Charanchi, coordinator, Coalition of Northern Groups: Northern politicians unserious about fighting insecurity

National Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, has come hard on Northern politicians.

He told Saturday Sun that politicians from the region are not serious about the issue of insecurity, emphasising that Northern politicians only deceive the people about fighting insecurity during election period.

In his words, once they get to power, they forget their promises. The CNG coordinator noted that if Nigerians should copy what Osun people did during the August 15, 2026 governorship election in the state, they can effect changes at any level they desire, adding that they cast their votes, defended and guarded them as if they were guarding their souls.  He spoke with VINCENT KALU.

What is your reaction to the just concluded Osun State governorship election that saw the re-election of Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord?

That is a sign of something to expect in 2027. This is a clear sign that Nigerians are not happy with the system, and are not enjoying it at all, and so have rejected the system in totality. That’s why despite all the big names in the party, including all the 31 APC governors that were members of the party’s campaign council for the Osun election, the people of the state decided to stand with their mandate, and to defend it.

This clearly shows that if Nigerians could copy the Osun model, definitely, they can effect changes at any level they desire. They cast their votes, and defended and guarded them as if they were guarding their souls. This is exactly what Nigerians are supposed to do so that elected officials will be taught a lesson that whenever they do rubbish, the people now have the capacity and the power to change them.

This also shows that the people’s power is greater than any power; when the people decide to work collectively to take a single decision, nobody can break them. This is a clear testimony of what actually happened in Osun. Anyone who tells you that President Bola Tinubu decided to voluntarily relinquish the Osun governorship to Adeleke, instead of his party’s candidate, is just joking. Why did the party mobilise all its governors, senators and stakeholders for the election? Why did they mobilise all the security agencies to intimidate the people? This is a clear indication that the APC was desperate, and doing everything humanly or even inhumanly possible to ensure that they secured Osun, especially as it is the home state of the president. The party attached so much importance to winning the state. Osun people proved to Nigerians that whenever they decide to work collectively, they can execute any changes they wanted.

ADC presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has gone to court to compel INEC to disqualify Tinubu on the ground of certificate forgery. What is your take on this?

Atiku is just wasting his time because the courts and every institution belong to the government. There has been much incidence that has shown that the courts belong to the government, and Tinubu is the government. So even if you take Tinubu hundred times to the court, nothing different will happen. Even at that, there is a provision in the electoral act that ridicules the issue of certificate forgery. From the Act, certificate forgery is no longer a crime in Nigerian political space. So, Atiku is just wasting his time. He had better confronted other things rather than wasting his time taking the president to the court.

How does the international community see Nigeria if certificate forgery is not an offence in the country?

There are some people that are mightier than the law; the law cannot punish them. We have seen a situation where so many people have been dragged to the court by the EFCC, and the courts convicted them, and at the same time, others were allowed to go scot free, and some of them are occupying high political offices.

Atiku had better faced the reality in this country than going against the wishes of the president.

For the international community, nothing has changed about their thought on Nigeria. When Tinubu contested in 2023, Nigerians were shouting about his certificates, but at the end of the day, he scaled through.

It is very unfortunate the way the international community sees Nigeria.

It is also very unfortunate that we have leaders who are supposed to actually defend the image of this country, but couldn’t. We need to wake up to work collectively irrespective of our religion, ethnicity, or even our political affiliations to ensure that we bring people of high calibre, integrity and honesty; people that the whole world will see and respect Nigeria, and not people of questionable character and questionable credentials.

It is this type of thing that makes serious countries not respect Nigerians; they think all of us are the same, and that we don’t have leaders. This is very true.    We don’t have people that have fear of God. We don’t have people that have feelings of humanity, and we don’t even have the people that have the country at their hearts.

The Catholic Bishops recently clashed with the presidency over the state of the country. Sheikh Jingir also said the Muslim-Muslim ticket has come to stay, and warned those that can’t stand it to relocate. What do you make of these?

