By WILLY EYA
Former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa is one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s core supporters in the North. Barely seven months ago, the Garkuwan Sokoto formed the Arewa Initiative for Peaceful co-existence in Southern Nigeria and the organization supports the re-election of Jonathan. In this interview, he speaks on the forthcoming election, reasons behind the Arewa Initiative and the need for national cohesion among other issues. Excerpts:
You are one of the core supporters of Jonathan from the North, what are your reasons for endorsing him?
He has done well and he has seen it all. However, there is always the good and bad for any administration. But at least in the four years he has been the President of this country, he has gained a lot of experience. Again, running at the moment is not a one-man show, but the collective responsibility of all of us to encourage him to continue where he is doing well, and also advise him on where he is not doing well. For whatever reason, we must give President Jonathan a pass mark these four years he has been in-charge. He inherited a broken country enmeshed in insecurity and for being able to manage the country to be united, means we have to give him the necessary support, to ensure he continues to bring sanity to the system. Therefore, our reason is not to give him support in person, but to give the nation support. He has started, so, let us encourage him. But by the time you disengage him and you bring a new comer, he starts all over again. Continuity is very important here. Let us not be carried away by this change mantra. There is a very big difference between digital and analogue. There is no way you can say someone who has been absent from governance in the last 30 years will do magic. There is a very big difference between being a leader in a democracy and one in a military arrangement. A military leadership is to sit down and put a decree. Jonathan has never worked with a decree. He has to go through the National Assembly before he gets any approval. So, there is no way you can compare someone who has the National Assembly to pass through before approvals are given to someone who just have to pass a decree and it stands.
Jonathan has got enough experience as a deputy governor, governor, vice president and president. If given another four years, there is no doubt that he will perform and make a lot of difference.
All the people saying Jonathan doesn’t have support in the North are not being fair to northerners. Most of you reside in Lagos and so you only read these from the papers. As we know, the APC are more in the papers than they are on ground. Go to the North and meet the average northerner on the streets to know their pulse about Jonathan. If you want to know whether Jonathan is actually on ground, go to the different northern states to do some personal assessments, not by reading newspapers. Go to the various states and see that Jonathan has the support of the people. In every northern state, there is no where he hasn’t contributed to the development of the state. So, what is the reason to say northerners don’t like Jonathan. We like Jonathan and we are promising him a total support during the elections. Jonathan is not a southern candidate, he is a national candidate. So, we have to put our house together to support him.
Do you have onfidence in the INEC Chairman
I don’t want to talk much on that matter because I have not put my interest in it. You see, people will judge from his own utterances. He was telling the whole country that he was ready for the election on February 14, and when the polls were shifted, he again said it will give him more time to train his ad-hoc staff. That shows that he was not ready; he didn’t train his ad-hoc staff before February 14. So, you can see how he is contradicting himself. So, somebody can judge him from his own words.
What are the assurances that Arewa Initiative will survive after the election?
This initiative will continue to grow after the election, even when we the founding fathers must have died, it will continue to grow. This association is going to register members with their dues, and whatever they contribute will be used in building the initiative. We will ensure that members of this initiative finance, promote and sustain it.
When APC is talking about fighting corruption, I just wonder and laugh. The party itself is corrupt. I want to ask, where do they get the money to fund their party. It seems they are getting their money from the contributions of the state governors controlled by APC states. Using state governments’ money to hiring jets for their candidate who claim not to be corrupt, raises question of where they get the money from in financing this campaign. Who is the DG of the presidential campaign of the APC? If Buhari is really an anti-corruption crusader, he should have asked fast on where the campaign organisation is getting money to fund his campaign. So, talking of corruption mustn’t arise from the APC. Otherwise, when you look at the amount they raised in their fund raising and compare it with the amount they are actually spending for this campaign, you will be forced to raise questions on where this money is gotten from.
Before the election postponement, it was said the president should be ready to pack out of ASO VILLA. However, the shift has helped him to campaign vigorously especially in the South-West. Do you share that view?
The PDP is the ruling party. Therefore, it is a party that shouldn’t be talking about party interest but the interest of the nation. One, the interest will be keeping the party and keeping the government at the same time. So, the government interest is to make sure that there is peace in the country. Supposing now we went for this election on February 14, look at how unprepared INEC was, there is certainly going to be chaos in the country. Even by the time they were saying they were ready, the card readers have not yet arrived in the country. If the election had been held by that initial date given by INEC, by now we would have been in a very serious crisis. The duty of the government and the ruling party is to ensure there is peace in the country. In fact, they are not in a hurry to acquire power. The party is only looking for peace and stability of the country. We don’t want our country to be plunged into anarchy.
The APC has got media propaganda, they went about telling the world that government is afraid of losing. Yes, government is very sensitive, this is a very fragile period, government had to weigh the options of conducting or not conducting election on that initial date, given the security situation also. We can all see that it was after the postponement that INEC began training their staff and had election been held on February 14, it would have been a total embarrassment. Unlike the APC, President Jonathan is not looking for power blindly. He has reiterated that he doesn’t want anyone to lose his life because of him. So, this is something that must be handled with care. The APC as we know are looking for power blindly, so nobody will blame them if the election took place and was marred with irregularities. It is President Jonathan that will be blamed.
What is you take on Buhari’s Chatham House speech?
If somebody writes a speech and someone went to read it, it is different from putting it into practice. I know what I am talking about as a one-time governor. It will take a very good speech writer for a speech to be delivered. But when you ask the deliverer to go and implement what has been read, then it’s an entirely different ball game.
What is it about Arewa Initiative for peaceful co-existence in Southern Nigeria?
It is a registered foundation. It is important because of the way and manner our people in the South find themselves. Also, Southerners in the North find themselves in the same problem.
We have almost 10 million northerners residing in the 17 southern states. Some of them were born here even their parents were born here. They were brought up here. They cannot go back to the North because this is their home base.
Unfortunately, they have no place they can call their own. They are always non-indigenes. They are not benefiting anything from their indigenous state and here people see them as non-indigenes. As far as these people are concerned, they don’t have anywhere in the North to stay.
Some of them who were born in the South-West speak fluent Yoruba such that you cannot differentiate them from the Yoruba. Also, some who were born in the South-East speak Igbo. Unfortunately, getting admission into government schools is difficult. They have to go to private schools. They are not getting any patronage from the states they are residing and they are Nigerians. If they come together, at least if there is any problem, you can talk to the leadership. Especially during election period, you see people being killed in the North and in the South because there is no leadership. That was the reason we decided to come up with this initiative for peace, development and sensitisation of our people so that they can fight and get their rights.
Now we are going for election, everybody is trying to become governor, senator, member of the House of Representatives or state assembly. You were born here but there is no how you can vie for elective positions because they see us as non-indigenes. This motivated me to form the association so that we can integrate them where they were born.
Are you using the organsiation to achieve a particular political goal?
I use the organisation to support President Goodluck Jonathan, and I also use it to support the people, so it’s a give and take. So, there is nothing wrong for me to ask the people to support President Jonathan, so that when he is voted into power this 2015, he can start solving the people’s grievances.
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