Major-Gen Ishola-Williams: 2023: 2023: Why South-East deserves presidency

In an interview with TUNDE THOMAS, he argued that for equity, fairness, and justice, the zone should naturally produce the president in 2023. He spoke on other issues.

What’s your assessment of the present state of security in the country?

The situation is not encouraging at all. It has not got to a point where we can say Nigerians should relax contrary to the impression that the Federal Government wants to give us. Although the President is telling us that there is no local government or area that is occupied by terrorists be it ISWAP or Boko Haram but then there are still some places in this country where terrorists are collecting taxes from citizens. Even the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai recently confirmed that there are some no-go areas in his state where terrorists are collecting taxes from the people. What then can one say except to say that we are still not there yet security-wise? There is still a lot of work to be done. But sadly there is no new approach by the government to effectively tackle the insecurity challenge. It has all been talk but no new innovation on the part of the government to tackle the problem, and I don’t see government from the present look of things doing anything to change the situation. President Muhammadu Buhari has already declared that he is tired, and if he is tired, he should just hand over to the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo to run the government for the few remaining months of the administration while Buhari will just be in a supervisory role. Osinbajo, I‘m sure, is not tired to work. Look at the recent attacks on INEC facilities across the country, especially in the South-East. It’s very dangerous for the country’s democracy as 2023 is fast approaching, What has been the government’s response to these attacks? It has not been too decisive considering the time the attacks are coming up.  This is one of the signs that Buhari is tired, and if he is indeed tired he should hand it over to Osinbajo who still has the energy to work. I’m not saying that Buhari should resign but just that he should allow his deputy who still has the energy to run the show to be in charge for the remaining part of the tenure of this government. Buhari should then give a free hand to Osinbajo to come up with a new security architecture to tackle the security challenges. Buhari’s government can still achieve tangible results within the next remaining three months of his administration if he takes this advice.

Buhari can go and sit down in Daura while he supervises Osinbajo and other members of the team. Age is already catching up with him, and it appears he is not prepared for the challenges he has been facing. Because of this, so many things are not working smoothly. For instance, the civil service is very corrupt. Civil service is one of the greatest problems we have in this country. If the civil service has been incorruptible, Nigeria would have been one of the greatest countries in the world. The whole place is rotten, and the expected actions to sanitise the place are not being taken, and this is one of the reasons to show that the president is tired. There have been other things that have happened and you wonder whether the President is aware of what is happening or aware of the actions being taken by some government officials.

But aside from what you are suggesting now, what should the government do to have a lasting solution to the security crisis?

What the Federal Government is doing now by creating new security outfits like the Centre for Counter-terrorism will not work, as all these can’t achieve any concrete result within the remaining three months of Buhari’s administration, rather they should rejig the security architecture. They should re-organize the existing security structures instead of creating new ones. Then, they are buying new sophisticated weapons that they don’t have qualified personnel that can use them. What they have to do is to look at the qualifications of the people they are recruiting, otherwise, if they recruit the wrong people, then the problem will still remain. The qualifications of the people they are recruiting are very important, otherwise these sophisticated weapons will just be there wasting away. It is important they look at the security architecture and re-organize effectively. The Federal Government’s approach to the problem has not changed, and this is why nothing has changed. If they continue with the present approach, the insecurity problem will linger and the incoming administration will inherit it. Unfortunately, none of the presidential candidates has talked about concrete plans they have to tackle the insecurity challenge. They have just been talking about bringing the insecurity challenge to an end, but I have not seen any of them outlining concrete plans to tackle it. None of them has come out with a blueprint to show that they are going to do something different from what the present government is doing. If they don’t have a blueprint now and are thinking of developing one when they get to Aso Rock, they are making a mistake. This is the time for them to come out with a blueprint on how they intend to tackle the security challenges facing the nation.

Then, the various local vigilante groups like the Amotekun in the South-West, the Neighbourhood Corps in Lagos State, and similar ones across the country can also come to the rescue. They can complement the efforts of security agencies. To a certain extent, Amotekun is working very well. But they should not arm the Amotekun, they should not give them guns because they may misuse them. What people should do is pass information to these local vigilante groups which they in turn will pass to the relevant security agencies for appropriate actions to be taken.

