Only a home-grown system can lift Nigeria from wood of political doldrums – Chris Okotie

In this interview, a former presidential candidate of the Fresh Democratic Party (FDP), Pastor Chris Okotie, says the only way out for Nigeria’s survival is through an aboriginal democracy, a system that will usher in home-grown democracy that will address issues affecting Nigerians. David Lawani monitored the session on Arise TV

You have always advocated home-grown democracy, what does it entail?

We are involved in what I call a conversational level where Nigerians are holding a conversation as to the viability of this project because we recognise that this change is not what is going to solve the problems. If you go by that you are just going to come back to square one. A journey in futility is a Sicilian quest, it is an elusive phantom because what is obtained in our nation is what I call partisanism. People don’t vote for personalities, but parties. That is why I said our experience is the government of the party, for the party, by and for the party. And to that extent, whatever you do and whoever becomes the President will go on that part. And that takes us to square one. All over the nation, we have inspired people to come together and begin to have this conversation as to how we transmit from the present situation to an interim government. That will help to create an enabling environment for leadership. Because if the environment is not enabling then it is a cessation quest and a waste of our time. That is what we called political residualism- going back to your state and that is what this is all about.

What do you have to say about those calling for restructuring? Are you not trying to also get power through the backdoor with this rotational presidency?
Ordinarily, I won’t waste my time with such but for argument. Let it be that if I was looking for a political career to engage in self-aggrandisement, I would have joined the dominant party. You can’t win an election in the immediate particularly in Nigeria if you are not involved with the gargantuan dominant parties whose tentacles pervade the longitude and latitudes of our political spectrum. When I ran on the spectrum of the Fresh Democratic Party, FDP, to find some enthusiasms in which I will begin to articulate and ventilate the concept of governance and how to strengthen Nigeria in with the challenge of twenty 1st century. You will find that when President Buhari ran for the first time his party was not strong enough and there was a coalition of political parties after forming the APC. Therefore, if I wanted to do that, that is what I would have done. But the fact that I didn’t do that as far as I am concerned there is no point mentioning it. It doesn’t mean that I do not believe in the Nigerian dream. Fresh Democratic Party has presented a platform for me to articulate these ideas. You see, an interim government is like a surgical operation. It is like you are carrying out an operation in the theatre. What we have done in the past is to deal with our problems from a symptomatic level. We must look at the problems from a pathological perspective if we are going to deal with them. That is the only way we are going to heal and erase all of these aberrations. Our constitution is restructuring because what we are practicing today is not federalism. Federalism involves the manipulation of centrifugal and centripetal forces based on how they interact. People won’t have an opportunity to decide how their resources are going to be controlled. The interim government will provide this approach for people to come together and to decide so that these agitations and cessation will cease. The reason why people are agitating is that they don’t have seen of belonging. So, if you provide that opportunity for them to come together then they will recognize how important they are. And this concept of regional xenophobia will be abolished and we will begin to understand that we have a common destiny. And that we can translate the paraphernalia of diversity to the apparatus of national unity, and I am happy to do so because I have demonstrated this often time some kind of tenacity. I will say that I have paid my dues. If I wanted to be a part of this government, I would have done so many years ago when I first ran for the presidency in 2003.

Since you are not desperate for power, why should you be the one leading the process? You said you have paid your dues, why don’t you test your popularity at the poll?

You won’t understand that the uniqueness of this interim government introduces what I called aboriginal democracy. When you propound a political philosophy there is compartmentalisation to that concept. You have to know what the way is, the truth, and the life of that concept. The way is methodology. The way it takes on political coloration and its ideology. Ideology begets manifestoes. The manifestoes are the aggregation of actions that have taken practical manifestations. Then you go to the truth. What is the basis of that concept? Is it based on feudality? Is it based on mendacity? Even if it is the truth ad it is based on veracity, then it is idealism. When you go to live, what is it supposed to mean? What is the life that is introduced? What is animation? What is the galvanizing impetus? What is educational experimentation? What is the concept? These are concepts that you can hand over to somebody and expect them to trifle with. You have to internalise it and now the mechanical way forward when you are in to actualise them. So, it is difficult to bring somebody ad say this is what aboriginal democracy is about and he doesn’t understand it. I have said in our concept of aboriginal democracy that we do not need a legislator. And the legislators are inconsistent with our cultural reality. And we should take responsibility for the legislature and give it to professionals. When they come to Abuja, they are divided into committees. There are 67 standing committees in the Senate, and 89 in the House of Reps. These committees deal with issues like health, military, education, etc. We already have an association in the policy dealing in the committees that have done this job for many years. We have doctors, lawyers, markets, and all that leading themselves. It is a concept I called gregarious socialisation. They have professional consequently. It is by of enterprise and organic endeavours. And they will be more familiar with the terrain. Some of these people in the elite club called the House of Reps don’t even understand the dynamics of the problems. Or the dialectics of law-making. If we can take this responsibility and give it to the professionals who are also volunteers, it will extricate us from the burden of financial responsibility that we have for that structure. As far as I am concerned, it is inconsistent with our cultural reality. And these are the people here who have been in the polity without success. We have an elite system that is not in touch with the reality of time. Again this is something you cannot communicate with anybody who doesn’t understand the nature of what I am saying, it has gone beyond that. For over the years, I have stayed with this philosophy because this is a philosophy upon which a super-government will be erected. I have not been drawn by some pecuniary inducement. I was seen to be promoting some political idiosyncrasies of some political juggernaut or godfather in the Nigerian experience, I have not done that. You will never find me in the national assembly for their political secrets, I am never a part of that. We need someone who has demonstrated that fidelity to the Nigerian culture- that has never aligned with the parties that have created the problems that we have today either in the APC or PDP and if you can find anybody who is more qualified, you can send the person.

