Only justice can guarantee peace, progress -Col. Kontagora

How do you compare military life in your days and now in a civilian era? Military life has always been the same, the environment makes the difference. Military life, during a military regime, may be stricter than during a civilian dispensation and I will be proud to say that military life, during civilian rule, can […]

How do you compare military life in your days and now in a civilian era?

Military life has always been the same, the environment makes the difference. Military life, during a military regime, may be stricter than during a civilian dispensation and I will be proud to say that military life, during civilian rule, can be very interesting. I give credit to the politicians. They tried as much as possible to take care of their military personnel. I’m not saying they are not being taken care of during military rule but the  emphasis  on them to make sacrifice for the benefit of the larger society is more during military rule.

What spectacular experience in your military days would you like to cherish through your life time?

The whole period was interesting, right from the first day I reported to Benue State as state administrator during late General Sani Abacha’s  administration and later, up till the last days when I handed over to the elected governor in Kano during General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s  regime. The whole days had been very interesting .To pick a specific day in a period like this is very difficult. It has taken a long time, we have adjusted into the system and most of these things we have put them aside. But then, one interesting thing I can say is the disciplinary process in the military which tends to give you a check in governance as a military administrator. When someone goes wrong in the military, we believe he is wrong and has to be dealt with immediately. Whereas in the civil rule when someone does any wrong they say have you given him a query.

Would you say this was responsible for the high level of corruption in the civil service?

Indiscipline itself is a form of corruption. It’s good to give anybody the benefit of the doubt but to the larger system it would appear you are encouraging indiscipline. The action is not seen to deter many other would be offenders or violators of same rule, act or regulation that you put in place. The issue of corruption to my own observation is that it has become systemic. My greatest worry is that it has even started to distort our thought and reasoning. Today, when you give your househelp or security man one thousand naira to buy something of  seven hundred and fifty naira for you when he returns he will only drop the item you sent him he will not drop the change.

Throughout the period of military rule in Nigeria, it was only during Gen. Gowon’s regime that military governors were indicted of corruption. Does it mean military governors were more honest?

Let me use myself as an example. After handing over, I was invited for a judicial inquiry in Kano and I was cleared of the allegations. I was also invited for inquiry in Benue of which I was equally cleared. Not that attempts were not made to indict military administrators but maybe either those investigating didn’t say anything on it or those indicted during Gowon’s era  might be because they stayed too long at least some of them stayed up to nine years but most of us  spent about two to three years and we were off  hoping to go back to the mainstream  service  of the military and so we want to keep our records straight  because we want to earn more promotions in service. So nobody wants to dent his career. I think that was why we fared better.

You were a military administrator at a period when there were crises over the suspicion that the military government under late Gen. Abacha was not willing to hand over power to civilians. What was your feeling at that time?

Governance is an act of managing crisis whether it is the issue of military handing over to civilians or civilians handing over to civilians. They are all forms of crisis. Currently, we are faced with the crisis of the issue of the Niger Delta, Biafra, Boko Haram. All these are crises and you have to manage them because they are part of human existence.  It’s natural people must ask for change so during that period, there was NADECO, although there was nothing to worry about because they love Nigeria. They were fighting for Nigeria. So they would not do anything against the country. We didn’t have to worry than to make sure that the programme set was followed and if you could remember, elections were already conducted into the states  Houses of Assembly. We were already preparing to hand over power to civilians.

But there were calls on him to continue as president even when it was against the wish of majority of Nigerians. Would you have supported that move to perpetuate himself in power?

The President of Cameroun, Paul Biya, had just ended his fourth decade in power. So a ruler wanting to continue in power is a natural thing especially if he is convinced that he is doing the right thing. Except the law gives a time limit, that is when it becomes difficult for him but at that time, there was no law in Nigeria prohibiting the commander in –chief as the head of state from going into an election to become the president. Why not? I would have supported him, because we worked with him, we knew the degree of sincerity he had put into the service of this country.

You were then selected to govern states unlike in the civil dispensation that you must go through elections. What was the yardstick used to select a military personnel to govern a state?

What prompted  my superiors to appoint me a military administrator I cannot say, all I know was that I was a directing staff  in the Command and Staff College  Jaji.  In other words I was a lecturer . I was rounding up my tenure at the college. Army had already posted me to Akure as a commanding officer, I was ready to go. There was a break at the college and we were to resume on Monday. By that Monday, I would have handed over all college property and proceed to Akure. It was on Sunday that I had the announcement that I had been made a military administrator in Benue state. What I know is that if you are not hard working you wouldn’t be appointed as military administrator or you have been found wanting at one time I know you won ‘t be made military administrator . In the army, you must be close to your seniors because throughout the day you must work with him, and throughout that process, they must assess you and your capability will be well known. So I think that was how it happened.