Some state governors may even abuse these local security outfits as they may use them to oppress and intimidate their opponents if they are allowed to carry arms. State governors are a major problem in Nigeria. If Nigeria is not making progress, the state governors are one of the reasons for that. They are only interested in collecting the monthly allocations from the Federal Government which they misuse anyhow. The mistake that most Nigerians make is that they only concentrate their attention on the Federal Government; they don’t look at the state governments. The state governors are stealing a lot. If Nigeria is not making progress, the state governors are also part of the reasons. The state governors don’t even want the local government to exist. Why? They are always desperate to take the local government’s money. They can’t even account for the huge monthly allocations they are collecting from the Federal Government. These state governors are looters. Look at what is happening today, some of these governors after leaving office go to Senate, and they will now start collecting double salaries as Senators, and ex-governors. This is absurd. Where do you see this kind of thing happening except in Nigeria? Why are people so greedy? These people have no conscience at all. These state governors are enemies of the people. The soul mates of the governors are the members of the National Assembly who are collecting outrageous salaries and allowances while the majority of Nigerians are suffering. If Nigeria is not making progress, these two sets of people, the governors and members of the National Assembly are responsible.

Campaigns are ongoing for the 2023 elections. Are you satisfied with the ways the campaigns have been going? Are the candidates also addressing issues?

As usual with politicians, they have been going around making a plethora of promises which most of them will not even fulfil if they get elected. That’s the typical Nigerian politician’s style. Nigerians should be wary of these politicians who will promise and will not deliver. I also expect these candidates to devise a blueprint for how to reform the civil service and tackle corruption. Imagine the level of corruption in the civil service. Imagine a former Accountant-General of the Federation being linked with billions of naira of public funds. This is why we need a civil service that is incorruptible. The level of impunity in this country is terrible. The young man at the helm of affairs in EFCC now is trying his best, and in fact, has done better than all his predecessors but then the judicial system is not making things better because some of these looters when they charge them to court, they grant them bail, and then the case will suffer perpetual adjournments, and at the end of the day, these people may escape justice.

What’s your assessment of the leading presidential candidates?

To me, for the first time, Nigerians have an alternative to the two main party candidates, and I’m talking of Peter Obi of the Labour party. Although some people may say that the Labour Party is weak but that doesn’t matter, if the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and the civil society organisations back and mobilise support for Peter Obi, he will win. Even though there are challenges, if he wins he can overcome these challenges. I’m backing Peter Obi. Let’s try a new man. Let Nigerians have an alternative to those old hands. If all trade  unions in the country support him, he will win. We are tired of recycled politicians. Not only that, but for equity’s sake, we need a candidate from the South-East to occupy Aso Villa in 2023. The next President should come from the South-East. It should be the Igbo’s turn in 2023. A Yoruba man has been there, Hausa – Fulani people have also been there, so it should be the turn of an Igbo man.

You mentioned Atiku as an alternative to Obi, but some people are wondering whether Nigerians should vote for another Northerner after Buhari’s eight years in office….

There are cases where you have exceptions. I mentioned Atiku because he promised that he would hand over to his deputy, Okowa, an Igbo man after spending one term in office. To me, that is still better than having a Yoruba man. It should be Peter Obi or any party that can put an Igbo man there. We want justice, fairness and equity, and this is why I’m supporting Obi. Apart from the issue of equity, Obi also has what it takes to deliver. He has the qualities, and the ability to deliver. If we want to remain a truly united country, we need to be fair to one another. We must honestly admit that we have been unfair to the South-East, and we need to redress this injustice.

How would you assess INEC’s preparations for the general elections? Are you sure they will perform creditably in 2023?

INEC has been doing very well under the leadership of Prof. Mahmoud Yacoub. I have no doubt that INEC will perform very well in 2023, especially with the introduction of BVAS into the  voting system . I’m sure with  BVAS, what happened in 2019 will not repeat itself. I hope that one day, somebody will be able to tell the true story of what happened in 2019, how Atiku didn’t win or why Atiku didn’t win that election. Atiku won that election, and that’s why up till today, INEC has not released the electronic results of the 2019 presidential elections. Why is INEC hiding the electronic results of that election up till today? Why? I’m sure that Buhari himself knows that he didn’t win that election. Let INEC bring out the electronic result of that election if anybody is disputing what I’m saying. INEC has been hiding the electronic result of that election since 2019. Unfortunately, unlike in other climes where they will stand for the truth no matter the situation, the Supreme Court here will not like to upset the apple cart.

With BVAS, I believe that the elections will be free and fair. Those who are calling for the reversal of BVAS are those who are afraid of losing the elections. The 2023 general elections are going to be historic. Rigging is going to be nearly impossible.

What’s your reaction to the recent report by the NBS that 133 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty?

Don’t mind those people with their big grammar. They just copy any methodology that is used in Europe or elsewhere. Agreed that there is poverty in the country, but the figure may not be that high. I agreed that there is suffering in the country and that presently things are tough with many Nigerians but I don’t agree with that figure. There are some people who are poor by choice, but 133 million people in this country are not poor, definitely not. But the government needs to do more in the area of poverty alleviation because many Nigerians are suffering.

-diplomatic diary