While receiving a group under the aegis of Highly Respected Igbo Greats, led by First Republic parliamentarian and Minister of Aviation, Mbazulike Amaechi, at State House, Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari, made it known to the group that an unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra currently standing trial, runs contrary to the doctrine of separation of powers between the executive and judiciary. In this interview with MAYOWA SAMUEL, spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, cautioned the Igbo leaders to respect the rule of law in their attempt to actualise their objectives. He also spoke on other issues of national importance. Excerpts:
The Sokoto State Governor, who is also the Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party Governors Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, on Tuesday, said that Nigeria must embrace restructuring, most particularly “relative autonomy and decentralisation of power”. What’s the position of the Northern Elders Forum regarding this?
The Northern Elders Forum has always supported restructuring. Even though different people give it different interpretations, we are very clear about what it is about. It involves looking at the manner in which the Nigerian federal system operates, how we generate resources and how we allocate them, how we address issues about equity, justice and fairness and how we should operate a federal system that works for the people. We are very clear on that, we are in support of restructuring, if it means that it should be prioritised, maybe not by this government, but by the incoming administration.
What do you say about some few Northern governors who are not in support of restructuring?
I don’t know any governor in the North who is against restructuring.
While also insisting that the country must embrace technology to address insecurity, unemployment and other issues bedeviling the country, Governor Tambuwal condemned the Twitter ban, describing it “as a retrogressive action that should never have happened.” Does the NEF also share this thought?
He must have his reasons and any steps taken to restrict the citizens’ access to means of communication represents a limitation of their rights and all Nigerians have been hoping that whatever it was that caused the federal government to restrict the access to Twitter in Nigeria would have been looked at and a decision should have been taken long before now. But we hope that any type of restriction on the rights of Nigerians to express themselves, to relate with each other and the right to communicate, to air opinions and views is withdrawn.
Highly respected Igbo leaders recently visited President Muhammadu Buhari to appeal for the release of Nnamdi Kanu. The president described their demand as “extremely difficult” but promised to consider it. Does the NEF expect the president to accede to this request?
“If Nnamdi Kanu is facing a trial, they should allow the trial to go on and establish whether he’s guilty or not guilty of the charges against him. But if the president acts on that advice, he’ll be setting a very bad precedent, he will be subverting the principle of separation of powers
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If the president were to listen to our advice, we’ll tell him that the sanctity of the judicial process, the rule of law and the provisions of the constitution should not be breached by him in the case of Nnamdi Kanu and in the case of anybody else. The judicial process must not be subverted on the altar of political exigencies. If Nnamdi Kanu is facing a trial, they should allow the trial to go on and establish whether he’s guilty or not guilty of the charges against him. But if the president acts on that advice, he’ll be setting a very bad precedent, he will subvert the principle of separation of powers according to the democratic process and he’ll open room for a lot more insecurity rather than solving them. So, I will advise that the president should stay focused and not accede to the suggestion or the request of those who are saying that Kanu should be released.
What are your thoughts on the South East leaders and those of the North Central insisting that it is their turn to rule Nigeria?
It is a legitimate demand, every group can say it’s their turn, and there is nothing wrong in saying it is the turn of anybody. It’s not wrong for any group to demand to say that one of their own should be president but they should not force it on the rest of the country. If you believe that one of you should be president, you should also be reminded that we are operating a democratic system. You should go out within the democratic process, canvass and convince other Nigerians that one of your own should be president and they should show why they believe that he’s the best for Nigeria, that’s the way to go, but you can’t elevate the needs of one group over the others.
Recently, some groups from different regions in the country agitated for the creation of new states. Is this needed or you see it as a waste of time?
These are the discussions that should be handled in the context or discussions about restructuring the country. We need to look at the current federal structure, not just the particular demand of small communities. Are more states the best way to go forward? Are less states the best way to go forward? What is the optimum efficiency that we are looking for? How can the federal system work and meet the yearnings of Nigerians? So this argument about more states or less states should be put in the context of the need for restructuring and I told you, we support restructuring. You cannot isolate it and say this one is good and this one is not good. We have to as a nation, sit down and discuss restructuring, including state creation and no state creation, addressing the federating units of the country, looking at them, what they do, what they don’t do and you’ll have an improved country.
What input is your group making to ensure that the security challenges in the Northern region are nipped in the bud?
We remind the government that its responsibility to secure Nigerians is failing and it should do better. We advise our communities on how they should improve their levels of vigilance and their cooperation with security agencies. We draw attention to some of the root causes of this insecurity. We tell Nigerians to select leaders that have higher qualities of leadership. In future, we should learn our lessons from the current quality of leaders that we have who have allowed our country to be overrun by insecurity. It’s not only the North, every part of Nigeria is insecure, so we need higher quality leadership and higher levels of commitment. We need to literally replace the security aspects of this country. If we are going to meet the challenges in future, we cannot do that with the current assets, they are actually liabilities to a very large extent. We cannot fight insecurity the way we are going.
