Alhaji  Abdullahi Dauda Daura, a former Chief Security Officer to  former Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(rtd), speaks  with Hassan Ibrahim, on how Nigeria’s leaders manoeuvred one another in their quest to hold on to power. Excerpts:

BY October 2010, it will be 50 years of Nigeria’s political independence. What is your assessment of the nation so far?
Nigeria is a great country. It is one of the few countries God blessed with everything including human and natural resources, even geographical spread. Unfortunately for this country, the first regime and subsequent regimes did not bring much that would make Nigerians to be happy.

But our leaders in the First Republic had great vision for this country. What went wrong?
Well, the First Republic leaders had vision, no doubt about that. We are still following their visions and nothing has changed. Yesterday is always better than today in this country and there is nothing to celebrate now. First of all, there is no vision on the part of our new leaders and there is no future plan. So, instead of celebrating, country men and women should pray very hard. The leaders should pray for forgiveness for the situation Nigerians found themselves. We should all pray hard for the continued survival of this country.

Do you agree with those who say things started going wrong in this country when the military intervened in politics?
I believe the military built this country because we have so many regimes of the military. How many civilian administrations do we have? Not more than three failed administrations in the last 50 years. I don’t believe that the military spoiled this country; we spoiled this country ourselves.

But many are pointing accusing fingers at the military, especially the regime of General Babangida...
Yes, that regime, no doubt about it, is the genesis of our predicament. I intend to reveal how this group of people emerged as leaders of this country. I will do that soon.

They say Nigeria is ruled by cabals….
I admire Prof. Dora Akunyili. When she was serving an administration, because of the dishonesty of that administration, she disowned it and revealed what was going on as the Information Minister.

That was the Yar’Adua administration which is a link up to the present administration. I am very happy that Nigeria has this kind of people. When we talk of Ibrahim Babangida’s administration, it was the beginning of the problem of this country. It was the beginning of the destruction of all institutions in this country. I once told the nation that corruption is worst than natural disaster. That is what is happening in this country. Babangida’s administration helped greatly in destroying the vision and the plan of this country. From that time, things started going wrong.

But how did this people penetrate the country?
Well, it is a well organised and group which was allowed to be established against the development of this nation. They are still in control and we are following the trend of their misdeeds. Right from 1976 to 1979, the group became effective in controlling the affairs of this country. When late Murtala Mohammed came to power and died, he came with a very good plan for this country but before he realised it, this cabal surrounded him and he lost his life. After that, they went into full swing and took control of the nation and the political process.

Do you have facts to back up these claims?
Yes, right from that time we have the so called leaders which I tagged as rotational leaders. They are very effective and are in control. Some of them are still planning to return.

Does this cabal involve those from the military class and their civilian collaborators?
They are both from the military and civilian in a political institution. They plan coups within themselves and reinstate themselves. After Murtala’s regime, the same cabal installed General Olusegun Obasanjo. After realising that Nigerians needed a civilian government, they immediately planned it. So, the Second Republic was established and NPN became the national party. From that period, the cabal continued manipulating the country until their plan backfired through their electoral blueprint of rigging. We saw how they were exposed by through the 1983 election.They changed the system to civilian in military uniform.