Shuluwa also bares his mind on other pertinent national issues. Excerpts:
What is your comment concerning the over 200 girls that were abducted from Borno but up till now, there has no trace of them?
Two hundred girl-children taken away. Tell me the agony of their parents and up till now, the Federal Government has not been able to do anything to know where these children are. Had they been taken away outside this country? How were they abducted? Were they trekking or taken away in trucks in a state where emergency rule is in place? Yet, nobody knows where they are. Kai! And if they are taken outside this country, it shows that our borders are very porous and useless. We should be able to trace where they are.
Security operatives should do everything they can, to find where these children are whether dead or alive. You can imagine the agony of the parents of these children and in deed all Nigerians at this time. Anybody who is a father or mother will feel for the children. My sympathy goes to all the parents of the girls. It shows that nobody is safe in this country if it has gotten to the level that insurgents would come and cart away over 200 children without any trace. The only safe person in this country is the president because he has all the security guarding him while 200 children cannot boast of a few security men guarding them. If you want to go to Aso Rock Villa now, you have over 1000 soldiers guarding villa alone. Then you have 200 children in a school unguarded. You know that these people were burning the schools, yet you left the children just like that?
What is your take on Governor Nyako’s controversial letter in which he indicted the President of all that are happening in the North?
Let me say this, the people from the south-south are the ones financing Boko Haram because they want crisis in this country especially in the northern part of this country. They would say Nigeria is ungovernable and that they can no longer stay with the northerner, therefore, they want to secede. They are the ones creating the insecurity in the north. In no history of this country have we ever had this kind of crisis. We are having crisis in the north because of the southern agenda particularly the people from the south-south. So, the insecurity which you have seen today especially the Boko Haram insurgency is the advantage which the south-south has taken.
When Nigeria joined the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) during Babangida’s administration, did you see any problem? If Boko Haram is saying they don’t want western education, let them be. If they don’t want western education and you need western education to get a job in Abuja or elsewhere, then, they can’t get that job. In any case, you must have western education before you can become a governor of Borno. Why is it that every time somebody comes into the position of Chief of Army Staff, he shouts about how he would deal with Boko Haram yet after that, Boko Haram would strike. Why! Why? Why. Where are they getting their weapons? I tell you, these weapons are coming from the south-south.
The war against Boko Haram insurgency seems to be becoming more difficult to win than that of Biafra?
That is true. I agree with you. It is so because the soldiers have compromised their position. They are no longer as active as they were in the past. Tell me after the world war and the Biafran war, have they fought any other war? They have never gone to any other war therefore, their equipment are obsolete. Look at the Nigeria Air Force Command here in Makurdi, do you think they have any new jet? When you see South Korea and Japan parade their military might, you would see that they are ready to face any war. Nigerian Army cannot face Boko Haram. Shame on them.
With what you have just said about the Nigerian soldiers, do you think the military can even summon the courage to overthrow government?
I wouldn’t say that because I am a democrat. The worst civilian regime is better than the military regime.
But with the kind of insecurity quagmire that we have found ourselves in this country, don’t you think we need military solution to our problem?
What military solution do you want? We sent police, we sent soldiers, we sent Navy, we sent Air Force, which other military solution do you want again? They have compromised. That is why they cannot crush the insurgencies. Let them do the work they are supposed to do. Take for example in Benue State, what is the Military that have been drafted here doing. They are doing nothing. Why did they come here? Yet, somebody sits in Abuja and maybe they voted so much money to be used for them and the ogas just sit on top of the money. Corruption in high places is killing us in this country.
Nigerians have continued to say that the issue of youth unemployment in this country is a time bomb waiting to explode. Do you share that view too?
Thai is what I have always been saying. For over 10 years now, there is a ban on employment in this country. And when there is an opening occasioned by the retirement of some persons or some persons have left service by whatever means, instead of advertising those positions, people who are there would go and bring their brothers and relations to fill them quietly. Nepotism of the highest order! We are not expanding in employment sector. Why? Because the agriculture that is supposed to support the industry is completely dead. Now, you are producing graduates from tertiary institutions all over the country but you are not producing where those graduates will work. What do you expect? There are graduates of over 10 years roaming the streets without jobs in Nigeria today. More worrisome is the sad reality that our government is not even providing these graduates the enabling tools and environment to be self employed. I have four graduates of over 10 years here in my house with no job. Tell me, how many tertiary institutions do we have today? In fact, the federal government has increased the number of universities and when these students graduate, what do they do? Nothing. The industries that are supposed to employ them don’t exist. Why? No power (electricity). The enabling environment that can make them self employed is not there. In Makurdi for example, there is no single industry here. The only employment agency here is the state government which is already saturated.
