Nigeria’s former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Jonah Wuyep (Rtd) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the public outcry and calls for the restructuring of the country by well meaning Nigerians. Wuyep in this interview with GYANG BERE in Jos said former President Goodluck Jonathan organized the 2014 national conference to sample the opinion of citizens based on geo-political zone and ethnic nationality on how to move the country forward. He spoke more on this and other national issues. He attacked Fulani leaders threatening to banish Yoruba people from the North if Fulani herdsmen are expelled from the South West. His words, “That is a stupid statement as far as I am concerned. Are the Yoruba people destroying their crops in the North, are they criminals where they are living with their people in the North? If you are a criminal, they have to deal with you as such. If the Yoruba people are doing the same thing, they have governors; they have their leadership in the North. You don’t tell me that somebody is trying to kill me and I try to save myself from being killed and that is now an offence. I don’t know how to put it but that statement is a stupid one. If the Yoruba are doing what the herdsmen are doing in their land, that is a different issue but are they doing the same thing?”
What do you think the new Service Chiefs should do differently to improve on the fight against insecurity?
I am aware that the new Service Chiefs worked with the old ones before they left and I believe they did a lot of things together. They are in good condition to assess the present situation to enable them take necessary action to improve on the situation. I have no doubt that all the Service Chiefs will give their best, especially Amao who is from the Service that I served for almost 36 years, he is a good and intelligent pilot and it is only a pilot that can Command the Nigeria Air Force, that is the practice all over the world, you can’t bring somebody who is not a pilot to head the Air Force.
Being a former Service Chief, what do you think should be the first step the new Service Chiefs should take in addressing the insurgency war?
I will first advise them to reassess the situation on the ground before taking any action, it is important they do that. Let me say that when Gen. Obasanjo took over as the Commander during the civil war because the war was prolonged but when he took over, he halted the thing and sat down to reassess the situation before deciding which action to take and he ended the war. Therefore, the new Service Chiefs need to take a look at the situation especially the weapons platforms and take a general overview of the whole situation with the fighting troops, they may need to change some of them but they are not entirely from the blues, they have been part of the system. They were not brought from retirement; they are still part of the system and know what to be done. Also, I think they should also consult their predecessors.
Do you think it is possible for the new Service Chiefs to end the Boko Haram war, since it is not a normal conventional war?
Yes, it is very possible that the Boko Haram war can end but the most important thing first of all is the political will in terms of supporting the service with the required equipment and one very important thing they must key into is intelligence because some of the Boko Haram people are members of Nigerian community, that is the origin of some of them. The aim of the Armed Forces is not to fight our own people; they are to fight against external aggression. It is not easy for the Nigerian Air Force to take the most dangerous fighter aircraft to bomb communities in the fight against Boko Haram, so they need intelligence, in the communities to fish them out.
Some of these insurgents have changed into kidnapping and some are spearheading the herdsmen attacks in the North Central and South West, how do you think these criminalities can be addressed?
Like I said earlier, we need good intelligence to be able to identify them, some of them are in the bushes and these bushes are not outside Nigeria. We have hunters looking for animals to kill and they go into the bushes. We need all the intelligence to go into the bushes to find out who and who are operating inside the bush and bring it to the military for them to analyze and decide which weapon should be used. So we need intelligence, intelligence and intelligence.
Do you expect the Service Chiefs to move soon into the bush to get the intelligence?
Not necessarily them, they have intelligence units under their command, they know what to do to get intelligence network from the bush. It is important because you cannot sit somewhere and just be throwing bombs inside the bush without knowing how many people are there and where they are operating. Somebody has to go there and carry out the necessary investigation and come out with the report to be analyzed and decide what to do.
Are you satisfied with the manner Nigeria is going under the leadership of President Buhari?
If you have a political leader who doesn’t listen to the people, definitely he is inviting demonstration. That is why in some states today, there are few people who are clamouring for the breakup of this country so that they can have their own, if their dissatisfaction is taken care of, that will not happen. People are not satisfied with what is going on. For instance, I do not accept what some people were saying against Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for taking a decision about what is going on in his own state because if he didn’t do it a time will come when his people will ask him the same thing with the President of the country when he is not taking care of the issues. But generally, I think there is a lot to be done; I am not completely happy with the leadership, I must say that because if I don’t say it, I am not being fair to the nation, there is a lot to be done.
There are calls across the geo-political zones of this nation that the country needs restructuring, do you believe in it?
I believe in restructuring, it is necessary. In the past, we were basically three nations; the North, South and the East and later the military came in and broke the country into so many states. The people are not happy with some of the policies and we need to look into it and I think that was one of the reasons why President Goodluck Jonathan organized a national conference in 2014 just to find out what can be done to address the desires of the people, so restructuring is good. Today, every state visits Abuja just to get things done, which is not the way it is done in America. We have states and America has states too, we must stop being very lazy; we must do something to help ourselves rather than waiting for allocation and this comes from one source, that is oil. There are so many things to be done and I think restructuring will sort it out.
Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong recently signed into law the anti-kidnapping, and anti-cultism law, which prescribes death sentence for kidnappers, do you think that is appropriate?
I don’t see anything wrong with the policy he has adopted, he is the chief security officer of the state, it is his responsibility to actually curb all the criminalities in the state and I pray that he will implement it because it is one thing to put those things on paper and it is another thing to do it.
The law says that when such kidnappers are convicted, the penalty is death sentence, do you support it?
Yes, the miscreant should be executed. It is not just being a leader; you need to take hard decisions.
Are you advising governors in the country to have such laws in their respective states?
Yes, if it is necessary, why not?
As an elder statesman, many people are dying of hardship in silence, how do you think they can be in these pains and still remain patriotic to the nation?
I advise Nigerians to live peacefully with one another, I don’t advocate the carrying of arms, let’s go by the law and let there be dialogue in resolving differences especially boundary commissions between states, let’s pursue our differences through dialogue. There is no need for war and I don’t pray for war because I have seen it during my 36 years of service in the past. Let’s do everything peacefully just like President Goodluck Jonathan who brought the issue of national conference in 2014 but the sad thing generally in this country is that reports are just dumped.
On Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s quit notice to herdsmen in Ondo State forests, do you think it is proper?
When you live in a community, you are supposed to abide by the law, if you violate it, there is a punishment for that. For you to be there with your cows, destroying farmers’ crops in the farm, you don’t expect the leader of that community not to react or not to report. If the governor feels it is better to remove the criminal elements from there, so be it, he should follow the law.
The Fulani have also threatened to send Yoruba from the North back to the South West, what do you think should be done?
That is a stupid statement as far as I am concerned. Are the Yoruba people destroying their crops in the North, are they criminals where they are living with their people in the North? If you are a criminal, they have to deal with you as such. If the Yoruba people are doing the same thing, they have governors; they have their leadership in the North. You don’t tell me that somebody is trying to kill me and I try to save myself from being killed and that is now an offence. I don’t know how to put it but that statement is a stupid one. If the Yoruba are doing what the herdsmen are doing in their land, that is a different issue but are they doing the same thing? This is where dialogue is very important.
Nigeria’s former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Jonah Wuyep (Rtd) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the public outcry and calls for the restructuring of the country by well meaning Nigerians. Wuyep in this interview with GYANG BERE in Jos said former President Goodluck Jonathan organized the 2014 national conference to sample the opinion of citizens based on geo-political zone and ethnic nationality on how to move the country forward. He spoke more on this and other national issues. He attacked Fulani leaders threatening to banish Yoruba people from the North if Fulani herdsmen are expelled from the South West. His words, “That is a stupid statement as far as I am concerned. Are the Yoruba people destroying their crops in the North, are they criminals where they are living with their people in the North? If you are a criminal, they have to deal with you as such. If the Yoruba people are doing the same thing, they have governors; they have their leadership in the North. You don’t tell me that somebody is trying to kill me and I try to save myself from being killed and that is now an offence. I don’t know how to put it but that statement is a stupid one. If the Yoruba are doing what the herdsmen are doing in their land, that is a different issue but are they doing the same thing?”
What do you think the new Service Chiefs should do differently to improve on the fight against insecurity?
I am aware that the new Service Chiefs worked with the old ones before they left and I believe they did a lot of things together. They are in good condition to assess the present situation to enable them take necessary action to improve on the situation. I have no doubt that all the Service Chiefs will give their best, especially Amao who is from the Service that I served for almost 36 years, he is a good and intelligent pilot and it is only a pilot that can Command the Nigeria Air Force, that is the practice all over the world, you can’t bring somebody who is not a pilot to head the Air Force.
Being a former Service Chief, what do you think should be the first step the new Service Chiefs should take in addressing the insurgency war?
I will first advise them to reassess the situation on the ground before taking any action, it is important they do that. Let me say that when Gen. Obasanjo took over as the Commander during the civil war because the war was prolonged but when he took over, he halted the thing and sat down to reassess the situation before deciding which action to take and he ended the war. Therefore, the new Service Chiefs need to take a look at the situation especially the weapons platforms and take a general overview of the whole situation with the fighting troops, they may need to change some of them but they are not entirely from the blues, they have been part of the system. They were not brought from retirement; they are still part of the system and know what to be done. Also, I think they should also consult their predecessors.
Do you think it is possible for the new Service Chiefs to end the Boko Haram war, since it is not a normal conventional war?
