Shettima Yerima is the National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF. He bares his mind in this interview with OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU, on the emergence of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the Goodluck Jonathan administration performance index and the need for a national conference to fashion out a people’s constitution in place of what he called “a fraudulent document foisted on Nigerians by the military”, among other national issues. Excerpts:

How would you react to the registration of the All Progressives Congress, APC by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC?

It is a welcome development because I have always looked forward to a situation where we are going to have a vibrant opposition to the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

I have always look forward to a strong opposition to bring out the beauty of democracy where there would be high competition, where the ruling party will come to the realization that there is a strong opposition which is a threat to them as well; because it is one thing to have an opposition party and it is another thing for that same opposition to be sincere in their dealings and also perform better than what we have at hand. These are two different things. So I believe it is a welcome development for us to have an alternative to the ruling party.

I see the APC as a more progressive party that what we have now, however, there are some characters in the APC, whose antecedents are questionable.

But at least the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step taken and we have now gone beyond that level of first step and that is a plus. So let us begin to watch and see how the events on the political turf unfold, as we all aspire to have the Nigeria of our dream, but on a serious note, Nigeria deserves to have a virile and strong opposition in place.

The Presidency said on Monday that the APC parades expired politicians. What is your reaction to this statement?

I won’t say I agree with such insinuations, but my fear however is that most of the founders of the APC as a political party are those who have lost favours in the ruling PDP, that is my personal opinion.

Again, some of them are people who cannot be vouched for and when say they can’t be vouched for, I mean that they cannot be trusted, because some of them are there as agents of the ruling party.

From history, we have come to know so many of them for exactly what they really are. And some of them are people who felt that they must remain relevant in politics and to that extent, they felt that since PDP cannot favour us, let us move to the next available party and they found the APC as a ready tool or platform.

One of the things happening in recent times is what I would call tsunami and that is a disaster that has come to stay with us now. Once a governor spends eight years in office, the next step after his tenure of office is to go to the Senate, by hook or crook.

These people have turned politics to permanent business. So, to some extent, the Presidency probably is saying the truth, because most of the other parties fall into this category I have painted, with the exception of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and very few of them from the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. Most of the others one way or the other lost favour from the ruling PDP and suddenly, overnight, they become progressives.

Some of them not only became progressives, but also became activists. And the next thing is when other activists are singing solidarity songs, they joined in, because they lost grounds and they wanted to gain relevance once again. I am sure this is one of the challenges the APC is going to face.

There is this myth in the past that the North speaks with one voice. However, recent happenings in the polity seem to have put this belief to the lie. Do you think the North still speaks with one voice today?

No. Certainly not and this is one of the greatest challenges we are facing today. In the past, during the days of the founding fathers of the monolithic North, the Ahmadu Bellos, the Tafawa Balewas, the J.S Tarkas and Sunday Awoniyis, all of blessed memory and a host of others, the North spoke with one voice, as an entity, as a nation. These are statesmen; these are people who managed to carry every Northerner along in the scheme of things. These are leaders in the true sense of the word and everybody in the North then was ready to follow them to the end of the world. Today, as I speak with you, the rate of suspicion amongst Northerners is at an alarming high rate. As a result of this, the harmony and love and care that existed between the Muslims and the Christians in the North are lost. This idea of Hausa- Fulani and other ethnic nationalities in the North that in the past used to see every Northerner as one has disappeared! Those values and virtues are no longer there and I must say that this is not the kind of North that we the younger generation envisaged and I am sure the founding fathers of the North, who made all the necessary sacrifices for Nigeria to remain one and for the North to remain and speak with one voice are turning in their graves right now, because what we have now is not the kind of North they envisaged. However, the truth of the matter is that the North of yesterday is no longer the North of today and I think the present generation has a lot to do and some of the things we need to do are: one, we just have to sit up, look ourselves straight in the face and stand up to be counted in reclaiming our nation from those who are self-serving. As a matter of fact, this is one of the projects we are embarking on and as I speak with you, it is one of the reasons why I stay more in the Northern part of the country these days, to see how we can bring everybody on board now; all the youth organisations in the 19 Northern states must come together and work together to salvage the North from scavengers, speak with one voice and take our destinies in our hands.

Never again would we allow any old politician to control our destiny and continue to tell us what is not true! Never again would we allow any corrupt leader to appropriate our collective commonwealth for himself at the expense of our future!

Never again would we as a people speak in divergent voices, but in one voice and one accord, especially the younger generation. This is one of the missions we have ahead of us and God willing, we will achieve this.

At the end of the day, after achieving cohesion, we will now extend our hand of fellowship to our counterparts in the South, for us to have strong unity between the North and the South, for the future of our generation, for the future of our great country and for the future of generations yet unborn.

