Major General Ijioma Nwokoro Ijioma, retd, was in the team that led the peace mission to Sudan between 2013 and 2015.
He was the Director of Military Operations in the Northeast. He led the troops that bombarded Sambisa Forest to flush out Boko Haram and recaptured the local government areas lost to insurgency.
In 2016, he was compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Army, a decision later deemed wrongful and illegal by the National Industrial Court.
He challenged his retirement and sought reinstatement, arguing that due process was not followed.
The court ruled in his favour, nullifying his retirement and ordering his reinstatement.
However, the army did not comply with the court’s order, leading to further legal battles.
In this encounter, he answers questions on the security issues in Nigeria.
Nigeria is on the brink. We are talking about hunger and poverty, but insecurity is getting worse by the day. Where did we get it wrong?
We got it wrong and have always gotten it wrong with leadership. And the moment you get it wrong with leadership, everything will be wrong. Because it is the leadership that evolves the national philosophy that will guide even the conduct of dissidents and their aspirations. So, when you get leadership wrong, everything else is wrong.
And because we got leadership wrong, none of our leaders have been able to come above religion and ethnicity. Because their leadership is wrong and they cannot lift themselves and give leadership, that’s why you see our politics devolving around religion and ethnicity.
Now, Nigeria is living in self-denial. If you sit and look at the living standard of Nigerians, it shows a downward trend. Until it plummets, our past is far better than our present, and our future is looking very bleak. All these things are a matter of leadership. What has been the quality of leadership of the Nigerian politicians? Examine it. When you interrogate it, you see that we haven’t had leadership.
Let me take you back slightly to history. You remember that Malaysia came to Nigeria to collect palm seedlings, right in the 60s. Where is Malaysia today? And where is Nigeria that gave them the palm seedlings? They didn’t have to buy them. We dashed them. Now, they are the world’s largest producers of palm oil. And where are we? It’s leadership.
Now, come to look at insecurity, which is our greatest challenge now. I want to ask you a simple question. Do you think that there is a force now operating in Nigeria that is more powerful than the armed forces of Nigeria? If we have such force, I must tell you unequivocally that they could have toppled the government and taken over the government as it happened in Afghanistan. So, there is no force yet that has the capacity for violence to topple the Nigerian government.
As General Abacha said, in any insurgency that lasts more than 24 hours, the government has a hand in it. So there is no government, not this one now, nor the one that preceded it.
Now, what I’m saying is that the governments are complicit in what is happening in this country. And if you examine it, you will find that the leadership deficit is there. It is the leadership deficit that has given rise to the politics of religion, politics of ethnicity, and the rest of them.
If today, the government of the day commits itself to removing these elements that are generating this insecurity, then it will not be there. So, let’s not belabour ourselves about living in self-denial. Let us search for the facts. These insurgents do not have an air force. They do not have fire targets. These are platforms that only the government has. If the government doesn’t have an interest in any of these things, they will be a thing of the past. I know what I’m talking about.
But how can a government have a hand in what is destroying the country?
When you disempower the people, when you recognise hunger and poverty, would the people be able to challenge bad government policies? You people who are in the media are closer to the Nigerian situation than some of us. But we also feel what people are feeling. If a man cannot feed himself, do you think that man can ever come out to challenge the government?
Where is the NLC? The vibrant Nigerian Labour Congress we had in the 70s, in the 80s, in the 90s, even to 2000. Where is it? Why are they not talking? When their leadership is compromised, how can they lead? This is still pointing to the same thing I told you about leadership. Leadership is not only the president of Nigeria. Leadership cuts across every institution in society. The moment you get it wrong at the level of government, as we have been getting it wrong consistently, I tell you the truth, you will get it wrong in the other institutions of state, including non-state actors.
Why is it, for instance, that when the Nigerian police go for peacekeeping outside, they will perform excellently? The same thing with Nigerian troops. But when they are here, the equation changes. Why is this so? You see, the Nigerian environment is anti-progress.
You must have heard about the policeman who was crying on social media. He served the police for 35 years and wrote his PhD. Have you seen that video? And they are paying him two million after 35 years. And he rejected it. Can you imagine? Let me tell you, DSPs that are serving now, at that rank are not better than that man. And they are going to meet the same situation that this man had met. Even the police constables who are using batons to harass fellow citizens have situation far worse.
And now, for instance, you put somebody in the House of Representatives for four years, and he collected N30 million and all kinds of monies. Now, they are bribing them to approve a state of emergency. And somebody is having N2 million after 35 years in service? And you want that person to go and curtail insurgency? I’m just giving you an example.
So, poor leadership is the bane of Nigeria?
Every problem we’re having is poor leadership. When you get the leaders who actually have Nigeria at heart, things will change. But the issue we have here is that so many people do not want to answer Nigeria. This is the truth. Some people find it difficult to rise beyond their ethnicity. And I have always said it when General Buhari was the president. I said that because there was so much hope in Buhari, and rightly so, having served in the army and served in various capacities, this man should understand Nigeria better, both in the geo-political and strategic importance of this country, and the cultural milieu. People put their hope on him and rightly so. But what did he do?
