• How to end insecurity in North Central, other states

From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

The immediate past deputy governor of Kogi State, Edward Onoja, has given an insight on how to end the menace of insecurity in the North Central geopolitical zone and other parts of the country.

Onoja, also a former Chief of Staff to former Governor Yahaya Bello, in this interview with Sunday Sun in Abuja, said Kogi State parades an array of eminent retired senior military officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force, the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies.

The pioneer member representing the North Central on the Board of the South East Development Commission also said the governors of the North Central need to tap into the pull of experience in tackling the issues of insecurity in the zone which will ultimately help President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s fight against insecurity through the Office of the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

Amongst other issues, Onoja spoke on his relationship with his former principal, former Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, saying that he has no problem with Bello. He added, though that once trust is broken, it’s usually difficult to rebuild

Recently, you made an unprecedented move by visiting your kinsman and impeached former deputy governor of Kogi State, Simon Achuba, and the family of late Prince Abubakar Audu. What necessitated that move?

I am a Christian and my creed, the gospel of Christ, preaches peace. And at 51, I just turned 51 in August. You need to mend fences, bring people together, build bridges for the purpose of national integration, reconciliation and peace that we need in this country that has been a major desire of the Nigerian people where all parts of the country – Ibo, Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, Fulani, Igala, Kanuri; Niger Delta, Ijaw, Urhobo, where we can all come together, knit together, work together in harmony under a visionary leadership and get this nation where it should be. So, I needed to first begin from my home front.

Is it because charity begins at home?

Naturally! I actually started with one of my very great, elite legal luminary, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. His name is James Ogwu (SAN), from my home base, Ogwugwu. I come from Ogwugwu, in Olamaboro. And then, I pushed the limit further to my predecessor, that his leaving and my coming wasn’t too… so I needed to set the record straight and that is exactly what I did and we blended up and said look, for the good of the land, for the good of the state, and for the good of the nation, those bridges are critical. And then, I moved to the sons of an icon, a Nigerian icon, late Prince Abubakar Audu. He was not just a leader of Kogi State, he was not just a leader of a party or ethnically, the Igala people. He was a national face. He was the Prince of the Niger and I clearly saw that he left his virtues in his sons, because each and every one of them is doing very great in their various fields and then, pushing the boundaries further. It tells me that the greatest legacy you can bequeath to the world is leaving yourself in many folds in the lives of your children and many other young people.

Are you taking it a step further to reconcile them with former Governor Yahaya Bello?

They have no issues with Yahaya Bello.

How about Achuba?

Achuba, for now, what we have done is to reconcile ourselves. At least, we are on that ground now and then, the next thing is that as leaders and as stakeholders, being a former deputy governor in a state, you are no longer a run-of-the-mill citizen. You are a stakeholder and it is expected of a stakeholder to do all that is needed to harmonise the people because it is under harmony and peace that you can get development.

You and former Governor Yahaya Bello used to call yourselves Siamese twins. So, at what point did you fall apart?

Ironically, and I was very clear in my statement when I came out on one of these podcasts. First and foremost, we served to the very last day together. He was governor and I was the deputy governor and we exited, wishing each other the very best in our new frontiers because the frontiers have to be larger and bigger. After that, I tried to stay away from the radar publicly because issues were coming. And it is not about me, you know the issues around Yahaya Bello then. It would have been totally wrong of me to also be out while those issues were on.

So, you needed to bid time?

No, no. Out in the sense that I would be out talking, loud in the space when I know there are certain issues with someone I call a friend. I needed to give that respect of space and then, isolate myself also to rejuvenate. And once the issues were parrying out as we can see and Yahaya Bello also began to come out, go places, do rallies, it was time for me to also come out of my shell and also do my thing. And that was just a first appearance.

How is it going between the two of you? When was the last time you spoke with him?

I trust I reached out to him on his birthday before the last one. Even after office, I did, the one before this one.

You don’t talk daily?

No, no. I mean, we can only talk daily if there is critical issue of state.

But you were best of friends…

That is what I am saying that talking daily is when issues arise. You won’t just be calling people who are busy doing their thing and wanting to be talking daily for the sake of talking.

Some of his followers, particularly from your senatorial zone, were not happy with your outing in that podcast. Were you surprised?

