Chief Nwanyanwu who is a graduate of Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS said the army as it is presently constituted is not neutral and therefore can’t fight wars as a united front.
Nwanyanwu who featured on a Channels TV life programme over the weekend also said the recent attacks on government facilities particularly in Imo state were political and tasked the security agencies to fish out the perpetrators of these crimes.
He said, “I have implicit confidence that Nigeria army, when they have removed all these mudane considerations, they will clear this mess in three months. Someone is coming to your land and he is getting more formidable than yourself, your own Papa’s land; it is not possible. The army is not neutral. Haven’t you heard of officers being shot from behind and people will run away. Didn’t you here the NSA, a perfect gentleman, when he said the weapons paid for could not be accounted for, and peope attacked him, and he recanted.
“Some other time, when the NASS wants to approve any fund, be careful because you have not accounted for the billions of dollars sent for procurement of arms. The police doesn’t have arms, the military doesn’t have arms. Look at the guns they carry and look at the ones the insurgents carry. These guns are supposed to have been phased out, we have the money. We need a sophisticated armoury to fend off these attacks.”
The ZLP National Chairman said there is no need for a political summit or national conference for the president to have a political will to act. “I think we should be very careful. During the tenure of the last Service Chiefs, there was nothimg they asked that the senate did not give them to prosecute this war. They asked for everthing and they got it to the last kobo. It was much later that we heard from the NSA, who made a comment regarding to the procurement of arms. And you do not continue pushing money into a bottolmeless pocket. The truth is that the President can clear this mess in a shortest possible time if he has the political will.
“No matter the amount of what you say or the amount of money you approve, we have seen it, nothing can be achieved. At a time, the NSA was not able to control the Service Chiefs under him. We saw it with our very own eyes in this country. Let’s stop playing the Ostrich. The army know where the problem is, we don’t need all these conferences and summit. Attack the problem and we will clear the mess but if the army is so overwhelmed that they can do nothing again, they don’t have any new ideas, probably we Nigerians, we may have to put up a hashtag for the desolution of the Nigerian army.”
Chief Nwanyanwu said with the dimension the insecurity is taking, he agrees with the Vice President that there will be no place to hide soon unless the government creates a role for the citizens in the war against insurgency.
“Terrorism is now being imported into the safest places we have in the South-East. It is being done by persons who are thinking that this governor should be giving a restless night. Because people have lost power, people have done a lot of things with our resources in the state. I am from that state, I am in the opposition. It is the opposition that are fighting Hope Uzodinma. He should not be giving a breathing space. You have taking all the money in the state to the point that you are richer than the state. Now you are using it to fight us. You can pay bandits and now call them unknown gunmen. These gunmen are known. Security agencies should go in and find them.
“The agenda is to demarket the state, to make the state look ungovernable but to the citizens they don’t think so. They know it is not in their character, they know that they don’t do these things. Few days ago, they invaded an Hausa neighbourhood as well as Okigwe road. This is not in our character.
“Even this presidency they are talking about, if you fix the country well, allow equity, good conscience, and justice, Ibo man is not interested whether a Fulani man or Yoruba man keeps this power for 100 years but allow everybody equal access. So what is happening in the South East, let nobody change the narrative, it is not in our character.”