Irrespective of where you come from, irrespective of which language you speak, irrespective of which God you worship, irrespective of the colour of your skin, we must remain one and speak one voice in unity in this country. That is the only way we the present generation can do it and help ourselves out.

Beyond just being Northerners, we must see ourselves first as Nigerians; we must insist that this country, Nigeria, remains together and we must resist any attempt by any evil-minded people to foist on us any threat of disintegration of the Nigerian entity and this is the kind of Nigeria that I look forward to.

A school of thought has said all the recent happenings in the political circle, the insecurity, the power struggle in the PDP, the junketing around the country by some Northern governors among others, are all about 2015. Do you agree with this school of thought?

Those governors moving from one corner of the country to the other, if you ask me, just a few, may be one or two, have actually performed well in the delivery of dividends of democracy.

One can talk of Sule Lamido and Rabiu Kwankwanso. One can actually see what they are doing in Jigawa and Kano states. The rest have really not done anything and to me, the entire thing boils down to politicking. The politicking is simply not because they believe that they are going to achieve anything or much, but because they simply want to remain relevant. Some of them, if you ask me are not popular even in their states.

All they are busy doing is to position themselves so that at the appropriate time, the central government would have to take them and their interest into consideration in the scheme of things, such that they would be able to bargain when the chips are down, it is simply about themselves only. All they are doing, I think is not in the common interest of the common man!

I wish they are doing all of these in the interest of the common man in the Northern part of Nigeria, perhaps, I would have been glad, but unfortunately, that is not so and the truth of the matter is that they had opportunities which they did not utilize to better the lot of their people. Their tenures are almost over; the next thing on their mind is what happens to them after leaving the various Government Houses? That is all they are thinking now.

To that extent, I sincerely do not think that all their junketing and gallivanting across the country is not in the interest, nay best interest of the common man on the streets. They can claim to be speaking for the people and begin to cause more confusion in the polity and overheat the polity, but within them, they know they are not sincere and some of us also know they are not sincere.

How would assess the government of Goodluck Jonathan? Having been in power in the last two years and in less than two years, the administration may come to ask for our votes again, do you think it has done enough and satisfied the expectations of the Nigerian people to be entrusted with power again?

Our expectations are high as a people. On one hand, the government of Goodluck Jonathan is doing its best, but its best is not good enough for Nigerians, because Nigerians’ expectations are high.

Despite all odds, not because I have sympathy for this administration, but the truth of the matter is that the man at the centre of it all actually had good intention for the country, but unfortunately, he has some cronies around him; his kitchen cabinet members are not sincere, not only with him but also with Nigerians and they are doing him any good.

In fact most of them are even misleading the President. Some of them are causing all sorts of confusions in the country and unfortunately, I am sure the man is not even aware of the damage these people are doing to him and his administration and if he does, it seems he lacks the political willpower to take decisive action and disciplinary measures against them. The President is not a rugged man, he is purely a gentleman.

To that extent, my assessment of the Jonathan administration is that the government has not performed. Of course, ordinarily, one would not expect Jonathan to do everything, but the people working with him are not helping his administration and they are not being fair to him.

Some of them, most times act funny and I begin to wonder whether they are not in the actual sense sabotaging the Jonathan administration.

Ordinarily, one plus one gives two, but to some of these lieutenants, their one plus one is always one! And that gets me confused the more. On a general note, the Jonathan administration has not done enough to earn pass marks and it is quite disappointing that despite all kinds of sacrifices Nigerians have made, despite all the hurdles that Nigerians had to overcome to ensure that he gets there; all the expectations of Nigerians have been dashed!

This is not the kind of government Nigerians envisaged when they overwhelmingly voted for Jonathan in 2011. This is not the kind of change we asked for.

We had thought that he was a neutral man, not propped up by any godfather but that he was brought into power by the will of God. So he has no reason not to perform, even if he has to lay down his life to ensure that Nigeria remains one indivisible entity and to take Nigeria to the next level in terms of development, but the reverse has been the case.

At a point, he was choked up by those who surrounded him and before we know it, he has become a local champion and became hostage to a few people who have held him hostage.

How would you react to the deportation allegation made against Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, by his Anambra State counterpart, Peter Obi?

I do not think it is constitutional for any governor to deport any citizen of Nigeria from one state to another, for whatever reason. If anyone has been found culpable of contravening the laws of the law, such a fellow should be dealt with according to the dictates of the law and not a free citizen, busy working for his daily bread to be forcefully taken out of a state, for example, simply because the governor thinks that Lagos State is over populated.

The Anambra experience has come to the limelight, there have been so many cases involving Northerners, who have been taken out of Lagos and sent to their home states.

The number is alarming and unimaginable, but people don’t get to hear this because we don’t believe so much in propaganda. Perhaps that of Anambra hit the headlines because they want to score cheap political point out of it.

