•No to amnesty for Boko Haram, bandits
Coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi has kicked against any amnesty for Boko Haram members, bandits and other armed groups.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Charanchi said any military action against Niger Republic would be war against Northern Nigeria.
What is your position on the war threats issued to the coup leaders in Niger by the ECOWAS?
As a group we are particularly concerned about our people living in the Northern part of the country. We will never and cannot support any military action against the Niger Republic because it is to the detriment of the north, particularly the North West and the North East. President Tinubu should be told if he didn’t know that his primary constituency is Nigeria and not Ecowas.
He is the chairman of ECOWAS because Nigerians decided to give him their votes for him to be the president of Nigeria; therefore his mandate is to Nigerians and not Ecowas, and to consult Nigerians before taking any major action that can be detrimental to the nation and Nigerians.
Niger has been partnering with Nigeria during the Biafran war, even far before then. It will be uncalled for, for any president of Nigeria even to support or to decide whether there will be a military action or not either at ECOWAS level or whatever level. It is very wrong and detrimental to Nigeria. He didn’t honour the friendship that has been inculcated between the two countries since the time of our forefathers.
One thing President Tinubu should know is that any military action against the Niger Republic would be so severe not only to Nigeriens but to the people of the North. So we condemn the proposal of the president in totality and support the Senate for its position against military action.
We never expected Tinubu even to go to that level of thinking of sending troops to that country because he knew the terrains of Nigeria and he knew the friends of Nigeria even before he became the president . It is either he has more concern over ECOWAS than Nigeria or he is unaware of what has been happening some years ago.
With this view of yours, what happens to democracy in that country?
Democracy can only be saved when the leaders decided to save it. Leaders can only save democracy when they are sincere to their followers. What is happening in West Africa is as a result of bad leadership; leaders without integrity, leaders without consciousness, leaders without the fear of God. Had it been these leaders know the value of their people or the electorate that always give them their mandates, they wouldn’t have spoilt democracy the way they are doing now.
Where was ECOWAS when these people were suffering under the so-called democracy? Where was ECOWAS when Boko Haram was advancing from one village to the other, from one local government to another, from one state to another? What was the intervention of ECOWAS when people were being kidnapped, killed and bandits were carrying out their nefarious activities. The ECOWAS would have intervened when they realised that people were under security threat and hunger was ravaging them. The regional bloc was supposed to have intervened to avert any calamity that could have happened as a result of these factors. But ECOWAS decided to remain mute, it decided not even to make an attempt to assure the Niger people that they were with them.
It is the same thing here in Nigeria. If you go to the North East, you have Boko Haram, you have bandits, kidnapping, IPOB/ESN; no part of the country is safe. Insecurity is everywhere, the people are passing through excruciating hardship everywhere; people are dying just because we don’t have leaders. And now when there is anything that would happen to that democracy, people would come from somewhere else to try to protect the democracy.
Are the ECOWAS leaders defending democracy or defending the positions they are holding. What we have just come to realise is that the regional body is not meant for the masses, but to the leaders to protect their seats, protect themselves and to protect any calamity that may fall on their seats. In as much as you are trying to protect the masses how do think of sending troops to an independent country?
So, democracy can only be saved when the people decided to have a rethink over their development. Democracy can only be saved where leaders have decided to be sincere and truthful to the electorate. Democracy can only be saved when people with integrity are coming into power. Democracy can only be saved when people that know the value of their people are being elected as the leaders of the people. Democracy can only be saved when the leaders have decided to avert what they are doing and think of how to reduce poverty , hardship among the people and tackle the insecurity so the people start living in peace and not in pieces.
As part of the sanctions, Nigeria has cut off electricity supply to Niger. What effect would this have on the relationship between the two countries?
Either President Tinubu is not well informed or he is misinformed. If he had read very well the international agreement signed by our forefathers to safeguard this nation and protect the relationship, he wouldn’t have directed anyone to cut off electricity supplies to Niger Republic. Nigeria is supplying almost 70 per cent of electricity in that country with the agreement that the country would not dam River Niger there so that they would be getting electricity from Kainji. Today, Nigeria is having Kainji dam because Niger Republic decided not to build their own dam to supply their own electricity. If they had decided to build theirs, today we would not have been using Kainji dam to supply electricity. So, that is a breach of trust and what Tinubu is doing is against the ethics of friendship, against the ethics of integrity and even against the ethics of international standard. This was an agreement signed by our forefathers and Tinubu is not qualified to break it.
