2015 election is most crucial event for Nigeria since the 1914amalgamation –General Sam Momah

General Sam Momah was the minister of science and
technology during the last military regime of the late General
Sani Abacha and General Abdulsalami Abubakar from 1995 to
1999, when power was handed over a democratically elected
government and he honourably retired. The pioneer
commandant of the Nigerian War College held numerous po­
sitions in the course of his military career. Some of the posi­
tions include: Adjutant General of the Army, Commander Train­
ing and Doctrine Command, Member of the Provisional Ruling
Council.
General Momah, an intellectual with a doctoral degree in
Strategic Studies, is a council member of the University of Jos
and Nnamdi Azikwe University, Awka. He was also the Vice
President, Third World Academy of Science with Headquarters
in Italy. Interestingly, has First Class honours degree in Civil
Engineering and a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers
(FNSE). He was conferred with the national honour of
Commander of the Federal Republic in 1998, Momah is a
strategic thinker, voracious reader and author of six high
profile books on economy, technology, global disorder, new
world order and national security. In the run up to the general
elections, he spoke with a group of journalists on several na­
tional issues. Excerpts …
As a senior citizen of this country, what do you think about
the preparedness of INEC with regards to the forthcoming
general elections?
First and foremost, I doff my hat for Professor Attahiru Jega,
for his courage in registering APC as a political party. It is the
most defining political development in our political history,
since the amalgamation. That has brought Nigerian politics to
the fore, and given the country, that international recognition.
That is because when it was just one big party and a splinter
of so many smaller parties, PDP used to have its way and the
PDP didn’t bother to develop itself. But now that we have two
big political parties, I believe that Nigerian politics has now
come of age. From now, we will expect something better. I
believe that INEC is ready to have a free and fair election. But
whether the players will play to the rule is disturbing to some
of us.
But INEC in a way contributed to the problems
Definitely, INEC has its problems. They even told us that INEC
materials arrived in bits and pieces from abroad. INEC is still
talking about having enough generators to run the centres.
And of course, Jega told us some months ago that he has no
problem with funding, but right now, we know that INEC has
funding problems because recently, they could not pay staff
that are to run the registration centres. That is why some
days back, when the electorate went there, they did not see
the officials because they were not being paid. This is quite
unfortunate because we had four years to prepare for this
election, so why should we now be importing these cards
piecemeal? I don’t understand. But we still believe that the
INEC is ready and the election should take place. INEC has
told us that they have registered 52 million Nigerians. We
expected that they would register 100 million people out of the
170 million Nigerians. Any attempt to rig the election, will
have dire consequences. The first and second republics ran
into problems because of the rigging of elections. Once
election is rigged, the country goes into turmoil and
consequences of any rigging of this particular election would
be worse because of the circumstances of the situation. It is
my hope that nobody tries to rig this election.
Are you optimistic that Nigerians are ready to vote?
I believe that Nigerians are ready to vote. They have been
sensitized enough. To my mind, this election is the most
crucial event Nigerians hasve ever faced since the
amalgamation of 1914 because, this election is important for
many reasons. We have had the first 100 years as a nation;
we know how Nigerians fared, very poorly. Now in 2015, we
are entering the second 100 years of our existence as a
nation. So this election is crucial, it will determine what
happens to Nigeria in the next 100 years. There is need for
Nigerians to take it seriously and vote the right person. I
believe that there is need for change. Boko Haram is a
menace; we never had it so bad, for a country to have some
other persons hoisting their flag in its territories; it is unheard
of. Therefore, we need somebody who will deal with Boko
Haram instantly and expeditiously. Secondly, the price of fuel
coming down at this time, is a divine arrangement or blessing
to give Nigerians the idea that if a government that has been
there for 16 years has not improved their situation, now that
the oil money is no more there, it calls for concern and a re-
think because definitely, someone who couldn’t manage you
during the boom era, will definitely not be able to manage you
during the burst era! So it is important for us to see the
handwriting on the wall, and vote for change. Of course, we
have tried a political party for 16 years without major change,
so we must give another political party a chance so that there
will be competition between the parties. If we don’t effect this
change, some analysts foresee Boko Haram over-running
Nigeria in two years’ time, apart from other internal crises.
And it will happen. We can’t gamble with that kind of thing!
