The recent visit of President Muhammdu Buhari to the South-East has been a subject of debate and discourse in the political circle. What are your views? Is it not part of the campaign for 2019 as being interpreted by some observers?
I do not see it that way. But people could have their interpretation and reading of the visit and the motive. I think it is clear that there is no iota of truth in what the people in the South-East believe or what their political leaders are telling them that the north or that Buhari is against the South-East; the visit has shown or clearly demonstrated that all components of the country have to go together; no section of the country is bigger than any. He has proven to the South-East that the people in the North are not against the South-East or that Buhari is against them. It is time for them to begin to think that calling for secession at the expense of the people is not in the best interest of the people of the South-East. So, the visit is a clear affirmation by the president that Nigeria belongs to all of us. We must be seen to be equal in the project. What he did was to demonstrate that he remains a nationalist and I think they have to accept that reality and the call for Biafra is no longer popular. I urge them to come together so that we can build a nation of our own.
Is the visit not belated, as it is coming more than two years after the president assumed office?
Are you aware that since he became president, he has not been to Kano State? Are you are aware that there are certain states in the North that he has not visited, apart from Katsina and Kaduna lately? Just once. So, we should not begin to look at issues in that light. He has not been to Kano, where they gave him a large number of votes that ensured his victory at the poll. Do we now assume that the northern people in Kano should now tag him as their enemy? Even in Kaduna where he stays, he has visited the place once or twice. So, let us be mindful of those mindsets. It is better to be late than never.
The thinking is that the president decided to visit the South-East because of the sustained accusation by Ndigbo that they were being marginalsed by the administration in the scheme of things?
Is there any part of this country that has not been marginalised? In fact, the North is even more marginalised than any section of the country. What do they even mean by being marginalised? Is it by appointments, infrastructure, development? In the last administration, where was the north in the power equation and general scheme of things under the Jonathan administration? Talking about appointments, they are at the discretion of the president. But we believe that if you are given appointments, you should not be looking at it from the principle of quota system. You must be looking for competence. All other appointments are at the discretion of the president apart from ministerial ones. Where you have doubts about competence and loyalty about people working around you, ordinarily, you can see that all the leaders have the same problem. You had the case of Jonathan government that almost everybody came from his Ijaw tribe, not even from the Niger Delta region. They were given priority. It happened during Obasanjo administration; neither here nor there. We are having the experience also during the Buhari government. I am not saying it is justifiable. But that is because of the circumstances on the ground, where there is too much mutual suspicion, lack of sincerity on the part of the political leaders. You would discover that most of our leaders would only prefer to work with those they are used to, believing that they would never betray them.
A lot of people will disagree with you that the North has always been marginalised in any way at all…..
As a core northerner, I am telling you that we are marginalised. The level of poverty in the northern part of the country, level of illiteracy, level of lack infrastructure level of backwardness in the North are clear indications of marginalisation. Yes, I would agree we hold onto power oftentimes; we don’t do anything good about the power concerning the North and its people. You discover that when a northerner is in power, the Igbo and Yoruba tend to benefit more from the government. An example is what is happening now. Look at the appointments into federal ministries. Look at such critical sectors like power, housing, works, petroleum, all those things are channeled to the South. It has always been like that.
But the northern political class cum establishment, especially governors, had the opportunities to meet and provide the basic needs of the people. So, aren’t virtually all the problems of the North self-inflicted?
I agree with you to an extent and that’s why I said no section of this country should complain of being marginalised. By who? Everybody is being marginalised by the ruling class. All of us have the same problem. It’s high time we began to understand the fact that there is no better place than Nigeria. Hence we must be seen to be drawing the battleline between us the people and those who claim to lead us, by ensuring that we engage them. We don’t look at where we come from but rather we should look at Nigeria as our own constituency. So that at the end of the day, it would be easy for us to fish out the bad eggs among them. We cannot generally say all of them are bad, but I am of the opinion that a lot of them are not doing things in the collective interest of their people. So, we must be seen to be drawing the battle line, to say ‘look, enough of this madness by our political leaders or our so-called self-imposed leaders.’
Many said restructuring the country could easily make things fall in place, especially some of the lapses you have just highlighted as constituting the bane of the Nigerian federation. What is your take?
I am a strong advocate of restructuring. But the fact of the matter is that whatever we want to do in the best interest of the country we must be seen to be doing it at the right time. What I am saying is that since the inception of the Buhari government, there have been challenges from one side of the country to another. There are high level agitations across board. I do not also agree that immediately after restructuring, problems of Nigeria would be solved. No! restructuring will address one of the problems facing us. There are a lot of problems. With the way things are now, we must be mindful that the time is auspicious for restructuring. So, I am of the belief that politics has started and no responsible government at a critical time like this, could accept anything called restructuring. But we must let those who are championing the cause understand and appreciate why we think it cannot be done now. I am one of those who believe that the centre is too strong and powerful,. We either go back to the system of regional government or true federalism or whichever form, rather than making the centre too strong, such that they decide everything. When the system is restructured or when you decentrslise it to make it less attractive to the centre, of course, everybody will go back. No state governor/government will be lazy or a layback. Everybody will begin to harness the resources in their states and everyone will develop at the pace. At the end of the day, there will be a healthy competition. I quite agree with that, but I am also saying that despite the fact that I agree with restructuring, let us wait until after 2019; the next government can come up with the first agenda and all of us can now be saying the same thing. If the government appears not ready, we all will let it realise that during its campaign and the manifesto of their party, this is your promise to Nigerians. We will confront that government with the need for restructuring; create an atmosphere where there would be restructuring.
