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Alhaji Tanko Yakasai is an elder statesman and Second Republic politician. The nonagenarian, who was then President Shehu Shagari’s Political Adviser, in this interview with Saturday Sun, insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration lacks the competence and capacity to end the present insecurity bedevilling the land, even as he lamented that the problems that gave birth to NEPU and ushered in the Sawaba Declaration of the 50s were still prevalent in today’s Nigeria today. He spoke to DESMOND MGBOH in Kano.
Your son, Salihu, just defected from the APC to the PRP. In his remarks, he made strong reference to the Sawaba Declaration. As a founding member of NEPU and a key signatory to the SAWABA declaration, how do you feel that the new generation of politicians are moving back to NEPU and the PRP?
Well, it is inevitable because the conditions that led to the creation of NEPU and PRP and the rest of them are still there or are coming back all over again. When NEPU was founded, the slogan was emancipation and that was Sawaba. There were too much problems in the society at that time and the people were looking for reprieve. And some people thought of establishing a political party that would fight for that reprieve. And the purpose was to liberate the common people of the region from the oppression, poverty and lack of clear direction for the future occasioned by their leaders. So that was what brought about NEPU then. But unfortunately, because of military coup, all the political parties were banned, NEPU among them. But after about 13 years, when the ban on politics and political activities were lifted, some people went back to the issue of NEPU, went back to revive it and luckily for them, at that time, the leader of NEPU had some issues with the National Movement and he left. They got him as a rallying point and he helped them revive the agitation for the liberation and emancipation of the people of the region. As a result of that, they created a new political party, Peoples Redemption Party. So redemption and emancipation and liberation are the same thing. So, I am not surprised that today, the old belief is coming back again and there are a couple of very credible names that are associated with the PRP, because honestly speaking the problems that were prevalent then have not been solved and the need for a stronger push for liberation in the society is still as evident as it was in the past.
Does the PRP have the prospect of coming back to seize control of the politics of some parts of North, like Kano and Kaduna State, places where they were very popular in the Second Republic?
Yes I do see their chances because as far as I am concerned, they are still popular in all those areas that you just mentioned. This is because the changes that have happened in the lives of the people in those areas are not significant or any much different from what they were in past. The people of these states and region are still waiting for emancipation and the people are thinking randomly, let us go back to the original struggle for the emancipation of our people.
Former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has just defected from the PDP to his NNPP. What is your take about this defection?
Well, I don’t know and I never discussed with him about his motivations, but I guess that he is virtually looking for an opportunity, to use his influence in Kano and support somebody to emerge as the Governor of Kano State. I think he is not too keen on his own candidature as he is on winning the election in Kano State. I think he is looking for a platform where he can sponsor somebody with the support that he has here in Kano to emerge as the governor of the state. He would certainly make a huge difference if he is able to get somebody to be elected as a governor on his platform in Kano and a few states of Northern Nigeria.
At the national level, what are his chances? We do know that he has a presidential aspiration. What are the chances his NNPP would make impact in 2023 elections?
I think he is seeing the magnitude of the ambition to be elected the President of Nigeria, the costs, the reach out and the rest of them and probably, he thinks that time is not enough given that between now to the date of the election is a matter of months, certainly not years. And he must have worked out that time is not opportune for him to make an impact as a candidate for the Presidency. He would not come out and say it but I think that is not his motive. It is just like what Mallam Aminu Kano did. You see when Mallam realised that the National Movement could not provide him a platform for the Presidency, he decided to come back to Kano and eventually, he succeeded in forming the governments of Kano and Kaduna States. I think that this history is there in the psyche of Kwankwaso and I will not be surprised if he is not trying to repeat history.
Looking at his rivals in Kano State- Ganduje in APC and Ibrahim Shekarau- a man that has blind political followership, what are his chances of using this new party to produce the next governor of the state?
