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•If Tinubu turns things around, northerners may vote him in 2027
The Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, has said that no matter how good or beautiful the constitution is, it can only work if Nigerians carry out mindset reorientation. He dismissed the calls for the creation of new states, noting that some of the states are not thriving.
In this interview with VINCENT KALU, the CNG leader noted that President Bola Tinubu’s government is catastrophic, but said the north can vote for him again if he shows ability to turn around the fortunes of the country before 2027.
The Senate is holding public town hall meeting on the amendment of the constitution. What’s your view on this and what are the things that you expect from the amendment?
We have to tell ourselves the real truth. No matter how good or beautiful the constitution of Nigeria is; it can only work if Nigerians decided to allow it work. Despite the fact that we have so many ambiguities and challenges with the constitution, in the first place, we have to do a real mindset reorientation; we have to believe that we want to do things that would move this country forward. More so, we have to believe in the country; believing that we belong to a country, called Nigeria.
Secondly, we have to believe that we want to do things that will progress and promote this country positively, and thirdly, we have to make up our minds to adhere to the dos and don’ts of the constitution. Thereafter, the amendment of the constitution can then yield a positive result that Nigerians expected. However, in as much as we have decayed institutions, dilapidated structures and a rotten system, I doubt if the constitution would work, no matter how beautiful it is.
However, we expect that the constitutional review committee will particularly concentrate on issues that concern either the devolution of powers or that will checkmate the excesses of the governors and the president, because the constitution has given them too much power that to the extent that they cannot be checkmated while they are in the system. It has to be reduced, and necessary things have to be done to ensure that both the governors and the president can be checkmated while they are in power.
We caution strongly that Nigeria doesn’t need state police. There are so many countries that have tried either regional police or state police. Examples are Mexico, Somalia, South Sudan, and Pakistan. In fact, in Nigeria, state police contributed to the 1996 coup. It was dissolved, and the Nigeria Police had to come into being.
State police will not work in Nigeria because of the nature of the country; Nigeria is too diverse; we have diversity in ethnicity, in our religion, and even in even our mindsets. We so much believe in politics to the extent that our governors sometimes make it superior to any other thing. Even now, when our governors don’t have the sole power to control the police and the army, they are actively using them in the political process. The governors are using every institution in their states for their political purposes. So, how could we expect that a governor, who is trying to manipulate the federal police, the federal army and the civil servants in his state, would not use any opportunity to monopolise the state police that is fully under his control? So, we caution strongly against the implementation of state police at this very material time. Nigeria is not ripe for that because it is too dangerous and too catastrophic for the nation’s politics.
What is your position on agitations for the creation of more states?
We don’t need new states; we need to strengthen the existing ones. We don’t support the creation of new states; because we have 774 local governments in the 36 states, but still, states aren’t thriving. There are no noticeable physical developments, especially in the last states that were created. It’s only in few states that you see real development. We still need to develop the states before we move even to the creation of new ones. It’s just like running faster than our shadows. It’s just like the issue of the state police, when we should be talking about strengthening the Nigeria police.
If we strengthen the states, we give them all necessary amenities, and have good leaders that have the hearts to consolidate and to promote good governance, and then we can talk about the creation of new states.
What we need most now is the reorientation of our minds, and leaders that believe that they are leaders, and not politicians. But unfortunately, we only have politicians that are looking and yearning for how to win the next elections; they don’t care about the country or do they care about the progress of the country. They don’t even believe in the country you call Nigeria.
What is your take on local government autonomy?
If we want this country to progress, and we want the masses to have the evidence of democracy, we must have this local government autonomy. Local government autonomy is the one single entity that all Nigerians are yearning for.
Today, the local governments are becoming mortuaries. Councils have been reduced to places to just accommodate people, and call them civil servants without them doing anything. Go to local government secretariats, they are empty. We have reached a level that a local government chairman cannot even decide what he will do in that local government. If a project is to be executed in a local government, the governor will send a contractor, and at the end of the day, he will come and commission that project. Local government autonomy will give us opportunities for Nigeria to progress.
What is your take on coalition that is building up for 2027 elections?
Nothing is going well in this country, presently. Since the beginning of President Muhammadu Bahari’s regime, nothing is going well in this country. Nigerians are suffering and insecurity are everywhere. Definitely, Nigerians need somebody that will turn around the fortune of this country.
However, these people are all the same set of people, moving from one political party to another. That is the issue. These people are not gathered to move the country forward, but are out just to grab power. Is that how Nigerian politicians will always be changing from one political party to another? The issue is not the political party’s name, but it’s the person who has the mind, who has the capacity and who has the integrity to reposition the country. What we are talking about is a person who is ready to serve Nigeria and Nigerians.
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I don’t believe in a situation where people are running from one political party to another just to get power. We want people that are ready to do the job; people that believe that they can do the job. These are the kind of people we want. So the issue of political parties’ name is just an acronym in Nigeria. About 99 per cent of political party members neither know the manifesto of their political parties nor believe in the manifestoes. They just use the party as a tool or medium to be elected into various offices. But, nobody will doubt the high level of suffering and insecurity in the country and also, dilapidated infrastructure. In the North, we are witnessing a little progress in the security situation, but the suffering is everywhere. Definitely, we need somebody that can turn the table around; but, are we sure that these people can turn the table around? Are they ready to do that, or they are coming for the sake of getting power?
