Mr Jackson Lekan Ojo is a renowned security expert. He is a certified member of International Security Alleviator, Switzerland. He hails from Imesi Ile in Osun State but currently based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. In this interview with AMILOADED, Mr Ojo bares his mind on the policy reversals in Osun state and insecurity challenges confronting the nation.
Excerpts:
Can we meet you sir?
My name is Jackson Lekan Ojo. I am from Imesi Ile in Osun State. I am a security expert and certified golden member of the International Security Alleviator , Switzerland . I am based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Q: As an indigene of Osun State, what can you say about the performance of the present Governor of Osun State in the last 15 month ?
I am not too familiar with the development particularly now that the issue of insecurity is too high. Though, we thank God that it is getting down and the fear of Amotekun, I think it will chase away manner of insecurity. But at the same time, I relate with people across Osun almost on a daily basis. I want to appreciate the governor. I think one thing I know is that he is not a noise-maker because we have so many governors in Nigeria today that I called them autocratic governors, those are governors that do project of #10m and used #200m to advertise it. But I think Oyetola is quite different. A lot of infrastructural development handed over to him uncompleted by the former Governor Aregbesola, I think he is trying to complete all these. I just listened to one of his commissioner for works and transport on TVC now and that added to my knowledge on his performance.
So far so good, I think he is doing well. Just like one hour programme I held on OSBC about a month ago, I advised the governor informally that he should try catch a initiative for himself. There are some policies he inherited by the former Governor. He must not continue with all this policies.
That does not mean there is any fight between the two of them. So far so good, I think I can rate him 70% and before he completes two years in office, it should go above that.
Q: How do you react to the education review carried out by Osun state government recently?
Honestly, Aregbesola is somebody I respected so much and I did a lot of publicity work for him. I took risk when he was contesting in first tenure. I took risk of my life when he was contesting in second tenure. And in the area of publicity in print and electronic media, I took responsibility for him which nobody refunded me. Ordinarily, I was not expecting it. I just did it because I saw Aregbesola as a Messiah then. Honestly, he did well. But at the end of the tenure, I have a lot of disagreement with him which I kept quite on some areas. I condemned him for not being able to pay workers’ salary. I was not happy about it. I condemned him because of his developmental project. Aregbesola almost cut Osun state out of Nigeria in some areas of his policies.
Number one, there was no longer uniformity in the school children uniform which is abnormal. As a security giant, I saw the danger in doing that. There is no where such has happened.
Number two, do you know it is only Osun State alone in Nigeria today that the name is quite different from others. What is State of Osun. If I am the president of Nigeria, I would have made sure Osun State is not paid his allocation because of this. Look at the local government structure, it is only in Osun state that we have parliamentary system at the local government level. Yet it is not done in any part of 36 States in Nigeria where the local government structure is being governed by Parliamentary system.
In Osun state today, we have parliamentary system at the local government. Nobody is contesting election as the local government chairman. All of them conduct election as councilors. And at the end of the day, the government will now pick a person to be the parliamentary leader.
What is the income annually generated revenue of Osun state? What is the statutory allocation from the federal government for Osun state that made us to go and create local council development area? The only state that could that in Nigeria is Lagos state. It was a giant abnormalities. The then state Assembly which was single handedly done by the governor, that’s why whatever policy Aregbesola brought to them, they just stamp it. So to me, people across the globe, we are all applauding the current governor over the uniformity in the school uniform. But we still want him to do more. He should reverse the name of the state back to normal. We are Osun State and not State of Osun. Our own alone can’t be different from other parts of the country.
Q: Some people see the reviews as a way of abolishing the policies his predecessor put in place. What do say to this?
Okay good. So if you are my friend or if my father use to grow India hemp, which I know it is against the law, so if I now inherit that farm and I said I don’t want to grow India hemp, I want to grow plantain, banana, yam, orange and other things, does that mean I am against my father?
See, Aregbesola is not the owner of Osun state, Oyetola is not the owner of Osun state, there are just there at a certain time to govern the state for us. If I hear that Oyetola today insulted Aregbesola or go to destroy Aregbesola’s property in Osun State, I will now know that is a personal pedestal. If it is an administrative pedestal that will favour the populace, so be it. I can not say because you are my father and I will build on your illegality.
But majority of people believe the incumbent governor was part of the team that formed the decision then. If he was not satisfied by the decision, why didn’t he speak out ?
As a chief of staff, you are not part of the decision making organ of the government. You are just a head of a personal staff to the governor. Some governors can do without the Chief of Staff. My houseboy can not be part of decision making in my house. No matter how close he his to me. Is he my wife or my son? No! We might be too close. He may meet me in my bedroom and said Oga do you see this thing. He can’t say this thing you are doing is bad. So to me, a lot of people are not happy with developmental project of Aregbesola yet he took Osun to a higher height. But in the area of policies, it is abnormality. To me, I expect Oyetola to reverse all these abnormalities little by little.