If you look at the situation, I don’t think there is a single leader among the three of them who is sure of getting the votes in Kano to produce the governor. But this is an electoral system whereby out of the three or four or five candidates, whoever emerges with the largest number of votes can be elected as the governor. You don’t have to have all the votes to yourself before you become or you will be declared the winner and the governor of the state. You can win the election with a few thousand votes difference; you don’t have to have an overwhelming majority over everybody. You can even win by just one vote. If you understand it this way, you will see his reasoning
Let’s discuss the insecurity in different parts of the country, but which is much more in the North. How do you feel about the Abuja – Kaduna terror attack, which occurred a few days after we had the airport attack in the same Kaduna?
Well, this incident is most unfortunate and I want to extend my sincere sympathies to the families of the deceased. I also want to empathise with those who were injured and I am praying for those who are presently in hostage to regain their freedom soonest. You see, this problem is a national problem and we need a national government with social and military programmes to address properly the issue of insecurity and other problems in the land. This is because insecurity is largely associated with poverty and unemployment. To solve the problem of insecurity in Nigeria, you have to tackle the problem of unemployment in the country and then, poverty. Because those who are engaged to undermine security in Nigeria are largely people who do not have jobs or any serious thing that they are doing. To resolve this problem of insecurity, you have to come up with a policy programme that would not address one problem, but would address a number of interrelated problems, to address inter – related social problems that are driving insecurity.
But honestly speaking do you think President Buhari and his security apparatus in Nigeria can tackle the problem of insecurity in the country?
You know my position on this, right from the world go. You know my position about the President. By the time he was to contest for the position, I did not support him. I said that I did not support him to some journalists in the past and they asked me why. And I said that he has no capacity and competence to tackle the problem. And seven years is gone, the problem of insecurity in Nigeria has not been tackled or addressed. It has gone worse from where we are
How do you say that a retired General cannot tackle insecurity?
You cannot change somebody. This man joined the military when he was about 20 years old and now he is 80. You cannot change him. Look at during Obasanjo, when there was problem at Zaki Ibiam and one other area, what did he do? He ordered the military to move in. That is to tell you that you don’t change people simply because he dropped the khaki and picked up an agbada. You don’t change people. Until the end of his life, he would think in a military way.
Are you saying that it is not all about military force?
What people with the right capacity do is that they look for people with great ideas from different vocations, regardless of whether they are from their party or not, and then tell them the problems worrying you. You urge them to think and come out with the solution to enable you tackle the problem. And when they put their heads together, they would come up with a number of recommendations out of which you can pick those that could be handled immediately. And in a matter of one year or so, you will begin to see a difference. This is the reason why when you are in politics and when you are in government, you make out your priority. Priority is the thing that requires your immediate attention and can be immediately addressed while you address others in the future.
A lot of analysts believe that part of the problems of security in Northern Nigeria is the open international borders of the region. Quite a number of the terrorists are people from outside our borders. Let me have your honest take on this .
Open borders is not the major problem. The major problem, I told you, is when you produce millions of young people without anything for them to do to take care of themselves. This is the problem. Massive unemployment in the country, no education and even those who are educated are half- baked. You can’t call them educated people. Yes they can read and right, but you know that they are not educated. So this problem of some people moving from outside the borders is a problem, but it is not the main problem. The major problem in this country is with the people of this country and it is because the younger generations that are coming up have no hope in the country and have no one to care for their needs. I mean they would like to get married, they would like to stay with their families and they would like to have prospects. But there is no hope in Nigeria. And when somebody has no hope, he takes to criminality to ease out his frustration. Because killing people does not solve their problems. This insurgency that they are doing, does it solve their problems? No! They go and kill people and steal their money and they would spend it on useless things. They don’t use the money they receive from banditry and others for any useful thing. It is so frustrating. So you need to have experts. In fact I will advise that whoever would emerge as the next President should not limit himself to Nigeria or to Africa. He should look wider and further for assistance by way of ideas to solve the problems of insecurity and they would come to his help
There are arguments that there must be those who are benefiting from within as a result of which this insecurity problem has remained unsolvable. What would say to this?
