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| Labaran Maku |
Former Minister of Information and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in Nasarawa State, Mr. Labaran Maku, in this interview with UMAR MUHAMMED, speaks on political and security issues in the country.
Some people have questioned your defection to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, accusing you of being over-ambitious.
Is that the case?
I am in APGA because I was frustrated out of the Peoples Democratic Party. I was frustrated and denied the party’s governorship ticket after serving it for eight years and leading it to successfully defeat Tanko Al-Makura in the local government elections in 2013. We defeated Al-Makura in 11 of the 13 local governments when I was leading the PDP in Nasarawa State. We crushed him in his own local government. We defeated him in Obi, Akwanga, Nassarawa Eggon, Lafia and Kokona local government areas, which he claimed to have won. In Lafia, his own local government area, I defeated him flatly. But the results were cancelled and another one was rewritten. Also because of the frustrations in the PDP, people left with me to APGA. Today, APGA is the strongest party in Nasarawa State. So I am in APGA at the national level to make sure the party is further developed. I believe that from what I saw in APGA in Nasarawa State, the party has a very strong vision. Its unique slogan ‘Be your brother’s keeper’ attracted a lot of people to the party in Nasarawa State. And the symbol of the cock tells people that there could be daybreak after the long night of Al-Makura’s rule, and suddenly, there was a cock crowing. So the people quickly moved to the party. They knew I was the one who could guarantee peace in Nasarawa State. So we won in Nasarawa State and we hope that by the time we claim the mandate at the tribunal, APGA will gradually expand to other places across the country.
What is your take on the imposition of candidates by parties in Nigeria?
From my interactions with the national leaders of APGA, we are taking it very seriously. We will do everything possible to ensure that at the next general elections, we would have prepared APGA through internal processes to reach a level where we will make sure that the popular candidates are the ones that are asked to contest. A party benefits nothing when it puts a candidate that is not popular forward for election. A simple opinion poll will tell political parties who is in a position to win elections in their constituencies or communities. My former party, for reasons that are still unclear to me, sabotaged itself in several states to ensure that Jonathan did not win the election at the national level. I thought it was a part of a sabotage to cripple PDP from within so that it will not win the presidential election. It appeared that the national leadership of the PDP was working for the APC, especially with what happened in the primaries and in several states. In the general election, it was very clear that getting the party to win the election was not the goal. That is a matter for another day. What is your take on Nigeria’s appeal for international support in the fight against Boko Haram?
Any help that the world gives towards the fight against terrorism is very important for Nigeria. We must remember terrorism is a global phenomenon and it has been spreading from the boundaries of one country to another. When we were in government, we had always sought the support of the world to help Nigeria fight terrorism. We didn’t get a lot of the support that is being promised now, but we are happy that it is coming. What is important is for Nigeria to overcome these senseless killings going on.
Even animals are not spared, although, they are neither Muslims nor Christians. I don’t know what religion will encourage anyone to place a bomb in a cattle market and kill cows like we saw in Gombe about two years ago and another one in Maiduguri recently. None! It’s so senseless and I honestly think that any support that Nigeria gets in its bid to end terrorism is very crucial. I pray that President Muhammadu Buhari will follow it up and ensure that the support actually comes. Sometimes a declaration is different from an action. I have always maintained that for Nigeria to overcome terrorism, state governments should take 90 per cent of the responsibility. The fight is easier when the state governors, traditional rulers, community leaders, community associations are on top of it. We cannot succeed without the support of traditional leaders, particularly in the north. I have seen that wherever there is extreme violence, the state government has collapsed. I can’t be governing Nasarawa State and killings will take place here; they will never take place. When I get my mandate and I’m sworn in, I can assure you that in two months, people will not witness any violence in the state again. So the abuses we used to heap on former President Goodluck Jonathan, you will now see that these things are not so. Jonathan is gone; terrorism remains because the link between the violence and local leaderships, particularly state governments, is there. If we fail to see it, it will continue to get complicated. Foreign people will come and bring arms and additional support, but without the cooperation of the people on the ground, nothing will happen.
The consequence is that the youths grow up thinking that it is the path to follow. There will be violence when people that are standing for elections are recruiting gangs and giving them drugs and weapons to use to destroy their opponents like we see in Nasarawa State. Look at the by-election for House of Representatives in Lafia where people came in with AK-47 rifles and soldiers killed almost 15 people, as I was told. Who gave the youths the AK-47 guns? For example, look at the two people who were killed in Kwandere and the one who was killed at the collation centre at the Ibrahim Abacha Youth Centre.
So the reality check is that our grandstanding for religious division, ethnic division, and building two northern societies is aiding the spread of violence generally, including terrorism. When you train children to hate, you make them have the feeling that the other people are not their brothers. Our responsibility in the north is to unite the north.
