In this interview with UMAR BAYO ABDULWAHAB and some select journalists in Ilorin, former chairman, Arewa Consultative Forum, Maj Gen IBM Haruna bore his mind on the state of the nation, insecurity and solutions.
Sir, what brought you to Ilorin?
Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi (Justice of the Court of Appeal) has reached 70 years of age and you know they have valedictory sessions which he declined but he had friends and associates celebrating him and some of them especially family members in Ilorin organised a prayer session to show gratitude and praise to God for his fulfilling times in office at the Court of Appeal. I have been his friend for over 40 years. We met at ABU Zaria as far back as 1978 and I have joined him in Ilorin for other occasions affecting the family because in recent times, his old man passed on, later on his wife. He is a friend that I call my brother because it is not easy to be friends for 40 years.
I don’t know if people who are not politicians like myself have better things to do other than oil and grease the love of family and friendship when occasion arises; it takes priority not because we’re not patriots but because before you have the nation, you must have a family, you must have a community, you must have friends. As family, we share common values; we share sadness and joy, we don’t engage in backsliding and backbiting about each other. For politicians, that is a common thing, for soldiers of course we have our strategies, we don’t kill but we can oppress.
We take advantage of situations so that we can marginalise the opponents; so, I’m here as a friend to celebrate Hon Justice Oniyangi and I haven’t played golf since Covid started; so, my game is a bit rusty but I’m enjoying my outing today; more so because I’m not pedestrian, I’m riding on a cart and I’m enjoying the game.
In those days, we often hear about one Nigeria. What is your position on the situation in the north now?
The situation in the north is challenging but it doesn’t mean we’re separated from the country. We share common values and aspirations and regrets and we believe that our failures are facing us as challenges. We have created what we’re facing today, the insecurity is because we have not succeeded in creating those values that inspire our growing population of poor and disadvantaged people.
And perhaps, the hopelessness that many people see today is a challenge that calls for objective and committed leadership. If we don’t love ourselves as a people and don’t share the common values taught to us by the various scriptures, then we will not evolve the common standard by which we can stand and build a country. There is no need for despair as long as we continue to educate tolerate and be patient with ourselves and see the other’s point of view.
There is diversity of human beings, of characters and everything. God has made everything different for a purpose and the purpose is for us to serve him and He has sent us prophets to teach us how to serve His cause so that we can live as useful people for ourselves.
If we don’t teach succeeding generations to be better than the generation that precedes them, we’re not building a nation. Today, I’m playing Golf, in yester years, I was a soldier partaking in the gruesome self defacing aggression of each other because we have decided to do things that will degrade others through civil war.
What’s your take on the 2023 elections?
I have no take on it; I have only one vote like every citizen. I’m a retired General and not a politician; I’m not contesting for positions, I don’t have 100 million naira; In fact, I haven’t been paid that much to enjoy my retirement as a civil war General. The politicians have their parties and it isn’t free to join politics. You can only join when you have a vote that makes you a valid citizen; so, we work for a system that we can trust, a system that would be managed by people we can trust because a better united country and people starts with the people.
In our communities, we start with the kind of school we go to and the kind of parents that are nurturing us and kind of leaders that are leading us in our communities. We all have a part to play, it isn’t better for anyone but we pray it is especially for the orphans and the aged. On my way here this morning, I saw some old women begging for alms and no government to help them, I believe we can do more.
General, you have seen both sides of the coin talking of both democracy and military rule. What is your view on both?
Have we had true democracy or have we had true military governments? Nigeria has not had true military rule neither has it had true democracy. A combination of both military and civilian misrule has brought the country to where we are currently. If democracy had succeeded, we would not have banditry and insurgency in the north.
We would not have unknown gunmen in the east. We would not have public officers conniving to steal N80 billion. What we are judging today is the failures and successes combined of previous administrations, but our fear today is that we should not topple the good we have earned and replace it with the one that we don’t know that is coming. Look at ASUU, we can solve their problem. Journalists and leaders of institutions are all challenged.
I remember when I was the federal commissioner for information and culture and I knew we had the challenges of professionalising the practice of journalism, we have inched forward, today the journalists can see themselves as the professionals. You don’t have people just taking pen and paper to report as a journalist. Now, there is a criteria, quality of service and sanctions for those who run foul of the code of practice.
As someone who has seen what civil war is all about, do you think the country is on the path of repeating history taking into consideration the wedge between the north and south?
I don’t know the history you’re talking about but the one I can talk about is that the history of what we’ve inherited from colonial times is the criticism we have as to how we became colonial citizens, how we became free and the factors that contributed to our emancipation from colonial rule; that history is different because every tribe writes history from their own perspectives.
There are people whose perspective of that history isn’t of colonialism but expansionism of their own nationality, ethnicity and superiority over others. When we read into the history, we learn that we are not only challenged by colonial imperialism but also by religious, extensive regional races. We might be lucky not to have the problem of racial standoffs but we do have our own ethnic feelings or claims of oppression and superiority. we might not be of different races like black and white but when you’re all blacks; you don’t say that you discriminate amongst yourselves on the basis of racism but rather ethnic nationalism in terms of Igbo, Hausa, Fulani and Yoruba but these are the realities of what life has been founded on and our education and enlightenment should be a common value that these shouldn’t be the point of diversion and separation.
There are human beliefs or sentiments that we should uphold to make us all feel like brothers and sisters and that we have one breath and one life. No matter what you believe, you know that you will die one day; so, let us just do our best to make sure there is peace and security.