It is very unfortunate that we don’t have leaders in this country, but desperate politicians, who are desperate to acquire power, and desperate to acquire money. So, they can use any means.

Anyone bringing religion in the Nigerian political space is either deceiving himself or trying to deceive Nigerians. Nigerian politics has completely clearly drawn a distinct line between it and religion.

What the leaders are practising, is it the teaching of religions? Is there any religion in this country that teaches us to go and take someone’s money, to do corruption, to rig elections, to do all sort of this evil thing they are doing?  Anybody who is trying to weaponise religion is deceiving himself and the people because Nigeria’s politics has demarcation with religions.

Catholic bishops went to Tinubu and told him the current situation that Nigerians are facing; Muslims are facing the same situation. I believe that we are part and parcel of them on their position. In fact, they proved beyond any iota of doubt that they are the people of God, and have Nigerians and Nigeria at their heart. At the same time, a person like Daniel Bwala, was very quick in condemning them, despite the fact that he’s a Christian.

What has Muslim-Muslim yielded to the Muslims in the country? Is it not the same Muslim population that is being killed on daily basis? Are they not the same Muslim people that are being kidnapped? Are they not the same Muslim populations that have been shouting hunger, poverty, out of school children?

So, it’s deception. These politicians have their own ways and their means to think they can deceive the people, but Nigerians are wiser.

They should open their eyes widely, and clearly. They should open their ears widely and clearly and do not listen to anybody who is trying to weaponise religion as a yardstick for electing a candidate in this country. We should elect candidates, as we have been saying, based on competency, capacity and integrity. Whoever can move this country forward, definitely is a candidate that Nigerians today are yearning for. You should tell Nigerians how you are going solve the problems that are facing them, but religion is completely out of it.

It is very unfortunate that people who are supposed to unite this country are trying to divide this country by their words and deeds.

Killings in the North have continued unabated. Where do you think there are no solutions to this insurgency?

All these military code-named operations this and that are just deception. We believe that the political leadership of this country is not ready to bring an end to all these killings that are happening in this country. We believe we have the men on ground. We believe that they have the techniques, they have the tactics, but unfortunately, they cannot work on their own because they have to listen to the political power; the same politicians that are deceiving Nigerians.

I read in one of the national dailies that governors have spent about N200 billion in just six months on the so-called security solution. How do you ever think that politicians will allow this matter of insecurity to end, while they are claiming to be spending a huge amount of money to fighting insecurity?

In fact, the amount of money they claimed to have spent on insecurity, if they are realistic to themselves, it would have ended the insecurity, as well as solved a lot of problems in this country.

I wonder how Nigerian governors could spend over N200 billion in six months in the name of so-called insecurity, yet nobody is secured in this country, nobody can travel in the night hours, nobody can sleep with two eyed closed, a lot of farmers cannot go to their farms. A lot of people are benefiting from this insecurity, and we believe that these are the same people that are doing everything possible to ensure that we don’t allow this scourge to come to rest.

You mentioned N200 billion spent in a few months by governors.

When?

It was reported in one of the credible national dailies. I have forgotten the newspaper, but I read it this morning. The paper gave the breakdown, and even categorised based on priorities. They have spent this money and yet there is nothing on ground to show for it; there is no impact on the situation, it is even deteriorating. Go to the rural communities in Sokoto, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Niger and Kaduna, etc. The stories there are very bad. All those people are migrating from their communities to nowhere; without even knowing where they are headed to, and still there are some people who claim that they are leaders of this country, and spending a lot of money to resolve this issue of insecurity.

Northern leaders met Kaduna some time ago pledging to stamp out from the north. What do you make of that?

They are just saying it. They are just making mouth, which they have been doing from the beginning of this insecurity matter. They have been saying this; they have been saying that, but to see action on ground is where the problem lies.

Northern leaders have been shouting about the issue of insecurity. But to see a concrete action on ground is where we have the problem.

