The Spokesman of the Coalition
Against Killing in Northern Nigeria, Murtala Abubakar, tells GODWIN ISENYO that
failure of the Federal Government to listen to the demands for improve security
in the region will force the youth in the region to make governance difficult
after the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum given to the government
What do you think about the arrest and brief detention of the Chairman,
Board of Trustees, Coalition of Northern Groups, Nastura Sharif?
The detention of the BoT
chairman of CNG, to us, is condemnable. It is unwarranted and highly
provocative. In the first place, the group conducted the Katsina protest
peacefully. There was no breach of peace and the protest was within their
constitutional rights. Anybody living in the North knows the situation is
really bad such that people are desperately looking for an end to it. So, if
people to assembled to conduct a peaceful protest in order to draw the
attention of the government to the escalation, I think it’s something that
shouldn’t warrant the kind of response we got from the police. So, it’s
something that we condemn strongly.
What motivated you to release the statement asking the Federal
Government to stop killings by bandits in the North?
The primary
responsibility of any government whether autocratic, dictatorship or democracy,
is the protection of lives and property. This is a government that was
democratically elected after promising us three fundamental agenda and one of
it is securing Nigeria from all manner of threats or attacks, particularly from
Boko Haram, and that is why a lot of votes came from the North because in
northern Nigeria, one of the biggest challenges is insecurity. But, instead of
seeing improvements, we are witnessing its escalation in the North-East or
North-Central. Nowhere is safe in the North. Go to Benue, it’s not safe. Go to
Sokoto, Yobe, Borno, Taraba and everywhere else in the North, you see huge
numbers of Nigerians displaced in their own country and this is a tormenting
and traumatising experience for all of them.
As Nigerians and,
particularly, the northern region, we know that not a single place is safe now.
Anybody can become a victim now. If this is so, it is our responsibility to
rise up and call the attention of the government to this and even make demands.
This is the least that we can expect — that government should protect us. It is
our right. We didn’t beg them to come and govern us. We did them a favour by
voting them into office; we gave them our mandate and it is now time for them
to protect us. So, if they are not protecting us, we are ready to challenge
them to do what they promised to do for us.
That is why we called for the
immediate sacking of the service chiefs — because you can see that the government
responded to our statement by sending the National Security Adviser to Katsina
and Sokoto. We also want him to go to Taraba, Benue and other places to get
first-hand assessment.
To us, President (Muhammadu)
Buhari’s warning to the service chiefs for non-performance is not enough. That
is not what we are asking for. Our demand is specific: sack the service chiefs.
Who initiated the idea as it involves several groups coming together?
It is not a one-man idea. Like
I told you, we are civil society organisations working for the betterment of
northern Nigeria. Today, one of the challenges facing our people is the issue
of insecurity. At individual levels (CSOs), we have worked to see how we can
help end these mindless killings. But we feel if we come together with a united
voice, it will have a bigger impact and that is why we came together to form
the CAKIN. And today, you can see that the first statement we made has begun to
give us the kind of desired impact that we expected. So, that’s how to go.
On everything that affects us,
we are going to come together and take a united action that will bring an end
to any (untoward) cause. That is why we are mobilising towards the protests
after the expiration of our 14-day ultimatum and, if the government fails to meet
our demands, I can tell you that the protests will be something unprecedented
in the history of northern Nigeria. We are going to work together through
effective mobilisation of our citizens to confront the government legitimately
and constitutionally to make them do what they are supposed to do in order to
stop the mindless killings in our region. We are not asking for much.
How would you describe the state of insecurity in the North?
Very
bad! If the government is serious, it can stop it. How many are these
criminals? How much is the budget of the security operatives and how much are
these criminals getting? What are the sources of their funding? If the
government is serious, the killings will stop. That’s what we are saying. You
can’t give these service chiefs more time because they are proving to be
incapable of solving this problem. So, why will the President repeat the same
thing and expect to get a different result? It’s never done that way. They
(service chiefs) should be sacked. We have people within the security agencies
who are competent. When have they (security chiefs) shown a desire to bring an
end to this problem?
What can you say about the experience of northerners regarding
insecurity?
