Jeremiah Useni The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, and former FCT Minister, Lt.Gen Jeremiah Useni (retd.) tellsADELANI ADEPEGBAthat the proposed national conference is a waste of time and that northern agitators should allow President Goodluck Jonathan contest in 2015 It’sbeen some time since we heard your voice in the political circuit. Why have you been quiet? Unless there is something important, one doesn’t make noise. But I don’t have to make noise before you know I’m around. Yes, I only talk when there is an issue of concern to me, when there is something of general interest and when I think my voice may be of relevance. As a retired general in the Nigerian Army, how would you rate the Federal Government’s fight against terrorism and insecurity across the country? Government is doing its best, no doubt about it. But we started late, if we had nipped it in the bud, the issue would have been different. It is just like the civil war, where we started with police action. It had become a full-scale war before we took proper action and it took three years to stop the Biafran war. It is just like this case, but like I said, everything is being done to get it off our neck. Government is doing its best, a division has been created for that zone, the Seventh Division of the Nigerian Army. Service chiefs have been changed to give new impetus to the campaign. I see more improvement in clamping down on those people. Would you agree a carrot-and-stick approach is the best in handling Boko Haram? I don’t know whether that is going on now. Even in war, those who surrender, you treat them nicely and those who refuse to surrender, of course, you deal with them appropriately. It is widely believed that the North is against the proposed national conference. Is this true? That is not true; I am the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, the umbrella body of all the associations in the North. We believe that the members of the National Assembly are the representatives of the people. They should be able to speak for the people; they should be able to see whether something is good or bad. Can you give a man a job and still sack him and say there is a group of people that should come and do the job? Don’t forget, you still have to go back to them again and they can disagree with what you have done. That means nothing will come out of it. That is why some of us are saying we must tread with caution. Has there been any talk that lawmakers have failed or that we think they are useless and we should get a new crop of people? I don’t understand. We are not against it, we are just saying it should go through the National Assembly. Do you believe the conference is necessary at this point in time? It should be the National Assembly; it’s a procedure, it’s a system. We are talking of how we will go about it. What are you going to get differently? We had a national conference during (Chief Olusegun) Obasanjo’s regime, but what happened? That conference was an attempt to give Obasanjo a third term. When we realised, we kicked from the North. During our meeting at the ACF then, I led a delegation as Deputy National Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum. Then I led a delegation of Afenifere, Ohanaeze and South-South Assembly to the National Assembly to say no. So, Obasanjo was not happy he didn’t get the third term. He didn’t take the report of the conference seriously, but there were very serious points, useful suggestions, and recommendations in that report. I don’t know whether people have looked at it. I think it’s because the hand is different from the palm; that is what they are trying to do now. But where is the palm, is it not in the hand? When you talk of national conference, this-and-this conference, they are saying the same thing, it’s just different English. So, I believe it can be handled by the National Assembly. It seems the government is bent on conducting the conference. Do you think it has an ulterior motive for doing this? I don’t think they are bent on carrying out the conference, it’s people that are instigating the government to do it. The government never suggested it. So, it will be wrong to say government is bent on doing it. It is people, for their own interest, that are pressurising the government. That is the position. It is not because the government is bent on doing it. Would you have joined the All Progressives Congress, if you had remained in the All Nigeria Peoples Party? Yes, or alternatively, I would have left the ANPP.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 08:43:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015