Major-General Collins Ugo Ihekire is former Commander, Nigeria Contingent to Darfur, Sudan. He was also Director at the Nigeria Defence College (National War College) as well as the Secretary General of the Niger Basin Commission.
He spoke to GEORGE ONYEJIUWA in OWERRI, on the intractable security situation in the country, the 2023 Presidency and why somebody from the South East should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, next year.
Given your military background, what do you think is really behind the intractable security challenges in the country? Is it that the leaders don’t have the political will to address the root causes or that they are simply playing the ostrich?
Your question can be approached from two sides. First, it has to do with justice, equity and fairness and it has to be interpreted in the context which explains what we have. In the First Republic, we had a measure of peace, stability and progress because there was justice, fairness and equity in social matters. Why, because then we recognised that we were different in our cultures, different in our religions. Being different is an advantage if it is well-managed. It is like the five fingers of a person and each is important even when they are not all equal. And you will agree with me that if something serious happens to the smallest of the fingers, the rest will not function well because it will be difficult to hold anything with that hand firmly.
Our founding fathers recognised these differences and that there was need for us to be together and that was why the first independent constitution was well-negotiated and the autonomy of the regions were respected and recognised. And to show you how they respected this diversity, they even acknowledged it in our first National Anthem: “Though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand.”
This was where we were before the military usurped power in January 1966 and destroyed that arrangement where we had harmony in diversity.
The military came with their own unitary sense of government which created more tension than was required. You can’t apply the sense of a military organisation to bear in social matters. For instance, as a commander of an operation, I had the aircraft at my disposal, I have the artilleries at my disposal, I had the engineers, the infantry and the signals and other military components to help in achieving my objectives which may be to capture a city/town. First, I will use the Air force to bombard and neutralize the place and the artilleries are also bombarding the same location at the same time to weaken them before I will send the armoured and infantry to hold the ground. But civil society is not like that. Like I said, we are different in our cultures, languages and religions, and if we must co-exist, everyone must be given the space to live his life as nature has given it to him. So, why did we succeed in the First Republic? Eastern Region was on its own and they planned their lives the way they wanted it and were making steady progress, both economically and socially. It was the same for the Western Region, Northern Region and then the Mid-Western Region.
But we were all held together by a central government. The central government didn’t interfere with administrations of the regions. They didn’t impose this religion or that on you, they did not force this mode of dressing on you. For example, before the war, people think that Igbo people are traders but they are not. The Igbo man is more of a technical people, it even reflected in the University that was established here. Courses at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka were dominated by Engineering and Sciences while Ibadan had more of the Arts and Humanities which reflects the ways of the people of western region. It was the same with the Ahmadu Bello University. When we were in secondary school in the old Eastern Region, you’re proud to say as student that we were Mathematics /Physics student. We did sciences in secondary school and even now, it is still the same.
If you go around, you see Igbo as mechanics, carpenters, technicians, engineers, nurses and doctors and so on. We are by nature artisans or technical people. Even in the military, they dominated in this area of trade. But today we have a government forcing everyone to do the same thing at the same time. If you are being forced to use the left hand, it will be very difficult if you have not learnt the use of it before.
During a lecture I delivered recently in Owerri, I had given the example of the United Arab Emirates. They recognised their differences and allowed the regions that had formed the UAE to have autonomy and that is why Dubai is what it is today. Even Britain has four countries in one, the United Kingdom, even when they have closer ties than we have here because they are mostly of Anglo- Saxon background, yet they still recognized their differences, and they have that arrangement but we don’t even have that here. And, we are not even interested in having it.
So, power becomes dominant for whoever has it, and wants to use it to impose his will on another person, which has bred lack of justice, fairness and equity, which are the pillars for peace.
You can’t discuss security outside the prevailing threat of security, and you must know what constitutes threats to security. I still teach strategic studies up till now. Those threats could be psychological, economic or political, and the most severe is the political aspect because it deals with the totality of the man. It hovers around four key issues. First is identity which is to say how does one see himself as to belonging or not belonging to a community and the extent to which the person sees himself belonging or not belonging to a society, determines the extent that person can go in sacrificing for that community or cause trouble for it. If he feels that he doesn’t belong to that community, he could say to hell with whatever happens to it; that would be his attitude. He can even help in destroying it and even stop any good thing that is coming to that community because he feels he doesn’t really belong to that community. The second is participation. To what extent are you allowed to participate in what is going on in that community? Do you have the freedom to support or condemn the actions or policies of government? How do you exercise your rights and, if that freedom of participation is not there, you will feel hamstrung, which is normal. Then, the issue of distribution which has to do with how you dispense values and resources and how you do this, is intricately woven with what we have kept saying about justice, fairness and equity, and if you’re deprived of something you won’t be happy. The last one is legitimacy. To what extent is the action of government accepted or rejected by the citizens? How does a person see the fairness in the rules governing political competition? If it is not fair, he won’t be happy and these are the issues that are fueling the agitations here and there because most people felt that they are not part of the system. But normally, the government can address these issues politically or economically or both, but that is not what we are seeing in Nigeria. Rather than address these issues, the government comes out with machine guns to force the people to accept its will which is what has been responsible for most of the crisis across the country. Now, you cannot impose peace on anybody, it can only come through justice, fairness and equity.
