Hon Aminu Bello Masari was former Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007.
In
a recent interview, he responds to issues of insecurity in the North
and assertions of ambivalence by northern leaders, the preparedness of
the All Progressives Congress, APC for the political battle ahead and
the crisis that has recently enveloped the Nigerian Governors’ Forum,
NGF.
Excerpts:
It is alleged that majority of Northern leaders are ambivalent on the Boko Haram insurgency. Why?
If you want to exploit people, deny them education. And in the North education is being denied to the public because public schools there have collapsed.
The only schools functioning are private schools but how many parents can afford it? Secondly, the public health system has also collapsed. So now people have to provide water, security, education, health care system and every other thing for themselves.
Today, the North is known for its agriculture business and over 80 per cent of northerners rely on agriculture and agriculture today cannot thrive without the input of government, which includes supply of fertilizers, good quality seeds.
All these things have disappeared. As I am talking to you today, a 50 kg bag of fertilizer costs about N5,000. How many people can afford it? And some state governments like the state where I come from, for the last 30 days or more, people have planted and up till now government has not distributed fertilizer, when will they distribute it?
The type of people that we put in office is not reflective of the reality on ground and my belief is that for you to provide responsible leadership there must be good, free and fair election.
In Nigeria, people who won election were denied and leadership was given to those who did not win. How do you expect those who did not win to have respect for ordinary the person when they know at the end of the day it was not ordinary people that put them in power and it is not ordinary people that will put them in power again?
So unless we address these fundamental issues of justice and fairness, we will know no peace because there is no peace without justice.
Do you foresee anything like the Arab Spring happening here?
Do you think that was not going to happen if the fuel subsidy protest was not discontinued? You can see people all over Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna rose up to the occasion and if they had not rescinded their decision and the rally in Lagos and other places were allowed to continue, it could have developed into something. So for anybody to think it cannot happen in Nigeria, such person is deceiving himself and it is a huge joke. It can happen if certain decisions taken by government are not favourable to people.
This Arab spring is not only limited to Arabian nations, bad governance and bad election can lead to such uprising.
It will happen here except certain things are done and we are moving towards that because the alienation and deprivation are growing and when they grow to certain level, surely something must give way.
In Nigeria today, there is no justice and fairness. So, no man can control what is happening unless we address the fundamentals and provide leadership at state and local government levels that are truly elected by the people and which will be held accountable by the people.
Really, the attitude of leaders here in the North will have to change and our lifestyle will have to reflect the reality on ground.
Governors and local government chairmen today behave like emperors, doing whatever they like with the wealth of the people because they depend on Federation Account and not Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
This issue is not about religion, sectionalism and hostility it is about leaders short-changing their people. It is happening all over the country but worse in the North because we have denied our people education.
Can you imagine a governor that has not provided basic requirement of primary education, but was going to spend billions in feeding people during Ramadan?
This is a contradiction. Give them good education and they will find their level. How can we stop this insecurity when a local government chairman with his appointees is patronising private institutions? So, they have no confidence in what they are supposed to be doing.
There is no responsibility in leadership and it is a failure for governors, local government chairmen, councilors and other political appointees to send their children to private schools, when they refuse to send their children to public institutions, it means those schools are bad.
For me, this is an indictment on them to provide good and quality service to the people they govern and that is why there is no accountability.
We can overcome this insecurity situation but if we do not lay a sustainable foundation, it will recur and maybe this time, it may not be on religion but between the rich and the poor and the rich will be determined by the type of clothes he wears, house he lives, car he drives and the area he lives.
Excerpts:
It is alleged that majority of Northern leaders are ambivalent on the Boko Haram insurgency. Why?
If you want to exploit people, deny them education. And in the North education is being denied to the public because public schools there have collapsed.
The only schools functioning are private schools but how many parents can afford it? Secondly, the public health system has also collapsed. So now people have to provide water, security, education, health care system and every other thing for themselves.
Today, the North is known for its agriculture business and over 80 per cent of northerners rely on agriculture and agriculture today cannot thrive without the input of government, which includes supply of fertilizers, good quality seeds.
All these things have disappeared. As I am talking to you today, a 50 kg bag of fertilizer costs about N5,000. How many people can afford it? And some state governments like the state where I come from, for the last 30 days or more, people have planted and up till now government has not distributed fertilizer, when will they distribute it?
The type of people that we put in office is not reflective of the reality on ground and my belief is that for you to provide responsible leadership there must be good, free and fair election.
In Nigeria, people who won election were denied and leadership was given to those who did not win. How do you expect those who did not win to have respect for ordinary the person when they know at the end of the day it was not ordinary people that put them in power and it is not ordinary people that will put them in power again?
So unless we address these fundamental issues of justice and fairness, we will know no peace because there is no peace without justice.
Do you foresee anything like the Arab Spring happening here?
Do you think that was not going to happen if the fuel subsidy protest was not discontinued? You can see people all over Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna rose up to the occasion and if they had not rescinded their decision and the rally in Lagos and other places were allowed to continue, it could have developed into something. So for anybody to think it cannot happen in Nigeria, such person is deceiving himself and it is a huge joke. It can happen if certain decisions taken by government are not favourable to people.
This Arab spring is not only limited to Arabian nations, bad governance and bad election can lead to such uprising.
It will happen here except certain things are done and we are moving towards that because the alienation and deprivation are growing and when they grow to certain level, surely something must give way.
In Nigeria today, there is no justice and fairness. So, no man can control what is happening unless we address the fundamentals and provide leadership at state and local government levels that are truly elected by the people and which will be held accountable by the people.
Really, the attitude of leaders here in the North will have to change and our lifestyle will have to reflect the reality on ground.
Governors and local government chairmen today behave like emperors, doing whatever they like with the wealth of the people because they depend on Federation Account and not Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
This issue is not about religion, sectionalism and hostility it is about leaders short-changing their people. It is happening all over the country but worse in the North because we have denied our people education.
Can you imagine a governor that has not provided basic requirement of primary education, but was going to spend billions in feeding people during Ramadan?
This is a contradiction. Give them good education and they will find their level. How can we stop this insecurity when a local government chairman with his appointees is patronising private institutions? So, they have no confidence in what they are supposed to be doing.
There is no responsibility in leadership and it is a failure for governors, local government chairmen, councilors and other political appointees to send their children to private schools, when they refuse to send their children to public institutions, it means those schools are bad.
For me, this is an indictment on them to provide good and quality service to the people they govern and that is why there is no accountability.
We can overcome this insecurity situation but if we do not lay a sustainable foundation, it will recur and maybe this time, it may not be on religion but between the rich and the poor and the rich will be determined by the type of clothes he wears, house he lives, car he drives and the area he lives.
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