INTERVIEW: Mr Terab Abdulrahman, who represents Bama/ Ngala/Balge federal constituency of Borno State ELECTION CAN ONLY HOLD IN SEVEN LGS IN BORNO –ABDULRAHMAN BY WOLE OLADIMEJI on Jan 27, 2015 Terab Abdulrahman, represents Bama/ Ngala/Balge federal constituency of Borno State at the House of Representatives. He shares with WOLE OLADIMEJI, in this interview, the security situation in Borno and how activities of the Boko Haram sect could mar next month’s elections in the areas unless something is done to curtail its onslaught. Excerpts: What is the security situation in your constituency? The facts are that Bama, Ngala and Balge local governments have almost been taken over for almost four months and still counting. Now you hold elections where normal activities take place. But in the situation that where even the military have not been in these areas in the last four months. You mentioned Bama… (Cuts in….) Not only Bama, but in other places. For over five months, Askyha is still under them, parts of Chibok, Dambwa, and as a matter of facts, I heard the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, say recently that it was going to distribute Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, in 12 local governments; even that list of the 12 local governments is the previous list, because after they did that Bama was taken over and now of course we all know Ngala and Baga have been taken over. Abadan, parts of Gozala are gone, Askyha they came after, so out of that 12, they still have five. As a matter of facts out of the 12 councils that we are talking about, election can only practicably hold in only seven. For you to hold elections, you have not secured that place for people to go back to their homes, let alone holding elections in that place. We believe we have less than a month from now, we are still calling that there should be more concerted efforts and what is the efforts? We have said it time without numbers that we need more men. So you are saying as things stand today elections can hold in only seven councils in Borno? Yes, realistically, these are the ones you can say you are confident that probably security can be guaranteed; not because security can be guaranteed but as a matter of fact, you call a nation yours when you own the territory. Some of my colleagues joke with me that for you to go back to your constituency, you need a visa and it’s not a joke, it’s true. I have over 400 wards in my constituency and not single one is under Nigeria’s territory. But why haven’t you spoken up before now because we have heard the military talked about recovering some of these territories and you are a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP? I have been talking, though not in the media. It is interesting that I follow up almost all of your security reports and it is also interesting that most of the people understood the security situation as a whole but may be not the specific situations of happenings in the North- East. We have lent our voices everywhere and as a matter of fact, there was a time on weekly bases, I raised a matter of personal explanation, to inform the House of Representatives about the current situation, that yes this the current situation, the military said they have recovered some territories, that they are making efforts and they have always said they are making efforts. Even currently, in the last three to four days, they are making serious efforts to recapture Bama from the insurgent group, but it is still not yet successful. Will elections hold in these places? The answer is yours. You have painted a picture of insecurity in these places and you said your colleagues poke fun at you that you need a visa to go there because someone else has taken over, now if someone else has taken over do you think elections can hold there? You only conduct elections in your own territory, places under your control. A member of the PDP did say that the President will come there to campaign and if the territory isn’t yours, why would you agree for Mr. President to come there to campaign? One thing you need to understand here is that I have always personally and at every event disassociate politics from the reality of security situation. When you mentioned North-East, the understanding is that they see the place as just a small chunk that once a place is affected, no other place can be penetrated. In my local government for example, Bama, there are un-tarred roads; in fact to move from one part of Bama to the other, may take you a whole day and that is my constituency alone. That’s why when they were canvassing issues of the state of emergency, I gave them an example that in the whole of my constituency, we have only one barracks and it houses just about 200 men. Now without the state of emergency, no military man is allowed under the law to go out of the barracks without special specific directives from the President. It means if there is no state of emergency, you can shoot someone around Gamboruga, which is about 240 to 300 kilometres from Bama and that means at every hit, you have to get presidential directives to move the military out if you are not under the state of emergency. But the state of emergency will guarantee that they can roam about and that at any time there is any hit, they can respond. With the security situation, would you be willing to ask your family and friends to come out with you to cast their ballots? I think you ought to understand what I am saying. You can hold elections in Maiduguri, which is one of the seven councils I mentioned, but you cannot hold elections where INEC has already designated that it cannot distribute PVCs, which is 15 councils in all. But I want to tell you that it is about 20 and you need to put more efforts on ground to even achieve this. Recently, you alleged that some people are politicising the insurgency, who exactly is politicising the security situation? I want to believe the interviews you are talking about are very recent and then of course the opportunities that are given to those of us from the place by the media including our governors are less than what other persons outside our region get. Interestingly, Bauchi, which is also in the North-East, is the closest place to old Borno, that is the present Borno and Yobe states, and from the other side is Gombe, Jigawa. I am telling you, not even those there understand what we are going through and so when you find somebody in Lagos or Kano discussing the issues there, it will be more of political sentiment than finding solution to the real problem that we are facing now. The problem is not a joke. At this point in time, we are talking about life. Sincerely speaking, let the truth be told, election is secondary. You have to get people back to their homes, you have to save lives. In any case, how hypocritical that it is only during elections that you worry about taking people home. Let’s concern ourselves and unite towards getting these people back to their homes, let them live before they enjoy the other aspects of life. Had the state of emergency been approved would it have helped matters? I have my own issues with the implementation of the state of emergency, the state of emergency gives the legal framework for the military and other security agencies to operate, that’s quite clear and probably the lack of it will make them cautious in implementing their strategies. But what is most important is that when the state of emergency was declared, we expected all of us would focus on that alone and that’s where I faulted the larger political class as a whole that we expect that during the state of emergency you don’t focus on other sectors. You do everything that is required for you to implement it, coordinate it and finish it before you get on to other things. But we are operating a state of emergency where we are still embarking on road construction, we are still handling medicare, still handling other areas. I believe my understanding as a lawmaker is that if you do that, you are suspending every other acts, especially the appropriation act for you to implement the state of emergency first. I concur with Yobe State governor that we need more men, that is the fact of the matter, because what is happening is that we must accept that this fight is a war and secondly it is a fight to catch the rat and in fighting to catch the rat, you follow it from behind. You have to get people all around it. Cameroun and Chad have more forces than we have and we should complement that by ensuring that there are enough men. In the whole of the country, the entire provision to fight Boko Haram is less than 13,000 men. NATIONAL MIRROR JANUARY 27, 2015
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 11:36:24 +0000
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