Jonathan can’t win in 2015 because he never won any election in the past –Junaid Mohammed
Dr. Junaid Mohammed
In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU,
a Kano State delegate to the just concluded National Conference and
convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics,
Professionals and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, speaks about his
brush with the law and other sundry national issues. Excerpts
You
were once arrested by the State Security Service for a statement you
made which it considered inciting. What do you make of your arrest?
It
was true I was invited. That was the word they used. I was invited by
the SSS to present myself at their Kano State office which is about one
and half kilometres from my residence. Before I arrived Kano from Abuja,
there were some shadowy characters who were following me. The order for
my arrest came directly from the Director of Operations, an Igbo man.
Apparently, he does not like anyone who says anything uncomplimentary
about Igbo people and their greed. I think he was particularly very
unhappy because I said Igbo have taken charge of the economy and that
they have also grabbed most of the land especially for estates in Abuja;
where they don’t have any historical claims or any other logical claim
to even one square foot of land in Abuja. He was also unhappy because I
said what was taken out of the North and converted into a national land
holding is about two and half times the size of Lagos. I don’t see any
Nigerian ethnic group, zone or region that could be prepared to cede
that kind of virgin land in addition to the valuable mineral which is
under the land. When I got there, some small boys started asking
questions which I answered. I spent about half an hour and somehow;
because of the many calls that were coming into my telephone from a
number of media people and civil society groups, I think somehow they
got a bit jittery and allowed me to go. That was what happened. I
believe what was done was deliberate and it had the blessing of people
in government at the highest level and those in the security services.
It was done primarily with a lot of ethnic bias. I am aware that long
before now, SSS had tried to get me arrested months before what
happened. They even took my name to the office of the NSA and other
people trying to frame me up for things I didn’t do because they said I
was unhelpful and that I am a threat to the government of Goodluck
Jonathan; I wish I were. Every patriotic Nigerian must do what he or she
can do legally to constitute a threat to this government. This is the
most irresponsible, most corrupt and the most incompetent government in
the history of Nigeria. These are people who are not only tribalistic;
they are also sectarian and they are very clannish. Their greed and
stupidity is unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.
But people say you’re chronically tribalistic going by your statements on national issues.
I
want them to tell me what makes me tribalistic, let them mention the
statements they are referring to. If saying about 42 per cent of the key
positions in the economic sector of Nigeria is dominated by Igbo, if
that is what they call tribalism, then I stand by that tribalistic
statement because these are verifiable facts and whenever I made that
statement, I mentioned names and positions and institutions. For
example, I said the most powerful person in this country is the Minister
of Finance who is in fact, the de facto Prime Minister. What it means
is that she is the de facto head of government. For a person who was not
elected and the legitimacy of the government that appointed her still
in doubt, anybody who thinks saying this is being tribalistic, so be it.
They can burn to ashes and go to hell. Two, I said the Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria is also an Igbo person, next I said the DG,
Nigerian Economic Summit Group is an Igbo man, the DG, Sovereign Wealth
Fund, is also an Igbo person, the DG, Securities and Exchange Commission
is also an Igbo person, the DG, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria is
also an Igbo person, other ministries which are very critical to the
running of the economy like aviation, are also in the hands of Igbo
people. So, what are we talking about? Igbo remains one ethnic group in
Nigeria that is so devoid of any shame to show their greed, selfishness
and contempt for other ethnic groups. I said and I will still say that
the first time Igbo officers staged a coup and assassinated wholesale
the political leaders of most other ethnic groups was when we had
General Aguiyi Ironsi as the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed
Forces. He was involved in the coup where the entire political
leadership, the military and economic leadership of other regions
especially the North was decapitated under him and he was from Umuahia.
The next time we had another Igbo man as Chief of Army Staff was at the
height of the Boko Haram insurgency and that man was (Azubuike)
Ihejirika, who also comes from the same Abia State, from the same
Umuahia. So, if this is what they use to call me a tribalist, then they
can go to hell.
Are you one of those who believe Northerners are born to rule and that a Northerner should be President in 2015?
I
have never said a Northerner should rule Nigeria in 2015. There was
never a time in my entire political career when I said a Northerner must
govern or rule Nigeria under any circumstance. I will not dignify this
question with an answer. Next question.
Why did you say that President Jonathan will not win a credible election in 2015?
Because
he never won any election in the past. The election which brought him
to power as number two to Umaru Yar’Adua was not a credible election.
