Forest Guard not solution to Nigeria’s problem of insecurity – Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, Reps member

…Says Defence Chiefs know what to do

From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja

Rt. Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi is the member representing Pankshin, Kanke and Kanam Federal Constituency of Plateau State in the Federal House of Representatives.

He is a former deputy speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, and currently chairs the House Committee on Navy.

In this interview, he speaks on insecurity in Plateau and Nigeria in general, the role of defence chiefs in the problem, as well as recent happenings in the political space.

You represent Pankshin, Kanke and Kanam Federal Constituency of Plateau State in the Federal House of Representatives. Parts of your constituency were affected by the recent attacks that claimed lives. What is the situation like now?

If we are to talk about insecurity regarding to my constituency, and we limit it to what happened recently to the people of Plateau, I think we are not representing the constituency well.  Yes, Pankshin, Kanke, Kanam, in the history of Plateau State, I beat my chest anywhere on a brag all over that it is the most peaceful constituency in Plateau. It is a constituency in the present Plateau that you can go and discover inhabitants of all faith: Muslim, Christian, traditional worshippers living in peace as one. It is one of the constituencies in Plateau that if you lost amidst insecurity and you find yourself within the territory of Pankshin, Kanke, Kanam Federal Constituency, you are free to say you are safe. But our own manner of insecurity is the kind of insecurity that affected every part of the country prior to this time. Yes, we have had some limited cases of robbery attacks on the highways that penetrated the four angles of the constituency. Yes, when the issue of kidnapping came to bear in Nigeria. I’m from Plateau, I am one of the victims of kidnapping. Though I have never been kidnapped, but the wife of my younger brother was kidnapped and my cousin and one of my aides who went to pay ransom to receive her, after collecting the ransom, were also kidnapped by the kidnappers.

So, I can say that long before now, those “normal”, those kinds of insecurity that exists everywhere in the country also existed in my constituency, but it is one of the most peaceful constituencies. But talking about the severe circumstances surrounding present Nigeria’s insecurity, we had a situation in 2022. Prior to 2022., there had been one form of little communal issues between one small community and another which is equally rampant among the four angles of Nigeria. But the bigger one was some of the bandits within Zamfara, within Kebbi, Sokoto axis began to find themselves in some forests in Taraba State and the game reserve, the abundant game result in Plateau State which situated in my constituency. To be specific in Kanam Local Government. The forest that links Garga, Kukawa, Dada and what have you. In those places, we have the biggest forest reserves, government forest reserves that have been abandoned. I’m sure you know that bandits try to find those locations as a safe haven to them, as places where they can be housed, where they can stay to plan their attacks on their victims. So, part of my constituency, Kanam,  Garga axis to be specific, now became vulnerable to the national insecurity to an extent that we had vigilante across Pankshin, Knam and Kanke. Cases of kidnaps by bandits become rampant. Our vigilantes were trying to comb the bush and got themselves in one of the locations of the bandits and killed about seven of them or so. In retaliation to the action of the brave vigilante, the bandits decided to regroup and invite their people. They stormed all the four, five villages in 2022, I think February 14 or so, and killed 147 constituents of Pnakshin, Kanke, Kanam. To be specific, Kanam Local Government, in one day. In one day, 147 people were killed. I remember I was in Saudi Arabia. I found my way the same day back to Nigeria and I moved to those locations. People that witnessed the mass burial, till today, they are traumatized because of what they saw. Mostly young men, no even women. They made sure that since it was the brave young man that went to kill the seven bandits, they had to revenge on those between the ages of 15, 25, 30, 40. If you saw an old man, may be it was a mistaken bullet, but they tried to make sure that they wiped away all the young men within that location. We gave them mass burial. The governor of Plateau then, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong, visited Kanam Local Government. Everybody was crying. Let me also put this, out of the 147 people killed, only four were Christians. I said this because the narrative that is being created in Nigeria is for propaganda mostly. People talk to create an impression that there is a religious war in a particular constituency or communal or whatever. I want to be specific, I want to be clear. Our own was not religious, it wasn’t an attack on Christian and Muslim communities. It was an attack on the people of Kanam Local Government by bandits. I don’t see them as Muslims in any way. How comes the four people became victims, the Christians. It was on a Sunday morning, in daylight, around 7, 8. It lasted for three hours, the attack. So, those people left their church on their way back to their village, because the attack was taking place in the village that they belong to, the bandit had already finished destroying that village. They were coming out. They now saw those Christians, about 19 or so. But the brave young men among them were four so the bandits decided to kill the young men, thinking that it is enforcement that other neighbouring villages had organised to come and repel the attacks. That was how they became victims. So, I leave it to the world, attacks by bandits on my own community, my own constituency, that 143 Muslims were killed within two hours and three, four Christians were killed within three hours, what narrative would give such an attack? Would you say it was an attack on Plateau people because Kanam is part of Plateau. And that is why whenever I’m before the camera, I try to say it the way it is for the general public to know that the attacks on the Plateau people left nobody. It was general. From that time till today there have been isolated attacks on those communities. Today, they’ll kill seven, tomorrow they’ll kill two, next tomorrow, they’ll kill 10 and they keep on kidnapping people almost on daily basis. I have done my best, but it is not best enough, as a representative of the people. I have screamed on the floor of the House to give voice to those people that have no voice. I have called it the way it is. I have appealed, I have spoken as if I was on my bended knees for government to come to the aid of the people of Garga area in Kanam Local Government of Pankshin, Kanke and Kanam Federal Constituency and as a parliamentarian, majorly, your responsibility is to plead. You are a beggar. It is to lobby and I’m doing this on a daily basis to ensure that there is an additional police presence in those axis. It is a vulnerable axis. Garga, Gagum, Gagdi, my own area, all the same – they are areas that are vulnerable. They share boundaries with Bauchi. Some of the villagwes share boundaries with Yankari Games Reserve. We equally have a games reserve, forest reserve. Then, Yankari shares boundary with Sambisa. Some of the villages share boundary with Taraba. Taraba is one of the states that has been, you know, the activities of the bandits have been happening without any control. So, if Garga area, part of Kanam borders those places and these attacks keep on happening unabated, it means the gateway  for bandits to get into Plateau, or to get into other local governments, or to get into Jos, the headquarter of Plateau, must have been Wase and Kanam Local Government. And until and unless security presence is put together there with other additional security measures, I think the situation, to be honest, to be direct, to answer that question, it is what it is and it is the way it is.