Like Albert Einstein said, peace cannot be imposed by force but can only be achieved by understanding and the more we understand ourselves, the more that we will achieve peace and stability. But we cannot understand ourselves without negotiations like our founding fathers did.
Some Nigerians have canvassed that the National Assembly can adopt the 1963 Republican Constitution with few amendments especially the sections concerning the regions as a way out of the present problem. They said the 1963 Constitution has a federal structure than the current 1999 Constitution as amended. What’s your take?
What we need is a holistic review of the constitution, which is not the work of the National Assembly. It is the work of a national conference like the 2014 Confab or like the Aburi Accord where people have to reach an agreement and if the Aburi Accord was implemented, there wouldn’t have been a civil war. So, it is not the duty of the National Assembly because don’t forget that the members of the National Assembly were elected through their political parties, but the constitution is written by the people and not political parties.
Yes, on the surface, the National Assembly seems to be representing the people but we all know the enormous influence that the parties have on their members at the National Assembly. But there is no guarantee that the National Assembly can produce a good constitution for the people. Yes, if the 1963 Constitution is adopted, we can use the geopolitical zones as the regions and they can go back and make their own internal arrangement as the case may be.
Some people have said that in the First Republic, there were cases of injustice, lack of fairness and inequity, it may just be perception as it may not be entirely true, but just propaganda. Like some have said that the Igbo wanted to dominate, but that is not true. The Igbo are just an exuberant people in their attitude to work and success. In those days in the north, you have to learn the Hausa language to be promoted but it wasn’t so in the east. The Igbo man will on his own learn the languages of those around him and it was not forced on them. Remember that the first head of government in the then eastern region before Zik was Eyo Ita. Igbo people believe more on merit. The Igbo man is found everywhere in Nigeria and they do not discriminate wherever they are and don’t choose where to settle. This is not so with other tribes in Nigeria.
So, the 2014 Confab reports should be implemented. I am an advocate of restructuring because the country is important to us and it is falling apart and we have to save it. We cannot save it the way it is today because the fault lines are so glaring and people are already disinterested in the country. Look at the killings every day and there is no compassion from the leaders. Today, death is a normal thing for us. Even, we are being conditioned to accept death as a normal thing. I remember when one of the Presidential spokesmen said that killings did not start with this administration and that people were being killed before this time. That is the mindset. When it was reported that 300 persons were killed, the Presidential spokesman countered that it was only 195 persons. Only? That is, you now quantify life. The loss of one life is bad enough in a sane clime. Now, if your relation is part of that 195 would you say it is just 195?
The South East agitates that it is its turn to produce President Buhari’s successor in 2023, for equity, justice and fairness. Also, some persons from the zone argue that they would prefer restructuring of the country. Where do you stand?
First and foremost, I will prefer restructuring because if we restructure, the Presidency of Nigeria will become less attractive. Why the Presidency is attractive is because the occupier of the position is the most powerful President in the world; because he now determines everything. But when we restructure, that attraction is gone. Why the South-East is agitating for the position is because of the nature of things in the present Nigeria and to bring development to their people since it is now the winner takes all. That is why we want rotation of the presidential position so that it goes round the zones for equity, justice and fairness. I am also in support of the South-East to produce the next president in 2023. But if he is going to work with the present constitution, he may not achieve much. This constitution was not the outcome of negotiations and there is no much leeway. You can see the preponderance of the group in the National Assembly from a section of the country. He might even be impeached. Yes, for equity, fairness and justice, let’s have the President from South-East but for his survivability, we don’t know.
Recently the country home of Prof George Obiozor, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide was razed by some hoodlums. Don’t you think such act is a slap on the face of Ndigbo?
Unfortunately, this is not the first time. When Chief John Nnia Nwodo was the President General, his home was also attacked by some persons who had thrown locally made explosives into his house. Perhaps, there are people who think that Ohanaeze is not doing enough and the only way to show their displeasure is to attack the head of Ohanaeze as they have been doing. Having said that, you will also recall that the Bishops Conference has been trying to reconcile the various factions of Ohanaeze but the resolutions have not been implemented by either factions. Taking cognizance of that is that Ohanaeze itself is not at peace. What could be the reason for lack of peace? Could it be as a result of the selection process of the President-General? These are questions which answers you can’t hazard a guess. Perhaps, it is a protest against the Igbo leadership or it is done by external forces trying to discredit the Igbo to show that they cannot be president or it is a case of a personal vendetta. There are many angles to it. So, it is not what anybody can really say what the real problems are.
Every attack in the South-East is said to be by IPOB/ESN. Do you believe this?
Every attack cannot possibly be from IPOB. When I earlier mentioned about the four causes of insecurity, which includes identity and so on, that is the one that affects the IPOB. That is the people who have a genuine grievance from their own perception. There are also people who have capitalised on the issue for their own advantage under the guise of doing IPOB. But there are also criminals and whenever they strike, IPOB is blamed for it. I think that government should be able to distinguish the action of the IPOB and that of other criminal elements in the society but if it keeps labelling every attack on IPOB, and with such mindset, the security agencies will find it difficult in sorting out who is really responsible for the attacks in the South-East. However, I appeal to everyone to sheathe their swords, because we cannot achieve anything with violence. But, I must repeat that the real enemies of this country are those who are against the political restructuring of this country, because with restructuring, we will make more progress as a people and a nation.