Even to him (Ararile), it came like a bolt from the blues. He did not prepare for it; it was never conceived as part of his retirement agenda; and when emissaries came with the news, he told them in the prayer warrior dialect to return to sender.
However, the realism is that Ararile (rtd) is at present the Ovie (traditional ruler) of Umiaghwa- Abraka Kingdom in Delta State. When Sunday Vanguard met him recently in his palace at Umiaghwa –Abraka, we were awed at the makeover of the AVM Ararile we used to know as an air force officer.
Should we accord him the normal salutation of “Shon Sir” or bow to him, as we saw other visitors to the palace bowing before getting close or opening their mouth to talk to him. His Royal Majesty Ararile, Awaeke I, was resplendent in a traditional attire with Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, imprinted all over it.
Sunday Vanguard sat for more than two hours with the monarch discussing the affairs of the nation: From how he is adjusting to his new role; to his maddening assignment as Coordinator of Amnesty Programme; how to tackle Boko Haram; and lots more.
You conducted the disarmament of militants in the Federal Government’s Amnesty programme. What is your assessment of the programme three years after?
I really do not know where they are now. Immediately I concluded the exercise, I packed my bag and baggage; I had nothing to do with the Amnesty programme since then. What the late President Musa Yar’Adua initially asked me was to disarm the militants, and then, later, to reintegrate them, because when you disarm, you have to keep them somewhere, so you have to plan. It is not for you to disarm them and leave them without planning what to do with them.
What Yar’Adua told me
It was a total continuous package; because of that, he told me that I would continue after my retirement as the Coordinator and the choice was to remain in uniform or to retire. I told his then Aide De Camp, ADC, it was through him I was talking to the President, I told him to tell the President that I will like to retire; if he wanted me to continue, whatever I could do in uniform, I could also do in mufti.
So, I was asked to continue. However the President was not there to see to the end of the disarmament. Of course things changed, I then proceeded with my retirement. I have not been following them, I do not know what they are doing, I have been hearing like everybody else that they are sending people to Sri Lanka, America and South Africa. That is all the information; I do not know how many they have trained, how many have come back and how many are yet to be trained.
What were your experiences then concerning going into the militant camps to talk to ex-militant leaders to surrender arms and accept amnesty?
The assignment was a tough one. I will say that, from the initial point, it was very tedious, most of the officers that worked with me, I do not want to mention names, had to go for medical check-up abroad at their own expense when we finished the exercise. That is to tell you how tasking it was.
Amnesty job was frustrating
For two weeks, I was not sleeping; I will be working and will forget to eat, so it was very tasking and it was what I even call frustrating. Frustrating, because it was not like a pure military work, that is, orders are given, may be, saying, this is the way to go or given the resources to do it. It was a crazy type of appointment then, it was crazy because things were being done at cross- purposes.
There was one day I was in the creek talking to some militants and, coming back, I watched (on television) Tompolo coming out of office with the President in Abuja. Next time, I saw the President with Boyloaf and about 47 others, and then, it was like removing the rug under my feet because those I was talking to will say, ‘you are talking to us and the President is there giving our leaders millions in Abuja’. So, it was a very frustrating job.
At a point, even the people I was to report to were not picking my calls. When you needed support, when you needed guidance, none was forthcoming and no one was even picking your calls, and you were left to your own devices and everybody hoping that whichever decision you took will be the one that will nail you – it was a very frustrating job.
Most difficult job I have ever done. I have never seen anything like that before. In the military, I have been in wars and campaigns. Honestly, they were more straight forward than that assignment, it is the most difficult job I have done.
Starved of resources
I succeeded in spite of everything, the worst part was that the resources were not there. In the public domain, there were people shouting billions were being given to me, how I wish it were so. Even the money for the militants’ allowances were not being released; the militants protest really helped me because if they had not protested, they would not have gotten one kobo.
The expectation of the militants was that as you were coming to meet them in the creek, you would have come with bags of money. How did you manage the situation?
As I was operating, the President was sick, it was a major problem that I faced, I had to work through a chain of people in order to get money. What was happening was to know how many militants had surrendered, initially, a week to August 3rd, 2009 when the first set of militants were supposed to come, there was no money for them, there was no camp.
No training camp
On paper, we were expecting 10,000 militants, we were expecting that the camps would be ready with mattresses so that we collect their guns and march them to camps and feed them; at three days to commence, there was no single camp. Out of desperation, about a week to commence, we planned using the Federal Government Colleges since it belonged to government, we only wrote a letter to the President to allow us use the Federal Government Colleges, he wrote approved and travelled to Brazil.