Yes, it is very possible that the Boko Haram war can end but the most important thing first of all is the political will in terms of supporting the service with the required equipment and one very important thing they must key into is intelligence because some of the Boko Haram people are members of Nigerian community, that is the origin of some of them. The aim of the Armed Forces is not to fight our own people; they are to fight against external aggression. It is not easy for the Nigerian Air Force to take the most dangerous fighter aircraft to bomb communities in the fight against Boko Haram, so they need intelligence, in the communities to fish them out.
Some of these insurgents have changed into kidnapping and some are spearheading the herdsmen attacks in the North Central and South West, how do you think these criminalities can be addressed?
Like I said earlier, we need good intelligence to be able to identify them, some of them are in the bushes and these bushes are not outside Nigeria. We have hunters looking for animals to kill and they go into the bushes. We need all the intelligence to go into the bushes to find out who and who are operating inside the bush and bring it to the military for them to analyze and decide which weapon should be used. So we need intelligence, intelligence and intelligence.
Do you expect the Service Chiefs to move soon into the bush to get the intelligence?
Not necessarily them, they have intelligence units under their command, they know what to do to get intelligence network from the bush. It is important because you cannot sit somewhere and just be throwing bombs inside the bush without knowing how many people are there and where they are operating. Somebody has to go there and carry out the necessary investigation and come out with the report to be analyzed and decide what to do.
Are you satisfied with the manner Nigeria is going under the leadership of President Buhari?
If you have a political leader who doesn’t listen to the people, definitely he is inviting demonstration. That is why in some states today, there are few people who are clamouring for the breakup of this country so that they can have their own, if their dissatisfaction is taken care of, that will not happen. People are not satisfied with what is going on. For instance, I do not accept what some people were saying against Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for taking a decision about what is going on in his own state because if he didn’t do it a time will come when his people will ask him the same thing with the President of the country when he is not taking care of the issues. But generally, I think there is a lot to be done; I am not completely happy with the leadership, I must say that because if I don’t say it, I am not being fair to the nation, there is a lot to be done.
There are calls across the geo-political zones of this nation that the country needs restructuring, do you believe in it?
I believe in restructuring, it is necessary. In the past, we were basically three nations; the North, South and the East and later the military came in and broke the country into so many states. The people are not happy with some of the policies and we need to look into it and I think that was one of the reasons why President Goodluck Jonathan organized a national conference in 2014 just to find out what can be done to address the desires of the people, so restructuring is good. Today, every state visits Abuja just to get things done, which is not the way it is done in America. We have states and America has states too, we must stop being very lazy; we must do something to help ourselves rather than waiting for allocation and this comes from one source, that is oil. There are so many things to be done and I think restructuring will sort it out.
Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong recently signed into law the anti-kidnapping, and anti-cultism law, which prescribes death sentence for kidnappers, do you think that is appropriate?
I don’t see anything wrong with the policy he has adopted, he is the chief security officer of the state, it is his responsibility to actually curb all the criminalities in the state and I pray that he will implement it because it is one thing to put those things on paper and it is another thing to do it.
The law says that when such kidnappers are convicted, the penalty is death sentence, do you support it?
Yes, the miscreant should be executed. It is not just being a leader; you need to take hard decisions.
Are you advising governors in the country to have such laws in their respective states?
Yes, if it is necessary, why not?
As an elder statesman, many people are dying of hardship in silence, how do you think they can be in these pains and still remain patriotic to the nation?
I advise Nigerians to live peacefully with one another, I don’t advocate the carrying of arms, let’s go by the law and let there be dialogue in resolving differences especially boundary commissions between states, let’s pursue our differences through dialogue. There is no need for war and I don’t pray for war because I have seen it during my 36 years of service in the past. Let’s do everything peacefully just like President Goodluck Jonathan who brought the issue of national conference in 2014 but the sad thing generally in this country is that reports are just dumped.
On Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s quit notice to herdsmen in Ondo State forests, do you think it is proper?
When you live in a community, you are supposed to abide by the law, if you violate it, there is a punishment for that. For you to be there with your cows, destroying farmers’ crops in the farm, you don’t expect the leader of that community not to react or not to report. If the governor feels it is better to remove the criminal elements from there, so be it, he should follow the law.
The Fulani have also threatened to send Yoruba from the North back to the South West, what do you think should be done?
That is a stupid statement as far as I am concerned. Are the Yoruba people destroying their crops in the North, are they criminals where they are living with their people in the North? If you are a criminal, they have to deal with you as such. If the Yoruba people are doing the same thing, they have governors; they have their leadership in the North. You don’t tell me that somebody is trying to kill me and I try to save myself from being killed and that is now an offence. I don’t know how to put it but that statement is a stupid one. If the Yoruba are doing what the herdsmen are doing in their land, that is a different issue but are they doing the same thing? This is where dialogue is very important.
