OWERRI (Sundiata Post) – Major-General Collins Remy Ihekire (rtd) was former commander of the Nigeria contingent of African Union (AU) Monitoring Group in Rwanda, former commander of Multi-National Force of AU Mission in Darfur in Sudan; commander, Training and Doctrine Command of Nigeria Army, Director, directing staff of the War College (National Defence College), penultimate executive secretary of Niger Basin Authority, a multi-national development agency, with headquarters in Niameny.
He is an active member of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide; foundation member of the Southern leaders forum, foundation member of Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum.
He is currently the chairman, national taskforce to combat illegal importation of ammunition.
In this interview, he looked at the state of the nation, highlighting past mistakes that have kept the country down and what can be done to salvage the situation.
What is your assessment of the 14 months administration of President Tinubu thus far, do you see any light at the end of the tunnel?
The negatives are very obvious because of the acute suffering of the people. Every person is feeling the pinch except for those in this government. The skyrocketing of food items is now out of the reach of the common man, and it is now really difficult to know who is the common man or poor man. Even people like me who people think are of a high status is equally affected.
The price of fuel, the high cost of transportation, the remuneration even for security agencies is further contributing to insecurity. In Imo State here, you see that on roads, the security is there just for extortion rather than for the security of the people and the environment. Despite the multiplicity of checkpoints at every half a kilometre, criminals still succeed in kidnapping and carrying them away through the same checkpoints as a result of the current hardship .
The positives are not very clear. We see some smattering attempts at restructuring by the amendment of some sections of the constitution like putting electricity generation on Concurrent List, which means that state governments can generate their power, what the country is yearning for is restructuring.
Most Nigerians are calling for the return of the country to the independence constitution with some amendments. What is your take on this?
For me, restructuring is at the heart of this country surviving or not. In the First Republic, the founding fathers clearly understood the need for the people to be themselves, that was what was agreed at the constitutional conference of 1958 on which the independence of Nigeria was based, the Eastern Region, the Western Region and the Northern Region and then later, the Midwest in 1963.
Everybody came to the table with what they have to offer. Or what he hoped to gain. And, the constitution guaranteed this agreement and at that time everyone can attest to the economy of each. The Eastern Region was the fastest growing economy at that time. No wonder a lot of presidents came to the East to try to borrow the blueprint of Dr Michael Okpara who was then the premier of Eastern Region and that was how Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus was in Enugu at the eve of the January coup in 1966, which one cannot say categorically had saved the life of Michael Okpara.
The West had its cocoa and was prospering, the North had its pyramids of groundnuts, hides and skins. Everybody was usefully engaged and tried to improve the lots of their people. So, restructuring will go a long way in bringing back what people are yearning for. However, Decree 34 by General Agueyi Ironsi who was the first Head of State only unified the civil service, he did not unify the country. What Decree 34 meant is that a civil servant could serve anywhere in the country and that could reduce ethnic squabbles within the country.
But I believe this was misinterpreted which led to the counter coup, which I think was a misnomer because General Ironsi and Ojukwu foiled the coup of Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu and Major Ifeajuna and jailed them. If the coup was a success they wouldn’t have been in prison. It was a failure, but many people failed to understand this. There was a wrong narrative that Chukwuma, a Major handed over to Ironsi, no.
When the coup failed and Ironsi had taken over, Ironsi went to President of the Senate, Nwafor Orizu and requested them to take back the government and Nwafor Orizu, the then President of Senate called the ministers who were still alive and they said Ironsi should go ahead with the government. It was a traumatic experience for them because it would be the first time such a thing is happening in Nigeria. And, of course, you are aware that following the counter-coup and the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Nigeria which had culminated in the Aburi conference and agreements reached could have saved the day. But Gowon came back and reneged on the agreements reached in Aburi which led to the civil war.
If Gowon had not reneged on the Aburi agreement there would have been no war and Nigeria would have continued to progress. Gowon brought Decree 8 which now permitted the Federal Government to interfere in the internal affairs those regions that were de facto independent with their own constitution , thereby standing federalism on its head . It was the federating units that gave the central government its powers which Gowon reversed where the centre now gives power to the states. Which is what we are still operating now that is ruining this country.
The old order having been disrupted. Is it possible to go back to the regions?
No.
Does the states as currently constituted have the capacity to carry the burdens of the then regions if we are to restructure along that line?
I will not advocate for that. If Nigeria is to make progress, we have example where similar system are operated. Look at Britain, Ireland as well as India, these are various ethnic nationalities and they are located within their own ethnic system operating on the line they want aided by the common constitution that binds them. Each has its own parliament.
But successive governments in Nigeria particularly the Buhari’s government heightened ethnicity and religion to a height that was never known in Nigeria. Look at how the Igbo are hounded every where in Lagos. In 2017, the Igbo were even given a quit notice to leave the North. We cannot continue like this when we claim to be one country.
