How Jonathan stopped Egyptian style revolution in Nigeria – Masari

Hon Aminu Bello Masari was former Speaker of the House of
Representatives between 2003 and 2007. In this interview with GBENGA
OKE, he responds to issues of insecurity in the North and assertions
of ambivalence by northern leaders, the preparedness of the All
Progressives Congress, APC for the political battle ahead and the
crisis that has recently enveloped the Nigerian Governors' Forum, NGF.
Excerpts:
Itis alleged that majority of Northern leaders are ambivalent on the
Boko Haram insurgency. Why?
If you want to exploit people, deny them education. And in the North
education is being denied to the public because public schools there
have collapsed.
Aminu Bello Masari
The only schools functioning are private schools but how many parents
can afford it? Secondly, the public health system has also collapsed.
So now people have to provide water, security, education, health care
systemand every other thing for themselves.
Today, the North is known for its agriculture business and over 80 per
cent of northerners rely on agriculture and agriculture today cannot
thrive without the input of government, which includes supply of
fertilizers, good quality seeds.
All these things have disappeared. As I am talking to you today, a 50
kg bag of fertilizer costs about N5,000. How manypeople can afford it?
And some state governments like the state where I come from, for the
last 30 days or more, people have planted and up till now government
has not distributed fertilizer, when will they distribute it?
The type of people that we put in office is not reflective of the
reality on ground and my belief is that for you to provide responsible
leadership there must be good, free and fair election.
In Nigeria, people who won election were denied and leadership was
givento those who did not win. How do you expect those who did not win
to have respect for ordinary the person when they know at the end of
the day it was not ordinary people that put them in power and it is
not ordinary people that will put them in power again?
So unless we address these fundamental issues of justice and fairness,
we will know no peace because there is no peace without justice.
Do you foresee anything like the Arab Spring happening here?
Do you think that was not going to happen if the fuel subsidy protest
was not discontinued? You can see people all over Lagos, Abuja,
Port-Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna rose up to the occasion and if they had
not rescinded their decision and the rally in Lagos and other places
were allowed to continue, it could have developed intosomething. So
for anybody to think it cannot happen in Nigeria, such person is
deceiving himself and it is a huge joke. It can happen if certain
decisions taken by government are not favourable to people.
This Arab spring is not only limited to Arabian nations, bad
governance and bad election can lead to such uprising.
It will happen here except certain things are done and we are moving
towards that because the alienation and deprivation are growing and
whenthey grow to certain level, surely something must give way.
In Nigeria today, there is no justice andfairness. So, no man can
control what ishappening unless we address the fundamentals and
provide leadership at state and local government levels that are truly
elected by the people and which will be held accountable by the
people.
Really, the attitude of leaders here in the North will have to change
and our lifestyle will have to reflect the reality on ground.
Governors and local government chairmen today behave like emperors,
doing whatever they like with the wealth of the people because they
depend on Federation Account and notInternally Generated Revenue
(IGR).
This issue is not about religion, sectionalism and hostility it is
about leaders short-changing their people. Itis happening all over the
country but worse in the North because we have denied our people
education.
Can you imagine a governor that has not provided basic requirement of
primary education, but was going to spend billions in feeding people
during Ramadan?
This is a contradiction. Give them good education and they will find
their level. How can we stop this insecurity when a local government
chairman with his appointees is patronising private institutions? So,
they have no confidence in what they are supposed to be doing.
There is no responsibility in leadershipand it is a failure for
governors, local government chairmen, councilors and other political
appointees to send their children to private schools, when they refuse
to send their children to public institutions, it means those schools
are bad.
For me, this is an indictment on them to provide good and quality
service to the people they govern and that is why there is no
accountability.We can overcome this insecurity situation but if we do
not lay a sustainable foundation, it will recur and maybe this time,
it may not be on religion but between the rich and the poor and the
rich will be determined by the type of clothes he wears, house he
lives, car he drives and the area he lives.
There is this argument by some Nigerians that APC interim leadership
is being dominated by Muslims. What is your reaction to it?
This is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign and let me tell
you, we Nigerians start looking for good a leader, let it be a
Christian or Muslim. Ifwe allow ourselves to be divided along
religious lines, this country will not move forward. If there is bad
governance by a bad Muslim, is it only Christians that will be worse
for it? No, it is all Nigerians that will be worse for it.
President Jonathan is the President today and a Christian, the bad
policies, bad governance and the insecurity taking place, are they
only affecting Muslims?
Bad governance is bad governance andit affects everybody irrespective
who is at the helm of affairs.
So I think we better start thinking of how we are going to produce a
good leader for our country irrespective of the religion they proffer.
As a Muslim, my Quran taught me God will support ajust leader be it a
Christian or Muslim but God is not with an unjust leader even if he
lives in Saudi Arabia.
