BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE, BENIN

CHIEF FRED ORBIH (SAN), one of the finest legal luminaries from Edo State in this interview  spoke on diverse national issues including the insecurity in the country, the removal of fuel subsidy and the need for the convocation of  Sovereign National Conference, SNC, by the leadership of the country to look into the problems facing the nation. Excerpts

Recent events in the country as regards  insecurity of the nation has once again put in the front burner that this government may not be able to protect lives and property of Nigerians? What’s your take on this?

Well, I think it is a bit premature to get to that conclusion irrespective of all the turbulent times that the country is facing. The only thing is that the government need to be more proactive on issue of security. That is not to say that we should write them off. The government should look at the issue of security beyond arming soldiers and policemen to carry out security duties; the world is now more sophisticated than that.

Intelligence gathering and preventive measures are far more effective on issues of security than reacting to security breaches, so that is my own humble suggestion and we should continue to give every support to the government because security involves everybody.

It involves you, it involve me. The awareness must be created. Government cannot police every nooks and crannies  of this country, it is not just possible. People need to give information. People must be able also to give information. People should also be made to understand that they can assist on issues of security.

If for instance, you find a suspicious looking – luggage or baggage some where, you should be able to report that this is what you have found because you never know what it may contain. But if the people are not enlightened or educated to know that they also have a role to play, how do they play that role? So, it is a broad issue that involves everybody and we should support the government and the government also should be alive to its responsibilities.

There is this call by some Nigerians that the Federal government should engage the Islamic group, Boko Haram in a dialogue with a view to resolving whatever grievances they have with the government.  How do you look at the issue of dialogue?

Well, one of the problems of this country is that we over simplify complicated issues and sometimes because of the ethnic and religious diversity of the country, there is a tendency to import solutions that have worked somewhere to address problems that are not similar to it. And if you do that, you could have embarked on a journey to no where and you will not achieve any result.

The people who are recommending dialogue are looking at the Niger-Delta situation and what the government did with the militants. I believe that they are entirely two different situations. The agitation in Niger-Delta was specific and pointed; people knew the agitators, people knew their aims and objectives and to a very large extent, the government itself accepted that it has made mistakes here and there on the issues pertaining to the development of the Niger-Delta region.

So it was easy to talk about dialogue and to address those issues. As I talk to you now, I doubt  whether  anybody is sure of who Boko Haram adherents are or sure of their aims and objectives or sure of the reasons that informed the formation of Boko Haram in the first instance. Even the name Boko Haram has so many variants and so many interpretations.

So, who are we going to dialogue with? But if tomorrow, they identify themselves and they identify their specific objectives, it will be a basis to sit with them and find out whether there are areas where the government and Boko Haram can agree. But in the absence of such identification, I don’t know how that type of dialogue can take place.

How do you assess  the President’s handling of the security situation in the country?

The truth of the matter is that Nigerians are angry with the President; they are angry with the way the issue of Boko Haram has been handled by Mr. President. But we should also try to show some understanding. There are things that ought to be done; I have already talked on this, to enhance the security of the country. The fact that Boko Haram is operating does not mean that the President is doing nothing.

No,he is certainly doing something, but whether what he is doing is adequate to meet the security challenges is a different matter altogether. I still believe that he should be given a chance. You know this issue of Boko Haram is a new phenomenon in Nigeria and like everything that is new, it takes time to understand it and it will also take time to tackle it.

Unless there is a thorough understanding of the situation, you will not be able to fine- tune the solutions that you preffered. I still believe that right now, most of the things the government is doing, is on experimental basis. Let’s  see whether this will work or that will work. And maybe with time he will be able to fine tune these solutions and adequately meet the challenges of the time.

There are still some group of Nigerians who believe that the 1914 Amalgamation between the North and South was done without the consent of Nigerians by the British government; that it is now time to sit down through a Sovereign National Conference to really look at the basis of our existence, do you subscribe to that?

If you remember earlier on in this discussion, I have told you that we were forcefully married as a people, so it is not a belief; it is a statement of fact that the British people did not seek the consent of Nigerians before the Amalgamation of 1914. It is also a statement of fact that by the year 2014 this country would have existed for a 100 years. So, we are just about 2 – 3 years short of our centenary celebration. It is also a statement of fact that the good Lord has a hand in everything that happens on earth.

But, now to come to your question, I subscribe to the view that we need to redefine the articles of our association as a people because if we do not, then we may be heading dangerously close to a situation where we may have to address these issues, I hope not in a violent manner because there is a limit to which you can force people to continue to live together.

But, don’t get me wrong, Nigeria is a good idea. Even now, don’t forget that in other parts of the world, people are even trying to come together. That is the whole idea behind the European Community. And a whole host of other international organizations to come together so that they can pull resources together and attain their  desired  political and economic objectives. But in doing so, the people should have a say on how they want to live together.

The people who are opposed to having a Sovereign National Conference have the erroneous impression that once that conference holds Nigeria will breakup. That is why most of those who are opposed to it are usually people who belong to the establishment. I don’t know how this idea came about where or they derived their view from.