The election he was alleged to have won in 2011 was not credible and I
don’t believe he could win any election if anybody is to vote
rationally- by this I mean, if people are to vote for a man on the basis
of his performance and that performance must tally with what he
promised to do, there is no way-let me tell you, we have a saying in
American English ‘at the end of the day, all politics is local.’ As far
as I am concerned, if he is to be voted for without recourse to
ethnicity and religious bias and people are to vote for him on the basis
of performance, there is no reason why any part of this country should
vote for him- apart from the mercenary Igbo and of course, the Ijaw who
are opportunistic, they are the only people who will have occasion to
vote for Jonathan. When I say Ijaw, I choose my words carefully because
most of the people who got appointments in this government are Ijaw, not
Kalabari, their cousins, not the people of Akwa Ibom whether they are
Anang or Ibibio and not even the few other tribes who are not associated
with Edwin Clark. None of them got anything. The Igbo are mercenaries;
they are there for sale. If the devil were to come today to say, I am
the devil about whom the Bible and the Quran have spoken, I am prepared
to give money, the Igbo will take the money and vote for him. Quote me!
You once described President Jonathan as a bad president. Is it because he’s not a Northerner?
I
knew Jonathan before most of you. I employed him and Chief Horsefall is
alive. I employed him (Jonathan) as Assistant Director when I was a
Federal Commissioner in OMPADEC in Port Harcourt. To be fair to
President Jonathan, he has never denied me nor has he ever denied
circumstances surrounding my employing him. If I hated him, why should I
be the one who was instrumental in his getting a job as Assistant
Director in OMPADEC? Two, I said he was a bad President but I never said
he was a bad director of ecology because that was what I recommended
and insisted he should be employed as and he was employed. I did not say
he was good enough to be president but I said he was good enough to be
director of ecology because he comes from an educationally disadvantaged
area and that to me is important. I come from the North which is also
educationally disadvantaged and I believe people who are
underrepresented in such circumstances especially in the Federal
Government institutions should be employed. I believe every Nigerian has
a right to be given a sense of belonging and I believe one of the good
aspects of a government is how inclusive it is so that every Nigerian
should have a sense of belonging. I have never hated him and he himself
has never said I hated him.
Some people say that you hate Igbo people, is that the case?
I
have an Igbo daughter. I don’t see how I can hate my daughter. My
daughter speaks better Igbo than Hausa. Nobody can make me hate my
daughter. I also have a Yoruba daughter and I have an Ijaw daughter who
is doing her Master’s degree at the University of Ghana, Legon. I don’t
hate Igbo but I see no reason why I should spare them when they have
done more damage to the psyche, to the sovereignty and the existence of
Nigeria. Some of my closest friends for life are Igbo and one of them is
Uche. S.G Ikoku is someone I regard as my political mentor even more
than the late Aminu Kano-as far as I am concerned, and he was an
Igboman. I can tell you many more. I have never associated with other
Nigerians (who are either majority or minorities) who have accused me of
being a tribalist.
You
have said a lot about the 1966 coup, where some northern leaders were
killed. What about the killing of Igbo in the North, weren’t you
bothered about that too?
I
have always said that tit for tat killing is not a characteristic of
human beings. I have always said that an eye for an eye is not a way of
running a society. If you continue an eye for an eye, at the end of the
day, the world will be blind. I am not a believer in an eye for an eye
and I never believed that what the Igbo did which was purely on tribal
basis, politically motivated-it was also motivated by tribal hatred- was
right. Even if what they did was deliberate; I believe it was
deliberate. The frenzy which somehow took over the North was wrong
because I believe there was a way in which that issue would have been
handled differently in a much more humane and sensible manner. That is
number one. Number two, when you look at what happened during and after
the Igbo coup and the action of the Igbo, you don’t justify what
happened, but you have to agree that the Igbo themselves contributed to
the severity of what happened after their own tribal coup because I was
alive and well and I knew what the Igbo were saying afterwards. They
were showing photographs of the Sardauna and saying we killed your
father. I saw that, in addition and if you look at the long term
consequences of the Igbo coup and the civil war afterwards, you will
notice that first and foremost, the North treated the Igbo much more
humanely, much more honestly and as fellow citizens than the rest of the
country. My first job in government in 1968/69 was as an abandoned
properties officer in Sabon Gari, Kano. At that time and up till now,
Sabon Gari is one of the most developed parts of Kano metropolis. When I
finished my assignment and had to leave for the Soviet Union, I handed
over to another person. The sum total of what I am saying is that not a
single Igboman can claim that he came back to Kano and that his house or
property was alienated. Every Igboman who came back got his property
back and I challenge any Igboman to tell me that he came back to Kano or
any part of the North for that matter and he found that his land had
been taken from him or his house or his market stall or anything of that
nature. I can give you an example of a good friend of mine, Prof. ABC
Nwosu who was formerly Political Adviser to former President Olusegun
Obasanjo and later Minister of Health during the first term of
Obasanjo’s administration. He was the one telling me and he is alive- he
said but for the houses his father left in Kano which he recovered
completely when he came back, he and six of his brothers would never
have gone to school. You can crosscheck this with ABC Nwosu. If I hate
Igbo, he will not tell me that. He is a good friend of mine and Governor
Sule Lamido; fact must be fact.
