October 13, (THEWILL) – In this interview, a security expert, Otunbalaje Adejare Adegbenro, spoke on a wide range of issues of national interests, including security challenges, corrupt practices, wastages in government, the 2023 general election, as well as President Muhammadu Buhari’s transition out of power.
As a widely exposed Security Expert, what is your overview of the security situation in Nigeria today?
First of all Nigeria is, no doubt going through challenges especially on security and it is normal to tackle it. And since the coming to power of President Muhammadu Buhari, he has given the nod to tackle it headlong. He has given the approval and has done all the necessary things to do the job. He has approved money to buy the required weapons to fight the challenges. It is baffling where the setback is coming from! I mean it baffles me why we are not winning the battle.
The last Service Chiefs faced a great danger, and the current ones are also working tirelessly day and night to battle with the challenges. But we still need to encourage them, morally, financially and psychologically. And in Nigeria, some of what we do is always politically motivated. There is no doubt that there are saboteurs sabotaging the current administration in power. The President has done all the needful from his side. He has approved all the needed logistics required to win the war. He has given all the necessary approval, but those who ate to take actions, we don’t know who they are working for. Are the really working for the President and the nation or are they working for themselves for their selfish end?
Nigerians have to prick themselves by discarding the pull him down syndrome politics for the country to move forward and for Buhari to succeed. It is not a do or die affair. The Nigeria I once knew is not the Nigeria of today. And my advise to my elders in politics, the ministers, governors, senators and the rest of them, is that what they consider in taking any step is about their children, their children’s children and the generations yet unborn. If they don’t realise that and they are just thinking of themselves today, the cross they are passing down would end somewhere and they don’t know who among their own children would carry the cross. Let do what is right and wait for the result.
How do you mean sir?
For instance, we don’t have sufficient manpower for security in this country, but alas, look at the convoys of the governors, the ministers, head of parastatal, the VIPs going round the town with security personnel attached to them as private individuals! It is not supposed to be like that. We are supposed to cut down those attitudes because of expenditure too. May God help this country. I am sick and tired any time I go to Abuja or any big city where everybody behave as a big man. It should not be like that. We should all sit down and look at what we can do to make this country better and working. And as I always say that I am a Nigerian and my tribe comes second.
All the sectional notions of I am a Yoruba, Ibo, Kanuri, Hausa or Fulani should be thrown down the drain. We don’t need that.
For instance, we are going towards a crucial election and nobody is talking about anything that would benefit the country and her people. That is why I keep saying we need a benevolent dictator because we need discipline. If we have a benevolent dictator in Nigeria today, we will see that in no time, Nigerians would tune to the right thing we need and are required to do. Nigerians are not stupid. We are highly intelligent people. But this breaking down of law and order and with some people thinking they are above the law, is beyond stupidity. And to me I am not happy with it.
Can anybody, with due respect, including you be exonerated from the rot?
No. I agree I am part of the problem. I must admit that I am not a perfect person. Yes, I must also correct myself knowing the background I come from. Everybody has a voice, so everybody must come out for a peaceful election and choose the right person that could do the thing. People should not look at stomach infrastructure in voting because if they give you money today to vote for them, you would not see them again till the next four years. Why has none of the presidential candidates gone to the security agents to ask them, what is the problem? All the billions they are spending all over the place, why can’t they give the money to the security agencies or the paramilitary outfits to fight insecurity?
It is not to be done only by the Federal Government; it is not only to be done by President Muhammadu Buhari alone. Security challenges are to be fought collectively. So, we should join hands together to combat the menace collectively. This is what we call patriotism we are talking about. We are not talking about another country that is not ours. Nigeria is the only country that we have. For instance, I went to our airport and saw a sticker and I marked it out and spoke about it. how do we allow a sticker advertising passports of three different countries at our own airport?! The gateway to our country I mean the international airport at Abuja?! That was about three weeks ago. Somebody must have read my protest because the billboard has been brought down. But we don’t sanction anybody as I am speaking. What was the motive of that?
We have a minister of aviation, we have a minister of information, we have the association of billboard or what are they called in charge of such things, and we have the MD of FAAN, all these people should have been brought to justice. Nigerians are condoling all these things. Some people must have seen it and just smiled and gone away. True, Nigerians are moving out in troops in search of greener pastures, but the fact still remains that wherever you go, you will be a second-class citizen. Let us stay here and do the right thing. If you look at it, anybody that makes money here, why are they taking it abroad? If Nigerians make money and invest it here, the country would have enough money to do so many things with it. But no, everybody wants to make money here and take it abroad they believe is a safe haven.
