holy Aruosa Cathedral, according to sources, was built by Oba Esigie in 1849).
The cathedral is an unusual worship centre where tradition and religion are practised with the teeming worshippers having direct contact with God without going through any intermediary like Jesus Christ, according to a senior member of the cathedral, who spoke with our reporter, but would not want his name in print.
The Itsekiris had the Olus/Nanas as kings and were speaking Portuguese and conducting Foreign Affairs, Diplomacy. The Pere of Boni in the 18th century sent his son to England and he was a ward of Queen Victoria and so also were so many other Kingdoms in Nigeria until the British came and brought us together.
Dickson quarried the systems that we have evolved that can aid our security or speak to our security? He said from independence, we had the Native Authority Police but that with the population explosion and the modern systems that were imported particularly after military rule in 1978, when we adopted the Presidential system, a Presidential system that was in essence, a Monarchical System, where the President had the authority of a King. He said the notion of the American Executive Presidency is monarchical. We have imported it into our system and are now running a very distant government from the people as opposed to the British Parliamentary system, where everybody will elect their own representatives.
Senator Dickson said that, the structure of the constitution, the federal system we are supposed to be operating is only federal in name. This he said was a major structural problem because the Federal (Exclusive) list is so long, so unwieldy and covers almost everything, thereby isolating the people from the essential governance of themselves, particularly in the area of law and order, which is the first duty of the Federation. In his words, “We have taken it up in the 1999 constitution, borrowing from the 1978 constitution. But then, you have not given the states and local governments roles which is where our people live. So, structurally, you have a problem”.
Dickson said because the Federal List is so overloaded, the federation does not have the resources, the time and is not paying attention to its core mandate of providing security, law and order. He said, for example, when you say you have a Federal Police Force, but you’ve not talked about how you’ll fund it, how you would safeguard the man who heads the police, the IGP. You make it so federal that, one man sits in Abuja and then will be policing this vast nation of over two hundred million people without their input. Yet, you can’t fund it. He said funding was key. He said a nation where the police, which is the foremost law and order agency in every country, are not funded, trained, equipped and mobile, where they are not well paid and therefore not well motivated, where salaries are peanuts, the police men are grumbling, when they retire they are paid peanuts and can’t live on such peanuts both in service and out of service, where they live in slums, in any such country, you can’t have security. He said this is because, the frontline agency for fighting crime and criminality, is the police. He said the strength of the society in having law and order, rests on the police, the average police constable, not the senior officers sitting in an air-conditioned office in Abuja or a state Headquarters.
Senator Dickson said, that is why in most countries that are safe, you see police men patrolling not with sophisticated weapons but with batons. Yes, they would have their armed units to deal with insurgents and other sophisticated attacks but the regular policemen that keep everyone safe, go around with their batons, their patrol cars with communication and they are well trained. They also know the locality and are also known by the locality and people look forward to working there. They do not take school drop-outs, they take competent people, well-motivated, trained and equipped. He said once you do this, you have dealt with the basics of local security and you connect the policing with the communities.
Senator Dickson said even around us, when you go to some countries, once you enter those countries, in the next thirty minutes to one hour, their authorities will know that somebody, maybe a Nigerian has entered into Chad, Niger, Cameroun, etc. He noted that we don’t have that kind of system in Nigeria. He said we have not built it and that if it was there before, we have destroyed it. He said we’ve got to go back to the basics. Dickson said this is the reason the army is so overstretched. He said the laws permits the military to perform some policing duties in aid of civil authorities. However, he said in Nigeria, it is now everywhere that needs this aid in policing. So, we find a situation that soldiers who are not trained to handle civil maintenance of law and order, which is the normal policing job, are seen even mounting road blocks and are everywhere almost in all the states of the federation.
Senator Dickson said, the failure, abandonment and collapse of the police is one of the main problems we have. Dickson said that the second part of the security problem was structural. He said even the police has to interrogate its structural problem. He quipped; how do you structure the police to be effective? He said, if you look at what is happening in most countries of the world, you have different areas of policing like the federal police, state police and county police, University Police and even big corporations have their own police. They have a way of linking them together as well as with the judicial system. He said, in the case of Nigeria, we have not done that and this is the reason why we are where we are today. He said, in a country as complex, big and vast with this massive population and a massive youth population coupled with unemployment and an economy in recession, we are bound to be where we are.
The HSD Policy Roundtable was unveiled after the question and answer session and conversation with social media Tweeter Followers.
This ends the first part in the series of the HSD Policy Roundtable and snippets from the Tweet Meet on Tuesday May, 21, 2021 with Senator Henry Seriake Dickson; Former Attorney General of Bayelsa State, Former House of Representatives Member, Former Governor of Bayelsa State and currently a serving Senator representing Bayelsa West in the 9th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
