Don’t Apply Military Solutions to Irregular Warfare – Agbakoba
Senior lawyer and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has urged President Bola Tinubu not to apply military solutions to irregular warfare.
Agbakoba made this appeal while fielding questions from newsmen in Lagos.
He said, “We cannot resolve our problem using a military solution. You don’t use military solutions for irregular warfare. We must find a way to resolve our problem.
“We need to have a process to create peace. There’s a need to bring key people that would give us peace,” he added.
Agbakoba noted that the governance issues affecting the growth of Nigeria include political, constitutional, regulatory, and administrative; electoral, legal, and judicial; economic; trade; maritime; aviation; and space governance.
He said, “Nigeria’s challenges may seem daunting, but they are not insurmountable. If all these government issues are implemented in the short term, we are likely to continue to feel the pain, but the long-term results will continue to show.
“The Tinubu government has a unique opportunity to articulate and drive an uncommon agenda for development. There needs to be a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound implementation plan; otherwise, it will be all talk and no progress.”
Advising President Bola Tinubu on governance strategies, he said, “A country that has been struggling with a foundation for 23 years cannot be a serious country. There has to be a need for some speed. The 10th Assembly must immediately attend to the problem.
“Remember what Bola Ige said about the survival of Nigeria? I was there that day, and it’s still ringing in my head. In a situation of political arrangement such as Nigeria, the first question is: do we want to be one? It’s an assumption that we want to be. It is a terrible and wrong assumption.
“Croatia was one of the six countries that formed Yugoslavia, and now they are doing very well. Slovenia is doing very well. Slovakia is doing very well. It’s not sacrosanct that we must be one country. We can’t build Nigeria on the basis of a weak structure.
“Nigeria’s governance structure is very weak. We can learn lessons from history. Europe went through this process. When the Catholics lost out and the protestants came on board, it was 80 years of war until one man stood up.
“His name was Maximilian, and he brought peace. So, the first thing we have to do is to organise peace. If you don’t organise peace, you can’t have good governance.”
Meanwhile, Agbakoba has called for the replacement of the 1999 Constitution to ensure good governance in the country.
The senior lawyer urged the National Assembly, headed by Senate President Godswill Akpabio to utilise late Prof. Ben Nwabueze’s long-standing research to effect the people’s constitution.
