•FG lacks political will, courage to address insecurity
As the insecurity in the country continues to fester, the leader of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, has urged the government to stop negotiating with bandits and Boko Haram or consider any form of amnesty for them. He said the government should allow the nation’s security forces to crush the terrorists.
According to him, the Nigeria military has performed excellently during operations in foreign countries, but has been inept in annihilating criminal elements in Nigeria because the government lacks the political to end the insecurity. He spoke with VINCENT KALU.
The insecurity in the country especially in the north is escalating. In the last weeks, there have been killings in Benue, Plateau, Zamfara and other states in the North and in the South. What do you say to this?
These are some of the many questions that Nigerians should always ask themselves. In this country, we have leaders that claim to protect the interests of Nigerians at any level, at any cost, and yet this kind of thing is happening
We have witnessed the recent killings in Uromi, Edo State. We have just witnessed other killings in Plateau State. Not to talk of regular killings in Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Maiduguri, and other places. These are the kinds of questions that the security agents need to provide answers to Nigerians.
What is actually happening to the general security architecture of this country? Somebody cannot even get the answers to these questions, but the killings are ongoing. It is like they have a moratorium period where the killings will just cease, and after some time, the killings return and are escalating everywhere. Even in the places that we have never witnessed killing, it is ongoing now in this country. What we are seeing is that Nigerian leaders are not serious about the security situation in this country; they never care about who is going to be killed, who is going to be kidnapped and who is going to pay ransom because the victims are not their loved ones.
They have never shown the seriousness to bring to an end the killings in this country. Every day, every hour, every minute people are being killed. The only thing that the Nigerian government does is just to condemn the killers in the media. This has been the norm. Buhari was always condemning the killers until he left office, and today; Tinubu is also doing the same, condemning the killers, while Nigerians are losing their lives.
We all believe that if the government is serious about ending these killings, they will do that. The killings are unnecessary and even orchestrated. Nobody can tell you what is happening. If the government and the security agents are serious, they can arrest the situation. We have been saying it times without number that the government is not ready to bring an end to these killings. They deliberately allow it to go on. Maybe, in one way or the other, some people are benefiting from it.
You said the insecurity is being orchestrated. How?
When you refuse to do what you’re supposed to do, that means you are promoting it. It’s something that we know that we can do. The Nigerian Army has been everywhere in the world and they performed wonderfully. They have been in Somalia, Liberia, Libya, etc. Is it that they cannot bring an end to Bello Turji? Is it that they cannot bring an end to these so-called bandits, people that were not even trained; people who don’t even know the value of their lives, people who have spent almost all their lives in the forest? Are these the people that the Nigerian Army cannot bring to an end?
Or are you telling me that the power of the bandits; the armoury of the bandits are more than that of the Nigerian Army? This is not true, and nobody can believe this.
We know that we have the gallant soldiers; we know that the soldiers have the power and the courage, and are ever ready to defend their country in as much as they are given the opportunity to do that.
We have seen so many trending videos where the soldiers are even begging that they should be allowed to deal with these bandits. But are they allowed to deal with the bandits? Are you telling me that Bello Turji alone is stronger than all the battalions of the Nigerian Army in this country?
Are you telling me that Bello Turji is mightier, and has the courage more than the Nigerian Army? This is not true. It is only the system does not allow the soldiers to do the needful.
The system is not even tired of the killings that are ongoing in the country. That’s why we say they orchestrate it. Because when you refuse to do what you are supposed to do, it means you are promoting what is happening.
The security system is collapsing by the day as a result of the negligence of the government. The government has never been seen to be serious about it. They lack the political will to deal with the situation. They lack the courage, they lack the determination, and they never care that people are being killed because they are being protected by the Nigerian security system.
What in your opinion should be done to stop this orgy of killings?
All these talks about rehabilitation of these criminals, amnesty to these criminals are nonsense. What the government should do is to allow the army, the security agencies to deal with them decisively because we have the capacity, the might, power and the firepower to do that.
The system should allow the security forces to deal with the situation decisively, so that nobody will think of joining these groups again.
