6 November 2007
(Page 2 of 2)
It's been said you will be commanding the biggest UN peacekeeping force in the world when it's up to full strength. When you wake up in the early hours of the morning, doesn't it terrify you? The prospect of failure?
No, it doesn't terrify me. First and foremost, I was the Chief of Army Staff – that is the commander – of the Nigerian Army. The Nigerian Army is about 80,000. I then became the Chief of Defence staff – that is commanding the army, the airforce and the navy together – before my present job.
So the numbers do not frighten me.
We've had big challenges at home too in Nigeria. We've sent troops to Darfur, we've send troops to Liberia, so it's not a totally new terrain to me. And I was the deputy force commander in UNAMSIL, the UN mission in Sierra Leone, for two years, and that force was about 17,000.
I know there are ups and downs but [one has] to be focussed, have your strategic goals, [move] towards them and be flexible when there are difficulties, which there are bound to be. What one has to guard against is first to allow any difficulty that will dampen the morale of the men… You do it by training… even in the mission area, we still keep them training, updating themselves, being dynamic enough to move with the situation on the ground.
On my part, my consolation is that I believe the world which decided to give me the job will come to my aid when I dearly need it, [to help] me achieve the goal that they have set for me.
You don't fear that that you may suffer the fate of General [Roméo] Dallaire in Rwanda? (Dallaire was the UN commander who was forced to watch the 1994 genocide unfold without being able to take effective action.)
Luckily General Dallaire has sent me a personal letter. I found the letter quite useful. I wrote him thanking him for his understanding as a comrade and a colleague in arms, to [help] make sure [there is no] repeat of the difficulties he ran into.
I think things are changing. I'm not saying that there are two situations that are identically the same but you can draw lessons. I know that a country lost 10 soldiers in Rwanda, and pulled out of the mission [a reference to Belgium at the beginning of the genocide]. In Haskanita we lost 10 soldiers and officers and none of the countries have threatened to pull out.
As my people say, if you go to a butchery where they are butchering meat, and you don't want any sign of blood to touch you, then you don't go there at all. But once you go you must be prepared to get some stain of blood on you. I'm sure all the countries realize that there is a danger of casualties, but on our part the leadership will do everything possible to minimize the danger.
What would you say to the people of Darfur as the new force moves in?
I want them to know that we have some limitations but even with those limitations we will do the best to provide them with the limited security that we can. But with time, as the force settles in and enlarges, we'll be able to provide them with minimum security and create a conducive atmosphere for them to be able to go back home.
But I also want them to talk to their leadership. They must realize that there is no military solution to the problem of Darfur. Since there is no military solution, they must come to the conference table, have a dialogue. Splitting their movements into several further groups will not solve the problem.
The leadership must compromise and come together, for the interests of the children, for the interests of the young ones, and even those unborn so that they can have a future… And if they compromise and have a peace deal that we can monitor, that we can verify, that we can keep for them, then they will have a country, they will have a home for every one of them and we will get over this very quickly.
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