The Chairman, South-East Security Committee, Major General Obi Umahi (retd.), tells RAPHAEL EDE how soldiers’ ethnic and religious persuasions had contributed to the unending insurgency in the North-East and issues around the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra

How would you describe the security situation in the country today?

It is known to everybody that the security situation in Nigeria is not good enough and every day it gets worse. However, in analysing the security situation, you find that Nigeria is encircled by insecurity; in the North-West, North-East and sometimes you see something that looks like it in the South-South when some militants carry out acts of terrorism in the waters; they kidnap and harass people. So, there is insecurity trying to engulf Nigeria from all sides.

The herdsmen-farmers clashes have resulted in killing and destruction of farmlands, how do you think this could be resolved permanently?

We didn’t have this situation from 10 to 15 years ago. This situation of herdsmen getting involved in raping, killing, kidnapping and destruction of farmlands and other atrocities were not with us. So, what we suggest is that besides the peaceful Fulani that have always been all over the country, there must be some others who came in posing as normal Fulani and are now responsible for this evil and criminalities. What one can try to do is to separate Paul from Barnabas, using the Biblical illustration. We have been told time and time again that those responsible for all these atrocities are the ones bearing arms. They are the ones carrying automatic weapons and of course because of that people are afraid of challenging them, else they could be shot. A woman found in a farm in a remote place is raped. Even villages sometimes are ravaged. Churches are not spared, like in Benue State where they went in and slaughtered people like goats in a church. All these things could not have been done by the normal Fulani we know of. The big question is who gave these arm-bearing Fulani the right to be in Nigeria? Why has Nigeria not sorted out this issue when it sees this situation? That is the major concern. It is not that criminals may not infiltrate the country, but when they do what is done about it? What are the security agencies doing about it? What is the response of the government of the day at all levels to tame this tide of criminality?

You chair the South-East Security Committee and you said recently that all was set for the unveiling of a security outfit for the zone and that all pending technicalities that delayed its launch in 2019 had been cleared, could you give us an update?

Yes, I’m the chairman of the South-East Security Committee and the committee has been inaugurated. We have made some preparatory arrangements to take off as appropriate and we have drawn up concepts for operations; we have also done threat analysis and we have done all the mapping that we are supposed to do as a committee. A framework has been drafted and handed over to the South-East Governors Forum. I’m not a governor so I cannot say precisely what the issues are but I know that except the states’ Houses of Assembly pass a bill on it, authorising it to come on stream will be deemed illegal. If you do a check, South-East is the most secured geopolitical zone in Nigeria today and I always credit that to God; secondly to the activities of the governors in the South-East. All of them have security apparatus dealing with issues of security and we have given some advice at that level.

South-East governors banned open grazing in the region, how has that worked?

This ban has been in place, but like I said earlier, security issues are not propaganda issues. What I know is that if you make laws that you do not have powers to enforce the law is as good as nothing. The other day I read in the newspapers that the governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, said he wasn’t getting the support of the security agencies to enforce the state’s law on anti-open grazing. Let’s put things in perspective. If South-East governors did not even make that law, I wouldn’t blame them because our constitution is faulty and if a constitution of a nation is faulty the nation is standing on a false foundation. If according to the 1999 Constitution a governor is the chief security officer of a state, he should be able to give the police instruction. The dispensation that we have now does not guarantee that, and then the only way out is state police, which is actually the right thing in any federal system. Beyond that, most societies in other climes have police security at three levels; federal, state and local government councils. That is the way to go.

Almost everybody knows that state police is the way to go but those in the corridors of power do not want to change the status quo, and the community policing initiative of the police authorities is like a derivative of that, why is it impossible to have it?

Community policing was entirely an initiative of the police and it’s a concept that suggests that people will be involved in the security of their immediate environment and they are supposed to work with the police in that locality. But Nigeria cannot achieve community policing the way the police is structured and is being administered today. In better societies, they don’t have police barracks because it creates ‘they and us’ relationship. The police live in police barracks, they come out to do their work and withdraw to the barracks afterwards. There cannot be an effective relationship between the police and those they are policing. So, for community policing to be effective, the concept of police barracks must go. Police must live with the people. You know if a policeman lives in the same neighbourhood with you, he would hardly offend you because he knows that after the day’s work, he is returning to that same environment to meet the same people. If Nigerian policemen start living in the midst of the people, I can tell you policing will change in character and conduct. I therefore ask for a radical approach to policing in this nation. A new housing arrangement should be made for policemen either through monetisation or some other arrangements.

You said the nation’s security forces were determined to tackle the spate of insecurity in the country but regretted that there was obvious sabotage within the security network including the military, can you share some light on this?