When you say they were not happy, I think it is a contest of English language because people who really matter in this country, people who understand public service, who have been there and I am talking of people – governors (former and serving), former deputy governors, serving deputy governors, I mean, people who know what public service is all about, because you can’t talk about an issue when you have never been there.

So, not those charlatans?

I won’t call them charlatans, no. Inexperienced! Because they don’t have the experience, so I won’t take it on them.

You won’t join issues with them?

I won’t even take it on them. I won’t take it on them that they have done something wrong. You can only understand as much as your exposure is. They did reach out to me. I mean, close people I mentioned, to tell me excellent outing. I chose my words very critically. When I was asked if I had regrets working with Yahaya Bello, I was emphatic. I said not at all because there were those opportunities that working with him gave me, first as a chief of staff and as a deputy governor and I used those to leverage what I am today by experience, by learning, by networking and by building relationships. That apart.

The next question I think, if I can recall, was if I would forgive and I said as a Christian, it is just normal because the Scripture is very explicit – if you do not forgive anyone, I mean, your prayers can’t even be answered. Don’t deceive yourself about praying.

The last question was if… would I… I think there was a question he asked and I said it is not about whether he gave me the opportunity or not because it was his right, it was his prerogative. I mean, as the leader of the system, as the leader of the party as at that time, it was just his right to make his pick and when he did, I aligned. I was committed. I told him categorically, let’s go and get the job done and we did. But in terms of if somebody, maybe, gave you a commitment as a friend and then change it in the long run and he didn’t inform you until the very eve of the primaries, it is like a trust broken and I said once trust is broken, it will be difficult to rebuild. That is a statement of fact whether it is political, whether it is between you and your wife, once you break trust, to rebuild it is difficult, but not impossible.

Towards the end of the administration of former governor Yahaya Bello, many expected there was going to be a paradigm shift to the Igalas where you come from. But when the opposite eventually happened, how did he manage to win the election for an Ebira man?

APC was well grounded in my state and election is about your spread, not a section.

Did you expect it was going to go that way despite what some would term injustice in terms of political calculation because even the Okun people were also asking that the governorship should go to them?

That is the Nigerian challenge and I will tell you why. When you go to the hospital and you have a tumour and you want to live; because you want to live, you don’t want that tumour to take your life. For crying out loud, what would you be asking for at the hospital? Is it your brother surgeon or that surgeon who can get the job done and do it so that you can be alive? I mean, what would be your choice? What would you be asking for? So, you see, I say it is a Nigerian issue. It is not a Kogi issue; let’s not limit the issue to Kogi. We move into 2027 and as we can see, every of the space, they say the core North don’t want our president to come back and I am saying is it about being a Yoruba man or shouldn’t it be about the issues and performance? Should it now be oh, we are many, the way we brought him, the same way we will take him out? It is a Nigerian issue and unless a society and a people grow above that challenge, development will be far from them.

A black man became the president of America for crying out loud, from Kenya, his roots. So, what I am trying to say is that it doesn’t really matter. What matters is performance. And you cannot isolate yourself as an ethnic group without a handshake with other ethnic groups. Kogi is for everybody. Kogi is a state. Yes, my people, and I can tell you the Igala people, very great people. They have a lot of professionals – in the academia world, in the legal world, we have about 25 Senior Advocates of Nigeria. You know it is limited, but the Igalas have about 25 and counting. Engineers, retired military generals in all spheres; police, senior officers ranking, I mean. So, we have the human capital, both experienced and upcoming. It is enormous. Our land is blessed for agriculture, with solid mineral, with natural rivers that can help. So, it is not about whether you are the one in power, it is about a people that can get themselves together and we will get ourselves together to get our land working in conjunction with whoever is governor at the time.

Your recent outing in the media suggested that all is not well between you and your brother, your friend and your former principal, former Governor Yahaya Bello. In your heart of heart, is everything okay between both of you?

When you keep repeating this whether everything is ok, I told you that for me, Edward Onoja, I don’t see an issue. Prior to 2015, he was in the civil service. I was a banker, I was in the oil and gas industry. We don’t talk every day, but when the need to go to our state and get a new direction arose, we came together and we got the job done, got into office by providence because Audu passed and fate bestowed it upon us. And after eight years, everyone has gone back to his path and pursuing his path. Except you are saying that as a former deputy governor, you must always go and still be under your former governor and then, you people must be seen every day, you people must be talking every day. If there are issues that bring us together, we will talk as colleagues and as friends. It is given.

