Obinna Odogwu, Abakaliki
The apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has thrown its weight behind the call by General T.Y. Danjuma for Nigerians to defend themselves following incessant attacks by Fulani herdsmen.
In this exclusive interview, the National Publicity Secretary of the group, Barr. Uche Achi-Okpaga, said that self-defence has become imperative even as he commented on other issues of national importance. Excerpts:
Ndigbo have been at the receiving end of the attacks by Fulani herdsmen in the past. Recently, Gen. T. Y. Danjuma called on Nigerians to defend themselves, will Ndigbo heed to this call?
The issue of herdsmen’s attacks has been on the increase for a very long time and you begin to wonder why it’s so. In Igbo land here, we have our local breed of cow and we don’t allow them to go and damage other people’s farms. This is because if you do that it is at your own risk; you will pay for the damage. In Igbo set up, we like this brotherly relationship; we don’t like these upheavals. When you bring cows from outside the region, they come here and destroy people’s crops and the government is encouraging agriculture and when you put all your resources and all of a sudden somebody comes from somewhere to destroy them. Several times, government has told us that the herdsmen that are killing Nigerians are foreigners. So, does it mean that government is allowing foreigners to be killing Nigerians and destroying their sources of livelihood? You can see it does not follow. Something has to be done. Will you sleep in your house because you want to be civil, and somebody knocks in your house and you open the door only for the person to kill you? Does the law support that? The law supports that you have to defend yourself when someone comes to your house to kill you. You cannot encourage Nigerians to take up arms, but if you’re pushed to the wall, you have to defend yourself. We will not encourage Nigerians to go to war, but we will encourage Nigerians to defend themselves because you can only be alive to defend yourself. When you’re dead, you have no defence.
So, you are saying that Ndigbo should defend themselves against these attacks from suspected Fulani herdsmen?
You know that the Igbo people are the best people in Nigeria. There is nothing that we cannot endure. Do you know that even after the civil war, the Igbo bent down to relate with people from other ethnic groups in Nigeria in spite of all the carnage; in spite of all the evil machinations against our people. It was genocide. It was a grand plot to wipe out the entire Igbo land. How we survived was only by providence. It has started again. History is replete with situations where decisions were reached to wipe out the entire race. And we cannot sit down and wait for some people to come and clear us. We must have a way of protecting ourselves. We must encourage Ndigbo to protect themselves. If somebody is coming to your house to kill you, defend yourself.
In the South East region, the members of vigilance groups have assisted the police and other security agencies to curb crime and it has worked. Does Ohanaeze support the Federal Government’s move to mop up arms, which would affect these people?
Every law that is made has an intension. If you have a vigilante, what is the essence of establishing it? I am sure that the idea of mopping up arms is not to disarm the vigilante groups that were legally established to protect the environment. Herdsmen are all over the place killing people, destroying farms; Boko Haram is busy killing people in hundreds and you have not disarmed them and you want people who were legally established to drop arms so that the herdsmen will now come and kill the entire people. Nobody will encourage that. If the Inspector-General of Police made such statement, I am sure he made that in error. And I am sure that the intension was not to disarm the legally established security groups. People have their guns licensed by the same government, and they pay taxes on the guns they have through the taxes they pay to the same government? Are you going to refund them? Do you intend to do what with the licences? It is legal guns they have to protect their lives and you want to de-mob them so that they would lose their lives. I am sure it has to be revisited because it would only result in anarchy where there would be no security and people would be killed like animals.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been at the forefront of restructuring the country, but it appears that the Federal Government is not willing to heed that call. What does Ohanaeze intend to do?
You see, some of these problems we are seeing in Nigeria is just because we are not heeding the call for restructuring. If we restructure Nigeria, the struggle for power will reduce. In the South-East here, if we restructure Nigeria, we won’t even remember that there is a Federal Government. For instance, in the education sector, if we restructure Nigeria, when you have your university they will organize their own examinations. You won’t need JAMB to come and conduct examination for you. You conduct your examinations and give admissions to your children. Look at what is happening, a lot of results are now being withheld by JAMB for reasons that we have not been told. It was not like this before. During colonial and post-colonial era, universities gave admissions to people that merited it. We didn’t need to wait for JAMB to come and conduct admission examinations. Is Nkalagu cement not the oldest cement factory we have in Nigeria? It has become moribund. If we have been restructured we put those things in shape. We have the coal corporation in Enugu, but it’s lying moribund. There are so many regional companies that have been abandoned. Is it because they are found in the South-East? Look at what is happening in the power sector. Look at Oji Power Station that was supplying power to virtually the entire Southern Nigeria, it is moribund. If we have restructuring, we put those things in shape. Every region will cater for itself. There are so many things that the Federal Government needs to shelve itself of so that they will concentrate on foreign affairs. What we have in Nigeria is a unitary government.
Before now, there was virtually no infrastructure anywhere in the South-East established by the Federal Government but now, the government appears to be doing something. Do you think that the Igbo have gotten their due?
What is the Federal Government doing in the South-East? Virtually nothing! They are doing nothing. You see what is happening in the railway. The railway lines are being built all over the country except in the South-East, which its people are taxpayers. Look at Enugu/Onitsha road, Enugu/Port Harcourt road, which one would you mention and leave the other? Almost all the federal roads in the South-East are dilapidated. Are you going to talk about appointments that the Igbo people have been almost completely sidelined? Look at the ministries that have been given to the Igbo. Ndigbo have been at the forefront of making Nigeria great since pre- and post-independence.
The 2019 general election is just around the corner; is Igbo presidency feasible now or should the Igbo wait a little longer?
The issue of presidency is not important until we restructure Nigeria. If an Igbo man rules Nigeria for 20 years, it makes no meaning because the constitution has been structured in such a way that you can virtually make no impact. What are you going to do? If you go to the National Assembly, Kano State has about 44 local government areas. Just two states in the North have more local governments than the entire South-East. What impact will you make in the National Assembly? What impact can you make? You don’t have the majority. Even if you have good initiatives, sentimental attachments will destroy it at the National Assembly. So, you need to restructure this country so that those who are interested in power can rule for life and the regions can develop at their pace. You know the egalitarian nature of the Igbo man; anywhere he is, he can survive there. We can develop without ruling Nigeria. But when we have the leeway to develop our place, what are we doing with the presidency again if we can develop our local economy and move on. Look at the industry in Aba. People come from far and wide to buy goods from Aba, the leather industry in Aba. After making nice shoes they would write it ‘Made in Italy’. For what? If you improve it, the world will come here and it becomes a source of revenue to the government. Why don’t we encourage restructuring for the good of the people?
So, what is the way forward now?
The way out for a better Nigeria is that we have to shelve ethnic chauvinism and sectionalism. We have to encourage restructuring of Nigeria so that quest for power will reduce. We have to shed the Federal Government of so much power. They say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Until, the Federal Government shelves some of its powers, the struggle to go to the centre will continue and Nigeria will never be one. We need to devolve powers in this country. We need to structure Nigeria because that is the only way forward otherwise Nigeria is like a tinderbox waiting to explode. And the present government has helped to divide Nigeria more. They have set Nigeria 50 years back. The unity of Nigeria is in tatters.