I do not have fake credentials –Nwaokobia

Those who are close to Chris Nwaokobia will tell you that he always has something to say on every topic. He has featured as a guest on many TV programmes and writes regularly for a magazine. He came under fire some time ago when he was accused of parading fake educational certificates.  In a chat with Senior Correspondent, Hazeez Balogun, he clears the air on the allegations and also talks about his life as an activist. Chris Nwaokobia When someone searches your name on the internet, the first headline that comes up is, ‘Prof Chris Nwowobia: modern day Judas’. The story talks about you promising to defend a young man and later abandoned him, what exactly happened? The first thing to note is that bad news sells and it is not only in our society but around the world. We have this problem called the pull-him-down syndrome here in our country. We would rather call people names because they are too much of an enigma or you just simply don’t agree with the views of that person. The case is not really a big one. It was about a young musician called Dafe that worked with Pastor Chris Oyakilome for several years without pay. Though, he did not have any contractual agreement with the pastor, but he had been working there with him at the church for a long time and he has not been paid a kobo throughout the years. So the young man approached me and explained his plight and he wanted me to defend him. I was really drawn to the case because, you could tell that the young man is living poorly while he works for a man who lives in opulence. I believe there was a case for the boy and he deserves some form of payment for his work with the pastor. I had a plan of course to follow up the case but the boy went ahead to picket the church with some other people. So I called him up if you are not going to follow my instructions and allow us to do things the proper way, I will not be able to support you any longer. All I want is that Chris should treat him better, it’s not like they have any contract. He even involved Festus Keyamo in the case and Festus also left the case just like I did. The young man was impatient. Later I got a friend request from him after he had tried to soil my name online. I accepted, I know he is just a young man who is still learning in life. Why does such case interest you? As a teenager, I have always fought against oppression. At the age of 17 going to 18, I founded a movement called Voice of the People in Delta State. When I was in the university, I led the leftist tendencies in the University of Nigeria. Before I got to the university, there was no form of protest recorded in the school for over 20 years. But when I got there, there was no water in school for over three weeks, I led the first protest in the school. You do not brand somebody you do not know. I am 43 years old this year and in all that years I have been detained in different facilities 18 times. I am a veteran of creative suffering, I am a veteran of selfless suffering. That is why Dafe’s story interested me, I saw he was being cheated. Some say that you are a fraud and you carry about fake certificates. Some even say you are not really a professor like you claim. Sadly, my generation would rather pull down than celebrate it’s leading lights. I have lived and travelled across the world. If I were an American, I would be supported by young Americans like they did for Obama. Because of my convictions. I contested for the presidency of this country even before I was 40 years old. Some people were jealous and overwhelmed. Titles to me do not mean much. If you were in America, you will not know who is a professor and who is not. Do you know I have many chieftaincy titles? You won’t know because titles are not the things I flaunt. I am a professor, whether academic or honorary. I have my gown in my office. I was asking someone recently, if Sir Victor Uwaifo is a professor, and Chief Ebenezer Obey was made a professor and you have no problem with it, so why do you have a problem with me being named a professor. With a great sense of humility, I write better than these people, I speak better than these people, and I have given my life for the people more than these people. I have been locked up 18 times. Why do young men and women bring down their own peers yet we say that the old ones are not giving us a chance. Akamai University in Hawaii gave me a Ph.D. in political science and public administration, Greenwood University in Denmark gave me a Ph.D in political science. I have my certificates and my gowns. I thank God for the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka who would call and say that everywhere he goes around the world, he is being asked, who is that man who talks and writes like him? If a man in his 70s is proud of me, so what is wrong with my generation? Please put caption for this interview like that, ‘What is wrong with my generation’. The likes of Pat Utomi will commend me that I am an excellent writer and speaker. The likes of Dele Momodu will call me and say that I am an excellent mind. It is not my fault that God has blessed me with oratory. I have written for papers like Thisday and Sun. Even early in my life I had a column with Daily Times called New Dawn. Now I write the Palladium in Yes Magazine. What we must do first is to pull ourselves first before the older generation can take us serious. They say I don’t have credentials, maybe if I was Bill Gates, nobody will ask for my credentials. You contested for the presidency in 2011, did you truly think you would win? First, at the age of seven, I was told as a sick child