By Daniel Kanu
Major General Henry Ayoola, a seasoned and well-decorated military officer, was former Commander (Special Task Force) Operation Safe Heaven in Jos, Plateau State.
He is also the National Chairman, Restructure Actualisation Movement (RAM), as well as the BoT Chairman, Peace Action Transformation (PACT), a strategic movement group ensuring the peaceful transformation of the country.
In this encounter with Sunday Sun, he shared his disappointments on the Nigerian condition, failure of leadership, Southeast presidential quest, and the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign electoral bill, among other critical national issues. Excerpt:
How will you react to the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Bill?
What is the response of the National Assembly if the president is not signing or refuses to sign? Is it not their responsibility to veto the president, but they didn’t. I think it just shows that our politicians are not concerned about making the system work, making the system more effective, but it is obvious that they are concerned with how they are going to manipulate the system rather than how the system is going to function well. They are having a handful opportunity to manipulate the system rather than a stream lined systemic process that will not allow such (manipulation). Our politicians don’t want anything that will prevent them from maneuvering. So, it is obvious that they don’t want an efficient and effective system that will produce the choice of the people. What is happening just shows the class of political elite that we have. For them, it is not about fine tuning the system to make it a more effective system, it is about how they can remain in power and I think that is obvious to every Nigerian by now that we are not thinking of building a system that works for everybody. That is why we in the Restructure Actualisation Movement have always talked about elite consensus. We need to start some conversation towards elite consensus because unless the elite of any nation agree for the nation to move forward even if you have the best leader in the whole wild world they will still frustrate that leader. The process of producing our leaders is where the problem starts from. If we don’t have a process of turning out team of leaders with character, competence and genuine connection with the people then we will continue to get this kind of thing. Well, let’s see how and where it ends because as it is now the ball is now in the court of the National Assembly, if they allow it…the populace is helpless. They (National Assembly) are the representatives of the people, whatever they permit will go. But they should be mindful that Nigerians are watching with keen interest.
Looking at the build up so far where the government is bent on removing oil subsidy, there will likely be increase in fuel and products like gas and with emphasis on increase in taxation among others, what kind of future do you see in 2022?
Well, I will like to believe that the government will be sensitive enough to consider some of the feedback that are already getting to them because apart from the fact that the people are already hard pressed, I don’t think this is the right time to think of making life more difficult for the people. I know, of course, that the government itself is hard pressed, they have so many bills to pay, but I think that the sacrifice should start from the leadership, it is just natural. If you are the leader and you want your people to sacrifice, you demonstrate it, lead the example, lead the change, let’s hear that they (government) are planning to have the salaries, some percentage of salaries of members of the National Assembly and all the legislative houses throughout the country, the same for the executive and the judiciary cut down, that shows readiness and willingness to sacrifice. When the leadership does that and you are now suggesting that the people too should be prepared to tighten their loins, then they will understand, but without such leading example…we should not just be discussing these things at all, it is an insult to the generality of our people, it is a slap on the sensibilities of the populace to even be discussing it, even by suggesting it, it just shows that people that came up with such idea…did they think through it? Or was it just an idea to play around or are they flying a kite? You begin to ask yourself if there was any serious brainstorming leading to such an idea. It’s time to stop being complicit in our own ruination by either failing to stand up for what is right or refusing to participate. As a result we must all rise and say this country is ours and that the few do or die politicians in pursuit of narrow self-interest should not be allowed to extinguish the light of the promise of a great nation. Our duty as a people is not to fold our hands and allow our hard won democracy to die rather Nigerians must take personal responsibility to salvage this country.
Some analysts have continued to argue that the system we run in Nigeria cannot provide justice and fairness, that even if a good leader emerges that the system will frustrate the person. Do you share in this view?
Of course, that is what we have been singing in the Restructure Actualisation Movement. We have said it again and again and it has become increasingly clear and self evident that we will be deceiving ourselves if we think that what we have now will take us anywhere. What we run now is a near zero system and this cannot take us any further and it is obvious it is going to collapse very soon because we cannot be swimming upstream and be expecting some speed. We operate as if we are an island on our own. There are generic universal principles of success, if we violate all of them and then we are expecting something extraordinary to happen from the blues, it’s so amusing sometime because these principles are there, time-tested, lifetime principles, if you break them you break yourself and you have yourself to blame, you break them at your own peril. The earlier we go back to those fundamentals the better for us.
