Says Nigeria can overcome with the right leadership
BY MARIAM ALESHINLOYE- AGBOOLA, JOS
Col. Mohammad Inuwa Bawa (rtd) was the military administrator of Ekiti and Gombe states. Before then, he worked in the military intelligence for about 20 years. In this interview , he explains why Nigeria has not been able to overcome the Boko Haram menace saying the country’s leadership needs complete overhaul to be able to take the right step at the right time.Excerpts:
Being in military intelligence for several years, can you tell us why it has been difficult for this administration to rout Boko Haram?
It’s a difficult question to answer. I was in the military intelligence for over 20 years before I retired. During our time, we were always on top of the situation. We had our ways of getting information and turning it into intelligence. We also had our informants. We recruited a lot of them to get information for us. I do not know if that has changed now. With all the intelligence apparatus available to the armed forces, we are still suffering lots of civilian and military casualties. I think the major difference is that of commitment. We were committed and dedicated to the service of this country during our time. Nowadays, that is not there. I cannot imagine how what started as a ragtag army of miscreants could now turn into a deadly force, killing and maiming people. With the reputation the Nigerian military has garnered over the years, they are running away from a misguided force. I think something is very wrong. I think commitment and motivation are lacking. Corruption has really permeated every sphere of our live and the armed forces cannot be excluded. The problem starts right from when people are not recruited. People who are interested in the service of this country as members of the armed forces are not recruited. In our time, you are investigated right from your village. We had to obtain references from our villages, local government headquarters and state governments. I don’t think it’s that way anymore and even if it is, because of the prevalent corruption, you can get anything you want by dishing out a small amount of money and you are through. That’s the problem. Motivation and commitment are not there. When patriotic Nigerians comment about obsolete weapons of the military, they use politics to kill everything. They start saying it’s because they are from the opposition. The chief of staff confessed to the fact that the military needs new weaponry.
If America refused to help us at this time of our need, why must Nigeria be fraternizing with her?
The Americans who refused to sell weapons to us have their own national policy and they follow it to the letter, not like us here in Nigeria where anything goes. They have their sources of information and intelligence. From what we gathered, the fear is that if they sell sophisticated weapons to Nigeria, it might be used for extra-judicial killings because a lot of innocent people have already been killed. Another thing is that they might fall into the hands of Boko Haram insurgents. We cannot blame them for that because right now, it seems both the military and political leadership are in disarray. The military leadership cannot motivate the soldiers who are ready to fight the Boko Haram insurgents with sufficient equipment. The political leadership is not even willing to act. It was of recent that the president and his co-travellers admitted the real threat of Boko Haram. Before, everything was enmeshed in politics. It’s the usual divide between North and South. The president felt that the bulk of the problems were not his but that of the leaders of the North east not knowing that it can snowball and destroy the whole country. There are some very funny characters around him who we can say are members of the ‘stomach infrastructure’ phenomenon and are saying, Boko Haram is being sponsored by northerners to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan. For a while, he believed that too. That was why for some time, nothing was done until these people became so emboldened and now it has become a Herculean task to get rid of them.
The president complained over a year ago that Boko Haram had infiltrated his cabinet and up till today, he has not flushed out any of them on that account.
He may not know them but feels their presence. The same way he knew they are in his cabinet, so could he identify them and flush them out. A president of a country has a lot of leeway or inputs from many sources, including foreign intelligence services. For him to come out and make such categorical statement, he must have some facts and for failing to act on them means he is part of the problem. He should be bold enough to expose and flush out those he has been told are members of the Boko Haram sect. By failing to do so, he is liable because so many people have been killed and more lives are still being lost.
Former governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff and former Chief of Army Staff were indicted by an individual and whether wrongly or rightly, any right thinking government should have taken this seriously and investigated these people to clear any doubt. But instead, the president is fraternizing with Ali Modu Sheriff. More information is revealing that actually Boko Haram insurgents have always been trained in Chad and we start wondering how these people get their sophisticated weapons. If one looks at the modus operandi of the Boko Haram, one would see that it is very typical of the gorilla warfare that was launched in Chad sometime ago. I was part of the then OAU (now AU) Peace Keeping Force that was in Chad. We have seen the fight between Hisen Habbre and Goukouni Wedeyei. It’s typical of what Boko Haram is now doing. One could believe there is a relationship. More so as the present President of Chad, Idris Dabi is a close friend of Ali Modu Sheriff. I know this because it is my job. When you start analyzing, you start to wonder. Our own president is not making any attempt to come to terms with this situation. It has been very long since a Nigerian President visited Chad. Some of the past presidents are still around. Why doesn’t he use his position to get to know more from former heads of state on why they have not been to Chad all this while? He has been to Chad with Ali Modu Sheriff. Something is really wrong. Tall as that might sound, some even said he might be in the know of what is happening in the Boko Haram camp. It is unfortunate. This is because he refused to act.
