Video And Transcript: Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon Speaks On State Of Nigeria Part 1

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...be obscurantive or to be gymnosophist in my communication.

There has been no deliberate attempt at all to obfuscate or envelope my audience in a state of orgamoga , no no no no no, far, far from it. Like I have always said, it is just that by the grace of God, by the grace of the great grand architect of the universe, I put my nose to the grindstone, and I am sort of an omnivorous reader.

I read practically everything that comes across my way. I am sure you can see here now 'The mystical life of Jesus'. This may be outside the purview of an ordinary lawmaker or a lawyer.

If you are a polyvalent and an elliptical reader , chances are that you are bound to come across one or two idiolects and if you make it as your pastime , to be able to know every new word you come across, what it stands for,  they are part and parcel of you, and when you speak, at times they come like the rattle of a gun and that goes beyond my control, but to say that I, Honourable Patrick Obahiagbon have deliberately set out to mystify my audience is far from it.

It is an opportunity for me again to use the platform of Sahara reporters, a latitudelerian platform to render an unreserved apologia to my audience if at any point in time; they find it a little bit difficult to comprehend what I am saying. I want to apologise that it is not intentionally at all excepting you are saying that I should be deaf and dumb, excepting you are saying that I should not speak. You know, so an apology again. I can't stop reading.

SR: Hmm, having said that, when we look at your contribution on the floor of the house, you have been very – you have been quite hard when it comes to the state of the nation.  I remember on e of your contributions during the disappearance of the former president, Late Musa Yar' Adua. Being a member of the PDP, you know, how did you feel at that point in time, going contrary to the general feeling of members of the political party to take an opposing view?

HPO: No, no ,no no, you see as a parliamentarian you have more than one , or two or three constituencies, you have loyalty to your party, you have loyalty to the nation, and you have your loyalty to your conscience. And for me, I have never found myself in any quandary as to the fact that when there is a mismatch, when there is an interpose between loyalty to your party, or loyalty to your nation or loyalty to your conscience, you must tilt the scale in favour of the nation, you must tilt the scale in favour of your conscience. So for me, even when the entire national assembly at that point in time, both the house of reps and the senate, took a position that it was not the business of the national assembly to call on late President Yar Adua to transmit a letter to the national assemble, my mind, my conscience wriggled and I thought we were just being politically loyal boys. SO at my expense, I called a world press conference and I said no no no, true, yes the provisions of the constitution made it discretionary but the national assembly could call on the president to  exercise that discretion in favour of public safety, in favour of the stability of democracy and once I aired that view, irrespective of the fact that it ran against the grain of the leadership of the national assembly,  irrespective of the fact that it ran against the grain of my political party , I became an happy man, and for me my happiness is what matters to me and that was why again, when we were told that a presidential jet flew in the late president into the country without the imprimatur of the then acting president, I came again on the floor of the parliament to say no no no no, I see this as a veritable bugaboo which must be pooh poohed, by all cosmopetis homo sapiens.

HPO: Yes, I am a member now of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Edo State. That itself has generated a life controversy of officio. But the way I look at this matter is that I take succour in Plato. Plato said that at all points in time in any democracy, the people and only the people must remain the philosopher kings, and I find myself in Edo State where a preponderant number of my constituents had techivastated from the People's Democratic party to the Action Congress of Nigeria, for no reason other than the fact that the comrade governor himself, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has given meaning to governance. Edo state that was in a state of economic quagmire, political phantasmagoria, and social stupor was gradually and is being gradually transmogrified into a state of infrastructural El Dorado. So you see a dominant number of my constituents adjusting to the Action Congress of Nigeria and I can't stay here, I can't stay here Kayode, to begin to admire the bridges in Abuja and pretend not to see the yearnings, not to listen to the yearnings and aspirations of my people.

SR: So what if you opponents call it political opportunism, that Oshiomhole and the Action Congres of Nigeria, being the party of the day...the ideology of the PDP to the ideology of the CAN, what do you have in common with the Action Congress in terms of policy?

HPO: What is the ideological difference? What is the ideological difference between the PDP and the ACN? What is the ideological difference between the PDP, the CAN and other political parties? If there is any ideological difference at all, it is but a twiddly dormant twiddledee. No, no basic, no basic ideological difference. It is all elitist, a band of elitists, gathering together, you know, for the sole purpose of acquiring political power, to see how that political power could be deployed, either in service of the nation or in service of self, you know, so if the ACN political platform for me is the platform that has become the bedrock upon which the economic status...

...interesting developments, unfortunately and sardonically and lugubriously so, we do not seem to have a very efficacious and potent political armada in form of an opposition political party in Nigeria just now, otherwise, this was the opportune time for Nigerians to have an alternative government to the People's democratic party. Because I foresee a lot of implosions flowing here-from, and in any case, in any case, Kayode, that 50 years of Nigeria's independence, we are still apostatizing the faucet aurigae of a presidential aspirant, that is to say where the presidential aspirant comes from, and not his merits, not what I can do, not his political pronunciamento, shows that there is something wrong with Nigeria's federalism, shows that we need to re-negotiate the character of the Nigerian state. What is zoning after all? To me, I am less perturbed whether a south southerner, a south-south man becomes president or a man from Sokoto becomes president, because, after all, there is one common denominator; - the common denominator is that it is a government of the elites, by the elites, and for the elites. The northerners have ruled the country for over  30 years, what have they used their 30 years of rulership – have they used their 30 years of rulership to transform Aminu Kano talakawas, have they used their 30 years to transform the modus Vivendi of the rag tag and the bob tail in the northern political, socio and  economic pathosphere ? When President Obasanjo from the South West was president of the federal republic of Nigeria, to what extent did that enhance the welfare of the hoi polloi in the Oduduwa republic? So, zoning is a contrivance by the elitist political class to have access to power to continue the pillaging and plundering of oil for their own egocentric benefit, to continue to masturbate their selves in the corridors of power. If  a man from X, from Lanktang state becomes president of the country, it does not affect the economic fortunes either way of a man from Lanktang state. Poverty is poverty, whether in the north or in the south, dilapidated state of infrastructure exists whether in the north or in the south. Bad healthcare delivery system exists whether in the north or in the south. So, all of this zoning is just a contrivance of by the Nigerian elites and unfortunately we seem to be falling n to this trap and we want to rely and ask of very sensitive and very dialectical and very clinical and soul searching platforms such as Sahara Reporters to continue to unveil these masquerades. It does not serve the interest of our people other than serve the interest of the elites. It shows that Nigerians are still falling assoc deep into the aqua of what Papa Jeremiah  - Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the [....] philosopher said when he described Nigeria as a mere geographical expression, 50 years after independence, we are still talking about zoning, is reflective of the fact that Nigeria still wallows in a state of menicisetal statetism , cankerous tribalism, ethnocentric chauvinism , syphilitic parochialism, epileptic nepotism, catalytic parapoism and state brigandish, of the bluest dye...

For Part 2: Video and Transcript: Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon Speaks On State Of Nigeria Part 2 - TheInfoStride.com

Interview conducted by Citizen reporter, Kayode Ogundamisi.  Transcript of interview provided by Aina Olatunji-Mason

Video And Transcript: Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon Speaks On The "State Of The Nigerian Nation"

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