Olumuyiwa Onlede is a rights activist and the convener of the Citizens Awareness Against Corruption And Social Vices Initiative (CAACASVI). In this interview with Gabriel Atumeyi, he bared his mind on a range of issues rocking the polity, including corruption, security and governance.
How would you assess President Buhari’s handling of the current insecurity rocking the nation?
The recent meeting between popular Sheikh Gumi has confirmed the suspicion and position many Nigerians have held for sometime now, that what is happening in the North West is not banditry but insurgency in disguise.
It is a known fact that at a point in time, the heat of military firepower was so much for the insurgents in the North East that they were forced to spread to other Northern regions, like North West and North Central, FCT inclusive.
The regrouping of this insurgents is what we see in North West as it stands today and from the North, they have found their way into other geopolitical zones of the country so as to survive in their evil act and to continue the struggle at all cost.
Armed bandits as they are called, killer herdsmen are all insurgents spread across the nation and they find solace as legitimate pastoralists. They use the benefit of being pastoralists to move freely from one place to another and settle freely anywhere they want and do evil while hiding under the guise of herdsmen.
I believe the president or any other person can handle the situation. The insecurity is surmountable if and only if all Nigerians give our security agencies the necessary support as it is being done in other countries where similar situation was witnessed. But without citizens support and participation no policy or plan or war can be won by any leader.
What is your thought on the new service chiefs and the ambassadorial appointments for the outgone ones?
The appointment of new service chiefs is a welcome development, and we see it as the best move by the president in this year 2021. Looking at the officers’ appointment, we can see for close to a decade that they had been in the arena of the war against insurgency. They have served and paid their dues under previous leaderships in our military architecture and now what we expect from them is to work on areas where they see that their predecessors failed and make amendments to strategies they think will serve a good purpose but ambiguously drafted or implemented.
Also, it will be unfair to say the immediate past service chiefs failed, even though there were lapses but in overall rating, we can say they tried their best considering where we were before their appointment and where we are now. Before they came, insurgents had territories under their control but today, insurgents have been pushed to the forest and they now rely on attacks on villages and soft targets.
Back to their appointment as ambassadors, the president may be right on the condition that they should be posted to countries where support is coming to the insurgents in kind and in cash and the former service chiefs as ambassadors will be required to gather intelligence and block such support with the help of their host countries. We thinks this strategy may be the reason why the president decided to make them ambassadors. Based on the above assertion, it is only fair for the Senate to confirm them and for stakeholders to give them necessary support, because this war against insurgents is a collective war for all Nigerians.
The EFCC has a new acting head. How would you assess him? Do you think Magu’s indictment is a witch hunt and how would you assess the EFCC in carrying out its constitutional mandate?
As long as Ibrahim Magu is a Nigerian, he, like any other Nigerian, must be subjected to check, and it doesn’t matter the position you hold, but the work of your hand must be allowed to speak for you at all times. Knowing full well that nobody can rule guiltlessly, Magu inclusive, mistakes in leadership must be honest mistakes. We must also say that EFCC is carrying out its constitutional mandate but more needs to be done. Patriotism needs to be put into the activities of the management of EFCC and I say all these because as a civil society organisation, we are of the opinion that EFCC is being selective about the petitions they treat holistically and atimes, they see some petitions as inconsequential due to those involved.
The appointment of Abdulrasheed Bawa as the acting chairman of EFCC is a welcome development, most especially because of the fact that the appointment is from the youth constituency. Also, he is an operative of the commission and that is doing away with the tradition of outsiders or police officers. As we all know, the Nigeria Police has the problem of integrity and always making one of them the head of an anti graft agency at this critical time of our life as a nation is counterproductive. Our advice to the acting EFCC chairman is that he should start the anti corruption fight from within the commission and that can be done first by flushing out all staff of the commission who are on secondment, especially from the Nigeria Police Force.
Also, even as he prepares for National Assembly screening, all official media engagements should be put on hold so as not to heat up the politics surrounding his office and appointment. He should also see the appointment as a challenge and call to service as we believe it is not yet time to jubilate or celebrate, but the time to prove to the whole world that when given the opportunity to serve, youths of this country can deliver.
How would you adjudge the anti – Corruption war in the midst of all these?
The anti corruption war as it stands today has been dented by this pervasive insecurity in the sense that those who see corruption as enterprise are now hiding under the current security situation in the country to perpetuate their evil acts due to the fact that the echo of insecurity is now louder than any other issue confronting the nation. But we in the vanguard of anti corruption, we are not relenting in the quest to free our nation from corruption. We believe we cannot leave one problem unsolved while we are struggling to solve a particular problem. So we are seeing sabotage in the effectiveness of the anti graft fight, but by and large, I think the president has planted the tree of anti corruption war and others to follow will water it.
Police brutality has been on the front burner of the social discourse with the #EndSARS protest. What do you think is the way forward?
I am on the side of those that want police reform but not in support of ending any unit in the Police Force or even any security setting or even paramilitary, and the reason is not far fetched. As a nation, lately, we are challenged security wise and what we need right now is more strategy and even more units to combat the challenges, but closing a unit due to the fact that some small elements among the unit called SARS is dirty, we cannot throw away the baby with bath water. We must continue to fish out the bad elements in the Police and discipline them to serve as deterrent to others, because indiscipline remains a big issue within Nigerian Police Force.
How would you adjudge the president’s handling of the #EndSARS protest and aftermath?
The #EndSARS protest was hijacked by those not satisfied with the present government even before hoodlums took over. What do I mean by this? The social media and conventional media was manipulated to say the president was not doing much to address the protesters, but we all know that security chiefs must be allowed to exhaust all options available to them and when that fails, they will call on the president. But the aftermath of the protest is something that speaks volume about the protest itself; a clear message was passed to suggest that the aftermath of the protest was designed to use hoodlums to settle scores against opponents within various sections of our country, inclusing the political laedership.
In the light of the #EndSARS protest, do you think youths are ripe for the leadership of this country?
Everybody from the age of 35 years and above is ripe for leadership at all levels but the big question is why does anybody want to lead? The #EndSARS protest is not a criteria to determine whether youths are ready for leadership or not and this is basically because those that led the #EndSARS protest were not in anyway into politics and what is obtainable and determines success in the entertainment industry may not be the same in politics. Service to humanity is different from entertainment and we must not be carried away by fame of some individuals to dish out power or else we will find ourselves in the same problem we are trying to exit from.
What is your organisation doing to support the fight against corruption and the enthronement of a saner society?
Our organisation, Citizens Awareness Against Corruption and Social Vices Initiative, is right now at the forefront of the fight against corruption in so many ways. One is exposing unfair practices to relevant anti graft agencies, investigating allegations, and also pressing hard for the right things to be done from the side of anti graft agencies. These and many more we are doing for Nigeria to be able to realise her potentials. We have always known that the nation needs all of us and all our hands must be on deck if Nigeria must be great.