President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima, in this interview speaks on the Muhammadu Buhari administration, insecurity and battle for the 2023 presidency, among other issues
What are your expectations from President Muhammadu Buhari in the second term of his administration?
First, President Buhari needs a good team. People must be considered not because they are politicians, but on merit.
He must form an economic team that will comprise experts and consultants and the vice president should oversea their affairs.
On insecurity, he should look at competent people; people who are well experienced and those who have track record of achievements when they were in the service or after service and commit them to work to address the insecurity in the country.
On corruption, you cannot fight corruption when the country is in hunger. You cannot fight corruption when people are unemployed. You cannot fight crime, banditry, kidnapping when unemployment rate keeps increasing and people are getting hungry. Naturally people will continue to unleash terror and crime will increase daily if the country does not put cushion effects in place.
What is your take on the state of insecurity in different parts of the country, considering the cases of high rate of banditry, kidnapping, murder and killings across the nation in the last few months?
It has to do with wrong policies of the government. As at 2014, it wasn’t as bad as this. We did not experience what we are suffering today during previous governments. What we are going through today is simply because we have people who got power, but don’t even know what to do with the power.
They don’t even have clear direction of how they want to move the country.
As a result of that, a lot of things got out of place. They lost control and a lot happened and lots are still happening. So, you need the political will and determination on the part of those who are saddled with responsibilities to be up and doing; to look at things as patriotic Nigerians and look at the issue of security as issue that will not only consume the poor, but also the rich.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo disclosed recently that there is an attempt to Islamise and Fulanise Nigeria. What is your take on that claim?
I differ with that assertion. The truth of the matter is that even the North cannot be Fulanised not to talk about the country. The North itself cannot be Islamised because you have Hausa/Funali, who are not Muslims, and besides, you also have other tribes that are core northerners but not Muslims. So, how do you intend to conquer? It is not possible.
The era of conquering and forcefully taking over people is over. It only happened before the era of civilization; it is no longer relevant. So, it is not true. There are issues we can talk that we are sure of and there are issues we just imagine and say.
How do you see the situation where people are attributing ethnic and religious sentiments to the attacks in different parts of the country?
It is not right because if you mean well for the country, you cannot ascribe any criminality to a particular tribe. You can’t say that the Fulani are criminals and that was part of my submission during the June 12 Democracy Day celebration organised by Aare Gani Adams-led Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) in Lagos State.
I made my position clear that let it be known and clear that we have a problem at hand as a result of this banditry all over the North. The South is just seeing it and it appears to be alien to them but for us, it has been part of us for so many years now.
They kidnap and do all sorts of things, but we do not see it as if it is an act by a particular tribe with an agenda to conquer others. Let us look at the issue as some set of criminals trying to undermine the country, undermine government and undermine the peace of this country and join hands to fight them irrespective of where they come from. Some people started kidnapping, why didn’t we align kidnapping to those people.
Sometimes ago in Niger Delta, there was high rate of kidnapping and some of us saw this problem coming, and we kept saying that problem you see in Niger Delta could have been anywhere and today it is lesser in Niger Delta than it is in the Northern part of Nigeria. Who knows where this thing will go next. So, let us not begin to look at issues on the basis of personal sentiment. Whoever commits a crime should be dealt with decisively whether he is a Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba.
The battle for 2023 presidential election has started four years to the next general elections as both the North and South are at loggerheads over which zone should produce President Buhari’s successor. What is your view on that?
I don’t know who is going to be the next president of Nigeria until we see those who will declare interest. However, talking about the zone, which should produce the president in 2023, I have said it on many occasions that the North will produce the next president and you could see that the issue is becoming very clear. I don’t just make pronouncement on something I am not sure of. We are sure that this government has not favoured the North. This government is purely a South-West government. They have taken everything.
Even in the National Assembly, somebody was working to ensure that his interest is protected to make it easy for him to become president come 2023, but unfortunately the party itself will die before 2023.
By 2023, All Progressives Congress (APC) will no longer be visible. The only thing that holds that party is President Buhari, but he is not coming back. This is his last tenure and I am sure the Buhari I know will be busy thinking of how to go for his retirement rather than thinking of whether the party survives or not.
He has achieved all he wanted to achieve. He has become both head of state and civilian president.
What makes you believe that APC will die before 2023?
It is because of the characters that formed the party do not share the same ideology. Theirs was completely unholy marriage. If I begin to mention names, you will see all these characters; each and every one of them has style of leadership and how they live their life. At least at my age and level, I know the character of some of those in APC. At one point, I worked with so many of them closely and I know them at personal level.
I know the kind of people they are. So, certainly, you can be rest assured that it is a forgone issue.
Now, some of them have begun to move from consultation, they are reaching out to begin to think of forming a new alliance or probably form a new political party. As I speak with you today, maybe it is not known to you, but jobs are going on and they are still working. Now, if you look at that, it is a clear indication that even within the political and ruling class, they do not have peace anymore in the party and they know that the only thing that keeps them together today is Buhari and Buhari is done already with whatever he wanted.
