Kudos For Ned Nwoko Over NDA Delta Establishment Bill, As Onicha-Ugbo Man Promises Land For The Academy

By Frank Oshanugor

Barely three days after Prince Ned Nwoko, the Senator representing Delta North Senatorial District presented a Bill seeking for the establishment of a Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Delta State, a good number of well meaning Nigerians have commended him, describing the Bill as timely even as Engr. Kenneth Ugo Udeze has promised to make land available at Onicha-Ugbo for the Academy.

Speaking with Atlanticnewsonline on phone on Thursday from their different locations, some Nigerians were in agreement that the Bill came at the right time. Udeze who is a lecturer currently at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko in Anambra State hailed the Bill as a good one and cautioned that the opportunity of passing it into law should not missed. He added that if where to site the proposed Academy would be a problem, he would readily make his family land at Onicha-Ugbo, Delta State (measuring about 300 to 400 acres) available for the establishment of the school. In his words, “the land belongs to my family. We inherited it from our father.”

According to a former Director, Mr. Jude Mekwunye, who retired from the Presidency a few years ago, “there is no argument about establishing another NDA and locating it in the south of the country. The Bill is a well deserved intention and I commend Senator Nwoko. Both North and South from earliest time had existed as regions and if NDA has been in the North over the years, there is also the need for it to be in the South. The South has what it takes to host an NDA in terms of educated population, some of whom have had the benefits of attending such elite institutions located in the North.

“I encourage other senators from the South to give Senator Nwoko their maximum support to ensure that the Bill sails through in good time. He should not be a lone voice just as I also commend the media for trying to assist people to push the Bill.”

An electronic security specialist and Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Kontz Engineering Group of companies, Engr. Mustapha Lusty while commending Nwoko for the Bill insisted that “considering the large population of Nigerians and the number of institutions to be protected and number of people we need, I will strongly recommend that we can have NDA located in each of the six geo-political zones. It will be very good for us, so that we can have diverse experience and inclusiveness. I think the proposition should not just be about the South but about considering having the Academy in the six geo-political zones so that we can have mass production, massive training with resultant increase in the number of professionals from different and diverse environments.”

A senior lecturer in the Department of English Studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Chijioke Uwasomba, while commenting on the issue; made a review of the statutory functions of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna as a place where military personnel cutting across the Army, Navy and Air Force are trained. He explained that because of the way Nigeria is currently structured, even those asking for national presence think along this move for the establishment of another defence academy. “That is the perspective one can look at it and it simply tells us that the elite have not agreed on Nigeria.

“If you look at how strong members of the northern elite including Senator Ali Ndume were responding to the attempt to relocate the headquarters of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and some units of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Lagos, they are already warning that if President Bola Tinubu does not take time, in four years time they would show that they have the population. So Nigeria is not structured properly.

“Those people feel that once they do not have what others have, they would begin to agitate for it. If the country is properly structured, I do not think it is necessary to duplicate the Academy. However, at present the country is not united as one, the elite have not agreed and the country is structurally bad. Some states in the country have more spaces and more local government areas than others and they use this local government structures to get more money for themselves. For example, the total number of legislators from the entire South East of Nigeria is far less than what two states in the north have.

“It is obviously from this point of manifest inequality that Senator Ned Nwoko has presented the Bill seeking to establish another NDA for the South in line with the old saying that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.”

Incumbent Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Abia State, Sir Uzor Nwachukwu speaking with Atlanticnewsonline, has this to say on the matter: “Since we are always talking about federal character, fairness, equity and the way we do things in the country in other to oblige the aspirations of all the constituent members of the country, it would not be a bad idea to have another Defence Academy in the south particularly given the fact that it would help to address major security challenges in the country. It would be a good idea to have the Academy established for fairness and equity.”

