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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The issue of who occupies Nigeria’s number one political office come 2023 has been generating controversies across political, regional and religious divides.
While some posit that power should shift to the South based on a gentleman agreement of power rotation, others disagree, citing the numeric strength of the North to retain power after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari tenure which further buttressed the assertion that democracy is the game of number which the North has to advantage in Nigeria.
In this interview, the Country Director, Global Peace Foundation Nigeria and Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State, Rev John Joseph Hayab, bares his mind on who and where the next president should come from. He also lamented over the deteriorating security situation in Kaduna State where kidnapped victims have to pay heavily to rescue their loved ones while bandits that kidnapped scores of students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, are still holding back the remaining four male students after payment of ransom and other requirements. Excerpt:
There have been calls for a Southern president in 2023. Some are even calling for a Christian to be president whether from the South or North irrespective of the political affiliation, how do you view all of these?
The truth about Nigerian politics in 2023 on either a Christian governor or a Christian president is something I will personally advise and I believe I have the support of many that we must tread softly. The reason for this is simple and that is, we need a leader that will salvage the country not a religion champion. People have used religion to be in power in Nigeria and in our state and we see how they ended up whereby even people of their faith are crying. So, we should not make a mistake of calling for a Muslim or Christian president or governor so that we don’t cry at the end of the day as we have seen. What we want is that, if there is a Christian who believes that he or she is competent and qualified to deliver Kaduna, let the individual come out and contest. If there is a Christian who believes that he or she is competent and qualified to deliver Nigeria, let the individual come out and contest. If such a fellow contests and is able to get the support of the majority of the people of Kaduna to become the governor, good, such becomes the governor of Kaduna State and not the governor of Christian and the same thing is applicable to the president. So, we want to downplay this issue of religion. The saying that, a Muslim has been in power as president for eight years, let us be honest to ourselves. In 1999, Obasanjo, a Christian from the South became president and served for two terms of eight years and then, Umar Yar’Adua, a Muslim president came and served about two and a half years and God took him away. Then, Goodluck Jonathan completed the remaining joint ticket of Yar’Adua of one and a half years. He contested and ended up serving another four years. In this stance, can we really say that religion equation is balanced? I am not sure and we should be careful. Truly speaking, we want the best for Nigeria come 2023 whether a Christian or a Muslim which we don’t know. Anyone that will come and lead Nigeria out of this present difficulty, lead Nigeria out of confusion we are currently facing, such should be the president or the governor we should be looking out for and not someone who is hiding under religion who will end up tormenting all of us because everyone knows that people are crying today for making religious choice and ended up not getting religious protection. A man who uses religion to get your vote and turns back to say you don’t need to go to church. A man who uses religion to get your vote and tells you that you don’t need to go to mosque, is that a man you want as a leader? We need president and governor that will respect Nigerians’ rights and protect these rights and their lives and not someone who will come under any religious guise and end up tormenting us. To me, this should be the best for now and we are praying that God should give us good leaders in Nigeria and Kaduna State. We are not looking for a pastor or imam who will cheat us, we are looking for leaders who have vision and able to translate this vision to reality. So, for the presidency, whether the next Nigerian president comes from the North or South should be looked at closely because the South has also produced leadership in this country for a long time.
But some political parties have zoning in their constitutions, which support rotational presidency?
All these sentiments about region is what I don’t want people to stress themselves about. We have tried all these things in Nigeria and they have never yielded any good result which was why we are advocating for the best Nigerian no matter the region or religion such a fellow is found. A good leader is a good leader and that should be our guide as we look up to God to help us in 2023.
Let us talk about current security situation in Kaduna State especially with the telecommunication networks shutdown in parts of the state. Do you have statistics on recent happenings and has the measure taken by the state government been able to achieve its purpose?
The statistics for banditry and kidnapping in Kaduna are really becoming difficult to count. For example, on Sunday, October 3, there were kidnappings of 46 people in three Kaduna communities; 20 people were kidnapped in the first community, 19 people in the second community and seven people in the third community. Virtually every day, we hear cases of kidnapping in one community or the other with so many displacements. Attacks are still going on in some communities in Southern Kaduna. So, the situation simply is quite difficult. These bandits are not just collecting huge monies as ransoms, they are even coming to homes, forcing people to give them money they have. They are even charging people extra because of telecommunication networks shutdown in parts of the state, saying they struggle to get to the families of their victims before they get paid for their release. What that means is that, the measure we took to stop networks in parts of Kaduna State is not giving us the desired results. It has inflicted and still inflicting more hardship on innocent people daily on victims of bandits and so on.
It appears the issue of banditry has replaced the issues of religion and communal clashes in the state?
It is not completely correct that other communal and religion issues have seized. The only thing is that the cry of banditry and kidnapping have overshadowed those ones. Efforts by those in authority are not enough to address these inhuman treatments.
What is the situation report of the remaining four students of the Bethel Baptist High school in kidnappers’ den, have they regained their freedom?
As we speak, the bandits that kidnapped our children in Bethel Baptist High School are still holding four of them in captivity after they have collected money and other things from us. They keep toying with our minds. What makes me sad the more is that these bandits had better knowledge than all of us with regards to shutting down of networks and relocating to another place even before the shutdown. The question is, who is informing them of the decision of the authority? We can see that so many things are wrong with our fight against insecurity. Funny enough, anytime we talk, those in authority see us as disturbing them or talking too much, forgetting that there is no way you will beat a child and ask him to stop crying. There is no way you can inflict pain on me, failed to do what is right and ask me not to cry because my cry may attract attention or call someone to help. We will continue to cry until they act rightly. Like I said earlier, we still have the headboy and three other boys with these bandits. We have done all the bandits asked us to do to redeem the four children. But they keep giving us excuses. We don’t have the power to even go after them because we don’t even know where they are holding our children. But we will continue to appeal to them to release these children. Don’t forget that the final year students could not write their external examinations because two of these four students who are still with the bandits are final year students. We have made arrangements for the students of Bethel Baptist School to resume, but we cannot even ask them to resume when their colleagues are still with bandits. This is the situation of Bethel Baptist School.
