Veteran politician and second republic
governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe
Musa, is worried that there appears to be a
conspiracy to stop the 2015 presidential
election.
Balarabe, in this interview, also speaks on the
insecurity challenge the nation is facing, the
hostilities between Fulani hersdmen and
locals in some parts of Nigeria, and the on-
going National Conference which he describes
as President Goodluck Jonathan’s strategic
committee.
How do you see the clashes between Fulani
herdsmen and their host communities, the
most recent of which is the clash in Benue
State that saw Governor Suswan narrowly
escaping death?
The latest we have now is the problem of
criminal activities beyond cattle rearing and
it’s becoming an insurgency which is worse
than Boko-Haram.
Some people are of the opinion that the
alleged violent herdsmen are Boko-Haram
members in disguise?
They are not Boko-Haram members in
disguise. They are worse than that. They are
more organized and better equipped than
Boko-Haram. All I can say is that the
insurgency is purely orchestrated to
destabilize Nigeria for political reasons
starting with the North and then spreading
throughout the country.
Already it is active in the North-east, North-
west, South-south. I believe they are
organized by internal forces big enough to
challenge the Federal Government
in
collaboration with outside forces that have
interest in controlling Nigeria; these people
are not just local Boko-Haram and cattle
rearers. The bombing in Abuja is a clear
indication.
It is a continuation of the distabilisation of the
peace of Nigeria for political reasons. The aim
of the insurgency is to disorganise our co-
existence as a nation.
Some people are of the view that there is the
need to re-creates grazing route to bring
peaceful co-existence between host
communities and the Fulani herdsmen?
That is not a problem because President
Jonathan is already doing that. In the first
place, the Fulani herdsmen are not organized
enough to embark on negotiating an issue like
that.
How best do you think insurgency in the
country can be curtailed?
Unfortunately we don’t have a National
Conference that is truly democratic in nature.
It is a National Conference that is built on
what the President wants. If it is a true
legislative National Conference, it can start
the process of resolving the problem because
it would have been national and it would have
been representative.
Why we need the National Conference to do
that is because the government is partially
responsible for what is happening either in
terms of connivance or in terms of
incompetence.
Do you mean the on-going National
Conference is not credible enough to address
the issues facing us as a nation?
The on-going National Conference is not
democratic and does not represent us enough
to address the issues facing us as a nation. The
means of selecting the delegates was not
electoral in process because nobody there was
elected. In other words, you can say that
every delegate there was appointed by the
President either directly or indirectly.
So the conference is not a true representation
of the nation. With the undemocratic nature
of the National Conference, I don’t see it
having any impact on the problems facing us
as a nation. Insurgency is a true indication that
the CONFAB is not genuine enough to solve
our problems is as a country. We cannot have
a truly on-going National Conference and
insurgency will be going on! The National
Conference can never be relevant because of
these challenges!
Here are strategic national problems, they
should be able to deal with them. But the
President wants a National Conference and
there is no need wasting time fighting the
President over it, let us see what the
conference will expose. The National
Conference, as far as I am concerned, is not a
true National Conference, it is a strategic
committee of Mr. President because he
appointed everybody without election and
he also pointed out the agenda that guides
what would be discussed and what should not
be discussed.
He also decided whether the report will be
submitted to the National Assembly or make
it legal through referendum. You are aware
that in our nascent democracy, the President
is so powerful that he can decide anything and
no one will challenge him.
Look at what is going on the NNPC alleged
missing $10 billion. The suspended CBN
Governor Lamido Sanusi first alleged that it
was $ 20 billion which led to the action against
him and they admitted that it is $10 billion but
it has not been accounted for, and what is the
orchestrated National Conference doing
about it?
Is there any country in the world with this
kind of scandal and nothing is done to address
it? We are talking about an amount equivalent
to the 2014 budget of the Federal Government
and nobody is talking about it. With that
situation, do we expect anything good to come
out of the conference?
This is the reason the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Aminu Tambuwa, said the
President is encouraging corruption because
where does the money to fund the conference
come from? Of course it is not from the 2014
budget because it has not been provided for.
This is similar to what former President
Obasanjo did and got away with it.
What do you think is the best way to curtail
insurgency bedeviling the North?
It is in the hands of government to solve the
problem; if they can’t, the southern people can
keep to themselves through whatever means
until it will reach the stage when the sovereign
people of Nigeria will withdraw the mandate
they gave them under the 1999 Constitution.
With the multifarious challenges facing the
nation, do you see Nigeria remaining one
nation come 2015?
It is probably the reason the insurgency is
becoming stronger because maybe the
intention is not to have the 2015 presidential
election and, you know, it is stated in the 1999
Constitution that if election is not held, the
President has no power to hand over to
anybody but to continue. Let us not ignore the
fact that it could be a conspiracy staring us in
the face
No comments:
Post a Comment