The politician dismissed claims that the party has any link with terrorists, insisting instead that the Federal Government is the terrorist. He also spoke on other issues including decisions taken at the National Conference, impeachment of former Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State
Where do you stand on the argument that the National Conference which you were a delegate has failed given the way it ended?
In the first place let say that we have not gone on a long recess, we have gone on only two weeks recess. The recess is to enable the secretariat compile our thinking as reflected in our recommendations or resolutions at the plenary sessions. Once these things are compiled and properly documented we will resume on August 4, look at them and decide whether they were true reflection of our decisions.
As soon as that is accepted the recommendations will be passed to the convening authority, that is the government that set up the conference. They will know what to do with the resolutions so far adopted by the conference.
The inability of the delegates to agree on key issues like the derivation formula has led to the argument that the conference was a failure, do you disagree with this viewpoint?
A lot of people are not conversant with parliamentary procedures and they are not in a position to understand what it was that we agreed upon. Everything accepted by a group of people in a parliamentary debate becomes the position of the parliament. As far as we were concerned we adopted a position. This means that we agreed on that position, whether it is for or against is immaterial. We had a recommendation by the committee on Devolution of Power and Resource Control. We agreed that the status quo should be maintained. And that position of the committee was adopted at the plenary.
By arriving at that decision, we advised government to set up a technical committee of experts to advise it on the nitty gritty of revenue sharing. It means that the status quo will continue to operate until that committee brings up a contrary position. This will be adopted by the National Assembly before it becomes a law.
If you say that there was no disagreement on the derivation, how about the five percent recommendation for rehabilitation and reconstruction of North East?
The five percent was not part of our committee’s recommendation. It was recommended by an ad hoc committee set up by the conference. It came up when some people wanted to change the status quo which was adopted at the committee level. They failed to achieve that.
At the beginning of the conference you were one of the Northern delegates who accused the President of habouring a hidden agenda. Now that the conference is about to end , do you still hold such impression?
Of course yes. Whoever sets up such advisory body like the National Conference must have an agenda which may be open or hidden . As far as the open agenda is concerned everything was treated. As for those insinuations that there were hidden agenda which I held very strongly, some of the hidden agenda which were under the table were at a point brought on top of the table but they were defeated at the plenary.
They include new constitution tenure extension, referendum etc. they were hidden agenda intended to promote certain things for certain people but they were roundly defeated by majority of delegates to the conference.
At what point did the tenure elongation came up?
Of course there was issue like that. Some people projected and tabled a motion that they wanted the tenure of Mr President and the governors to be extended from four years to six. Even some people suggested that the President should be given a two year extension over and above what he is enjoying now. All these things were openly debated and roundly defeated at the plenary. This could be some of the things that I referred to as hidden agenda.
Of course, part of the hidden agenda was move by some people to secure a large chunk of our revenues. This was also defeated. We agreed that the status quo should be maintained.
Outside these issues you mentioned, are you satisfied with other decisions reached by the conference?
I am satisfied with some of them. We are in a democracy, I may have my different opinion on certain issues but the majority will definitely have their way. I object to the issue of the dissolution of local government. I don’t believe that it is in the interest of Nigeria that we dissolve the local government. We should rather maintain the local government as a third tier of government.
I will continue to say and defend at any level that we need the local government as presently constituted .if there are inequities in the distribution of local government we must finding a way of addressing these inequities and inequality in the number and size of councils .
Some people out of hate and spite tried to compare Lagos and Kano without looking at the parameters that were used in creating local government areas in these two states. Kano has 44 councils while Lagos with nearly an equal population to Kano has 20 LGs. Because some people are promoting hate they only question why the row states with almost equal population have disparity in the number councils. They argue that Kano has 44 because those who created the councils were from the North, they were from Kano. They have never extended the argument to say that in creating local government, a number of factors and parameters are taking into consideration. One of the factors is population. Other factors are land mass, contingent parts like the environment.
All these issues are considered. When you look at these factors, Kano is ten times the size of Lagos. Lagos is a city state. If people who say some of these things were not mischievous they should have compared Lagos to Osun. The former with a population of 10 million according to the census has 20 LGs and the latter with a population of two point something has 30 LGs. If it is also not out of mischief the same people talking about Kano should also talk about Rivers that has three point something million population yet it has less local government than Osun. Whether we accept it or not we are using the census figure for all the things we do.
Akwa Ibom which has less than 10 percent of the size of Kano with a population of about two point something million has 32 LGs. Nobody is talking about that. Rivers has more population than Akwa Ibom, bigger land mass has less LGS than Akwa Ibom.
