Napoleon Bali, a retired Air Vice Marshal, is the Plateau South Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senatorial Candidate for the 2023 election. He spoke with UKANDI ODEY on his political career and issue of national security. Excerpts:
After a career in the military, why are you into politics?
Yes. I had a very successful career as an instructor pilot. Basically, what is driving me into politics is the desire to still serve. I feel I still have some value to add to the system, especially in the area of security where there is still a lot to be done. Besides, the issue of zoning in our party also created the opportunity which I had to pick up, and vie for the Senate seat to contribute in making laws for the good governance of this country.
One, I feel, especially in the area of security, that I still have a lot of values to add to society. We need to change our laws with regards to managing our security in this country. With the experience I had in counter insurgency operations, whether it is banditry or whatsoever, we need to change our approach; especially in deploying enough troops on ground to flush these bandits occupying our forests. Because what these insurgents or bandits do is that once an air operation is launched, they inform themselves and go into hiding, knowing the non-permanency of air power. They exploit this very well through human intelligence. So, I think what needs to be done is to have more troops on the ground to dominate the forests and flush these people out. My opinion is that, if elected Senator, I will be able to contribute to the legal framework to facilitate these changes.
What are the peculiar challenges of your constituency that you will want to address in the Senate?
As I told you, as a Senator representing the good people of Plateau South, I think I know the people well enough. I share their aspirations; I have walked the land and interacted with all the component demographics of the zone, and I know and understand their needs. The zone needs roads for viral economic and social activities; they have health, educational and other environmental needs that are begging for government’s intervention. All these make good contents for motions I will bring to the floor and attention of the senate. Of course, during the oversight function too, I’ll remember to have an eye on how budgetary provisions and processes are impacting on and alleviating the conditions of my people in Plateau South.
I think it is also of advantage that having worked in the presidency for over twenty years, I know people, and certainly I will explore this during oversight functions. So, I should be able to know where to go and who to lobby so that certain infrastructures can be made available to my people. These are the things that are lacking in the Southern Plateau especially under this APC government. Go to Wase and see the roads; go to Qua’an Pan – even Shendam and the entire hinterland. All these are lacking! And the people need roads! You see when you provide good roads, the people will spend less on repairs of their bicycles, motorcycles, and vehicles, and that means they would save more money to invest and develop themselves. But because of the terribly bad roads in the zone, the people spend too much to fix their transportation wares in a year, and this is grating on their savings and investment potential.
So, if my people elect me, I will ensure that I represent them well by making sure that in every budgetary provision, their health, educational, agricultural, and other social services needs are taken care of. Go to the Southern Plateau and see the plight of the people. Even the so-called legacy projects of Lalong are not completed! You will even ask or interrogate the wisdom of the ‘legacy project’, instead of completing, upgrading, and equipping existing ones. So, these lacking basic human needs and development are what I will pursue with all integrity and seriousness if elected Senator.
Besides, remember also that good roads and functional roads network can check insecurity. All these bandits causing havoc and spreading criminality around Bashar are exploring the bad roads situation to carry out their operations because they know the security cannot get there easily to counter and apprehend them. So, bringing good roads there will help to curtail insecurity. Even at the national level, we would have to look at the state of the roads especially in respect of the implementation of defense mechanisms. We have to give emphasis to securing the country first, and address the issue of the quantum and sophistication of weapons in the hands and control of the bandits. Can you imagine that bandits use Rocket Propelled Grenades, RPGs, and other high capacity modern warfare devices on human beings and other targets? We need to address all these holistically. Once the country is reasonably secured then we can begin to think of how to maintain law and order.
The leadership structure of the Nigeria security presently is vested in one geopolitical region and many feel this is partly responsible for worsening insecurity in the country. Are you satisfied with the present leadership structure of Nigeria security?
