Ex-Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army and the pioneering Director of Army Legal Services, General Don Idada Ikponmwen(rtd), has thrown his weight behind the US President Donald Trump’s decision to post US military men to Nigeria to stop the alleged genocide of Christians in the country.
Responding to questions in a media chat he stated: “Like every democrat I believe in national sovereignty. And a nation has sovereign authority over its people and its territory. Sovereignty doesn’t even end with government of a country having authority over people and territory. It also goes further to say that sovereignty resides in the people.
“In other words, the people are the main issues when you talk about sovereignty. And I think America put it very well from the beginning of their independence they said ‘the happiness of the citizen is the objective of the American democracy’. If the happiness of the citizenry is not achieved there’s no sovereignty, there’s no democracy, there’s no independence. Can you fault that? You can’t fault that.
“Further more, I must say that as a student of diplomacy we must agree that international politics begins and ends with your own country. The good of your country, the well-being of your country, that means the well-being of your people. That’s why some countries, I don’t want to mention names, they can go any length to rescue any of their citizens whose life or property are in peril anywhere in the world.”
Going further, he averred: “That’s the way they can prove to their citizens that they stand for their happiness, for their good, for their well-being. The world is no more the same old world where we say international law is not law. We used to say international law is not law because there is no sovereign nation that’s implementing or making sure that the law works.
“All those things have changed over the years. Now, the position of international law is that the global community, the world at large they have a say anywhere there’s any serious thing going wrong, things like genocide, terrorism, drug abuse, drug cultivation, piracy etc. When these things are happening and of course when there’s a breach of democracy.
“Democracy has come to be known as the best panacea for the well-being of nations even though some people have argued that democracy may not be the best. That we have not found a better option than democracy.”
He affirmed: “If people are being killed in a country because they do not belong to a particular religion and those people overwhelming them are more armed do you want the people to remain helpless? So if the authorities in that country cannot come to their aid then you want the whole world that believes in the well-being of the global community to remain silent?
“I do not blame any president or any head of any country who says that any of these offences that I have mentioned going on is undesirable for the well-being of the world and therefore something must be done. The global community is entitled to take up responsibility to address where any of these wrongs go on – breach of democracy, attack of human beings because they belong to one religion and not another, drug.
“When did America attack Panama and arrest its President, Noriega? They sent military police women. Women headed the team sent to Panama and they landed on the Presidential Palace. Arrested Noriega and took him to America for trial where he was jailed. He was arrested and jailed for drugs issues.”
According to him, “there’s no use having values. That this is our established values and we cannot protect them. The failure to protect our value is a failure of our country. We don’t have the will power, we don’t have the mind to deploy the huge resources that we have to protect our people. Is it today that we started hearing that they’re killing so many people not to name many places eg Kaduna State that so many people have been killed in that state? Is it today we started hearing it?
“Is it today we started hearing about the problem in Taraba State? Is it today we started hearing about problems in Plateau and Benue States? Are we not in this country where we cannot guarantee safety, security, well-being of the people?
“Does the Constitution not say that the welfare and the security of the people shall be the primary purpose of government? Do you know the meaning of primary purpose? The first line responsibility.
“So what is our government doing that people cannot sleep in their houses, they’re not safe on the road? It pains me that with all the resources Nigeria has we are unable to handle our problems and make Nigeria the real pride of Africa.”
On the change of service chiefs, Gen. Idada said: “I will not dismiss the effort as useless. He(President Bola Tinubu) is the man who is occupying the seat (Commander in Chief). He knows where it hurts. I won’t say he knows it more than Nigerians. But he is a concerned person. He is an affected person. So, whether the threat of coup is real or not you cannot blame him for making changes.
“Let us join him in prayer that the changes he is making will take us to the Eldorado. We have had so many reorganisations. We have had so many conferences. Vision 20 20 20, I was a member. We have had confab 2014 I was a member. Where have we gotten to with all these changes? Police, review their law. Security, overhaul. INEC, new law.
“Where are these things taking us to? Are we a serious people? When you talk they will say you are a troublemaker. They don’t know that those who keep quiet, who keep mute in the midst of wrong things happening they’re more guilty than those who are actually doing the wrong thing.
“Nigerians need to hold their leaders at all levels accountable. You cannot get a government better than you deserve. What’s all these that’s going on that Nigerians have no solutions for? They cannot express their opinion freely.
“We’re becoming a one party nation. I thought that the presence of a credible opposition party was an essential element of democracy. You see our governors shamelessly declaring every day all for one party.”