That will fulfill the prediction of the United States of America
about the country breaking up. So this change must take
place to avoid Nigeria disintegrating. It is ridiculous for a
sitting president to tell us to re-elect him, so that he can
defeat Boko Haram. Then why is he the president, because as
president, he already has all the powers to defeat Boko
Haram, he doesn’t need to wait for re-election to do so! If he
has in the last few months recaptured more than half of the
territories that Boko Haram over-ran, he wouldn’t need to
campaign. We would have voted for him! But he didn’t and
now that election is here, his people are junketing about the
place raising petty issues and leaving the real issues that
should be discussed aside. It is unfortunate. We need a
change.
As Principal Staff Officer to Major General Muhammadu
Buhari, when he was the Commander of the 4th Division,
Nigeria Army, Lagos, what have you got to say about the
controversy surrounding the General’s certificate?
Honestly, the certificate issue is very embarrassing to some of
us because, here we are talking about the survival of Nigeria.
We know that Nigeria is at the brink of collapse, and here we
are, with one of our best Generals, who trained in the best
institutions in Europe and America, even in the US War
College, which by all standards is a postgraduate institution,
and you are talking about school certificate. I find it ridiculous
and unbelievable how our political class, and the political
parties could be so petty and mundane at this crucial time. It
is unnecessary to go that low because we must win at all
cost. The certificate saga was something that they should
have realised that they were denigrating the image of Nigeria
and not just General Buhari. That is one of your best Generals
and you are denigrating him, what would outsiders think of
us! It should not have been taken that far. The point of
change that the nation has now reached is natural. It is the
point that we must reach, to effect a change. And if they don’t
want that change and they continue with blackmailing and
denigration, then that will be unfortunate. The campaign
should be issue-based, not on petty personal things. We
should concentrate on choosing the best candidate come
February 14, 2015.
How do you rate the two major contenders in the forthcoming
presidential elections?
Jonathan has tried his best. I doff my hat for him for holding
the constitutional conference; he has given the women
affirmation 35 per cent gender equality, he has tried to tinker
with agriculture, the cassava bread issue, which has now
virtually died, and now he is trying to bring up rice issue. I
know he voted about N100 billion to revive the textile
industry. But the point is that when you have a president that
says stealing is not corruption, treats corruption with kid
gloves, then most of that money released, just disappears.
There is no system that will progress if there is no
accountability. Jonathan has tried, but he has left the core
issue, which is security. If you cannot secure the lives of
Nigerians, then I do not see why you are there as the
Commander-in-Chief of the country. You are keeping some of
us sleepless. Right now, we have a country where kidnapping
is the order of the day, a country where unemployment is off
the roof, about 80 million Nigerians are unemployed, we have
a country that God has blessed with petroleum, but we are
importing oil and refineries are left unutilized. We have a
country where the index of growth, power, is virtually non-
existent. Nigeria is 187 out of 189 on the global index, so we
are almost the last in the least of countries in terms of
availability of power. We generate less than 4000 megawatts
of electricity for 170 million people while South African with 50
million people generates about 40,000 megawatts of
electricity. The president has not dealt with the core issues
that would have made Nigeria what it ought to be. We know
what our foreign reserve was when he came in. It was 48
billion dollars now we know what it is. Naira is going down
the drain with about N200 to the dollar; our money is almost
getting valueless. So when you ask me to compare the two, I
think that we do not have a comparison to make.
How convinced are you that General Buhari can perform better
than Jonathan when he becomes the president of Nigeria?
Everybody has antecedents; I worked under Buhari as his
Principal Staff Officer when he was a General Officer Com­
manding. We know him as incorruptible, we know him as
being a man of Spartan life, one who is disciplined. We know
him as a man of his words; his word is his bond, so he can
be trusted. He has been patriotic, he is an achiever, one that
you give a task to and he gets it done. To us in the army, we
know that there is no doubt that General Buhari is vying to
become the president of Nigeria virtually for only patriotic
reasons. I was privileged to visit him in Daura when I went
there to attend an event; I was amazed to find out that Buhari
has only a bungalow! There were no luxury leather chairs
there but simple wooden chairs. He lives a Spartan life
because he does not believe in tampering with money that is
not his. I think we have a Mandela in him and a Julius
Nyerere in him. Nigerians should better realise the quality of
leadership that Buhari intends to bring to them, to regain
Nigeria’s image abroad. Having seen Nigeria in those good old
days and now seeing Nigeria degenerate to what it is now, a
country where graduates come out 10 years after, no jobs, no
plans for the jobs because the facilities are not there, and the
environment to create such jobs is not in place. Someone like
Buhari believes that the situation should be corrected.