What do you think should be done along that line?
That is what the presidential candidates should be talking about. I mean how to bring the exchange rate down, how poverty and hunger should be wiped out, how security challenges would be wiped out.
In your own assessment, do you believe that, truly Nigeria is a wasteful country?
Nigeria is very, very wasteful in resources. For instance I spoke about the United Nations (UN). The President went to the UN and he is the only person that would speak there. He is entitled to his aides, he is entitled to the Ministers of Finance and Central Bank, he is entitled to the National Security Adviser (NSA), and he is entitled to the Minister of Trade and Investment. But now, if you look at the people that went to the UN, it was a jamboree from Nigeria that the world would laugh at us. Governors, other ministers, who don’t have the mandate to talk at the UN were there. Even those who do not have a mouth to talk at the National Assembly were all there. What was their business there if one may ask? The money they wasted, why couldn’t they make use of it in their states? Why couldn’t the ministers utilise the money for the welfare of Nigerians or give it to the security organizations to fight insecurity? We know the benefit of utilising wastedsuch wated money but we would not do the right thing. It is sad. We see those things on television, I am sorry, I don’t want to see such things again on television. I want to see my president and hear what he wants to say to his good people. he was the only one that talked at the UN.
Taking a critical look at the recipients of the current National Merit Awards, are you confortable with the list?
National Merit Award is to give Nigerians that have helped Nigeria and still helping Nigeria the honour of recognition. And there are so many of them. but look at the list of people the minister brought out, are some of them worthy of being given National Awards? Some of them have questionable characters. Some of them have cases all over the place. They are some of the people that are in the list of the minister of special duties put forward for National Merit Awards! Even the ex-service chiefs who could not save the country from security challenges before they were posted out as Ambassadors in some African countries were included in the list by the minister. Is t that we are not seeing what is happening? It is ticking time bomb we are playing with.
I am sorry; something has to be done drastically. Nigerians should take it up and raise their voice. Everybody has a voice and we should raise the voice to save the country. Tomorrow you would see a Nigerian Minister or another officials and everybody would rise up and chorus-Your Excellency having known that what he is doing is wrong and the moment you sit down you continue murmuring at the background the man is actually like this and like that. Why did you stand up for him in the first instance? Why couldn’t you sit down in protest and refuse to shoot your hands out to shake him?
Nigerians, we are too docile. All this pull him down syndrome must stop. It is bad news that reign in Nigeria. Anything good about Nigeria, they would not talk about it. And there are so many Nigerians that are doing very good things.
The President has done a lot of good things for Nigeria for the people to see and talk about. I have seen it, I have seen it and we should talk about it and commend him. I am going to 50 and I am not going to live my life like this. I will always talk about what is right. I was brought up in a political home both from Premier side of my father’s house and my maternal side of the financier of NADECO who I emulate. I know all these people and I know their characters. This is not what my grandparents stood for neither the way I was brought up. I would not leave Nigeria that my children and grandchildren would not be proud to look at it and say; this is Nigeria, my father’s lovely country. And that is why I say, what Nigeria needs now is a benevolent dictator. He should come and balance the country up and straighten things up.
That is why we must look after the security personnel, take care of them, see to the welfare of their families so that their morale would be boosted to go and fight for Nigeria wholeheartedly. We also have to change our ways the way and manners we buy our weapons instead of showcasing whar we are buying. If you go to America, you don’t know what the Pentagon has. If you go to Russia, you would not know what Russia has, if you go to United Kingdom, you don’t know what they have. It is only in Nigeria that people know what we have. And if the enemies know what you have, they would be well prepared to fight you if you want to fight them. So, we have to take care of that angle.
What do we do for Mr President as he is transiting toward the general election?
We have to assist the President to have the transit period for this coming election to hold and for us to have security challenges totally minimised. It cannot be eliminated 100 per cent but can be reduced. People should stop saying what they do not know saying they are in government, the keep on lying and lying. Come out and say the only the truth and if you are not sure of the truth, you can say we are working on it. It is sad! I mean what is a minister doing with convoy of four cars with security people?! it is so sad. It is very, very sad! I am sorry but that is the honest truth. What is the minister afraid of? What is the permanent secretaries afraid of? What are all these people afraid of? In Nigeria of today, you would see the Custom men, they would say they have intercepted two trailers of illegal arms. Do you know how many other trailers with that consignment remaining in the port? They would impound the consignments and burn them in some cases instead of making proper investigation. Any bullet and any gun manufactured has serial numbers of the manufacturers. And you could know who paid for it. but nobody is brought to book and the guns and bullets are sold everywhere. We have porous borders, the question is what are the custom men doing? Kick away the custom boss if he cannot do his job well and should get away from office and put somebody else there.
