Our Military Can't Move Faster Than They Have Done - Chuku Wachuku

By Vanguard, 07 Jun 2014 04:17 AM

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE F ormer Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), a delegate to the National Conference from Abia State and National President of Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Dr Chuku Wachuku, in this interview proffers suggestion on how Nigeria can wriggle out of the Boko Haram insurgency and become a great nation. He also shared his thoughts on Democracy at 15 and how Governor Theodore Orji is silently transforming Abia State. Excerpts: How have we fared 15 years into democratic rule? We have done very well on some aspects. We transited from Olusegun Obasanjo's administration to the late Musa Yar'Adua and now President Goodluck Jonathan and we are hoping to transit again to another democracy. In that aspect, I think we have achieved a great milestone, which was not foreseeable in the past because nobody ever knew that military governance will ever become a past. Then, it was the yearning of all young military officers to gain ascendancy in governance through military coups. Now, even the military are tired and are playing the role they are supposed to play, which is subservience to civilian and democratically elected government. They are playing their constitutional role by defending the country against all aggression within and outside. Outside, the military is very commendable in all international combats. Within the country itself, it is doing very well in combating the Boko Haram menace and terrorism. A second part of that is are we happy? We should have been happy for this achievement but the insurgency has created a big problem. We are unhappy about the insurgency and the kidnap of our girls. All of us are praying that God will intervene to bring them back because it could be anybody's child. I feel the insurgency is contrived, which is a shame. A situation where some people think that it's either me or our people would rule, if we don't then nothing else happens, is bad. The achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan's administration are enormous but he seems to be subsumed under the heavy burden of this insurgency which is man-made, man-created, people-driven and political bigotry-driven and is trying to stop him. If you look at basic infrastructures in this country, the roads are being fixed, power supply is improving, railway lines are runny and the ports are being transformed. In fact, the basic tenets of structural transformation are being made but it appears some groups of people don't want people to see anything good about Jonathan. These people who are causing these problems know themselves. If Nigeria breaks up, nobody is better off for it. If it's an invitation for military invasion, they are dead wrong because everybody is going to gang up against military intervention. How do you react to comments that the government's handling of the Chibok school girls' abduction is slow, chaotic and uncoordinated? I don't see the government as being too slow. In this country, there is an underlying politics in everything we do. If President Jonathan moves too strongly as he should, tribal and religious sentiments will come into it and yet, he should do what he ought to do. May be he is more considerate in the approach. You see it is a Nigerian aggression. It is treason against the state. If he should crush it the way he should, then, religious and tribal connotations will come into it immediately. And if people are shouting and conceited people, for their own selfish reasons, are creating more problems, I feel the weight of decision must be with caution. In the light of our peculiar circumstances, I believe he is doing the best he can. This is a president who is a true Nigerian. When people are talking about marginalization, all his key commanders are from the North. National Security Adviser, NSA, is from the North; Minister of Defence is from the North and a host of others. What else do you want this man to do? He has armed the military, so if there is failure I think we should probably do more of intelligence gathering. This is not a Jonathan problem, it is a Nigerian problem. Jonathan did not cause it. But everybody points at the poor man. The people are not allowing him to do his job. How do you think the Boko Haram issue can be resolved? It can only be resolved when all Nigerians put away their tribal sentiments, religious bigotry and come together as Nigerians to condemn what is bad and evil. People are dying, children are being kidnapped and harassed, they are being traumatized. We should be talking about lives being wasted. Still on democracy, you have examined the presidency, what about the states? In Abia, where I hail from, it is a total departure from what it used to be. When Governor, Theodore Orji came on board, he found absolutely nothing. He met a state of chaos; the leadership was divided with the people hating one another. In the first three years, he was accused of laxity and ineptitude, but again he has to go to the fabrics, the fundamentals. Did he have freedom? No, he didn't have freedom. So, when he rose up to free himself, the state took a quantum leap. Governor Orji is experienced, very calm and not given to laying claims to things he didn't do. He is transforming the state in a quiet way. All the accolades he is getting are deserved. When he decided to come up with the legacy pact, he was laying the fundamentals of strict administration. Since the creation of Abia State, the fundamentals of governance have not been put in place. You may not understand it, but the next governor will inherit the instruments of modern statehood in Abia State. For so many years, governance was been operated from rented accommodation. Why didn't the previous governors undertake the construction of the Government House? Secondly, if you entered Umuahia before now, you will see ramshackle accommodation for civil servants. Why didn't the previous governors construct a modern secretariat for civil servants? T.A Orji has constructed a modern secretariat, embarked on the construction of the Government House and International Conference Centre. Why didn't they think of re-branding, rebuilding the infrastructures in Abia State? Look at the market that was in Umuahia for years, it took guts to move it to a permanent site. Umuahia is now looking like an emerging state capital. Before, Umuahia was looking like a village. He may not complete them, he has to start somewhere. He has completed the International Conference Centre. He has completed the secretariat. If you go to the High Court, it is fantastic. I went to the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State and I can't believe it. These are legacies. And he is going to leave the legacy of a peaceful and a united Abia that anybody can talk about. There are no warring factions in Abia anymore. All for the first time, Abians are united under one leadership, facing a common goal and a common enemy. Years ago, people have been crying for hospitals, they now have a modern diagnostic centre, they even have the modern equipment for ophthalmology, so they can do all kinds of surgery in Abia now.. Abia will become a pilgrimage centre for medical missions. This governor has done tremendously in saving the eyes of millions of people by bringing in doctors from all over the world to operate on them free of charge. After T.A Orji what next? One fundamental thing every Abian has to give him credit is his dogged determination for equity and fair play. In the charter of equity of Abia State, the founding fathers said power must rotate between two zones: the old Bende zone and old Aba zone. With the old Bende having enjoyed two governors, it's now the turn of old Aba, which is made up of the Isiala-Ngwa North, Isiala-Ngwa South, Osisioma, Aba North, Aba South, Obingwa, Ibinabo, Onyi-Isitokwa West. Those are purely delineated to the old Aba zone. So, the context of Abia creation has two zones, one and half in old Bende and one and half in old Aba, and of course the Isiukwuato District. In the history of Abia state, it's only the old Aba and the Isiukwuato District that have not produced the state governor. The governor in his determination, knowing that Isiukwuato falls under the old Bende, said he is going to support a candidate from Ukwa-Ngwa zone and he is determined to do that despite pressures. And I'm supporting him for that. All Ukwa-Ngwa people support him for that and will continue to pray for him to actualize this milestone, whereas other governors never thought that people from this zone should also aspire to govern the state. How can we deepen democracy in Nigeria? By promoting the Nigerianness in all of us and understanding the core values of being a nation. You can see what is happening at the confab. I'm a member of the confab. We are there espousing the theory of one Nigeria, but you can see the latent of disintegration rearing its head. You can see the primordial sentiments that tend to draw away from policies that will favour a united Nigeria. So, we want to make sure that when we come out, we should talk to ourselves. Frankly, I am getting tired of hearing 'the North, the North and the North.' I like to hear 'the Nigeria, the Nigeria, the Nigeria.' We are not Northern Nigeria, we are not Southern Nigeria; we are Nigerians. And that is the way of deepening our democracy. We have to see ourselves as Nigerians. We have to promote our Nigerianness and begin to talk about our common problems, not the Northern or Southern problems because the Northern or Southern problem must be a Nigerian problem. The Igbo problem must be a Nigerian problem. When you talk about the Igbo problem, we are talking about addressing equity and inequity in any form or shape. There is no way you can have seven states in one zone,