So what is the solution?
The problem is that Jonathan is not the right type of person to lead this country. He does not have that capacity. We know how he rose to be the president of this country. With God, everything is possible. If He has already decreed a thing, that is how it would happen, that is how it would be. But unfortunately, the wrong person is in power. He cannot even act. That’s his main problem. He is surrounded by some nincompoops who I still call members of the “Ministry of stomach infrastructure’. They are the ones shielding him and failing to tell him the truth. They would even come out smoking and abusing everybody to hell anytime the president or the administration is being criticized. He is just contented to be called the president; to enter the presidential jet to go to Geneva and any other part of the world. I do not think he has any idea about the real job of running the country. This is my own honest appreciation of the problem.
Will Nigeria remain one with all these economic, social and political problems?
I do not believe the country will break-up. Our problems are caused by wrong leadership. Let us just admit that. America can have its own perception about Nigeria. We have over the years been resilient. We have proved many theories wrong. During IBB’s regime, people said something similar about Nigeria breaking-up but we are still together today. No matter your prediction over the economy of Nigeria, you will be wrong. When you think it would collapse, it will not and it’s the same thing with the whole country. Our problem is leadership. We have all the potentials to be a better and a greater country if we have the right caliber of people in leadership positions. Unfortunately it is not so. We know how fate threw Jonathan at us with the death of Umaru Yar’adua. Obasanjo cannot be isolated from what is happening to us today because he contributed to the making of this leadership we have now. All they are doing is politicking. They are not thinking about the survival of this country. Just about six months ago, the APC to which I belong raised the alarm about the economy. The next day, the presidential attack dog came out smoking, saying everything was well. So now what happened? The government through its coordinating minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala admitted that we have problem. Since we rely almost 100 percent on oil revenue , we should have been focused and contemplate how we would adjust our economy if the price of oil should drop. We were all euphoric and waiting for the doom’s day, now it has come. Of course, everything would be pushed to the common man because there is already speculation that the price of petroleum products would have to rise come 2015. This means the cost of every other thing else in this country will rise. How they would finance the 2015 election is already a mirage. Our foreign reserves has fallen to the lowest ever . This, coupled with the problem of insurgency, we can imagine what would happen.
What are the chances of APC making it after its presidential primaries?
APC emerged from the fusion of three major parties. One should know the objective of the merger is to save the country from the misrule of PDP since 1999. The major actors are matured enough to know that they have to carry out whatever urged them to merge , that is to salvage this country. No individual within the APC is greater than this country. The principal actors are aware of this fact and they know that the masses are behind the APC. Any deviation from that fact will cause a lot of problems for this country. I believe it is very good for democracy to have these people vying for the presidency; otherwise it would just become an inheritance in a family. Within the next few days, all the wrangling will be over. I do not think there will be any rancor after the primaries. It might come out to strengthen the party towards winning the presidential election in 2015.
The idea of a Muslim- Muslim ticket was planted by the PDP because they have always said that APC is a Muslim party. It was just one of the stupid ways of politicking in this country which is very unfortunate. The presidential aspirants are matured people and they know that they have to cooperate to salvage this country.
Don’t you think Sheik Gumi’s suggestion that Buhari and Jonathan should step down would help this country?
The so-called fanatical following Gumi was analyzing are of two different kinds. If there is anything like fanatical following of Jonathan, I cannot think of how he reached that conclusion. Let us face it realistically, what has Jonathan achieved to command fanatical following? What is it about roads that people are talking about? Just follow me from Jos to Saminaka and see the state of the roads. The economy is in ruins. So, what has he achieved? Buhari’s fanatical following is based on reality and facts of his past records. Two of them are ideologically different. It’s wrong for Gumi to have said they have fanatical followers. The fanatical followers of Jonathan are members of the stomach infrastructure ministry because money is being dished out freely. Former Director General of NIPSS, the late Professor Nuhu Alkali said in 1999 when we attended a graduation ceremony that we should not forget that it is the same crowd that escorts you as a political contestant out of a city that is going to usher in your opponent into the same city after you have gone . Abdulsalami Abubakar was there, I was there as the military administrator of Gombe State. He said that is politics.
Is it not morally right for Tambawal to resign?
