In this Interview with JOHN ALECHENU, a former Minister of Health, Prof. A.B.C Nwosu, speaks on the Nigerian Civil War, the life of late Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the proposed national conference, the PDP crisis and sundry other issues

This is 53 years after independence. Can you assess Nigeria’s progress in social, political and infrastructural development?

If you look at certain things that are on the ground, you will say that we have made progress. But for me, the problem has always been human development and our fire brigade approach. Administrations in the past anticipated growth; in 1953, seven years before independence, they built Government Secondary School, Afikpo where I went to. And a year later, they found they had none for girls; so, they built one. They anticipated for the population and tried to recreate what was there. We had CKC, and others. But sadly, we have not added to these things. We should have anticipated the growth.

What could be responsible for the seeming deterioration in governance and leadership in the country? Would you blame this on military incursion into governance as many have done?

I have a strange attitude to the military, which is unlike others. I judge every administration on its own. For example, it was the military that built the Third Mainland Bridge. Since 1999, why haven’t a civilian government done a forth mainland bridge or any? So, it’s not the military. It was the military that did the fuel depots, it was the military that did the Federal Unity Colleges. I don’t have a dichotomy between military and civilian governments, maybe because of the school I attended. Government Secondary School, Afikpo had a cadet unit, so many who made Division 1 opted for the Army, the same with Umuahia, many who went to schools that had cadet units made Division 1 and opted for the Army. It is an individual thing but what I think is responsible was captured properly in two novels of Chinua Achebe, ‘No Longer at Ease’ where Obi Okonkwo, brilliant, trained by the community came and got obsessed with the perks of the civil service instead of thinking about how the community that trained him could be mobilised to be lifted up. He was thinking of his cars, his Government Reserved Area quarters and in the end, he got jailed for taking two pounds bribe. It was that early that we lost the spirit of public service. In the second book, “Anthills on the Savannah,” he had completely lost interest in the military. He looked at the military, and the civilian regimes, whose ills the military came to correct, he found no difference. In fact, he found that the military was worse and he made a profound statement that ‘those who make plans for us only make plans for themselves and their families.’

If we are to get back the spirit of public service into public officials such as (Nnamdi)Azikiwe, late Michael Okpara, Sardauna and the wonderful Prime Minister we had in the person of the late Tafawa Balewa, if we get that type of spirit back into the people, who lead us, it will be a good start.

South-East PDP governors recently endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term and some other Igbo groups have done so. What has happened to the aspiration for Igbo presidency? Will there ever be an Igbo man in the Aso Rock and when?

I neither belong to the South-East PDP governors forum nor to any of those groups that you have referred to. More importantly, President Jonathan has not declared that he is running. As for the Igbo becoming President, it used to be a make or break point for me, it is not any longer. What I want is a nation where there is a level-playing field. I believe in restructuring this country in a way that it will give every ethnic nationality a sense of belonging so that each ethnic group has a chance to produce the President.

Since Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu died, there has been no clear leadership or unity of the Igbo. Why is it so?

Even the late Dim, never considered himself as an Igbo leader; if you called him an Igbo leader, he would just chuckle. Don’t get me wrong, he enjoyed the respect and adulation he got from his people. If you saw the way he lived his life among Ndi’igbo, everybody is trying to recreate those attributes that made him so loved by his people. Leaders emerge; leaders are not crowned in Igbo land. By their fruits you shall known them. The greatest unity the Ndi’igbo had was from 1966 to 1970.

Can you tell us your civil war experience. Did Ojukwu conscript you to fight during the war?

No person of my age was conscripted. We desired to join the Biafran Army, we did not fear the military front, we did not fear to die and that was what made the war last as long as it did. If Ojukwu didn’t declare that war at the time he did, we would have killed him. In my set in the Biafran School of Infantry, I was commissioned the same day with Ojo Maduekwe, he wasn’t conscripted. I was commissioned the same day with Joseph Okonkwo, the first Peoples Democratic Party Chairman in Anambra State, he wasn’t conscripted and so many. In fact, if you were turned down, you agonised you didn’t take part. We didn’t regret dying, that was a war we didn’t regret any wound we got. And I had serious wounds in 1968, which I’ve carried till today.

Looking back now, would you say that as a nation we have learnt lessons from that sad episode?

Definitely, we have learnt lessons. To us, the issue was not a matter of Biafra; it was a matter of security of lives and property. It was also a traumatic psychological experience for us to feel unwanted by brethren and by societies where we wanted to belong. In typical Igbo fashion, we said to ourselves that if people rejected us, we should not reject ourselves. I think we’ve learnt that lesson now and we are all over Nigeria and even the killings that happen now, only a few are targeted at us. Many are collateral damage. In 1966, it was definite pogrom. We’ve learnt the lesson that you can’t have pogrom and expect to be one country, if that is one lesson we have learnt, I think we have learnt something.