Femi Okunnu, SAN, was a federal commissioner for works between 1967 and 1974 (during the Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s government); he later on had a brilliant private legal practice. He shares his experiences with ADEOLA BALOGUN
Having practised law for over 50 years, you should be able to sit back at home and enjoy the dividends, why do you still work?
True enough, I qualified in 1960. I was called to the English Bar in Feb. 1960 and to the Nigerian Bar in Sept. same year. I do not go to court these days, although I still maintain a legal chamber headed by a competent young man. He does the administrative duties. I spend my time more on charitable work. I maintain about four or five charity with interest in education. I am into charity mainly to promote lawn tennis among boys and girls in secondary schools in Lagos under the auspices of the Yoruba Tennis Club where I am chairman, board of trustees. So, the bulk of my time is devoted to charity. And of course, as president of the Ansar Ud Deen Society of Nigeria, I am occupied with the main aims of the society, to propagate Islam and promote education; both Islamic and Western education among the youth.
But there is this notion that Islam is against Western education as suggested by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram has nothing to do with the mission of AUD on education. But as Nigerians, the government has not told us the aims and objectives of Boko Haram. We’ve been left to guess whether it is against Western education (which I don’t believe) or it is due to failure of government to provide the common needs of the people in parts of the country; or whether Boko Haram members are agents of politicians or political parties in certain parts of the country. Now, evidence is mixed, but it seems that what is available to the public points to Boko Haram members as being used by certain politicians in parts of the country. So, it has nothing to do with Islam or the pursuit of Western education by Muslims. I decry the taking of lives by Boko Haram or any other group in the country. I knew the late Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Shuwa very well during my time in government. As the commander of First Division, he took me to Enugu to see the position of Enugu. That was when Odumegwu Ojukwu was claiming that Radio Biafra was still broadcasting from Enugu. I took the international press to Enugu to debunk his claim and Shuwa took me from Makurdi by road to Enugu to show the world that Enugu was firmly in the hands of the federal troops. It’s very sad to hear that he was killed by gunmen. As it was reported, he was preparing to go for Juma’t prayers. So, it’s significant to note that Boko Haram has nothing to do with Islam.
As a young man, were you influenced by someone to choose law as a profession?
No. My decision to study law was borne out of the desire to play a public role after my university education. I had political leanings in my school days when I used to attend exco sessions at the old secretariat on the Marina, listening to the late Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dingle Foot engage in verbal contest. To me, it was a debate between the defender of the British rule in Nigeria represented by Dingle (who was number two in the colonial hierarchy), and Nigeria’s leading nationalist, Zik. It was a privilege to listen to debates by the two and as I said, that influenced me to choose law instead of History, which was my best subject.
How was studying in England then?
Fine; incidentally, I had inputs in the creation of the Law School, when I was the General-Secretary of the Great Britain and Ireland. The union submitted a memorandum on the need to establish a law school and I drafted the memorandum and that was in the late 50s.
Why did you go into government instead of facing private practice when you returned home?
I was a critic of the Tafawa Balewa government because the government, to the youth especially the Nigeria Youth Congress, was not satisfactory in terms of the economy and foreign affairs. The government was too pro-West and the university students wanted Nigeria to be a non-aligned nation in foreign affairs. So, I was very much a critic of his government and incidentally, with all due respect, I alerted Nigerians to the Anglo-Nigeria Defence Pact and I championed the agitation for the abolition of the pact. I organised a student demonstration in London early in 1960 before I came back, and did not relent until the pact was abrogated. The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo lent his voice to the struggle; but he did not initiate it. I also led the agitation against the proposed Detention Bill by the government and I went on Radio Nigeria where I had a slot, ‘News Talk’, on certain evenings, and spoke against the bill to the horror and annoyance of the Prime Minister, Balewa. From that background, when the country was on the verge of the civil war, after the coup and counter-coup of 1966, I accepted the invitation to be on the side of Nigeria.
Who invited you to the government?
I was invited by Gen. Yakubu Gowon to be a member of his government. I accepted the invitation because Nigeria was at a critical time, an aftermath of the mass killings of Nigerians, especially in the northern part and the forced mass migration to the eastern part of Nigeria. Note that non-Eastern Nigerians were also killed during the coups. The events were leading to a strife and later the civil war and at that stage, I felt it was my duty to help to stabilise the country.
Incidentally too, your cabinet prosecuted the civil war. How was it being a member of the cabinet during the war?
