Breaking News
Login
Pan African Visions

It’s obvious President Buhari is overwhelmed with gruesome killings — Balarabe Musa

July 22, 2018

* Says:

“Buhari repeated the 1966 South-west ‘Operation Wettie’  in Ekiti‎

By Olayinka Ajayi

Alhaji Balarabe Musa is the former governor of old Kaduna state, in this interview with PAV bares his mind on the state of killings across Nigeria among other issues. Excerpts:

What is your stand on the spate of killings across Nigeria?

The recent killing in Sokoto proves it’s a nationwide problem. It is not a regional problem, neither is it as a result of the insurgent Boko haram attacks or the herdsmen or ethnic, religious based cleansing. Every reasonable person should know that we have aspects of insecurity in every part of Nigeria. The killing is done in such a sophisticated manner that you cannot trace it to an aggrieved community or group of people. It is well planned, articulated and then executed.

Must we wait till the whole nation is wiped-out?

Certainly we cannot allow it to continue. But unfortunately it will continue because we have a weak government in the centre. In other words the Federal government and the ruling party are so weak and irrelevant. The insecurity has gotten to a level  that it has overwhelmed this administration. The overwhelm is proved by the President Buhari when he said he does not know what to do, asking for prayers ,and requesting that Nigerians be patient with his government. How can we be patient, when lives are lost everywhere in the country!

Do these killing justify the President re-contesting come 2019?

As far as I am concerned having known the dangers we are facing as a nation , that is political and otherwise, it is  left for Nigerians to decide. We will not Tele-guide Nigerians on whom to vote for come 2019. All we can do is to present the facts as they are. But it’s obvious that this administration is overwhelmed with the gruesome killings that they cannot do anything about it. The question is what is responsible for the negative state of the nation? That should be our task as  citizens to find out.

But the Senate President Bukola Saraki, Aminu Tambuwal among others are calling for the sack of all the service Chiefs in order to curb the killings, what do you make of this?

For me, it's not necessary. What we need do is to change the system controlling all the development in the country. The particular leadership of this administration is based on self-interest first, and public interest second.  And it is characterized by the disabling level of corruption across the board. The system that brought the service chiefs is self-protection, not public protection.

What is your stand on the recent Ekiti governorship election?

We gathered that 30,000 policemen were deployed to ekiti.  This is one out of 37 States in the country, what about the people living in the North- east that require police protection, what about the people in Plateau that require police protection, what about the people in Zamfara that require police protection and people in Kaduna state who require police protection and yet Buhari approved 30,000 police men for just Ekiti election. It’s obvious they were sent there to protect the interest of the All Progressive Congress APC. As a matter of fact why should the President send 30,000 to Ekiti just for election? If you recall, this was what happened in 1966, the money  meant for the protection of lives and property was used to stage a coup in the South-West to favour the ruling party back then  which led to what was referred back then in the South-west as ‘Operation Wettie’  . Buhari repeated  the same thing in Ekiti to allow 30,000 policemen to supervised an election in order  to make sure APC takes over from PDP while the whole nation is crying over lingering killings many still tagged as a religious and tribal cleansing.

With the challenges Nigeria has being going through since Independence, do you foresee an end to it come 2019?

Sincerely, I don’t foresee any light ! The only bright light I foresee before 2019, is if we can bring about a constitutional change through the National Assembly. But unfortunately the National assembly and the presidency have been on each other’s throats from the beginning of this government since 2015. So you can’t expect a good constitutional change when the executive and the legislative have never agreed. The latest is that the government is staging a strategic attack on the nation’s assembly by humiliating the Senate President and the National Assembly is retaliating by threatening to impeach President Buhari. So in a situation like this, how do you expect a peaceful constitutional change to happen, it’s can’t happen! We should be waiting for the worst. A revolution, that is a change brought about by the power of the masses. Whereby citizens take over the responsibility of the affairs of a state themselves.  It has happened in other parts of the world when the executive arm and the judiciary are in disparity. There is no way Nigeria will be different from other countries that have experienced it. It can happen in Nigeria anytime. Europe faced what we are facing now and they solved theirs through constitutional revolution.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pan African Visions
African Renaissance and Diaspora Network, Inc., President and CEO, Dr. Djibril Diallo Receives Rainbow PUSH Coalition 2018 International Humanitarian Award
July 22, 2018 Prev
Pan African Visions
China President Xi welcomed in Senegal at start of Africa trip
July 22, 2018 Next