How power can shift to Delta North MAJOR General Philip Onyekweli (rtd), a former chairman of the National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, and leader of Ndokwa Nation in this interview among others says that the reason for the under-funding of the military in the past was that the army constituted an enemy to itself during military rule.

He says agitation for power shift to Delta North Senatorial zone in Delta State can be achieved through dialogue.

BY CHARLEs KUMOLU

The country is currently threatened by insecurity, how do you see the handling of the problem militarily?

It is unfortunate that we found ourselves in this position. We have had insurgencies in the past like the Maitatsine uprising. But this one seems to be holding us down and unfortunately we have suffered greatly. The abduction of our girls is one of them. They carted away our children and we don’t know where they took them to. Gladly, efforts are on to ensure that the children are back in safe condition.

I will say that a lot of efforts are being made by all concerned. The government, military and other security agencies are working to get them released. It is a difficult situation. And I must say that we did not take it seriously initially. By the time we realised that this thing is deep, it was too late. And our people are now battling on how to deal with the situation.

I am confident that the insurgents will never win. They will always lose. But we are losing a lot of people. Eventually they will be defeated because insurgents have never won this type of battle any where. I am happy that the international community is lending hands to ensure that the situation is dealt with.

What is your take on reports that the military had been grossly under-funded in the past 20 years?

I agree with the people who are saying that the military has not been well equipped for over 20 years. Indeed the military has always been enemy to itself. During the military regime, little or nothing was done for the military.

Mr. President was right on that. Maybe they were equipped to deal with external forces and combat situations outside Nigeria but not internal situation. We have formations and there is a way they are armed.

But the situation we found ourselves is not conventional war, where you put 10 soldiers in a section with riffle, while another soldier is having a machine gun. It does not work like that.

The insurgents are armed perhaps with machine guns and other sophisticated weapons. The way to deal with the situation is to really arm our soldiers. You can’t fight someone who has machine guns with a riffle. It is a different war situation. It is not the war we are used to.

Be that as it may, I think the government is trying to properly equip the military now. I know that our allies will give us the needed support, if our government allows them.

After rescuing the Chibok girls would you support calls in some quarters for the foreign allies to remain in the country and assist in the war against terror?
I don’t think we will need such expertise.

What the situation requires is for them to give us proper intelligence and technical support. With that the situation will be dealt with and it can be dealt with quickly.

We don’t need any military base to be established here and I don’t think our allied forces will do that. Though people are afraid of such but we need expertise of people who know better than we do.

That is the reality of the world we are living in. Our Army is trained for conventional warfare. There is need to re-jig the army to be able to handle asymmetric warfare. Boko Haram is well armed. Our people need the required equipment for this kind of warfare.

Divergent views on the derivation formula seem to be among the things that would make or mar the ongoing National Conference. How do you think that controversy can be resolved?

It is a difficult situation. But the truth is that the 13 percent is going to stay. I don’t see what is going to stop it. Remember, that the Niger Delta people asked for 50 percent which was not given to them.

Tax to central

They went into discussions which led to the 13 percent. In a true federation, people are supposed to earn from what they produce and pay tax to the central government. If that is the situation, we should be asking for 100 per cent but nobody is going to give you that.

We should also be mindful of the difficult situation other people are in. It looks like they may be able to retain the 13 per cent in the interim because of the difficult situations in some parts of the country. You know that the whole of the North East is in trouble.

Several things are wrong in those areas and money is needed to correct the anomalies there. I believe that the entire nation will be satisfied if the 13 percent is retained.

Why is it that each time review of the derivation formula comes up, the North always oppose it?

If I am a Northerner I will also be uncomfortable. Everybody wants to get the best of everything. The truth is that we focus so much on oil at the expense of agriculture and other mineral resources.

If the mineral resources are tapped in commercial quantities, same 13 percent will go to the North. It has been proved that there are a lot of mineral resources in the North, but people are not interested, they want quick money. People are so concerned about going to Abuja every month to collect oil money.

We need to look inwards on how to exploit the mineral resources on the ground. If that is done, who cares about 13 per cent? I have asked my northern friends why they are bordered about 13 per cent.

If I were a northerner, I will make use of the land mass for commercial farming because the Federal Government has pumped in so much money for irrigation projects. America is doing well in agriculture. China is feeding herself.

Resource control

If we can feed ourselves who cares about resource control? It is important that emphasis is laid on agriculture.

Ahead of the 2015 governorship elections in Delta State, agitations for power shift to Delta North Senatorial zone have remained on the front burner. From what you have seen so far, do you think it is feasible?

Nothing has ever been easy. We have to discuss and we have to negotiate. The people holding on to power now did not get it easily. It was through discussions and negotiations. Going back to when we were in Western Nigeria, we had problems which the NCNC and the Action Group felt that they could solve.

That was how Mid-West was carved out of Western Nigeria. When it was carved out, Osadebe from Asaba and Marierie and Urhobo man were made the premier and governor respectively.

That was how we started. There is always division, but people will agree so that we can live in peace. When Delta was created from Bendel State, Ibru was the first elected governor. He did not just wake up to become governor, it was through negotiation. In every state there are elders who control the areas; these were the people who dialogued among themselves leading to Ibru becoming governor.

General expectation

Someone from Ika, Simone Ebonka was his deputy. After Ibru, we had an easterner as governor while John Edozien from Oshimili was his deputy. After the military regime, Ibori had Elue, an Aniocha person as his deputy. After him, Emmanuel Uduaghan chose an Urhobo man to be his deputy. So it must be balanced and negotiated.

It is not a question of whether they will allow or not. Power is negotiated because the general expectation is that everybody will be carried along.

If it is not done there will be problem. For instance the Federal Character we have in our constitution is to ensure that every part of this country is carried along. I think that is what we are doing by negotiating and consulting and it seems to be walking very well.