The war started soon after we were invited and remember that at that time, the four regions gave way to 12 states. The regions were abolished and Gowon created the 12 states on May 27, 1967. Eleven of us were invited because there was no one to answer Gowon’s call from the East-Western state. Eleven of us were invited to help in salvaging the country not to go into the war. It was a very interesting experience, which I won’t trade for anything else: to help to make the country one in spite of the strife, to end the strife and set up an economic pattern, which we thought would endure and make Nigeria great. Talking about the war, I am sure everybody must have read excerpts or passages of Chinua Achebe’s recent book, There was a Country where he made a very false allegation against the Federal Government of Gowon and Awolowo about promoting genocide? Quite the contrary, I was personally involved in peace talks firstly in Niamey. I was the leader of Nigeria’s peace talk delegation, while Prof. Ene Njoku led the Biafran team in May 1968. Addis Ababa talks held on Aug. 5, 1968 and it was presided over by Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Throughout the period of about six weeks of the talks, he remained the chairman. Ojukwu led the Biafran delegation and Chief Anthony Enahoro led the federal delegation. After some days, Ojukwu left and after a few days, Enahoro also left. I took over the leadership of the Nigerian delegation towards the middle of Aug. till mid Sept. while Prof. Njoku led the Biafran side. Our main task was to discuss how relief materials would get to the other side. The agenda for the talks are making arrangement for permanent settlement of the crisis between Nigeria and Biafra; terms for cessation of hostilities and concrete proposal for transportation of relief materials to the civilian victims of the war. The first two items on the agenda took just one week, while the remaining five or six weeks was for the transportation of relief materials to civilian victims of war. We spent that length of time discussing the various routes to get food from anywhere in the world to the Biafra civilians. Most of the proposals we put forward were rejected by the Biafran side. They wanted direct flights from outside the country to their enclave. And since there was a civil war, of course, that was not possible because foreign countries would be flying through Nigeria’s airspace, so it was essential that we sat down to discuss various routes by which food could get to the Biafra civilian population. Experience showed that some of the flights going to Biafra ostensibly carrying relief materials also carried arms. There were reports of such incidents and so, it was essential that there was an inspection of the cargoes. After the failure of the talks in Addis Ababa, there was the last one, which I had the privilege of leading in Monrovia, Liberia in 1969. The Biafran team was led by a distinguished Nigerian, Sir Leo Mbanefo, the chief justice of the Eastern Region before the outbreak of hostilities. We slugged it out again, largely on the issue of relief materials and the emperor was there with President Tubman of Liberia and others. One central point, which we must not forget is the one on the allegation that the FG used starvation against the victims of war; Ojukwu actually used starvation as a weapon to prolong the war.
How and why would he do that?
He thought that he would prolong the war not only to victory but for more recognition by more foreign countries. Biafra had been recognised by Tanzania, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Haiti. He was waiting for France to recognise Biafra, led by Charles de Gaul, who nearly broke up Canada. He was interested in the breaking up of Nigeria because he thought that Nigeria was too dominant in the British colony, as against several other Francophone countries. He was jealous of that and there was rivalry between Britain and France for colonial dominance. Nigeria had these forces then, America was ambivalent, Vatican City was in support of Biafra. Biafra used religion as a weapon of war to get the sympathy of the Christian world. Germany was in support of Biafra, so also was Italy, Spain, Portugal, all the Catholic countries in Europe. Britain was in the middle and so Ojukwu was very sure that Biafra would survive. And he kept on using two weapons, religion and starvation. That is the crux of the matter. The government which I served between May 1967, about when the civil war broke out, and Jan. 1970 when it ended, there was no policy, declared or undeclared, to starve Nigerians who were trapped in Biafra. There was none whatsoever.
If that was the case, why did Achebe single out Awolowo in his book?
I wouldn’t know. Achebe will be the best man to answer that question. The only answer I can give you is this: Achebe has some fixation about ethnic power. He singled out Awolowo, I believe, because Awolowo was declared the leader of the Yoruba and he had the political ambition to lead Nigeria. He is an Igbo man, he is not a Nigerian. He is not the only one who suffers this, almost all Nigerians. Everybody sees themselves as Yoruba man or Igbo man or Hausa man first before being a Nigerian. Have you heard of a Chinese saying I come from Xiang River and China is about 10 times the size of Nigeria? Have you heard of an Indian saying I come from Punjab? What is wrong with Nigerians that they are not proud to call themselves Nigerians but an Igbo man or Yoruba man or a Hausa man? Nigeria will never be a great country except Nigerians regard themselves as Nigerians irrespective of where they come from. And that is Achebe’s problem. He cannot point to any policy paper or cabinet paper declaring that FG was bent on starving Nigerians trapped in Biafra. He cannot point to any trustworthy document emanating from Gowon’s government stating that FG embarked on starvation of Nigerians in Biafra.
How did the war affect your duty as the federal commissioner for works?
