Former Kaduna State military administrator, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali, in this interview with Correspondent MIDAT JOSEPH believes that for the north to retrieve power in 2015, it must seek another platform other than the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He also shares compelling insights
The North has found itself in a difficult situation today. Insecurity and disunity are glaring threats to the continued existence of the region. Why is this so?
Philosophically, I think why we found ourselves in this situation because we have deviated from the righteous way. If we had kept our faith with God and do the right thing, I think most of the things we found ourselves in would not be there. And we will not get to the right part unless we go back to our God. Today, the North has found itself in a very confusing situation.
One is that we found ourselves in the midst of insecurity, which is not part of us. We are also the most improvised people in the entire nation. Secondly, I must say, a typical northerner today is very lazy; lazy in the sense that, following the discovery of oil, we abdicated our own means of survival, which is farming.
We rushed to better ourselves from the oil; most of us became contractors, most of us became sales men and we completely left where we were prospering.
Today, we found ourselves in the situation whereby those who claim to own the oil are now saying we are parasites, we should not benefit from it. So, taking this into totally, you will realize that we have completely left our own God-given oil and resorted to looking out for the cheapest and easiest way of making money, and it does not happen like that. That is why we found ourselves where we are today, that’s one reason.
Secondly, if you take the totality of leadership we have had in the country coming from the North, at the national level, at the state level, we have gathered a lot of money, a lot of influence to be able to put the north in a proper position that today we will not be talking about poverty at the magnitude where it is today.
Our leaders at the national and state levels have not really taken investment seriously. What we have realized is that everybody that gets to the position of leadership begins to fend for himself, his families and his cronies. That has become the problem of the north.
Take it from 1999 to date, if the amount of money that has gone to states and local governments, was judiciously deployed for the development of human kind, today we will not be at the stage we are. Local and state governments have made so much money, but when you go the states, hardly can you find a state in the north that can boast of providing potable drinking water to feed its population.
So, we must blame ourselves for the situation we find ourselves today, we cannot blame anybody. If we had pumped in money to a judicious purpose; we will have not found ourselves in this situation. I am sure, because government has failed to deliver the needed dividends of democracy. That is why we found ourselves in this situation of Boko Haram.
Today, the north is under siege. It is under siege in the sense that, you cannot move freely because of the insecurity. Its takes you much time to get to Abuja or Kano. Why should we find ourselves under this situation, why should we be subjected to this? Unfortunately, our governors did not see anything wrong with this.
The last time they held a meeting here, what is in their mind was how they can get more money into the coffin, so that they can steal as much as they want. They are not bothered about the happenings. Our own economy is completely paralyzed. The situation we find ourselves cannot be addressed outside government.
Government must be willing to be part of solving these problems. It is my belief that it must be part of solving the problems. Some people in government are happy that the north is under what it found itself. The question is who is behind the Boko Haram and why should we allow ourselves to be used?
I sincerely believe that we in the north must wake up and look at ourselves holistically and identify what we should do about the problem. We must address the insecurity and unity of the north among ourselves, let us have peace and unity in the region. There is hardly anybody can do anything about education and agriculture unless government is willing to do.
What do you mean by “North is confused”?
Simple, we are confused in sense that, look at the committees that are springing up under the leaderships of former leaders. Why should there be committees. That shows that we are not even together. I think what we need to do is rally round the ACF and give it the strength and use it as a unifying factor.
ACF is the only body that calls northerners together irrespective of party affiliation to dialogue. All we are thinking in ACF is what the position of the north is. Some of these committees and groups that came up are basically members of PDP. So, is it a PDP organization? Would other people who do not belong to PDP feel comfortable?
The best thing is that we should rally around ACF and make it better; all former heads of state are patrons of the ACF. If they can contribute to the body, it would better off. ACF has developed several blue prints on the development of the north.
Northern Youths have accused former presidents from the northern extraction for the north backwardness, do you agree with this accusation?
I don’t know their reasons for accusing former heads of state, but, the youths believe that their future would have been better if these people had risen to the occasion of outing the north in their agenda. Yes, we share the same view that some of the leadership was not committed to the development of the north.