The talk about amnesty for these Boko Haram people even contributed to the present banditry we are having in the North-western part of the country. I don’t think that there is anybody on earth that has the capacity or that has the power to forgive someone who just voluntarily decided to kill people. They should allow the security forces to send them to meet their God, and then
God will decide what to do there with them. The system should be allowed to deal with them. In the first place, the system should have the political power and the political will to deal with the situation.
Secondly, the system should allow our gallant forces to deal with the situation decisively, crush them and if there are any remnants of those criminals, then the system can bring them out, interview them to know the genesis or whatever that gave rise to the situation in order to ensure that it never rears its ugly head again.
The issue of amnesty, the issue of all these reconciliations between the bandits and the villagers; between the villagers and Boko Haram, is nonsense. The system should be allowed to deal with them decisively.
However, we are seeing that they are not allowing the security agents to deal with the situation because they are not the ones that feel the pains of what is actually happening in our villages. We have seen a situation whereby a whole Army General spent over 50 days in the bandits’ captivity.
And from all that we are hearing, a huge ransom was paid. We have seen where the friends of the kidnapped General were appreciating their friends for contributing money to pay the ransom. What a shame that an Army General has to pay a huge ransom to be freed from the captivity of the so-called bandits? A General that Nigerian tax payers’ money was used to train in different parts of the world, a General that spent over 35 years in service! A General that is supposed to move the mountain, spent over 50 days in the hands of very useless, uneducated criminals that have spent almost all their lives in the forest, and the country couldn’t do anything about it.
Some Northern governors last year travelled to the US to discuss how to tackle insecurity in the region, but the region is yet to reap the dividends of that mission. What is your take on this?
At that time, I told you that those governors were just going for a honeymoon. We knew that their mission to find a lasting solution to the security challenges outside was just rubbish. They were just spending our money anyhow; they were after their establishment code (estacode) and BTA. The solution is here in Nigeria. It is not that we don’t know how to deal with the situation, but the leaders lack the political will to deal with the situation. We don’t even need to go to Niger to find a solution on how to deal with these criminals. Here in Nigeria, here in our homes, we have the solutions at hand, but the question is, do our leaders have the political will to deal with the situation? The answer is no. They don’t have. What is happening to the Nigeria Army, Air force, Navy, Police, DSS, NSCDC, Immigration and Customs? See what is going on in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina and all other states. And you are telling me that whole Nigerian security system; the security agencies cannot crush the bandits?
So, all these forces cannot deal with a single soul, Bello Turiji? It is only that the government does not have the political will. They are not ready to bring to an end the insecurity, and they are not doing anything about it. That is the simple answer. But the solution is here.
You don’t even need to travel to Niger, Benin Republic, or even to the neighbouring countries, not to talk of travelling all the way to America. They are just spending our money, using the taxpayers’ money, getting what they wanted to get. The solution is here.
It is only in Nigeria that people will be killed in dozens and nothing happens. You hear 10 people killed, 20 killed, 30 killed, 50 killed just because we don’t have leaders. No country in the world that is not at war will allow such killings to be ongoing without the leaders showing their concern.
We have seen a situation where only one person is killed in a country, and the whole country stood still trying to find out where the mess came from. But in Nigeria, you will kill 100 people, nobody cares. The leaders will just condemn it in the media. Even if you are seeing the way they are condemning it, you know that they are not serious about it because their body language doesn’t rhyme with what they are saying with their mouths. That is the kind of leaders we have in Nigeria. They don’t know that on the day of judgement, they will account for all those souls that are wasted in this country.
We need true leaders that can fix this country. This country is being shattered, and nothing is working. The spiritual system has collapsed, likewise the economic system because we don’t have leaders.
Does this escalating insecurity not justify the call for a state police?
We are always raising the alarm that in this country, we don’t have politicians that we can trust. It is very unfortunate that we don’t have leaders in this country; we only have politicians whose interest is to secure the next election.
Let’s just quickly go back to history. We have seen how the constitution mandates the state governments to checkmate the spending of local governments. What happens? The governors hijacked the local government money. Now, the local governments are mortuaries. They are not doing anything; they cannot do anything.
