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From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai has been a major player in the politics of Nigeria and his voice has been very loud on matters of peace and national unity.
He is afraid that a northerner succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari might be a grave threat to the fragile peace and unity of the country, urging Nigerians to make sure that a southerner comes to power next year.
He also spoke on the threat to impeach Buhari, saying that the members of the National Assembly are not serious, arguing that even if the legislators had good reason, they do not have enough time to engage in the exercise. He spoke about the judiciary and the curious resignation from office of the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Mohammed. Excerpt:
Recently, the National Assembly threatened to impeach President Buhari if he fails to downscale the security pressure in the country within weeks. How do you see the impeachment threat?
I read it, but I know that they are not serious. This is because impeaching a president particularly in Nigeria is not a matter that you go to newspapers and make announcement. When legislators are serious about impeaching a president, they know what to do to get started. You don’t warn a president that you are going to impeach. If you are serious, you begin the process. There are procedures, you have to complain of what is worrying you, give time, write it in black and white and so on. The process is not simple. Those who are talking about it are not aware of the immense challenges inherent in it too. The first of the process is that you must get two third support of the two houses. No party has got that kind of majority in the two houses to pass that kind of resolution. I know that they are not serious and the president knows that they are not serious and would not care about their threat.
How do you relate to the subtle role the Senate president played, trying to protect the president and the executive during the attempts to raise the issue in the house?
Well, it is not entirely unexpected of him. They belong to the same political party and they have an understandable working relationship. But in addition, don’t forget that recently even the same Lawan was about to lose his position and was shaken a bit.
There are hints that the national legislators likely to dump the APC for other parties are huge. Why the huge number of exits and what is the implication on the strength of the ruling party, especially as we move towards 2023 elections?
Well, let me say that there are two factors playing out here. One, some of them did not get the re-nomination to their positions and some did get the tickets to the new positions that they sought in their parties. Secondly, there is a perception that the party may not get back to power and some of them had begun to prepare grounds to find accommodation elsewhere. It is not for nothing that they are making these moves here and there. Don’t forget we had a similar kind of disposition towards the 2015 elections. In order words, at this particular period of political transition, movement by politicians from one party to another is common. It is not something that should surprise one.
In the absence of their majority, can the APC still protect their president? And should the opposition come to become the majority, wouldn’t they use it to shake the president?
But if they do, what is the use at this time? This is a man who has been in power for over seven years. It remains practically just about five months for him to go. In five months time from now, we would know who is going to be the next president. So, if you are still thinking in terms of impeaching the president at this moment, then you are wrong or misdirecting your energy. The time span remaining in the life of this administration is too short for one to commit his energy in this direction. No matter the justification, it is not enough for the exercise. There are processes and these processes have their own time span. You lay your complaint, state what he did wrong, and then you would ask the judiciary to investigate your complaint and they would investigate and submit their report and then the process of moving the motion and adopting the motion and it requires two third majority, which I know is not a tea party. Getting such a number of votes in the Nigerian setting against a sitting president or in this present circumstance is not going to be easy.
Recently, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed resigned his position days after his colleagues at the Supreme Court slammed him with a list of weighty allegations. How do you relate to this resignation, coming days after these complaints were made against him?
Right from the beginning, I had this belief and I know it is true, and today my fears have been confirmed. I have always felt that President Buhari brought in that man, Tanko to serve a particular purpose and if you remember, there was somebody who was supposed to be the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Buhari refused to nominate him and if you also remember the circumstances that paved way for his nomination to that position, you will understand my suspicion. I have read a lot about Buhari. Yes, I am not very close to him, but I have watched him carefully, even at the time when they conspired to remove the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari. I watched him carefully and I came to understand him well enough. I had said it before that he may not have the capacity, but that does not mean that he is not clever enough to find his way to where he wants to reach. And he has done it. The two scenarios have played out. His lacking the capacity to rule this country, but he was clever enough to get to where he is aiming to reach. He knew that the case of the elections, the process would naturally end up at the Supreme Court and he was not sure about the other man, the man from Cross Rivers State. So, he got rid of the other man and then he put this one to do his bidding and the matter went to the Supreme Court, he got what he wanted and now what is happening has reached a stage where his (Tanko) own colleagues…. This is the first time in the history of this country and in my own opinion, in any country that I know of where Justices of the Supreme Court would come together and lay a complaint in writing against the Chief Justice of a country. Now, it has happened. So, he has served his purpose and he can go. But what is interesting is that there are genuine complaints, in my opinion, I don’t have any evidence, and that something ought to have happened after Tanko left, but it didn’t happen.
What do you think ought to have happened?
I said that “something”. Let us leave it at that.
Outside the accusations from his colleagues, do you also think that “something” ought to have happened because there was an allegation around his son in the media as at the time he resigned? Simply put don’t you think his tenure ought to be investigated?
Well, what I think is that enh … I think that time would solve this problem. Certainly, there must be something more serious that they are avoiding to bring to the public. But this is Nigeria. By this time next year, we would have a new president. Only God knows what will happen. There are other things that would probably come up after the change of guards next year. As they say, let us take them one at a time.
Still around the judiciary, with all of these, can we really trust them, especially as election period is usually characterized by a lot of litigations?