I know you and your governor belong to different parties but security is not something that should be partisan. So, is there a collaboration between you, your state government and the Federal Government to address this issue?

There is collaboration, but there are equally mistakes. Sincerely speaking, I’m supporting any effort, irrespective of party difference, the governor will initiate to ensure that Plateau situation is not the way it is. But I will equally be frank and fearless to him when it comes to his words. Some of those decisions that I will feel it is not is the best interest of some situations. I have had course to the attention of the governor and anybody that cares to listen that we must not continue to portray Plateau situation as a situation that even we the Plateau people are not equally capable of triggering some of those things. Where you take, for instance, the case of cattle rustling. It is a syndicate. They rustle cattle belonging to the locals, natives, Plateau people. They equally rustle cattle belonging to Fulani and non-Fulani alike. Who are doing these? Criminal syndicate, including our own Plateau citizens. When you take the case of kidnapping, go to the anti-kidnapping department in the police headquarters and ask questions – how many natives were picked from Plateau to Abuja who are members of different group of kidnappers. So, until and unless you will face the situation the way it is, a crime is a crime irrespective of who triggered or instigated it. Killing, genocide on the Plateau people is killing, it’s genocide. Yes, agreed. And no matter how small any other killing is, the entire Plateau people deserve justice. One decent respected Fulani man in Plateau deserves justice too. So until we see it like that, we will have a long way to go.

Everybody deserves justice. No justification for genocide in Plateau. No justification for Plateau, some of the Plateau young men, getting involved in other acts of criminality. No justification whatsoever. No justification triggering activities that innocent people in one village will be killed completely. To me, it is animalistic too for one or two persons to be killed, 100 animals to be slaughtered and then you descend on the village that knows nothing about that. It is an animal act, but it is equally injustice for that two persons to be killed and 100 animals to be slaughtered. Until we’ve come out to the world and speak the way we are speaking now, the world will not trust us when we talk one sided. It’s a problem. What’s happening in Plateau is pathetic. I call it genocide, I will not withdraw from that, but again, the criminal activities of some of our own people is equally not acceptable. It should be condemned publicly. On the part of the Federal Government, they are doing their best. I am part of the Federal Government. They are doing their best – the intervention, the directive, the support. They are doing their best. I know the intervention, the directives, the support Mr. President has given to the governor to make sure that thing comes to an end. Both in terms of logistics, in terms of physical encouragement, in times of giving the governor all the necessary powers he requires from the security agencies. I am quite of that. There has never been support given to any governor during crisis situation like the one President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given Governor Caleb Mutfwang. If there is, I stand to be corrected.