Is it not better to do it now, given the widespread agitation for restructuring in the country?
There is an adage in Hausa language that you cannot be running and stopping your heart at the same time. Let us save the unity of the country first; let us ease the tension in the land. Secondly, from January, serious politicking will start and there will be less than a year to the general election. Are we saying we should suspend election in order to carry out restructuring? This is not right. We should be sincere with whatever we are doing. Restructuring is not realistic at this particular point in time. For instance, people thought it was totally impossible for the president to visit the South-East. You saw the warm reception the people accorded his visit. He has proved those critics wrong. So, everything has got its time; let us wait for the time and the time will come fast.
Do you have any regrets over the role you played, especially in the decision of the Coalition of Arewa Youths to issue notice to Igbo residents in northern Nigeria to relocate by October 1, this year, a development that triggered a chain of negative reactions from IPOB and other groups and individuals in the South?
There are no regrets. If we had not done what we did, that foreigner [Nnamdi Kanu], who is a half-Nigerian, I am not sure he is a Nigerian, who came from nowhere, would have done more havoc to the unity of the country. Nigeria should have celebrated us for what we did, for our patriotic intervention. He was here to destroy the country. We still feel Nigeria should have celebrated us, because we said never again should anyone try to hold the country to ransom. Then, most people were keeping quiet, so, we said no, we can’t allow anybody to come from nowhere and we did what we did and today, all of us are happy for it, because normalcy has returned to the country.
Somebody kept saying they want to go; they want to leave the country, that if you don’t allow them to go, they would declare war; that they would make Nigeria worse than Somalia. Of course, many of us have not experienced war; we were not born during the Nigerian civil war and we cannot be part of those who believe that war is the answer to the problem, because we know the history of war and we think nobody should ever think of such scenario. So we wrote to the international community that it is clear and simple: let them organise a referendum for them, that if we don’t have it in our constitution, it should be amended, that it is their right to go, since Nigeria is a signatory to the UN charter on self-determination, rather than dragging us into war. That was exactly what we said. If we had not done what we did, that guy would have dragged us into war today. Thank God, today, we have been vindicated. He is a terrorist; we have exposed him. And the Nigerian government is happier even though they pretend not to commend us for our efforts and when they tried to provoke our people, we provided the right leadership for our people. We have played a major role in stabilising the country today. So, to us, we have done well, and we deserve commendation. When Buhari was to visit the South-East, they threatened to kill him, but at the end of the day, the president went on the visit and came back. So it is just their usual rabble-rousing and propaganda.
It is apparent that the presidential candidates of the major parties for the 2019 elections will come from the North. But supporters of the president believe he has got the capacity and that he deserves to continue in office?
Well, if you ask me for my personal view, I would say he has not done enough. But having said that, even if he chooses to re-contest, those who think it is right for anybody above 60 to contest will vote for him. But certainly, as a younger generation, we would work with other progressives to ensure that anybody we would support will not be above 60, since we constitute about 70 per cent of the populace. If vote is by number, I’m sure we would work across board with our colleagues from the southern part of the country so that whoever is coming to contest for the Presidency in 2019 would not be above 60. That’s our target and that’s what we are working on. You can be assured too that the North would provide somebody that has the capacity, who is willing and determined to bring about a collective desire of the country and begin to move it to the next level.
Don’t you think Buhari has got the capacity to carry on, given his tenure so far, as his supporters say he has done so much to deserve a second term in office?
Well, if he has, he has not demonstrated that for us to see. The fight against corruption has not been properly done. The only area you can give him a little mark, maybe, 30 or 40 per cent, is in the area of the fight against insurgency in the North-East. One can say the Nigerian Armed Forces have really tried and probably, there is serious support coming from the Federal Government. Besides that, in terms of general stability, provision of infrastructure, feeling the dividends of democracy under this governance, apart from always putting themselves at the tight corner only to blame and blackmail some people who are perceived to be enemies, or the fight against corruption, where the only body that fights against corruption, the EFCC, fights only those perceived to be enemies, the right things have not been done. If I stole billions of public fund, the moment I become an APC member, I’m covered and my sins have been washed away. I don’t think that is right. We must be seen to be doing the right thing. We must be seen to be fighting corruption holistically; we must be seen to be applying the principle of equity, justice and fairness to all, so that we will demonstrate statesmanship in whatever we do when it comes to the issue of governance in the country. This is the way I see the government failing. But I strongly believe that with what is happening now, Nigerians have learnt their lesson and they should be prepared to decide on who they want in 2019.
In my own opinion, I think we need a clear leader. The generation of today has a better opportunity to demonstrate what they can do. The politicians will only use the youth when it comes to voting, but when it comes to the issue of sharing the goodies, they make us to believe we are youths, even when they are even in the minority in number. This cannot continue and this must not be encouraged. So, anybody above 60 should just go and retire; we have to walk side by side with other parts of the world where they produce leaders who are either in their 40s.
But Sule Lamido and others are also in the race
You would be surprised that those of them who are showing interest would not even go anywhere. By the time the music starts, you will discover that they are nowhere to be found. That they are flexing their muscles does not in any way mean they are the best. I can tell you that the best are yet to come. The North will give the country something better. Certainly, there are no two ways about it; the North will still produce the next president, because in the present dispensation, we have not benefi anything because the South-West and the South-East are the major beneficiaries and, in fact, the South-West is benefiting more, while the North has not benefited anything. But we will ensure that we have a president who would not give priority to one side more than the others. So, our priority is that we need a president that would look at Nigeria as his primary constituency. Under the present government, the North has been marginalised; so we are suffering.
and then