National Publicity Secretary of the Afenifere Renewal Group, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo
The National Publicity Secretary of the Afenifere Renewal Group, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo, in this interview with TOBI AWORINDE, lauds former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s endorsement of the All Progressive Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
What are your thoughts on former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s endorsement of All Progressive Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)?
Buhari is a tested officer; a war hero of Nigeria that has vast experience. What most people don’t know is that those in the military are exposed to a lot of training. They are trained academically and in all aspects of human endeavour.
A soldier who ends up becoming a general is a bundle of knowledge. Buhari is exposed. The training that people get from the university is basically the same as that of the military.
The fact that they don’t call it ‘Doctor of Philosophy’ or ‘Master of Science’ does not mean they are lesser people. Before we start running amok about what the military is, we must realise that this man is a hero of Nigeria. When majority of their fathers were sleeping in their offices, he was at the battlefront. Whatever it is that brought about the civil war does not matter. How many Nigerians have gone to the warfront? We may say that it is part of their training, but if we have expended so much on a military officer for him to get to the rank of a major-general, does it make sense to ask him to bring out his certificate? If Obasanjo has endorsed Buhari , he is doing so because he is incorruptible and disciplined. And what we lack in this country today is total discipline in terms of how we spend our money and manage our economy.
A south-eastern leader, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, alleged that, given the various endorsements Buhari has received from former Army generals, there might be a caucus within the military that puts its interests before its member’s political interests. Can this be true?
It is the coups which have happened in Nigeria that tend to let us forget that a lot of money goes into making an officer of any country at all. Both in war and in regular life, they are rounded human beings. They are to support the civil society with their knowledge. Majority of the people that have changed the world for the better, with regard to management of human resources and many other things in life, were soldiers.
David in the Bible was also a soldier. The kings of those days were soldiers who would lead their people to the front lines and conquer. We cannot be demeaning the military today simply because it had come into power in the past and its laws were draconian. We should not lose sight of the fact that they were trained and a lot of money goes into training them, academically and militarily.
A military man is not trained only to shoot guns; that is the narrow concept of our people. Why do we have military schools? It is to make them quality human beings. They are trained in current affairs, international relations, and a number of other things. When you go to places like the United States’ Pentagon, you find that these are the think tank of the government. People in the military are designers, engineers, and so on. They have a number of roles they play.
Whenever the military intervenes in any country’s crisis situation, it ends up turning the misfortunes of the country around and then hands over to the civilians. Military officers are our heroes. They are always the heroes of any country. In Nigeria, however, it is a different situation altogether. If Obasanjo endorses him (Buhari), he is doing so from that background. As a matter of fact, Buhari has been awarded as a Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
But is it morally right for Obasanjo to endorse a candidate of the opposition?
If former United States Secretary of State and Republican, Colin Powell could endorse Barack Obama (of the Democratic Party), what is wrong in Obasanjo endorsing Buhari? It is all blackmail. Next thing you know, it will be: ‘You are Muslim, you shouldn’t endorse a Christian.’ Is that what we are talking about? We are talking about advancement and development of this country. We are looking for good managers of resources and human beings. We are saying people should not be allowed to continue dying because they are not regarded as the wealth of the nation.
It is because we are not civilised in this part of the world. Shouldn’t I, as Yoruba man, be able to say an Igbo man is good? Or can’t a Hausa man say a Yoruba man is good? What is happening today in this country is good for the health of this nation. When we have people endorsing one another across party lines, it is healthy. There is nothing special about it. Once you determine that a person is good for the country, you should endorse that person. It is because we are not civilised that we feel someone in PDP cannot endorse someone in APC. If anyone says Obasanjo is from PDP and he’s not allowed to endorse Buhari, then they are wrong.
Obasanjo had claimed that Jonathan allowed corruption into the military. But Ezeife argued that Obasanjo, in his administration, went after his enemies, instead of fighting corruption. Which argument is correct?
Everybody has the right to their opinion. What we are dealing with is the current situation. If Obasanjo has realised his mistakes, it is good that he wants to make a U-turn. After all, Buhari contested against him in 2003. As a sitting president, there was no way he could endorse Buhari. Ezeife might have his opinion, but we cannot compare the decadence of Obasanjo’s regime with that of Jonathan. We have never had it so bad.
To a certain extent, Obasanjo tried to give national character to all his appointments; he was not tribalistic in his choice of people. But in a situation whereby a job for the military is contracted to one militant, what do you call that? That means we have gone far back into the abysmal region. Where do we get the money to give such people to do the job of the Nigerian Navy? Why will corruption not creep into the military?
BY TOBI AWORINDE
