OUTSPOKEN elder statesman, Tanko Yakassai has fired back at former chairman of pro-North group, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Aliko Mohammed who tagged him (Yakassai) a creation of former President Goodluck Jonathan. In this interview with DESMOND MGBOH in Kano, Yakassai has some words for President Buhari on the raging crisis in the Niger Delta region. Excerpts…
I want your response to the statement by the former chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) that you cannot speak for the North?
Let me start by saying that he is not the chairman of ACF. ACF as you know has two chairmen at any given time. There is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Chairman of the Working Committee. In this case, Aliko was the former Chairman of the Working Committee while General Jerry Useni was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. A new election has since taken place and at present, Kumasi is the Chairman of the Working Committee and Adamu Fika is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
What is your response to his remark that you’re not in a position to speak for the North?
What he said was correct. I have never claimed to speak for the North. I only speak for myself, and in my opinion, nobody can speak for the North. There are 19 states and Abuja in the North and not even the Governor of a state can speak for the state or for the North. He can only speak on matters specifically assigned to him by the constitution to speak on behalf of the state as governor. But he is not mandated to speak by the entire people of the state. This is democracy and every citizen has the right to express his opinion and it is up to the other citizens to agree or not agree with him. I have never claimed to speak for the North. And nobody has the right to speak for the North. Even ACF cannot speak for the North. It is of course a pan -Northern organization, but not every Northerner is a member of ACF. There are more Northerners outside ACF than there are inside ACF and each and everyone of them has his own views on the state of the country.
What about what he said about being a mere creation of Jonathan. How off the mark or close to the mark was he about you?
As a Nigerian, I have the right to support anybody based on my own conviction. I have said times and again that in my opinion, the South-South should be allowed to run two consecutive terms of eight years so that they would repeat what the South-West did when Obasanjo ran the two terms of his administration for eight years . My belief is that if that had taken place, it would have institutionalised the eight years rotation among the six geographical zones in the country. And I think that it is in the interest of peace and stability of Nigeria that this rotation should continue. I happen to be a member of the NPN and NPN was the first political party to introduce the principle of zoning in the country. We supported it and I still support it and during the 1994/95 Constitutional Conference, the conference adopted zoning and rotation in the interest of peace and stability of this country. There are people who think that a northerner has no right to support a candidate from the South or from that part of the country. I am not one of those. I happened to have fought for the independence in Nigeria and for Nigeria’s democracy. I didn’t do it for opportunistic reason. I did it for my country. Let me tell you. I went to prison way back in 1953 because of freedom for Nigeria and because of the unity of this country. Those who are speaking cannot claim to have fought for Nigeria in the same way that I did.
There is a general feeling that some of the bodies, like ACF and others that speak for the North are presently not united. What is your take on this?
No! Previously, there were three organizations that speak for the North, The Turaki Committee headed by former President Shehu Shagari, then the North Elders Forum headed by the Late Abduraham Okene and Northern Unity and Development Forum headed by Alhaji Suleiman Katagun. Then at one time, some respected people in the North including some northern traditional rulers felt that the three organizations should come together to speak with one voice. They agreed. The organizations agreed to dissolve themselves into ACF or what is known as Arewa Consultative Forum. Arewa Consultative Forum was itself borne out of an attempt to reincarnate the Northerner Consultative Forum which was an advisory body set up by the governor of Northern Nigeria, General Hassan Usman Katsina. But that one was a semi official advisory body to the governor, this one is an amalgamation of three different organizations. But even at the time when this amalgamation took place, there was another northern organization which was not part of that amalgamation. That was the Middle Belt Forum. By and large, those three organizations agreed to dissolve into one, they elected their leaders and they are running their affairs, but they cannot claim to be the sole spokespersons or group to speak for the North. No! They do not have such mandate.
What is your take on the Niger Delta Avengers and what is your suggestion on the resolution of the problem?
It is definitely a very unfortunate development because everybody knows that the fight against Boko Haram insurgency is making progress. Unfortunately, as we are trying to settle that aspect of the security problem of the country, now we have got three different security problems challenging the country. The three are the problems of Fulani herdsmen and farmers, which has aggravated of late. It has been there before now – previously, there were measures taken by government to handle the situation. The colonial administration set up routes that the Fulani people can traverse without any trouble. Side by side to that, there was what we called “Daji Governa” a kind of reserved grazing areas for the Fulani people to take herds to . This issue of Fulani herdsmen has been there long before even the British came to Nigeria but why it was not a problem at that time was because measures were taken to manage the situation by providing grazing areas and routes for them. But unfortunately, as states were created, the craze for farms and plots of land led some people to appropriate the routes and grazing areas for themselves and the result is that we have no specific places designated as routes for cattle rearers or grazing areas for cattle rearers. There are cases of their animals straying into people’s farm. But it has been in the North for a long time. It is unfortunate that it is now happening in the South. But the way it is settled in the North is that it is understood that when their livestock strays into farmlands, the damage the animals cause will be accessed and they will be asked to compensate the farmer. I will agree with President Buhari that some of these marauders, who were there when Gadaffi was alive and were taken care of by Gadaffi. They were being paid. But when he died, they were no longer being paid. Now, they are roaming about. I believe that they must be among those causing this trouble in the country. That is one. The second problem is these people who are agitating for Biafra. Formerly, Biafra was made up of nine states carved out of the former area known as Biafra. Now it is not possible to lump them together as Biafra. But I think that because of poverty and unemployment, the youths can do anything, they can say anything. Then, you have this problem of avengers. In my honest opinion, the avengers are the reincarnation of the Niger Delta insurgents, the militants. And I believe that what brought it about was the abandonment of the Amnesty Agreement between the Federal Government and the militants which was concluded during Yar’Adua’s presidency. I know that when the present government came to power, I think they abandoned the agreement. I don’t know whether they cancelled it or they just abandoned it. You know that Tompollo was given a contract to look after the security of pipelines in the Delta area. So now, the new administration jettisoned the agreement, sacked Tompollo’s company and confiscated his property and even declared him wanted. I believe that some of the boys that were loyal to him might have reconstituted themselves as the Niger Delta Avengers. In my opinion,- that means a total of four security challenges going on in the country at the same time. I don’t think that we need to have them. I appeal to the government to see sense in the philosophy that made President Yar’Adua to enter into agreement with the Niger Delta militants , which was positively resolved in favour of peace and tranquility in Nigeria. And unfortunately, this crisis is coming at a time when the downward trend in the price of oil worldwide has affected negatively the economy of the country.
How do you think we can get out of the problem?
We can only get out of this problem by going back to the idea of amnesty. I will advise the Federal Government to talk to them, engage them in a dialogue so that they will agree to work with the Federal Government in the way they supported the government of Yar’ Adua and Jonathan.
But what happens to the high handedness that has been adopted in dealing with the IPOB and MASSOB boys in the South East?
I think honestly that this is a wrong approach because our experience in dealing with Boko Haram should have taught us a lesson that force alone is not the solution to this problem. Buhari is a military man, he must have the history of Vietnam. You see, you are too young to know about Vietnam. Vietnam is like Boko Haram. They are militants, insurgents and they engaged the United States of America for many years and the amount of weapons deployed in fighting them by the United States of America- drones, airplanes, ships, speed boats – I don’t think that till date America has concentrated the same size of weapons on any other country. Yet in the end , America did not defeat them. It opted for dialogue after all the force. We should learn a lesson from this history, that dialogue in the end is the only solution to agitations of this sort.