Soon after he became the president of Nigeria, he reduced himself to the president of the Fulani, and I was wondering, if you love your ethnic stock so much, why didn’t you go and contest to be their Emir? Why didn’t you go and contest to be governor of Katsina so that you can do all the good you want for your people? Why aspire to be Nigerian president, and the moment you become Nigerian president, you start victimising other people? That’s not leadership, and that’s why he failed.
And the man that is there now, is he doing better? Go and do a chronology of his appointments. The history is replete with a lot of examples. There is nobody who gets into a leadership position and fails to provide leadership that will take this country to a good place. If you are the president of Nigeria now, as Tinubu is, and you think that it is only Yoruba people who can do all the good you want to do, why didn’t you go and run to be governor of Lagos State? Why didn’t you make do with that? But you want to be the president of Nigeria and you want to apply it sectionally.
Now, there are no more Nigerian patriots, I must tell you. This is what I’m telling you. In a failing leadership, you cannot have patriotism.
So, do you think that the security agencies don’t have the willpower or have they been compromised too?
The security agencies are made up of people from various ethnicities. They are human beings. They are seeing the treatment that you, as a national leader, is giving. They see that you are giving preferential treatment to your section. They are seeing it. Where would they draw the will and desire and the patriotism to serve? If all the good things you can do as a leader, at various levels, are for your people, then when there are challenges, let your people solve the challenges. This is ingrained in the natural side of individuals. You cannot go otherwise.
If a good leader who is patriotic comes today to this country called Nigeria, you will see that the temper of everything will change. If a leader comes and says, look, like General Buhari said, I belong to no one, I belong to all, but we know exactly where he belongs from what he was doing. This is the problem with Nigerian leaders. They have always mouthed one Nigeria, but all their actions point in the opposite direction. They don’t have Nigeria in mind. They have their sections in mind.
So, when the challenges come, those people who are wearing the uniform, which is the national badge of honour will not be able to acquaint themselves because they know exactly what is happening.
As for the security agencies, like you said, they are human beings. Are they not seeing? Are they not hearing the amount of money that people who barely went to school are earning as legislators, both at the state level and the national level? Are they not hearing it? Are they not seeing it? That they lay their lives for the country is part of the smallest sacrifices of officers, soldiers, and policemen. Do you know what it is to take a soldier out of his family? And this is a family man like this politician.
They are family men like all of you who are fending for themselves, going about their own business. Do you know what it is to take a soldier into the theatre of battle? He’s not in contact with his family, and he’s on a major salary that can hardly feed that family through a month, not to mention sending the children to school.
How come governments come and go, but they have never attended to the welfare of these soldiers?
If you don’t have a leader who is truly a leader, if you have people who are warehousing wealth for themselves and their future generations and children at the expense of the state, how will you address the need?
Everywhere, you are not paying people well. Will you imagine that somebody is telling you that he is celebrating N70,000 minimum wage? For real? In Nigeria that N70,000 cannot fill the tank of somebody’s car who goes to work. Are you there?
So, like this thing that happened in Benue and Plateau, that keeps happening from time to time, how come they have made only a few arrests?
If you asked me this question in 2015, when I was Director of Military Operations in the Northeast, I would have answered it because I know the level of commitment we had. But if you are asking me this question now, I will ask you to interview the Inspector General of Police. I will ask you to ask the Director General of the Department of State Services. They should have the answer to these things you are talking about.
Otherwise, let me just break it down. If you have people who are overseeing the police, who are overseeing the DSS, and these kinds of things are happening repeatedly, and they are still sitting down in their positions, who do you want to do the work? Because of this idea of not having sanctions that were meted out on any of these people holding these positions, so, how do you want somebody to work? How do you want the people that are in the field, whether they are the intelligence agencies that are trying to spy and bring information, whether it is the people that manage the policies and programmes, how do you want them to perform?
You know, this thing I’m telling you, the truth is that if Nigeria wants to curb this insecurity, the security agencies are in a position to do it. But I’m telling you that it takes leadership, not only leadership of the president but leadership all down the line, because some of these operations against insecurity are being sabotaged by even politicians and as well as some in the military.
So, what I have just said in a nutshell is that leadership failure is why we are where we are. That leadership failure comes from the top to down. And when those people who are in a position of leadership change their minds and want to govern a country, not to govern a section of it, these things will change.
With the situation of things in the country: the Benue situation, the killing of people who were going for a wedding, and what happened in Plateau, politicians are not even paying attention. They are busy strategising for 2027.
The politicians, are they not the ones who are providing political leadership? In this situation, they are nobodies, and they have not answered the question of what happened in the killing of 200 people in Benue. They have not answered the question of what happened in the killing in Borno, the killing in Plateau. They cannot tell you that they don’t know. You may not know what happened, but they know what happened.