AVM Ararile
Even the money to renovate the school was not available, so it was the money they gave me as take off grant that we were using for sensitization. We, members of my team, comprising dedicated officers and consultants went to Akwa Ibom, Calabar and other places in the South-South. I think the nation owes them some form of gratitude, for what they did.
We asked ourselves, how are we going to do it because if this set of militants come and we collect their guns and there is money for them to feed, no clothing, no where to put them and we were expecting about 2, 000 in Warri, there would be trouble? By the time we went there, we were thinking of using standard secondary schools in the shape of what a Federal Government College should look like, but when we got there, we did not know that Federal Government Colleges had no beds, they were no longer the boarding schools we expected.
So there was nothing on ground, no water, nothing was working, the grasses in the schools had even overgrown the buildings. So it was sheer madness. What was originally planned was N20,000 monthly stipends for ex-militants
So what do we do? The planning was done before I was appointed. They gave me the plan and, when I went through, I saw that they had budgeted N1,500 per militant for feeding, and N20, 000 as monthly stipends.
The plan was that there would be a camp, they will go into the camp where they would be debriefed, documented and be given some form of medical treatment. That period was to take about two weeks per groups, now, because we did not have a training camp; people were telling their people that there would be caterers.
I did not have a place like a camp where they will have breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I took the decision on the spot even when they had not released money to me. Like I said, we did the necessary sensitization and all that with the money I was given as take-off grant.
I said to myself that once this money is finished, then the amnesty exercise would be over; because we were expecting the highest numbers from Bayelsa State, we gave them about N2 million, Delta State-N1million and like that for other states. So we gave out about N10 million.
Magic wand
We were worried and sat all night long thinking about these things. Money was not being released, nobody was talking to us. We said if the first set comes out and we collect their guns and nothing was done, that would be the end of the amnesty, we would not get these boys again. So I decided that we pay the boys with whatever money we had, others would hear the news in their various hideouts that they we were paying and they will come out. That was the magic that gave us success.
Riots by ex-militants
Immediately we paid the first set of militants that came out, the money we paid did not last. So when subsequent militants came, I was still not given any money, so they started the riot. When the riot started, I was in Enugu, then they called me from higher quarters, asking how many militants surrendered.
We were supposed to have independent communication system but we did not. It was cell phone we were using so to get the information they required, if there were 500 militants that had surrendered, they would text their names to me from across the states and I will ensure that they download the names throughout the night and I will forward it to Abuja.
It would take about two weeks for that money to come; before the two weeks, another 1, 000 would have surrendered and there was riot all over the place. It was a naughty situation. In fact, it was round the bend; I lost about 15 pounds weight.
Day I passed out in a hotel in Benin
One day, I went to my hotel in Benin City at about 2.00 a.m., I went into the bathroom to have a bath, I fell and hit the wall with the back of my head in the shower, I was just lying down there and the water was pouring on my face. I dozed off; I jerked up after some time. It was a harrowing experience.
Actually, the suffering we went through then is not what I would wish even for my enemy, especially when you discover that there was no appreciation. I worked with a lot of people who could have died in the process. Two of the helicopters I was using, one was an OAS helicopter and the other a navy helicopter – one of them later crashed, killing an officer that did the exercise with me. The OAS helicopter was the one that crashed and killed that Bacia Sugar executive in Kwara State.
We used these helicopters and the accident could have happened when we were doing the exercise because we were going into more dangerous places than where they crashed. Therefore, anyone of us could have died at that time, one is grateful to God that one survived it. I feel that stage was successful, most of the militants receiving N65, 000 today do not even know how the Amnesty programme started.
Ex-militants receiving more than pensioners!
If I had insisted on putting them in the camp and giving them whatever was planned, they would not have been receiving that much. The N65, 000 stipend was supposed to be for 90 days, which is the period they were in camp. Subsequently, anywhere they were going for training, they were supposed to be on N20, 000. That policy was not reversed, so that is why they are enjoying N65, 000, while some of the retired pensioners are grumbling that they, who served the country for over 35 years, are not even receiving up to the former militants.
No good preparation for amnesty programme
What we see from the programme then was that there were no plans. It was something like Yar’Adua just came up with the amnesty, even now, there seems to be no clear-cut plans because the ex-militants go for training and are not sure of getting jobs.
What you said is a confirmation that the amnesty programme as conceived by Yar’Adua was a fire-brigade action
The Nigeria exercise is the most generous amnesty in the world. Yes, Rwadan had a very successful amnesty programme in which they disarmed many people more than we did.
