Maj-Gen. David Medayese Jemibewon, a retired Nigerian military officer, is an accomplished man. He is a former governor of the defunct Western State, an erstwhile General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1st Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army and later Minister of Police Affairs. In this chat with ONWUKA NZESHI Jemibewon who clocks 75 years tomorrow, speaks on critical national security issues
Let’s get started with the most current issue on national security. What is your view about the recent change of guards manifesting in the appointment of new service chiefs?
I would like you to be more specific in the area of the appointments you want me to comment on because change is a normal thing; a constant situation in human life. Human beings themselves are never static; life situations are never static and change is a necessity for any organisation that wants to achieve some form of development or improvement. I therefore think that what happened was a normal thing.
Those they changed, replaced some people at a particular time and change must be a continuous process. Six months ago, President Muhamnadu Buhari was not even the President of the country. Then he was elected and sworn into office; these are different forms of changes. Even when we talk of constitutional procedure and democracy, they are meant to bring about progressive change.
You must have seen the names of the new service chiefs and where they came from. Do you think this is the right team that Buhari needs to combat the security challenges facing Nigeria?
I should think so for various reasons. I looked at the names, particularly the Chief of Defence Staff. That is the highest position in the Armed Forces and the person appointed is a Major General. He is also a young person. There must be reasons why he was chosen from among his colleagues.
First, joining the Army as a cadet is where there is a level playing ground but once you get to the Nigerian Defence Academy, your career is dependent on performance.
You cannot say that because I started with this man, we were course mates therefore we must be promoted at the same time and to the same rank or you must have the same appointments.
It’s not possible. Only one person is going to be Chief of Army Staff; only one is going to be Chief of Air Staff and only one is going to be Chief of Naval Staff at any particular time. At that beginning, cadets are put together but after a period of time, you now have those who will go to the Navy, Army and Air Force.
But in treating them, you treat them as course mates. Don’t forget that some of those who held these positions in the past were full generals. Some were three star generals and now you come to a Major General as Chief of Defence Staff. I’m sure he must have had good records, good performance and good reputation. I think that I’m impressed. I don’t know any of them but I think it’s a new dimension and I don’t see anything wrong in it.
There are protests in certain quarters about the appointments not confirming with the federal character principle. There are complaints that none of the service chiefs is from the South-East. Does this really matter in appointments of this nature?
In fact, I am not comfortable with so many things in this country. We became independent in 1960 and for the unity of this country, the constitution emphasizes federal character. But I think we ought to have put a time frame on the application of this federal character. We ought to gradually reduce it until a point comes when you consider everything on the basis of national character. I want people to let me know the difference between federal character and national character. It is very important.
Are we saying that in the next 100 or 200 years we should still be talking about who comes from where and what language he speaks? I think we need limitation. If they had said federal character would last for 50 years when we became independent, we would have been through with it by now. Maybe we could have given ourselves 75 years but after that I think we should talk of the nation rather than one section of Nigeria. I even ask this question: when people go on operation and troops are killed, do we die by federal character?
Or where people have not been killed on federal representation, do we just say bring some people where less people have been killed and we kill them on the basis of equality? So I think we ought to put a time limit during which thus federal character thing would be phased out first us to now come to national character. You see when people start looking at who is appointed to where, we create problems, particularly in the military and the judiciary.
These are professional institutions that competence, professionalism and character should be the basic foundation in considering people. Not only that, in the Armed Forces, we have what we call course mates, just like you have classmates. In admitting people into the Nigerian Defence Academy, you make sure that it is evenly spread and there is federal character but beyond that is performance.
I have been Chairman of a selection committee in the past and you find that even in those days when perhaps it was five cadets per state, there were states who couldn’t fill their five positions because they didn’t have people who qualified. So what used to happen at that time was that states that may have more than five, what you just did for record purposes was to use their surplus to fill the gap in the states that couldn’t fill their required numbers.
The excess is deemed to have been loaned to other states. In fact a policy was made at that time that only states that borders such states that you bring the extra. But with time, this same state that couldn’t meet its quota maybe five years ago, may suddenly come up and can now produce more than is allowed by the system. They will then remember that there was a time they couldn’t meet their quota. At time you must now restore their quota because they now have enough candidates to fill it.
