Senator Mahmud Kanti Bello represented Katsina North Senatorial Constituency of Katsina State from 1999-2007, before losing his seat to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in controversial circumstances. In this interview with RUTH CHOJI, he warns that President Goodluck Jonathan is courting national disintegration by his recent policies and shares some insight into his political perspectives on key issues
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Without question, there is real crisis in the country today. There are fears that this could threaten the future of Nigeria. What is your position?
I think patriotic Nigerians should come together and do something to save this country. Sometime ago, the United States predicted that this country will disintegrate in 2015; are we now witnessing an agenda for the disintegration of this country? I am afraid; people are talking about Boko Haram. I remember in my last contribution on the floor of the senate, I made it very clear that we have to understand who Boko Haram.? What do they want? You have to understand somebody before you tackle him; but nobody took me seriously. Now it has gotten bad that; we have bombs here and there as if we are in Bosnia or Iraq. We are not even sure…
Now who is to blame for these crises?
The government; the government ought to do something to stop the problems. When the late Yar’Adua consulted with the militants and granted them amnesty, many people thought he was wrong, but he took his time to? know their grievances before coming up with a solution. Now what do we have there? Peace.? Now the president is surrounded by a pack of sycophants who are advising contrary to the wishes of the people. It is not voting billions of naira for security that will solve the problems. People have been talking rubbish; like the governor of Niger State said recently, that there are people sponsoring Boko Haram. Now you have a lead.
That governor should be brought to name those people. We cannot be in a country where people will say anything they want because they are governors. They must come out with facts. Sen. Ali of Borno State has been charged to court for sponsoring Boko Haram and the person who accused him of sponsoring them has been sentenced.
But he wasn’t sent to prison. If my understanding is correct, he was jailed at the SSS; I don’t know when SSS became prison. So it gives the whole thing a coloration of insincerity. It looks as if it is somebody that has been put there to disgrace. When the first bomb blast happened in Abuja, the president tried to blame it on IBB.
Then somebody came from south area and said that the president said we should bomb the north and then blame it on northerners. Somehow that matter has died down. Till date we don’t know who the bombers are. We are in the middle of this ‘wahala’ and you said, you want to remove subsidy so that fuel will increase to over a hundred and fifty percent; this is crazy. At the same time you say you are banning importation of rice and wheat but you are not stopping the importation of clothes and other things you should have stopped.
I? thought he should have revived our textile industries? and others first before banning things you have and suddenly? increased? inflation to over a hundred percent. For somebody like me whose family is not here, I buy food at Shagalinku for N500 (five hundred naira). Now, it has gone up to N700 (seven hundred naira). I made a calculation that if you are living in Abuja and earning Jonathan’s N18.ooo monthly, you buy ‘tuwo’ like me once a day everyday, you? will spend N21,000 in a month without water to drink. What type of society are we creating? We have to be humane and the government is saying that they are sticking to their guns. I hope some people don’t have an agenda to dismember this country.
With these indices, do you still think Nigeria is a failed nation?
If it is not failed, then what is it? A nation that cannot feed its people, nor guarantee the security of its citizens, then what is it?
The north is being blamed for some of these ills because they have ruled this country longer than other zones; do you share these sentiments?
Obasanjo ruled this country for 8 years and? he had more resources than all the northern leaders that have ruled Nigeria. Now Jonathan is in power; he has lots of resources and instead of him to harness it and do the right thing, he is busy increasing the price of fuel. Why are you people not blaming Obasanjo? Are these northerners? Nigeria has gone beyond north and south; I don’t see myself as a northerner but a Nigerian.
As an elder statesman, what advice will you give the president on ways out of this lock jam?
The first advice I will give him is to get the right people to do the job; people who have focus and can help this country, not those who go to him and beg for jobs. I? also appeal to his coordinating minister. A lot of blame is being laid on this woman; some simple minded people like us are beginning to think that, she is there to do the bidding of the IMF. If that is true, he should call her to order. Nigerians don’t want this fuel increase and the president should should have been bold enough to revert to the status quo.
If he wants to increase fuel, he should have done it gradually like the old fox Obasanjo. Obasanjo increased fuel to seventy naira before he left; it was Late Yar’Adua who t brought it down to sixty-five, but this guy came and gave us medicine of death. Even the National Assembly was wrong; they shouldn’t have accepted the budget when they noticed that there was nothing meant for subsidy in it. Now, he is telling us that they have bought buses; is he a local government chairman? Government must negotiate because they were voted into power.
There is an argument that the president has the power to remove the price…
No, no, there is PPPRA, which was enacted by laws of the National Assembly, to? determine the price of the commodity. It is not enough for the National Assembly to say, ‘the president is on his own; they represent the people and should be more vocal on this issue. In any case, why the element of surprise? He assured Nigerians that he was still consulting and that the increase will be in April. Even Sani Abacha who was? a dictator wouldn’t have done something like this.
What is the next line of action for you now?
For me, I have seen that people like Amina in the Nigerian judiciary, Jega and his group who are not truthful should do the right thing. For me, Sen. Mahmud Kanti Bello will not go to court to say,’ I want my right.’ I know I have been cheated, Katsina people have been cheated and this was done by Jega and Amina Augie, the woman who gave that false statement. The people of Nigeria and the judicial council should do something about it. When I was in the senate, I go there and take my stand on the side of the ordinary people of this country; this has been my principle since I have been in the senate from 1999 till date. Since I have no personal interest, I am not going to do anything about this, Allah is there and the people of Nigeria are there to judge what is happening.
But some people attributed the loss of your seat to the faceoff between you and your state governor; how true is this and how is your relationship with Gov. Sheme now?
I have won elections various times under different circumstances. I am grateful to my constituency; I believe the people are still with me. I lost this election because of certain factors. During the last elections, my opponents spread? rumours that I died in a car accident and people were there crying; some tore their voters papers…
But were you involved in any accident?
No, it was a lie; they did it to have an advantage because they felt that if I am alive, they cannot win. Security agents are fully aware of this and nothing happened. Then there was the religious sentiments; some people feel I was with Jonathan, even though some felt I should be taken purely on my merit. I am a politician and I should be able to accept defeat once in a while.
You were regarded as a trouble shooter in the senate, could this be one of the reasons you were not returned by your zone?
Well, there is that speculation that the government and some people don’t want me there…
Or was it because you supported IBB during the presidential primaries elections?
I have no regret supporting IBB, I believed and still believed that, IBB would have been a better president than Jonathan. I explained to the people what Jonathan is likely to do; haven’t I been proven right? I have nothing against Goodluck Jonathan as a person, but I believe he doesn’t have the capacity to run this country; I love Nigeria and will do my best for this nation. I still believe that IBB would have been the best; he would have moved this nation and we would not have been where we are today. Now, today we don’t even know the future of Nigeria.