You
said that Gen. Buhari is not fit to rule Nigeria again. Do you have any
other Northerner in mind who will offer good leadership to Nigeria?
Where and when did I say that? I never said that.
You said that the PDP cannot win the presidential election in 2015. What will you do if the party wins?
There
will be mayhem. The party cannot win a free and fair election. It is
not beyond it to connive with Attahiru Jega the way they did in 2011.
And if they do that, there will be mayhem.
Why do you think that Abuja should go with the North if Nigeria divides? Is Abuja not central to the country?
Abuja
has been and remains central to Nigeria but it is also central to the
North. In creating Abuja, not one square foot of the other regions was
incorporated into Abuja. In fact, 80 per cent of the whole land of Abuja
came from Niger State. The remaining 20 per cent came from the northern
states of Kaduna and a small fraction of Nasarawa when it was part of
Plateau. How can you then say if Nigerians decide to go their separate
ways, Abuja will remain central? I have said it before that if you draw a
straight line from Abuja southwards, you will have to go over 351,000
kilometres before you reach the end of the North. That is where the
border will be in case of a break-up. I invite you and the Igbo
irredentists and all the historical revisionists to see what happened
recently when the North and South Sudan split. The North retained
Khartoum. The stretch from Khartoum to the border is more than the
distance between Abuja and Okpila. Even Okpila where you have the cement
factory is originally Igbira land and if we want to reacquire it, we
will re-acquire it, it is Northern land. If Nigeria was to break up,
Abuja will not only remain a northern territory, it will also remain the
capital of a new Nigeria. It will be unfortunate, but there is no
alternative. If Nigeria were to break up tomorrow, the North with Abuja
as capital will acquire all the assets and liabilities of Abuja.
Many
think if President Goodluck Jonathan wins in next year’s poll, the
current Boko Haram crisis will not subside. Do you share this fear?
I
believe that this government is involved with Boko Haram directly and
indirectly with some of the terrorists in the Niger Delta. Anybody who
believes that there is a direct connection knows that this Boko Haram
insurgency is not coming out of the blues; it is being financed
indirectly or directly by the government. If as they tried to do during
the (Peter) Odili tenure in Rivers, to encourage people to unleash
violence and after the election, they abandon them, those people will
take up arms and unleash terror on them. The fact is this, government is
irredeemably corrupt and incompetent.
Do you think that negotiation is the key to curtailing the Boko Haram crisis in the North-East?
Who
are you going to negotiate with? Modu Ali Sheriff, Asari Dokubo, Edwin
Clark or the President himself who are all implicated? How do you talk
about stopping armed robbery with a confirmed armed robber?
You
seem not to see many good things about the administration of President
Goodluck Jonathan. What is your rating of his administration?
I
am sorry to say and I hope that I don’t sound too negative, I challenge
anyone who has anything positive to tell me. The first responsibility
of any government is the maintenance of law and order, is there law and
order in Nigeria today? No. One of the first promises made by this
President was that he was going to get rid of corruption, has he done
that? He promised he was going to get rid of poverty, the poverty level
has risen beyond belief. Tell me what he has done about infrastructure?
On a daily basis, I spend more on petrol than I pay on a monthly basis
for my entire NEPA bill. I live in a small bungalow, my bill has been in
excess of N2,000 for the past six months, I have not paid more than
that. And there is no water, no major state in Nigeria has reliable
water supply. And the Igbo who have been running the ministry of
aviation have taken it upon themselves to deny other airports
particularly Kano Airport of commercial venture. They want to destroy
the airport as a commercial venture, they have refused other airlines
who had expressed interest in coming to Kano. Starting with Stella Odua
and now Osita Chidoka, I challenge those who say Jonathan has performed
to tell me what he has done in terms of what he claims he would do.