If the comparison of Kano with Lagos was not out of mischief or hate , the same people making the criticism should have compared Rivers to Akwa Ibom or Lagos to Osun. It does not matter what parameters you use there is no way anybody can defend that the criticism of Kano is not done out of hate and mischief. No matter the parameters used as criteria for creation of LGs Kano would always have more councils. The state has bigger land mass, large population etc.
I suggested at the national conference what we should do but people because of primordial sentiment refused to listen. What I said is that we should allow local government to be a third tier of government but make a recommendation to authorities like the Presidency to set up a national commission as was done by Gen. Murtala Mohammed under Justice Irikife to draw criteria for creating local government and address all inequities and inequalities. The commission should be arrive at the number of local governments that would be acceptable based on a criteria, not on sentiments.
You cannot dissolve local governments because the reason for creating them was on account of the fact that there are certain communities in certain states that would never have the opportunity to have a say on who becomes governor of a state or what happens at the state level. But if you give these people their small autonomy, authority, enclave they will manage themselves as they wish.
They can use the local government, when we go into strict constitutional requirement for councils, to manage their primary school education, bursary, scholarship, agriculture, health, environmental challenges. Allow them to do that at the level of their communities. It is wrong to say you are throwing away these councils because you believe certain states or certain parts of the country have more councils, therefore they have more access to national revenues. That is why they want LGs taken out of the federation units.
The other issue which I also do not agree with is that is state police. You saw Abia State recently registering northerners in the state because it has the support of federal government. Kano, immediately resolved to do that also. Imo also moved in that line. That is not healthy for the country. We have the constitution which provides that every Nigerian is free to live in any part of the country and carry out his or her legitimate business(s) and cannot be discriminate against.
But suddenly Kano people woke up and said every non indigene in the state should be registered. Is that healthy for us? Is that healthy for the polity? Is that healthy for the unity of this country? It is not. And if Kano has its own police, it may not use the federal police to effect the registration exercise.
Abia was using federal police to do that because they belong to the same basket. Is that good for the Igbo, Yoruba, Nupes, Tivs etc in Kano to be registered because they are not indigenes? When we know that Kano people have got the largest heart among Nigerians. They made a Nupe man become governor of Kano, Borno was made governor of Kano, Edo man was crowned governor of Kano, an Igbo man was made governor of Kano. Which other tribe or states in Nigeria have shown such large heart to not only accommodate other people but made them governors of their states.
Do there is a big mistake that was made by the conference. The issue of state police was promoted by those who do not know the implication of what they are clamouring for. This issue was fought and won by Mallam Aminu Kano because he and those that worked with him knew what the native authorities were doing to the opposition. Adoption of the local authorities police or state police means that you are killing democracy. If Kwankwaso had a state police during the appointment of Emir of Kano, Mallam Sanusi, there would have been war in this country by now. We should promote those things that would unite us and do away with those that would divide us.
You accused the Federal Government of trying to destabilize the polity, how did you arrive at such allegation?
Are you not a Nigerian? Are you comfortable with what the Federal Government is doing, for instance, removing governors because they disagree with the presidency. We have intelligence report showing us that the presidency wants to remove six governors that belong to the opposition. The presidency is afraid that if APC continues to control the number if states they are controlling Jonathan will lose the 2015 election.
Even in the PDP states, I want to assure you that Jonathan will not win those states in the general election if we play our cards well. They intend to remove the governor of Edo whom they consider too stubborn for them. We don’t know the type of troops they will deploy there-whether Army, Air Force or Navy to get him off. They had wanted to remove Nyako by force. They did not want him out because he embezzled the money they accuse him of. If the issue is about embezzlement of money, then those who sent troops to remove him would be the first people to be hanged, not even to be impeached. They removed Nyako because they are claiming and suspecting that he has a compendium of what have been happening and want to send it to the International court of Justice at Hague. They resolved to remove him and poison or kill him so as to destroy every evidence. Unfortunately for them they didn’t know that God is greater than man. They intended to catch Nyako as a common criminal, he left his house fifteen minutes before soldiers arrived at his home in Abuja and Yola. They combed his house thoroughly, including climbing the ceiling trying to find those evidences. They didn’t know how Nyako escaped.
Nyako as Lieutenant General in the Nigerian Army couldn’t have left such evidences in his house.
But there were claims that he ran away to avoid being probed , are not are of such claims?
Who deserves probe more? I am telling you the reason why they are after Nyako . If that is the propaganda they are doing, they are merely feeding you with falsehood . For instance Gov Al-Makura of Nasarawa state is the most thrift governor yet they want him impeached . They do not like his face and they want him out. They know that they cannot take the state through the ballot box they want to impeach him and take over the state.
Nyako has been removed, Al-Makura is on the cue, Borno Governor is on the cue . They are among the six governors that they want to remove before the 2015 election.
However, even if they remove all the governors of the APC they will still not succeed in coming back.
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