However, some of them tried, but some of them really did not take the north as focal point. Former presidents of the northern extraction were not fair to the people, because if they were fair and equitable in distributing the national cake, we would have not been where we are today.
So, I think what the youth should be thinking about is that if all these years we found ourselves leading the country, if we had taken the north seriously as our fore fathers did, we will not be where we are today. If we had done the right thing in those years we have been in power we will be better than what we are today.
What is the way out?
I believe we must go back to our God; we must stand by our two books as Christian and Muslims and do what is just right. If we do that God in his infinite mercy would now show us the way to get out of these problems. To me, the most important thing is how do we come out this state of insecurity? Two, how do we now re-unite our people, so that we can have that strength to be able to face the whole force.
Without these three factors taking into consideration, hardly can we achieve anything. We will ever remain divided and as long as we are divided we cannot make any progress. So, in a nutshell, we must respect out two religions and respect their teachings.
We must also put on our thinking caps in other to get our unity back as a people, and this can only be done with the cooperation of the general people.
Talking about the Politics of 2015, do you think the north has the ability to clinch the presidency?
Well, I don’t know, but looking at what is in playing out now, the north must get it act together and really confront this problems of division among us. Today, any right thinking person will know that the north has lost out. I will tell you why. The north has no political party today that it has enough influence. PDP does not belong to the north any longer.
PDP is not influenced by the north any more. In PDP today, the Obasanjos, the people of the south-south – because they holding the power – decide what happens. Northerners do not have any power in PDP today. If you don’t have a party you cannot get into power.
If we really want to make any impact in 2015, northerners must rally round together, identify a party that they have influence in it and use it as a platform to contest for 2015. Otherwise, no candidate from the north can contest the 2015 election; we are just fooling ourselves if we believe we can wrestle power from the South through PDP.
With the happenings in the country, will you prefer military than the Civilian?
In the military Era, we had things cut out for us. You don’t have a choice; under the military is a military system. The President is you commander-in-chief and once he says this is the way it should be you salute and say yes sir. But, under the democratic situation, you have all the will to do what you want to do.
But unfortunately, we are completely misinterpreting what democracy means. Today, governors are even acting more military than the soldiers themselves. When I was an administrator, I did not override the decision of the council of state. But these days the governors are taking over everything.
It was never so in our time. In real terms, there is no difference between the military and civilian administration. The governors decide from top to bottom. No state legislature has ever differed with the governors. The governors are powerful because there is no opposition.
Do you believe in the call for National Conference?
The call for National conference is a good idea, I think as a northerner and looking at the happenings in the country, I think we need to sit down and talk about the national question, where is the position of everybody? We must sit-down and talk with our friends from the South. Frank talk, do we want to leave together? If we want to live together, under which conditions? If we cannot live, I think is time for everybody to go.
But we cannot continue to leave under this present situation of unequal development. You find out that every day it is the northerner that is the problem; it is the northerner that is dragging the nation behind. Everything that has gone bad in the country, it is the northerner. I strongly believe that we must find a solution where we sit-down and address the issue of national question. We must decide under what conditions we should co-exist.
On fear of division?
What is the fear? If we cannot live together, why can’t we go our own ways? Why is divorce approved? I don’t think our relationship is as closed as husband and wife, but God has said that if the two you cannot longer co-existed under the same roof, you should go your own ways.
So, if we cannot longer co-exist in the name of Nigeria, what stops the north from breaking away? The fear is that we are poor, that we cannot survive. Other countries like Niger who don’t have oil are surviving. Are we afraid that we cannot develop ourselves? Are we afraid that we cannot go back to the things we use to do? Forget about oil. We are afraid because most of us are used to easy money.
Our governors have lost their initiative to develop their own states; they are all thinking of that money that comes from Abuja. Nobody is talking of revenue generation in his own state because there is money coming from Abuja. We cannot hold this people accountable, and because the ordinary man does not believe that that coming from Abuja belongs to him.
We have everything in the north. The south only has oil and nothing more. Some of us are afraid because they have more investment in the south.
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