A former Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff, General Alani Akinrinade (retd.), tells GBENGA ADENIJI and BAYO AKINLOYE that Nigeria may be headed for crisis if the elections are not well managed
You are one of the finest soldiers Nigeria has ever produced. You also fought in the civil war to keep the country as one. Do you have any regrets?
When you have a duty, especially if it is a professional duty, you should be happy each time you are able to discharge your responsibilities creditably. Therefore, to that extent, yes (I feel fulfilled.) We fought a civil war. I will say to the best of my ability, I discharged my duties. But if you look at the reasons why we fought the war, I will say it was an unnecessary war. If I knew at that time what I now know after many years of going around the world, studying history and reading biographies, I just feel it was an unnecessary war. But, unfortunately today, we’re faced with fighting terrorism. That phenomenon is going to dominate the world for the next 50 years, like I said in 2001 in one of my lectures. We are going to be chasing terrorists for the next 50 years if we are not careful. The reason is simply because we ignore why people do the things they do. We dismiss them instead of examining the message carefully and finding answers to it. I think it is rooted in injustice — injustice that breeds poverty in such a big way; that is overwhelming that people become desperate to use any means to vent their frustration and religion is an instrument they use.
Going back to the civil war, we have not attained the peace we were looking for; we have not achieved that unity we sought. We wanted to keep Nigeria united for a purpose. We have not achieved the purpose from what we see now many years after the war — and that is the source of my regret. There is too much of a class struggle in Nigeria. The centre of power in Nigeria is so narrow and they make all the decisions. read more
