Gov Kayode Fayemi Speaks On Insecurity and 2015 Polls

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi recently spoke with reporters in
Lagos on his endorsement for a second term by the party leaders,
national security and 2015 elections.
Excerpts:
What will the opposition be bringing to the market to sell to
thepeople at the end of the day?
The important point here is that endorsement is not an election. We
have a lot of work to do. It's great that our leaders recognised the
work that we have done so far but election is notgoing to be a child's
play. We have prepared for a very tough election because we know full
well that the other side will not sit idle even before 2015 and the
election in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun will be a dress rehearsal for
2015.
Is it not confounding to you that insecurity has persisted in the country?
We have almost moving to a point where our leaders need a serious
strategy; and economic cum security strategy. I don't know how that is
going to come about but the Council ofState and opinion leaders might
need to step back and look at the possibility to organise Security
Summit. One, there is a body led by the Minister (Turaki) talking to
the various players in this unfortunate development. But I do think
what we are confronted with now is poverty insecurity complex. That is
the challenge that we must address.
How do we tackle it?
The last time I spoke about five sides to issue of Boko Haram. The
most prominent one is the religious angle, but it is not devastating
like economic strand. It is when people feel they have nothing to lose
that some of these things happened. We ought to pay more attention in
involving of the military in civilian affairs. I know the implication
is that you are not in charge and that they should come and rescue
you. That rescue can be definedin elastic by involving military in
civilian matters. You are sending a sub-minimal message to the
military that you cannot take good charge of the situation and that
must be worrisome in the light of what we have seen in the last two
days in Egypt.It should worry us that we are playing with fire.
What is our youth development programme in Nigeria?
We have 60% population under 25, andmajority of these young people are
totally fed up with Nigerian state. For one to be young and idle,
other forces will find use for you. That's the part of the country's
major problem and we are not dealing with it the way it should be
done. Those who are in the power corridor seem to be totally detached
from their people. We certainly need coherent strategy and that
strategy must almost be a marshalplan. State of emergency should have
been a component of the comprehensive marshal plan that we need in
this country. And the plan mustbe based on special economic security
because we must be able to cut off the oxygen that is fuelling what is
going on. If you don't cut that oxygen, it will continue to get to
other parts of the north. I happen to know the governors of Borno and
Yobe very well. The governor of Borno, Kashim Shettima is one of the
smartest governors we have in this country and it's been so sad that
Boko Haram has diminished the impact of the work he is doing in Borno
State. People know what the governor is made up.
What is the implication of the insecurity for 2015 polls?I think there
is a fifth columnist in this government that is desirous of this crime
being perpetrated because of politics in 2015; or it helps to put the
President in the bad light. It could be either way. Those who are out
to get the President and destroy him and those who seek to protect him
and protect his agenda of return. Maybe, their thinking is that, if we
keep the north perpetually busy with these crises, election may not
take place there in 2015 and that we can annex the area. That is
likely where our own will come from. I'm throwing this out as my
reflection rather than certainty. But we are not the only country
afflicted by this kind of challenge but itrefuses to go because of
little attention we pay to intelligence.
Up till now, the police intelligence unitis virtually zero, military
intelligence isnot as impressive as one expect. We are just left with
the State Security Service (SSS). That seems to have a bit of the arm
of it. And that leaves us withenormous challenges. Almost coming to
the reality of national intelligence report as we go near 2015. Maybe
there is something the American saw which we didn't see that Nigeria
may disintegrate by 2014. But, we don't need to resign ourselves to
fate. We need to make a clarion call to Mr. President and all of us in
the leadership position to begin to respond to issues. This is one of
the issues discussed at NGF that we should make resources available to
the afflicted states.
In our view, you cannot have about 10 million children there outside
and not see correlation between helplessness and hopelessness of these
young people. There is correlation somewhere, poverty and violence are
related and we must do certain things to separate them. We can take
specific steps. Right now, the bulk of what is happening under the
state of emergency is being paid for by those states where the rule is
in place. So, you can see what is happening that if Borno State gets a
monthly allocation of say N5 billion every month and it devotes
N2.5billion to keep the Joint Task Force in place. That is zero-sum in
economics.