If you have to assess the political activities in the country would you say you are satisfied with the situation of things?

I’m satisfied with the gradual growth of our politics. Don’t forget the military interjection into the polity has also altered the political growth of the nation, it has also changed the psyche of politicians. At times, when I hear politicians use some words I tend to say yes they are still suffering from the hang -over of military rule. When you hear a politician saying with immediate effect, you know it’s the hang-over and what it means is that he is just trying to bulldoze not only his thought but his ways. This is part of the effects of the long military rule that we went through. But then, if you take a look at it, you will agree that things are taking their proper positions. It will be painful to overcome but it has to be that way. Yes, there were still mistakes. In 1999, when the process of handing over was on, I could observe that the core politicians, those who have been in it, for so long, were skeptical of joining either they did not trust the system or they didn’t believe the military will hand over. So, they didn’t come into politics very strong. That also had an effect on our present situation. They allowed new comers, young men who are ready to take risk. They took the risk and they were handed the power.

They miss- used the power and now they are finding it difficult to do away with the power.  That is why you see all these crises. That is the struggle we are in now.  When older politicians say okay this system will work, they attempted to come in and they met a lot of resistance. There is no point calling on the military because they won’t be interested. There have been so much military intervention in politics in the country and the military is equally aware that they have interjected into the politics of the country and they have been made to take all the blame  on earth that happens to Nigeria even their good and patriotic efforts for the country in most cases  are  forgotten and at times, it baffles me when 12-years into democratic system, somebody is still saying the military did this and that. That means, either he has no ideas of what to do or he is only trying to be mischievous. Because, if you are in power for 12-years and you are unable to correct a system, the wisest thing to do is to vacate the power. I have been in office before I know what it entails. Now that, I’m outside, I know the perception of people on people in that office.

At times when I hear those sounding figures of a governor embezzling for instance N52 billion naira I normally accept it with a pinch of salt.  As I said, the democratic system is intriguing, we are yet to establish a very good accounting system. We are yet to have even the capacity to spend the resources coming in. What I mean is that, if you stumble today as a common man on let’s say 10 million naira, you never expected am sure you won’ have adequate plan on how to spend the money. The only time you start taking note of the money is when your bank says you have 500,000 naira left.

Now, the federal government is pushing for the removal of fuel subsidy and we have civil servants kicking over the minimum wage. Where do we go from here?

This is interesting. Let us look at it critically. We shouldn’t be sentimental about these issues of the minimum wage and the oil subsidy. Let me put it in a way that we understand ourselves. What is the percentage of civil servants in the states, local and federal levels in Nigeria. What percentage of our population are civil servants?   If you calculate they are not up to 2 percent. So if you are paying 18,000 naira as minimum wage to a population of less than 2 percent of the population of Nigeria, it shouldn’t create the picture I saw on the streets. I know a state, before the minimum wage that was spending 67 percent of it’s  monthly allocation on salary and has a civil service of 0.0 6 percent of the population of the state. So N18,000 minimum wage is not a living wage. If you are paying it,  to me you are still not  improving  it  because it’s still not a  minimum wage.

Assuming you are the governor of that state I just mentioned, where you have to take 67 percent, assuming you get one billion, you have to takeN670 million of that income and pay 0.0 6 percent of the population of your state so you still have 99.04 percent of your population to take care of with the balance of 33 percent of your income so, it’s that part of the 330 million left that you have to take care of education, water, electricity ,welfare and others.

As the head of that state, you are already in debt  but we don’t have any welfare scheme in Nigeria. So you won’t say you cannot pay because that is the only way you could send in some money into the economy through the civil service. People tend to forget that six years ago there was a withdrawal of subsidy on one of the major components of our economy the diesel oil. Nobody screamed. I’m surprised people are screaming now. If you see any trailer on the road it is not buying a subsidized diesel. They pay N130, N140 per litre. They forget that is the engine of the economy, now that there is no electricity people buy diesel to make the industry working, they need the subsidy but you removed it. All our textile industries have folded up because of high cost of energy.

Nobody went on strike over this. Our goods have been in the market at no subsidized rate the one left is the petroleum. Now, when government said they will remove the subsidy we are all screaming. If you buy one thousand naira worth of petrol today government must have paid one thousand naira for you as car owner. Do they pay it to the farmers, will farmer buy one thousand naira fuel today to get one thousand from government? Who is enjoying the subsidy? It’s me and you who have many cars , big jeeps and when you go to the petrol station, you say they should put N10,000 fuel and government must bring out N10,000 to subsidize that.

Are you justifying the planned subsidy removal?

