By Daniel Kanu
Rights activist and Executive Director, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Akinbode Oluwafemi, in this exclusive chat with Sunday Sun, speaks on security challenge, economy, Okuama Killings and the task before President Bola Tinubu on the way forward. Excerpt:
Most Nigerians had this impression that when President Tinubu takes over the mantle of leadership, perhaps, the issue of insecurity will be drastically reduced if not totally eliminated, but sadly, the spate of insecurity is still alarmingly high. What exactly is happening, where is the government missing it?
Every Nigerian is worried about insecurity. In case you don’t know the two royal fathers that were killed in Ekiti State were just less than six kilometer to my country home and I pass that same spot regularly. It means that nobody is safe because it could happen to anybody. So, we are all concerned, all Nigerians are concerned. We think that what the government needs to do is to completely rejig two things: our security architecture and our intelligence gathering architecture. What we have today can no longer suffice for the sophistication of the criminal elements in this country. We have made that argument very clear. We don’t seem to have enough security operatives to man the country that has a population of over 200 million people. Even our security men do not have necessary or adequate equipment needed to combat crime. I think that security is the biggest challenge for this country as at today because when you look at security you also link it with food production. People can no longer go to their farm to do their work because of fear of being killed. You can link it with the economy. It is part of the problem with the economy because of food importation and food scarcity. The president needs to possibly declare serious emergency on security. They should even look at how to use community people and intelligence to be able to solve some of these problems, including seeking for help when and where it is necessary. There is nothing bad in Nigeria seeking for help to tackle security challenge. Countries do that and seek for help when under serious security threat.
Government is looking at the option of state police for the country. Is it a good idea and what do you suggest?
We know that the current police architecture is not enough. It is not only state police, even local government police. The way it is done in other countries around the world. Concentrating policing architecture from Abuja cannot work or produce the desired result, however, whatever structure that is put in place should be devoid of political manipulation, it should not be instruments to be used by the executives to witch-hunt their perceived political opponents and the rest of them. So, these are some of the things that should be carefully thought out and also the relationship between what you call the local government police or community police with the state police and the federal police. All this must really be properly and clearly articulated. In case you don’t know, as at today there are also different kinds of what you can call policing that is gradually proliferating: there is the Amotekun in Ondo, in Lagos there is the Neighborhood Watch, in Edo State, you have Task Force, all manners of people wielding guns and sticks on the road. I think it has to be put in a very structured way, synchronized into a system we can all understand. In some cases, some people who even call themselves Task Force on the road, you will think they are touts, you think they are even robbers because they are not clearly defined and that in itself is dangerous. So, we need to streamline those systems and have a clear, federal, state and local government police.
There seems to be so much hardship in the country. Where do you think the government is getting it wrong, especially on the economy?
For me, there is not going to be any economy without food production and there can’t be food production without security. What this means is that the Nigerian government needs to take security very seriously, so that people can go to their farms as well as move freely without fear of being killed. I tell you this, my dad was a farmer, when farmers cultivate they don’t wait for the price of dollar, they want to sell their products but now they can’t cultivate. In those days, we used to say that the problem of food in Nigeria was storage, but now there is nothing to store. Then it is eaten ones it grows because the remaining will be shrinking and you then look at the issue of transportation, what it costs to move food from the farms to the cities. These are some of the things the government should be thinking. Government must do everything to ensure it tackles insecurity, restore hope to farmers, put in place transportation infrastructure and others, and gradually things will begin to fall in place.
What is your reaction on the Okuama killing that took place recently in Delta State?
I think the Okuama killing of soldiers is extremely regrettable and I think every Nigerian condemns any act of violence, and most importantly, acts of violence against the military that are making peace and trying to protect the sovereignty of our country. As I said, it is regrettable and we stand with the Nigerian government, with the families of the soldiers that were killed, and we pray that God will grant them peaceful rest and succour. We sympathise with the Nigerian military for all the operations they currently embarked on. However, it’s also important to know the root causes of some of these conflicts. There are some of these conflicts that are very old, some of them have to do with land rights, some of them have to do with political problems and that every government needs to rethink their approaches to some of these community clashes in terms of being able to bring the communities together to live in peace. That is the job of the government, so that we will no longer be losing our military personnel in needless clashes. The more we reduce conflicts in our communities the less we will be putting soldiers on the ground for what ordinarily is not their job. I will also urge the military to adhere to standards and not to in any way take laws into their hands.
Do you have fears for Nigeria?
I don’t think Nigeria will fail. Some people say Nigeria is a failed state, but I don’t think that Nigeria will fail to that level they are ranking the country. I am one of those that are incredibly optimistic about this country. I think that, yes, we will have a period of hardship, but we are a very resilient people. We know government has failed us, but we as Nigerians we have not failed ourselves. In the midst of hardship you see Nigerians thriving and surviving everywhere. I think that that resilience of being a Nigerian will always speak…there is something about us that is unique, that stands, that withstands stress, I believe that thing will work for this country. We have seen example now from Senegal, something, something will happen in this country and Nigeria will be great again.
Where do you link the Nigerian problem? Some say its leadership; some say its unbalanced structure because as they claim, even the best leader will fail with the present structure?
The truth is that we have to re-think this federation because it is not working. People, elder statesmen have been saying it that there will be no genuine development with this structure in place. We have to re-think our fiscal federalism, we need to have a federation that allows each unit to grow and flourish from whatever they have. A system that allows a section to benefit from whatever at the expense of others is condemnable and this makes some units not to develop at their full potential. A system that does not create equal opportunity, no equity, no justice, will be a threat to peace and unity. When you project injustice in a structure or in a system, you create a problem.
Let us know why it has become necessary for this serious advocacy on salt consumption by your organisation?
There are rising cases of non-communicable diseases in Nigeria such as high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, hypertension and the rest of them. And there is enough evidence that some of those diseases are killing close to 39 per cent of Nigerians and with that, we had to really look at what are the causes and what are the behavioural issues. They are called non-communicable because these are lifestyles and behavioural-related kind of problems and salt is one of them that come very clear with high blood pressure and as silent killers when you abuse its intake. So, sodium/salt has been named or noted to stimulate higher cases of high blood pressure, so there is then the need to campaign and to create good awareness for Nigerians to begin to reduce consumption of their salt intake, as well as urge the government to set mandatory salt targets for the food industry. There is need to regulate the food industry and their use of salt/sodium for preservatives and all that.
So, what are you really expecting the government to do on the issue?
One of the things we are expecting the government to do is to set specific targets for the food companies in terms of the quantity of salt that they are using. We are also expecting regulation that will specify content disclosure, labeling of salt products as well as restrictions on advertisement, the use of children even in food seasoning advertorials and the rest of them are part of the things we are proposing to the government. There is need for serious regulation and for offenders to receive stipulated punishment.