Our book on Colombian conflict is positive – Greg Mills

‘A great perhaps? Colombia: Conflict and Convergence,’ a book co-authored by Dickie Davis, David Kicullen, Greg Mills and David Spencer, about Colombia’s history from a situation of conflict to one of governance and stability and prosperity over the last 50 years was recently launched in Abuja. Dr Greg Mills, one of its authors spoke to […]

‘A great perhaps? Colombia: Conflict and Convergence,’ a book co-authored by Dickie Davis, David Kicullen, Greg Mills and David Spencer, about Colombia’s history from a situation of conflict to one of governance and stability and prosperity over the last 50 years was recently launched in Abuja. Dr Greg Mills, one of its authors spoke to Arts & Ideas about it.
Why did you decide to do the launch in Nigeria?
President Obasanjo is the chairman of Brenthurst Foundation which I direct and it seemed a natural fit since he’s been to Colombia. He led a delegation there from the Foundation in June last year. It was a natural to come to Nigeria.
Do you imagine the book will have benefits for Nigerians?
We do not like to talk about lessons because every situation is different. But what we would say is that there are parallels between the conflict that Nigeria is having with Boko Haram and the conflict that the Colombian government has fought against FARC. Those parallels are not just military efficiency. They are about the need for a lot of government approach on the need for economic development, social inclusion, demobilization, reintegration and of course, a political process at the end of it all. It is about finding a way to remove the seeds that could lead to conflict.
How did you come about the title?
It is a line from a book by Garcel Marquez being that he is a Nobel laureate and a Colombian, it seemed very fitting to have that. It is an indication of the literary and nationalistic connection, an indication of the fact that Colombians are nearly there in terms of this process of dealing with this insecurity but also dealing with all these other things on the way. It also illustrates the degree of promise inherent in that process as well.
How long did it take to put the book together?
It was a process of engagement with Colombia with the likes of Gen Mantille and others has been almost ten years. We started in 2006 retentively as an African-based foundation, engaging with the Colombians and realizing that there were interesting observations and experiences to be shared. We took an African delegation there in 2008 and then in 2014 and 2015. In between these times, there were a number of different visits. The book writing started early in 2014 and it is based on these engagements before hand and then there is a team of four of us who went with the group and President Obasanjo expectedly wrote the forward to the book. It’s been a very collaborative project an Afrikaans, Nigeria’s President Obasanjo, we have an Australian and a British author. So it is quite balanced and a positive globalization for us.
Why Colombia and not any other country?
There are a couple of reasons. The first is, Colombia’s fight against political instability and violence has been internal. It has not been a third party case it has not been about a European country going to another country to try and address the situation. There’s not been an external intervention. It has been about the Colombians owning the problem and thus, owing the solution. The second aspect is its being in recent times, it a contemporary fact and not ancient history. Thirdly, it is the south-south aspect which I think is also important. This is about Colombia, a fellow country of the South addressing similar problems to many other countries of the South. I think it makes it more relevant in that respect. Maybe fourthly, I will add that it is a positive story. It is a story about a turn around. It is nor a story about failure. We are so used to seeing stories about failure, about how countries fail to reform and transform themselves. As I said before, I am not saying there are just lessons that can be extracted for one country or another. There are a series of high and lows, there are some shared experiences, and there are some good and some bad things. But the most important thing is the whole of government’s approach, a cross cutting approach involving at the outset getting the military piece right and almost simultaneously getting the social, economic and political aspects right and having a set of short, medium and long term goals in the process.
Why was it important for you to take on a positive approach to write this book?
We had to take on a positive approach the positive approach lent itself in the Colombian experience. Why did we want to write about Colombia? It’s because it’s been a successful example, dealing with the insurgency and given that a number of African countries both on the east and west and in the centre of Africa from Nigeria, all the way to Al-shabab in East Africa and then the problems that confront the Congo and the CAR, for example, just to take a few illustrations, there was a relevance to the Colombian case which was immediate. It is a case of the Colombians doing it for themselves and very importantly, shaping external intervention to their advantage. These are things that I think; we not necessarily have to learn from the Colombians but have to do for ourselves.
What kind of impact has working on the book had on you?
I’d run the foundation for ten years, based in Johannesburg, but my specialty has been in working in so-called failed or fragile countries. I had four assignments in Afghanistan, I have worked as a special adviser to President Kagame in Rwanda, I’ve spent a lot of time in the Congo, in Liberia and a couple of countries around southern Africa and I’ve been particularly interested in how we improve methods and our methodologies and engagement with so-called fragile countries. When you are in this business… and it is not a business because it is a charitable foundation, it is so easy to point out the things that have gone wrong. It is much more difficult to point out a kind of road map for getting things better. As I said before, while every circumstance is different, the Colombian one was immensely positive and invigorating for somebody who is used to failure. And it is nice to be able to deal with a country that is getting things right. In some ways, we chanced upon the Colombian experience back in 2006 because I had returned from virtually spending the year in Afghanistan and I was looking around for somebody who was doing these things better. It struck me that the Colombians were doing a pretty good job and I spent some time there and this project has grown from that. I take a lot of pride in the fact that it is an African-based organization that has done this. It is the first book in English in detail on Colombia’s turnaround story. The next stage is to start exchanges with the various governments and to take this from the written words and share the experiences verbally and more practical aspects. This is going to require government leadership and the governments have to have the appetite or gain the appetite for this.
How have the Colombians received what you have done with this book?
The fact that we have a four-star general, a retired army commander here with us, the former minister of defense has written the forward, we have dealt with the government over the past several years, I think is an indication that they have enjoyed this process because they want to tell their story. And they’re very open. This is a remarkable thing about them, in not just telling their story but admitting that they have made mistakes.
When you go to sleep, what puts a smile on your face about this book?
Other than it is finished (laughter) I think it is the fact that it is a good story and a turnaround one. A story about taking a country which was synonymous with drug trade, narco trafficking and criminality with Pablo Escabal, the people think of Colombia today as beautiful country where governance is a reality and a country which has had very good economic growth in the last two decades and is really making progress. That’s a good thing to experience.