Secondly, I’m opportune to be in Katsina State, which shares a border with Niger Republic, you would be overwhelmed by vehicles, trucks loaded with commodities that are either moving into or out of that country. Today, that business is grounded because of the selfish interest of President Tinubu to serve the interest of his masters, the international community, without knowing the implication and how detrimental that action would be to the masses that gave him their votes to be the president of Nigeria.
Today, business between the two countries is crippled and our people are suffering. This has worsened the economic hardship in the state on daily bases. It got to a level that people from Dibia Local Government had to call on Nigerien army to come and rescue them from kidnappers and banditry in Nigeria because they could no more trust the Nigerian soldiers, but today, President Tinubu has cut off that relationship. Even the people say it by themselves that they enjoy the services of army from Niger Republic rather than the services of the Nigerian army, but today that relationship is no more. It is not only that local governments, others were also benefiting from the service of the Nigerien soldiers. Even the bandits proclaimed that they have fear for the Nigerien army than the Nigeria army. Just see how a president has abandoned his primary responsibility to meddle into another country’s affairs.
Tinubu should rethink his actions and allow Niger Republic to move one. Why is it only Niger Republic? What happened to Mali that is governed by military? Why can’t he go and intervene there? It means something is fishy.
What is your position of the removal of fuel subsidy?
The issue of fuel subsidy is a scam. When former President Muhammadu Buhari told Nigerians that by so so month, that there would not be fuel subsidy again, but immediately President Tinubu was sworn in, he hiked fuel to about N500, and as Nigerians were still crying, he pushed again to N617. What kind of country do we have? Go to other oil producing countries and see what they are enjoying.
So, fuel subsidy is just a scam and when the president said he has saved one trillion naira from the subsidy, what is he keeping the money for? What is the essence of leadership? People used to forget that the essence of leadership at that level is for the welfare and security of your citizens. What is bad if you subsidise fuel for your citizens? What is bad if you subsidise education?; What is bad if you subsidise agricultural inputs for your people? I don’t think there is anything wrong when a government decided to subsidies anything for its citizens to benefit. What is the essence of removing the subsidy and you later promised to give palliatives? These palliatives, were they not supposed to have come before you remove the subsidy? Even if the presidency or whoever that is claiming that only few people were benefiting from the subsidy, but Nigerians too were also enjoying the same subsidy especially, when we look back to when we were buying fuel at N180 per litre and today we are buying it at N620. In this way, you can’t tell me that I was not enjoying subsidy; I was enjoying subsidy of about N400.
In Nigeria many people go into leadership without knowing what leadership is all about; without knowing the suffering of their people and how they would use their position to ameliorate the suffering of their citizens. They just want to be addressed as president, senators, honourable members, chairman of local government, etc and just to enrich their family members.
That is not the essence of leadership. Democracy is no longer government of the people for the people by the people. It is now government of the capitalists and for the capitalists. What I see in Nigeria today is wicked capitalism, and it is what has plunged this country into insecurity. We may continue to live with this insecurity until when Nigerians decide to have good leaders at the helm of their affairs.
What’s your view on the demand by former Zamfara State governor that Tinubu should grant amnesty to Boko Haram members and bandits? Can you compare these groups to the Niger Delta ex-militants?
The issue of granting amnesty to Boko Haram and bandits is just the routine talk of typical Nigerian politicians to have their way and also think they can achieve something. For a Nigerian who is living in the northern part of the country, to come out to request for an amnesty for these groups shows he is not serious. It is he is excommunicated from his people, he is not serious or he is too personal that he protects his interest rather than the interest of his people.
How will you even talk of amnesty for Boko Haram and bandits when some of the governors, for instance, Masari tried it not ones, not twice, but it failed. Amnesty to Boko Haram, to bandits in Zamfara failed; amnesty in the northern part of the country has failed. Why are we going to repeat the same thing and expect a different result? That will never happen.
So, the issues of Boko Haram, bandits, kidnappers and other insecurity in this country need a serious attention by the government. The only attention they need is for the government to send troops and crush them. Somebody who is ready to send military to other country just because there was a coup in that country, why can’t he send the troops to these groups to crush them so that Nigerians will enjoy peace in their country?
We don’t buy the idea of amnesty to Boko Haram and bandits because it has been tried several times and it failed. The case of Niger Delta is a different issue. Some people were agitating over oil spillage, which we know there was oil spillage in the region during Yar’adua’s reign. But these people are terrorists groups, who decided to come out and destabilize the polity.( Sun)
Post a Comment