As a Christian, I believe in destiny In the past, northerners are ahead of the South in terms of governance and administration, but today, the north has been relegated to the background, no one is talking about a unified north anymore, just a community divided along ethnic and religious loyalties. The Southerners also have differences of religion and ethnicity, but it is not a source of conflict there. How did the north get here? Even you journalists know the kind of cordial relationships that existed in the past. Truth is both sides are at fault. We northerners have our own fault, and those opposing the north also have their own fault. Did the Southerners plunge us into the crises we are witnessing today? Many innocent people have been killed today, to the extent that there was an attempt to kill the emir of Kano, just due to lack of security. Not to talk of the Plateau. One cannot say these crises are as a result of religious differences because it appears to surpass that. But I believe we found ourselves in this mess because we have turned our backs on God, and we are mostly selfish in our affairs. We have hardened our hearts and are cheating each other, which will not take us anywhere. Everything now is based on religious on ethnic affiliations. Why won’t we continue to suffer? If we had not united ourselves as northerners in the past when some Southerners killed our leaders we would not have overcome. But today, this one will say I am a Muslim, while the other one will say, I am a Christian. How can we make progress? We cannot make progress by calling each other despicable names. Our leaders in the past did not do that. How can relationships among northern people be improved? Honestly, enough is enough. Emirs should be visiting each other. We can solve this problem, if we sit down and talk to each other. Emirs have stopped visiting each other. If you are angry with someone, and then he visits you, I am sure you will forgive him. Our governors too have a problem. We organised a meeting in Kaduna, the governors came and everything was so good, then the following day, only Governor Yakowa turned up, maybe he himself came because he was the host. They don’t co-operate. We have to sit and love one another, cry and laugh together. Otherwise, the upcoming generation will not inherit the right things from us. From the time he was the head of state up till today, many people have different interpretations of who Abacha was. Some see him as a hero, while others see him as a dictator who trampled on peoples’ right especially those opposed to him. Can you briefly describe him? Many people misunderstood who Abacha was. He was very honest and well mannered. Whenever we sat together, everyone would give their opinion, but whenever he decided, that was all. He knew how to run the economy of a nation despite the fact that he did not train as an economist. When he was the Head of State, he refused to take any loan from the World Bank, so no one dared undermine his authority. But today, you can say all sorts of things against the president and sleep peacefully in your house. So Abacha was a man who believed in law and order. He was also a man who believed in giving everyone their due. He used to listen to any complaint brought to him that concerned matters of state, and he always made sure he solved the problem. I knew him very well. *We translated this interview from Hausa and republished with permission from Rariya newspaper URL to article: premiumtimesng/news/145535-interview-killed-ironsi-installed-gowon-jeremiah-useni.html - See more at: vanguardngr/2013/09/killed-ironsi-installed-gowon-jeremiah-useni/#sthash.z0EtZv3T.dpuf
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 21:08:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015