Barrister Alaowei Ebikonbowei Cleric is the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC). Cleric, also a Special Assistant (Political) to the Delta State governor, spoke to EJIKEME OMENAZU on the security situation in the South East, among other issues. Excerpts:

President Muhammadu Buhari that a lawmaker was sponsoring terrorism in South East and South West?

I cannot say the president was wrong or lying. He should not just end up saying that. Let him take the courage to arrest and prosecute those suspects, if they have concrete evidence. Before he must do that, the government should also name the bandits and the Boko Haram sponsors. Anybody found to have been sponsoring terrorism should be dealt with in accordance with the laws.

For example, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has already done that. If the Federal Government can do what the UAE did by exposing the terrorist sponsors through prosecution, I believe it will go a long way in tackling insecurity in the country. Nigerians are eagerly waiting for the government to go after these so-called terrorist sponsors.

However, the government should not hide under the toga of terrorist sponsorship to witch-hunt political rivals now that elections are getting nearer. Nigerians have not forgotten in a hurry how the government named alleged corrupt persons in the name of fighting corruption, but it later turned out to be a political vendetta. In the long run, the whole thing became clear to us that the Government only used such medium to intimidate and witch hunt opposition political parties just because of the 2019 general elections.

What are the implications of the failure of the President to name such alleged sponsors of terrorism?

The implication of the government’s failure to take decisive action against the known terrorists sponsors means that the government is treating the issue of insecurity with kid gloves. It may also make people raise eyebrows by suspecting the government of being complicit. Merely naming these agent provocateurs is not the solution to curb or tame the terrorists’ activities, taking steps to prosecute those found wanting is the answer.

Do you think the South East Leaders and governors are able to implement the ban on IPOB/ESN’s Sit-At-Home?

I don’t think that the South East governors can stop the IPOB/ESN’s sit-at-home order. Biafra is an idea that is embedded in the minds of the majority of Easterners. The IPOB’s sit-at-home orders are being successful not because the people respect or fear the boys so much. The successes majorly lie in the belief an average Igbo man holds for the idea of Biafra.

Many Igbo believe that they have no future in Nigeria. Biafra is the only means they can get themselves free from oppression. The South East leaders should not be economical with the truth. The best way to stop the sit-at-home directives by IPOB is to address the grievances of the Easterners.

What we are seeing in the East today is a reminder of what was happening in the Niger Delta during the militancy crisis. Nearly everybody in the region lived with the scare of criminal neglect and marginalisation. The struggle therefore was a collective one even though some persons sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the region from economic strangulation and underdevelopment. Just like the way dialogue was the best weapon to resolve the militants’ crisis in the Niger Delta, I am very certain, dialogue will be the best antidote to resolve the agitation in the South East.

What is your take on the recent military operation Codenamed Exercise Golden Dawn in the South East and ‘Still Waters’ in the South West?

The success of IPOB’s sit-at-home order in the East is because Biafra is an ideology embedded in the minds of millions of Easterners and beyond. In this regard, Nigeria is fighting an ideological warfare with the believers of the Biafra ideology. To win such suicidal ideation, you need superior ideas to conquer them. We don’t need to spill any single blood to win such a war. What I expect the FG to do to win this war of the minds is to look into the concerns of the Easterners and those who shared their vision, especially the separatist agitations in the south west and the middle belt. Engage the stakeholders in constructive dialogue and initiate policies of inclusion to accommodate their interest. In doing that, I am very certain that IPOB or any other separatist groups will just vanish into thin air.

Nigeria is like a man in polygamous marriage. Being elected into that covetous seat (President), all you need to do to have a peaceful family is to look into the concerns of every wife. Equal love should be given to all partners. Where you roll out your policies and programmes on the basis of voting ratios, there will be trouble in the house.

Being an ideological war, I don’t think that the ongoing security measures can effectively curtail or tame the growing agitations and the emotional and solidarity support the civil populace are giving to the separatist groups through the compliances of the sit-at-home directives. The FG should do the simplest and costless thing by engaging the agitators in a win win dialogue and proceed to initiate inclusive policies that will accommodate their interest in the country.

We have had a series of military drills across the country since the Buhari government started in 2015. I don’t think the agitations in the South East and the South West can be tackled by military operations. Such will only aggravate the situation.

The people were not just agitating to secede from the country without some unattended grievances. A government who wants to rule a peaceful country should not bully its citizens who complain of not being treated well. Such a government in my opinion ought to have invited the aggrieved persons for dialogue in order to resolve the differences. You can’t beat a child who is crying and tell him to stop crying.

It has not gotten to the level where military action becomes necessary. Granted that the South East region is being plagued with unknown gunmen, the police I don’t think have been overwhelmed to arrest the situation. Even if they’re overwhelmed, the military may come in to arrest the situation and not in a manner depicting conventional war.

What is your view on Northern Governors’ rejection of their Southern counterparts’ resolve that the 2023 presidency should be zoned to the South?

Questions I will like to ask these northern governors are: When OBJ was fighting for third term, was it not the then northern governors that were canvassing for rotational presidency, seriously opposed power to remain in the south after the latter completed his eight years in office? Was it not the same northern governors under Goodluck Jonathan that vehemently opposed GEJ’s second term in office because of the clamour for rotational presidency? Today, because the table has turned to the other side, they are now saying that the Nigerian Constitution didn’t provide for rotational presidency? Thank God the history of our recent past is still staring us in the face. What is the source for the goose source for the gander? Rotational presidency is a gentleman’s agreement that has come to stay. It has helped to stabilise the country and so we can’t jettison it at this point in time.

Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna State stated that the Southern governors cannot implement the Anti-Open Grazing Laws their governments are enacting. What is your view on this?

El-Rufai must be dreaming to have said Southern Governors are wasting their time in enacting the anti-open grazing laws. One question every sane and enlightened Nigerians should ask is whether who between the State and the Federal Governments has the statutory power to manage land in Nigeria?

The Land Use Act of 1979 vests the control and management of all lands in any State in the governor of that State. I don’t know what El-Rufai meant by saying Southern Governors are wasting their time. The Land Use Act is part of the 1999 Constitution as it has been incorporated into the Constitution through Section 315.

I am sure Nigeria is being governed by a law which is the Constitution? El-Rufai should tell us the legal or rather the constitutional power he is relying on to disdainfully dismiss this noble decision of the Southern Governors. I think the Governor of Kaduna State with his usual vain-ego is only exposing his ignorance.

Thank God nearly all the Southern States have passed the law. The governors of these States are empowered by section 5 of the 1999 constitution to enforce the laws validly passed into law by the Houses of Assembly in their respective States. El-Rufai knows his executive functions given to him by the constitution. He should not further embarrass himself with comments such as this.

The South South governors and the South East governors recently resolved to set up their regional security outfits by December. How do you see the development?

It is the right thing in the right direction. These regional security outfits are needed to effectively police the region.

Don’t you think that these decisions by S’South and S’East governors on regional security outfits are belated?

The decision to constitute regional security outfits by the South East and the South South governors is not belated. They should go ahead to inaugurate the outfits.

(Daily Independent)

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