By Afam Echi
• Buhari broke rules on service chiefs’ tenure
• I don’t see the chance for Igbo president
Air Commodore Luke Ochulor (rtd) has remarked that the continued farmers-herders clash is likely to destroy Nigeria if care is not taken.
He made the comment in a telephone chat with News Echo while reacting to the Orlu killings which got the Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma to impose a curfew in ten out of the twelve local government of the area.
Said he, “But when you look at it strictly, politics is a game of numbers which we do not have and so we are only begging the issue. In politics especially in Nigeria it is the number of votes that determines one’s fate. I don’t see our chance, even though I am not trying to be pessimistic.
Aside from not having the number he also stated that at the moment we do not have an individual to present, the people you call candidates are only speculative.’’
“There is no civilized world where cows roam the towns and villages and farms anywhere in the world except Nigeria. I challenge Nigerians to make a research on this. Except if Nigeria has decided to be a country of the jungle then we can accept it.
“The cattle should be in their ranches where they are managed and then they will be more valuable, more productive. There is logic in using cattle to destroy people’s farm. They do as they like attacking people too because they have the hegemony.
“There is no civilized world where cows roam the towns and villages and farms anywhere in the world except Nigeria. I challenge Nigerians to make a research on this. Except if Nigeria has decided to be a country of the jungle then we can accept it.
The cattle should be in their ranches where they are managed and then they will be more valuable, more productive. There is no logic in using cattle to destroy people’s farm. They do as they like attacking people too because they have the hegemony.”
“It is really uncharitable for anyone to protect them when they are already operating like outlaws. But by the time the thing explodes it will be to your tenths o Israel.’’
Recall that for four days Orlu, one of the major towns in Imo was under military siege when soldiers engaged operatives of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in an attack. Lives of innocent residents were lost as well as houses that were burnt down in the process.
The trouble was said to have erupted when soldiers and police were alleged to have been killed by ESN boys when the victims sought to attack them for protecting farmers who have been attacked and their farms destroyed by the herders earlier.
He condemned the invasion of the town by soldiers insisting that the governors has no right to invite soldiers to any problem even as he stated that soldiers cannot move out on their own without authorization.
The Mbaise born chief stated again that “the greatest problem we have had in Nigeria is the management of information by those who are employed by government. For instance, information managers either at the presidency or state level, once an issue occurs those who manage the information will never get to the root of the problem and in the process mislead the government
“Today there are people in government who cannot even manage a bookshop but they fight their way to power only to be stranded at the middle of the day. What the information aides keep doing is to continue to patch them until they run out of idea.”
This is the reason Ishola Williams concluded that Nigerians are not normal people, a statement which is likely to be true.
On the appointment of service chiefs which excluded an Igbo man from South East, he said their appointment is usually based on the recommendation of outgoing service chiefs. He noted that Nigerians were right in their agitation for the change of service chiefs remarking that President Buhari broke the rules by allowing the service chiefs over stay their tenure.
In his words, some of the service chiefs stayed for 40 years, the maximum service of your time no matter who you are is 35 years or 60 years of age whichever is earlier. It is not because they were not capable but the situation of Nigeria has been so alarming that we cannot explain how we got so far with life being so brutish, where no one is sure of tomorrow, or getting to ones destination. It is not acceptable.
On the effort of Ohanaeze truncating Igbo presidency agenda, the former military administrator of Delta State, argued that if they had forged a common platform, one would have hoped that when everyone joins hand we would have a proper synergy for them to make a case for Igbo president.
Said he, “But when you look at it strictly, politics is a game of number which we do not have and so we are only begging the issue.
In politics especially in Nigeria it is the number of votes that determines one’s fate. I don’t see our chance, even though I am not trying to be pessimistic. Aside from not having the number he also stated that at the moment we do not have an individual to present, the people you call candidates are only speculative.’’
He challenged the reporter to call one candidate who is now campaigning while reeling out names like Tinubu, Fayemi, Bello, etc.
He dismissed Okorocha’s effort to form new party that will give him a shot, saying he lacks the capability. At the moment we don’t have any candidate now from Igbo land gunning for presidency. On Umahi’s ambition, he wondered why he did not see what was wrong in a party he had sojourned for years becoming a governor for 6 years. “I will give my support to Peter Obi, if I were to nominate”
