We’ll guide President to govern right — ACF exco member

 

Mohammed Abdulrahman, a member of the National Executive Council of the Arewa Consultative Forum, tells BAYO AKINLOYE that President Muhammadu Buhari should focus on improving power and security in his first 100 days in office and should not be tempted to ignore the South-East and the South-South

As a member of the Arewa Consultative Forum, what do you and your organisation expect the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to do?

Whatever President Muhammadu Buhari has to do, it has to be for the country. Solving the insurgency in the North-East falls in that category. He has already started working on that area. The Chadian President had come to meet Buhari in Nigeria to discuss further on how to decimate Boko Haram. Recently, Buhari went to (the Republic of) Niger on a similar issue. He must put an end to Boko Haram. He must also strengthen the Nigerian Army further. Another thing he should focus on is the problem of power.

Electricity supply in the country has nose-dived. Every resource in this country is based on gas from the Niger Delta and you have the same set of people paid to guard the pipelines destroying them. Buhari should address that anomaly. Another area requiring urgent attention is education –education should be accessible not just to people in the North but to every Nigerian. It is also our expectation that Buhari should look beyond the oil and gas sector and develop the solid minerals — iron and steel and coal resources.

Besides, he should ensure that the Nigeria Police is well taken care of to the extent that the force will stop engaging in impunity and stop collecting bribe. It will be good to see that Nigeria’s stolen money kept abroad is returned. Already, we learnt that Buhari is talking to the British government on how to recover some of the loots. He should also audit the nation’s treasury.

What about granting amnesty to Boko Haram?

No way! The Boko Haram insurgents don’t need and don’t deserve amnesty. They kill innocent people with callous impunity. The Bible urges people not to kill their fellow humans. The Quran says the same and adds that those who kill should be killed. There is no question of amnesty for Boko Haram. They have killed too many people. The rules of amnesty do not apply to them.

Should the amnesty granted the Niger Delta militants by late President Umaru Yar’Adua and sustained by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan be continued by the Buhari administration?

Amnesty should be for a period of time. It cannot be forever. Again, think about it: Many of these militants who were sent abroad to various educational institutions by Jonathan’s government were sent back home by foreign governments because of their ill-behaviours. These ones didn’t seem ready to learn. Who is Asari Dokubo to tell Buhari that he shouldn’t have set a deadline for the amnesty programme? I respect Edwin Clark for coming out to urge his people to give their unalloyed support to Buhari. Be that as it may, no one should expect an amnesty programme to run forever.

Is the emergence of Buhari as the President a good omen for Nigeria?

Before we talk about Buhari being a good omen or otherwise, we needed hope. That hope was lost before now. Every Nigerian had lost hope in the previous government of Goodluck Jonathan which was riddled with reckless impunity. But here, we have Buhari with the right disposition and in him, we believe there will be a new dawn because of his antecedents as a former Head of State and as the one who was once in charge of the petroleum ministry. He was a conscientious leader. We rely on the hope that President Buhari will bring succour to the people Jonathan had brought hardship and horror upon. That hope is good enough that the pains and penury in the land can be reversed by one man and his government. Hope builds up courage. It makes Nigerians to be willing to participate in rebuilding Nigeria.

Under Jonathan, the people’s mentality was bastardised to that of trying to plunder the land in whatever way they could; with the ex-president, there was no hope. Buhari brings hope. Buhari symbolises the leadership we can trust and support. I must admit that despite the various strange bedfellows that made up the All Progressives Congress, there is hope for something better in the country. That is what the emergence of Buhari stands for.

Isn’t his emergence especially good for the North?

We are not listening to the noises being made by some people. We understand that this is not a government that will steal from the public treasury with pleasure and impunity. The Peoples Democratic Party as the erstwhile ruling party was home for all kinds of riff-raff in Nigeria. The PDP did not care about the welfare of the common people. Therefore, Jonathan used his government to destroy the patriotism in the people making them to think on the basis of ethnicity. If one was not from the South-East or from the South-South, under Jonathan’s administration, one would have to work a lot harder than people from the regions I mentioned earlier. It made many feel there was no Nigeria. The PDP, while in government, didn’t think of Nigeria; all the people in the previous government thought of was oil money. They plundered the country financially and made the people become disenchanted. Jonathan, to say the least, along with his party, ran a motor-park government, where everything happened without control.