Nigeria is a country that is polarised; ethnic polarisation, religious polarisation and sometimes separated by status symbol. So, people have one alignment or the other and that is primordial alignment. That is nepotistic alignment. Someone owes allegiance to his ethnic nationality and religious doctrine or persuasions before the Nigerian nation and that is wrong. I do not mean allegiance to God because religion is different from God – people owe allegiance to religious doctrine and persuasions over and above their allegiance to their country. I believe very strongly in the Nigerian project and I am positive that Nigeria will overcome all these problems and come out as a very strong and prosperous nation in the future. Specifically to the question, you asked that fault lines were noticed even in the military and in the barracks. The signs of disunity are noticed even there. When someone says oh! I am a Christian and another one says I am a Muslim and they can’t work together, that is disaster for Nigeria. And it is those religious persuasion and ethnic persuasion that influence some of the things people say. If a soldier removes his loyalty to the nation and channels the same towards religion, in that situation he can give intelligent reports to the adversaries against his colleagues going for an operation and even reveal the direction they are going and the time of their departure. That could prompt an ambush by the enemies and they could succeed in wiping out the soldiers. Truth be told, it has happened again and again. For example, when I was operating in the Niger Delta, there was a threat, not just a threat, militants occupied the pump station of one of the oil companies and we planned an operation to go and take over the place and flush out the militants and take over the station. One soldier among us called the militants and informed them. The militants laid ambush for us and attacked the first wave of the soldiers. They didn’t know we were in three waves. The second wave overran the ambush and they made arrest in a house that was close by. From there, we went – I led that operation – and we took over the flow station.

Did you find the soldier that betrayed the team?

When we finished the operation and we had a debriefing session, we found out that one soldier called one of the militants and we arrested the militant, we arrested his girlfriend and when we profiled their phones we found out that the exact phone number was there. We eventually arrested that soldier and he confessed. This is one of the issues frustrating the operations in the North-East. We must come together as one see ourselves belonging to a nation; a united Nigeria and stop aligning based on religion, ethnic persuasions, primordial thinking, all of which divide us. We cannot win external war with that kind of scenario.

The Indigenous People of Biafra recently floated Eastern Security Network, which they popularly called ESN, perhaps because political leadership in the region had failed, what do you think they should be supported?

(Laughs) I am mindful of the constitution, I believe in the rule of law and I believe in calling a spade a spade. IPOB has been proscribed rightly or wrongly and because it is proscribed everything and anything emanating from IPOB is illegal. So, the IPOB Eastern Security Network is an illegal contraption. How can IPOB establish a security network to guide a territory that is led by a constituted authority without the consent of the constituted authority? That is chaos. That is anarchy and whoever supports that is a supporter of anarchy. Whosoever has any form of loyalty towards that ESN is a sponsor of illegality. There is no security gap. I told you that the South-East is the most secured in all the geopolitical zones, so how do you justify the imposition of an illegal security network? That has its implications, especially because the people who established that illegal contraption are not on ground. Security is so fluid that if you have a security outfit and you are not nearby to manage it, you can never be a commander in absentia and not have them all drift into illegality. So you can’t set your fire on the right hand side and put your hands on the left hand side in a harmattan. The person who set up the illegal security contraption should be on ground in order to ensure that they do not deviate into extra illegal activities and that is exactly what they are doing. So, if they are South-East Security Network, let them come and operate in the open so that people can run to them. How can you be hidden somewhere and say you are securing people whose security needs you don’t know. You are not even talking with them. So how does that play out? I see it as utter madness.

Why has it been difficult for the elders in the South-East to control the members of the proscribed IPOB?

How do you control someone who has not submitted himself to you? How do you control someone who has not come to say ‘our elders, this is where we are going and this is what we are doing, how do we do it; which way should we go?’ It is when someone seeks advice that you give your counsel. All those involved in IPOB and sympathetic to it didn’t see the civil war. They never saw the internal propaganda behind civil war and how people fell into it blindly. That is why we are telling Igbo you must be wise. You can’t make one mistake twice. There is a better approach. Are we marginalised? Yes. Are there some existential threats associated with Igbo no matter where they are in this country? Yes. But the approach is not the IPOB way. The IPOB way and IPOB trajectory are rather childish and devoid of reasonableness. If they want to operate like the Odua People’s Congress or Arewa youths, they must first of all submit to the elders so they can always get wise counsel. What you see is Nnamdi Kanu abusing the elders and the governors, he would abuse the people in the private sector and reduce them to nothing, so who would he go to for counsel. The elders are always available and willing to counsel the youths because they are our future. They are the future of Igboland but if you have irresponsible youths that say elders amount to nothing, how will they amount to something when they become elders.

Do you think the outlawed group enjoys the backing of some prominent members of the society?

Which prominent members? They have no backing. They have no backing of the Igbo. They have no backing of the political leadership. They have no backing of the traditional rulers. They have no backing of the elders. They are simply taking advantage of the unemployed youths. So if the government can do one thing or the other that will reduce the population of those who are unemployed in Igboland and the entire country, some of these crises would fade out.

