Professor ALABA OGUNSANWO, former Nigerian Ambassador to Belgium and lecturer at Lead City University, Ibadan, speaks with Senior Correspondent, ISHAYA IBRAHIM, on the involvement of America in the fight against Boko Haram and what Nigeria needs to do to earn the respect of the international community, among other issues
The United States of America (U.S.) has waded into the fight against Boko Haram. Is there anything to worry about?
I don’t know that the U.S. has waded into the fight against Boko Haram. The announcement I heard was that they were trying to assist the Nigerian government in helping to rescue the kidnapped girls, and that they will send in a team that will assist with the process of negotiating and training in the gathering of intelligence and all of that. That itself is not equivalent to the latter stage in terms of actual participation in dealing with the phenomenon of Boko Haram. Although I saw the President of the United States of America saying that perhaps what the Boko Haram terrorists have done, without knowing, was to enrage the whole world against them. He suggested that everybody should cooperate to try and ensure that they are effectively dealt with because they are what he called the horrendous group who do not care and are prepared to kill anybody, whether Muslims or Christians, and in terms of what they have been doing, that they need to be brought to book as it were. That is what I saw him saying. I didn’t hear him say that he was declaring war on Boko Haram.
What would you make of Nigeria’s response so far?
The handling of the Boko Haram phenomenon has been part of the complexity of Nigerian problems. This is something that would have been dealt with long ago, but because of our own national question, it could not be dealt with. This group was started in 2002 by somebody whom the following year became the governor of Borno State, not for this purpose but for a different purpose because he believed that since the police and the security agencies were under the federal government controlled by the PDP, he needed to protect his own regime in Borno against intimidation. That was why he had the group and they were protecting him. They were doing the job well. They were not for killing people or anything like that. They were just for protection. It was not until he abandoned them. He won election and re-election, but not too long after that, during his second term, he abandoned them and they became fatherless. So they were available for anybody that wanted to use them and hijack them. Unfortunately, they believe that he did harm to them by reporting them to security agencies who turned against them. That’s how the whole problem started. So it’s part of our own internal problems that led to that kind of thing. Later on, they were taken over by others who wanted to destabilise the Jonathan regime. That’s a different issue. But that group started off that way and some of those things that have happened, all of the international dimension, the entry of Al-Qaeda and all of those things…because their own godfather who was there had abandoned them, they were ready to be used for Jihad or any purpose. That is what we have had.
Unfortunately, because of our national question as to how you handle people from one part of the country or another, how you deal with them also became problematic. When we had the Maitasine group, then president, Shehu Shagari, gave instructions to the military to deal with it with iron hand, and they did successfully. Though the man himself (Maitasine) and a lot of his supporters were eliminated, one of the products, Maknity (as they call him), was eventually also dealt with. But when you have a situation where anything can be turned into the opposite to become politics, then you have this kind of problem. The Boko Haram phenomenon is something from our own internal problem. It has become international; I don’t deny that. They are now in Chad, Niger, and Cameroun. I don’t deny that aspect of it. But this was something that started from within. If you look at all the things they have been using – the weapons, the vehicles and all those things – they don’t come from their money; they have sponsors. Federal government says it knows the sponsors but refuses to tell us. That also is part of the complications of the ruling class in terms of the various interests involved in all of this conflict.
Do you think we are getting enough support from our neighbours? I am referring to Chad, Niger and Cameroun, because if you look at the impunity with which Boko Haram members have been operating around these border areas, it gives the impression that these countries are not doing enough to help us.
That also is part of our own internal system. It is just that, unfortunately, the states (Borno, Yobe, Adamawa) involved are not controlled by the same party that controlled the federal government in Abuja. So, from the beginning, that introduced some bit of complexity – we are not going to be able to do some things because the impression might be given that you are operating because it is the opposition party that is operating there, that is why you are doing XYZ. That one itself complicated issues. And these are states that border neighbouring countries. So, these are Nigerian boundaries and, therefore, they are international boundaries. But the reality of the situation is not like that. So, that is part of the problem and, as I said, it is part of the larger Nigeria’s national question. Until that one is dealt with, some of these things can be brought up at any time.
The political class can incite, mobilise, and utilise these people to cause mayhem. And what they can do, nobody is in doubt. We have heard reports in the press that in the past they had been arrested. Just like you remember, recently, there was an attempted jailbreak when they tried to get them out of detention in Abuja, and when they were also freed in attacks from barracks. Long before now, they had been arrested, but pressures had reportedly been put on the security agencies to release them, that the emirs would rehabilitate them. I am not sure they did a good job in rehabilitating such people because if you rehabilitate someone, he will not go back to that kind of enterprise. But as I said, this is part of the larger Nigerian problem.
Despite the insecurity Nigeria is grappling with, we are hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF). Do you think this would repair our image abroad and help attract foreign investment?
Well, the question of WEF is a different issue entirely. I am saying to you that we have more complex problems. You have a more complex problem that is Nigeria itself. The structure of the federation, the structure of the country, is all of the complex factors that need to be taken into account which we have not been courageous to take into account. In a situation where people lay emphasis only on the oil money that they are going to be able to control, you are going to continue to have that kind of issues.
If you are to prescribe solution to these complex problems, what would you recommend?
The national question must be dealt with. Do we want to be a nation? Nigeria is not a nation now. We are a multi-national state. Are there efforts to ensure that the different cultures and nations that are within Nigeria think in the same way? And, of course, I am talking about thinking in the same way by conceding that we are all one people. We have not reached that stage. Until we reach that stage, it will continue to be possible for any political charlatan to destabilise us and resort to doing these type of things because this is a deliberate destabilisation of the Nigerian society.
Going by the ongoing national conference, do you think we are taking the right steps towards nationhood?
Well, I don’t know. But it is important for them to be able to talk. As they are talking, it is very important. If they are not talking, it will be worse than the situation we have now. They are talking, and eventually they will come up with suggestions that will put to the people in a referendum. I am not talking about the National Assembly that has no legitimacy. It is for the people themselves, the Nigerian people, that these are the things. After they had talked about it and they want to change the situation, they can say so. But the people must be involved. It can never be wrong to dialogue. It can never be wrong to have a conference. I don’t see anything wrong in terms of the discussion they are having. The question is, what will be the outcome? That is a different thing that will depend on the calculations of all those who are participating. But we can give them a chance and see what they will come up with.