General Ishola Williams (Retd) is the former Chief of Training, Operations and Plans of the Nigerian Army. In this interview with AYO ESAN, he speaks on the insecurity situation in the country; the coming general elections and the preparation by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) among other national issues.
Excerpts:
How will you assess the present state of insecurity in the country?
The situation has not got to a point where we can say Nigerians should relax, contrary to the impression that the federal government wants to give us. Although the President is telling us that there is no local government or area that is occupied by terrorists, be it ISWAP or Boko Haram but then there are still some places in this country where terrorists are collecting taxes from citizens. Even the Governor of Kaduna state Nasir el-Rufai recently confirmed that there are some no-go areas in his state where terrorists are collecting taxes from the people. What then can one say except to say that we are still not there yet security-wise? There is still a lot of work to be done.
Are you satisfied with Government’s efforts at curbing the insecurity?
Sadly there is no new approach by the government to effectively tackle the insecurity challenge. It has all been talk, but no new innovation on the part of the government to tackle the problem, and I don’t see government from the present look of things doing anything to change the situation.
President Muhammadu Buhari has already declared that he is tired, and if he is tired, he should just handover to the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo to run the government for the few remaining months of the administration while Buhari will just be in a supervisory role. Osinbajo I‘m sure is not tired to work.
Look at the recent attacks on INEC facilities across the country, especially in the South-east, it is very dangerous for the country’s democracy as election is fast approaching, What has been the government’s response to these attacks? It has not been too decisive considering the time the attacks are coming up.
This is one of the signs that Buhari is tired, and if he is indeed tired, he should hand it over to Osinbajo who still has the energy to work. I’m not saying that Buhari should resign but just that he should allow his deputy who still has the energy to run the show, to be in charge for the remaining part of the tenure of this government. Buhari should then give a free hand to Osinbajo to come up with new security architecture to tackle the security challenges.
Buhari’s government can still achieve tangible results within the next remaining three to four months of his administration if he takes this advice.
Buhari can go and sit down in Daura while he supervises Osinbajo and other members of the team. Age is already catching up with him, and it appears he is not prepared for the challenges he has been facing because of this so many things are not working smoothly. For instance, the civil service is very corrupt. Civil service is one of the greatest problems we have in this country. If the civil service has been incorruptible, Nigeria would have been one of the greatest countries in the world. The whole place is rotten, and the expected actions to sanitize the place are not being taken, and this is one of the reasons to show that the president is tired. There have been other things that have happened and you wonder whether the President is aware of what is happening or aware of the actions being taken by some government officials.
Are you satisfied with the various political parties’ campaign across the nooks and crannies of the country?
As usual politicians have been going around making a plethora of promises which most of them will not even fulfill if they get elected. That’s the typical Nigerian politician’s style. Nigerians should be wary of these politicians who will promise and will not deliver. I also expect these candidates to devise a blueprint for how to reform the civil service and tackle corruption. Imagine the level of corruption in the civil service; imagine a former Accountant-General of the federation being linked with billions of naira of public funds. This is why we need a civil service that is incorruptible.
The level of impunity in this country is terrible. The young man at the helm of affairs in the EFCC now is trying his best. And in fact, he has done better than all his predecessors but then the judicial system is not making things better because some of these looters when they charge them to court, they grant them bail, and then the case will suffer perpetual adjournments. And at the end of the day, these people may escape justice.
What is your assessment of INEC’s preparation for the February/March general elections?
INEC has been doing very well under the leadership of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. I have no doubt that INEC will perform very well in the election, especially with the introduction of BVAS into the voting system.
I’m sure with BVAS, what happened in 2019 will not repeat itself. I hope that one day, somebody will be able to tell the true story of what happened in 2019.
How Atiku didn’t win or why Atiku didn’t win that election. Atiku won that election, and that’s why up till today, INEC has not released the electronic results of the 2019 presidential elections. Why is INEC hiding the electronic results of that election up till today? Why? I’m sure that Buhari himself knows that he didn’t win that election. Let INEC bring out the electronic result of that election if anybody is disputing what I’m saying. INEC has been hiding the electronic result of that election since 2019.
With BVAS, I believe that the elections will be free and fair. Those who are calling for the reversal of BVAS are those who are afraid of losing the elections. Buhari has also promised free and fair elections, and with BVAS, he has no alternative, and this is why the 2023 general elections are going to be historic.
Rigging is going to be nearly impossible. The 2022 Electoral Act has prescribed penalties for anybody or group that tries to cause problems during the election, and I believe that with all these, we should be able to have a free and fair poll. But the federal government should do something urgent to stop these attacks on INEC facilities across the country.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
