Alhaji Abubakar Tsav is former Commissioner of Police in Lagos State. In this encounter with SOLOMON AYADO, the fiery social crusader condemns the spate of bombing in the country and evaluates the 100 days in office of President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Jonathan would Clock 100 days in office this week. What is your assessment of his administration?
I am one person that believes the president got almost every step or action in his last 100 days wrong, ranging from domestic to foreign policies. Let me start with security because it is the most important thing in a nation. Security comes first and all other things, economic stability, social stability and the rest of them follow. When we have lapses in security, you hardly find things going right. As far as I am concerned, there have been a lot of lapses in the security of our nation.
For instance, in the first bomb blast, he (Jonathan) didn’t do something concrete about it. The president told us that he knew who were involved and he was going to get them but he did not get them. Then we have another one, I think the one in the barracks, nobody had been arrested. Then we also had another at Police Headquarters, none was arrested. Now we have this United Nations building bomb which the President said in the newspapers that he knew the people who were behind it and would soon be arrested. We don’t want this type of promise you don’t have to tell the Nation that you know people who are behind these without meaningfully doing anything.
Arrest them and tell us these are the people. You don’t have to seek permission from us before arresting them.
So, as far as I am concerned that is not good for him. Jonathan is behaving the same way like the former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and some amateur security chiefs who are fond of investigating and prosecuting people on the pages of newspapers. This should not be the case. I don’t know why a whole president is always quick to making declarative statements that hardly stand the test of time. What is the work of the National Security Adviser, service chiefs and the retinue of aides of the president?
Nigerians have not seen their use. I think tax payers’ money is being wasted on them and this is not good for a government that claims to be out to cut recurrent expenditure.
In any case, they (security) are supposed to pre-empt what is going to happen through intelligence gathering. Proactive security measures yield more results than this fire brigade approach I see in Abuja in particular and all over the country.
I understand the SSS said they had information earlier before the latest bombing of the UN house. Why didn’t they stop it? And at the end, they brought photographs of two people and said these were the people behind it. From my mere assessment of those people, what makes SSS think that they are behind it and why do you think they are capable of doing it, I don’t know……..
Are you saying that President Jonathan has not performed creditably?
No…no…no he is far from it. Rather he has left the substance to pursue the shadow. In fact Jonathan is a total failure. In the area of security, he is a total failure because he has done nothing to protect lives and property which is supposed to be his cardinal responsibility as president. The man is even confused and that is why he is toying with single term proposal. I think those who say President Jonathan has no capacity to perform have been vindicated.
First of all, the man is talking about six year term for president and governors. That is not our priority. What Nigerians want is stable electricity, food, we want medicine, and good schools and we want enduring security in the nation and not six year term.
I totally agree with those that say the man appears not to know what he is doing. He is like somebody who is not in charge of the system. OK, few days ago he went to Ibadan for visit over the flood disaster and the man was smiling, he was laughing. A very serious president would not smile in the time of disaster, he would look sober, he would look sad, you see! But he was smiling.
Jonathan doesn’t care about the welfare of Nigerians.
So I don’t think the man is focused, the man is not serious. Whereas government is a serious business, Jonathan has reduced it to a child’s play. Our people would say money miss road, so leadership miss road in Jonathan and that is it.
So ……..
We do not need a madman to rule us this time, but if you are mad, you can’t have to be ruthless. But when you can’t assess findings, you are not on the track of efficiency or competence then there is a problem. This is exactly what is happening.
Let us look at the bombings, Boko Haram particularly. The bomb explosions in the country are propelled by Boko Haram sects. What could have been the cause of all these?
Well, there was a time when somebody from the Boko Haram sect made a press statement that the man who is giving information is not their man and they don’t know him. The man was almost claiming responsibilities to all these bombings and so fort. But the Boko Haram sect denied that they don’t know him.
And the irony of all this is that Boko Haram is operating like a faceless terrorist group. Nobody knows them because the first bomb that detonated at maiduguri, the police went and eliminated all their leaders. So we do not know the leadership. But I advocated that government should try and arrange a dialogue between government and these people because if this is done, a lot of people would surface.