Everyday you are being chased away from where you are . So, ethnic nationalities should be captured to be in their own zone or regions or state or whatever we want it to be . Even the minorities mostly in the North can join other ethnic tribes that they have an affinity with volutarily after a roundtable discussion and not something through a military fiat , as that was what the military headed by Gowon did here. He was replicating what Otto Von Bismarck did in the partition of Africa in 1884. We are not going back to that.
The Yoruba areas, let them identify themselves and build their region, they have a culture . The Igbo areas, be yourself. Though today some Igbo are now saying that they are no longer Igbo, but the affinity is still there. The Igbo should make an effort to bring everyone together and not drive them away. Even when some of them are now claiming to be from Benin, you can claim to be Bini, but yet you speak Igbo language and practice Igbo customs and culture and not Bini.
Perphas, this is a misconception because of dialectical differences in language. If you’re using dialectical differences to mean language differences, it’s not correct. Now, within the Owerri zone, the Mbaise dialect is not the same as Owerri dialect. Owerri dialect is not the same as Ikeduru dialect, which is not the same as Mbieri dialect. If you go to Orlu zone, the dialects are different . If you go to Anambra, it is the same, Enugu State, Ebonyi, Abia.
People who are not from Nsukka finds it difficult to understand what they are saying. The dialectical difference exists also in the West, Ijebu dialect is not the same with Ibadan, the Ife dialect is not the same with Egba. It is the same in Ondo and Ekiti even those from Kwara State and part of Kogi State. But they all agree that they are all Yoruba. So , why should the Igbo be different? In the North, the Hausa they speak in Zaria is not the same as Sokoto, it’s not the same in Birnin Kebbi, not the same as Kano, but they all agree that they are Hausa. What identifies a tribe is a similarity of culture and languge at over 85 per cent similarity.
Many people have argued that Nigeria is not ripe for state police. Their argument is that state governors will turn it into their personal instrument to hunt their political opponents. What is your take on this?
I’m a big advocate for state police and I have made several presentations on the issue. My first paper on state police was written in the War College in 2001. That is 23 years ago . I used the same paper to make a presentation on Radio Nigeria in 2018 and my position on the issue is still current. The same presentation was repeated recently and it is still current. State police is the way to go. Yes , the advantages are many. Policing would be more efficient when those who are police officers are from the locality than people who don’t know the terrain.
When policemen come from outside to a different cultural area their inhumanity is indescrible, they treat where they are as if it is a conquered territory. They extort, kill without looking back and they don’t care because it is not their kith and kin that is not how policing should be. The Nigeria police is your friend, that should be the general disposition of the police. It’s to assist, be friendly not treating people with hostility.
Talking about the abuse of state police, in the work I have done, the Federal Government has abused the police and there is so many examples – a sitting governor was kidnapped by the aid of the police. For me, the argument is both ways, but I cannot say because of the likelihood of abuse, then cancel state police or support federal police. If you have a problem you look for solutions, you don’t throw up your hands in the air just like that. You have to think out of the box. In the paper I wrote, I suggested community police committee made of responsible people like retired judges, activists, journalists, that is, respectable people with strong character to form that.
This committee will regulate the police. For example, the police commissioner seeks the permission from IG. So, the governor seeks permission from this committee if he wants the services of police other than its routine duties of maintaining law and order. The committee will look at the desirability of using the police outside its general duties of providing security. The committee can give the commissioner the go ahead order to carry out the request of the governor. This committee will see to the recruitment, remuneration, promotion and training of the police. It is the abuses of the past that are responsible for the rejection of the idea of having a state police by people who are ostensibly apprehensive of it being abused by the governors. The problem we have is many things have gone wrong because of corruption.
Look at both the judiciary and INEC, they are supposed to be independent, but they are not because of corruption and compromises. We have to change our value system. I don’t know whether it is because of my military training, all I do is for the common good, sacrifice for my country. I don’t see myself as an object of privilege, but as person that should sacrifice. Even the military ranks for me is point of service and sacrifice and not a point of privilege.
If we make sacrifice I believe it will propel our country to greater heights, but are we willing to make it? Now, we have seen what the rot of the past has done to our present. The corruption of the past has ruined the economy of the present . The misdeeds of the past has ruined the educational system of the present. And it causes more hardship because the education system is wrong and you want to send your kids abroad, you must pay in foreign currency to do that. If he goes abroad finds a good job and succour they forget you at home.
Alot of parents are here lonely, their children are abroad building foreign economies to which this country has no benefit, these are from mistakes of the past. Before corruption was like a small snake, but today is an anacoda .Anybody who comes to an office is winner takes all. They take all for themselves. The unfortunate part is that the youths who are suffering are the same people supporting this system because of the benefits from the politicians who give them money. You have a road project they eat the money and no road. No hospital, no drugs, education is not there.
