However, I think honestly that it should be the responsibility of every Nigerian to think of a way out: let us not start blaming ourselves. Let us not start blaming Northern leaders. Rather, let us come together and forge a way forward and make sure we sustain peace in this country. The other day I read in the papers where this man, Chief Edwin Clark was blaming the former President, General Ibrahim Banbangida and I felt very bad because a person who truly wants peace should not say a thing like that. He should rather be thinking of finding ways to ending the problem. And they (people who talk like Clark) are making a mistake. The current security problem is not a Northern problem. It is a national problem. It rubs on everybody and every part of the country. Even if there is no bomb blasts in the South, that does not mean the challenge does not affect the South. What is happening here in the North, ideally, should affect every part of the country. I also heard this Asari Dokubo threatening that there will be war. I, for one, I am very disappointed to hear that from a person like that. This is because this issue, tragically, affects everybody in the country and not a case of one man or a group against the other. Nobody is safe. People no longer go to Churches; people no longer go to Mosque. They are all afraid. Everybody is afraid to go to public places. Must we continue like this? How are we going to sustain our economy if we continued like this? So, I want to appeal to all Nigerians, regardless of political, ethnic and religious affiliation to come together for us to find solutions to this problem. These people, who are causing these problems, they are Nigerians: They live with us, they dine with us and they are within the society and therefore, let us come out together and find a way out. During the administration of the former president, late Alhaji Umaru Yar ‘Adua, he brokered peace with the militants from Nigeria Delta, and the peace is working today. Some of them have been trained at home and abroad. The Asari Dokubo that is talking is a beneficiary of that peace arrangement because he was remanded in prison custody over acts of terrorism and through that peace, they got him out of the prison and unfortunately today, he is threatening war in this country. Why can’t we extend the same thing to this Boko Haram people if that would end the violence? But I must add that when situation like this presents itself, there are a lot of people who are benefiting from it, including the uniformed services because when there is insecurity, they get allowances and some of them want to keep on getting these allowances. They want the problem to continue so that their allowances would continue. I think we should all come together and solve this problem regardless of our affiliations. The government must do more to end the spate of killings. Jonathan must remember that when he took his oath of office, he promised that he was going to ensure the wellbeing and security of Nigerians! Taking it from here, there have been growing concerns that President Jonathan should resign if he could no longer guarantee the security of Nigerians. Do you share the same view? Well to me, he should not resign. I don’t think that it is the solution to the problem. Rather than resign, when the time for the next elections comes, he should quietly allow a more suitable and a more capable hand to take over the affairs of the country. This is because if he resigns now, somebody else is going to take over and maybe, such a person may not be any better …. But I do believe that Jonathan is being controlled, he is like a puppet. Someone else is running the government for him. He allows people like Chief Edwin Clark may be one of those running the government for him. I must add that the whole security problem in Nigeria is not being helped by the level of corruption and injustice in the land. Corruption is what is causing insecurity in this country. The President keeps saying that he is going to fight corruption, he going to fight corruption, but if you look very deeply as to what is happening in that Aso Rock, it all amounts to corruption. Look at his wife, who was appointed to the rank of a permanent secretary! She has not worked for a very long time, yet she was appointed a permanent secretary. She has not worked as a civil servant for a very long time, but they selected and promoted her above other people and made her a permanent secretary. It amounts to corruption! But the President has taken steps to tackle the security challenges. He has sacked many heads of security agencies, including his NSA, Minister of Defence and his Inspector General of Police. Are these not sufficient policy actions? You see there are many issues. What is causing the problem in this country is corruption. Why can’t they do anything about corruption? There are, as you know, a lot of people who have charges of corruption on them and they are roaming the streets unchecked. Why can’t the government do anything about these corruption cases? We are not hearing anything about it: the police pension scam, corruption in the National Assembly and so on. The moment they start sentencing highly placed people, everything will go on well again. Secondly, the police and the security agencies in the country are under staffed. There are several youth roaming about and the question is, why can’t this government recruit and train them? I think that the removal of the heads of the security agencies-policeand NSA that you just mentioned is scratching the surface. There are basic things that have not been done and which ought to have been done. The issue of the oil subsidy threw up very many negative things about the Minister of Petroleum. The Minister was indicted. Did Jonathan replace her? No! She is still there. The Aviation issue came up and the Minister of Aviation was indicted. Did he change her? No! she is still there. If he is sincere, why must he allow his wife to take a rank of a permanent secretary when she is not qualified to be so appointed? Still on security, has the appointment of the new National Security Adviser, Alhaji Sambo Dasuki resulted in any significant improvement in tackling the security challenge? Of course, the bombings and the killings of Nigerians have not stopped, but the new Security Adviser has been taking positive steps to change the situation. This is because he has been able to visit Yobe, Maiduguri, Kano States and I think a number of states in the North and has been able to talk to some of the leaders in these states. This is a good step in the right direction. He has seen them, he has spoken to them-he happens to come from this area-they have listened to him and I think the next step would be to talk to the Boko Haram people involved directly. But the former National Security Adviser did not visit all these places. He sat there and was just talking. He made a statement which was very bad when he went and started blaming the government, and started blaming the Peoples Democratic Party’s political system. A National Security Officer should not have said such a thing in public. This is because a security officer who knows his job should be felt and not heard. He was supposed to have reduced everything in writing and communicated same to the President and if the President refused to act on it, he can now say okay, I resign. But to go for a meeting of the South-South to say something like that is unfortunate.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 16:54:05 +0000
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