At 70, Alhaji Musa Maigida Abdu, chairman of the Unity Forum has spearheaded so many peace talks in Nigeria. In this interview with MICHAEL OCHE, he talks about his life at 70 and the many crises that have bedeviled the country.
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You recently clocked 70 Years of age; could you give us the qualities that stand you out as a person?
I will not want to reply on behalf of all those at seventy rather, I will talk of myself. At seventy, we should give thanks to God to have arrived at that age. It is not easy to get there. Having said so, let me hasten to say that at seventy, one should have built up self respect without asking for it, one should be contended with life, and many other qualities of those at Seventy includes uprightness, abhorrence of quest for power , excessive wealth acquisitions, honesty and reliability in all facets of life.
What have you to say; on recent developments in Nigeria such as the traffic congestion which have seriously resurfaced in Abuja because we are getting to what we ran away from in Lagos.
To manage traffic congestion, we need careful planning. In the case of Abuja, the authorities must decentralize government activities to various Abuja council areas to control heavy flow of people to the city centre. For example, Ministry of Justice should move to where the law school is presently situated. Equally, Customs should move to Gwagwalada e.t.c .In addition, with the proposed Abuja rail line, traffic congestion could be controlled.
Nigeria seems to be witnessing so many crises, bombings and bomb scares. As a man who has seen it all, can you give an insight for the causes of these ugly developments and proffer solutions to them?
I will say that a major factor is joblessness. There are many idle people and with idle hands, satan works with them for evil things. Job opportunities must be created for the youths who are easily employed to do bad assignments by evil–minded people. If we educate our youths and we don’t have jobs for them after their training, we are only creating problems for ourselves.
But Boko Haram is seen as a religious group which wants to establish a doctrine on Nigerians. What should we do to curtail their activities which seem to be spreading fast into all parts of Nigeria?
Government has security agencies which I believe know what to do to protect lives and properties. But all the same, I plead with all Nigerians to give peace a chance. Our slogan is “live and let live”. Nigeria is a circular State and religion should not divide us.
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With the recent victory of PDP in Kogi state, it seems that Nigeria is drifting to a One party State. Is this good for democracy?
I don’t know what you mean when you talk of democracy. Democracy in a simple interpretation is government of the people by the people. If Nigeria wants one political party to govern them, you and I cannot do anything.
Do you believe in the assumption that the ruling party is using government machinery to entrench their authorities all over the place?
I will not say that PDP has the control of all states in Nigeria. The ACN is a potential political party that can surprise Nigerians come any time; mark you that even in a developed democracy like UK? Labour Party ruled for almost twelve years before they were defeated. Same can happen in Nigeria. It is a question of time. Mark you; it would be long before people will vote on policies of government and not on little stipends given to voters on election days. But here again, for democracy to survive poverty must be fought to a reasonable extent and controlled.
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Lack of internal democracy within political parties doesn’t seem to give hope for right people to come out and contest. Do you think that with this scenario, free and fair elections could be conducted?
It is INEC’s responsibility to conduct elections. If Nigerians insist on free and fair elections they will get it, since the conduct of elections after party primaries depend on INEC.
It is being rumoured that those who want to run for the presidential election in 2015 have started secret campaigns. Don’t you think that it is too early to start that now and also that such political activities will detract government from doing its job?
Let me be frank with you, anybody who wants to stand for presidential election in 2015 and he/she is still waiting for a ripe time does not know politics. If you want to govern Nigeria come 2015. You better start all the necessary arrangements and in fact Campaign now, because any other time before 2015 is late.
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While Nigerians are working hard to entrench democracy, recent happenings in the judiciary has made Nigerians to lose hope in it; it seems nobody is following the rule of law. Matters in the court or court rulings are ignored. Don’t you think that with this ugly development the hope of the common man is dashed?
The new CJN set up a Committee of legal expects to look into all legal matters that need correction. I am sure that with the. recommendations of these experts we will locate our bearings and do justice to all concerned; injustice has its punishment even in this world, while the next world awaits all of us.
At 70, you have served the nation to the best of your ability, but Nigeria is very much bedevilled with all sorts of problems such as lack of power, ASUU strike , indiscipline, bad social services e.t.c, is it not proper for government to still use your wealth of knowledge or that of other elder statesmen to help redeem or solve these problems?
Let me be emphatic, I want my quiet life and it will be dangerous for me and I think even for people of my age to go about seeking to be recognized and given government jobs to do. Take note that a successful government is that which identifies people to work for it and not for job seekers to be running after those in power in order to be relevant. My belief is that those who have something to offer could do so without making them look stupid, because to help in the development of one’s country is a spirit of nationalism.
The Arewa Consultative Forum met recently and proffered solution to Nigeria’s problem. What is the Unity Forum’s opinion on their communiqué?
The Unity Forum as you know is the elite wing of Northern Extraction. The Unity Forum is part of ACF. We share the views expressed by the Forum although while we accept the good work of late sarduana of Sokoto, we prefer to follow his work and talkless of him at public gatherings, but pursue those his good work and get them done.
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A civil war was fought to keep Nigeria one. You saw the war; would you wish for another war?
Make no mistake; no country has survived two civil wars. Let us therefore, not pray for another war. I wish to caution the young ones who were not born before the last civil war or who were young to understand how the war was fought or who because of their stupendous wealth today believe that a war will make things or their areas great or better, but they stand to lose everything they have amassed including their lives if they erroneously think that another civil war is a necessity.