And when they come, that is where you will have the opportunity to catch them, then find out from them why they are doing it and what can be done to resolve it and what exactly do they want. If government knows the people who are behind this Boko Haram, they should be taken for interrogation and if actually they are found guilty, the law should be allowed to take its course. But now people are saying no dialogue, then how would you know those operating this sect when we know that the police have killed their leaders.
I think what is bothering us in this country is that we are envious of one another. We are not united; we are not living with one voice. Every one says something because he or she wants advantage and that is why we are not been focused. One thing is that this type of attitude will not help us because no matter how much money you make, one day you will die and leave it. Therefore, we should unite by condemning these bombings, in finding solutions and to get the people who are involved and deal with them decisively. It is not healthy for our nation when the death toll is rising.
But am not sure whether the Boko Haram is truly behind the bombings or not because the sophistication with which they are detonating their bombs is beyond the intelligence and sophistication of a sect. They could not be the people planting the bomb, may be some other people are using their name to carry out this explosion.
But we have a lot of security agencies in this country.
They can infiltrate into the security, gather information, and spread them even in the Niger Delta. We need thorough investigations. We need bomb intelligence agency to be able track down the culprits wherever they may be.
We should be patriotic and show love for our country. But sometimes I wonder if Nigerians are true Christians or true Moslems. The proper life is the hereafter and not the vanity of this sinful world.
What is your take on the Justice Salami and Justice Katsina-Alu feud?
Right from the beginning, I was not all along I believed Salami absolutely, until there was a change. The change was brought about by justice Musdapha when he was invited as a witness both by the CJN and Salami. He (Salami) said when the Chief Justice of Nigeria was telling him to compromise the case in Sokoto State, Justice Mustapha was present. Justice Katsina- Alu also said when he and Salami met in the office, Musdapha was there. And Musdapha had agreed that he was there but he never heard Justice Katsina- Alu tell Justice Salami to do something negative to the case in Sokoto. Upon that evidence, they found that Justice Salami had lied and that was why he was found liable and asked to apologize. So if this learned men, the wisest sit decided something who am I? Based on this I find Justice Salami liable but unfortunately in this country, we are not anxious to speak the truth and we don’t bother about justice.
Somehow, Salami’s people from Ekiti started demonstrating that he must be reinstated. Why would they do a thing like that? The sectionalism is too much and one day, God will destroy this country as he did to Egypt.
What about the disagreement between two former Nigerian Leaders, Generals Babangida and Obasanjo, do you think this is healthy for the development of this country?
It is not healthy but General Obasanjo is a bad man so I am happy the way IBB replied him. General Babangida shouldn’t have replied him but if somebody abuses you openly what can you do? You have to descend. Obasanjo is not polite, he uses crude language. Remember a young Nigerian singer, Idris Abdulkarim once sangon , Nigeria ‘Jaga Jaga’, funny enough Obasanjo replied him that both his father and mother Jaga Jaga. Such a thing is not good. Obasanjo is known as an ingrate. When he was brought out of prison he had no money, people contributed money and gave him. He was rehabilitated and re-branded for good. There was a time General Danjuma said if Obasanjo do not win election he will go on self exile. In the end what payback did he get, Obasanjo fell out with him. Babangida also helped to bring Obasanjo out of jail and now what did Babangida get in return? Insults. That is devilish.
That reminds me, Jonathan is reported to be loyal to Obasanjo. Do you think it will distract him?
That is if he wishes. But I think it will not. As far as I am concerned, I believe Jonathan should hit the ground running because Nigerians are fast loosing patience. You know lack of patience can cause a lot of harm to a country.
What areas of national interests do you think President Jonathan should concentrate on?
Security, Agriculture, Power, Industries and of course our roads are very bad. The thing is we have competent man power and resources to establish good hospitals instead of people rushing to India and other countries for medical care. And in doing this, Jonathan should not be tribalistic. Like in the matters of security and administration, he must make sure he brings in competent people to do the work. In the military, hardly will you see an officer taking an orderly or ADC from his own people. And if you are the President and decide to take Chief Security Adviser from your close allies, then you may not be heading for the best.
But in the case of Jonathan, his Chief Security Officer, ADC and Minister of Petroleum are his kinsmen. Doesn’t this portray him as a tribalist?