As for President Buhari, he knows the country does not belong to the North. We have to let Nigerians know that they own the country. Buhari must know that he’s in power to serve the people and not to terrorise them with impunity. Remember what he said during his inaugural speech? He said, ‘I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.’ We are going to guide Buhari to do the right thing as much as possible. He will have to be cautious in navigating the torturous path set before him by the bygone government of Jonathan.

The South-East and the South-South were said to have stood firmly against Buhari’s presidential candidacy at the poll. Do you see the president paying them back for not supporting his presidential bid?

Nigeria belongs to us all. Nigeria does not belong to Buhari. Buhari needs the cooperation of every group and every region in Nigeria – it does not matter where they come from. The President had already told them (the South-South and the South-East) what we wanted to tell them, that Nigeria belongs to all of us even though Jonathan and his cohort wanted people to believe otherwise. Today, Jonathan and his gang have failed in their bid to polarise our beloved country called Nigeria. The country belongs to all of us and not to Buhari. It is a must for the President to guard the trust placed in his care. We expect nothing less than that. God did not make Buhari to emerge as the president for nothing, having tried repeatedly without success to be at the helm of affairs of this great country blessed with abundant resources.

I remember (ex-Governor of Jigawa State) Sule Lamido saying Buhari was a permanent presidential candidate. Can he say that anymore? We will look at politicians who care about their people. However, I would say individuals like (Governor Ayodele) Fayose (of Ekiti State) don’t look like such a man (who cares for the good of his people). He should be considered as a menace to the present government of Buhari. Fayose, I will say, qualifies for some attention other than political. Here is someone who placed an obituary on someone who is still alive; a man strongly opposed to Buhari’s presidential bid. It is amusing that this same man had written the president asking to be given an opportunity to nominate a minister. Buhari should not tolerate any individual or group that perpetrates impunity and lawlessness.

Mohammed Abdulrahman, a member of the National Executive Council of the Arewa Consultative Forum, tells BAYO AKINLOYE that President Muhammadu Buhari should focus on improving power and security in his first 100 days in office and should not be tempted to ignore the South-East and the South-South

As a member of the Arewa Consultative Forum, what do you and your organisation expect the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to do?

Whatever President Muhammadu Buhari has to do, it has to be for the country. Solving the insurgency in the North-East falls in that category. He has already started working on that area. The Chadian President had come to meet Buhari in Nigeria to discuss further on how to decimate Boko Haram. Recently, Buhari went to (the Republic of) Niger on a similar issue. He must put an end to Boko Haram. He must also strengthen the Nigerian Army further. 

Another thing he should focus on is the problem of power.

Electricity supply in the country has nose-dived. Every resource in this country is based on gas from the Niger Delta and you have the same set of people paid to guard the pipelines destroying them. Buhari should address that anomaly. Another area requiring urgent attention is education –education should be accessible not just to people in the North but to every Nigerian. It is also our expectation that Buhari should look beyond the oil and gas sector and develop the solid minerals — iron and steel and coal resources.

Besides, he should ensure that the Nigeria Police is well taken care of to the extent that the force will stop engaging in impunity and stop collecting bribe. It will be good to see that Nigeria’s stolen money kept abroad is returned. Already, we learnt that Buhari is talking to the British government on how to recover some of the loots. He should also audit the nation’s treasury.

What about granting amnesty to Boko Haram?

No way! The Boko Haram insurgents don’t need and don’t deserve amnesty. They kill innocent people with callous impunity. The Bible urges people not to kill their fellow humans. The Quran says the same and adds that those who kill should be killed. There is no question of amnesty for Boko Haram. They have killed too many people. The rules of amnesty do not apply to them.

Should the amnesty granted the Niger Delta militants by late President Umaru Yar’Adua and sustained by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan be continued by the Buhari administration?