Industries to employ you when you graduate is not there. But when they give these youths small money they are happy to carry ballot boxes. The youths forget that these money they are collecting are the road they are supposed to build for them. The money they are collecting is the hospital that is supposed to be built to cater for their health. The money they are collecting is the factory that is supposed to be built to employ them and give them joy and happiness. The money they are collecting is what is leading some to frustration, some to armed robbery, kidnapping, drugs and cultism.
They don’t understand that. This is the result of our past misdeeds. Go around, you will see that most parents who had sent their kids abroad are all alone because most times their childern have forgotten them, they don’t even call them. Those who sent money back home are those from poor parentage who still have memory of the suffering they have gone through .But those from high society don’t care.
Do you support the Federal Government’s actions against states over local governments administration by taking them to court?
Recently, one of the media houses invited me to discuss the action of the Federal Government taking the states to court over the local governments’ administration . Nigeria is a bizarre country because we have educated people here , we have political scientists, social scientists who have read the theories of Montensique, how federalism came about, how society was formed.
The Federal system is where people understand their weaknesses and their strengths and decide to come togther to make them better. It is likened to people who have a contract job. A man gets the contracts, but he does not have the money to execute it. But the man who has the money may not have the contact to get the contract or the technical skills required to execute it . But two of them understand that they can complement each other. Then they agreed to meet and do the contract for the benefits of all of them. If the man who brought the contract insists that he will take 90 per cent because he brought the contract.
If the man who brought the money insists that he must take 80 per cent and the two should share the remaining 20 per cent because his money is at stake. The man with the technical skill may say you have money and the contract, I need 60 per cent because without my skills you cannot execute the contract. But after haggling for awhile, when reason prevailed, they can say okay, for bringing the contract take 10 per cent, for financing the job take 20 per cent and for doing the job as the technical man take 71/2 per cent.
They will get a lawyer to write the agreement down which becomes their constitution. They give it to a lawyer who is operating it for them and they will pay him. The lawyer becomes the Federal Government. They are the one giving that lawyer the power remember, and they sign that is how it is. So, when they finish the contract, the profit is put aside. The man who has the capital take 20 per cent of the profit, 10 per cent for the man who brought the job , seven and half per cent for the man who executed the job, and they share the balance equally.
That is basis for federalism, whether it’s in the U.S, India, Sweden and everywhere. But like I said, Gowon revised this issue from what we had in the First Republic. During the time of the regions, the regional governments created the provinces and regions and the provinces have the same federation and it was those provinces that gave those regions the power. But Gowon revised it and destroyed the principles of federalism . And, that is how they created the third-tier of government, but it is an aberration and Nigerians are discussing an aberration and something that cannot work. The local governments is supposed to be the creation of the states. The military government which was headed by mostly northerners used their military fiat to create more local governments especially in the North so that they benefit more from oil from the South and that creation was based on injustice and ethnicity and that is why local governments are getting money from the Federation account. It is not done anywhere.
Federal Government has no business giving local governments money. The Federal Government has assumed and acquired everything which is wrong. In federalism the place we have common interest which we cannot divide is Defence, currency, even foreign affairs is divided because in the First Republic, the three regions have their consulates in London and on their own they can do business with the British government.
Then immigration, this is the only area you give money to the Federal Government to take care of. But now they are in charge of everything, including even the road in your community. So, Federal Government has no business in creating local governments for states, because it is the business of states to determine the structure of its internal administration. But the Federal Government put it in the constitution to legalize an illegality in an illegal constitution and forced the illegality by force of arms.
What is your take on the Imo Charter of Equity, as Governor Hope Uzodimma has promised to hand over to a person from Owerri zone?
Orlu has done 24 years, Okigwe has done eight years, Mbakwe and Ohakim, Owerri just 18 months. If we want equity it should come to Owerri zone. But two things are involved. First, we must accept the reality that politics is a game of numbers. Any arrangement outside politics being a game of numbers is for equity and fairness because the nature of politics in Nigeria is the winner takes it all. If you go to Orlu during the time of Udenwa or Rochas, all their roads were tarred even under this administration. You know the difficulty you faced while coming to my house here in my village. Many people turn back because there is no governor from this zone to take care of the problems of this area. Having said that, the other reality is that Orlu zone has more local governments, but they don’t have more registered voters.
Owerri is more an enlightened zone and has more registered voters than Orlu. So, if Owerri zone gets its acts together they can make alot impact in the governorship race, but there is a drawback . Watch out in every election, you may not have more than three aspirants from either Orlu or Okigwe zones contesting, but you will have more more than 20 aspirants from Owerri zone and by so doing you fritter away your votes. I don’t know what to call that. Two years ago , I was the chairman of the 4th anniversary of Egbu declaration which is the predecessor of this Imo Charter of Equity now. It was the same Owerri people that truncated it .
Two days after the anniversary they were in Concorde Hotel that Orlu should continue.This is the real problem, that declaration by the governor that is the turn of Owerri can only be realized if you as the beneficiary makes an effort to realize it. And, we cannot know what people say until they do it . So, the sincerity of the governor’s promise can only seen when he matches words with action.