News -- Conference: Former Chief of General Staff, Admiral Mike Akhigbe dissociates self from apology over military misrule

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THE NATIONAL POLITICAL REFORM CONFERENCE: Akhigbe dissociates self from apology over military misrule

By Bolade Omonijo
Tuesday, March 8, 2005

FORMER Chief of General Staff, Admiral Mike Akhigbe has dissociated himself from the apology tendered by General Adeyinka Adebayo on behalf of the military at the on-going National Conference.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Vanguard at the conference, Admiral Akhigbe said "he could only have apologized on behalf of the military of his own generation, not mine. My own generation of the military did not cause the ills of Nigeria."

Admiral Akhigbe argued that the problem of the country arises from inadequate institutional arrangement. His words: What I expect of us at this confab is to be in sober mood to reflect on the past. I expect those in power now to realise that there were mistakes made in the past and there are mistakes being made now. Some people have come to blame all the ills of Nigeria on the military. This is not correct. No country has perfect human beings.

The problem is with the structure in place. The structural arrangement is defective."

Explaining what he meant by structural defects, Admiral Akhigbe advocated devolution of powers to the federating units but opined that the six zones be transformed into regions since the states as constituted today are too weak

He argued that the inequity in the sharing of national resources is a major problem that must be addressed, claiming that ethnicity is a major problem afflicting the country.

According to him, "the sharing of resources of the country is based on the majority ethnic groups and this is doomed to fail. The minorities who actually are the majority of the people are sidelined in the process."

The former military chief spoke further: "If the President is Yoruba, the Vice President must be Hausa-Fulani and the Senate President, Igbo. The Speaker of the House of Representatives again must be Hausa Fulani. If you have an Architect Dabo at the Maritime Institute, you must have an Architect Ferdinand Agu at another because there is a Sarumi, a professional in the sector. With this no nation can grow. The major problem we have is that the institutions in place are inadequate and this is what we have to address.

Retired Commodore Emeka Omeruah had earlier associated himself with the apology tendered by General Adebayo.

Sagay takes on opponents of Resource Control

PROFESSOR Itse Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria another delegate from Delta, argued forcefully against the notion that the resources from the North was used to develop the Niger Delta before oil became a major contributor to national revenue.

The Professor of Law said "every region of Nigeria produced something before oil was discovered and anyone who produced something pocketed the money. Unlike now that money from Oil and Gas is appropriated by the federal government, derivation was the rule in the first republic. I think there is need for this education.

Also contributing to the debate on what would eventually happen to the outcome of the conference, Professor Sagay charged delegates to take the initiative in deciding the future.

He said: The outcome depends on us and not on anyone outside this conference. If we fail, nobody should blame anyone outside this conference.

Delegates fault Obasanjo's statistics on economy

AS the debate on the President''s inaugural speech continued, most of the delegates said the figures reeled out by the President showing a healthy performance could not be related to the real experience of the people.

Professor Francis Idachaba said the interest of the majority of Nigerians is about where the next meal would come from and that their experience actually showed that their fortunes had not improved.

Chief G. G. Giwa, a delegate representing the Organised Private Sector complained bitterly about the state of power supply, which he said had not improved in real terms.

To achieve results, he suggested that two Private Power Plants be licenced for each geo-political zone and charged to generate and distribute 500 Mega watts of electricity within the next two years.

He warned that if NEPA were allowed the monopoly status it currently enjoys, the bid for improvement in that all-important sector would remain futile.

Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora, a former Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria was worried that only one per cent of the population controlled about 70 per cent of the nation's resources.

He called on delegates to ensure the creation of an economic environment that would guarantee better life for the vast majority of Nigerians by investing heavily in human capital.

Mr Ziggy Azike from Imo State caused a stir when he alluded to the fact that the president might not have done enough in his speech in dispelling the fears that he might be going for a third term.

Attempts by the Chairman to cut him short failed as he emphasised that all the cards must be laid on the table for the country to move forward.

Fallout of Military apology: Clark wants political elite to tender own apology

CONTRIBUTING on the floor of the conference, Chief Edwin Clark, a delegate from Delta State argued that it was not enough for the military to apologise to the country, he called on the political elite to do the same.

In his words: "How many of us contributed to the coups and counter coups staged by the military? The political elite must apologise to the people of Nigeria for failing them just as General Adebayo did for the military."

On the boycott of the conference by Chief Enahoro and promoters of the PRONACO conference, Chief Clark appealed to them to have a change of heart and join forces with those at the conference, arguing that it did not matter whether a Conference is sovereign or not.

"I appeal to Chief Enahoro and his colleagues to join their colleagues in this crusade to build a new Nigeria. Whether sovereign or not, I have always maintained that I would join any conference to redesign Nigeria," said Chief Clark.