Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Na’Abba, has clarified his meeting with the Department of State Service, DSS, on Monday afternoon, saying it was to shed light on some grey areas over his claim that Nigeria was a failed state and that the people were free to embark on self-determination.
He also denied that the invitation had anything to do with his criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the former speaker, the secret police questioned him for over two hours based on misunderstanding of the words he used in a television interview last week.
He said: “I did not disown anything I said. I will never mince my words. Whatever I see as the truth I say it. That is what I said in my interview and during the press conference. And I can never say anything that is not the truth.
“What happened was there were certain words that appeared in my address and interview which needed some clarifications and which I made.
“We were both satisfied with what happened. We advised one another. The DSS has its own job and experience. I too have my own vocation, I 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.’’
Na’Abba said in the interview, he used the words ‘failed state’ and ‘self-determination,’ which were what the DSS sought clarification on.
“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 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 characterised a failed state are prevalent,” he confessed.