What is expected of governors as their contributions to the South-East Security Committee?

If they set up a security outfit they will sponsor it; that is their responsibility and they have to set the boundaries and the modalities for its operations. That is their responsibility.

Will your committee approach the Inspector-General of Police to enable the members of the security outfit to carry arms?

It is the responsibility of the governors and there is a procedure for that. If the armed, hostile herdsmen are removed from the system, the issue of carrying any sophisticated automatic weapon becomes very unnecessary. But as long as those ones are carrying arms I am sure the governors will approach the appropriate authorities for that. They may not ask for an automatic weapon because it is the president only that can authorise that, but they know the controlled equipment they can ask for, because the authorities would consider the implications of such licence and act based on that.

Will there be a need for applicants to know how to use guns and blend it with charms?

(Laughs) I am a pastor; I don’t do juju. My juju is the Almighty God. However, whatever scale of equipment that is available the guards will be trained with.

As a retired General, what would you tie the country’s insecurity problem to?

If I have to advise the appropriate authority I think the Armed Forces are not organised for operations. The service chiefs who left a few months ago did their bit and they have gone. I welcome these new ones – vibrant, tried and tested officers. I know them and I know that they will do well. However, I will advise that our approach to operation should change; it should be tweaked. In the last dispensation, it was not a joint operation: the Army carried on; the Air Force also carried on and each of them sought relevance and publicity. I think this set of service chiefs will not do that. There shouldn’t be competition among the service chiefs to achieve a mandate given by the President. The presidential mandate is to bring to an end the insecurity in the North-East and North-West. There should be a joint operation; one for the North-West Command and another joint operation for the North-East Command and each of them would have joint commanders. Also, the service chiefs should come under the Chief of Defence Staff. The service chiefs should give their full support. They have to ensure that each of the joint operations, under the CDS, achieves the presidential mandate. We need a different approach. It is not an ego trip. It requires focus to deal with the serious threat that is facing this nation and the threat is increasing by the day because there are more adversaries and we do not know where our challenges are coming from. They may be coming from far or near. We have not really assessed where the threats are coming from so that we will put things in proper perspective and know how to deal with them. We would also know the level of resources required to deal with them. In addition, Nigerians seem to have surrendered that security is the responsibility of the security agencies. That is wrong. Security is the responsibility of all Nigerians. In fact, all institutions of this nation must be involved. Individuals must be involved at the level of giving Information. Agencies must be committed. For instance, the judiciary has roles to play in operation and that has some multiplier effect in encouraging the troops on the field. The Ministry of Information also knows what they are supposed to be doing. The National Assembly is supposed to come up with laws that would help the security agencies to succeed. It is time for us to declare a state of emergency as far as this insecurity is concerned and all hands must be on deck to address it. It is no longer an issue for the security agencies; we have gone far beyond that.

Things were never this bad, how did we get it wrong?

I think we have been playing a lot of politics with security. Unfortunately, anywhere in the world where security is politicised, it might overwhelm and swallow the nation if care is not taken. I think we have over-politicised the issue of security; it is just in the recent past that people began to tell the truth to power. People began to say this is wrong, this is right. When you discuss the issue of security you remove sentiments and emotions; you say the truth to power and that is the only way people in power would know the right action to take.

With your military background, how do you think weapons got to the hands of many fulani herdsmen?

You know the level of security in North-Africa is so loose and many wars have been fought in North-Africa and there are so many weapons all over the place. So, weapons could come from there and I want to tell you that weapons could come from quarters that people may not imagine or expect. Does it not seem that all those powers that are destabilising Africa have interest in the instability of Nigeria also? That is where the diplomatic line of operation becomes very relevant.

What is your thought about Igbo Presidency in 2023? Do you think it is feasible?

Very feasible and realistic because the South-East is one of the pillars holding this nation, therefore, by all means, an Igbo man is qualified and beyond being qualified, it is morally justified for the South-East to produce the president of this nation in 2023 because all the other geopolitical zones have had it except the South-East. If we are to consider fairness, equity and justice, South-East should not be denied that opportunity. However, I want to add that it is also incumbent on us to go out, liaise with the leaders of the other geopolitical zones and seek their support, because that is politics. We must show them that we have interest and we must declare that interest and ask for their support. But the rest of the Nigerian nation should first of all see it as a moral burden on them to support South-East Presidency come 2023. This is because other geopolitical zones have had a shot at the presidency so, it is the turn of the Igbo and others should support an Igbo man to become the president of this nation. An Igbo president will have the entire Nigeria as his constituency. There will be no nepotism. An Igbo presidency is what Nigeria needs. I think that an Igbo man will be a good president for this nation. (Sunday PUNCH)

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