Who will then turn Nigeria around?
All these people are just deceiving Nigerians. I do not believe how people like Malami, who spent eight years in Buhari’s administration, which was catastrophic to Nigerians, is now chanting that he wants to change the country. Was Malami not around when Buhari was torturing Nigerians? How can I even believe that people like Malami can turn things around? If I begin to think that Malami can turn things around, I should reset my brain.
One day, we will get a person who will turn Nigeria around. Some people have been in the system for five, 10, 20 years ago, and have tried all their possible best to turn things around. But, for a person who has belonged to that system, the system that Nigerians are crying about, to come back and tell us that he wants to turn the table around. How can you believe that? You cannot believe him.
But, we still have good Samaritans; good people with good hearts. We still have people that want to turn things around in this country, but the problem is either they lack the political capacity or they lack the financial power to be into the system. Those are the kind of people that Nigerians should meet and beg them if needs be for them to come into the system and be elected as leaders.
But many people believed that Buhari and even Tinubu would fix things in the country. What happened?
Buhari is the only person that I will not blame Nigerians for electing. Almost 99 per cent of people who voted Buhari, did so with a good mind; with the belief that Buhari could turn things around. But, unfortunately, Buhari failed in every angle. We voted him with a very good mind for him to turn things around, but he failed.
In life, sometimes you try things and you fail. But for Tinubu, just forget about him. His was just a political assumption and political calculation, because we all have the records. He has many pending cases in some places – internationally. Somebody with those records, somebody with those political records and other things, you cannot say that he would turn things around. He found his way into the villa. Nobody has full expectation that he will turn things around. But for Buhari, Nigerians voted him with a good mind, with the expectation that he would turn things around, but he failed woefully.
This time around, we still have to search for somebody that we will also have such kind of belief in him that he will turn things around. Nobody is sent by God Almighty to tell us that this person will do this thing correctly, but we have to keep on trying; we cannot try somebody who we already know is rotten because we cannot expect something good from him. But we can still try somebody who has a history because he can still turn things around. They are everywhere.
What will determine the way 2027 elections will go?
It is very unfortunate that Nigerian politicians only believe in politics, they don’t even believe in the country we call Nigeria. That’s why they have started politicking at these early hours. All these days we are talking about are supposed to be days where Nigerians will be reaping the dividends of democracy. But, unfortunately, they’ve commenced the politics earlier before expectations.
Tinubu still has the opportunity, and the time to rewrite his history by doing a lot of things that Nigerians will be convinced that he has changed, and ready to move this country forward. Likewise, the coalition is pushing, to convince Nigerians that Tinubu has nothing good to offer them. They are just struggling for power. We still have time to access these people, and also, this government. This can only be done after their primaries.
The person that the coalition fields as the presidential candidate will actually determine where Nigerians will vote in 2027. If they bring somebody who Nigerians do not believe in, then, definitely they will jettison the coalition. But if they bring somebody who is of more quality than Tinubu, definitely Nigerians will vote for him. I can tell you that Nigerians will vote for him because they are feeling the heat and are ready to make a change this time around. Nigerians will make so many changes this time around even in the face of financial inducement. So if a political party can field a candidate that has a good pedigree, a good record, and we believe that he can change the country, definitely Nigerians will vote for him.
With Buhari’s recent demise, who among the northern politicians do you think can fit into Buhari’s big shoes?
It will be very difficult for somebody to fit into Buhari’s shoes. But somebody can come close to that. But, for somebody to fit into Buhari’s shoes, it will be very difficult because northerners have learned their lessons. We believed in Buhari, and nobody doubts that Buhari failed. Nigerians unanimously believe that Buhari failed. For someone to fit into those shoes; I don’t think that somebody will come as a politician these days and have such kind of mad followers in Nigeria. If somebody will come close to Buhari’s shoes, I think it should be people like Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso. After Buhari, somebody with large followers is Kwakwanso, but I doubt much if he can fit into those shoes. It will be very difficult.
Tinubu has been giving Northerners political appointments. Is it not a way of buying himself back into the hearts of Northerners?
That’s why I said before that he still has a chance, not only to do what the North wants him to do, but also to generally turn things around in the country. That’s how leaders are supposed to be. When your followers cry, you’re supposed to listen to their cries and act accordingly. I’m not saying that Tinubu should prioritise the North more than other regions, but I’m saying that he should do justice to Nigerians and Nigeria. That’s why I said earlier that he still has a chance by turning things around to convince Nigerians beyond any iota of doubt that the Tinubu you are seeing now is not the same Tinubu you were seeing before. If he is able to convince Nigerians on this very singular point, I think Nigerians will vote for him. The northerners that are crying all these days is because they are feeling it, they are crying because they do not believe in this administration, they are crying because they are seeing the hopelessness in this administration. But once Tinubu decides to change things rightly, I believe they can easily understand that he is now doing what we wants. Northerners in particular are not crying just because they hate Tinubu, but because they want him to change and to do things rightly in order to move the country forward. If he turns things around, northerners will change their minds and vote him again.
How can you assess the two years of Tinubu’s government?
Tinubu’s half-term in office is characterised by difficulty and hardship in this country. We have seen so many sharp changes – inflation, decline in the economy. Inflation has increased, leading to sharp decline in household economy. His two years in office is characterised by severe hardship.