Let me tell you quickly that whichever direction you locate the leadership, it will not stop insecurity in the country. I am not however advocating that security chiefs should all come from one region. After all, the authors of our constitution know why they prescribed that there should be federal character in recruitment, placement, and deployment. But I’ll not really go into that. However, anybody telling you that carrying security appointments to one region is what is fueling insecurity is not true. Not true in the sense that whether it is in one region or the other, that cannot stop the motive of the perpetrators. Why is it that insecurity in the North East, for stance, has not ended in spite of the years of headship of some security outfits by personnel from that area? I can tell you authoritatively that up till today, some local government areas in Borno State are still dominated by Boko Haram and ISWAP elements that are still very active.
Sometimes people raise observations. Yes. But what is there is that we should always encourage the executive to respect the constitution to ensure that appointments go round. You are however not far from the truth by saying that it brings some element of instability. But it brings that instability because of people criticizing. But I want to tell you that, if you like, bring all the service chiefs from every region, if we do not do the right thing by getting more troops to flush these people out of the forests, we are wasting our time. The security challenge of Nigeria now is not external attacks from outside Nigeria.
It is not even Boko Haram and ISWAP. The greatest challenge is this banditry – they are so brutal. When you talk about poverty, allow people to go and farm. These guys go into the forest, into the village, main them and force them to pay illegal taxes to them. So, these are basically what we need to do; that is, to get more troops on ground, irrespective of where the security chiefs or heads of security come from. Let’s put more troops on the ground to dominate these forests. Yes, initially it may appear too expensive, but at the end of it all, when you secure this country reasonably the cost goes down to nothing. In my own opinion, we still need about 300,000 to 400,000 soldiers to secure this country. At the end of it all, if you add on the numerical strength of the military, you will say that it is too expensive. What will happen is that, if these 300,000 or 400,000 troops secure the country, you buy the skill off them. It has happened somewhere. You can remember that in Egypt when the Muslim Brotherhood was there and took up arms against the state, they were going to drag Egypt into a war, but the military took over. What the Muslim Brotherhood did was to move into Mount Sinai and even started killing Egyptian soldiers and Israelites. At the end what happened? They had to beef up the strength of the Army with additional troops. Recently in Ethiopia, when the reactionaries were advancing into Addis Ababa, they simply increased troops! During the Nigerian Civil War, the strength of the Army was only ten thousand before the troops were increased! Now that the security challenges are getting overwhelming, I wonder why the present Government has not increased the numerical strength of the ground troops. There is a need to establish temporary training grounds in the six geopolitical zones. The chief of defence staff has to sit down with the service chiefs, under the directives of Mr. President, every year, and agree on the number needed for the ground troops. At the end of it all, if it is soldiers or special Police you want to call them, as I said, I know our military: the training is robust; and we have established training institutions to do it.
Why did you choose to join the PDP?
Because I think there is a gap, yes, I was still in service with the APC government for about four and a half years when I retired in 2019. As I said, there is a gap! In my opinion, the APC has not been able to secure the country the way it should be. And I can only talk about and against that gap if I’m in the opposition. That is why I joined the PDP. There is a gap; and I am going to work on it – and you will hear. It is not just about anybody wanting to join the APC. If you can remember, the APC government came into being with a slogan to ‘secure’ Nigeria.
But today, you know what is going on. Look at the Naira in a free fall every day. And let me tell you, there is nothing like technical defeat of non-state actors. You either defeat them outright, or succeed in reducing their operational capability because these are people who in the day mix up freely in the society. What happens is that it is mostly in the night that they carry out their operations. So, I must continue to emphasize on the need for more troops to chase them out of the forests so that they won’t have any base to group, rehearse, and launch attacks on their targets. I can tell you that that attack on the Abuja–Kaduna train was done after proper rehearsal and simulation. That is why they could easily head to the first class coach of the train when they attacked it. It was not by any coincidence.
Very quickly, another reform I will pursue as a Senator is to get our security to operate more at night because most of these non-state actors hardly operate in the day. In fact, if I am to go to the extreme, I’ll propose that all operational units of the military should be more active and dutiful in the night.
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