that all the challenges I was having was because I am meant to fulfil a destiny. On further inquiry, my parents were told that I would rule my country and fix my nation. During the June 12 struggle, I met Chief MKO Abiola and I understood the fact that the challenges of our nation was my primary passion. When President Yaradua passed on, I was one of those who began Friends of Jonathan for 2011. It later found out that we are going to have a president who was being goaded. I love presidents who are decisive and I do not see Jonathan as one and I could not bear that reality. There were also some men of God who encouraged me including Pastor Olukoya, Pastor Oyedepo and Pastor Olabayo. In fact, Olabayo confirmed to me that I am the Jehu who will fix Nigeria. Olukoya of Mountain of Fire also confirmed the same thing. He even promised that he will support me in every way. That is why the mantra of my campaign is Nigeria now. I believed that I was running a race predicated on God’s purpose for my country. I also spoke to the Muslim clergy and they confirmed the same thing to me. I believe they all got a true message but their timing was wrong. Now we are preparing for the 2019 race. We already have the movement called Change Network and we are going to run a massive campaign for 2019. I am in the process of bringing to this country the same kind of campaign that Obama employed. Why start from the presidency, why not show people your worth by contesting as a local government chairman? Any deep thinker will understand how things work. If you start as a LG chairman, you will have no power to effect any change. You are tied to the governor and he is the one who will determine your fate. If you decide to go for the house of reps or Senate, you will do your best, but there is little you can do. Show me one exemplary senator. They are just lawmakers in the hallowed chambers; we don’t know what they are doing. Then if you run for governorship, governors are just appendages of the centre. The strongest office in this country is the Presidency. If you love your country and love your people the best seat to run for is the Presidency. Power is a pyramid, if you fix the top, you have fixed the country. You always talk bad of the President, don’t you think that the man needs encouragement? No amount of good words will make a bad product right. A good product sells itself. What do you want me to say, that Jonathan is doing well when he is not? I cannot do such to Nigerians and the Nigerian state. I am too passionate for the change I epitomise. I do not see a spade and call it a kitchen tool. Mr President, in every spectrum, has not done well. He swore to protect the lives and property of Nigerians and he has not done that. I cannot encourage a person who has recorded the highest number of death since the war. Instead of criticising why not advice and encourage? I have done that already. I have written him an open letter many times. I have told him what the commander in chief should do and can do. The problem is that the politicians seem to gain premium from insurgency and terror and as long as that happens, they will continue to fail. Unless the government sits down all the opponents and insurgents and they agree on the way forward, things will not change. If I were president, I will solve the Boko Haram menace. How do you propose to do that? You do not shoot your way out of terror. A terrorist celebrates death. You who want to stop him want to live. The terrorist does not care if you kill him. The only way to stop terror is deep thinking and proactive engagement. There are homeland terrorists in America as well, but they are able to engage them in superior debate. Killing them is not the best way. If you kill them in the North-East they will move to the North-Central, if you defeat them there, they will move to another part. They want to die. There are Muslim fundamentalists in America, but they have been engaged. With the way you talk about the president’s short comings it is easy to see why some call you APC’s attack dog. That is the same thing I have been saying. Everything in our country has been drawn on partisan grounds. I am not a card carrying member of either PDP or APC. If you call me an attack dog then I am the attack dog of the people. When I hit the APC, they call me the PDP apologist, when I hit the PDP they will call me the APC attack dog. What a nation of lazy readers and lazy thinkers. If you think I am a follower of APC then go and read my letter to APC and see how I criticised them. I have taken positions that are unpopular to both the PDP and APC. What is popular to me is the wellbeing of Nigerians. Many see you as a human rights activists and a political commentator, how do you see yourself? I see myself as a question mark on my country’s conscience. I am a young man who believes in Nigeria and Nigeria is the hope of the Black man. I am not concerned about how people see me. I want people to see me as a man who wants to see Nigeria great. I have been called a radical, a loose cannon, a mad man, a mad dog, I have been called everything. I will continue to learn. When I started, I had a tendency for violence. In detention 2003, I learnt that the best revolutions in the world are peaceful. We can defeat our oppressors with the efficacy of a know that is stronger than the boom of an armoured tank. I believe that the revolution we need is ethical, moral and intellectual. Tell us a bit of your personal life Well I am married with children. I used to be very close to my father before he died. He was the first role model I had, and I still live by his words today