How about the insinuations that General Buhari is a religious
fanatic?
That I must say is absolute rubbish. That shows the level of
ignorance among some Nigerians. That is because, in Nigerian
Army, there is no way you can climb up to become a General if
you are a religious fanatic. The troops are made up of people
from various tribes and ethnic groupings. To be an effective
commander, you have to be seen as being neutral. So in the
army we do not tolerate such. The troops are made up of
Christians, Muslims and other religions, and you have to
command them.
What can you say about the quality of the election
campaigns?
The campaigns have been very poor in quality. It has been
very disgraceful because they have not been issue-based. It
has been praise singing and mudslinging. The issue should be
about the candidates telling us what they want to do in the
next four years and how they intend to implement their
programmes. The campaigns have not been what it should be.
It has been more of a jamboree. Even a debate at this time
does not make sense because people have trivialised the
election issues to the point of asking for certificate of a
General in the Nigerian Army. So you can imagine what a
debate will look like. Why are they not telling us how they are
going to deal with Boko Haram? Obama became re-elected
based on two issues. They asked him: ‘If you are elected,
what will you do about Osama bin Laden,’ and he replied, ‘I
will kill him.’ Journalists were shocked that Obama could be
that brutal and blunt. When he became president, he quietly
planned and killed Osama bin Laden. Based on that, he was
re-elected. Americans like someone keeping his words. Again
during Storm Katrina, it was towards the election and Obama
left his campaign preparation to go and look after the people
that were affected by the storm. He used his incumbent
opportunity to prove that he is a caring person. That is what I
expected the incumbent Nigerian president to have done. All
the displaced persons should have been taken care of and
Boko Haram crushed. If he had done that, he wouldn’t need to
campaign, people would vote for him. So these issues are
clear and straightforward. We can’t go on this way; we need a
change! We are toying with something that can spell disaster
if we fail to effect a change now. May God forbid such disaster
upon us!
There has been the heating up of the polity with the militants
in the creeks threatening war if the election does not go in
favour of the incumbent president. What do you have to say
about this?
Well I am not surprised that this is coming up, because for
long or too long we have treated militants and all sorts of
law-breakers in this country with kid’s gloves. We have even
talked of negotiating with Boko Haram, people who do not just
shoot but also slit throats! They have been killing people like
goats. It is hard to believe that the government spends N24
billion annually on the militants to guard our pipelines! Yet
they do not guard the pipelines. They break it and scoop oil
making us to lose a minimum of US$1m everyday! So if an
individual now goes to buy warship, you can imagine what is
on ground! A warship is never switched off; it is always on 24
hours of the day. It is a task to maintain it and expensive to
run. And that is what an individual has. We have given them
too much latitude and too much money. It has come to a
point where we must assert our sovereignty as a people,
because the country belongs to every one of us. They buy
warships and build universities abroad because they are so
wealthy. This impunity must stop else Nigeria will go down
the drain. It’s unfortunate that many Nigerians do not know
that Nigeria is sinking! It must be prevented. When people
make such statements, you can imagine the state of madness
that we are in.
Looking at the price of oil now, and the federal government’s
austerity measures, the Minister of Finance has said that we
should tighten our belts this year. How do you think this will
play out for and against the economy?
I have my respect for the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, she is an intelligent lady, but the issue
remains that in the budget, we haven’t seen how they intend
to counter the downturn in oil price. I was expecting to see
major agricultural programmes, how to mobilize Nigerians, like
what we had during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s time where he
went behind his house while in the state house with his hoe
and started farming – Operation Feed the Nation. He
demonstrated it and Nigerians then realised that farming is for
everybody, not just for farmers. We have reached that stage
where you just have to have a tomato garden behind your
house. There must be collective farming. I expected Jonathan
to mobilize Nigerians like that. The price of oil will continue to
go down; the prediction is that it could even go down as far
as $30, and then the cost of producing the oil becomes more
than its value price. So we must go back to land, as we may
not be able to import rice, import this and that from abroad.