For us, it is not about religion but about those who will provide good
leadership. By the time all necessary registration processes are
completed, Nigerians will realise APC will be a different party, it
will be a party that will produce credible leaders, we will be a party
that will be answerable to the people and serve the people and not the
current situation.
Responsibleleadership
We are going to play by the rules, we are going to be a just party, we
are going to be an inclusive party and we are going to provide
responsible leadership and responsible governance through APC.
To what extent do you think the APC alliance will go given failed past
alliances?
What is about to happen will be the first of its kind in Nigeria. This
is not an alliance but a merger of three major opposition parties and
some sections of APGA and DPP.
What we are seeing is not an alliance but a merger of major political
actors to form a strong party to challenge the PDP dominance of
government in Nigeria since 1999.
So, this is the first time we are having amerger since 1999 to become
one, by the time the certificate comes in, therewont be CPC, ACN, ANPP
but APC.
So it is a merger and not alliance and history has been made because
this is the first time in Nigeria where parties form a merger and
produce only one political party.
We believe with the commitment shown by leaders of each of the
partiesin the merger, there is a strong resolution that we need
alternative governance and the only way to achieve that is through the
merger of these parties to become one in order to form one manpower,
capacity, resources to challenge the PDP who control the government at
the centre.
Given the general clamour for power shift in the North and the recent
assertion by Governor Babangida Aliyuthat the North will negotiate
power shift, does the APC have a position on the issue?
First, whatever they are doing is a PDP arrangement. Let them sort
themselves out, I don't like to comment on what PDP is doing but what
I will ask is whether we are still seeing a softening opposition by
the Governor of Niger State because once he says they will negotiate,
it means they will accept something which was totally opposite to what
he was saying some two months ago that they produce another candidate.
I read it but I was a bit confused about what he meant that they will
negotiate power come 2015. Is it a softening opposition because they
keep saying there was an agreement with President Jonathan to do one
term, so are they now saying they will negotiate with Jonathan.
I am a bit confused about what he is trying to say unless he is trying
to be like all big men we know that speak from both sides of the
mouth. For us, when we are fully registered, we will produce leaders
according to the constitution of the party.
So are you saying APC won't cede the presidential ticket to any particular zone?
We will produce leadership according to the constitution that is
submitted tothe Independent Electoral Commission, (INEC). We have
outlined how to go about producing our leaders, so we will go
according to the provisions of the constitution to produce our leaders
and candidates in all the elections in Nigeria come 2015APCformation
For us in APC, justice and fairness is the issue and I think the issue
of rotating the presidency is because there is no justice and fairness
on the part of those ruling us. But in APC, we are going to be just
and fair to all Nigerians and at the end of the day, by the time we
produce our leaders and Nigerians see their quality, they will know
that we have produced leaders who are going to govern irrespective of
religious beliefs because Nigerians will be treated justly and fairly.
What is your take the crises rocking Nigerian Governors' Forum?
First, you will have to ask yourself whatthe Nigeria Governors' Forum
has added to the quality of lives of an average Nigerian. It was
formed to protect the governors themselves and they also use it to
influence the Presidency on what they want. It is for themselves not
for me and you or other ordinary Nigerians. So before you even delve
into the fight of the NGF, what does the forum represent?
It is a club and they are doing it for the aim of protecting
themselves from prosecution, protection to be part of government, they
are not talking about how to better the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
All these are not part of their agenda. It shows they are neither here
nor there.
Secondly, when they had an election and there was somebody who won and
they refused to recognize who won, you want to recognize the
personthat lost. Why?
Because you felt the person that has won come 2015 will not support
you toget elected. What is your business with that because not all
governors in the forum are members of your party? When you have a
leader of the PDP governors' forum, you should be contented with that.
What is his business with governors' forum, whichinvolves all
governors irrespective of their parties? What is the business of the
President and the PDP?
I don't even care even if they dissolve the forum because I know the
body does not add value to the polity or the lives of the people. If
you could remember when I was in PDP, when I led the PDP reform, we
fought the governors' forum because we want the party to stand with
the people and those PDP governors made sure the reform was killed and
we were squeezed out. We told President Jonathan that time that this
elephant called governors forum will grow to the extent that nobody
will be able to control them. I think it is bad that 36 governors will
conduct an election andthey cannot uphold the election.
So what does that portend for the country?
The outcome of the NGF election has shown clearly what the PDP is
planning for 2015 elections and we are ready for them. These are the
reflections of 2015 and these governors are the ones to lead elections
in their various states. Look at them and hear them talk.
One of them said he will not attend another regional meeting. Look at
him who got elected on the platform of another party, he won and
decamped to another party and he is talking about morality, this can
only happen inNigeria.
Governor Yuguda was elected on the platform of All Nigeria's Peoples
Party, (ANPP), he left there and joined the PDP and this is somebody
talking about morality.