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If the position of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) is anything to go by, southerners wishing that the presidency be zoned to their region might soon have their hopes dashed.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) Nastura Ashir Shariff, has said that there is nothing like rotation for the 2023 presidential election, emphasising that no region should be shut out.
Nigeria is said to be bleeding because of high level of insecurity in the country; the economy isn’t doing well. Are you not worried over the state of the nation?
We have always made our views known at any opportunity or forum. Three days ago, we came out from an extraordinary meeting of the coalition and issued a press statement. We are very much vocal than any other Northern group or any individual in the whole of Northern Nigeria over the spate of insecurity in the region.
There is no time we try to downplay our positions over the insecurity in the region, which is very worrisome. The spate of killings is not going down, instead it is escalating on daily basis, and this should be a major source of concern across the North; the killings are actually getting worse by the day. There is no resolve by the government to do anything to halt or reduce these. This is a government that came to power on the mantra of tackling insecurity but across North, there is no place you travel for over an hour stretch with your two eyes closed; it is very worrisome.
How can we come out of this quagmire?
We have been talking. We made another move about two weeks ago when the government was trying to gag virtually everybody that was talking about it; we came up with security summit involving security experts, retired DIGs, retired generals, not even northerners and even the clergy. On the Monday morning after we had converged, security agencies with dozen of Toyota Hilux vans arrived the premises and started beating up people to disperse us. It was very obvious that it was the handiwork of the state.
We did that to try to contribute out own quota, seeing that the government is helpless and the rest of us shouldn’t fold our hands and be left to be slaughtered, but unfortunately that was the outcome. Ever since that time, we also make sur,e even though we receive some kind of threats here and there, that we keep making suggestions.
We are saying at this juncture that the people of those communities should try and help themselves; they shouldn’t so much rely on government. In those places, people are paying through their noses to be protected. Just last week, a community in Zamfara paid about N30 million to avoid bandits or terrorists from coming to their community. Eventually, after collecting that money, they still came to attack them and went away with some people.
These communities can have some kind of vigilantes or the Joint Task Force (JTF) arrangements because you can see that the security operatives are helpless at this stage. People can look inward to see how they can mobilise some form of security arrangement to protect themselves; something that is modelled after the JTF we have in the North-East.
People allege that you are so critical of Buhari’s government because he has refused to settle you and your people?
Settle whom? For what? It is people who don’t know what they are talking about that hold that position. When you come to CNG and you go through its rank and file, you will realise they comprise intellectuals from different backgrounds. As matter of fact, it started as a group of young intellectuals who felt the need to come together to speak for the region. These are professionals doing very well in their areas. It is out of ignorance or trying to be mischievous to say the president hasn’t settled us; we are actually not for that. He doesn’t have what to settle us with. Settle us for what or with what? That is not what we are looking for. We have always made ourselves to be known for anybody who requests to meet with us that we are not begging for anything; we are protecting an interest. Nobody can buy us and nobody can gag us. So, it is a beer parlour talk.
You talk about the communities helping themselves. How can people with local guns challenge terrorists armed with AK 47 and other sophisticated assault rifles?
Take the example I cited the N30 million given about a week ago by a community in Zamfara State to terrorists for protection. If they had taken that money to the ammunition market, they were not going to get only dane guns, but other arms to challenge these terrorists. What they just needed was some kind of supervision, maybe by the traditional rulers, to make sure that everybody is put on check such that thereafter, overzealous elements will not take advantage of that to commit some crimes. With N30 million they can go to the ammunition market and get whatever to march the terrorists.
By law, are they supposed to carry such sophistication weapons, which you said they could procure in the ammunition market?
The government should look into that because if your number one priority is to protect the lives and property of the people or your citizenry and you are failing in doing that and the people are saying okay, it is either the security agencies are undermanned or you don’t have enough personnel to actually do the job, we cannot continue to watch people as they continue to be slaughtered in this community. So, what we will do is to protect ourselves; we can look into it and know what to do; don’t worry about supplying us with ammunition. What do you govern – dead bodies or people who are alive? When people begin to think in this direction, I’m sure the government will sit up. It is all about monitoring and supervision of the acquired arms.
Ever since the government declared the bandits as terrorists, what has changed and what is your view on the pronouncement?
I was actually appalled when the debate was going on that they had been thriving because they had not declared them terrorists. Far more than 80 per cent of these people don’t know the difference between when you proscribe them and when you don’t, because they are stark illiterates. They were not even concerned with what the debate was about; they were absolutely resolute about what they were doing. So, it has not made any impact. Their proscription centred on the Tucano jets the Federal Government got from America and they were not permitted to use them until they have declared them terrorists. Ever since that has been done, I haven’t seen where these Tucano jets have been deployed; where they are making any meaningful impact. The bandits or terrorists, they don’t know the difference. For the government, difference should be beyond the paper work, it should be reflecting on what you are intending to achieve, and as far as I’m concerned they are not achieving anything. You can do anything you want to do if there are results to show for it, but there are no results.
