Guardian

He Should Now Go After Sponsors

Ambassador Onoja, President of Next Generation Youth Initiative International (NEGYII) and Principal Partner, FUDAC Consultancy International Ltd, told KAMAL TAYO OROPO that President Goodluck Jonathan is correct in his declaration of emergency rule.

What is your impression of this declaration of state of emergency?

President Jonathan’s declaration of state of emergency in the three key operational bases of Boko Haram to me is a welcome development, an action over due. Thank God he did not tamper with the structures of governance. Now that he has taken that step, he must show courage and stop at nothing to carry out a clinical military operation in these places to check the enemies of our nation.

We must take a cue from the Boston bombing and what the United State of America, the father of democracy, did. Democracy is not and never a license to kill. People kill willfully in Nigeria because there is no deterrence and sufficient sanction; rather the state is rewarding criminality.

Jonathan’s inaction towards this monster over time was what led to the outburst of the late National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi, and his subsequent removal. But in spite of that, his theory on the Boko Haram remains very strong and valid. Therefore, let Mr. President also go for the Boko Haram sponsors now. Their names are there in the security and intelligence books of the nation. A situation where we have people who are above the Law and are untouchable in Nigeria is a big incentive for the mischief that goes on in our country.

Some have argued that not touching the political structure is untidy. Can you explain why you align with the President’s decision in this regard?

I support Jonathan for not touching the political structures and it is not an untidy development because the present political structures are needed not to overheat the polity and add to the socio-economic and political tension on ground already. Secondly, the political structures on ground are cooperative and merely inherited the Boko Haram phenomenon. Thirdly, it may amount to going too far and provoke some constitutional argument that will distract government and throw up the problem of its credibility and take some steam out of the policy. Mark you the constitution is not explicit on the power of the President to sack the political structures and note that the people elected these individuals.

How do you also respond to feelings that the nature of the declaration is such that will only encourage excesses by the security agents?

I do not agree that it will encourage excess by the military. However, if people think it can, how about the excesses displayed by Boko Haram over time? I like to submit here that the military are not mad men who will go to the streets and shoot anybody anyhow.

They are not culprits of accidental discharge in our history. Men who fight to save the lives of others and their lives must be very intelligent people who cannot most probably behave anyhow, but always at the height of their rationality. Military men are very sensible and our military has displayed that much in our history. For too long the Boko Haram had rode on the weakness or lack of courage on the part of the president to take hard decisions. I want to clearly state that insurgency is a symptom of a weak government and society.

In political and development theory and history all over the world, insurgency cannot be associated with a strong government. It is the weakness of the government that they are capitalizing on and putting on a pseudo image of being too strong or invincible.

Similar declaration had in the past been imposed in Plateau and some other parts of the country, but with limited success. What gives you the confidence that this recent step will ultimately stop the insurgency?

The circumstances of the past emergency declared in Plateau and Ekiti States are completely different and not of the dimension of such criminality as terrorism, which is not only a capital crime nationally, but globally and threat to international peace. The threat of terrorism is a threat to Nigeria’s sovereignty and international peace. So, it is an infraction on both national and international law. The dimension and circumstances of the two are very different.

Insurgents hardly survive serious and sustainable fire power/resistance. The modus of operation and rule of engagement in this exercise is different and will give us positive result. This is criminology and not market economics that every Dick and Harry can easily analyse or understand.

After the expiration of the declaration, what should be the next step?

After the expiration, government and the state should consolidate on this effort and sustain their operational steam, build sufficient structures and professionalize our military to contain insurgency and terrorism.

They should also intensify cooperation with other nations, build capacity of our military as well pick from the experiences of countries like Israel, USA and UK among others who have been on top of insurgency management, handling and control. The state should also develop its military intelligence arsenal to match global standards. Government must always prove its mettle to ensure that nobody takes the law into his hand no matter how highly placed in the society. Government must make sure there is nobody above the law and matters of national security should be treated decisively and with dispatch.

Would a tidier political solution to the crisis of insurgency be more enduring for a better stability of the country?

Political solution, yes but it goes beyond that. A holistic approach and package of political, social, economic and legal solution is most appropriate. The root causes of this problem lie in bad leadership, poor governance, corruption, lawlessness and impunity. Others are poor legal framework and judicial criminal system, ethnicity or ethnic politics and religion as key factors.

We must allow and develop an open and transparent political process short of the manipulation, deceit, fraud and abuse of the processes that will encourage the building of strong institutions. Key to the socio-economic dimension is the phenomenal unemployment consistently faced by our teeming youths, especially graduates. There is great need to shore up investment in education and social capital because when you educate the citizens, the task of nation building is half done. Education cultures and refines a man but if left to himself, he is crude and vulnerable to irrationality beyond the dimension of an animal. And very importantly, the state must ensure that through legislation and incentive building, every citizen is engaged in the task of national security, tacitly or implicitly.