Renowned politician, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, is the Deputy National Chairman (North-West) of the rejuvenated Social Democratic Party. He is also an eminent leader of thought in the North. In this interview with DOMINIC OKODUGHA, Junaid speaks on several burning national issues, including a refusal by northern leaders to endorse the purported re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari. Excerpts:
Some northern elders cum groups, recently, passed a vote of no confidence on President Muhammadu Buhari. What is your view on this?
I have never been a member of the Northern Elders Forum but yes, the Northern Elders Forum, the Arewa Consultative Forum, and about 16 northern groups passed a vote of no confidence on Buhari. Most of the people in the media do not know our history and that is why they do not understand the import and significance of such a move. Throughout the history of Northern Nigeria, from 1914 till date, there had never been a time that northern organisations gathered anywhere and passed a vote of no confidence on a leader of the northern extraction, who is an incumbent, in the nation. It has never happened; and that is what makes it very significant. The 16 other groups may not be very important, but the Arewa Consultative Forum, which consists of all the ethnic and religious nationalities, is a frontline and prominent group in the north today, and it has been there for over three decades. The Northern Elders Forum was formed by Maitama Sule, and given the eminent personalities it has attracted to its fold today from the North and South and some African countries, you will have to admit the weight of their resolution, when they make this very fundamental shift, which is unknown in the history of Northern Nigeria.
None of the northern groups I lead was part of that resolution and I wasn’t also part of the resolution, but the very fact that it happened is a fundamental shift in the politics of Northern Nigeria, and anyone who imagines he can simply ignore it will be making a fool of himself.
Throughout the history of Northern Nigeria, from 1914 till date, there had never been a time that northern organisations gathered anywhere and passed a vote of no confidence on a leader of the northern extraction, who is an incumbent, in the nation. It has never happened
There are allegations that the President favours the North in terms of appointments and development projects…
That is arrant nonsense and completely irresponsible. Those saying that should mention the development projects and where they are sited in the North. Since Buhari became President, he has not sited a single development project in the North and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on this. But of course, the mischief makers will never be satisfied. The largest number of projects by this administration was sited in the South, especially, South West; followed by South South and then South East. I challenge anybody on this.
How is your party, SDP, faring?
The party is doing well. We did not come to the party because we wanted to win election this month or next year. We are here because we believe Nigeria deserves a new party that is based on ideology, not on lies, not on ethnic sentiments or religious noise-making. We believe Nigeria can be run and governed by the simple application of ideological principles and this is important to us because this is what rules the world today.
We are not prepared to allow politicians to make nonsense of our nationhood; I mean politicians with no ideological basis and history. We believe this can be achieved.
The SDP has been touted as the party to wrest power from the ruling APC, what is your view on this?
I am very modest in making political claims. I know I am one of the deputy national chairmen of the SDP and I am in charge of the largest group of states, seven North-West states, and these are the engine rooms of Nigerian politics. But I am not going to tell you that, because I am a member of the SDP, the party is going to be the next ruling party in the coming elections in 2019. I will love that if it happens because I believe the SDP is better than the APC and the PDP, but I am not going to make that claim. If in the process of politicking, the SDP proves that it is capable of ruling Nigeria, then so be it. But I am not a boastful person who will go about to say we are this, we are that. We saw what happened to the Peoples Democratic Party, when they bragged that they would be ruling the nation for 60 years. At 16, they collapsed; and look at the APC today; they are already dead on arrival.
I started condemning this government from the middle of 2015 and we are now in 2018. So I must have been at it for over two and a half years. Now, you are saying what Obasanjo said is a point of reference; some of us had been on the field, condemning how this government was being run, long before Obasanjo remembered to pass a comment.
There are reports that your party is in talks with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement. How are the talks going?
If there is any such thing as the Obasanjo Coalition, it is not in any way at the moment bound to the SDP. We welcome people from the Obasanjo Coalition, as you call it, or from anywhere else, but we are not bound to align with Obasanjo’s group. If he wants to be part of us or wants to bring his followers to join us, it is lawful and he is welcome. Being a president of this country twice, Obasanjo is a heavyweight and not paperweight, but anyone who thinks they can follow Obasanjo through the backdoor to SDP, because they are angling for power, will be making a very big mistake. This is because, the institutionalised structure of the party will not allow anyone to hijack power to be used for things other than what we say we are, and which is, to acquire power to move the country forward.