I have had encounters with few people in government in Lagos that when they take decisive actions like the one in national discourse, or like the Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI issue, they do it more to frustrate our people, especially from the Northern part of the country and often times, the Northerners are more of the victims of their operations.

Yes, the government may have good intentions; after all, we are part of the people clamouring for Lagos to become a mega city, but where certain people are bearing the brunt of government policy, may be because they are communicating properly, I don’t think we would agree with that.

But I do not think Fashola himself is involved. Perhaps, as the man on whose table the buck stops, he has to bear the brunt of whatever his overzealous subordinates do. It is possible one of the commissioners may have over-reached himself, because I know Fashola is more sophisticated and learned more than that; but I tell you, this is what our people experienced in the hands of KAI officials, even where they are doing their daily duties legally.

I receive reports of arrests and detention by KAI officials in my office on daily basis, yes, government has outlawed hawking, but what do you say about those who KAI officials invaded their shops to arrest them? I am sure this is not the idea behind the whole government plan in Lagos State. Lagos State has become home to so many people because of its progressiveness and cosmopolitan nature.

This is a government that is very popular, but I think there are some elements in that administration whose duty is to rubbish the good works Fashola is doing, probably with the intention of rubbishing him after he might have left office.

We have used him severally as yardsticks for our governors in our states, asking them whether Fashola has two heads and why they cannot do what he is doing in Lagos State in their own states. I just hope somebody is not sabotaging him and trying to make him look stupid so that at the end of the day, his political credential would have been tainted, and sabotage his future political ambition.

The North is hell bent on producing the next president in 2015. What is your take on this?

My position has always been that I do not agree with sectional style of leadership. I don’t believe in this turn by turn leadership style. If truly we believe in turn by turn, the Igbo too have to take their turn, so we should allow them to also take their turn in the Nigerian project.

And in that order, the Yoruba have their turn, the North too should also take their turn. But if it is not about turn by turn and it is all about the Nigerian nation, wherever the president is coming from do not matter.

Of course, I would be glad to see a Hausa man become the president of Nigeria, as long as he believes in Nigeria and wants to move the country forward, but I am totally against this idea of turn by turn style of leadership.

If we continue with ‘it is my turn and not your turn’ mentality, we are going to run into problems. We should now begin to see ourselves more as Nigerians than sectional leaders. As long as we continue talking about taking turns, we are creating problems for ourselves and the future generations of Nigerians yet unborn.

And then people begin to get that into their psyche and it becomes a mindset of the people and it because ‘it is our turn and not the other man’s turn. And whether the candidate is qualified or not, competent or not, whether he merits it or not, as long as it is our turn, he must be there’. And to that extent, we will never produce good leadership for the country.

And we would end up recycling the same set of people who now have the wherewithal to muscle their ways into power and the chances for my generation to aspire to position of leadership would no longer be there.

This is the fear I am having and if this continues, then we are doomed forever and we would no longer feel the essence of governance and the essence of governance is the welfare of the people.

How would assess the ongoing review of the 1999 constitution, considering that some of the areas where Nigerians are expecting drastic change, like state creation and the local government autonomy, have been jettisoned by the National Assembly?

I have never believed in the 1999 constitution and I would never believe in it. So, whatever they do to it, whether amendment or addition or subtraction, I don’t really care! My view about the constitution is that it is a fraudulent document foisted on us by the administration of General Abduslami Abubakar.

My take is that we need a people’s constitution, that have the inputs of the people and not the fake document forced on us by the military called the 1999 Constitution.

Therefore, to me, I look forward to see a new constitution entirely, midwifed by the people of Nigeria. What is ongoing at the National Assembly is really of no importance to me, because the document itself lacks legitimacy and so whatever is done to it remains illegitimate.

How do we then get a constitution that has the requisite legitimacy?

We get it by simply returning to the round table for a sovereign national conference. And if we can’t have a sovereign national conference because the government of the day is not comfortable with it, let us have a conference of all the various nationalities in Nigeria, where the people’s representatives would sit down and fashion out a people’s constitution.

A national conference where the government would not hinder or have any input or introduce any interest of its own, but to only provide an atmosphere where the people would meet and bring to the table contributions that would lead to producing a people’s constitution.

Let each zone brings their ‘best eleven’ to converge and fashion out an acceptable people’s constitution for the country.

That is when we will have a document that would be binding on all of us Nigerians, a document that would have legitimacy, because it has the input of all the ethnic nationalities in the country.

————————————————————————————————————————-
Posted in Nigerian Newspapers. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: National Mirror Newspaper

DisNaija.Com publishes regular posts on Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Online Nigeria Gist.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Nigerian Newspapers

Follow @Dis_Naija

Your Opinion Counts. Be sure To Leave A Comment, If You Have Any.

Please Like, Share or Tweet. Your Support Is Appreciated.