Standup9ja: Kanu should listen to elders – Commodore Ochulor
Nnamdi Kanu and his supporters have been agitating for a
separate country from Nigeria through the instrument of the Indigenous People
of Biafra (IPOB), what advice do you have for him?
These children cannot talk of life experiences because they
are still young. I will advise them to listen to elders and see what would
happen in the next 20 years. They may be shocked to see what would happen if
their luck holds out. To see what would happen in the future, they need to stay
alive. And the only way to stay alive is to listen to elders who would talk
from the point of experience.
Nnamdi Kanu is just gambling with his life and those of the
young people following him sheepishly. It is very risky to do such a thing. And
you notice that he is operating alone, without any backing. Unfortunately, he
is exposing those young ones, and indeed, all of us to an avoidable danger. The
earlier he and his group are told the truth and called to order, the better for
all of us. They should engage in positive ventures that will guarantee their
future.
Arewa youths issued a quit notice to the Igbo resident in
northern Nigeria and the authorities did not call them to order. How come none
of them has been arrested?
That statement from the Arewa youth was issued from Arewa
House in Kaduna, and it was weighty. Statements from that place have always
been regarded to be very strong. Historically, that is why I have had problems
with civilian governments in Nigeria. If it were in a military government,
before the youth finished preparing their statement, the security operatives
would have seen it and stopped them. But civilian regimes in Nigeria seem to be
sleeping and watching events. When they hear this from me they will say I am
trying to indict them on security, but I am not indicting anybody. The police
cannot get up and start doing things unless they are given clear direction on
what they should do. So, the fact that the statement from Arewa youths was announced
is an indictment on the government itself. They were talking as if the North
was their personal enterprise or estate.
The North is an integral part of the country called Nigeria,
and you can only describe it geographically. That’s why the entire Nigerian
Army - made up of all Nigerians - is fighting in the North-East to defeat Boko
Haram. If the situation there was for the North alone, why would soldiers of
the Nigerian government go there to lose their lives?
The statement from that group of youths is really
unfortunate and irresponsible. Whatever might have motivated the statement, if
they had thought carefully, they would have known that some of us had cautioned
the Igbo youth. We told them that they could not get up and start assuming the
leadership of Igboland. You don’t do that. There’s no way the youth can get up
and assume the leadership of Igboland when there are still people who fought
and suffered to keep them alive.
No matter what anybody thinks or says, the Igbo will always
remain an integral part of Nigeria. We didn’t fight in the civil war to destroy
Nigeria; we fought because it got to a stage where the only place you could
stay at that material time and remain alive was in your own enclave. Nobody
expected that the discussion in Aburi, Ghana; Lagos or any part of Nigeria
would lead to a civil war. Even the Nigerian government at that time did not
anticipate that there would be a civil war.
The Arewa youth said their quit notice was in response to
the insults and lies unleashed on Nigerians, especially northern leaders, by
Nnamdi Kanu and the IPOB. Would you say they are justified? Is there any way
the elders can come in to save the situation?
Governors from the South-East have spoken, southern
governors and leaders have also spoken; hopefully, I should take them
seriously. But in this country, people tell you one thing and do another.
That’s why some of us don’t even know who to believe.
In the case of Nnamdi Kanu, some leaders, including
traditional rulers, have told him and his group to keep quiet. It is
uncharitable for anybody to say that leaders of Igboland have not been
cautioning the agitators. I know that the leaders and elders have been
speaking.
But the atmosphere is not conducive for the future of the
youth. The situation where a boy graduates from the university, completes his
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, and still stays with his parents
until he is 40 years or more is unfortunate. He can’t get married because his
parents won’t take care of him and his wife. So the possibility of the young
man organising his own family is remote. And there’s nothing more frustrating
than that. So when the youths are shouting and calling down heaven, don’t blame
them.
The only thing we can do is to find a way to give them hope.
I don’t believe in leaving them like that or blaming them; we should try to
solve their problems. We should show sympathy to the youth, including Nnamdi Kanu.
All we can do is to continue to advise them - the road they want to take leads
to nowhere. The road to dismembering Nigeria is closed.
How do you think Nigeria can survive as a country?
As it is now, the only way this country can survive is to
agree to this restructuring which everybody is talking about. It is now a
general opinion. If they go with restructuring and it fails, nobody will be
blamed. But when you stick to a policy that is already dead and unproductive,
then Nigeria may collapse in your hand and one may not be alive to tell the
history. Naturally, in a civilised world, if a system does not work, you
jettison it and try another one. That’s the way I look at it.
What does restructuring really imply?
They say that restructuring means different things to
different people, but it is not true. Those who went to the National Conference
organised by the former President Goodluck Jonathan government churned out
certain vital pieces of information. They presented papers that identified and
defined restructuring. What it means is that the powers at the centre have to
be reduced. This will force various states to work harder and look inwards,
instead of everybody always running to Abuja for funds. For how long will you
be going to Abuja to get money to run your state? In other words, even people
in the villages will be forced to start thinking and doing things. In other
words, if your state is producing gold, you would be responsible for that. The
state should depend solely on what is produced within its confines. It means
that if Kano State wants to go into enterprise with Delta, they have the right
to do so, etc. At the end, you find out that governors will not be complaining
of not being able to pay workers’ salaries. This is my interpretation of restructuring.
Who will start the process of restructuring, considering the
fact that the National Assembly voted against it?
It’s very simple to restructure. First of all, if the
constitution we have is not working, it has to be amended. However, it’s not
something that will be done in one fell swoop; it will follow a gradual
approach. Various states of the federation have to be fully sensitised.
As far as I am concerned, those at the National Assembly
have the responsibility to implement restructuring. They are foot-dragging, but
they have said they would revisit it. The earlier they do it, the better
because they are running out of time. I say they are running out of time
because it’s difficult to stop human beings when they are highly agitated.
That’s why I tell people not to go to a riot venue in the
middle of it; you could be killed. Therefore, the best thing is to fight the
fire with the correct equipment. You don’t fight fire with fire. You fight it
with water mixed with other elements. You would find out that when they start
talking, tempers will start going down; so the earlier they start talking, the
better. People will now start having faith and confidence in the country.
There’s something wrong about Nigeria, and if nobody is seeing it, that’s a
mistake.
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