If you go to Nasarawa State, for example, which is an APC state, the governor there has so mismanaged the state that there is no peace. He was taking N100m every month. All together in the last four years, he spent an average of N4.8bn to N5bn, which was unaccounted for on security votes. Now he can’t pay salaries, he can’t pay local government workers. The state is in a state of paralysis. In addition to that, he took N30bn loan, even though, we warned him not to take it. Now the money is gone.
You said the support the current administration is receiving from advanced nations in addressing Boko Haram activities was not given to the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Are you saying there was an international sabotage?
That should not be what you should dwell on. Nigeria is a continuum. What I am saying is that the world must collaborate and support states to deal with terrorism. I believe that the west, the richest part of the world today, has a responsibility to help end violence in Africa and other regions that are lagging behind. For example, if you look at the support that has been given to Pakistan and Afghanistan, you will know we didn’t get that kind of support. I cannot say we were not supported at all, no. There was some technical support here and there, but I’m talking in terms of the level of support given, the supply of weapons in beefing up our capacity and in terms of intelligence sharing. The G7 has decided to give Nigeria a strong support and I’m saying that the new administration should take it up.
The Tribunal has commenced sitting on governorship election petitions. Are you hopeful of getting anything from it?
The tribunal is about facts. It’s about what happened. It is public knowledge that APGA won the election. So I believe that there is enough evidence for the tribunal to arrive at its judgement on the election. So we are already at the tribunal. I will not want to dwell too much on the work of the tribunal now.
Some people have alleged that politicians have started bribing members of the tribunal to get a favourable outcome. Is this true?
No, I don’t know about bribing the tribunal but I suppose that members of this tribunal are honourable people with integrity and honour. That must have informed their appointment to preside over the tribunal. I hope that is a rumour. We should let the judiciary be and not go and pollute the last option left for settling differences. I advise the state government not to do what they did during the election by trying to buy institutions. I pray that they will leave this tribunal alone to do what it ought to do with clear conscience. Some of the things that happened are very gruesome and damaging to public conscience. I abhor violence, which is why people supported me in the state. They want fast development; they want proper management of resources. They want hope restored for their children.
After the elections and swearing-in, the rate of killings and insurgency is becoming very rampant. What is your take on this?
I want to express my displeasure over what is happening in my dear Nasarawa State. Now, what is happening in Nasarawa State is high level insurgency. The same kind you see in Borno and Yobe states.
The initial communal crisis has since been replaced by insurgency, stretching across nine local government areas out of the 13. Those killing people today are hired mercenaries and insurgents. They are not from Nasarawa State. Everybody knows it. Even they themselves have been saying so. And we have been crying, whoever had hired them should have pity on the people of this state. There is no week that blood does not flow in Nasarawa State.
Between the election of April 11 and now, we have lost close to 100 people in Nasarawa State. One day, a Tiv community in the Keana/Kadorko area of Keana Local Government just saw insurgents open fire on them and killed about 70 people, women and children, on their farms in their little hamlets. As I am talking to you now, we are still waiting for the outcome of the investigation. Nothing has come out of it. We learnt that the governor visited there and left.
After that, the Migili people in Obi/Daddare area were slaughtered on their farms; beheaded and their bodies mutilated by insurgents. No arrest has been made so far. About three weeks ago, people were murdered in Nasarawa/Agwada axis, including a former councillor. Also, about four weeks ago, another young man was murdered along Bagaji area in Karu Local Government Area.
About two weeks ago, a former minority leader in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Mrs. Mary Enwongulu, was kidnapped in her place, close to Akwanga town, reportedly by gunmen numbering up to 20. She was taken to an unknown destination, and I was told the family was asked to pay a ransom before her release. That is the first case of official kidnapping in Nasarawa State. I also learnt there was another one that took place in Lafia.
With the situation in the state, I don’t want to wait till there is an explosion before people will speak out. Operating from the knowledge I have had as a politician, as a citizen and as someone who has been in charge of security for some few months, I want to advise the Federal Government to redeploy those troops immediately to places they were taken from. At least that will stop those areas from becoming more vulnerable to attacks while we concentrate on the North East.
In the last four years, Nasarawa State received nothing less than N150bn because for most of the period, oil price was up. Nasarawa State was given an average of N2bn monthly. That is about N96bn. Then Al-Makura went and took a loan of N30bn, which amounts to N126bn in addition to the loan.
Are you trying to alert the anti-graft agency to investigate the state government?
I am not a whistleblower. If people are paid to do their work, am I the one to tell them to do it? When I was doing my own work, was I called upon to do it? I have never called for the probe of any government. It is not my responsibility to do that. I am not calling for the probe of anybody. They should stop inflicting pains on people.
Shouldn’t the people of Nasarawa be the ones to complain if the state government has been treating them unfairly?
What can the citizens do? Citizens can only change a government when election is due. In 2011, people believed that the government of Aliyu Akwe Doma was slow and there were lots of sentiments against him. But one thing you can give to Doma is that throughout his four years in government, there was no violence. Violence started as soon as Al-Makura came in and it is becoming a cancer. You can see that clearly.
Source: Vanguard
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