I don’t want generalization, I think the issue of making Nigerian judiciary to sit up would come up when we have a new government. There is no doubt in my mind that a new government would make efforts to get the judiciary to sit up to playing the role that it ought to be playing. I don’t think that this is a matter that would be ignored. There is a need. No doubt about it. But it is not something that has just started. It has been on and on and on and because the politicians are taking advantage of the situation, they prefer to let it to go on like that. I am sure that it can’t be forever.
We have had election in Osun and before then, in Ekiti State. How would you assess INEC ahead of the 2023 elections?
I am always looking at the possibility of things happening. You cannot change INEC at the time, whether they are doing the right thing or not. Let us concentrate on the new dispensation because we are just on the verge of transiting from this administration to a new one. Let us concentrate on the new dispensation. I prefer to make progress in my life.
Talking about the controversy surrounding the Muslim-Muslim ticket, how do you respond to the ways the indigenous Northern Christians are treated in the political sphere? Specifically, has Tinubu been fair to them by ignoring their complaints?
The people that are complaining now, what do they want Tinubu to do? You see Tinubu cannot now drop Shettima and pick any other person now because he is a Christian. He cannot do it. The time for him to do it has passed. It is just like beating a dead horse. In any case that there were situations in the past where people from the same religion as president and vice president. Two times, it has happened in the past. Don’t let us bring the entire universe down because it has happened.
Yes, we had Buhari/ Idiagbo, and we have had Abiola /Kingibe. But the argument is that today’s Nigeria is more sensitive to religion than ever before?
The point is what do they want Tinubu to do now? Do they want Tinubu to drop Shettima now? Have they considered the consequences? We are talking of taking somebody else from the North. Tinubu who at his prime, married a Christian, cannot be somebody who does not like Christianity. When it comes to election, you are talking of votes and the question is how do you get votes? How do you get the popular support? You are talking of Tinubu who came from the South, a minority from the Southern part of the country by virtue of his faith, the South where Christians are the majority of people. Now, Tinubu a Moslem with the support of the other Nigerians became the presidential candidate of the APC. If he takes up a Christian Northerner today as running mate. I don’t think he would get the number of votes that he requires from the North to win the elections. What is the use if you cannot win the elections? What is the use of that decision, if you cannot win the elections? Today in my mind, I believe that anybody who forced Tinubu to drop Shettima for a Northerner Christian, be it Jerry Gana, be it Dogara or anybody, it is, I can assure you that Tinubu would not win the elections. I can definitely assure you that Tinubu would not win the elections because in five months, you dropped a Muslim running mate and picked up a Christian, you will not get the majority of Muslim votes in the North. Without it, you cannot win the next elections. And what should you do? What is Tinubu looking for? Is it religious balance or winning the elections of the presidency? And you can’t accuse Tinubu of religious bigotry. If he would at his prime decide that of all the people in Lagos, out of all the people in Lagos, if he would decide to marry and pick a Christian as a wife and they are still together….He supported her to win the senatorial elections, two times. Nobody can say that Tinubu is anti-Christian, no matter how ungodly that person is. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have married a Christian. And they have been staying together till date.
There is what is called the “Buhari effect” to the current agitation in the North. This president over prioritized and patronized a particular region and religion to the disadvantage of the other and this, many say, is what is fuelling the present fears against the same faith ticket?
But Buhari is going now. Why did they keep quiet all this time? I didn’t like it, myself. I didn’t like Buhari approach – out of 10 appointments, you took most of them from one area. This is not good for Nigeria. I spoke a lot around that area in the past. But what can we do now? I want peace. I want change. I am looking for an opportunity to change this kind of situation. Let me tell you something that would make me unpopular in this part of the country. I don’t like a Northerner, whoever he is, to be our president after Buhari. I want somebody from the South, somebody competent, somebody who has proven his worth in politics so that we can change the narrative for the better and for his people. And I think this is what we are trying to do now.
We have just about four leading presidential candidates for the 2023 presidential polls – Tinubu, Obi, Atiku and Kwankwaso. Can you just assess the four of them in terms of their capacities for the younger generation to share in your thought?
I will not like to make an assessment of that nature. I am only a Nigerian with a single vote and I know who is going to get my vote. I have said it several times that in my opinion, I will like power to shift to the South. I want the next president to come from the South. I am on that… in the interest of national unity, if we continue to produce northerners as presidents in this country, that would not guarantee peace and tranquility in this country. And I want peace; I want my children and grand children to live in peace in Nigeria. I want somebody from the South and that person should be competent and should be somebody who can tackle Nigerian problems. It has happened. It has happened in other countries. I made my point clear a long time and I said that I had chosen two people in my mind and I said that I would only support one of them who comes to me for support. And by special arrangement from God, Tinubu came to my house. And so far, he is the only person who came to me for support. And because I have announced it that he is the only one who has come to me, perhaps others would not come to me.
We are talking of transition to a greater future, but all over the place, Nigeria is riddled with corruption. Where do we place corruption in all of these? Do you see the same corruption undermining the new administration?
Well, corruption is a big problem. I believe that the new administration can tackle the issue of corruption head long because most of the people who are aspiring to come as the new president of Nigeria are perceived to be on the other side on the issue about corruption.
Sir , sorry I don’t understand that your term “on the other side of corruption?”
They are perceived to be not clean. So, what do we do? Like I told you, I want a new progress. I want, by this time next year, to work on a new narrative of change. This administration has not met our expectation; we need to look forward to something else, something new.