But Sir, don’t you see this reversal of a thing as a claw in the will of the party because the majority especially those that are loyal to Aregbesola see it as a way of setting their boss against the populace.
Do you know our problem in this part of the world? Our problem is we have blind loyalty. A lot of people under Aregbesola are not comfortable. Aregbesola is an autocratic leader. He believes that he knows better than anybody in this world. A lot of his loyalists are not happy with that policy.
We heard that Oyetola didn’t deem it feet to consult his predecessor before abolishing his policies. Is this true?
When Aregbesola was there for eight years, did he consult Oyinlola? No! There is law of karma everywhere. If he consulted him, must Oyetola go to the media to say that? If Aregbesola will be frowned at it, let it be. It doesn’t matter. It is an official matter.
As a security expert, the insecurity has beclouded the country for over the years now, what is the causes and the way out?
The wheel power to fight this insecurity, I am not seeing it in this government. At the initial stage of this administration, the military base was shifted to Maiduguri. That was when they were ready to do something. Now, you see a lot of lackadaisical attitude of the military fighting the war. There must be surveillance to detect the secret of Boko Haram. To monitor the military men that are fighting, if some of them are sabotaging the war. When you are not building the morale of the men that is fighting the war, how do you want them to fight the war? We know the Boko Haram are in Sambisa forest, why can’t they destroy the place. The chief of staff, the navy staff and other don’t have anything to offer again. When you are seventy, you can not run hundred metres of race like secondary school students.
Q: What then is your take on the persistent calls for the sack of the current service chiefs by Nigerians?
Answer. In Economics, there is what they call the law of diminishing return. 20 years ago in Port Harcourt, if I see a man with a V-boot Mercedes Benz, I would regard the man as very rich. But today, if you give me a V-boot as a gift, I won’t accept it because its outdated and not in Vogue again.
What I am trying to say is that there is time for everything in life. General Tukur Buratai has come and he has worked. At the beginning of his military career as the Chief of Army Staff, Buratai relocated the headquarters of the Nigerian Army to the center of the war. At a particular Christmas, he went to wine and dine with the soldiers in the war front just to give them the needed impetus and zeal.
Nobody is saying Buratai is not good. He has tried his best but his best is not enough for us now in Nigeria especially in this all important fight again the insurgents . He should be dropped alongside other service chiefs in NIGERIA. If Mr. President loves Buratai so much, he can make him the new Minister of Defence. In the war front, however, Buratai is out of place now. He is like an old fashioned Mercedes V boot example I earlier cited as a corollary to drive home my position.
Q: What should the security agencies do to win this war against insurgency?
This is the first time I am going to say this. A lot of us have seen what is going on wrongly. Nigeria should stop publishing and advertising the kind of weapons we have in our arsenal. There must be internal mechanism to monitor the military through a telecommunication system.
They can bug all the army personnel in the system that are going to the war front because I believe that some of these khaki boys at the war front may have one form of sympathy or the other for the insurgents . It could be religious sympathy . It could be tribal sympathy and it could be social sympathy with the Boko Haram members. How is it that when you have planned that you are going to bomb Borno and before you get there, the Boko Haram is already there laying ambush?
Q.Recently, Southwest Governors unvailed regional security network popularly called Amotekun with a view to combating Kidnapping, banditry and all sorts of criminalities in the region , what is your take on this sir?
I support Amotekun, I have expressed my feelings earlier. I am one of the first security experts that said Amotekun is very good but they should make sure they back it by the law of the various states in the south west. I said it on National Dailies , I said it on Radio Nigeria Network News more than four times.
For now there wouldn’t have been reason or purpose for Amotekun if the security situation in the South western part of of the country was like how it used to be in the time past.
A situation where my mother was sick and I told her I was coming home to see her and she told me she would die before I come because of the fear that I may be kidnapped. Can you imagined that it is up to that level in my own town of Imesi Ile? There was a day I think some Fulani people went to kidnap about 14 people if not for the quick Intervention of of Hunters in my town who went to repel and set those people free, it would have been in records again that 14 persons were kidnapped in Imesi ile . What business are they doing in Imesi ile than only farming? If people could no longer go to their farms then what are we talking about? The people there would die by hunger .So it happens like that. It happens in Ondo. It happens in Oyo State .It happens in every part of the south west and the people of the south west and governors of the South West must have lost confidence in the security apparatus of the federal government and that is what gave birth to AMOTEKUN.
I think the idea of amotekun should be given a global applause . I commend the initiators.
Thank you.
This man just simply displayed his hatred for AREGBESOLA,probably he is angry with him for not gaining from his government he believed he worked for and spent his money for.