In the real sense, those were the regular people, carrying arms, they were just paid small money after collecting their arms. They did not even go through all these we are doing, all they did was to give them $650, and they all went back to their villages.
Expensive amnesty programme
So, ours is the most comprehensive, even the most expensive post-amnesty programme. But, whether it will address the issue I wouldn’t know, because when I concluded the amnesty exercise, we had about 20, 000 plus persons, subsequently they took about 6, 180 or so, they called them phase II, now other groups have come out that they are phase III. I knew that when you start phase II, there must be phase III and phase IV, and that is exactly what is going to happen.
Govt yet to address issues that led to militancy
Now having said that, the key issues that brought about the militancy have not been addressed. Yes, many of the militant leaders have been settled, but that does not mean that new militant leaders cannot come up and we are talking about Niger -Delta where we probably have more than two million unemployed youths.
If we handled 20, 000 to 30, 000 youths, have you addressed the issues? It is the youths that are the raw materials for militancy, at least we have more than a million still out there, these are the ones that you are asking me, howwe control youth restiveness? If you want to control them, give them jobs – that is how to control them, so that is the core issue.
Yar’Adua dreamt well for N-Delta but …
I am happy about the PIB Bill; I hope it will soon be passed, the late President Yar’Adua articulated all those points that needed to be addressed in order to end youth restiveness and kickstart Niger Delta development. Amnesty is just a condition precedent to what is to be done.
Subsequently, his plan was to fast track development and, by now, there ought to be a coastal road all the way from Lagos to Akwa Ibom. There is supposed to be a rail line through all the South-South states, I think at that point, Yar’Ádua mentioned about $4billion initially, he recognised the problems he would face with funding because any amount of money that you take to develop the Niger Delta is to be taken from somewhere.
So that means somebody else will have to take less, which he promised to handle at the political level. That political angle will have to be addressed for others to be sensitive to the situation in the Niger Delta. They have to understand that they are not just doing it as a Father Christmas thing , but because it is the proper thing to do.
You cannot take someone’s God-given property and decide how much he will get from it, and, in the process of even extracting, the whole environment is likely to be damaged, so these are the key issues that would be addressed; if you do not, I am afraid we will be back to square one.
AVM Ararile
In this country, we do not do proper analysis of a problem, I do not know how much the firing of Azazi will help, unless, of course, it was negotiated as a condition for peace to reign. If it was taken ordinarily as a course of re-jigging the security architecture, I do not think that is the solution.
Boko Haram did not jump-start
People talk about Boko Haram in 2012, but it is just jumping to a date, the whole of the Northeast before now had been virtually ungovernable. People were just shouting Niger Delta because of the oil; if not, the same level of violence was equally happening in the north. For years, one could not travel between Maiduguri and Yola, the type of banditry that was taking place then was so vicious, and they must kill.
It was not just armed robbery, they shoot you to stop, and whoever is in the car, they kill and take whatever they want to take and disappear into the bush. How did that come to be? You would realise that during the former President Shehu Shagari period, there was one Shugaba that was arrested in Borno State and deported to Chad?
He was likely to be a Chadian or had a Chadian mother. If you look at the whole Northeast; there is a high presence of Chadians. States like Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Plateau, Kano, Jigawa, and Yobe, a lot of the people there had Chadian origin. Transformation of Maitatsine to Boko Haram
And do not forget that if we are looking at it from the religious aspect, you have the Maitatsine factor. During the Shagari period, they came, where did they operate, what was their doctrine? It was killing, they just woke one morning in Burukutu and started killing. Boko Haram is using the same strategy.
They finished Maiduguri; I was involved in that operation, so I know. Then, they were Maitatsine, the method they were using was religious decoy. It is virtually the same with Boko Haram. Look at the area where Maitatsine operated: Burukutu in Maiduguri, Jimeta in Yola, Kano and some parts of Bauchi.
Those ones were successfully neutralised, is this not the metamorphosis of the same group? Those ones were purely illiterates, professing their own brand of Islam and trying to force it on everybody, without any agenda. It was not that they were controlling Kano or Maiduguri; they were just killing people, instilling fear, which was the method they were using that time? Who were the NSAs?
Removing Azazi not the solution
Of course, the military went heavily against these hoodlums and were able to neutralise them. How they were neutralised is a discussion for another day, but now, it is Boko Haram. Look at the pattern, it is same Borno again, Kano, Yola. Now, they are expanding, probably, they took time to regroup, and they now have international connection, in terms of financial, technical support and training.