So, for the party to remain or not to remain, the Buhari I know does not give a damn.
I am sure some of them have begun to go back to take their old files and certificates of their parties to begin to dust them up and warm up on how to make them relevant.
So, whether it is APC, of course which I know is as good as dead or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or any other merger they are going to form, the fact of the matter is that any party that makes mistake to pick a candidate that is not from the North is just wasting its time.
What informed that belief?
I said that because we (North) have the strength. Rotational arrangement was purely a gentleman arrangement; it is not constitutional. The last president election has shown that we have all it takes to produce president of Nigeria; we have the number and the voting population. I have not seen what has come out of the number of the registered voters the South-West produced in the last election. You can only begin to negotiate with somebody that you think has the capacity to influence or change something for you. If their action to hide, muzzle up and suppress their votes in the last general elections was deliberate to let Buhari continue, they will reap what they have sown.
What they have sown was to set a bobby trap, hoping to take over power come 2023 after Buhari’s second term rather than allowing the North to come up with a new arrangement that will bring up somebody who will want to stay for eight years.
We will continue to do our own best. We may not have so much money; we may not have so much capacity but with the level we are and the little power we have and the capacity we have, we will continue to sensitise millions of our followers on the implication of what Nigeria may likely look like if they are allowed to get what they want.
We will continue to fight until our last blood. We will continue to expose them until the right people come to governance. It is not a personal thing; it is for us. The North must have to retain power. You cannot take power, which is the only thing that is left for us now. The current president is not really helping us. Insecurity has destroyed the entire North. We are left with poverty, kidnaping and banditry on daily basis. People are dying and you think the little power we have despite the fact it is not being used for the best interest of our people, we will just fold our hands and allow it to be taken back by the South, which have resources. The common man in the North is not benefiting anything; the whole thing is held in the hands of few individuals and you think we will allow that.
Why will you say North is not benefitting when it is a fact that northerners have been in power more than their compatriots from the South. Don’t you think that northern leaders should be blamed for mismanaging power?
When it comes to the issue of power, at first, we were not too exposed to certain things. But now, we are exposed to them. Our generation has come of age. In the North of yesteryears, you don’t have people like me as it is today, who know exactly what the issues are. Even though to some extent I will say I am happy and proud to have been exposed in southern part of this country, specifically in Lagos, where I was molded and trained under leaders and icons liek Chief Anthony Enahoro, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti and Chief Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory.
These people molded my life and gave me mentorship. Today, you can mention few of us in northern part of the country. You can’t push Shehu Sani aside; you cannot also push somebody like me aside. So, for me, we are many and we will continue to ensure that we sensitize and educate our people with the little experience we have in the struggle to ensure that they keep demanding for the right things to be done.
But it is believed that the North after spending eight years should give room for the South to produce the president in 2023?
We are going to do justice to the South-East. The South-West have had their share. We will consider an alliance with the South-East and South-South and by extension we will look at the South-West. But, the issue before us now is just simple: We need to retain power in the North. It is not constitutional that we should allow the South-West in 2023.
It is a gentleman arrangement and that arrangement was made by some elite for their own selfish interest.
As far as we are concerned, we are not aware of that arrangement.
So, to an extent, we will ensure that we produce a competent hand that will see Nigeria as his sole responsibility, where projects will not just go to one side of the country.
But some schools of thought believe that for justice, equity and fairness, the 2023 presidency should go to the South-East, which has not had the opportunity to produce a president?
The South-East will have it but let them be prepared. They are not ready yet because within them they are not organised. They have been saying it. Even in the last general elections; they said they are not ready and they are not looking for the number one seat. So, when they are prepared, we will look at their direction.
Are you saying South-East is not ready for 2023 presidency?
They are not ready for now with all the agitations around them and the struggles everywhere; from one trouble to another. Within them, there is no unity; there is no love. Certainly, they are not organised now.
So you believe the South-East is out of the calculation for 2023 presidency?
Even the South-West that is close to power is out of it not to talk of South-East.
Why do you think South-West is out of the calculation?
South-West is out of it because they already have their tenure. They have the super vice president, who oversees almost everything. The economy of the country is in the hands of the South-West. The region had Minister of Power, Works and Housing in the last administration. What else do they want? We only held the Petroleum Ministry by name under President Buhari but Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum, was the one in charge. So, what is the North benefitting for God sake?
But the President is from the North…
You cannot be in government and be enjoying everything and allow our own region to be turned upside down. You take charge of the economy and many other sectors and the little one we have, you say you want to take it away. Do we run a constitution or we a gentleman agreement? We run a constitution, so we should stand by the constitution. Any other arrangement that is out of what we know is behind the scene.
We are running a democracy and democracy is about number. The North has the population and the results of the 2015 and 2019 elections have shown that we have the number. Look at the figure and let us meet at the polls in 2023.
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