•Says Abacha regime killed the dream to make arms locally
•‘Why I want Senator Chukwumerije’s job’

By Dotun Ibiwoye

A former Director of Research and Development in the Defence Headquarters, DHQ, who proposed  to make a prototype Armored Personnel Carrier and production armaments locally, Jerry Obike Ogbonna, is a retired navy captain seeking to represent Abia North in the Senate through the 2015 polls. Four years ago, he contested against Senator Uche Chukwumerije in the PDP, but lost. Ogbonna, now in All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), believes that the incumbent senator has stayed too long after 12 years.

In this interview, he bares his mind on the security challenge plaguing the country, his proposal to the late Head of State, Gen Sani Abacha, to produce arms locally and other national issues.

He also speaks on how he influenced the immediate past Chief of the Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika, among others, to join the military. Excerpts:

Would you say your resume is rich enough to earn you the office you are vying for?

Most definitely. I know the country like the back of my hand I served Nigeria for 30 years of my life, as  a military officer. I have travelled all over the world; I know how other nations work. I know what is sustaining other countries. We have a group of legislators who are keen about how to line their pockets that’s why the country is static. Our legislators are interested in the number of contracts awarded; we need to leave self matters and get things right. We need to create jobs in rural communities. I retired more than ten years ago. I have been involved in politics and business. I founded Falcon Airlines. The airline was operating in Owerri before it was grounded, due to the harsh aviation policy operated by government. I ran for the governorship of Abia State in 2007and, in 2011, I ran for the Senate, under PDP. Unfortunately the PDP primaries were never straight forward; somehow, we were edged out. The party had pre-decided who they were going to give the tickets to. PDP gave tickets to Chukwumerije and the incumbent governor who newly came in from APGA and PPA, at that time. One of the arrangements they had was to give the ticket to them, not minding whether we worked hard for the party or not. 2015 elections are around the corner now, am warming up to replace our distinguished senator, Chukwumerije , who defeated me in 2011 primaries.

Why are you contesting under APGA?

I can’t be sure if PDP primaries will be in conformity with real democratic process. We already heard that a PDP candidate is boasting of one million Naira for each delegates in order to buy the delegates and win the primaries. I don’t think that is democracy. Democracy shouldn’t work that way. That’s what characterizes PDP primaries and it makes it difficult to get a free and fair election. I have decided to run with a coalition of other parties in Abia North. APGA will be the leading party and others would join in the fight to upstage the dominant party. It is because, am sure that I can’t get the ticket from the PDP through free and fair election. That’s a problem staring our nation in the face. People should be nominated through free and fair elections and not through a sellout. As far as we can get away from that, Nigeria’s democracy will begin to work.

What do you think will be your chances in APGA?

I know that Nigeria politics is not based purely on party alone, but also on personality. All the parties have ideologies. The issue of primary concern is about personality and the programme you have, if you can begin to run election based on programmes in Nigeria, we can make progress.

Is becoming a senator a means to an end, since you can contribute in other areas especially the military?

I was once the Director of Research and Development in the DHQ. We don’t need to depend on weapon importation.  We started importation in the 70s from the UK and US. It is time this stopped. The importation is a disservice to our economy. We spend N900billion on defense annually. We don’t need that; we have a vast structure that supports us. The Snake Island dockyard was able to produce ferries and vessels. Then we designed a module that snake island dockyard should produce ferries for the Nigerian Navy. We made a proposal for the steel company in Kaduna to make a prototype for an Armored Personnel Carrier. These are the two main elements for combat.  We proposed that a go- ahead should be given to these bodies to start producing armaments locally. That would have reduced the money thrown outside the country indiscriminately. The police go as far as Malaysia to import boats,when the Snake Island Dockyard has the capacity to build the boats. Abacha was the Head of State at that time. We also proposed N2 billion research fund to facilitate the proposal. The proposal never saw the light of day because of our greed. Because one man was making billions of naira from the importation.

Why do we have military men dying to come back to power in Nigeria?