The President has to hear this. It is sad. Lives of people are now seriously at risk. It can be one of your family members tomorrow or even yourself. We should protect ourselves. Let the right people be put in relevant places. There is no safety in Nigeria right now because of the rubbish job some people are doing, absolute nonsensical. I am sorry to say it. This is my thought for Nigeria. I am an angry man, yes, I am because I want my country Nigeria to work. You cannot expect the President to do everything himself, he is an elder statesman. He knows we are facing challenges and he tries for Nigeria. Look at COVID-19, look at how much he spent, look at how much the private sectors put into it. All the money was stolen and they did not do things right. May be they did 20per cent of what they were meant to do. Where did the money go to? And the blood of those who died would be on the hands of those who mishandled the COVID-19 protocol. The curse would be unto them and their children up to their grandchildren. It is sad and that is how I feel about it. I don’t care, I have said the honest truth.
That was how they assassinated my grandfather but I don’t care. I will be saying the honest truth. People would keep saying Nigeria is bad, Nigeria is corrupt and so on. I can tell you with honesty that there are more corrupt people outside than those in jail. They should be locked up and the key thrown away. Let them realise the gravity of their sins against the country and humanity. W*hy are granted pardon? Everything needs to change. We need to overhaul ourselves and hold ourselves tight. Why is it that we amass a lot of wealth? Why is it that we have four cars and the four cars would be on the road at the same time? What happens to the even and odd numbers system. That was how we grew up. If you had two cars, one will go out today and the second one would go out the other day. Now we are so rich and we don’t know what we are doing. We are spending so much that we don’t think about what we are leaving for our children. Do you think they would be secured? They would be worse than us because of what they are living in and what they are seeing. And if they do not see, they take to other things.
We need to start encouraging them. There are some viable people that are ministers. I don’t want to mince words by selecting my own ministers that have done well. You can see their works everywhere. You can see some of them who should not be in government. They should be thrown far away. It is sad. This is what I have to say.
Do you have anything to say about the ASUU strike?
Students are at home for how long now because of ASUU strike. What is Minister of Education doing about it? What do you expect the students be doing? What is the government doing? What is the ministry of education doing about it? What is the minister of labour doing about it? They would just talk and get off. These are not kind of people we need in government. We need those who can dialogue and talk the right sense to the lecturers and all that.
And another thing about it, let the National Security Adviser (NSA), be special adviser on security to the President. Let everybody individually do his own job. Let the Chief of Army do his job, let the Chief on Naval Staff do his job, let the Chief of Air Staff do his job, let the minister of defence staff do his job, let the minister of defence do his job, let the Inspector General of Police do his job and let the Director-General of Civil Defence Corps also do his job. Additionally, let all of them sit down and synchronise their operations and seek for information without minding their ranks and superiority because we have the singular objective of bailing out the country from its predicament. The battle is to be won collectively not in a separate manner.
It is so sad that everybody is just doing whatever he likes. That is not how to defeat security challenges in Nigeria. It isn’t at all. You think it is none of your business. No, tomorrow you may be the target so everybody should feel concerned. We may all be targets tomorrow. It may be only your houseboy or housemaid that would be left in your house tomorrow if we go on the way we are going now. Yet everybody is getting out looking for greener pastures, forgetting your country. It is so sad because I love and I am very passionate about my country. And that is why my slogan is there and I will surely die with that slogan: I am a Nigerian and my tribe comes second.
And that is the honest truth. I therefore call and appeal to the President to make sure he is leaving this government with security down towards the election and make sure that every necessary thing is put in place. I say this because the good work he has done as a decent president is being sabotaged. I don’t know who the saboteurs are, but surely they are in his government. It is sad because this man has done his best for this country. That is my take.
On corruption, what is your take on the EFCC and ICPC outfits?
I think they should be left alone to be independent to do their work without unnecessary interference. The EFCC boss is a young man who appears to be very energetic and hardworking. But he should not be disturbed by any quarters with overbearing tendencies that would want to influence the dropping of some high-profile cases. We should allow him to do his work. And if he does his work properly which I believe he wants to do, Nigeria will move forward. ICPC is also there already doing its own job too. let us allow them to do their job. Nobody should interfere with their duties. Let the judges also be free and independent of right judgement.