They even want to organise a Northern Nigerian security outfit, with a submission that they will generate almost over N200 billion in a year; with the 19 northern states contributing N1 billion each month. But have they started contributing the money? This is the question we’re supposed to ask ourselves.

How many states have donated that amount of money from the day they just met in Kaduna and decided to take up this decision? And these were decisions taken by all of them. The northern politicians are not serious about the issue of insecurity. In fact, they are always deceiving the people of northern Nigeria in the name of we will bring an end to this matter.

Whenever it is time for politics, they will be moving from one community to another telling you that they will bring an end to this insecurity, but once they come to power, they will forget, and then realise that the issue of insecurity is something that they will benefit from. That’s why nobody is serious about it. When I say nobody, I mean nobody from the northern part of the country is much serious about the issue of insecurity, and that is why their people are being killed, kidnapped, and cannot go to their farms. Their people cannot travel, their people cannot do a lot of things. Businesses are collapsing, institutions are being closed down, schools are being closed down on a daily basis, clinics and dispensaries in the rural communities are being closed on a daily basis.

Cattle rearing business is gradually becoming history in Northern Nigeria, and yet nobody is trying to do anything about it.

The Federal Government is talking about establishing cattle ranches in some Middle Belt states. But the youths apparently feel that core northern states should be chosen. What’s your view on this?

I don’t know why the Federal Government decided to do ranching in the Middle Belt or in the North Central. But one thing I am very much sure is that, for those of you that are conversant with the nature and the agro-ecological zones in the northern Nigeria, you know that the Middle Belt or North Central are more likely to have over 1,000 to 1,200 millimetres of rainfall distribution per year, and this is clearly telling you that the area is more vegetative than the core North.

If you are talking about ranching, you consider the issue of where you are going to get the grasses that you are going to feed the animals with. If you are talking about the grasses, then you have to talk of the North Central because this is where you have higher rainfall than the core northern part of the country – North West and North East.

In fact, North East is even below 900 millimetres of distribution of rainfall per year. So, automatically it will be very difficult for you to have a ranch there. Even if you have the ranch there, then definitely you have to source a lot of things.

I see no reason whatsoever that the Middle East will kick against it because we are all Nigerians. If the president decided to do whatever he decided to do in the North West, even if it is going to benefit people from the North Central, nobody can say no to it.

We have been yearning and we have been shouting that we are Nigerians, and constitutionally, everybody has the right to move freely in this country.

I see no reason whatsoever that they will kick against it. But if they are kicking against it, then the president should do anything humanly possible to provide the necessary amenities and do the ranching in the North West and North East, because this is part of the solution. In modern agriculture, ranching is generating billions of naira in other countries. Go to countries like Egypt, Morocco and Mali etc. They are practising this ranching and it is yielding huge results. There are countries that are practicing this ranching that is generating more money than even the oils in that country.

If the Federal Government is investing in ranching, definitely they are not only doing it for the Fulani people; they are doing it for the economy of the country because it is going to generate a lot of money.

The opposition is still talking about coalition. Do you think it will stand?

They are not serious; they are deceiving Nigerians. They are the same people who, because of their personal interests, decided to sink opposition in this country. Initially, Nigerians were celebrating that the coming together of  Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso, El -rufai, Tambual and so many other people, under a single platform would save this country, but because of their personal ambition; personal interest, their belief in why-not-me syndrome, they decided to scatter the opposition party. Their action may leave Nigerians with no option than to allow Tinubu to come back into power. This is exactly what they have done. Atiku went his own way; Obi also went his own way, likewise Kwankwaso, El-rufai and others going their separate ways. What happened in the last election may repeat itself. They scattered the votes, and at the end of the day,

Tinubu won the votes with a simple majority. This is exactly what they are doing today. Those in the opposition are not serious, and are not ready to salvage this country. They are pushing for their own political interests.