It is traumatising and so
disappointing. It is unfortunate that this is happening. This is a regime where
northerners are at the helm of affairs of the security of this country. All the
service chiefs, apart from the Navy, are from the North, and yet, northerners
are not safe. Nothing is as disappointing as this to us. We voted this
government into power in anticipation of being secured and having a prosperous
nation but what do we have in return – insecurity and disappointment. The same
President appointed a northerner as the Inspector General of Police, and the
region is not safe. The service chiefs — Army, Air Force, National Security
Adviser — are from the North and the North is not safe. The people who head the
Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Immigration Service are from the North, and
our borders are not safe. You can imagine how disappointing an average
northerner is, when we have our own people manning these strategic positions
and the security situation in the North is so bad. Nowhere in the North is
safe.
Who do you think is responsible for these repeated attacks?
It is left for the security
agencies to tell us. We know criminal elements are responsible for the attacks.
We expect security agents to apprehend them, bring them to justice and expose
them and their sponsors. Now, no matter what anybody is going to say, it is
speculative and we want security agencies to do their job. We are also aware of
the compromise within the security agencies and that is why even if the service
chiefs are sacked today, we are going to ensure that they are probed. Somebody
should account for these irresponsible actions.
Why do you think the Federal Government and various state governments
have been unable to stop it till now?
These killings that you are
seeing are not actually the root cause of what is happening. It is just the
manifestation of a problem and what is the problem? The problem is the absence
of a strong economy that will give people the opportunity that will create jobs
and engage people. The unemployment rate in the North is very high. There is no
productivity and the main base of our economy, agriculture, has not been
developed; this is where you will hold the state and local governments
responsible. In the case of the Federal Government, because it owns the police
and military, we expect it to stop the killings. But this, too, is a temporary
measure.
It should deal with the root
cause of the problem, which is socioeconomic, that is, ensuring that industries
in the North are revived. We expected that when power returned to the north,
Buhari would assemble patriotic technocrats, who would come up with plans to
revive industries in the North or even establish new ones. During their
campaigns, even the Kaduna governor said he was going to assist in bringing
about those industries five years into his tenure; nothing has been heard about
this. It’s the same thing at the federal level.
Some people are asking, why are you, northern groups, just coming out
when the problem had been there way before now?
Earlier, I told you we had
approached this at an individual level and when you do this, there will be
problems. So, we decided to put our individual differences aside and work for
the interest of the North. We decided to come together and form a coalition to
speak with one voice and embark on actions collectively. We didn’t just keep
quiet. Right from when the problem started, the northern elders spoke out
against it, but then, there were massive sentiments regarding Buhari. So, then,
if you talked (criticised the government), they would send those boys to attack
you.
But it has got to a stage that
the boys they used for the attacks became the real victims. Yes, the sentiments
regarding Buhari made talking about any issue that involved him difficult until
the situation degenerated to the level we see today. Of course, there had been
actions by non-governmental organisations, which were not strong, and there was
resistance from the masses because of the confidence they had in President
Buhari, thinking he was a messiah that had solutions to many of these problems,
not knowing the people he trusted to ensure peace were just busy doing other
things.
The masses of this region felt
Buhari meant well, and that whatever action was taken by him would benefit the
North, but they failed to realise that in government, if you allow people to
sit comfortably, they will be carried away by the euphoria of the office and
will not remember the critical things they need to do. So, the average
northerner thought that Buhari was a messiah before now. They allowed things to
get so bad until they realised late that Buhari had derailed. And there is a
lot of problem within his government such that, as we speak, they are now
coming out to support our agitation.
You gave the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum. Are you serious
about mobilising people to go to the streets till the government is shut down,
if nothing is done before then?
If anybody thinks we are
joking, they should wait until the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum and see
what will happen. We are living in a period that a lot has changed. It is not
the same old northern Nigeria where our people took us for granted. We now have
conscious northern citizens, who are ready to make demands and insist such
demands are constitutionally met because the demands are legitimate. There is
nothing illegitimate about us asking the government to protect us; we voted for
them and gave them the mandate to do so. We are not asking the government for
too much. If the government fails to do it, they should be prepared to take
whatever is coming from us. I can tell you that, at the expiration of the
ultimatum, a lot is going to happen. And they have begun to respond, but as I
told you earlier, the responses we are getting are not adequate.
