•Nigeria’s leaders aren’t sincere in fighting terrorism, banditry

The Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, has dismissed the issue of Christian genocide in Nigeria. According to him, what the country is experiencing is insecurity that is claiming the lives of both Christians and Muslims on daily basis.

In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the CNG leader warned the United States against interfering in Nigeria’s internal affairs. He noted that any country America goes to liberate end up having endless crises.

What was your reaction when US President, Donald Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, and threatened to come after terrorists, following reported genocide against Christians in the north?

We didn’t expect America to be biased in whatever is happening in this country. Trump’s comment is a biased statement that can degenerate the crisis in Nigeria, and by their words and action, America is trying to inflame the crisis.

Nobody doubts the issues of insecurity in this country, but these issues are not religious.

Both Muslims and Christians are being killed in this country on daily basis. If you go through the percentage, particularly, you realise that the hottest areas where insecurity is predominantly taking place in the country are the North-West and North-East, and there is a little issue of farmer-herders in the North Central that has ancestral history.

In the Northwest, people are being killed on daily basis by bandits. We have seen a situation where people were bombed and hundreds died instantly in their mosques during their morning prayers.  We have seen a situation where the homes of these people, Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), were raided and they were killed in their hundreds. These are the issues that are happening in Nigeria.

The killings in Nigeria are neither religious nor ethnic, but the issues of bandits and terrorists, which are taking place predominantly in the northern part of the country, particularly in the North-West and North-East. We condemn Trump’s statement in totality, and we challenge him to revisit his source of information if truly this is what he has, unless there are other things in his mind.

Trump is just using the killing of Christians, and Christian genocide in northern Nigeria, as a camouflage to penetrate into the country and take whatever he wants without any complaints.

We have seen how America entered into different countries camouflaging as liberators and threw the country into deeper crises. We saw what happened in Iraq and Libya, and we are seeing what is happening in Syria and Somalia, and other places.

Trump should know that Nigeria is a sovereign nation that got independence since 1960, and no country, and I repeat, no country can just wake up one day and decide to dictate how Nigeria is going to conduct its internal affairs.

We expect the international community to be partners in progress, not to be partners in crisis. We expect the international community to respect the diplomatic tie between Nigeria and them. They should respect the dignity of Nigeria, and also the people of this country.

We believe that the purpose of all these Trump’s rhetoric or shouting is not to assist the Christians that are allegedly being killed on daily basis.

First and foremost, Christians are not being killed on daily basis in Nigeria. Nigeria is suffering from insecurity – Muslims, Christians, and even the traditional believers are being killed on daily basis.

The innocent blood of the Muslims is spilled on daily basis in this country. Go to Zamfara, and see what is happening around Moru, Anka, and Safi. The people and Muslims are being killed on daily basis. They cannot access their farms. They cannot even do their cattle rearing. Terrorists are taking over so many places in this country.

The issue of Christian genocide in Nigeria is false; it’s not true, but we believe that there are insecurity issues going on in the country.

But Trump is quoted to have said that US is only after terrorists that are killing people and not after Nigerian citizens?

In fact, there is no link between what Trump said and what people are just trying to explain that he’s coming to do. People are explaining that he’s coming after the terrorists, but the problem that we’ve got with Trump is his statement that Christians are being killed. He’s just trying to inflame the crisis that Nigerians are suffering today.

His action will lead Nigeria into religious crisis, which will not only be dangerous to only Nigerians, but also the whole Sahel countries, not just the African countries.

If today Nigerians believe that genocide is happening to one particular religion, and unfortunately they decided to react, as volatile as Nigeria is, definitely, it is going to affect all the Sahel countries, and by extension, it can even affect the entire world.

We don’t have any religious crisis and we cannot, no matter what, allow somebody to come and create a religious crisis in this country. We saw what happened in 1992 at Zango Kataf. We also saw what happened in Plateau in 2001 and 2008 at Kuru Karama. We saw what happened in Plateau in 2010. We saw what happened in Wukari in 2013. All these are killings that were related to religious crises.

