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•Incoming govt may find it hard because of high debt burden
The Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, has called on the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to impose leaders on the incoming 10th Assembly.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the CNG leader emphasised that the incoming government may find it hard because of the high debt profile left behind by the outgoing administration.
Barely nine days from today, the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government will come to an end. How can you describe the administration?
It’s eight wasted years for Nigeria and Nigerians. He wasted the years; he misused the opportunity to engrave his name positively in the hearts of Nigerians. We have never witnessed a situation where Nigeria is sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines. This happened under Buhari’s regime. Under his administration, we witnessed how ethnicity and religion became major factors in Nigeria’s politics. The level of external debt is alarming. His government has done more harm than good for this country, especially in terms of insecurity and so many other things. You can see that Nigerians are complaining and lamenting that they have had eight wasted years. The administration has taken Nigeria about 20 years backward. We have not witnessed a government that has created division in the country like this administration. Today, on any issue, everybody is talking about religion and ethnicity. Look at what is happening in the National Assembly over its leadership. Look at the unemployment rate in the country. Before he came to power, it was about 11 per cent, but it is projected that before the end of this year, it will reach about 40 per cent, which is alarming and dangerous. The GDP of the country is not growing, likewise the IGR. There are so many factors to justify that this administration has done more harm than good to Nigerians.
But Buhari himself said that he has delivered on all his promises – the economy, security and corruption…
Even a person who is not living in this country would laugh over the statement of delivering on all his promises, and if the person thinks deeper, he may even cry because he would wonder how a leader could deceive his people. Many people are applying to leave the country because they have seen how the resources of the country have been squandered and so they are running away from the unforeseen circumstances that may befall the country. What can you say about corruption under this regime? The level of corruption is so high. There are many corruption cases that you don’t need to mention. If he promised to employ about one million people, has he delivered on that because the unemployment rate is hitting about 40 per cent, particularly in the northern part of the country? Before he came to power, the insecurity in the north was only limited to the North_East, but today, insecurity is everywhere in the north. Not only in that region, but everywhere in the country. Come to Katsina, the state of President Buhari, there are so many villages under the control of bandits and kidnappers; people can no longer go to their farms and cattle rearing is becoming history in some northern parts of the country. This is happening under the watch of this present government. How many people have lost their lives and how many people have become poor and poorer? The economy is dwindling and the government doesn’t seem to have solution to it. So, I doubt if he has delivered on any single promise that he made. That is why I said his eight years were wasted.
Nobody even thought that former President Goodluck Jonathan would be praised over Buhari, but today Nigerians are looking with nostalgia at the Jonathan government. In spite of the squandering of the economy under him, people preferred his government to that of Buhari in terms of the economy, security and any angle. I can’t rate this government more than 20 per cent.
What’s your group position on the leadership of the incoming National Assembly?
We still maintain our position that we jettison zoning; we don’t believe in zoning. We only believe in the competency, character and integrity of the person. A situation where somebody is nominated to become a leader of a particular office just because he is from a certain ethnic group is always taking the country backward. If we keep on talking about zoning, it means we are promoting ethnicity, religion and not competency. In determining our leader, let character, integrity and competency speak for themselves.
We have 109 senators and about 360 members of the House of Representatives, and these people spent money in their various political parties to get nomination ticket. After spending so huge amount of money to win elections to the National Assembly, and we cannot allow them to choose their leaders?. This is uncalled for and would never augur well for the political development of the country.
The APC should have learnt from the lesson of 2015, when they were trying to foist a particular leadership on the National Assembly, Bukola Saraki emerged because the senators preferred him to the person the presidency wanted. They should allow these people to do what they wanted to do by themselves. Let them be allowed to choose whoever they want to lead them. If you allow people to choose their leaders, it will be much easier for them to follow that leadership. But by the time you impose somebody on them, the person would not find it easy to rule them.
The reality is that we jettisoned zoning at the initial stage and we have been campaigning against zoning; we are only promoting competency, character and integrity in choosing Nigeria’s leadership. Do I have the quality – character, competency and integrity to be a good leader? Am I even prepared to handle the responsibility that would be bestowed on my shoulders? That should be the question. Some people are being nominated without even being ready to take the responsibility.
See what happened in the case of Buhari. Most people believed that he was so prepared, and so would take the country to Eldorado, but see where we have seen ourselves today? APC decided to zone the presidency to the northern part of the country, and this is what caused all these problems. Maybe, had it been that somebody from the South was there within these eight years, he could have delivered better that what we are witnessing. We thank God that election has come and gone and the country is still peaceful and we want the peace to be maintained. We always want to discourage ethnicity, religion and all the things that are sharply dividing the country. So, the National Assembly should be allowed to determine who is going to lead them and be allowed to conduct its election, and the APC should remove its hands from the emergence of the leadership of the lawmakers. Even if APC is going to promote anything, it is those that belong to their party; likewise the PDP and also Labour Party and others. They will be protecting the interests of their parties, as against the country. If these parties want to do good to Nigeria, they should just allow the lawmakers to decide who is going to lead them based on capacity, competence and character,and not even based on the party he comes from.
