Nigeria’s past better than present – Diya

By Charles Adegbite

FORMER Chief of General Staff, General Oladipo Diya(rtd), served as military governor of Ogun State between 1984 and 85. The high mark of his administration was a zero tolerance for armed robbery and other criminal activities. In this chat he spoke on Nigeria’s independence , insecurity and happenings in the coun­try. Excerpts:

Nigeria just celebrated her 55th independence anniversary, would you say the country is where it should be ?

We thank God for our indepen­dence. And we thank our founding fathers for the roles they played in leaving a great legacy for us. There are a lot of challenges, but as we are forging ahead we will be making progress and overcoming the chal­lenges.

When you were young what were the dreams or things you wished Nigeria would accomplish in your life time.?

Well, there have been problems but I must say that Nigeria of our time, we believed that the challenges were there. But Nigeria of many years ago, to some extent, was still far better than Nigeria of today. This is because in Nigeria of so many years ago there was no problem about unemployment, no problem of not getting enough food to feed Nigerians.So, I still believe that somehow Nigeria of 40years ago was far better than Nigeria of nowa­days. In spite of this I believe we shall overcome.

Kidnapping and abduction of notable people and the rich is now on the increase, what steps should government take to address the situ­ation ?

These are some of the challenges I’m talking about. I mean, kidnapping, armed robbery, these are some of the things that were strange to us. They were not rampant in Nigeria of yes­teryears. For armed robbers to even be giving notice that they are coming to attack, this is strange. We don’t want that in our country. We hope that things would improve. All these are the challenges we just have to face now. And, gradually they would become things of the past.

What do you think both govern­ment and parents should start doing to curb the menace?

Whatever it is, everybody should try his or her best to make sure that our country gets better. For example, when I was in the Army, I introduced a system that if an armed robber is caught, tried in the law court and found guilty, he should be executed in his home town or village. I don’t think they are still doing that now. If we begin to do that and an armed robber is brought to his home town for execution, this will bring serious disgrace to his family. With this every parent will make sure they teach their children to hate stealing and imbibe upright living, knowing fully well that disgraceful death is what will be the end of an armed robbers. Par­ents will always query their sons and daughters’ sources of sudden wealth; and each time a son or daughter bring home anything they know such son or daughter is not capable of buying. The idea of worshipping money would be reduced drastically. If this is done this idea of increase in robbery and kid­napping would become easy to tackle. Then, our society would be safe to live in. This insecurity everywhere would become a thing of the past. In addition, foreign investors would have confidence in coming to our country to establish industries, which also will help reduce the problem of unemploy­ment.

Anyway, this is just what I can say. Our country will be better. We will surely get out of all our challenges by the grace of God. I wish Nigeria and Nigerians well.