But with the recent move by the Federal Government to establish a crop processing zone around Gboko Road, don’t you think that would also help in creating job opportunities for people?
Don’t establish crop processing zones, do it. We are not talking about intentions, we are asking about actions. How many years have you heard this before? Even if he does it, how many people can they employ? Did you see what happened during the NIS recruitment exercise recently? You saw hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who went to apply to fill less than five thousand spaces. That is to show you that youth unemployment is a time bomb waiting to happen.
The day the whole youths of this country rise to say enough is enough, then we will know. That war will be fiercer than the Boko Haram insurgency.Agriculture alone is not the solution. There must be industries. Look at the Steel industry in Ajaokuta which was started by Shagari. Up till today, it is nowhere. You can’t develop industry without steel. If Nigeria wants to develop, it must first develop the Steel industry. Every industry you want to set up today depends on steel. How can you continue to import steel when you have enough steel in this country? How many billions do we need to make the Steel company in Ajaokuta operational? How many billions are daily being stolen in this country?
Then, do you subscribe to the idea of a parliamentary system of government rather than the presidential system we are presently operating?
I don’t. But I would advocate for a single structure at the National Assembly instead of the double structure we have now. I would also advocate that membership of the National Assembly must be on part-time basis. United States of America has been operating presidential system for a very long time. We copied it from them yet we never hear them go home with the kind of allowances that our people go home with.
They call one constituency project. What is constituency project? Constituency project is that if you are a senator and you say I want hospital to be built here and they agree and put it in the budget, they give the money to you to go and build the hospital. It shouldn’t be like that. The ministry of health should go and build the hospital but not you as a senator. Here, when you succeed in putting a project in the budget, you collect the money, and then you don’t execute that project.
That is why people fight to go back as a senator or House of Representatives member. House of Representatives members get over N40million each quarterly while their counterparts at the Senate get over N90 million quarterly for constituency projects that will never be done. So, for me, I would suggest that we should have just one structure at the National Assembly level. If we want senate, let’s have senate and if we want House of Representatives let’s have it. Otherwise, it is duplication.
Back to Benue State. As a member of the Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Committee, how far have you gone with the work?
First of all, when that committee was set up, we drew up the terms of reference ourselves. We itemised what we wanted to do to bring peace. And that committee is interested in peace. We are not interested in war. We are not a fighting committee. We would do everything possible to ensure that peace returns to Benue. We have been having series of meetings. We have interacted with the affected local governments. We have interacted with elders and stakeholders of Guma, Gwer-West and Makurdi. They came and gave us what they feel are the problems and also suggested solutions to the problems. We constituted another committee which was under the auspices of DIG Mike Zuokumor who came with Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore. Incidentally, there are two Miyetti Allah; one is for the cultural organisation and the other is for the cattle breeders. And the cattle breeders association was dissolved when this crisis was on. But we sat with the other organisation which the DIG came with, and we formed an 80 man joint peace committee between Fulanis and Tivs in Nasarawa and Benue. The committee requires some logistics for them to go and dislodge the Fulanis. Whether they have gotten those logistics or not, I cannot tell. But it is expected that the government of Nasarawa and Benue States should provide those logistics for them to work with the possible backing of the federal government and the security agencies. I believe they have not yet been given those logistics because the committee is yet to go and dislodge these people (Fulanis) of their weapons neither have they also been able to make the Fulanis vacate Tiv residences that they are occupying.
However, on our part, we have visited a number of Fulani leaders. We
have seen the Sultan of Sokoto, we have seen the Emir of Daura. We have
visited Emir of Muni, we have seen the Emir of Kastina, Lamido of
Adamawa, Governors of Kastina and Nasarawa. We have also visited the Aku
Uka in Taraba, we have visited Buhari also. We are yet to see
Babangida, Atiku, Abdulsalami and Danjuma. All we are saying is that
Benue is for peace. There is little calm now as you can see. The tension
has gone down to the extent that some people have even returned to
their homes but those who are far inside are afraid to go back because
the Fulanis are still there and occupying their homes. We have held
meetings with both the Tivs and Fulanis. We have met with the fighters
in the bush. In a nut shell, I would say we have achieved a lot within
the one month that we started work. We were given two months to work but
it would depend on the government whether to extend our timeframe or
not at the end of the two months.
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