In a multi ethnic and religious nation like Nigeria, don’t you think that zoning is ideal in order to ensure fairness?
Besides, how the tempo of the party primaries was sustained, but after the primaries, no part of the country complained of being marginalised. Each zone was given a free hand to contest as much as they wanted. They contested and a winner emerged. Nobody is complaining. It is just that you were given an opportunity, and in every election, there is always a winner and loser.
If everybody removes his hands from the election of the National Assembly leadership, and allow them to determine who is going to lead them, nobody will complain. What happened during Bukola Saraki? It’s still Buhari who was the president of the country, and Bukola also is from the North. Even Yakubu Dogara is from the North. So you had number one citizen from the North; number three, the Senate President from the North and the fourth also from the North, and nobody complained because they were elected and not nominated.
Many people had the expectation that maybe Tinubu, because of so many factors, including the Muslim-Muslim ticket, might not emerge, but when he emerged, not many complained because they knew he became the president-elect through votes. The beautiful thing is that he got most of his votes from the North, despite the fact that we have Atiku and Kwankwaso. In as much as you allow the democratic principle to flow, Nigerians will feel there is justice, but in as much as you are going to impose someone on them, many would complain.
Haven’t you heard what the North Central people are saying that they were being marginalised today and they should be allowed to bring the leadership of the National Assembly? Haven’t you read the press statement by the South West Governors Forum that the zone should be allowed to also produce? These agitations can be stopped if you remove your hands and allow the natural course to take itself. Today, if you allow the lawmakers to elect their leaders, nobody will complain, but in as much as you are going to put somebody there, even if he is the most competent person, people would complain. The presidency should allow the lawmakers to elect their leaders. It will be better for Nigeria and the National Assembly.
The US said it has placed visa restriction on some Nigerian politicians who they said misbehaved during the last election. What is your view on this?
This always encourages our people to maintain character and integrity. By the time somebody learnt that he did something wrong and he is being punished not only in the country but also outside, this will make many other people to behave themselves. This is a welcome idea and good development. Our country is supposed to bring out measures, and not from outside, to deal with corrupt politicians before and during and after an election. This will bring sanity and decency in our politics. The politicians would know that they have to behave well or face the consequences after the election. We are asking them to release the list for Nigerians to see them.
Why must it be an outsider that should tell us how to behave? Again if we develop our country, why should Nigerians be killing themselves to travel to the US?
Nigeria is supposed to bring out something that will promote decency, sanity and integrity for her people, but unfortunately we don’t and have never had a leader that has such mind. Our politicians are much eager in travelling to US for medical treatment, education etc. Since we have that window, let us see how it will help to bring decency into the country. However, it is uncalled for if other country will dictate to another country. It is neo colonialism. We got independence in 1960, but our leaders are yet to believe that we have got independence, and that is why we are still under neo colonialism. In as much as we cannot bring out measures to deal with our erring politicians, then it is not that bad if another country feels that it would bring policies that will help to bring sanity to the politics of our country.
The debt profile of the country is much, and the present government is still borrowing few days to its end. Don’t you think that the debt profile will affect the performance of the incoming government and the expectations from the people?
Definitely, it is going to affect the incoming government. It is because Nigerians are only interested in becoming leaders; they don’t have focus on leaving a legacy at the end of their tenure. This is the only reason Nigerians are rushing to become the president of this country. But someone who is in his right senses, and who is after the legacy he is going to leave for the country and for the people; somebody who wants to be remembered for the good things he has done to his people and the country will never even pray to become Nigeria’s president. The country is so bastardised that the incoming administration may not know where to start from because every sector in this country has been destabilised. There is no sector that is functioning properly. Sometimes, I even ask myself why these people are rushing to become the president. I quickly give myself an answer. They are rushing to be the president because they are not after the legacy they want to leave behind, but what they are going to gain from the country. A country that is so much indebted like Nigeria, a country where the major source of its revenue is dwindling; a country that doesn’t have specified diversification but only relies on crude oil. The crude oil is already a vanishing asset. So, for you to be rushing to become the president of Nigeria, it’s either you don’t know what you are doing or you don’t know where you are going to start from or you don’t know how the country is. The reality is that we expect very much from the incumbent administration, and they didn’t know how to pilot the affairs of the country.
How to tackle the insecurity in the country is going to pose a serious challenge to the incoming government. The rate of unemployment is alarming and worrisome, and the incoming government has to do critical thinking on how to solve the problem, which has contributed greatly to crimes in the country. For you to reduce crime to a bearable level, you have to tackle unemployment. Unfortunately, the eight years of Buhari’s administration didn’t do anything on these issues. From statistics, over 140 million are poor in this country. It is not going to be easy for the incoming government, and we pray that God will help them to move the country forward.