According to Mr. Matthew Ibadin, the Managing Director of Badison Security Limited and currently a post-graduate student at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, the establishment of another NDA to be located in the south of the country is a good development. He argued that some people have the erroneous belief that NDA is only for the training of military personnel, whereas the institution goes beyond it as there is a school of post-graduate studies at NDA where different people from various professions across the country come to acquire some knowledge. He stated that the postgraduate school in NDA, Kaduna is about the biggest in Nigeria where all kinds of courses cutting across cyber security, defence security studies and so on, are offered.

Ibadin believes that if another NDA is located in the Southern part of Nigeria, many people from the south would take advantage of it to acquire more knowledge in military and other studies. He argued that the cost of travelling to Kaduna from Lagos to attend lectures every four weeks was enormous but if there is another one in the south, it would be cheaper for any student from the south.

On his own part, a former Deputy Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr. Dennis Amachree, recalled that the existing NDA in Kaduna is a university now. Without mincing words, he has hailed Senator Nwoko for the initiative, explaining that the idea of another defence academy is right in every ramification. According to him, “from what is happening in the country, you will agree with me that some people think differently and making others feel that we are not on the same page. Just because of the attempt to relocate the headquarters of FAAN and some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria from Abuja to Lagos, the Arewa Consultative Forum has started agitating. The point is that since the military institutions are concentrated in the North, let some of such institutions be sited in the south. The North would always think that they hold the power in Nigeria. That is the reason the Hausa-Fulani in Nigeria continue to believe that power belongs to them. They believe that if the political power does not work in their favour, the military which is concentrated in the North would step in.

“So my suggestion is that we should diversify all the federal institutions including the NDA. Let us site the headquarters of the various federal institutions in the various six geo-political zones in accordance with proximity to their operational environments. For example, the headquarters of Solid Minerals Ministry can be sited in Zamfara or Nasarawa, headquarters of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation should go to Port Harcourt and headquarters of Ministry of Agriculture should go to Kano and so on. We really have to practice true federalism,” he concluded.

A former Deputy Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Services, Dr. Brasca Ifeadi in supporting the Bill, went on memory lane to highlight the historical background of the NDA, Kaduna. According to him,” the NDA is a structured organization by the military itself. Originally, the Nigerian Defence Academy was built by the Army and thereafter being a uniformed person too, I have an idea, that thereafter in other to enhance the synergy of the military as an institution, it was decided that the Academy should be a joint institution where other arms of the military could be trained.

“They decided to incorporate the Navy and the Air Force. Along the line, everybody began to see how unique it was for them to build upon the fundamentals of the military and make them extremely professional, improve their technological know-how, military tactics and everything that has to enhance the territorial integrity of the country, not only in terms of war, but because the integrity of a national security is something systemic.

“Gradually, it became very unique and one could see clearly during the ECOMOG interventions and all such activities. Nigeria has become militarily unique. It is only unfortunate the terrorism within the country seemed to have watered down the effectiveness because of warfare nature of terrorism within the country. But fundamentally, it a good thing to have another Nigerian Defence Academy. If it can be decentralized it would make them have opportunity to increase the number of senior officers and other officers who pass through the defence academy. If they can establish one in Delta State, it would be fantastic so that the number of intakes would increase in a year. The more officers are trained, the better for the country.

“Again, from the geographical perspective, locating an NDA in the South would give people of the south a better sense of belonging and foster greater unity with a feeling that what we have in the north is also in the south.”

A security consultant and retired senior military officer, Col. Dan Amuta told Atlanticnewsonline , that establishing another NDA is like having more than one university in Nigeria. He explained that “as a retired senior military officer, what I am out for, is the standard of training. Once the standard of training is maintained, I have no objection to the establishment of another NDA. The situation of the NDA, Kaduna currently is like what obtained few years ago when the Nigeria Law School was located only in Lagos. Increase in population made it highly imperative to decentralize it and subsequently, its locations were extended to Abuja, Enugu, Bayelsa and so on. So NDA can similarly be decentralized but what matters again like in the Nigerian military particularly the Army, number is issued in one direction, so that seniority is known. In the military, we do not joke with seniority, because once seniority is down played, it means there is no military at all.”