Well, If you remember the Late Chief of Defence Staff, Barde. When he died, he left billions of naira. How did he get all that money? He would go to President Jonathan and outline the solutions to the problem, and that this was how much it would cost, and Jonathan would direct that he should be given the money and when he got the money, he would take it for himself. This is what happened. Otherwise, how could he have got all those billions of naira? And he is not himself alone. There are many, many people like that in the system. There are many Bardes who are making their own money under the guise of fighting insecurity and insurgency in the country. This is one of the reasons we are not solving the problem because the monies that are allocated to solve the problem, they are not all being used to tackle the problem.
You have been an advocate of the emergence of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction. Has your position changed about the Igbo Presidency?
I said that I am in support of a President of Igbo extraction for Nigeria. But I made it clear at the time, nobody can gift you the Presidency in a democracy. Igbo people would have to go out in a country like Nigeria, with millions of people, you have to reach out to the left, right and centre. You have to not only reach out to people, but present them with a programme that would take care of your interests and their interests. It is not only about your own interests but also about their own interests. If their interests are not incorporated in your own programme, they would not support you. So the question of reaching out with a viable programme that would address the problems of different segments of the Nigeria society is a must. And that is what will begin to appeal to them, that if this man would get to power, our problems would be solved. If not all but partly. Without that, you can shout at the top of your voice about the Presidency, and nothing would change.
From your assessment of those Igbo who have indicated interest in the Presidency, do you think that they have been reaching out enough?
Well, my trouble is how many months now do we have left to the elections and what are the platforms that they are using to pursue their quest?.Because the most important thing is the platform. If the platform is nationwide in character, there is hope. But if the platform is not nationwide, if it is limited to your locality, there is no way, there is no magic that anybody can make to make you win the elections.
But do you see them making enough efforts to get the nod of the players on the big platforms
Honestly their approach to addressing this problem is a challenge to me. Instead of trying to get very good platforms, they tend to create mushroom organisations that are limited to their own locality. I don’t think that that is the way to go about it. You must launch yourselves into the Nigerian nation; seek out platforms that are national in character and take it up from there. This is because you need everybody. Without reaching out to all, there is no amount of shout that you make that would make you win the heart of people. Let them look for a viable platform, join it, make an impact. But as long as they are in APGA and the rest of them which are limited to Igbo land, they cannot give an Igbo man a platform to be elected as the President of Nigeria.
What’s your take on the last APC Convention which produced mostly consensus candidates?
Consensus is not democracy. Nobody would tell you that democracy means consensus. No! Democracy means majority. So, consensus was not there before. It was not a platform that was to take anyone to power. I saw it, it happened. The President said that they could not afford the competition and contest as a party. In my opinion, if they had allowed true democracy to go ahead, the same outcome could have been arrived at. Adamu would have emerged the winner through a democratic process. I was telling somebody yesterday, when Ambode was not towing the lines of the party in Lagos State and they decided to remove him , what did Tinubu do? They had caucuses all over the place and they held a meeting and they spoke freely. Tinubu didn’t utter a word and from their remarks, you would know that they were against Ambode and when the votes were cast, they rejected him and looked for another candidate.
There is a general feeling that the APC would pay dearly for the use of consensus arrangement because many of their members are not happy the way things went. Do you see this things playing out this way?
In any case, I told you that consensus negates democracy and what is known to democracy is majority votes. You know that those who withdrew didn’t withdraw voluntarily. They withdrew to submit to bigger power because, as you know, from now to the end of his tenure there are a lot of things that Buhari can do. And most of these aspirants were former governors who have some problems and he has his own information about everybody and everybody knows that he has that information. The moment you attempt to revolts, all he needs to do is to keep you quiet and let you go but then in the next few days, you will be in trouble with the authorities and this is the reason they conceded against their wish. They know. They were former officials who have skeletons in their cupboards and can’t afford to disobey the Presidential directive.
