RiverNaija

LIKE most young Nigerians, I had a picture of being young and strong while white people were white and weak. I am sure that young white people also thought black people to be weak. No one had ever tested this but we believed this so strongly that we thought nothing of the holiday jobs we all did as students. Ben and I worked in the freezing works where sheep was slaughtered, cleaned up and dressed ready for export. After cleaning, the wool and the innards, the hoofs, heads etc were stored separately – the bones were used to make buttons. Nothing was wasted – every part of the sheep had its uses. I worked in the paint house and Ben on the wool. This freezing works was a very large factory, slaughtering over 20,000-25,000 lambs per day. As each lamb is slaughtered, the feet are hung on a moving convoy. At regular intervals, there are other workers who remove the pelts and other parts not meant for export. The pelts are thrown into a giant washing machine which spits pelts on a conveyor...

NN :Before I begin to ask you questions on your manifesto, I want to touch on one more thing. In both his network and West German television interview, the Head of State [General Olusegun Obasanjo] condemned all old politicians. He said the old politicians are responsible for our ills. Do you agree? ZIK : With respect, I don’t. I feel that his speech writers or whoever is responsible for the final draft of his speech, misconceived the whole idea by generalizing. If he has said that many politicians, or some politicians he would be correct but he made a sweeping generalization. I don’t feel I am a saint or perfect, but if you study my history in the last 30 years of this country’s political development, you will find that most of the things I stood for, which my opponents opposed are the basis of what the present Federal Military Government has endorsed, and which is the basis of the new constitution. Now, how can you turn round now to say that all of us are responsible? Let me give y...