What I see the Minister of Agriculture doing now is gimmicks.
The austerity measure is neither here nor there, because from
her calculation, the country can only save about N10.8 billion,
that is not enough money for Tompolo to spend in a week!
What do you think is the implication of the visit of the Ameri­
can Secretary of State to Nigeria against the backdrop of the
drumbeats of war after 2015 election?
It is sad that Nigeria is now treated more or less like a
banana republic. They know that the country’s currency is bat­
tered, the country’s future is not assured, therefore the
coming of Kerry is with all good intentions, but it also goes to
show how Nigeria’s image has been dented internationally. He
came as a headmaster coming to address his students! A
foreign secretary coming to talk to our president! If it had
been President Obama that came, that would be
understandable. And the president had to go and meet him in
Lagos and I saw the president giggling and feeling happy. For
Christ’s sake Nigeria is the giant of Africa! Why are we made
to seem inconsequential? And he was telling the politicians
that they have to behave or they will not give them visa to
visit their country. That is why we are saying that there has
to be a change, because unless this change comes, things will
go worse, and before we know it, it will be like Sudan, Somalia
and Afghanistan. These countries are just 10 million people,
and so on, the international community can manage their
nuisance value, but for 170 million people to be rendered
useless, it is going to spell disaster for the entire world. We
will be eating up ourselves, we will be worse than animals. We
must avoid that kind of situation. The president said that
terrorism is everywhere, that we should be patient. But Nigeria
is not just any country. It is the leading country in Africa. We
have to deal with Boko Haram and other internal issues so
that we can face real development. When the president does
not have that urgency of situation, I get worried!
What do you think of General Obasanjo’s recent book and
what do you think Mugabe’s recent choice as the Chairman
of AU portends for African’s diplomacy?
What I will like to say is that no matter what, our Head of
State in this country, have all acted with element of patriotism
for this country. Even Jonathan too! But the issue is that they
have limitations, they should know when to leave when the
ovation is loudest. I wish Jonathan conducts this election to
be free and fair and leave honourably. Obasanjo has written
his memoir, no matter his shortcomings, he has done a lot for
this country. He sacrificed his life, Ibrahim Babangida,
Abdulsalami Abubakar too, all of them. But when the limit
comes, realise it and leave. Obasanjo’s book is good because
if you want to be a leader, you must be a reader.
Unfortunately, some of us don’t read. I have written my sixth
book. Obasanjo’s book is for posterity to learn and make
corrections from history. I doff my hat for Mugabe for at that
age, he is still standing on his feet and I wish the strength he
shows about his health could be transferred to Zimbabwe’s
economy.
It’s unfortunate that Zimbabwe’s economy has been going
down the drain, collecting farms from the whites and sharing
it around, has not done them any good. Now that he is the
Chairman of AU, let’s hope that he brings his wisdom to bear
on African issues like what is happening in Nigeria. AU should
be able to support Nigeria effectively to see how we can deal
with Boko Haram, but we must not depend on outsiders to
solve our problems.
What is the main problem in our approach to the fight
against Boko Haram?
The main problem is that we are trying to fight insurgency
warfare like a conventional warfare. Our troops are
conventional soldiers. That is, fighting from trenches. But
Boko Haram is mobile, difficult to pin down so we need a
terrorist approach to deal with them. We need to infiltrate
their lines. You don’t fight them by dropping bombs from
aircraft, you will be killing poor innocent civilians; you infiltrate
their commands and deal with them internally. By now we
should have thousands of trained spies. Go in there and be
sending us information and eliminating their main leaders one
after another. We should terrorise the internal structure of
Boko Haram.
We are not doing that, and they are waxing stronger. They
have seized Baga to ensure their economic life because Baga
is a major commercial centre. They are strategizing for future
warfare against the entire country. When they capture the
Lake Chad area, the fishing area, they are sure of some
sustenance, and then they can start moving in. So this is the
reason why we must wake up now from slumber. Right now
they have surrounded Maiduguri, if they get in it becomes
more difficult to dislodge them. This is the time to fight with
all our breath. In terms of worst global terrorism, Nigeria is
now number three. It is that bad. So these are the real issues.