Only restructuring can end Nigeria’s crisis –General Ikponmwen

General Don Ikponmwen Idada (rtd) is a legal practitioner and former Provost Marshall of the Nigerian Army; he is also one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this interview with OJIEVA EHIOSUN, he spoke on sundry issues. Excerpts…

What is your take on General TY Danjuma’s comment about the killings in the land?

There is nothing to contradict in General T.Y. Danjuma’s concern about the level of insecurity in Nigeria, based on the incessant killings recorded in the land. There is no gain saying that, Nigeria have had too much of killings, assassinations, Boko Haram killings, herdsmen and farmers clash. Murder and killings are all over.

But is not a phenomenon of now, even talking about the killing of military people, Admiral Lari Elegbede was shot in Lagos in the traffic. Air Vice Marshall Ikhazobor, a former Minister of Sports was shot in the morning while returning from early morning mass in front of his house.

I am just talking about the military men, I do not want to take you to the political killings, like Marsha Harry, Dokubor, both of whom were leaders of PDP in South- South. Bola Ige, the Attorney-General of this country was killed in his house, and they said all his security aides had gone to eat at the time he was killed.

How many can we mention, so this recent one just remind us of what had been happening before now. About two months, General Alkali the immediate past Chief of Administration in Army Headquarters who just retired after one month was killed in Jos area and his car found in a different place, his body was later found in a shallow well. The recent one is General Alex Badeh, a four star General former Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) shot to death on a high way. It is time we in this country wake up to our ideas, it is time we find a government that would do its primary responsibility.

The primary responsibility of any government is to protect the lives, not just to protect, but to guarantee, life and property. The constitution says the security of the people shall be the primary purpose of government, so if we have a government that cannot guarantee the lives of our people, protect their property, it means we do not have government. There is no government if you cannot provide for the welfare and security of the people.

If you are mentioning the past, are you saying we should not blame this on the present administration?

Now, I am not going to say, oh, it is not just an issue of Muhammadu Buhari’s government of the past four years that has failed to provide security for the people no, that would be an understatement, governments after governments in this country, including military government have never been able to provide security for the people, which means something is seriously wrong to the core. How can we have a country where Nigerians are not safe, in their houses, they are not safe in the churches, they are not safe in the mosque, they are not safe on the roads, so where are we, what government do we have, and who is to blame.

There are too many things and so many areas to place the problem, the people themselves, they are not security alert, people are not concerned about their fellow human beings, once they hear gunshot, people take to their heels, nobody even bother to see who’s vehicle is that, don’t people who commit these crimes go with vehicles, they must have traces, no security consciousness in our people, the security agencies are not efficient, government is not serious, and when I say government, I mean all arms of government, three arms of government, is not just business of one arm no, and in this particular case I don’t want to politicize this whole thing, failure of government to provide security and to provide the things that are needed by the society, by the country, by the state is failure of all.

In fact before we even taught of inefficient security system, apparatus, appliances, we must talk about the people who are given the responsibility to provide security and three arms of government, the Executive, the Legislature and the judiciary, all are impariderito, means they are all equally blame worthy.

Recently, we heard that those who killed Gen. Alkali have been arrested and granted bail who is granting bail?, the government well I can’t go too much on that because I don’t know the conditions on which they were granted bail. But I am saying that the three arms of government must live up to their responsibilities. The legislature must make drastic laws to punish people who commit crimes, especially, in cases of murder, assassinations and other heinous crimes.

These laws must be such that they pose a threat and deterrent to Nigerians. Now what is the Executive government doing to ensure that whatever problem is militating against security and property in this country is addressed. It is at this point you permit me to say that having said that this problem is peculiar to this government, but I am not holding brief for them, it was not peculiar even to the previous regime not even the military regime, we had similar issues of brutal murder of people like our own brother and son the former minister of sports he was murdered in cold blood.

What is the way out?

The bottom line is that we need to restructure this country and that is why I do not understand when a government would say we don’t know what restructuring means, is it geographical or whatever how can a government that claimed to have educated men and women in governance say such a thing? But for the information of all, restructuring includes; putting in place those things, those system, those approaches that we have in this country that have not w o r k e d , and are not working because of their very n a t u re , and largely includes, the security architecture of this country. The security architecture of this country must be reworked, such that the security apparatus o f this country work. Do the police men know how to investigate?

Do the Immigration people know how to track down illegal migrants? Does prison staff know how to guarantee that prisoners do not escape?

Does SSS or DSS know where their jobs start and where the police job continues? Do we know the difference between law enforcement duty and defense duty, do we know how to distinguish between security defenses of this country to the important organs and functioning of intelligence gathering, the people who are committing all these crimes in this country, do they not live among the people? Do the people have confidence in the security system that we have? When there are security lapses between one organ and the other, the result is that there will be unhealthy rivalry. Another question begging for answer is are the security agencies given the right training?

Twenty five years ago, I write a paper in a military regime, that the military has no business with routine maintenance of law and order, IBB’s regime took bought the idea, and decided that we must separate the military from routine law and enforcement duties.

Wise decision, but he processed to form a national guard, as a way of creating a bucker between the military and the police but Nigerians kicked against it and said that he want to perpetuate himself in power. What I am trying to say is that there is job for the Army there is job for the police, job for the Air force among others. All in all, there must be continuous training and retraining of law enforcement people, rewards given to those who have done well, people must be promoted on the basis of merits, not where they come from, or who they know. I do not want to go into politics of governance.

Can we say that Nigerians are disappointed in the system so far?

The role and attitude of the various organs of government is given us a serious problem. Nigerian must decide who and what they want for themselves. You and I know that our leaders have failed us in all ramification of governance. The bottom line is that Nigeria must go back to restructuring without restructuring we are going nowhere, restructure is the answer. I think it is at this point I say that the man Atiku Abubakar must be given credit for his position on restructuring. And every right thinking person who do not want to be fraudulent, who means well for the people, knows that restructuring is the only way for sustainability and continuous existence of this country.

Atiku stands large, he looks large among all the people who are saying they want to be president, that is enough to sell him to Nigeria. We must stop the killings, we must stop all the wrong things we are doing, we must imbibe the culture of restructuring, and there is no running away from it.

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