When you are considering people for promotion, particularly when they have become senior officers, you consider them in group, the same manner that they entered NDA and how they have been making progress. In considering them for higher positions, it is important you don’t bring somebody terribly junior above somebody who is senior just because you want to balance regional equation or federal character.
You have to go class by class. If a state at the beginning had only two upon five, then you are now considering people, the state that had five upon five is likely to be more advantaged. But it is not a permanent thing. It is our duty to educate the society about some of these things.
Just before the handover of power to the new administration, the security situation was a bit calm and Nigerians were beginning to think that peace had returned. However in recent weeks, there has been a resurgence of bombings across the country. What do you think is responsible for this development?
The foundation of any organisation or project is important. If the foundation is wrong, until you uproot it completely and start afresh, anything built on it is likely to either collapse or won’t stand well.
So what is happening now is still part of the effect of the wrong beginning in terms of the approach that those in authority took against Boko Haram. Of course, somebody who is in charge of an organisation or inside a house knows more of the problems within the structure than somebody coming from outside. This is particularly so when the person coming from outside has no guarantee that he will get there.
He cannot start planning because he does not know where the roof is leaking. He wants to be there first, see the problems and then start making quick plans to rescue the situation. Thereafter, he will make long term plans on what to do about the situation. When I read in the papers that Buhari is slow, I start wondering. What should he do to give the impression that he is fast? Buhari came to meet a situation. He has to study the situation; he has to get briefs from those who had been in charge.
You don’t just get those briefs and completely believe in every aspect of the brief. You have to find a way of verifying the authenticity of these briefings. In the process leading to these, there is the possibility of the authorities trying to combat the security situation but slowing down a little bit to make a proper assessment rather than a hurried approach. This in fact can become very catastrophic and people will blame the same system. Of course, the rebels or insurgents would also want to take advantage of this change, a small dislocation.
They know that from the language of the man coming, he is not going to take nonsense and they are likely to face serious problems in the next few months or so. They have taken advantage of the change of government to launch what could be the last phase of their efforts. In a situation like this, losing one life is as bad as losing 20. I believe that in the next three months, the situation will not be the same. I am not giving you a date because I am not in government or at the war theatre, But I’m saying that as we go forward, the situation will be better.
You seem to have a lot of confidence in what the new administration is doing on security. But what has Buhari done significantly differently from what Jonathan did on security?
The difference is that Jonathan was there for more than four years; Buhari has just been there for less than three months. It’s a major difference. It would be ridiculous to compare performance on less than 60 days with a performance of six years. So that is the major difference.
What are your impressions of President Muhamnadu Buhari?
We can’t get a better material particularly judging by his background and my knowledge of him. Even in the army, he never condoned corruption. He may not know, but I was worried for him even when he was in the army because he was critical of government even at that level. But he alone can’t do this job; he needs the support and determination of all Nigerians.
Let all of us do our own little bit in our own little corner. In our homes, offices and everywhere we may find ourselves; we are the ones that can raise the level of sanity in the society. It is not the job of one man.
How do you see the move by this administration to fund the Multi-National Taskforce located in N’djamena, Chad? Why do we not have such a military base right inside Nigeria where Boko Haram is terrorising the population?
First, you must understand that the President has more information than you and I on security. You see, a security man who is to secure a landlord and in doing that job, sits in the living room of that landlord, his chances of securing that landlord successfully are very remote.
By the time agents of insecurity enter the sitting room, he has lost the battle. But to even bring it better home, in an operation so many things are involved administratively.
Usually, there will be casualties and some people who have fallen casualty in the crisis might survive or not depending on the time they spend in getting to areas of first aid or treatment. If your line of communication is too long, it will be impossible for casualties to receive the quick first aid they need.
Also, in terms reading the situation and reacting to reinforcement demands by people who are on the frontline, it is faster with a forward operational base. I want to believe these might be things considered before some of these decisions were taken. Like I said earlier, the President has more information than any one of us and militarily, it’s the right decision.
Some Nigerians have attributed the recent resurgence in terrorist attacks to a recent pronouncement where President Buhari ordered the dismantling of military checkpoints across the country. Don’t do you think that that pronouncement was a tactical error in managing the security challenge?
Number one, I do not believe that it is as a result of that statement because Boko Haram had increased their activities before the removal of these checkpoints.
Also from what I read in the papers, his spokesman has said that he never gave instruction for the removal of checkpoints. Number three, assuming he even gave such an order, there must have been reasons for it, Ordinarily, in a situation where war has not been declared, a road block is not the work of military men. It falls within the ambit if police responsibilities.