Aminu Tambuwal was supported by the opposition party to be the Speaker. The PDP never supported him because it had been zoned to somewhere else. For him to even gain access to the National Assembly that day, he had to disguise himself. It was then the election was conducted and he emerged across party lines. Therefore, there is no question of saying whether he was elected because he was in PDP. If he was in APC, he could have won. Even with the fracas in the National Assembly, one can see that his supporters cut across party lines. We should forget about party politics. There is nowhere in the constitution that says members of the opposition party cannot lead the house. It has happened about two times before. In any case, how long will he be there? Let us not becloud the issue. The thing we have noticed in this country is impunity, and one is beginning to think that word, impunity, was crafted and coined for Nigeria. It is only in this country you see impunity, anytime, any day. What happened at the National Assembly that Tuesday was pure impunity. The IGP withdrawing his security was impunity and nothing else. His failing to recognize him as Speaker when the court had ruled that the status quo be maintained is impunity. My fear is that with such a man in charge of the police, we may not have a free and fair election in 2015. He is being more Catholic than the Pope. I feel that man should not be in charge of the police come 2015.
Where do you see Nigeria after 2015?
Despite all predictions of doom , 2015 will come and go and Nigeria will remain under a new government. There may be one or two hiccups, but Nigeria will remain. That is my belief.
As for me, I did not come out to contest as I did before not because I do not want to contest , not because I don’t have the support but I am a very honest and realistic person. I cannot be otherwise because I have associated with General Buhari for a long time. Unfortunately for us, and even my mentor, General Buhari said so, politics now in Nigeria has been highly monetized by all the parties including my party the APC. The price of nomination form is so exorbitant. I cannot afford it. Obtaining a form is just the beginning. Apart from using the symbol of the party, nobody comes to your aid. You will be the one to cough out everything; including going to all nooks and corners to campaign. When you add this to the cost of obtaining the form, you will need a minimum of N50m. Where do I get that? Since I was retired in 1999, I was never a contractor. I have never gone to the states I govern to beg for contract. I have always said so and would still maintain that if you go to Ekiti or even Gombe, I do not have a plot of land there. I was there to govern and I did that and left. Some would say I was a fool not to have acquired wealth but I can drive to those states freely and nobody will point accusing fingers at me. That is just a personal opinion because people who stole and have accusing fingers pointed at them are moving freely today. That is why we want a change; for the All Progressives Congress to rule come 2015.
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=95321
BY MARIAM ALESHINLOYE- AGBOOLA, JOS
Col. Mohammad Inuwa Bawa (rtd) was the military administrator of Ekiti and Gombe states. Before then, he worked in the military intelligence for about 20 years. In this interview , he explains why Nigeria has not been able to overcome the Boko Haram menace saying the country’s leadership needs complete overhaul to be able to take the right step at the right time.Excerpts:
Being in military intelligence for several years, can you tell us why it has been difficult for this administration to rout Boko Haram?
It’s a difficult question to answer. I was in the military intelligence for over 20 years before I retired. During our time, we were always on top of the situation. We had our ways of getting information and turning it into intelligence. We also had our informants. We recruited a lot of them to get information for us. I do not know if that has changed now. With all the intelligence apparatus available to the armed forces, we are still suffering lots of civilian and military casualties. I think the major difference is that of commitment. We were committed and dedicated to the service of this country during our time. Nowadays, that is not there. I cannot imagine how what started as a ragtag army of miscreants could now turn into a deadly force, killing and maiming people. With the reputation the Nigerian military has garnered over the years, they are running away from a misguided force. I think something is very wrong. I think commitment and motivation are lacking. Corruption has really permeated every sphere of our live and the armed forces cannot be excluded. The problem starts right from when people are not recruited. People who are interested in the service of this country as members of the armed forces are not recruited. In our time, you are investigated right from your village. We had to obtain references from our villages, local government headquarters and state governments. I don’t think it’s that way anymore and even if it is, because of the prevalent corruption, you can get anything you want by dishing out a small amount of money and you are through. That’s the problem. Motivation and commitment are not there. When patriotic Nigerians comment about obsolete weapons of the military, they use politics to kill everything. They start saying it’s because they are from the opposition. The chief of staff confessed to the fact that the military needs new weaponry.
If America refused to help us at this time of our need, why must Nigeria be fraternizing with her?