Amnesty should be for a period of time. It cannot be forever. Again, think about it: Many of these militants who were sent abroad to various educational institutions by Jonathan’s government were sent back home by foreign governments because of their ill-behaviours. These ones didn’t seem ready to learn. Who is Asari Dokubo to tell Buhari that he shouldn’t have set a deadline for the amnesty programme? I respect Edwin Clark for coming out to urge his people to give their unalloyed support to Buhari. Be that as it may, no one should expect an amnesty programme to run forever.

Is the emergence of Buhari as the President a good omen for Nigeria?

Before we talk about Buhari being a good omen or otherwise, we needed hope. That hope was lost before now. Every Nigerian had lost hope in the previous government of Goodluck Jonathan which was riddled with reckless impunity. But here, we have Buhari with the right disposition and in him, we believe there will be a new dawn because of his antecedents as a former Head of State and as the one who was once in charge of the petroleum ministry. He was a conscientious leader. We rely on the hope that President Buhari will bring succour to the people Jonathan had brought hardship and horror upon. That hope is good enough that the pains and penury in the land can be reversed by one man and his government. Hope builds up courage. It makes Nigerians to be willing to participate in rebuilding Nigeria.

Under Jonathan, the people’s mentality was bastardised to that of trying to plunder the land in whatever way they could; with the ex-president, there was no hope. Buhari brings hope. Buhari symbolises the leadership we can trust and support. I must admit that despite the various strange bedfellows that made up the All Progressives Congress, there is hope for something better in the country. That is what the emergence of Buhari stands for.

Isn’t his emergence especially good for the North?

We are not listening to the noises being made by some people. We understand that this is not a government that will steal from the public treasury with pleasure and impunity. The Peoples Democratic Party as the erstwhile ruling party was home for all kinds of riff-raff in Nigeria. The PDP did not care about the welfare of the common people. Therefore, Jonathan used his government to destroy the patriotism in the people making them to think on the basis of ethnicity. If one was not from the South-East or from the South-South, under Jonathan’s administration, one would have to work a lot harder than people from the regions I mentioned earlier. It made many feel there was no Nigeria. The PDP, while in government, didn’t think of Nigeria; all the people in the previous government thought of was oil money.

 They plundered the country financially and made the people become disenchanted. Jonathan, to say the least, along with his party, ran a motor-park government, where everything happened without control.

As for President Buhari, he knows the country does not belong to the North. We have to let Nigerians know that they own the country. Buhari must know that he’s in power to serve the people and not to terrorise them with impunity. Remember what he said during his inaugural speech? He said, ‘I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody.’ We are going to guide Buhari to do the right thing as much as possible. He will have to be cautious in navigating the torturous path set before him by the bygone government of Jonathan.

The South-East and the South-South were said to have stood firmly against Buhari’s presidential candidacy at the poll. Do you see the president paying them back for not supporting his presidential bid?

Nigeria belongs to us all. Nigeria does not belong to Buhari. Buhari needs the cooperation of every group and every region in Nigeria – it does not matter where they come from. The President had already told them (the South-South and the South-East) what we wanted to tell them, that Nigeria belongs to all of us even though Jonathan and his cohort wanted people to believe otherwise. Today, Jonathan and his gang have failed in their bid to polarise our beloved country called Nigeria. The country belongs to all of us and not to Buhari. It is a must for the President to guard the trust placed in his care. We expect nothing less than that. God did not make Buhari to emerge as the president for nothing, having tried repeatedly without success to be at the helm of affairs of this great country blessed with abundant resources.

I remember (ex-Governor of Jigawa State) Sule Lamido saying Buhari was a permanent presidential candidate. Can he say that anymore? We will look at politicians who care about their people. However, I would say individuals like (Governor Ayodele) Fayose (of Ekiti State) don’t look like such a man (who cares for the good of his people). He should be considered as a menace to the present government of Buhari. Fayose, I will say, qualifies for some attention other than political. Here is someone who placed an obituary on someone who is still alive; a man strongly opposed to Buhari’s presidential bid. It is amusing that this same man had written the president asking to be given an opportunity to nominate a minister. Buhari should not tolerate any individual or group that perpetrates impunity and lawlessness.

Source: Punchng