Then the police requires the cooperation of the citizenry to give them information and support. These people who are involved in some of this criminality- bombings, armed robberies and kidnappings, live within the society. We know that Boko Haram is a different ball game but in every act of criminality, the police require information, intelligence and assistance. That is why they say the police are your friends. If you have a friend you must relate with him to ensure he succeeds in his assignments.
You were once the Minister of Police Affairs. Given the road we have travelled with insecurity, do you think the removal of military checkpoints and their replacement with the police is the best option at this time knowing that we have done anything extra to retrain and equip our policemen for the new war?
First of all it is just like some statements that we hear every day. Sometimes, we hear people saying that this country is not ready for this and is not ready for that. When shall we be ready? Give a man a responsibility, give him the support he needs; give him the materials he needs to do his job and then watch what happens next.
Of course, if with all the facilities made available to him, he does not perform, you fire him and get somebody better. In that process, you would see that the society would gradually begin to get better. If you are saying that until society attains perfection we should not do anything, the question would be when would this perfection be attained?
In a few days from now you will be clocking one more year in life but you seem to walk with a spring and power that one may mistake you for a serving military officer. Is it the special injection they say they give to you soldiers that is at work?
If they give us such an injection and I left the Army 32 years ago, and the injection is still working, then it must be a serious one. In my view, I think what has happened is this: in whatever position you are, whatever position God has endowed you with, you ought to also make a little effort to build on it.
Like I always tell people, the dress you are wearing; the dress I’m wearing that people admire you or me in could be the same dress that we would wear and people would run away from us if it is not washed and is exuding a terrible odour.
You may just have one shirt but if you are sensible, at night you wash it, iron it, the following morning you wear it, they will think that you have a dozen of it. I think that God has endowed me with good health and until I had an accident when I was a minister, I used to do some exercise.
But interestingly, last Sunday, my daughter challenged me because she does a lot of exercise to keep fit. She said we should go to the National Stadium to jog and I just went with her. There, she told me that I should aim at running round the pitch four laps and that would amount to one mile; which is something she did herself. I did my best, and I made it. She kept saying: ‘Daddy, I am proud of you. I thought you wouldn’t be able to make it.’
So, my good health is the making of God and no doubt my military background has also helped through our training. But then don’t forget that there were people who were very junior to me in the military who are dead. There are also those who were junior to me in the military that can’t move the way you have described my movement. I think we have to thank God for everything.
Where exactly were you on the day of the February 13, 1976 coup?
Of course, I was in Ibadan, which was my duty post. Even up till now, if you give me a responsibility, I will discharge it to the best of my ability. I was never found wanting in any responsibility I was given throughout my stay in the Army. I was as committed as I could and I think everybody in that administration was committed. So you can imagine that when it happened, we just felt that look, there was no hope for this country if such a leader could be hacked down in broad daylight.
Did that incident influence your retirement from the Army in any way?
Not really. I retired in 1983. In fact after that incident I remained in the service until Obasanjo handed over to the civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari.
It was after four years of Shagari and the elections resulting in his second term that I left the service. Before the expiration of Shagari’s first term, I had already put in my letter of retirement when I thought I had had enough of military service, but President Shagari invited me and persuaded me to hold on a little. I think that information must have reached him that I was planning to go.
Some people must have told him that maybe, I didn’t like his government or whatever and that may be why I wanted to leave. So he invited me. Imagine! May God continue to bless that man. I don’t know why that every time that Nigeria has opportunity of having a good person as leader, we miss it.
He invited me; ordinary me, soldier! President! I think he told the Permanent Secretary and the Permanent Secretary told the Chief of Army Staff who was then Gen. Wushishi and they tried to find out why I wanted to leave the army. Could it be I didn’t like his government?
Luckily for me, having being a governor in Ibadan, a few people knew me. Chief Adisa Akinloye who was then the National Chairman of the National Party of Nigeria, the party in power at that time, knew me. So he invited me on one occasion to Lagos and he wanted me to brief them on what can make the army support the government of the day.
From what he told me, Mr. President discussed it with him and he told him that he knew somebody reliable that he can discuss it with. So when I got to Lagos, Chief Akinloye and I met in the house of a friend of mine. It’s now history.
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