Former Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba says his invitation by the Department of State Services (DSS) was in connection with his recent television interview where he categorized Nigeria as a failed state.
He had during the said interview lampooned the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, listing major areas to include unemployment, insecurity, and economic hardship.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after his release by the security agency, the former lawmaker however vowed not to retract any of his words.
Na’Abba, a co-Chairman of the National Consultative Front, who spent the afternoon at the DSS National Headquarters in Abuja, where he had been invited for questioning over his comments, said there were no problems with the visit.
He also denied that he was questioned for five hours, explaining that he was only interrogated for about two hours.
“I did not disown anything I said. I will never mince my words. Whatever I see as the truth I say it.
“And that is what I said in my interview and said during the press conference. And I can never say anything that is not the truth,” he said.
“What happened was there were certain words that appeared in my address and interview which needed some clarifications and which clarification, I made.
“We were both satisfied with what happened. We advised one another. The DSS have their own job and their own experience. I too have my own vocation also have my own experience. And we felt highly enriched by our experiences.
“That is how things are supposed to be. It went successfully. I enjoyed my stay there. I had no problems with the way they received me.
“In my address I used the words ‘failed state’ and ‘self determination’. When we say out words, what we mean may be different from what other persons perceive and that was what happened.
“Self- determination simply in our own context means Nigerians must be allowed to live the way they want to live.
“It does not mean the mean dismemberment of the country. A lot of times from security point of view when you say self- determination it is meant that it is the dismemberment of the country, which is not so. This needed clarification.
“Failed state is any state that cannot provide a lot of services. What happened was that in their own opinion I did not use the words appropriately and it is only human to use words not appropriately and I told them that what I meant there is that the indices that characterise a failed state are prevalent with us.”