How do you intend to maintain this ideology considering the religious nature of the nation?

We must rise above the past histories of religion. We must rise above the mundane of ethnicity. And altitude of cleavages that seek to lacerate us from the terrain of greatness. We cannot continue to remain in the doldrums of religion. This politics is different from government. It has no conscience. It has no emotions. What we are looking for in leadership, is the humane communication of the capacity in an organisational society for the subjects of that society and the individual. Politics moves at a state which is that collective entity that represents a geographical expression of an organise society. What Nigeria is looking for today is leadership. What I am asking is for the safety and longevity of our collective patrimony as Nigerians so that we can come together as a people. Let us be involved in an initiative that caters to our education and sensibilities and people say as it been done in other places, and I said it doesn’t matter, we can bring that innovation to the community of nations. It is a millennium and it calls for harmony. I am saying that at the end of the conversation I will do a transcript to the head of the government, the President, and the National Assembly, showing them that this is the only way forward, anything outside of this is going to take us to square one. By the time the cacophony of match pass and their quires have sun side, and confines to the oblivion, Nigerians will wake up and fight for the reality that will corroborate the status quo. We are back to square one, and I am saying without any equivocation or ambivalence that the only way forward is an interim government led by Chris Okotie.

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What are your thoughts on Tinubu-Shettima ticket?
I think that given the reality of the Nigerian experience, it will be a difficult situation. Not because people are religious, but because they understand what they have experienced in the recent past. We have seen religious fundamentalism as we have never seen before. We have seen parochialism like never before. That is why I think the political party needs to be sensitive. To identify with what is going on in the polity and that they will be more careful in their selection. But, I want to state very clearly that I do not believe that a regime change is what Nigeria needs right now. Whether it is northern or Christian-Christian, it is a waste of our time, and if we don’t do the needful, we will be there and feeling very sorry. Because we are sitting on the crutch of a great crisis, states must come together at this time. Our understanding is that the love for Nigeria must transcend the religious frontiers, and then we must come together to salvage the situation. I will advise that a flag bearer should temporarily maintain the highest state of mind until we have created an enabling environment for leadership. Because if we don’t do that it will be just a waste of energy.

You have said in times past that you have been ordained to be the President. As a clergy, how much of this prophesy is divinely true?

The thing about this is having the ability to be able to communicate the reality of the mind that is not a hostage. The mind with your faith is different from the one in the ordinary parlance. Faith calls for those who are willing. God doesn’t speak in the future but the present. He said I have made you. I am made you the father of nations. When he doesn’t even have a child. So, sometimes when we communicate spiritual information, people misunderstand. It is beyond that which is on the surface. It is reaching the supernatural realm. Taking that which is very invincible and bringing it to the animate area of materialism. When I make a statement that when people think because we are in an election, we cannot do much. We don’t care who is going to do it. But it is time for a true Abraham or Isaac to be there. We must understand that it took time for the processes for the rain to fall. It took a hundred and twenty years before it began to rain. But many times we talk about a lot of things. But only a few people understand spiritual things. Let me assure you that which has been foreclosed will surely come to pass. What I am doing right now is patriotic. It is a time when Nigeria needs to come together in a cohesive atmosphere. Where there will be peace and understanding and we are that nationalistic in all our doings. That we will overcome the situation that we face today. We don’t want it to degenerate into an ordinary politician in the street. And then forget the essence of what I am doing. It is a calling and it takes devotion to do what I am doing and I know those who are patriots can hear my voice.

What role do you expect the leaders to play considering the issue of vote buying and voter apathy?

When I began 2001 to pontificate on this issue, many people within the Christian community didn’t quite understand what I was doing. They thought there was a call between my ministry and that of government, not minding that the Bible was predicated on issues. I am unable to participate in political activities and spiritual ones which is why it is what it is. It is called the governor of the maidens. I think since 2001 there has been enough dissemination of information because the more righteous people participate in the process the better for the political process. Before we didn’t have this kind of chaos that we have now or the political stupidity that we are currently seeing and it is written that righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is a reproach to a people. How many people think that religion expects us to keep an atmosphere that will endanger public responsibility? I always say that as a minister there is a certain moral and political rectitude that is required of me that will support my stand. There are certain principles that I cannot adhere to. There is a responsibility that I must embrace. I feel that some of my colleagues are conversant with some of the issues confronting our nation just because they don’t want to dirty their hands.

You can’t win an election in the immediate particularly in Nigeria if you are not involved with the gargantuan dominant parties whose tentacles pervade the longitude and latitudes of our political spectrum