Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lt. Gen. Jeremiah Useni, has heaped the bulk of the blame for the several military coups in Nigeria on civilians, stressing that the coups from 1966 to 1990 was ignited by civilian interference.
Useni, in an exclusive interview withSunday Independent, said civilians did much to incite military officers who succumbed to their yearnings and interests.
Downplaying the notion that the military era of over 39 years did nothing but to destroy Nigeria, Useni said, “That is a big lie, even the first coup, who started it? Was it not civilians, moving from one place to another to incite people, saying are you waiting until everybody is dead, can’t you intervene? They were the ones pushing the bus, then the coup took place and of course because the coup was one-sided there was a counter coup and so forth.
“The truth is that no coup took place without civilian interference; they are the first, because they knew what they would gain. If you look at the military set up, how many ministers did we get? At best we got about three military ministers, the rest are all civilians or in a state maybe one military administrator; so what are we talking about?”
Useni said the military played its own part in a bid to develop the country, stressing that most of the policies adopted by that era still exist in the democratic dispensation, while discipline was the order of the day.
“Even a school child who can speak can differentiate between a military or civilian set up, it is even worse in a political set up than an ordinary civil set up. Punishment comes in to bear, you will be surprised if two of us committed an offence; for instance, you may go free, I may not. There is a lot of discipline in the military than the civil set up.
“Look at the zonal thing people are complaining is a military set up, it’s not in the constitution, it was there to ease administration, now the civilian came up, and if the thing was bad they would have discontinued it.
“The zonal system they are still doing it and yet they say it’s bad, they talk about the constitution being a military constitution. If you ask us, the civil government has been on for how many years.
“How many times has the military tried to alter the Constitution, even to amend it, they could not. They could not create one local government, not to talk of states, so we are using the 1999 Constitution that is why we are saying, look, if you think you do not need it then don’t write a new one, that is all.
“What we are complaining of, if people had followed it to the latter, there would be no complaint. Is it the Constitution that says you should rig election? Is it the Constitution that allows us to steal or should not jail people who committed offence?”
Expressing optimism on the ongoing National Conference, Useni commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his opening remarks at the conference which, according to him, has set a good course for discussions by the delegates.
Useni noted President Jonathan’s declaration that there was no hidden agenda for convoking the Conference, recalling the 2005 Conference convened by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, which he targeted at achieving his failed third term agenda.
“I think the President’s speech is good, it is good because the man spoke his mind in which he stated that he has no hidden agenda unlike the previous ones especially in 2005, which I was a member.
“There was a hidden agenda then in 2005, which was the third term, but this conference has no hidden agenda because the man was very frank to the point he had a grip of the problems and kept everything flat on the table for us to discuss without fear, every delegate was so happy with his speech.”
The former FCT minister also backed delegates’ decision to settle for the 70 percent benchmark adopted for voting, adding: “The Conference will succeed by the grace of God, no matter what people say. Some people can pray from now till tomorrow that it shouldn’t succeed, some people can take two minutes and pray that it should succeed and it shall succeed.”
Lamenting the spate of insecurity and the religious distrust besieging the nation, Useni said there was no provision in the Constitution with any religious clauses, urging Nigerians to do more to live in peace regardless of religious leanings.
“We must be very fair with ourselves, we must ascribe and agree to what should be done, we must be ready to put the Constitution that we will follow to the latter, and there should be no half and half approach. Everybody should be free to practice his or her religion anywhere, any time,” Useni urged.
Source: Sunday Independent