The state governors are enjoying the local government’s money, the local government chairmen have gradually become beggars in their own councils. We have seen a situation where the State Independent Electoral Commission was designated with the responsibilities of conducting local government elections. Today every governor makes sure that if you have 34 local governments; your party will win in all of them.
Unfortunately, there is no internal democracy; you don’t allow a credible primary election to take place even in your own party. The governor will do the primary election by himself and will also do the secondary election by himself.
So, if you allow a state police, this is the same way that these governors are going to manoeuvre it to their own bidding. God forbid, but I will tell you clearly that it will reach a situation whereby these governors will use the state police to hijack every kind of election. They will use the state police to witch-hunt their political enemies. They will use it to fight whoever they want to fight; they will use it to do their dirty jobs. So this is our fear.
In a situation whereby a governor cannot even handle a simple election for a local government, how do you think that he will handle a fire power? He will do whatever he thinks he could. Even with the federal police, how does it end? Well, we have seen a situation where the Inspector General of Police is inviting somebody from Kano. What then is the responsibility of the Commissioner of Police in Kano State? What is the responsibility of the AIG in that zone?
What’s your view on the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, and the suspension of a sitting governor by President Tinubu?
This is shameful. It is an act of jeopardising our political system. About a million people voted a person as their governor, and somebody from Abuja, who likely has never been to some places in the state, just decided to make a proclamation and remove the governor? Unfortunately, that proclamation is not even in the constitution of Nigeria. It is just for a simple reason that the governor is not loyal to Wike.
That means Nigerians are held ransom. Everybody must be loyal to the senior political officer in that state that is an ally to the federal government.
If he was thinking of any state of emergency, it should have been around North-East, North-West, and not in the South-South where the people are living peacefully. For how long have we witnessed pipeline vandalism? We have not heard about it for a very long period of time but today normalcy is no longer in Rivers State.
We are fighting banditry in North-West; we are fighting herders-farmers’ clashes in North Central, we are fighting Boko Haram in North-East, IPOB/ESN in the South-East, Sunday Igboho and his people in the South-West. The only place that we were enjoying a little peace was the South-South, and Mr. President decided to misuse that peace in that region.
Some people have wondered where the money being donated around by the First Lady, Mrs Tinubu, comes from. The office is not constitutional and the funds not budgeted for. Wha’’s your take?
There are so many unconstitutional things that are happening under this government. We have seen a situation where Mr. President decided to suspend an elected governor. Who is going to suspend the president so that we witness peace in North-West, North-East, North Central, South-South, South-East and South-West?
So, there are so many unconstitutional things that are happening under Tinubu’s administration. Mrs. Remi Tinubu’s action is one of the unconstitutional acts in this government. Is it just recently that we have seen her travelling from one place to another distributing food to Nigerians? Unfortunately, the thinking of Nigerians is now reduced to only how to get food and survive as a result of the hard economy that we are experiencing in the country.
In this country we now have two emirs in Kano – one from the federal government and the other one from the state government. And nobody can do anything about it.
When we are seeing so many unconstitutional things happening in this country, we don’t wonder because we know that democracy is only in name in Nigeria.
They have scattered everything they met. The little things that Buhari left in this country this government has scattered them.
We never prayed to have another government that will be worse than that of Buhari. Nobody prayed for that, and nobody even dreamt of that.
When Buhari was going everybody was very happy that the end of Buhari’s eight years in office has come to an end, not knowing that we were going to have a government that would skyrocket the price of petrol; not knowing that we have a government that would float the Naira to the extent that one dollar is about N1, 650; not knowing that we were going to have a government where a bag of rice will cost over N100,000; not knowing that we were going to have a government where flight ticket from Abuja to Kano will be over N100,000.
This is the situation that Nigerians are today. How much are we paying for school fees for our children? How much are we paying for medical medication?
Nothing has changed. Nigerians are still going abroad on medical tourism. Nigerians are still going abroad for their education.
There is no internal democracy; there is no external democracy in our political system. The presidency and the governors have hijacked everything.
It is very unfortunate that today Nigerians are remembering Buhari administration. What a shame; what a disgrace that Nigerians are saying that Buhari’s government is better than Tinubu’s administration.