Military alone can’t win Boko Haram war — Osinbajo

In a recent visit to Pretoria, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo tells select South Africa-based Nigerian journalists measures the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has put in place to combat terrorism, poverty among others

President Muhammadu Buhari was here (South Africa) for the African Union summit where one of the topics of discussion was African security, how far have you gone in achieving this?

Nigeria has several concerns in terms of security. We are co-operating at the moment with the Lake Chad Basin Authority and all of the countries there. Insurgency generally is what is happening in several layers of West Africa, the horn area and many areas in the North East of Nigeria. In those areas there is Islamic insurgency with all the problems associated with it. For Nigeria, the critical concerns are how to stop what appears to be a growing tendency of insurgency in these areas; and we think we can. We think if we are able to keep our borders, especially the Lake Chad Basin areas and our countries safe, it will be a critical input we are making into African peace and security. A lot has gone into co-operation in that neighbourhood already. We have a joint task force in the area that is led by Nigeria. We have also made significant contributions in terms of financing the whole efforts. All the countries in that neighbourhood are cooperating. The president has spent considerable time going round involving the countries in the Lake Chad Basin area, in the collaboration and effort to contain and eradicate terrorism in our individual countries.

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How would you explain the recent spate of blasts in Nigeria? Would you say that your efforts are faltering or are there challenges we don’t know about?

I am sure that you recognise that there are several aspects of terrorism. Only one is essentially the military aspect. The military aspect of it, as you can see, is practically won in the sense that we’ve degraded the forces of insurgency recently. We do not think that they have the capacity to operate militarily in any significant way. And we think that in the next couple of months, we should be able to deal decisively with that. But the cowardly act of using IED, strapping up young children with IED and leading them into detonating bombs remotely are not really things you can deal with purely militarily. I mean these are just cowardly acts by a few individuals. Anyone can do some of the things that they are doing. Literally, somebody coming from behind you and smashing a huge stone on your head to kill you when you are not looking so long as they are prepared to die. In other words, we must distinguish between these suicide bombers and the overall threat of insurgency in the country. And that distinction is important because of the way we would tackle it. Tackling these bombings, has a lot to do with being vigilant; vigilance on the part of the local populace. Education of the local populace is also important, because some of these young girls who strap on IEDS and go to market place to bomb it don’t even know what they are doing. They don’t even know that they would die. And so, that aspect of it has to be dealt with by more public education which we are starting. National orientation using radio and all kinds of media to ensure that people understand that these are the kinds of dastardly act we have.

Some say beyond education, the issue is poverty; that people are willing to die just to get money for their families. What is your take?

I think it goes beyond that. I am not so sure. I think it has to do with deprivation and all that. But poverty is an important part of the whole sense of alienation that gives rise to some of these problems. I agree with you entirely and I think it’s a concern that the government has. And that is why we have the Presidential Initiative on the North East as some of the work we are doing in that area. I think education is crucial. People need to be educated, to be empowered to work, to find work to so. And of course, we need to do some social investment. Talking about social investment, we are talking about conditional cash transfers and free meals programme. Some of those things are direct investments in the lives of the people. We think that is important to take people out of poverty. But frankly, I don’t think that poverty by itself offers any explanation for somebody to want to blow themselves up. I don’t think it is sufficient. I think there is also brainwashing.

In a recent interview you granted, you talked about diversification of the economy. How do you hope to do that in the face of glaring infrastructural challenges?

It is true we have to deal with the infrastructural challenges and we have to deal with everything practically simultaneously. For example, we need to deal with power, because we need power to do most of what we say we want to do. And, we have to handle that as soon as possible. Then, we have to deal with road network, because we have agricultural plans. That is one of the major plans of the diversification. We are looking at agriculture especially the area of rice, wheat and oil palm production; which at the moment constitute a significant drain on our foreign exchange. Presently, we import about $3 billion quantity of rice and wheat and palm oil. Now, all of these are in the agricultural areas, where we feel we can do a lot more. If we are able to be self-sufficient in rice and wheat production, not only would we have saved significantly, we would also have created significant jobs in actual farming and in the whole agro-allied chain. That is why we have the silos that we built and the milling facilities that we have for rice. A lot of those things need to be oiled; they need to be kept well. If we are able to achieve these, I am sure that we would have significantly contributed to a whole effort of diversification. We are developing the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises also. We are also going to be involving market women across the country. We are looking at how to support their businesses, by working through co-operative societies. These are individuals who are entrepreneurs in their own right, but are usually ignored because they don’t fit into the formal definition of a MSMEs. But we think that they need to be involved in this. Once we are able to bring them in, we will be able to help them access finance and help them with financial planning, with projections and acquiring inventories for whatever it is they are selling.

A lot of Nigerians outside the country are being stigmatised and abused. Also a lot of innocent Nigerians die. What does the life of an average Nigerian mean to your government? What does your government intend to do with countries where Nigerians are residing?

I think President Buhari made that very important point, and he said that the life of every Nigerian is worth his own life; that he takes the life of every Nigerian seriously enough. And that is very important to hear. And I think that that is a very significant thing coming from the president of the country. I think that the issue really is how we ourselves in these various countries we are in can give ourselves significant support, not only in reporting but also highlighting these issues. This is because there are many places that we don’t even have the consular capacity to assist and help people fight for their rights. In the past few months, a lot of efforts have gone into creating channels through which the Diaspora can speak to the government. And, I have been facilitating quite a few activities with the people in the Diaspora. We just attended a major Diaspora event in Abuja where we had significant interactions about that. I think that the most important thing is what we are able to do for ourselves and the amount of importance we attach to ourselves. To what extent are we our brother’s keepers? People need to know, government needs to know what is going on. The major thing is not so much about what the life of a person in the Diaspora worth; it is what does the life of a Nigerian worth anywhere a Nigerian is. And I think that part of what is important to us as a government is in ensuring not just in words but in actions, that the Nigerian life is important. That’s why we have for the first time, a government that has committed itself to huge social investment. Thus, it is not so much the life of somebody in Diaspora, but more of the life of a Nigerian. What is the life of a Nigerian worth? And we think that has to be reflected not in terms of just what you say, but in terms of the protection of the rights of people and what you are investing in the lives of Nigerians. And that’s what we are committed to as a government.

It is believed that there is lopsidedness rather than reciprocity in the operation of businesses by South Africans in Nigeria and vice versa. What is your view?

One of the critical things that we are doing is bilateral relation and we are trying to expand the whole scope of co-operation between Nigeria and South Africa. Now, when you make the argument that there seems to be a lopsidedness in number of South African companies doing business in Nigeria and the number of Nigerian companies doing business in South Africa, you are probably right. But if you look at the balance of trade, we are doing better. And that’s the argument South Africa will always bring up. In terms of balance of trade, we are at an advantage. It isn’t as if there is a great deal of unfairness on one side or the other. They too can also talk about imbalance. But having said that, one of the critical things that we intend to talk to South Africa about is how we can do more business in South Africa; how Nigerian businesses can be better occupied here. Nigerian banks are anxious to come and do business in South Africa. They are in other parts of the world; they are in Zambia, Ghana and some other places. Thus, obviously, they would like to be able to open up here and start business. And we intend to promote that as much as possible. We intend to cooperate in defence as well as to see different ways we can work together in those areas. We have a great opportunity now because both President Jacob Zuma and President Buhari have a good chemistry and we think that there is a good opportunity to expand the scope of business both ways.

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