Unfortunately, the people that suffered there are 90 per cent Muslims. Go to Plateau and ask people what happened in Kuru Karama in 2010.

Still there are bodies of Muslims in the soak away pits and in wells. What happened to Akali, a Muslim?  What happened to those Yoruba Muslims that were coming back from Bauchi through Plateau? They were killed in Plateau.

But we are not saying that it is only the Muslims that are being killed in the northern part of the country. What we are seeing is that Nigerians are being killed on a daily basis.

In as much as Trump wishes to come and assist Nigeria, despite the fact that Nigeria is a sovereign state, he should respect her sovereignty, and being a sovereign state means that it has the responsibility to take decisions on its own.

We can never believe that he’s coming to help Nigeria. I already cited examples of what happened in Libya and other countries. We know what America is doing and we know where they are going.

All the places that America went in the name of liberation, have they been liberated? They are not, they are still in crises. Go to Afghanistan and see what is happening there.

Now, how can the country come out of this since you don’t want an external help? Terrorists just abducted 25 school girls in a Kebbi secondary school and killed the vice principal.

The solution is as simple as ABC. This is a local problem and has to be treated locally. But our issue is that our politicians, the leaders must have the political will, the sincerity, and the integrity to do the fight.

Our only problem is that they lack the political will. Our soldiers are gallant. Our security forces are gallant. They have gone to so many places and we believe that they can do it again.

They were in the ECOMOG, in Liberia; they were in Sierra Leone, and in so many places. And they fought the fight of other people, why couldn’t they have fought the fight of our people? So, we believe that if the leaders, particularly the politicians have the political will, the problem will be over.

In as much as the politicians see this insecurity as a general issue that is debilitating the peace of the country; and they see it as an issue that needs to be addressed once and for all, and they don’t see it as an opportunity for them to loot our treasury through this issue, the solution is simple. We believe that our gallant forces can do it.

The way out is political sincerity of our leaders; they must have the political will and the sincerity.

If the leaders don’t have the political will, then, we are not ready to end the menace of insecurity, which already has become a business venture that so many people have already invested in. Many people are benefiting from it either directly or indirectly. Who are these terrorists? How many are they? What kind of weapons do they have? Are their weapons larger than the Nigeria Army armoury?  Are they larger in size than the whole Nigerian security forces? How many are they? Where are they? These are the same people that are living in this country and we believe that our gallant forces can deal with them, but unfortunately, our leaders lack the political will, the sincerity, the integrity to deal with them.

Our leaders are using the opportunity to loot the treasury, and as a conduit pipe to siphon the resources of the country.

For over a decade, the country has been experiencing this insecurity and there has not been any sign of political will from the leadership to tackle this scourge. What next?

This lack of political will and sincerity is what is even pushing some people or communities from different localities to be subservient to these bandits. If you go to so many villages today in the north, they are paying taxes to the bandits. For them, they are buying peace. They are giving their money just to buy peace to live in peace.

The solution is that Nigerians must wake up from their slumber and realise that this issue of insecurity is detrimental to all Nigerians and Nigeria itself. We must wake up to elect leaders that are sincere and have the political will.

We must vote leaders that believe in the country itself. We must vote leaders that their pedigrees speak for them, and have the sincerity to end this menace.

This is not an issue that we would allow external forces to come and exacerbate or inflame.

It’s an issue that can easily be solved within the country. What we need is to have capable and desired leadership.

What we need are people that believe in the country and people that have the consciousness and respect for the millions of Nigerians and Nigeria.

We need to have leaders that believe that they will end this menace. It’s simple. Every community should vote credible leaders, and the people living in those communities should also bear in mind that they have a contribution to make by helping in identifying these killers and also taking the necessary measures to safeguard their communities. They should have all these local vigilantes to safeguard their communities. They should apply officially to possess arms to protect their communities on a daily basis.

Instead of equipping local vigilantes, is it not better to have state police?

The local vigilante is quite different from state police because nobody owns them; they are owned by the people of the community, while state police is owned by the state government.

Since the state police are in total control of the state governors, definitely, the governors will hijack them and use them for whatever purpose they want.

