The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, and former FCT Minister, Lt.Gen Jeremiah Useni (retd.) consideres the proposed national conference is a waste of time and that northern agitators should allow President Goodluck Jonathan contest in 2015
See excerpts of his interview below;
It’s been some time since we heard your voice in the political circuit. Why have you been quiet?
Unless there is something important, one doesn’t make noise. But I don’t have to make noise before you know I’m around. Yes, I only talk when there is an issue of concern to me, when there is something of general interest and when I think my voice may be of relevance.
As a retired general in the Nigerian Army, how would you rate the Federal Government’s fight against terrorism and insecurity across the country?
Government is doing its best, no doubt about it. But we started late, if we had nipped it in the bud, the issue would have been different. It is just like the civil war, where we started with police action. It had become a full-scale war before we took proper action and it took three years to stop the Biafran war. It is just like this case, but like I said, everything is being done to get it off our neck. Government is doing its best, a division has been created for that zone, the Seventh Division of the Nigerian Army. Service chiefs have been changed to give new impetus to the campaign. I see more improvement in clamping down on those people.
Would you agree a carrot-and-stick approach is the best in handling Boko Haram?
I don’t know whether that is going on now. Even in war, those who surrender, you treat them nicely and those who refuse to surrender, of course, you deal with them appropriately.
It is widely believed that the North is against the proposed national conference. Is this true?
That is not true; I am the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, the umbrella body of all the associations in the North. We believe that the members of the National Assembly are the representatives of the people. They should be able to speak for the people; they should be able to see whether something is good or bad. Can you give a man a job and still sack him and say there is a group of people that should come and do the job? Don’t forget, you still have to go back to them again and they can disagree with what you have done. That means nothing will come out of it. That is why some of us are saying we must tread with caution. Has there been any talk that lawmakers have failed or that we think they are useless and we should get a new crop of people? I don’t understand. We are not against it, we are just saying it should go through the National Assembly.
Would you have joined the All Progressives Congress, if you had remained in the All Nigeria Peoples Party?
Yes, or alternatively, I would have left the ANPP.
Do you see the APC as a better alternative for the electorate in the 2015 elections?
I don’t think so. They are having problems too. Look at Kano, Ibrahim Shekarau and the governor are not in good terms. Shekarau was governor and he contested the presidential election, now Rabiu Kwankwanso who lost, is governor. Now, by their constitution, the state leader of the party is the governor and Shekarau would not take kindly to Kwankwanso being his leader. The same thing in Sokoto. The governor there was deputy to Attahiru Bafarawa and if they say the governor is the leader of the party, Bafarawa would not take kindly to the governor being his leader. So, they are having problems there and they haven’t settled them. The same thing with (Col. Buba) Marwa (retd) in Adamawa, they haven’t settled. So, everywhere, there is problem, we can only watch and see. Many people left the Peoples Democratic Party because they wanted Tukur out. Now Tukur has left, maybe some of them will come back. So, I don’t think they have won over PDP yet. APC can’t say hallelujah yet because some people are rushing to join them. Let’s just watch and see.
Looking beyond the crisis, as an elder statesman, do you think APC is a credible alternative for Nigerians? Can you recommend it as a better alternative to PDP?
As it is now, they are next to PDP. When you are talking of credible alternative, all I know is that they are next to PDP. If PDP is not there, they are the next biggest party to PDP, full stop. Whether they are credible is a different thing altogether. I won’t like to say anything on that aspect because that would mean talking about the individuals that make up the party.
Regarding Buhari, some Nigerians feel he should be considered for the Presidency in 2015. Is this your opinion too?
He is a good chap. If he is given the opportunity, I think he would do well, being a disciplinarian. But we are in a democratic set up and the majority counts. If the people say they don’t want you, what do you do? But he is a very disciplined person; that, I can vouch for.
Can Buhari function within a democratic set up?
I don’t know, he hasn’t been a democratic head of state, so I can’t assess him. During the military, he did well, he set up the War against Indiscipline programme and we saw how people were queuing. Are they doing so now? People were not throwing dirt out of the windows of their cars then, but that is going on now. During the military regime, the governors were disciplined. Forget the fact that they were military governors, they had respect for the president. The President has the whole country as one constituency, but the governors have only 36 constituencies, yet the present governors have no respect for the President. They behave anyhow, talk to the President anyhow, as if he is their houseboy. The same governors will not allow a local government chairman talk to them anyhow. So, I can’t assess whether Buhari would be a good civilian president or not.
Is it true that President Jonathan had a one-term agreement with the North?
I have never been in the PDP, so I don’t know. That was a party thing. I don’t know anything about it. The discussions were at the party level, not elders level, so I don’t know.
Some Niger-Delta activists are threatening bloodshed if Jonathan is not allowed to contest in 2015. What is your take on this?
I agree with them on this. Jonathan has the right to contest to complete two terms in office. There is no reason why Jonathan should not contest in 2015. If Yar’Ardua were alive, he would be finishing his eight years now. The man (Jonathan) took part of it. I can only say these four years that he is about to finish will be really his own. So if you don’t want him to spend another four years to make eight years, you can say let him spend two-and-a-half years or so, of what remained of Yar’Adua’s tenure to make up his own eight years. Definitely, there is no reason why Jonathan should not go for it in 2015, unless people reject him. It is not that he is not qualified, he is over-qualified.
So, are you opposed to agitators who want power to return to the North?
I am from the North, I don’t agree with them. The calculation is wrong, the calculation is selfish.
How do you assess Jonathan’s government?
The only thing I would say is he (the President) should blow hot and cold. Too much of cold compared to hot is why this nonsense is going on. He should balance it. I think he is doing well. One tree cannot make a forest; he cannot run the Federal Government and also run the states. State governments are there to do their own bit, so also are local governments.
Are you still in Democratic Peoples Party?
I’m still in DPP.
But DPP has almost fizzled from the political landscape?
No, I am still there. How can you say we have fizzled out? We are having meetings and looking at the whole set-up.
Any plan to field a presidential candidate in 2015 or merge with another party?
No, we have no plan to field a presidential candidate, but we may merge with another party, preferably PDP because that is where I believe we have more friends. But we have not concluded on that yet, I am just talking about preference.
How would you react to the recent appointment of service chiefs?
It’s a normal thing. As a service chief, you are there at the pleasure of the commander -in-chief. He can appoint you today and remove you tomorrow. So there is no rule or law that says you must spend this number of years there.
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