Former Speaker Ghali Na’Abba has clarified his meeting with the Department of State Services, 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.
But he 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 the media 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. 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.
“What happened was that 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,” he said.
Na’Abba said in his address he used the words ‘failed state’ and ‘self determination,’ which was what the DSS sought clarification.
“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 characterised a failed state are prevalent,” he confessed.