Admiral Samuel Olajide
Afolayan CFR was born in Osi, Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State. He
attended Titcombe College for His Secondary Education and Higher School
Certificate. He thereafter enlisted into the Nigerian Army where he rose
meritoriously to the rank of Vice Admiral. A happy family man given to worthy
community projects. He retired at the peak of his career as the Chief of Naval
Staff a couple of years back. He is a respected community leader.
COUNTDOWN Editor, Taiyelolu
Ojo had a 7am interview appointment on his farm, at Obbo Ile in Kwara State. It
was indeed a spot on. Please sit back and read what in his views are the
solutions to the numerous challenges confronting the nation, Nigeria at this
point of our 'well fought for" democratic journey since 1999.
COUNTDOWN: Greetings
sir, what in your view is the problem with Nigeria that makes it seem everyone
is agitated from north to south to east and west?
ADMIRAL: When you
say the problem with Nigeria, then you are being economical with the truth.
Your question ought to have been ‘Problems’ not Problem with Nigeria then I can
give my views.
With that, I will like
to begin by saying Nigeria has many problems. For any country to get it right,
it has to get its Politics, its Economy and its Security right, and as such
anything outside this tripod cannot guarantee peace and progress of any
nation, Nigeria inclusive.
Haven said that, I will
like to make clear here that the problems with Nigeria are fundamental problems
that require going back to the foundation before it can be resolved. Our union
as a people should be based on mutual agreement by all components tribes and
ethnic nationals that make up the entity called Nigeria. If you say because so
so and so tribe are the biggest and as such only their views will be considered
and recognized thereby ignoring the smaller minute ethnic components of the
union, then you must as a government be ready to witness more agitations which
are not likely to be peaceful, you must bear in mind that these smaller ethnic
nations combined together can subdue the so-called bigger tribes if they on
their own too come together to agitate to be heard, so I want to say clearly
here that the earlier the government of the day begin to listen to them the
earlier all these agitations we are witnessing in our country today will stop.
COUNTDOWN: So do you
think we can achieve that sir?
ADMIRAL: It may not be
too easy but it is quite easy, we need to get a genuine representation of every
ethnic nation in the Nigerian state to come together under one roof and discuss
the condition of their union, it must be a true representation and not a
selection from above as we have had in the past and as I said that is the
foundational problem the military bequeathed on us as a constitution in 1999.
The constitution did not meet this requirement and that is why you have all
this agitation here and there today; If you pick up the constitution today and
look at it, it reads ‘we the people of Nigeria’ and some groups have come up to
say they are not party to that arrangement and I think that is the genesis of
the problem, so we need to go back to that point and give every ethnic group a
sense of belonging in that document called the constitution.
COUNTDOWN: I thought
that was done during the Goodluck Jonathan administration when we had a confab.
ADMIRAL: Sadly the
Goodluck Jonathan confab also failed to be a genuine representation of
all ethnic groups, some groups that were even represented have come out to say
they did not send the people that went to represent them rather such persons were
chosen from Abuja and as such they do not recognize whatever have transpired
during the said confab , so there we are, the issue of proper representation
needs to be adhered to strictly for us to produce a working document to run the
country that will be acceptable to all constituent members of the country.
COUNTDOWN: Your position
brings to my mind the agitations for restructuring by a lot of groups in the
country, are you in support or is that what you are talking about too?
ADMIRAL: Yeah,
restructuring the way the country is operating is necessary though we may not
get it the way they are all asking but a move in that direction is going to
help us move forward as a nation. If we don’t harken to this agitations we may
be toying with the future of the country and I think the responsible thing to
do is to listen to everybody and don’t see any group as too small to be given
audience, as I told you earlier, these smaller units joined together are bigger
and stronger if they align together to determine their ambition within the
nation state, and I will like to offer a word of caution to the authorities
about the use of military to stop agitations, it may not be the solution in all
matters, take for example the Boko Haram issue, I read they are voting a
billion dollar to the military for the purpose of fighting the insurgents and I
say here that ‘they are yet to know the meaning of Boko Haram”, these are a
group of people that have suddenly discovered that they have been shortchanged
by the same system that was meant to emancipate them, they have suddenly
realized that their governors, senators, imams, and every form of leadership
they knew have been deceiving them all along and that while these leaders were
encouraging them to go to Islamiya, they have been sending their own children
to western schools both home and abroad and now they are saying ‘no more
servitude, no more western style of government’ and you know even the bible say
‘my people perish for lack of knowledge’ so what we are saying here is that the
military solution may not really be the only way out rather our traditional,
religious and educational institutions needs to be directly engaged to get to
the hearts of these people, they need to be dialogued with, they need jobs,
they need hope, the to be assured that all hope is not gone, they need to be
seen for what they really are, they are very aggrieved and the more the
Nigerian authorities recognizes this, the better for the country. Spending
billions on the military may not bring the insurgency to a timely end.
COUNTDOWN: In your
opinion, why do you think the insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has refused to
subside after all efforts by both the previous and present administration more
especially when the current administration even have come out severally that
they have overcome the agitators?
ADMIRAL: The number one
reason as I told you earlier is that Nigerians don’t really know the meaning of
Boko Haram and as the bible says, ‘people perish because of lack of knowledge’,
and also when you have people that don’t want to confront the truth for what it
is, you end up as we have it described in your question, it continues to grow
and spread like a fire; many times they have invited us to come and deliver
papers which we have done a couple of times but with time I realized most of
our recommendations are not pleasant to them so I have stopped honoring such
invitations haven known fully well that they are not going to listen so they
have continued to dance around the truth without confronting it, so
regrettable. And this discovery is not peculiar to the northeastern part alone
but to every part of the country where we have pockets of agitations against
the status quo, be it the rampaging herdsmen in Kaduna or the southeast Ipob
agitators or the kidnapping menace that has engulfed practically all nook and
cranny of the country. The way out is for the leadership to create a platform
for everyone to come to a table and talk, as I said we may not get the
restructuring as they are clamoring for it, but an attempt to restructure
remains a good option to save the country from collapse.
****************
An encounter with the
former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Samuel Afolayan, CFR, Dss,
P.s.c, fwc (Nigeria’s Chief Of Naval Staff 2001-2005) on the 16th of
December 2017.
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