Do you know that if a leader emerges and defines his modus operandi and the character of his leadership, do you know the followers will follow him? You know that? If you have a leader who believes in the rule of law, if you subject everybody to the same law, you will have children of presidents or children of governors going by these rules. See what happened to Biden’s son in the US.
So, this leadership that we don’t have is destroying everything in society. The quality of life has diminished. Will you agree that in the 1980s, N10,000 is more than 10 million Naira now? Why will you kill 200 people, and your president will not be able to reach the place?
I’ve been in Makurdi for five years as a captain. The people of Yelwata, don’t go to their village again now. The other people have taken over. The people who took over Yelwata, were they not on foot? Why will the president of Nigeria not be able to get to Yelwata with all the security forces? Is it not mandatory that, as he’s going there, the army, the police, everything there will saturate that place and evict those people who have displaced the indigenes? But we are told, I read that it’s a bad road, a poor road. Our brother Umahi, the one who said after God, it’s Tinubu, is now apologising. Has anything happened to him? Did he not know that the president is supposed to go to Yelwata? So this failure of leadership shows you the remarkable absence of service all along the line.
So, when you were director of operations in the Northeast at some point, why was Boko Haram not tackled?
Who told you that? Go back and research the period. Research the period 2014- 2015. I became the Director of Operations in the northeast in January 2015 after I returned from Darfur on the 1st of December 2014.
Go and get the period between January and May 2015. That’s when I was Director of Operations and researched what happened and the state of the Northeast. That’s when we recaptured all the local governments lost to Boko Haram, including Sambisa Forest. I and my colleague General Lamidi Abiodun led troops physically into Sambisa Forest to recapture it from Boko Haram. He was my coursemate, 34 regular course. He was in the GOC 7 Division. I led troops physically with him into Sambisa Forest, everywhere there. And we took them back. If people are doing what they are doing, should the Chief of Army Staff go and sit down in Makurdi? Is he a toad, is he a rifleman? His work is strategic and gives direction.
These things you are talking about, nobody will convince me that the government is not complicit in this thing. I won’t believe it. I won’t believe that we are having this kind of killings we are having everywhere, and we are all excusing it, and people are sitting down in positions of authority that should tackle that thing. Are they competent sitting there or not?
Should you appoint somebody because he is your brother or she is your sister, or because he comes from your ethnicity? When the challenge of that office comes, let him go and do the work. Some of these things I’m hitting at are responsible for what we are doing to ourselves today.
One of the things that has helped to keep us where we are is cowardly behaviour. Nigerians are mostly cowards. They are champions on social media, but none of them is ready to step forward and pay any price. Nigerians are cowards. That is what I will tell you.
So, the people in positions of authority are not doing their jobs
We shouldn’t let things get out of hand. A lot of damage has been done to the people of this country, especially the Igbo people. You have heard of the abandoned property saga in Port-Harcourt. People are leaving their communities, and others are occupying them. There could be another abandoned property saga in Benue.
When it happened during the civil war, the Igbo learnt their lesson. David Mark was a major. He sold all Igbo people’s property in Port-Harcourt to his friends and cronies. Look, let me tell you. We have the hard facts of history. All along, he was not compensated to rise to the highest ladder of leadership in Nigeria, and I believe it’s because of the damage he did to the Igbo people. But his people are now taking the heat. People don’t know. We need history to remind us.
Part of the greatest problem the Biafran debacle suffered was the problem posed by the people of the Middle Belt. You know that? Igbo people who escaped from the far north were killed at the banks of the River Benue and thrown into the River.
Since the war ended, all the people who headed Nigeria have any one of them recognised the atrocity they committed against the Igbo? Nobody apologised to the Igbo. No Nigerian leader has come to acknowledge the mischief of the war. You want to sit on the evil you did to people collectively, and you want progress? That is why I believe the spirit of death is tormenting Nigeria and the north-central region. Every part of Nigeria has a share and a taste of the violence they inflicted on innocent people and innocent souls.
Didn’t you hear of the Asaba massacre?
Why do you think that Nigerian leaders cannot rise to the call of duty of leadership and reconcile themselves and reconcile the people to themselves, acknowledge the truth, and move forward from there? You think that you can treat people the way you treat them, and you just go, walk away? So, is this a mistake?
What punishment is the government giving to its field commanders who committed that atrocity? The government is just deceiving itself. David Mark’s state is reaping what their leader sowed during the Biafran war.
The same Nigeria that he fought and advocated for, what has he benefited from? Is this Nigeria, the one Nigeria he envisaged?
I have paid my dues for this country. Throughout my service years, I never fought as an Igbo man. I fought as a Nigerian. And every assignment given to me was in that very spirit that I executed it. But I cannot say that for so many others.
Is it possible that what is happening in the Middle Belt now is a nemesis of what happened to Biafrans?
You know that human beings are human beings. The spirit of a human being who dies goes up to God for judgment. The spirit of an animal goes down. Every blood that they have spilled in this country is asking them questions.
Do you know that in an election, when you are vying for the Senate, you have three senatorial districts in each state, right? That is your constituency, right? The governor of a state has his constituency.
Credit: Vanguard News
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