It is not enough that the NSA
went to Sokoto and Katsina, we want him to engage the real stakeholders
anywhere he goes to get the correct information and act based on that
information. There are killings going on in Taraba; let him go there to find
out the real problem. He should not rely on reports. And to the President, the
response we got from him is not encouraging enough. The government can’t just
give some people such huge resources without getting any big results and the
President would just say ‘enough is enough’. You don’t just tell them that. The
President has the responsibility to sack them because there others who can do
the job better than them.
When the convener of #RevolutionNow protests, Omoyele Sowore, made a
statement similar to that, he was arrested and charged with treasonable felony.
Are you all prepared for that?
What you don’t know is that
there are differences between the position we are taking and that of Mr.
Omoyele Sowore. Sowore called for a revolution and you know what revolution
means? That was about changing the system completely. But we are saying we are
going to make the business of government difficult until our demands are met.
They are two different things. One is calling for a revolution for whatever
reason; while we are saying the government must put an end to the killings in
our region. Is it too much for us to ask?
Are you not afraid of being arrested?
We are prepared for whatever
inconveniences that the cause will cost us and we are fully aware of the vested
interests that we are confronting. We are prepared for the sacrifice that we
are going to make. I am making this statement with every sense of
responsibility. Let nobody be in doubt; we mean what we are saying and, by the
end of the expiration of the ultimatum, action will follow.
The presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said you all should be
thankful this is a democracy and that, if it was in a military era, you would
not have got away with what you said. How would you respond to that?
Garba Shehu is an opportunist.
Some of us, in our time as students, confronted the military through protests.
We know what we went through. During the reign of military dictatorship, we
asserted our position. We protested and subjected ourselves to all manner of
inconveniences. What he may not know is that it was the struggle of some of us,
similar to what we are putting up with today, that brought about the democracy
he enjoys because he has not contributed anything, which is why he is coming
out to make such an irresponsible statement.
Even though he said we should
thank God, after a peaceful protest, somebody was arrested. He should tell us
what the difference is between democracy under his principal (Buhari) today and
the military dictatorship. To us, this type of statement is very irresponsible.
Garba Shehu should learn to be tactful in how he defends his principal because
he is setting the President against the people. We are not going to bother
ourselves with the statement of an opportunist who knows nothing about the
struggle to bring about meaningful change in the society.
Some Nigerians are asking why you didn’t speak up all these years that
southerners and North Central people were crying that they were being killed
and raped by Fulani herdsmen and bandits…
These are the kinds of stereotypical
statements that the media is promoting to escalate the insecurity in the North.
Why Fulani herdsmen? Why can’t we say the criminal herdsmen? Why bring the
tribe into the crime when an individual committed the crime? Have you ever said
‘an Igbo armed robber’? Have you ever said ‘Yoruba 419ners’ (fraudsters)? This
type of statement is stereotypical. It’s profiling and that is why, in some
areas, the Fulani are being targeted for extermination. As a country, we must
be careful with the choice of words that we use in describing crime.
We have said, over time,
anywhere there is crime, it does not matter who the perpetrator or victims are,
crime is crime and it should be condemned. We have to do so in many instances
and we are still doing that. We are looking forward to seeing a bigger Nigerian
coalition against killings. This is just the first one. We have the entire
northern Nigeria coming together to form this coalition and we want to see how
we can reach out to our southern colleagues so that we can have a bigger one in
order to have a secure and peaceful Nigeria, where crime of the type in the
North will not happen anywhere. We are looking forward to that and we are going
to reach out to our fellow compatriots from southern Nigeria.
What do you expect or think the government should do in the next two
weeks that can make an impact?
They should go back to our
statement and meet those demands. I am sure, if that happens, there are going
to be a lot of changes and the security situation will improve significantly in
Nigeria.
Some people are saying the state of insecurity had been bad for some
time, even during Buhari’s first term in office. Why did the majority of
northerners vote him for a second term?
There are reasons people vote
people into power. But whatever reason was responsible for voting for him
(Buhari) again, it doesn’t matter because there are protests today all over the
North. That is to tell you that you can put somebody in power today and, when
he is failing, you can call for improvement. That’s what is happening now.
Copyright PUNCH.
Comments
Post a Comment