The Americans who refused to sell weapons to us have their own national policy and they follow it to the letter, not like us here in Nigeria where anything goes. They have their sources of information and intelligence. From what we gathered, the fear is that if they sell sophisticated weapons to Nigeria, it might be used for extra-judicial killings because a lot of innocent people have already been killed. Another thing is that they might fall into the hands of Boko Haram insurgents. We cannot blame them for that because right now, it seems both the military and political leadership are in disarray. The military leadership cannot motivate the soldiers who are ready to fight the Boko Haram insurgents with sufficient equipment. The political leadership is not even willing to act. It was of recent that the president and his co-travellers admitted the real threat of Boko Haram. Before, everything was enmeshed in politics. It’s the usual divide between North and South. The president felt that the bulk of the problems were not his but that of the leaders of the North east not knowing that it can snowball and destroy the whole country. There are some very funny characters around him who we can say are members of the ‘stomach infrastructure’ phenomenon and are saying, Boko Haram is being sponsored by northerners to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan. For a while, he believed that too. That was why for some time, nothing was done until these people became so emboldened and now it has become a Herculean task to get rid of them.
The president complained over a year ago that Boko Haram had infiltrated his cabinet and up till today, he has not flushed out any of them on that account.
He may not know them but feels their presence. The same way he knew they are in his cabinet, so could he identify them and flush them out. A president of a country has a lot of leeway or inputs from many sources, including foreign intelligence services. For him to come out and make such categorical statement, he must have some facts and for failing to act on them means he is part of the problem. He should be bold enough to expose and flush out those he has been told are members of the Boko Haram sect. By failing to do so, he is liable because so many people have been killed and more lives are still being lost.
Former governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff and former Chief of Army Staff were indicted by an individual and whether wrongly or rightly, any right thinking government should have taken this seriously and investigated these people to clear any doubt. But instead, the president is fraternizing with Ali Modu Sheriff. More information is revealing that actually Boko Haram insurgents have always been trained in Chad and we start wondering how these people get their sophisticated weapons. If one looks at the modus operandi of the Boko Haram, one would see that it is very typical of the gorilla warfare that was launched in Chad sometime ago. I was part of the then OAU (now AU) Peace Keeping Force that was in Chad. We have seen the fight between Hisen Habbre and Goukouni Wedeyei. It’s typical of what Boko Haram is now doing. One could believe there is a relationship. More so as the present President of Chad, Idris Dabi is a close friend of Ali Modu Sheriff. I know this because it is my job. When you start analyzing, you start to wonder. Our own president is not making any attempt to come to terms with this situation. It has been very long since a Nigerian President visited Chad. Some of the past presidents are still around. Why doesn’t he use his position to get to know more from former heads of state on why they have not been to Chad all this while? He has been to Chad with Ali Modu Sheriff. Something is really wrong. Tall as that might sound, some even said he might be in the know of what is happening in the Boko Haram camp. It is unfortunate. This is because he refused to act.
So what is the solution?
The problem is that Jonathan is not the right type of person to lead this country. He does not have that capacity. We know how he rose to be the president of this country. With God, everything is possible. If He has already decreed a thing, that is how it would happen, that is how it would be. But unfortunately, the wrong person is in power. He cannot even act. That’s his main problem. He is surrounded by some nincompoops who I still call members of the “Ministry of stomach infrastructure’. They are the ones shielding him and failing to tell him the truth. They would even come out smoking and abusing everybody to hell anytime the president or the administration is being criticized. He is just contented to be called the president; to enter the presidential jet to go to Geneva and any other part of the world. I do not think he has any idea about the real job of running the country. This is my own honest appreciation of the problem.
Will Nigeria remain one with all these economic, social and political problems?
I do not believe the country will break-up. Our problems are caused by wrong leadership. Let us just admit that. America can have its own perception about Nigeria. We have over the years been resilient. We have proved many theories wrong. During IBB’s regime, people said something similar about Nigeria breaking-up but we are still together today. No matter your prediction over the economy of Nigeria, you will be wrong. When you think it would collapse, it will not and it’s the same thing with the whole country. Our problem is leadership. We have all the potentials to be a better and a greater country if we have the right caliber of people in leadership positions. Unfortunately it is not so. We know how fate threw Jonathan at us with the death of Umaru Yar’adua. Obasanjo cannot be isolated from what is happening to us today because he contributed to the making of this leadership we have now. All they are doing is politicking. They are not thinking about the survival of this country. Just about six months ago, the APC to which I belong raised the alarm about the economy. The next day, the presidential attack dog came out smoking, saying everything was well. So now what happened? The government through its coordinating minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala admitted that we have problem. Since we rely almost 100 percent on oil revenue , we should have been focused and contemplate how we would adjust our economy if the price of oil should drop. We were all euphoric and waiting for the doom’s day, now it has come. Of course, everything would be pushed to the common man because there is already speculation that the price of petroleum products would have to rise come 2015. This means the cost of every other thing else in this country will rise. How they would finance the 2015 election is already a mirage. Our foreign reserves has fallen to the lowest ever . This, coupled with the problem of insurgency, we can imagine what would happen.