Let us forget about being afraid of anybody no matter how highly placed in the society that can terminate anybody’s job or life in a country where there is law and order. We all know what law and order is. It is like seeing Nigerians travelling to England, you see them orderly. They behave themselves. But in flight coming to Nigeria, and before the aircraft taxes to a halt, you see them in their unruly conducts. Everybody would want to beat the other person to disembark and struggle to the immigration desk in a disorderly manner.
Is all that needed?! Why can’t we just be disciplined, respective, orderly and peaceful? What are we teaching our children? And why is it that our children are no more respectful? It is simply because our traditional institution has collapsed. We no longer respect the institution and the custodians of the institution. I am a Yoruba man. Today, you see that the Yoruba man’s children are no longer speaking Yoruba language. We have all our Obas, we have all our Emirs, we have all our Obis as well as our high ranking traditional chiefs who are trying their best. Yet, as they are trying, we still need to talk to them. The children are underneath their authorities.
In the case of security challenges too, the Obas, the Bales and others should be contacted to rub minds on what to be done to kill the security challenges and stop insecurity ones and for all. They know what is going on and that is why there is the need to bind everybody together with a view to combatting the menace collectively.
We want President Muhammadu Buhari to leave a better legacy behind during his transit period. But the fear is that, would the saboteurs allow him?! Can the so-called cabal let him do so? And he himself has to pull himself free and out of their grips. He should bring out the long stick and start flogging anybody that would not allow him to do the right thing because of the period Nigerians would be referring to him and his family based on what he had done when he was in power. And to be honest to ourselves, this man has done a lot for his country and posterity would judge him accordingly. But it is sad that things are going on this way.
What is your reaction towards the ammunition comments of the ex-service chiefs?
We all read it in the media that the ex-Service Chiefs said they did not meet any ammunition in the armoury when they assumed office were given ambassadorial posts and now you are giving them National Merit Awards. I ask, why the honour when they should be put behind bars?! Meanwhile, the present security apparatus are doing a fantastic job. So, we should be supportive of them. Some people are just making mockery of themselves when passing comments about the security situation in the country. It is so sad that such is going on in this country.
What is your observation about those working with President Muhammadu Buhari?
Those of the people working in this government do wish the President well. We know some don’t. It is about their selfish interest in what they want. As far as I am concerned, this National Merit Award should be scrapped and the minister should be called to question. It appears his collection bothers on corruption by including some people’s names. A merit award is not supposed to be so. It is sad. How can you give a corrupt person a merit award? I don’t even know what to say about it. and that is why I don’t watch Television because when I see what is trending, I feel so sad. Listen to the news every day, there is nothing positive coming out of it.
So, Nigerians should wake up and let us make our great country real great as the power house of Africa, as the giant of Africa we need to seriously wake up and change our shaky. I beg all Nigerians to heed the clarion call. We need somebody to come out and bail the country out. We seriously need somebody. Nigeria is a prayerful country. And that is why we still remain on earth. And that is why we still exist. Or else, we would not have been in existence a very long time ago. It is because God is answering our prayer that we are still existing and surviving.
Please let us put all our hands together to make this country truly great. Look at Ghana compared to us now. It is sad in the whole of West Africa that we are where we are today. I can’t remember that country I visited, Malaysia or one of the Asian countries, where corruption is allowed. But you cannot take the money out of the country. The corruption money you have gotten can only be spent in your country. And that is the wise thing to do because if you spend your corrupt money in your country, the country would be better than what it was earlier. It is either you are feeding your people, building hotels, developing infrastructure and so on. Nigeria is where you can do anything and lie. you steal money, you take it out, you do anything profitable you take the proceeds out. Why take it out? Why can’t you believe in your country?
And at the end of the day, we are in a big shit. We are in deep hole! I am very sorry for the next government coming in. I wonder how they are going to manage the amount of debts we have right now! If I was the President, I would give the matching order that in the next one month, the exchange rate should be $1 to N1. If you do that, everybody would bring his money back. And if the people bring their money back, you prevent the money from leaving Nigeria. There would be regulation for that. Let them bring our money back to our country and invest the money back in our country. It would stop people making money here and taking it abroad. Is abroad your own country? That is a profiteer. If you can leave it here, it will have a trickle effect because the masses here would feel the effects. That is how you do it.
I call on all our traditional institutions, all clerics-Muslims and Christians, everybody should come together as one and say the honest truth as it is said in the Bible and the Qur’an and preach the right things and not be silent when they see things that are not going right in the country. Let us see how all of them would contribute input to make this country great.
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