Military rulers better equipped for leadership than civilians - Ogbemudia

Elder statesman and two-time former governor of old Bendel State, Dr
Samuel Ogbemudia, celebrated his 83rd birthday penultimate Thursday in
Benin-City. The birthday celebration climaxed with a lecture entitled:
Towards Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria: What is a Political Party?,
delivered by the governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa. The elder
statesman spoke with Sunday Vanguard ahead of the celebration during
which he narrated his experiences during the civil war. He shared his
perspectives on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, why
former President Goodluck Jonathan failed, his search for Governor Adams
Oshiomhole’s successor, relationship with women and other issues.
Excerpts:
We are blessed as a nation with a lot of heroes even in the military but it
seems Nigeria abandoned these heroes. What do you think?
No doubt in my mind that the officers of my days were high grade officers.
They have my respect and, if there is any reason or anybody who wants to
honour them, I will join him. We had soldiers . like W.W. Bassey who was
West African number one officer and later became Nigeria’s number one,
Aguiyi Ironsi number two; Adebayo, Kulu Mohammed, Bama Larry, all those
were extraordinary officers, but the coups did what they did to get rid of
them; seven of them, but the reason up till today I don’t know because they
were not supposed to die. We have lost great men whether soldiers or not.
Military officers and men with distinguished character, we have lost them
and Nigeria owes them gratitude thank you at any time, whether now or in
the future.
You military officers always believe you will do better in governance than
civilians. Why do you have such feeling?
Because the military officer is better trained than his civilian counterpart.
What an army officer will do in geography in his first year in the military
school is what they do at the degree level in the university. I asked a
geography lecturer some questions on map reading, he didn’t know; he said
that was not his field. That same year three or four others said the same
thing but the young army officer does that in his first year, the first three
months. So the army officers and soldiers are better trained than civilians. I
have always said that a good sergeant in the army stands a better chance
than a director because very many directors do not control more than 10
persons whereas a sergeant can control up to 200 and lead them into the
battle and return.
Are saying people like IBB, Obasanjo were better equipped as leaders than
Jonathan, the immediate past President?
IBB is an extraordinary soldier, he led the Reece squadron and he was
always at the forefront of the battle with his ferret, he did it for me and
many others. Obasanjo initially was an engineer but he later converted to an
infantry officer and he did well because of his training. Jonathan didn’t have
one tenth of the training Obasanjo had but he is educated. Education in the
army is not all; there are many more things that make a leader than
education.
Culled from Vanguardngr.com