So, there’s a bill seeking to establish forest guards. Do you think it’s going to be of any help?

Sometimes, people want to take advantage of the security situation to achieve their sinister objectives. I’m a parliamentarian. I’m an APC member. I am free to speak a language that differs from the language of Mr. President without undermining his supremacy as the president of Nigeria. This is what democracy entails. I am Asiwaju’s son. I am one of the privileged Nigerians that anywhere he sees a crowd of 1 million and he sights me, he calls me by name. Out of over 250 million Nigerians, I am one of the Nigerians that have unlimited access to Mr. President and out of 250 million Nigerians, I’m one Nigerian that appreciates his leadership. But my responsibility as a parliamentarian representing my people, I try to draw a bigger line between my personal relationship as a son to the president, and as a representative to the people that are being affected. So in this situation, when I’m to talk and represent my people, I am completely blind to my father-son relationship with Mr. President and I’m completely blind to people that think I am his mouthpiece where I think I should represent him and speak the truth that he has done well. I say it without any fear of, if you like, political, religious or tribal misrepresentation. I don’t care. I know, Mr. President has done well. In terms of security, I am privileged to be one of the chairmen of the armed forces committee for the sixth year. This is my sixth year in the National Assembly. I know a little. One, being a parliamentarian, I know much more about Federal Government’s intervention in terms of budgetary allocation and necessary intervention in terms of money amounted to billions and millions of dollars to the Armed Forces, to the police, to the immigration, to the Civil Defence and what have you. I am privy to it as a member of a National Assembly, I’m equally privileged, as someone that is part of an assembly, representative of the people that scrutinise budgets and give approval to agencies of government and security related agencies of government. So, I can tell you for free, the commitment of former President Muhammadu Buhari in terms of providing logistics, funds, interventions through CBN, through NNPC, to the Army, to the Navy, to the Air Force, to the police, to civil defence to the immigration, etc. I can tell you for free that establishing Forest Guards is not a solution to Nigeria’s problem of insecurity. Rather, holding the security agencies accountable for their actions and inaction is the only way out. They cannot, they can look at you, as a journalist and other Nigerians on the street and tell them that yes, they need funding. I know they need funding, but they cannot look at me as a parliamentarian, one of the ranking members of the National Assembly who is familiar with the money given to them in terms of intervention and in terms of budgetary approvals. In terms of their welfare, they have salaries, quote me anywhere, they have regular allowance, they have non-regular allowance that is equal to their salaries. Any Army, Air Force, Navy should tell me I am lying.

So, in terms of their welfare, I know what it is. I know intervention, under service wide votes, that is being appropriated to the services for the security of Nigerian people. If these people are all accountable, if they are all accountable, do not hope that you will see the kind of insecurity you are seeing in Nigeria. It will die a natural death. But when someone is given funding, when someone is given budgetary allocation by National Assembly and he is not being investigated by the same National Assembly, on how you spend the money properly. When Mr President can out of concern for the Nigerian people, approve for you billions of naira as intervention and they are being funded and people are killed and someone is not called to put down his uniform, then you expect insecurity problem not to continue to escalate. Trust me, Mr. President should give these people deadline and should tell them that if there is any breakdown of law and other within your own jurisdiction, you are to face some consequences. Be rest assured that If heads roll for the first time, tomorrow from the top, heads roll, tomorrow heads roll, tomorrow heads roll, there won’t be much problem of insecurity in Nigeria. So, the problem is not about proliferation of different agencies. You have police, you have civil defence – duplication of different agencies. In other countries, Police have immigration department. They don’t have immigration as an agency or as a paramilitary organisation. But in the case of Nigeria, you have agencies that have multiple and duplication of responsibility, who are being funded by tax payers money and they are not doing their job and nobody is holding them responsible. I keep on giving this example. You have a farm and you have the farm manager who runs that farm. I give example with farm because I’m a farmer. And you ran the farm for one year, you lose. For second year, you didn’t get anything and equipment in the farm keeps on missing; animals – cows, chickens, eggs – keep one depreciating. No accountability for production. You cannot keep going injecting money into that farm. That’s how what is happening with Nigerian government and the security agencies. You keep on injecting money where production keep on depreciating, implements keep on getting lost and no single time have heads rolled. I think if it is your farm, you are a good farmer, you will call the manager and say, on whose duty did the tractor get missing? How come you neglected your responsibility that the tractor got missing?