What are the chances of APC making it after its presidential primaries?
APC emerged from the fusion of three major parties. One should know the objective of the merger is to save the country from the misrule of PDP since 1999. The major actors are matured enough to know that they have to carry out whatever urged them to merge , that is to salvage this country. No individual within the APC is greater than this country. The principal actors are aware of this fact and they know that the masses are behind the APC. Any deviation from that fact will cause a lot of problems for this country. I believe it is very good for democracy to have these people vying for the presidency; otherwise it would just become an inheritance in a family. Within the next few days, all the wrangling will be over. I do not think there will be any rancor after the primaries. It might come out to strengthen the party towards winning the presidential election in 2015.
The idea of a Muslim- Muslim ticket was planted by the PDP because they have always said that APC is a Muslim party. It was just one of the stupid ways of politicking in this country which is very unfortunate. The presidential aspirants are matured people and they know that they have to cooperate to salvage this country.
Don’t you think Sheik Gumi’s suggestion that Buhari and Jonathan should step down would help this country?
The so-called fanatical following Gumi was analyzing are of two different kinds. If there is anything like fanatical following of Jonathan, I cannot think of how he reached that conclusion. Let us face it realistically, what has Jonathan achieved to command fanatical following? What is it about roads that people are talking about? Just follow me from Jos to Saminaka and see the state of the roads. The economy is in ruins. So, what has he achieved? Buhari’s fanatical following is based on reality and facts of his past records. Two of them are ideologically different. It’s wrong for Gumi to have said they have fanatical followers. The fanatical followers of Jonathan are members of the stomach infrastructure ministry because money is being dished out freely. Former Director General of NIPSS, the late Professor Nuhu Alkali said in 1999 when we attended a graduation ceremony that we should not forget that it is the same crowd that escorts you as a political contestant out of a city that is going to usher in your opponent into the same city after you have gone . Abdulsalami Abubakar was there, I was there as the military administrator of Gombe State. He said that is politics.
Is it not morally right for Tambawal to resign?
Aminu Tambuwal was supported by the opposition party to be the Speaker. The PDP never supported him because it had been zoned to somewhere else. For him to even gain access to the National Assembly that day, he had to disguise himself. It was then the election was conducted and he emerged across party lines. Therefore, there is no question of saying whether he was elected because he was in PDP. If he was in APC, he could have won. Even with the fracas in the National Assembly, one can see that his supporters cut across party lines. We should forget about party politics. There is nowhere in the constitution that says members of the opposition party cannot lead the house. It has happened about two times before. In any case, how long will he be there? Let us not becloud the issue. The thing we have noticed in this country is impunity, and one is beginning to think that word, impunity, was crafted and coined for Nigeria. It is only in this country you see impunity, anytime, any day. What happened at the National Assembly that Tuesday was pure impunity. The IGP withdrawing his security was impunity and nothing else. His failing to recognize him as Speaker when the court had ruled that the status quo be maintained is impunity. My fear is that with such a man in charge of the police, we may not have a free and fair election in 2015. He is being more Catholic than the Pope. I feel that man should not be in charge of the police come 2015.
Where do you see Nigeria after 2015?
Despite all predictions of doom , 2015 will come and go and Nigeria will remain under a new government. There may be one or two hiccups, but Nigeria will remain. That is my belief.
As for me, I did not come out to contest as I did before not because I do not want to contest , not because I don’t have the support but I am a very honest and realistic person. I cannot be otherwise because I have associated with General Buhari for a long time. Unfortunately for us, and even my mentor, General Buhari said so, politics now in Nigeria has been highly monetized by all the parties including my party the APC. The price of nomination form is so exorbitant. I cannot afford it. Obtaining a form is just the beginning. Apart from using the symbol of the party, nobody comes to your aid. You will be the one to cough out everything; including going to all nooks and corners to campaign. When you add this to the cost of obtaining the form, you will need a minimum of N50m. Where do I get that? Since I was retired in 1999, I was never a contractor. I have never gone to the states I govern to beg for contract. I have always said so and would still maintain that if you go to Ekiti or even Gombe, I do not have a plot of land there. I was there to govern and I did that and left. Some would say I was a fool not to have acquired wealth but I can drive to those states freely and nobody will point accusing fingers at me. That is just a personal opinion because people who stole and have accusing fingers pointed at them are moving freely today. That is why we want a change; for the All Progressives Congress to rule come 2015.
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=95321
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