We have this urge, because if you look at every sector of the country, the most patriotic people are military men. They have committed their lives to this country. This happen in most part of the world. The Secretary of State in the US is an ex-colonel. The last Secretary of Defense in the US was an ex-colonel. Go to the UK you see them everywhere. If you don’t have them, and you have purely civilian attitude, it won’t work. Most of them want to contribute. For me, all I have in my life, education, training has been through the military and Nigeria by extension. I have this undying urge to give back to my society. It looks healthier when we have both civilians and military in a country. That’s why we have a stable Senate at the moment, even though they err sometimes too. When civilians presided over the Senate they produced five senators at a stretch from the South-east.

Do you think the 2015 general elections will hold?

It will, definitely. The only challenge I foresee is the Boko Haram issue in the North. Nigeria is such a big country , the crises in the North cannot overwhelm Nigeria Government has been unable to manage the terrorism crisis because they have a gentle man approach. Here is a docile president, who is a pure civilian. When Maitatsine extremists came during Buhari and Babangida regimes, they were wiped out. Jonathan’s approach is rather too mild, carrot and stick approach. I think the greatest weapon Boko Haram has is the press. All a terrorist wants is to instill fear so that the story will be told, they have captured five states, they have surrounded this and that. How can any ragtag military think they can defeat the greatest military in Africa? The Nigerian military is a regular combatant military. They are trained in the act of war and violence. It’s difficult for any ragtag group to feel they can defeat the Nigerian military, it is not possible. This is the strongest army in Africa. We should stop the violence and look at the underlying issue, why is the violence occurring?

What is your unique selling proposition?

My USP is that my programme is targeted at legislation, to make laws that will help governance. As at today for example, 75% of our budget is spent on recurrent items and that is huge public sector expenditure. 75% of our budget is actually used to service 4% of Nigeria’s population of those in the public sector, from the federal to local government. There is a need to reverse that, otherwise the problems that we have in this country will continue, because the rest 96% of Nigeria’s population are left with nothing. Go to rural communities, there are no job opportunities there. The remaining 25% capital expenditure vote, which has been recurring for the past years, is controlled by the 75%. That’s why you can see that our capital vote has been a mirage . NASS members make sure that they are in undue control of the capital expenditure that goes out in form of contract. We have a problem of disruption of the economy, making it difficult for average Nigerians. 75% of the Nigerians in rural areas have nothing to hold on to, even those in urban areas roam the street out of frustration as lots of young people are unemployed. My solution is that government has to create industries in our local governments. There are 774 LGs in Nigeria today, about 75% of these LGs are in urban centres. We need to place N100million processing industries in each of these Local governments to unemployment problem and it will also reduce crime rate. Look at all these Boko Haram people we have today, they are young people and our children causing the menace and not foreigners. It is anger that led them into that. If you give a desperate man 5,000 dollars, he will automatically be enlisted in the group. The cause of the violence in our country today is the distortion in our economy. The Ministry of Finance has no explanations on how it’s running our economy. Go to China and India, you can get machines to support most of our processing industries, to produce cassava, cashew. If you actually create industries in strategic local governments it will drive poverty away.

What humanitarian programmes do you have in place before coming to

In my local government alone, Isiukuwato, we have produced many senior military men, like the immediate past Chief of the Army Staff; I influenced how they joined the military, after the Civil War. I brought them in when I was in service as a young cadet. There are many of them I helped into the military. My undying passion for industrialization prompted me to set up a palm kernel processing factory in Isuikwuato. If I become a senator it will give me more room to approach other institutions to follow suit. The factory is a huge success because people were just coming to carry it raw, but now palm oil is been processed. I would like to have this done in every local government. As a senator, I will ensure N10 million is committed to this project in each local government. I have no need to siphon money; I could go on with my life and feel unconcerned, but, am driven by love for humanity. Terrorism continues to flourish because of anger and frustration, the perpetrators are angered by the sight of seeing some minority enjoying what is due to all of us. Recently, my son was kidnapped in Abia State by a gang. Let me take you to the past, about what was done during the British/Irish clash, they made sure construction was on all the time and those undertaking it were Irish. They were engaged and they had no time to think of going into war. Today we have the Boko Haram issue; we need to articulate our plans well.

We hear the Nigeria military say they have killed 50 insurgents and it goes on , are these people killed not Nigerians? They are victims of debasing poverty. You have to have an overreaching strategy to fight terrorism, not just fighting and killing terrorists, we have to create a conducive environment, create jobs. The case of using 75% of our budget on just four million Nigerians is an aberration. If this is not stopped, violence will continue.