Unfortunately I lament their situation because the men of the Nigerian Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Civil defence etc, are on the front line. They are equally being killed on daily basis, but there are people that don’t care about how the security agencies that are on the front line are losing their life on daily basis and it is very unfortunate.

So is it correct to say that the funding of the defence agencies is not commensurate to their output?

It’s not up to 10 per cent of the funding that is being injected in the security system. You saw the video on social media and pictures, the attacks on military formations in Yobe and Maiduguri. You saw the platforms that were carried away. The equipment that were set ablaze, how can you have war tanks and somebody on a motorcycle… They can say this guy is talking ignorantly, I’m not completely ignorant. I didn’t buy that certificate, I have PhD in security and strategic studies. Strategically, how would you have an army formation? One, two, three, four that are attacked? You have armoured tanks. You have AK 47 in numbers, You have different form of platforms, arms and  ammunition and someone will put AK47 rifle behind him and carry one person with another AK47 behind him and attack a formation that has such equipment that you have seen In the social media? I don’t think any military formation should sleep to an extent that someone on a motorcycle should take him unawares like that. So, some of these things, there’s no language that you will speak to me, Yusuf Gagdi, to understand that there is no complacency or conspiracy or negligence, by the military for these things to be happening. No, I will not to understand.

You chair one of these committees that oversights the Navy and you have already said that they are not delivering. Isn’t it the job of parliamentarians like you to recommend to the president, that these people are incompetent, complacent, don’t want to do the job and should be removed?

All what I’m saying that they are not doing their job is my personal opinion and having that motion come up two weeks ago, a joint security committee was put in place to investigate the matter. I am co-chairman. It is to be chaired and coordinated by Defence, co-chaired by Chairman Army, Navy, Air Force, National Security Intelligence, five of us. To co-chair the committee, I wouldn’t preempt their position or the position of Nigerians. Let us give them the enablement to come and tell us the reason these things are happening. But again, it won’t stop me from continuing to put together my opinion about insecurity in different media platforms. I will not stop talking on what I understand is the problem.

Defection of high profile politicians from the opposition to the ruling APC. Some people have said some defectors, like former Delta State governor, were coerced to dump the PDP to shake off the EFCC from his heels…?

And you think Okowa can convince all other PDP supporters in Delta to defect to APC for his self intended issue of getting EFCC off of his neck? If Okowa, because of his EFCC case, the entire PDP in Delta, including the governor, members of the House of Representatives, Senators, Houses of Assembly, supporters on the street that have no position will agree to join APC just for Okowa’s matter, then Deltans need to visit psychiatric…

No, sir. In the case of the governor, he’s the leader of the party in the state. Prior to his defection to APC, he was the leader of the PDP in the state. So his own case is not the same as Okowa. People say his case is a re-election matter and he left the PDP with the whole structure including those you mentioned…?

Okay. Coercion, intimidation, force to join the party. But let me ask you, do you think the present governor will not win election in his party if he decides to stay in PDP or other political party? He may win. By the way, he didn’t win under APC, he won under PDP. So, the case of re-election, if I had won election under PDP, the most soft landing platform and genuine platform for me is to stand where I won the election to be where I am, not to defect. That’s one. Two, the governor is alive, the former governor is alive. I equally heard it speculated that he regretted being a running mate to Atiku Abubakar, so why are you not interested in that? Why can’t you link it to the fact that there could have been other issues that stimulated him into doing what he did? I am one of the persons that sponsored a bill for the establishment of one national university, Admiralty University in Delta State. Don’t you feel that the support that Mr. President has injected into some of those institutions of Federal Government and support given to the government to function, why don’t you think that he has done a lot, including giving some lucrative appointments from his cabinet to Delta like the Minister of Aviation and so many others? Do you think Deltans don’t know what they are doing? If they have benefited from a government that they have not voted for to the extent of their benefit under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, what makes you think that those benefits that have direct value to the common man on the street would not have been the reason they are defecting to join APC? In politics, you don’t stop speculation. People speculate and they have the right to do so. But to me, I don’t think it is true.