Let’s look at the efforts of your group or movement, PACT (Peace Action Transformation), which is more of a peace initiative movement than a political movement. Do you think the actions of PACT will make any impact in the system in terms of helping to bring the desired system change?
I have had to answer this question a number of times in recent time. Yes, I think the focus has been so much on the peace, but of course, the peace action, you know that peace is an outcome, a result of certain efforts, that is the truth of it. So, it is those actions that we are focusing on. For example, justice is a pre-requisite of peace, without justice you cannot have genuine peace. Part of our peace action is advocating for fairness, equity and justice in all spheres that we have as a people and that involves a lot of rallies, a lot of re-orientation programmes for the youths or the populace in general. We have come to a point where we are all stakeholders and everybody should be willing to see something positive done so as to put our nation on course, on the right part. So, the movement (PACT) has a long list of action, democratic actions or weapons that we will put to use to bring the desired changes needed for the generality or best interest of the people. Through very dynamic advocacy, PACT is committed to using all available peaceful, lawful, legal and constitutional means and democratic instruments to achieve collective stability and avoid this threatening tragedy. We can see that the next generation of leaders are coming from the youths and if they are wrongly oriented then we have to work hard to re-orient them appropriately. These are some of the things that are packaged for PACT and, of course, to let Nigerians know that we all owe ourselves that pact to salvage this country. The acronym itself is deliberate to say that let’s enter into a pact to make Nigeria great and it is the work of everybody, not just the leaders or politicians. As I have always said governance is too serious a business to be left to the politicians alone, we all have a role to play, we all have a part to play, and we are all stakeholders. The era of just sitting back and becoming an arm-chair critic of the leader is gone. It is so obvious that they (government) are overwhelmed themselves, so whatever each and every one of us can contribute to help get Nigeria out of the woods will be welcomed. In PACT, we believe that the peace, tranquility, and stability of the country are under unprecedented threat today like never before. We believe that the over-concentration of power at the centre has proven unhelpful, dysfunctional and unproductive as the entire structure of the country is tottering and about to collapse under the daunting weight of excessive authority without commensurate capacity and responsibility.
The truth is that every passing day in our country confirms the reality that the nation is still unrepentantly committed to its dangerous path of self-destruction. The challenge then is that saving our dear country now requires the concerted efforts of all dedicated and patriotic citizens who are ready to deploy resources at their disposal and make sacrifices personal and collective to salvage this country. It is no longer time to watch and criticise, but a time to rise up and throw ones heart into the challenge if we must get the desired result.
What is your reaction to zoning? For instance, the Southeast is presently making strong case for the zone for the presidential seat, just like some other zones?
Sincerely, if you ask me, I will tell you that I agree with the fact that yes the Southeast in fairness to them should be considered, but we know that, that is not the way politics is played, leadership, politics, positioning they are not served ala carte, they don’t give it for free, you don’t just blackmail people into submitting leadership to you. There is work to be done, you got to negotiate, you got to rally people, you got to make your points convincingly, you got to lobby etc. There is so much work to be done. You don’t sit back and say oh it’s our turn, we must be given. I have a lot of Southeastern friends, and as far as fairness is concerned I agree with them, these are issues I discuss at different times with them, it makes very logical and equitable sense, but in reality it is a different ball game, you have to work it out. Unless you are expecting the people to vote for you out of empathy and sympathy and that doesn’t happen.
Let’s look at the issue of security challenge and the government’s constant claim that they are on top of the challenge?
It is obvious to everyone that is alive and well that they (government) are not on top of the security challenge. I am not sure they are saying it again that they are on top of it. The president has been sincere enough to admit that they are overwhelmed that they have done all that they could do and that we should pray. If the president has said such who is that person again that will tell Nigerians otherwise? They can’t be on top of it when we are losing the lives of fellow citizens on daily basis to the same security challenge. And this is now across all political zones. Nowhere is safe any longer.
What exactly is the way forward, I mean the solution for Nigeria?
The solution is very clear: restructure, restructure, restructure. Why can’t we have a state police, for instance? The state governments are spending more money on police more than the Federal Government. Apart from paying salaries of the police the states provide all the logistics, motivations etc, so why can’t they be given the command, a command that will take directive from the governor? And what does it take? It is just devolution of power. Release certain powers to the state and to the local governments, simple.
Are you not worried by the abuse the police may witness if put under the command of state governors?
Is there anything in the world that cannot be abused? That argument is a lame one. Don’t we have laws again or are the state chief executives now above the law?