The war affected my work in many ways. Despite my involvement in peace talks and various foreign missions, I still managed to run my ministry as best as I could. During the civil war, we concentrated on the rehabilitation of bad roads and on long-term planning. We started with road study. For example, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the study started in the late 60s. After the war, the study on various highways was ready and it continued between 1970 and 1972. It was not only about the existing network of federal roads which were about 6,000 miles then throughout the country, by the time I left the government, the federal roads had increased to over 21,000 miles. We took over some state roads at the behest of state governors to have a good network connecting all the states and for the movement of people and goods. I managed to conclude most of the road studies so that at the time I left government in 1974, most of these roads, over 20,000 miles in terms of improvement, were either under construction or some construction had just been completed, while for others, construction was about to start and some started soon after I left because the plan was there and the money to build them was available. I am proud to say that by the time I left the government, Nigeria had a network of first class roads, a good number of them newly constructed. It’s a matter of personal sadness that many of the roads that I built throughout the country are now full of huge craters, not just pot holes. The roads have gone. Any newly-constructed road depending on the volume of traffic, within seven, 10 and at most 15 years, should be reconstructed. Many of the roads that I built have not been reconstructed 30 or 40 years after. Take Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Shagamu-Benin Road, Onitsha-Abakaliki Road, Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, Makurdi-Jos Road, Ibadan-Ilorin-Jebba-Kaduna-Kano Road; Zaria-Kano were all first class road, so also was Kano-Maiduguri Road. Kano-Katsina, Zaria-Sokoto, these are good roads and newly built. Many of them have not been rehabilitated or reconstructed for over 30 years. I am always sad when I travel throughout the country and see my handiwork in bits and pieces.
Why is it that work stopped on the Lagos bridges immediately your team left the government?
Well, the roads were still newly-built by the time other governments took over leadership but there was no excuse for Ibrahim Babangida, Sanni Abacha, Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term, especially when he was the one that succeeded me as federal commissioner for works and housing in 1974. He had no excuse as president for the deplorable roads, even the Lagos-Agege-Abeokuta Road. So, when you talk about Lagos roads, take Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonsoki Road, which was one of my masterpieces. We built it in the 70s; it was concluded after I left. It has not been rehabilitated all these years. The government has just been reckless in attending to infrastructure, especially roads, which could build the economy of this country.
Can you briefly tell us about your days at King’s College as a pupil?
King’s College could take us a whole day to discuss, not only my time there but up till now. King’s College in my time and the spirit is still there, represented Nigeria. At KC, we didn’t know which part of the country you came from; we were not interested in that as we saw ourselves as Nigerians. My regret is that we Nigerians no longer regard ourselves as Nigerians. At KC, we didn’t care where you came from and as a matter of fact, we were not allowed to speak any local language and we formed that friendship albeit with a common foreign language. It was after leaving school that we began to know where others came from. My prayer is that Chinua Achebe, a great writer, would not only regard himself as a Nigerian, but always carry the Nigerian flag, not the Igbo flag. Even during the peace talks, I wasn’t born when Sir Mbanefo was at KC; I still had time to ask him about his nephew, who was not at KC but a friend of mine when we were students in London. I asked about Patrick, a lawyer and his wife and after the civil war, Patrick confirmed that Sir Mbanefo delivered my message to him. That was the spirit of KC, which we even took to the peace talks in those tensed periods.
Can you mention some of your contemporaries at KC?
There are many of them. There is A. K. Amu; he was a classmate of mine. He died a few years ago. Alade Animashaun is still living; Frank Eke, now a royal father in Rivers State; a few of us are still alive. Vincent Maduka of the Nigerian Television Authority; in fact, I was his guardian although there was just a year between us. He lost his father when we were in school. When I left KC, I was his guardian, attending PTA meetings and we are still friends. I left him in my father’s house where we both lived when I travelled to England. Alex Ekwueme was my senior by about three years. To me, Ekwueme was a Nigerian, not an Igbo and all the noise some people are making about being celebrated as Igbo nationalist is false. He is a Nigerian and Igbo friends should stop celebrating him as Igbo, but a Nigerian. When he showed interest in the Presidency, I joined him in the Lagos House, while he was given a blessing. If he had contested that election, I could have come out of retirement from party politics to canvas for Alex, not as an Igbo, but a Nigerian. Philip Asiodu is another personal friend, a senior at school. My good friend, Alhaji Bisiriyu Onisarotu, the former president of AUD is still alive. Onisarotu and I entered KC same day, Jan. 5, 1948 and we were in the same form throughout. At one time, when we were both boarders, I found out that he was attending church and I reported him to Imam Ekemode, who used to visit KC to talk to us as young boys.
What influenced the way you dress sir?
I have been in love with bow ties from my student days in London. I grew beard in the 50s as a young radical, and in the early 60s when the British colonialists regarded us as communists.