What leaders must do for Nigeria to overcome its challenges —Sokoto district head

Alhaji Sani Umar Jani, Sarkin Yaki Gagi, is the District Head of Gagi in Sokoto South Local Government Area of Sokoto State. In this interview with OLAKUNLE MARUF, he speaks on security situations in the country and the roles traditional rulers and local government councils must play to bring things under control.

The country is passing through a difficult period now due to high level of insecurity. What do you think is responsible for that?

One of the major reasons attributed to insecurity in Nigeria is overpopulation. The majority of population are unproductive. Before now, a majority of people in both northern and southern Nigeria used to be farmers, unlike now that we are being affected by global warming and climate change. Another reason is bad governance and lack of social injustice. Many youths are not gainfully employed. Also, look at the level of power supply, which is very poor and has made most of our manufacturing companies to either shut down or reduce their productivity. This has affected our per capital income in the country. It has got to a stage where an average Nigerian can only feed once a day. Life expectancy again in the country has dropped because of so many issues. Government at all levels should adhere to the rule of law and justice must be done to everyone.

We also need to ensure that more personnel are recruited for security agencies. We have the highest population in black Africa, but we are rated the lowest in terms of police-citizen ratio. Even in Niger Republic, the number of security personnel per head is higher than what obtains in the country.

Our government needs to recruit more people into the police, army and other security agencies to address the high level of insecurity in the country. Even more immigration officials should be recruited, because illegal aliens are too many in the country. They concentrate more on Nigeria because we have more fertile land that can accommodate most African nationalities.

For most Nigerians, especially the youth, there are no employment opportunities, no agriculture engagement, no entrepreneurship engagement. Even our tertiary institutions are not dishing out what is expected of them as most graduates of engineering cannot put to practice what they have learnt. I believe we should have a policy that will make our mechanical engineering graduates to practise at workshops the same way medical students end up in the hospitals.

We also need to embark on study on mitigation measure on climate change. Before now we used to have vital rainfall. But all that has changed now and this has dramatically affected our vegetation and farming. This is one of the reasons why herdsmen move round up to the Southern part of the country looking for green vegetation, looking for rainfall, among others, for their cattles.So I think these are some of the reasons we are having increase in insecurity in Nigeria.

There are agitations for secession and self-determination among some ethnic groups in Nigeria; what do you think is the solution to that?

The non-adherence to the provisions of the constitution is a major factor. The constitution guarantees every Nigerian the right to live in any part of the country with a freedom to practise his religion alongside his personal political affiliation. The issue of indigeneship and nationality should be looked into.

Take for instance, you can say a Yoruba man living in the North will be described as a resident while the same goes for a Hausa man living in the South. The constitution guarantees us to live anywhere in the country, to vote or be voted for or to establish any lawful business where they live. But that is not so.

Many Nigerians are being denied their rights as enshrined in the constitution. We need to respect the rule of law and the constitution. There is also the need for dialogue among the different ethnic groups in the country as well as constitution review. The review will guarantee local government autonomy and when a local government is empowered, there are many things that can be done at the local government level.

Today, the local government councils do not have the capability to have a regular security meeting with relevant stakeholders. The media should also be engaged to come up with a programme that will further promote unity in the country.

A majority of our youths are on the streets after graduation looking for white-collar jobs. Our overdependence on white-collar jobs is another major factor. We need to invest more in agriculture. It is the only sector that can guarantee employment to every Nigerian. There is also the need for investment in rail system to promote exportation of farms produce. We import many finished products into the country whose  raw materials are in abundance here. Our products can compete with the quality of goods from any part of the world. This will help improve on the togetherness, our unity in Nigeria. Governments should invest more in technology and power supply to help more manufacturing companies.

The issue of inter-marriage is another vital factor that should be encouraged among different tribes in the country. When a mother is Hausa and the father is Yoruba or vice versa, this will promote unity among different ethnic groups within the country.  Issue of indigeneship should also be abolished. A Yoruba man born in the North should be an indigene of the place while an Hausa man born and brought up in the South should be qualified to be an indigene of the place where he was born and not claiming to be from Sokoto. It is wrong.

If we do it that way, every Nigerian, irrespective of wherever he is born, will work for the country instead of claiming to be  an indigene of a particular place.

What role can traditional rulers play in ending insecurity?

We are the custodians of the grassroots. We are the people to implement most of the government policies and programmes. Traditional rulers need to be more enlightened, well educated so that they can speak about the well-being of the community. Provided we are specially informed, essentially mobilised, productively challenged, we can make a difference.

Traditional rulers still lag behind in terms of proper knowledge that will enhance dialogue and promote good moral values among Nigerians. We should be given the opportunity to travel far and exchange cultural ideas and background knowledge with our colleagues in different parts of the country. If a traditional ruler in the North can travel to the Southern or Eastern part of the country, he will realise that it is not only in the North that the world begins and ends. We need to be exposed to see the beautiful nature of Yorubaland and their tradition. Same goes for the Eastern zone as well as in the North. Let them also come to the North and see the beautiful side of Sokoto, Kano, Niger and other parts. I believe it will unite the country more and make us value one another going forward.

If we do this, it will make us think first as Nigerians instead of talking about our region or where we come from. We should learn from a country like the United States where a citizen of America thinks first of being an American before any other thing. We also need to be proud of being Nigerians, because God brought us together for a reason and we should respect that. These are some of the things I think, as traditional rulers, we can mobilise at the grass roots and use to  promote unity.

Before, it is noted in our tradition that traditional rulers are the fathers to everyone. But today, some parts of the country are talking of disintegration without recourse to the traditional rulers in their domains. The division of Nigeria cannot be good for anybody. Nigeria, as it stands now, stands as the giant in Africa and will continue to offer its citizens opportunities. No region in Nigeria should hate one another. We must love one another and continue to do things together, moving forward. We are doing business together and that is the best way to live.

During the last Ramadan, I hosted people of different religious backgrounds. People of different ethnic groups gathered in my palace to break fast together where a message of hope was delivered on how we can be together without any rancour. I encourage other traditional rulers to do same maybe twice in a year.

What is your message to the government at all levels?

My message to government is to remember they are the leaders and will be asked in the hereafter how they ruled the country and its citizens.

The policies and programmes of the country do not favour national unity. The government of the day should look at bringing all the parts of the country into government and not to continue to practise nepotism.

Nepotism in government is well noticed in this administration. Government needs to understand the right of every Nigerian, irrespective of religion, political or ethnic affiliation. We need to involve even the losing political parties in governance, since the country belongs to all of us.

Government needs to do more in the agriculture, poverty alleviation as well as creation of enabling environment for our youths to thrive in their chosen careers.

More security personnel should be recruited into all our paramilitary and military for us to have at least two million security personnel in the country. We should empower local governments to become autonomous so that they can make decisions on their own, make their own budgets and provide security for their people

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