•To tackle insecurity, FG should flush out bad eggs in security agencies
A Middle Belt leader, Prof Yusuf Turaki, has called on President Bola Tinubu to set up a committee to implement the 2014 National Conference Report.
According to him, the report if implemented will diffuse the tension in the country and reposition the nation on the path of progress and development.
In an interview a with VINCENT KALU, the Professor of Theology and Social Ethics, highlighted why Nigerians are not patriotic and loyal to their country.
What’s your view on the state of the nation?
At present, Nigeria does not have a developed and an acceptable national identity that all Nigerians can identify with and be patriotic and loyal to Nigeria as a sovereign state, neither does it have a harmonised national social unity of all Nigerian peoples. What is on ground are the divisive groups that seek to protect, promote, project, defend, or impose their sub national values and interests upon the rest of Nigeria, either peacefully or violently.
Such sub-national groups have emerged and are tearing the country apart. What is wrong is human corruption of our God-given normative diversity. There is nothing wrong with each Nigerian group seeking to protect its ethnicity, identity, history, religion, culture, and ancestral land, among many others.
It is only wrong when these sub-national values and interests go against the spirit of nationhood, citizenship and national harmony, unity and peaceful-coexistence.
The Far North (Hausa land and Kanuri land: the Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri) is a region ravaged by non-state actors: Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, bandits, and kidnappers. In short, this region is characterised by the activities of terrorists, various militant and violent groups and jihadists. Militancy, violence and criminality are of the order of the day.
Buhari’s regime pursued a Fulanisation and Islamisation agenda, which boosted a social and political environment that was already filled with violent and criminal activities of the already existing non-state actors mentioned above. This agenda emboldened the political and religious configurations of the Far North with a codified, rigid and exclusivist and dominant Islamic North worldview. Anything less than this is to be rejected by this fixated Northern core. This is the root of the current calls and accusations from this region against President Tinubu’s political actions. The wild claims of having voted for a Muslim-Muslim ticket, and yet having the feeling of having been abandoned. This fact is fuelling the current political, regional and religious sentiments and wild-political narratives, thus heating up the polity.
The Middle Belt ethnic nationalities are currently being overrun and overwhelmed by the influx of non-state actors, being the exclusive products of the Far North, which is the invasion of militant Islamists, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers into the lands and communities of the ethnic nationalities of the Middle Belt.
The current Far North invasion is based upon two factors: Land mass and population mass. The instruments of Fulanisation, Islamization and social and religious upheavals are means of land grabbing and political and religious quest for dominance of a region, not of their origin. The recent pogrom at Bokkos and Barakin Ladi Local Government areas is just one of the many of such cases across the Middle Belt. This recent very act of genocide has insulted the conscience of Nigeria and the world.
In the South East, Igboland, the region is seriously divided factionally against itself along ideological and political lines, and in addition, the influx of Fulani herdsmen.
The criticisms of the role of the security agents in the South East and that of the perceived role of the Nigerian government towards the Igbo, is giving the narrative of Igbo marginalisation in Nigeria.
The pillars governing the political philosophy, culture, attitudes and practices of Nigerians are ethnicity, religion and region. These fan the embers of ethnocentrism and primordialism, regionalism and sectionalism, and religious and cultural bigotry.
How Nigerians used and practise these social factors among themselves are the sources of the current endemic insecurity, social, economic, political, regional and religious crises, conflicts and violence.
Why is insecurity in the country, especially in the North, escalating every day? One had hoped that with another government in power, it would have been arrested.
The question of insecurity in the North has a complex answer. No one factor is sufficient for an answer. There is, however, massive movements and migrations from Hausa land and Kanuri land; from the north to southward.
Historical, developmental and climatic factors have caused social, political, religious and agrarian upheavals and movements of the Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri southward. The devastating development policies and programmes, non-state actors and controversial fundamentalist Islamic teachings and ideologies have uprooted many societies and communities in the North. Far North is a ravage region that needs peace and stability. The compromised security agencies as a result of infiltration of the religious and regional ideologues, among their ranks, are incapable of containing terrorism, crises and conflicts in the North. The bad eggs in the security agencies must have to be flushed out.
On these renewed killings in the Middle Belt, do you see any political, religious or ethnic undertones in them?
Let me repeat what I have stated already: the Middle Belt is under siege from both state and non-state actors. It is the invasion of militant Islamists, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers into the lands and communities of the ethnic nationalities of the Middle Belt. The current Far North invasion is based upon two factors: Land and population. The invaders are the Islamist and terrorist Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri from the Far North. If there is a political will, the Nigerian security agencies are capable of dealing with the invaders.
How then can this insecurity situation be tackled head on?
Nigerian troops and police have been one of the best peacekeepers in the world. But at home, Nigerian government, so far, lacks the will power to crush insecurity.
The calls for individuals to bear arms have resonated because of the rising insecurity. What is your position on this?
Your enemy comes to you with a sophisticated weapon to kill. First, you do not have anyone or your government to protect you. Secondly, your enemy has the best weapon to kill you, and he has undergone training just to kill you. You see, as it were, I have surrendered my will and power to bear arms to my state, hoping that the state will protect me, at all cost. But when the state fails in its constitutional duty to protect me, but by default, allows my enemy to kill me. Under such, what should I do? Wisdom should prevail.
There are renewed agitations for the restructuring of the country. What is your stand?
I was a member of the 2014 National Conference, representing Kaduna State. I humbly call on President Tinubu to kindly consider setting up a committee for the implementation of the report, if necessary, with some modification. The Middle Belt needs to be political liberated from the dominance of the Far North (Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri).
The mantra of this government is ‘Renewed Hope.’ But today, the economy is in bad shape. What is your take on this?
The bad shape and state of our economy today is the end product of our bad national economic journey. Rather, we should set up a strategic economic plan of turning things around. Politicians, who inherit the bad economic situation, may not be bad in themselves. They may be blamed, should they fail to turn things around in due course. Our bane is poor leadership, in the sense that, we have had no transformational political leaders in our national history.
Economic theories that have positioned other countries have failed in Nigeria. What can be done to put the country on the path of development?
We need to radically change our political philosophy and culture, which was fashioned out of our ethnocentrism and primordialism, religious and cultural bigotry and regionalism and sectionalism. Nigeria may not be able to transform itself to join those progressive nations, unless we radically change our besetting political philosophy, culture and practice, and embrace a new political philosophy, culture and practice of nationhood, citizenship and national harmony, unity and peaceful-coexistence.
The way things are going, do you entertain any fears for this county?
God is in charge of His universe, because He is a God of law and order.