Are you in support of granting them amnesty as some people canvass to stop these killings and destructions? We have read reports of some repentant Boko Haram members who became moles
There is no one solution or approach for the issue. The problem in the North-East is different from that of the North-West. For Boko Haram, the people are fighting based on ideology, and you need to begin to look for ways to change their concepts and the ideology. But that of the North-West, it is baseless; there is no ideology behind it.
It is just about bastards who want to make money. Some of them were mercenaries brought in from neighbouring countries to protect mining sites that belong to some powerful Nigerians. In the long run, they became so powerful and saw that a lot of money could be made in that system, they went back to their countries and began to bring or recruit some of their own people to start milking those communities. In some cases, villages that have gold deposits were mapped out and there was the need to create chaos for the residents to actually vacate the places for them to take over.
So, the cases are not just the same. There is no one approach to solve the problems. Where are genuine cases where you find out that some of these guys went into banditry because the government didn’t do enough when they had problems. Some of them had their cattle rustled and they were abandoned, and the quest for survival actually forced some of them to take up arms. These are some of the cases where ordinary monthly security allocations or security votes could solve some of the problems because when someone’s 50 cattle were rustled and you the state governor, after proper profiling, you stepped in probably give him five or ten cows to continue. He would be reassured that there is something to live for. Many of them were neglected. Those issues need to be looked into differently, not with one eye to say there are all the same.
You need to actually identify those who are actually criminals. Those who are criminally minded, no matter what you give them, they are not going to embrace amnesty. We have seen cases where some of them embraced amnesty after two months they went back because whatever the government was trying to give them will not be sufficient because their mouths are already wide and cannot match up with what they get from their criminal enterprise. You have to profile them properly before you begin to administer your solution.
What are your expectations for 2023?
As far as we are concerned, the president can come from anywhere. The country is in a very messy situation right now, so we need somebody who has the credential; somebody who has what it takes to pull Nigeria out of this dungeon and that qualification is for anybody who comes from any part of the country. The most important thing is that you don’t shut the door against any region; let everybody bring out his or her foot forward and let Nigerians decide on who has what it takes to bring out the country out from the woods.
Proponents of rotation argue that in a multi ethnic group like Nigeria, and to ensure peace, that power should rotate between the North and South, even though it’s not constitutional, but by way of a gentleman’s agreement. What is your take on this?
The gentleman’s agreement they are talking about refers to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that is at the party level. In this kind of situation that Nigeria has found itself, rotation doesn’t hold any water. We are in a very bad situation. Let all those who feel they have what it takes to deliver the country come out. Maybe some other time, we can consider zoning, but as it is today, we want credible candidates from anywhere to come out, employ negotiation, which is game of politics, there are people you need to consult and they could give you their heart. In the past, we saw how M. K. O. Abiola contested against a northerner, the late Othman Bashir Tofa and won. We saw how former president Goodluck Jonathan won election against Buhari in 2011.
Really, nobody is actually trying to say it is about where you come from, but the situation we are in right now, we don t have that kind of patience for zoning. We are about 200 million people, we are looking for people who have what it takes; people who are achievers, go getters because Nigeria is on the brink of collapse. Those interested should come out and present themselves and play by the rules of the game, and then Nigerians will decide.
You painted a picture of Nigeria being in a precarious situation because of the present leadership. But in 2015, many said President Buhari was the best
It is high time we began to put a stop to emotions when electing leaders. And we have seen were it has landed us and that is why we don’t want it to happen again; we don’t want to vote anyone again on emotions or sentiments. That is why it is important for everybody who feels he has what it takes to step out. A lot of us are going to be there to sensitise the people on the candidates that are coming out – their shortcomings, the blunders they committed in the past and why we feel that they are not good for the office. We will take them to the public sphere as time goes on.
If by 2023, a Northerner emerges president, how would you feel if you were a Southerner?
This time around, we are all going to be in collaboration; there is not going to be any northern or southern president, but a president of Nigeria. We are going to be making wide consultations as to the person we feel has the credential, and we will be sensitising the whole country. Let’s even assume that we supported Buhari when he was coming at that time, but with what is happening now, it is enough lessons that somebody coming from the north is not enough, rather who we think has the credential wherever the person is from. If somebody from the north is contesting against somebody from the South-West or South-East, we are going to look at each of them one after the other because when the issues of bad governance begin to unfold, it is going to fall on every one of us. It is not just going to be on the northerners alone. Today, northerners are at the receiving end than other Nigerians.