Yes, I’m justifying the removal, so that from the excess, we can take care of the common man. He is not buying a car, you can see how commercial people bundle about eight of them in a small vehicle in pretext that the fuel is costlier. It will also be justified if the savings are put into use. I expect our NYSC scheme to be used as housing bay for our unemployed graduates. After the one year compulsory service they should stay under the administration of the NYSC scheme for another period of two years till they get a job and they should be paid. With this, we will reduce the tension and the condition maybe that you go and look for a job and come back. This is not an extension of service but they are free to wait after the service for two years till they secure a job to earn an income and they can achieve this by removing the subsidy. The state governors can get fantastic alloction from the removal of subsidy and that will be more than adequate.

But removal of subsidy has never helped the masses?

That is why I said the society must also be ready to account and defend the government. They must be prepared. When you house these young men and women, you are guaranteeing them an income for two years. Secondly, you are increasing the cash flow in the local economy. The next is public transport system, Not everybody needs to be in a car. If you cannot buy costly fuel you should be able to get a bus let’s say to Kaduna without being ruffled to get down,  catch a taxi and get home. That saves you that money or jump into a train from Kano get to Lagos at a very good time without any problem. For every programme. There is a shocking period, you cannot get everything working from the start. You may say from next year, intake of NYSC, you are implementing that.

This sounds marvellous but don’t you think corruption would not let it work?

Let us all resolve to fight corruption in all its ramifications. If you favour your town’s man, if you favuor your religious grouping, or your sect within the religious group is corruption. If you don’t support government’s good actions because of your negative thought, it’s corruption. We should all take a vow that we shall fight corruption. We shall do justice to the land. I don’t believe in praying for peace because it cannot come except there is justice in the land. Peace is a by-product of justice. If I burn your house I should be jailed. If you burn my house you should be jailed.

Could this be the cause of the crisis in the country?

Let me ask you. Is there any where now in the world where there is no crisis? The whole world economy is in turmoil. The Nigerian economy is in turmoil. The scarcity is increasing. The competition is getting keener. The ways of getting it are getting sharper so the only thing we can do now is to restore justice back to the land. Encourage people see reality because we are not doing justice. Even when you don’t believe what government is telling you as truth, you are denying yourself peace of mind. How do you prove government is lying when you didn’t ask it what it promised to do for you? It’s our responsibility to ask for what government promised to do. You have to do justice to yourself. Mr president has done justice to you by promising you electricity and rail system by a particular period. You have to do justice to him if that period comes, you must ask that Mr president at a particular date you promised us these things. What is the problem? By this, you are doing justice to him as well.

In all these, would you say government has done justice to the Nigerian people?

They are doing their best within the circumstances we are in. As a military man, when there is an issue of insurgence, it’s not a child’s play. For instance, if there is a bomb blast today in Suleja, every paper will carry it. Every analyst would do their analysis but nobody will go to the police to say after that bomb at Suleja what have you done, how much resources have you expended in pursuing that? Just this past weeks, the SSS confirmed to us that they arrested the 1st   of October 2010 bombers. It took more than a year to get them. Do you know the amount of resources they must have committed to that? You don’t expect the security people to be some talismen. This is the trouble. So many things will be distorted even your programme because the military demand will warrant you to make some change.

Now what is the effect of this security threats? You should know that if there is turbulence in any section of the country, there will be a shift in the economic activities of the country. If am an investor, even within Nigeria not abroad, if they say they will give me free land, free house, tax  incentive  for the next three years to come to Maiduguri to establish a new industry, definitely I won’t go even as a soldier . It’s the prospect of a business and the safety of who so ever will be my workers that will be paramount and the market flow not disrupted. That is what I will be thinking about.

So, it depresses the economy. You could see how the amnesty given the Niger Delta militants by our late president has helped our oil production in the region. Today, we are boasting that oil production has increased from 700,000 to two million we are singing praises of an act of justice that late Yar’adua had done to a community.

I wish he were alive to see the petroleum bill  that is hanging  somewhere in the National Assembly  passed through because if that bill is still in it’s original form , I hope, it would have further empowered the people of  the Niger Delta far beyond the 13 percent derivation they are being given. That is justice done to a community and once you have that justice you will have peace, you will have progress but when there is no justice, forget it. That is when you have the Boko- Haram, the area boys, Kalakatu,  Bakassi- Boys, OPC all these will surface because everybody wants to draw your attention to that element of injustice . Not that their own act  too is not also an injustice to other people because they are also disturbing the peace of others but they are  trying to draw attention as a people to an act of injustice and once you address it, there will be peace and we will all begin to smile. Nigeria is a beautiful country. When you travel out, you will discover that there is no country as beautiful as Nigeria and there is no country you will travel to that you will be accepted on arrival except in Nigeria even in our present situation.