But a community police/ vigilante is a situation where members of the community own the process; these vigilante people are owned by the people of the community, and so, they have limitations and they have boundaries. They are not going to be sent to every aspect of the community. When it comes to election, they know that it is a no-go area for them because they don’t have that power; they don’t have even the constitutional power to be there. Even the Nigerian police will not allow them to go there and do whatever they want to do. At least, you see their limitations. When they are legally or constitutionally formed, the governors will use them in whatever ways. This is our fear.

We don’t want a situation where the governors will hijack the state police as they have jacked State Independent Electoral Commission, the local government autonomy and so many other things that the state governors feel as their own property. Go to any state that is conducting local government election and see how all the chairmanship and counsellorship seats are won by the party which governor belongs to.

Today, the local governments have become mortuaries; the state governors have hijacked the financial aspect of the local government administration. Nobody is even going to the local government secretariats because they have nothing to do; even contracts are signed by the state governors irrespective of the desires of the people living in that local government. The state government will send the contractor to the local government instead of giving the contracts to the locals so that they will benefit from that contract.

The state police will be hijacked by the state governors, while vigilantes are owned by the people living in the community.

Do you see any political undertone in this issue?

Trump’s statement has some political undertones. In the first place, you can see Nigeria and America ties are gradually reducing, while the diplomatic ties between Nigeria and Russia, China, and other global south are increasing. The issue of Nigeria becoming a member of the BRICS is also an issue. So, there could be a political undertone in it. It is likely that Trump is not with the present administration of Nigeria. Irrespective of the party that is leading Nigeria, the nation must come first than any other thing. We have to defend Nigeria; we have to protect her and defend the sovereignty and her dignity.

The people that are crying over this genocide are mostly the northern Christians in the Middle Belt. What are the northern leaders, and stakeholders like your group doing to allay their fears over the issue of genocide?

For many years now, you have never heard anything like religious crisis between Muslims and Christians in Plateau State.

Today, both Muslims and Christians move freely in Plateau; they are doing their businesses together. Go to the communities, business activities are going on peacefully between members of the two religions.

You can move to any part of Plateau State as a Muslim, likewise, as a Christian. A Christian can move to Jos North; he can move to any place and other places that are dominantly occupied by Muslims.

We are doing a lot of activities. One is for people to understand that we are not enemies to each other, and that our enemies are insecurity, poverty, unemployment, bad governance, bad leadership and so many other things. We are not enemies to each other. We must love each other in order to fight our enemies.

People have already bought into it, and they believe in it. That’s why communities are working together today.

In Taraba, Muslims and Christians move freely to any part of the state. This is as a result of a continuous campaign and awareness to the people that we are not enemies to each other.

That’s why we are bitter with Trump’s statement. We are seeing that Trump is trying to take us back to those years when Muslims and Christians were fighting each other. Today, Muslims and Christians are not fighting each other.

The issue of Benue State that people talking about is not a Muslim-Christian crisis. It’s an issue that has an ancestral history. They are competing for land. Whatever they are competing for is not an issue of Muslims and Christian crisis. Check the record and see the number of people arrested – both are Christians and Muslims terrorists. They are arresting both Muslims and Christians as gun runners. They are apprehending both Muslims and Christians as bandits and kidnappers. We must understand that we are not enemies to each other. This is what we are trying to correct in this country. We love each other and we believe in each other. Our diversity should be a blessing to the country.

On this issue of genocide, who is doing the killing?

Both religions are doing the killings, and are being killed. If you go to the police record, you will see that there are so many Muslims that are found wanting, as well as so many Christians. There are so many Christians that are being killed likewise so many Muslims. So it’s both sides.

Like I said earlier, we must understand that we are not enemies to each other. Our enemies remain bad governance, violence, insecurity, poverty, etc.

There are some people that are found to be Christians, who attempted to burn down a church. The people who recently went to Taraba State and killed worshippers in the mosque are Muslims.

When Boko Haram was at its peak, the bombs were detonated not only by Muslims alone, but also by Christians.