You spoke glowingly of the performance of President Tinubu. He will be marking two years on the seat in some days, but in the political space we’ve been hearing support for re-election. Do you think it is the right time for that?

It happened during Obasanjo. After one year, Obasanjo and Atiku started campaigning for re-election. It happened during Yar’Adua. He died and after two, three months, Goodluck and his people, his cabinet started campaigning. Death of a serving president and not up to six months later, people started putting posters, Jonathan for President. Then it came to Muhammadu Buhari. From the first year of his first term, we started talking Buhari again for 2019. And all those things were not issues. It is when Asiwaju, after two years, his people, we, are talking about re-election that it is a problem. It is not the issue of starting early or not early. It is because the man has a lot of enemies and the enemies are scared they cannot defeat him in 2027 and, therefore, they are looking for any simple gap to escalate and make it propaganda. We are all Nigerians. Look at the political profiles of the presidents from 1999 to date. It has always been the same like this. Why is this one so unique and interesting? From the day he was sworn in, I started lobbying and talking to people to understand him for re-election. From 29th of May, 2023. That was when Yusuf Gagdi started talking to people to re-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I’ve seen him as a governor transformed Legos from one of the criminal and worst economy in West Africa to one of the best economy in Africa. So, I believe in him.

He has done well, walahi. I know the economy the man inherited. I know the cosmetic arrangement we were doing to make sure we covered up a lot of things during the past government that showed its face in this present government. What is getting me more worried and confused is simple. You have a president that removed oil subsidy from the first day in office. States that we’re getting N5 billion subvention started getting N10 billion subvention. States that used to get N10 billion subvention started getting N20 billion subvention. Why are Nigerians not suffocating the governors that as a result of withdrawal of fuel subsidy, their revenue generation and the money allocated to them by Federal Government have tripled? And yet it has not translated into the economic well-being of the people at the grassroots. Why are we talking about the president? Why are we not clapping for the president for taking that decision and for sending money to state governors? And they are not translating the money into the economic well-being of their people of their states. I just remembered my teacher when I was in the secondary school that said the disadvantage of Presidential system of government is that the failure of everybody will be attributed to the president.

Do you think Plateau governorship can be taken by the APC in 2027?

With how many votes did the governor win? We have 24 members of the state assembly, 22 are in APC. We have three senators, two are APC. I give you, God willing, within 10 days the remaining one will be APC. Then, three senators, APC. We have eight members of the House of Representatives. Out of eight, only one is Labour Party. Not even PDP and he will be APC. You should be asking the governor that in the state where there are 24 lawmakers, only two, the two are not even from his PDP. None is from his party. Including the speaker. How do you think you can be re-elected? Ask him that question.

How about on the national level? Do you expect an easy sweep for APC?

APC has how many governors? How many ministers do other parties have? How many political appointees in government do they have? How many local government chairmen do other parties have? These are the structures that campaign.

You are so confident despite the coming together of people like Atiku Abubakar and Nasir El-Rufai? Even the PDP is not ruling out a coalition to strengthen its chances in 2027?

Is that a coalition? The shout of el-Rufai, the words of el-Rufai, the so-called coalition is quite different from the coalition of 2013. It’s quite different. Remember that former President Muhammadu Buhari, he alone was a political party of his own. So, all the coalition and Asiwaju, he was a political mafia on his own. The coalition rode on the back of former President Buhari and Asiwaju. Both of them are in APC. So, what coalition are you talking about? How many members of the House of  Reps did el-Rufai bring to APC from Kaduna? How many members of the state assembly when he was a governor did he bring to APC from Kaduna? If he cannot deliver APC in Kaduna State, but the coalition of APC managed to support him to deliver only the governor and few members of the state assembly, how will el-Rufai’s coalition with anybody be a problem to APC? I’ve never lost sleep on that. Yes, I saw and amalgamation of politically frustrated individuals who want to deceive the gullible and I saw failure ab nitio. The coalition is a coalition of failure.