Brigadier General Alabi Isama was one of the very privilege Nigerians who witnessed Nigeria’s independence in October 1, 1960. He said that at that time, he had already enlisted in the Nigerian Army and was just 20-years-old.A military strategist, he fought as member of the Nigerian Army for the unity of the country during the Nigeria civil war. At the moment Alabi Isama who retired as a Brigadier General is involved in telecommunication businessHe told Daily sun that in Nigeria’s 49 years of Independence the situation in the country has graduated from good to worse and the hope that was left for the country by the colonialists has turned hopelessness. He spoke with Philip Nwosu in Lagos, excerpt;After 49 yearsI am a military strategist and I will only look at it in a military way, for instance by 1960 at independence I was 20 years old, nobody assassinated anybody, but today assassination has become the order of the day and those who carry out this nefarious act are never found. Beginning from Chief Bola Ige, the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Harry Marshall, the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP) stalwart, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain Aminosari Dikibo, Dele Giwa, Alhaja Suliat in Ibadan, in fact the list is endless.Then The Atlas Cove attack all these things never happened, anybody who was killed the police were able to fish out the killers immediately. But look at the long list of persons assassinated which the police could not account for. This was after independence. That is as far as I can talk on security. Militarily, we are surrounded by French countries and if your military is moving today against any enemy and we are importing over 50 per cent of our food, what happens if the person we are buying from has sympathy for the country we are fighting against, that means that we will not have food and you cannot underestimate the importance of food to any population then when you look at all these things, you begin to ask if we have moved forward or we have remained stagnant at a position. At moment our universities, we have one university in the 1960, we have so many now what is the standard compare to that of 1960. So if we look at that progress you will also discover we are going back.The roads we have in 1960 were very few, we have tiny winy roads like the British roads, but they were passable, today we have many roads but they are not passable. At 49, Nigeria has only two roads, Lagos North and Lagos East, both roads are impassable, you see I can only look at it as a military person, now we are importing fuel and if our military has to move we should not be dependent on fuel imported from other countries, these are the things that has made this nation worse off. We have the oil, we have the man power and the geo-politics of Nigeria is just the best for anyone to take off, but we are still importing oil and this does not tell well of Nigeria at 49.Looking at all these things I believe that something is wrong fundamentally and I am not one of those who believe in restructuring, but what I believe in is that the situation is a political problem. I think the Nigerian leaders rather than be looking for their personal gain they should work towards integration of the country and the only way they can do this is through political awareness and education. For instance, there is nothing wrong in having two political parties so that Nigerians can just belong to the ones that best suit them. But as long as you have three political parties, everything will be reduced to ethnicity and tribalism.On Independence DayThe enthusiasm of every Nigerian living then was high, because we saw that with independence the sky was to be our limit, especially with many educated people in the country then, we are suppose to be the best in Africa. After 49 years could we have moved forward from where the British stopped because then, everything was working for us especially after oil was discovered. There was hope for the future because everybody and every unit of the country were competing for development. There was oil, ground nut and palm oil respectively in the regions of the country and Chief Obafemi Awolowo was talking about good life and freedom for all. There was free education here in the west and every other part of the country was trying to have entrenched in the system. So that was the situation then and everything was good and life was good and there was hope for the future.Way forwardWe need to do away with all these vices that had been holding the country down and get our acts together, we need to address the issue of corruption and work towards a better society. In Nigeria we do not need a benevolent president like General Yakubu Gowon or a tough president like General Sani Abacha, what we need is a leader who understands the situation of the country and can be able to be firm in his resolve to solve the problem of the country.BY PHILIP NWOSU
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