Because they are obviously very sophisticated and well funded, they use improvised explosive devices. If they are to buy cylinder and everything to produce, it is not what illiterates can afford; so where is the money coming from. I do not really see the removal of Azazi as the solution, though, it is not that he has been effective. Probably they want to try another person, but I think the prescription in this country like elsewhere must be to implement the law.
The laws should be implemented
All the decisions and everything we are doing should be that we must implement the law. Somebody kills someone else, a clear murder case will be turned to a religious one because he is a Muslim . If you do not treat those issues for what they are and you keep leaving them, then, you are spelling more troubles because, in everything, somebody will surely bring politics and religion into it. So, we must draw a line in-between today, that for anybody that breaches the law, the law must take its course.
Forget Mr. President’s body language
The President said as much recently when he declared that people should not look at his body language before they do their jobs. We have the EFCC chair and somebody in the public arena has stolen public money, you should arrest him first, you do not have to wait for a report to be submitted to the President before you do your job. No. The people given the responsibility to carry out such functions should apply the law, and they should not be waiting for clearance from the authorities.
Many people think our airspace is not safe. As a pilot, can you attempt a solution?
Well, if air crashes are frequent, there are definitely some problems that have to be investigated; causes of air crashes vary, they are as different as the number of crashes. Some can be pilot error, others can be mechanical failure, and some can be weather related.
Many things can occur that lead to air crashes. But , most of the discussions I have read, both in print and electronic media, is the idea that the Nigerian pilots do not love themselves, that they would just take any aircraft that is parked because one owner says you must fly, it is not possible.
Engineer cannot force pilot to fly aircraft
The decision to take an aircraft rests with the pilot; the engineer can sign whatever he wants to sign, if the pilot takes the aircraft and says no, you know he has all the time in the world to do the checks he needs before he gets airborne. Along the way, he is more likely to see the fault in the aircraft than the engineer, who did not go through the system.
The engineer is probably going to look at the faults reported previously, okay, this is not working, he goes to fix it and it is working. Nevertheless, there could be other things that are bad that he might not know, so as the pilot that is taking the aircraft, you must always go through all the checks, you cannot omit one, it is when he goes through the checklist and is convinced the aircraft is okay that he can take it.
Our pilots are not suicide pilots
We do not have suicide pilots unless Boko Haram members are now the pilots of Nigerian aircraft. Our pilots have wives and children, the way the relatives of passengers that died in the crash are mourned, so also the pilot’s relatives mourn their dead.
Therefore, the impression I get is either the pilots are suicidal or the owner of the aircraft said you must take the aircraft and you do it, it is not like that. Even in the military, it is not like that, not to talk of a civilian that will pack his bag, move from Arik, and the next day, he has another job with Aero Contractors, so you can’t even control him that much.
In that circumstance, why should he deploy an aircraft that is practically unserviceable?
Air crash is a chain of events. If you break one, you have accident, but if you do not break any, you are safe. Therefore, we must look at the whole gamut, of course, not just the aircraft but also the procedures. Even in the airport itself, the nature of the airport, nature of the runway, those contribute to air safety, so it is not something that you can put your hand on.
The basic expectation of the Niger Delta people has not been met by the Federal Government. What is your take on this?
I will just talk for myself and in fact the Urhobo nation. The general feeling is that we have been marginalised, and, in fact, more than that, we appear to be an endangered species within this political arrangement. I think if I get it correct, most of the ethnic nationalities have representation in the government at the centre; it is the first time, we, the fifth largest tribe in Nigeria and for whatever it is, are not having representation.
We are not asking that people should receive less so that we can get more, we are asking for what legitimately belongs to us, as the fifth largest tribe in the country, and that is not happening. It needs to be reversed; we appeal to the President to look at the error that has been committed, be it error of commission or omission, let it be rectified so that we know that we are being carried along, as not just Niger Deltans, but as South-South people. This is our presidency, we fought for it, all of us fought for it; if there are benefits, it should go round, we are not asking for more than what is due to us.
Are the Urhobos carried along at the state level. What is your candid assessment of what Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan?
I am just coming to Delta State now and looking at the situation of things. I have heard the governor say that he is into many mega projects.
They have mentioned leisure park in Udu, independent power project somewhere at Oghara, Free Trade Zone in Koko; I have heard all these, which I understand are all ongoing, we hope that all these projects are completed as soon as possible so that we will reap the fruit of the dividends of democracy, as the politicians will say.
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