So, you can confidently say I have no problem with Yahaya Bello?

Not at all! Not at all!

The reason alluded to why Bello did not hand over to you was that he felt you had become too powerful and if given the ticket, you were going to push him into political wilderness. Is it true?

I am not God. I don’t even have the wherewithal to push anybody into a wilderness in the first instance. I was very clear in my interview. He told me three reasons why he believed we should send somebody else. One was that yes, my capacity seems to be, maybe people said so and maybe he adjudged it, but yes, I am not somebody with low capacity in any field, whether politics, whether while I was in the bank, whether while I was in the oil and gas, in  anything. I am not a man with low capacity. I am endowed. It is a God-given gift. If that is what it seems, if that is what it is… And then, the next thing he did say was the Igalas, for reason of my support for him, are not too well… which is natural. I won’t blame my people for saying oh, you brought another tribe, it is now lording over us, we don’t love you and all that, it is normal. But I won’t say it was wrong for him to perceive that, but I can tell you, the Igala people, the Igala people, my people, they love me. They love me. And it reflected in how they voted. Even when I was trying to persuade them to still go with my choice which is our party’s choice, the current governor, they felt that no, why not you? Some other persons leverage on that sentiment and got what they got. But I still went to my location and got my result out for my party. Not out of having capacity, but out of pleading and begging them to understand my position. As number two, I needed to go back with result. And my people, because they love me and they wish me well, they still gave me their support in that regard. Many people from the APC, elected officials of the APC, appointees of the APC from that zone that were heavily funded to go and do the election, that were all over doing campaigns, even in their villages, they couldn’t even win their polling units.

The first tenure of former Governor Yahaya Bello was enmeshed in underperformance controversy, with non-payment of civil servants. Was it the handiwork of political traducers or media creation?

Courage and leadership don’t come easy. When you get to a place and you see an issue that is wrong, you need to have the courage to solve it just as Mr President is doing in Nigeria today. Courage, that is what leadership is all about. There was a need for civil service reform. Everyone agreed, including the civil servants and the leadership of labour. They agreed because they had attempted doing such before our government, but it was never successful and we got into it. Yes, it took quite a long time and whilst it was happening, some civil servants felt certain things, no doubt about that.

And some died…

Death will happen even to the wealthiest of people. It is not about screening, death will naturally happen. And in the course of it, the civil service became reformed. At least, today, you won’t go to Kogi State and see civil servants’ file with multiple declaration of age. Somebody is 35, is 38, is 40 in one file. It is not there any longer. You also will not see somebody in the local government also taking payment from state and also local government. It is gone. Or someone who is living in far away Maiduguri and is claiming to be working in my local government for years and all his withdrawals are in Maiduguri for four, five years. It means he is not coming to the office. So, all those reforms have been well done. But there were certain things and there were certain extremities in trying to enforce the whole thing. Yes, we apologise and regret some of those actions, but to say the decision for the staff verification and reform of the civil service was wrong, no. It was excellent and it is paying off today. Sometimes, you take tough decisions for the future of your state or your country like Mr President has taken in the case of Nigeria.

Kogi State and other north central states are bearing the brunt of the insecurity in the country. What is the way out of this menace?

I just told you that my state is blessed with a pool of experience that you may not find anywhere in the country. When you talk of retired generals of the Nigeria Army, Navy, Air Force, Nigeria Police and the likes, they are there. In fact, yesterday, I had a meeting with the only Kogi citizen alive or even, in fact, ever that was an Inspector General of Police.

Attah?

Yes. And I can tell you that once those pool of experience come together, whether those from Kogi, whether those from Nasarawa, whether those from, in fact, Middle Belt; when it comes to Army, Navy, Air Force and Police, we are the ones. So, there is a receptacle of experience on security across the length and breadth of the North Central Zone. I think the governors need to tap into that pool of experience in tackling the issues that are bedevilling us in the various states as it were and then help them curb that insecurity which will ultimately help Mr President’s fight against insecurity that the NSA is doing so greatly to push back.