There has been a sustained friction between the North and the South, culminating in mutual suspicion and verbal attacks. What do you think is the permanent solution
to this?
In every human society, there will be instances of suspicion and disagreements but I believe the solution to this is justice. If this government has been doing justice to all Nigerians, there will be no problems; but they started by playing politics and trying to formulate government policies in favour of some people, because they had already made up their minds that they wanted a second term.
Now that what they did has not helped them and has not guaranteed Buhari or anybody else in their party the prospect of a second term, we are having all these kinds of problems in the country.
As far as I am concerned, Buhari has not done anything good for those who voted for him; and anybody who thinks otherwise should come up with facts. Maybe such a person knows the history of this country better than I do. But if they do not have the facts to convince me, they should be quiet. I have been in this game for over
40 years.
So what is your view on restructuring?
I have commented on this on a number of occasions and I did challenge those who want restructuring done to tell me what they want, and unless they tell me what they want, I am not going to waste my time unduly to comment on this issue again.
The present ruling party that said they would carry out restructuring, even at the expense of the nation, should tell us precisely what they want. I am not a person who believes in slogans in politics, I believe in concrete things. Do they want us to return to the parliamentary system of 1966? Why did we have to change from the parliamentary to the presidential system? The reasons that were advanced by the military or the political class, which supported it (change from parliamentary to presidential system) are still valid. If they feel the reasons are no longer valid, we should be told. Honestly, I would be happier working in a cabinet system, that is, parliamentary system.
Herdsmen’s killings and Boko Haram insurgency have become a major threat to national survival; do you think this government is doing enough in the fight against these problems?
The killings we have witnessed in this administration are about the heaviest. I have said it several times. The major security challenges in this country are: Boko Haram insurgency, militants in the Niger Delta region, and abduction-for-ransom, nationwide. The primary responsibility of government is the maintenance of law and order and protection of lives and properties. If a government fails in this regard, it is indeed unfortunate. The Buhari government may be succeeding elsewhere, but in terms of solving these security
challenges, it has failed. Among the failure in this administration is the failure to tackle corruption, which has now become a joke. Apart from the failure to tackle corruption, they have also failed in managing the national economy well. Even though they claimed to have inherited a bad economy, they have pushed the economy into further recession.
They failed in security, they failed in the economy, so they couldn’t have succeeded elsewhere, because no nation can succeed in the midst of security
crises.
What is your view on the recent attacks by Obasanjo on Buhari’s purported second term bid, to the extent of describing the President as a failure?
Most of you in the media have not been fair to other Nigerians who have commented, even more comprehensively, on the state of the nation before and after Obasanjo’s comments. I started condemning this government from the middle of 2015 and we are now in 2018. So I must have been at it for over two and a half years. Now, you are saying what Obasanjo said is a point of reference; some of us had been on the field, condemning how this government was being run, long before Obasanjo remembered to pass a comment. It is Obasanjo who is now being paid cheap compliment for referring to what we have been saying long ago, and at the same time refusing to give us compliments and kudos for our remarks.
I am not the one to comment on what Obasanjo said. He merely reinforced what I have been saying for over two and a half years now.
What do you have to say on the PDP’s recent apology to the nation, that they are sorry for their
past sins?
Saying sorry is not enough. Their apology confirms that they were a mistake in the history of this nation, and all of them, from (a former President) down to the least, are looters of our treasury, who are unfit to run and govern a country like ours that is in crisis. Nigeria is in a crisis situation and there is no doubt about that.
The Federal Government recently released a list of those it claimed were looters. What is your assessment of the list?
It is a very childish move. If they wanted to release a list of looters for whatever reasons, and even if the reasons are more political than national interest, they should have done it much more comprehensively. They should have mentioned names and the circumstances. Mentioning a few names and coming up the next day to add a few more names for the purpose of attracting national headline is not good enough. Corruption is a very serious matter in our society and you do not play politics
with it.
People have accused the government, that its fight against corruption is one-sided. What do
you think?
It is, and I am one of those who hold this position, because, all those who are related to Buhari and who are involved in some kind of shady and shameless corrupt practices are still intact. None of them has been arrested or prosecuted. So what are we saying? Are we saying the corruption, which concerns them, is different from the corruption that concerns others? Or, the corruption that destroyed other sectors of our national economy is not destroying the sectors they are in charge of or responsible for? Buhari, certainly, has not shown the will power to fight
corruption.
