PARIS, DECEMBER 3, 2016: (DGW) Lt. Ishola Oremade (rtd) has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against any dealing with former President Olusegun Obasanjo saying in no uncertain terms that the former Nigerian leader is nothing but a traitor.
He made this stunning disclosure in an interview with SATURDAY SUN headlined ''Beware of Obasanjo'' - Ex-Army Chief warns Buhari'' published on December 3, 2016.
In the interview, he covered a wide range of issues bordering on the state of the nation. Among the issues covered ranged from corruption to militancy, in the Niger Delta.
He said although Buhari has a track record of transparent honesty , but unknown to him, his government is the worst in terms of corruption in Nigerian history. On the ongoing militancy in the Niger Delta, he advised the government to urgently address the problem that gave birth to the militancy because of the dearth of infrastructure in the region. He argued that , you can not be drilling oil in their region to run the country while a great damage is being done to the eco-system.
His words, ''I advise the militants to wait and see what Buhari would do with their 16-point demands. But these people are human beings, you won’t be taking oil from their place, yet, they have no light, no roads; no pipe borne water. I don’t want them to make further trouble. A lot of people having oil blocks are not even from these oil-bearing areas; where you are taking this oil must be developed. The people don’t need to press for it; it’s their right.
I think the solution to the Niger Delta crisis is on the roundtable; killing left and right is not the solution. Government should look into their demands. If government looks into their demands, there won’t be problem. They are human beings like me; they are human beings like President Buhari. Buhari would not be happy if they are taking oil from Katsina to develop other places. He will like to make trouble himself.''
On the civil war, he said he expressed a huge disappointment ever fighting the war which he said was pointless because the reasons why the war was fought have not ben in any way achieved. He warned that if Buhari doesn't address the issues that led to the war he may be forced to make a public statement to incite Nigerians against him adding that the war commanders then have every reason to be taken to war tribunal to face justice in apparent defence of the over two million Igbos that were killed by the federal army.
Excerpts:
''Do you think the issues that gave rise to the civil war have been resolved?
I still maintain that the Nigerian civil war was senseless and the main causes of the post-independence crises; nepotism, tribalism, corruption, name it, still exist today. And whatever threatens the right of any citizen to a secure and peaceful life must be combated by any responsible government. The measure of leadership is to see such threats and prevent them from coming to reality.
To be candid with you, those of us who fought the war then did not even know what we were fighting for; they just ordered us to go, and we moved. The reason I said the war was senseless: You went to war and you saw a friend and you could not assist. What kind of a country is that?
Even those of us that fought the civil war to keep our country together, we are totally disappointed to see what it has become today. With what is happening in the country today, that war was absolutely senseless. Many people know the truth but they don’t want to say it. Although truth hurts but I must say it; if we can’t contain ourselves; if we can’t maintain our social cohesion, if we can’t act within the rules; I am afraid Nigeria will end up in the jungle.
I don’t know why all these things are not resolved, I wouldn’t say they have no idea of what to do or they just don’t want just to do anything. Some people are saying they are marginalised and nothing is being done. But I can assure you of one thing, if the present government under Muhammadu Buhari refuses to find solutions to these things then after some time I will make a statement about IPOB, the statement may seem somehow inciting but I will say it in the sense that I fought the civil war from July 1967 to January 1970; and I fought in all the sectors of the war, One Division, Two Division and Three Division and I saw the behaviours of some of the so called commanders. I don’t know why they were doing what they did then. I think some of the war commanders should be taken to war tribunal.
I have a lot to say about them and I am glad that many of them are still alive. Few of them believed they could make sense from the senseless and do things with impunity, but we have to tell them that there is law in this country. There is law guiding any war. They should be taken to war tribunal.''
How do you assess the relationship between Buhari and Obasanjo given the latter’s harsh criticism of the president recently?
To be honest with you, Buhari is not the problem of this country. Nigeria was already dead before the arrival of Buhari, but if he is probing people now and leave Obasanjo and others, then something must be wrong somewhere. You can see that Obasanjo is trying to avoid being probed by going to Aso Villa everyday. I know Obasanjo fairly well; he is unpopular, frightening, inimical, a traitor and has no respect for the truth at all. Some people believe Obasanjo is a virus that should be caged and I personally believe that he requires a surgical operation to extract him from the public because he knows everything about everything. He is not the only former head of state in this country; he is not the only former president in this country. Obasanjo is vulgar. You need a long anti-bacterial spoon to dine with him and if you say I was a soldier and Obasanjo was a soldier, I’m not being boastful, it is like you take a jewel and you start messing it up in the mud. Obasanjo should not be an issue, what should be an issue is the institution that produced people like him. When you work on such institution so that people like Obasanjo and others are not produced, Nigeria will be the best place to live. Buhari’s government as far as I am concerned is going on well. When you give birth to a child, the child will not grow immediately. I am aware that people are complaining, I am also complaining but the problem has got nothing to do with Buhari because he met the problem there and the problem is going to be solved gradually. We cannot solve this problem in a day.
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