Two time military administrator and All Progressives Congress (APC) kingpin in Kebbi State, Col. Inuwa Bawa (retd) has maintained that corruption would be tackled by the Buhari administration despite inestimable characters who might be around the presidency.
Decamping to APC from PDP is a sad development
The exodus of the PDP into the APC is a mark of indecency and it is a sad development. It is even more painful the way and manner they were received by APC members; receiving them with pomp and funfair as if there is any good they are bringing to the party. Commonsense should dictate that most of the people have their own personal motive for jumping the ship. They should ask themselves whether if Goodluck had won the election, they would have dumped the PDP. Definitely they wouldn’t. So these are fair weather friends and we should be very careful with them. More so the more they flock into the APC, the more the party loses its identity. Some of them that crossed over are now gunning for positions at the state and federal levels. This is really disgusting when people who have been with the party from the onset have not even gotten anything.
It is good the President-elect and the Secretary General have spoken on the need for the people to remain in the opposition. These fair whether friends cannot lead us anywhere, so there is need to be careful with them, Now that the ship of PDP is sinking, they are scampering to come to the APC, so how is APC sure that the mess that destroyed the PDP will not switch over to the APC and it would suffer the same fate. I was happy when I read that the chairman of APC in Zamfara and one other state that said for the next two years it’s doors have been closed to decampees. Decency demands that even if you decamp to a party, they allow the government to first work for one or two years. If they see positive changes, then they can conclude that they have been wasting their time in the former party, then they can say their coming over is to help salvage the country together.
APC must accommodate all sections of the country
APC initially will have its own plan and sharing formulae of its political offices but it cannot be so sure on the outcome of the election. It cannot be fixated on its own sharing formulae; it has to be a little flexible on that issue. The South- South and South East did not vote for APC but they are part of Nigeria and cannot be pushed aside. They must be accommodated, whether we members of the APC like it or not.
This is to ensure the government moves along with everybody. So the review of the power sharing formulae I believe is being done to accommodate unforeseen circumstances. It is natural in politics for people to be struggling for power and positions but we should be decent about it. Buhari got over five million votes and some of those who voted for him have never really seen him and may never see him because some places do not have television to see his image on it, but they have heard his name and voice on radio.
These are the genuine party people. But you cannot go and bring them into the government unless they are satisfied that the man has won and he is going to work for the country. Their interest must also be accommodated by government. So everyone should pray for this man and the party to be able to meet the expectations of the people by salvaging this country because that is what we need.
Corrupt people in APC will fall in line with Buhari’s philosophy
It is possible |Buhari might have people with questionable characters around him but it is not possible for anybody at this stage to bend Buhari. He has come too far and I believe the generality of people would help in running this government and anybody that is seen to be a threat from within the party hierarchy to the progress of what General Buhari stands for, will have the common people, and not even Buhari fighting him. There is likelihood that people would now go back into their shells because they know the man at the helm of affairs is a no nonsense man. He does not tolerate corruption at any level and things would fall in place naturally. From my own interaction with common people, in Kebbi and Kano etc, they have started appreciating that things are getting better.
That is a measure of confidence people have in Buhari. One tree cannot make a forest but people are going to be the watchdog for the president elect’s government and I will be one of them.
APC will come out with comprehensive report on what went wrong in North east and other places
I will disagree a little bit with that view that much has been done by Jonathan’s administration with regards to security especially in the North East. So much has been done at the last minute. If all that was done between February this year and now were done earlier, we will not have been in this mess. Something went wrong. The problem is that Jonathan is a very nice and decent man but he surrounded himself with questionable characters. And since he does not know much about military issues and even about governance, he was being misled almost on all issues.
Otherwise, we would not have been where we found ourselves regarding the North east. People who were there including Governor Kashim Shetima told the president the truth but the people around him did not like what they said and had called them all sorts of names. I am happy things are returning to normal in the North east but actions should have been taken much earlier and it would have saved many innocent lives including those of the Armed Forces who were not fully motivated and fully armed
The APC will certainly make security one of its priority areas. It would continue where the Jonathan administration stops and it would have an indepth analysis of what went wrong, where it went wrong, It would have an inquest analysis into what went wrong in the North east so that its findings will be a parameter for the future; in case if such a thing was to happen again, the government and the armed forces would be quite ready for that. Government will come out with the truth of what happened in order to safeguard the future. Buhari being a general knows about military tactics and so it will be very easy to get to the bottom of it all.
At the tribunal it is both the APC and PDP that may lose states
The APC is not afraid of the tribunal. Generally the elections were free and fair to a very large extent although we cannot have 100 percent success, but I give INEC 80 percent. I know there were problems with the card reader but I believe the failure was done deliberately.
You will recall that the PDP was against the card reader and the permanent voters’ card right from the beginning. I believe in some cases, INEC was sabotaged but they achieved some level of sucess. We have to wait and see what the tribunal will come up with. I believe in some states, APC has gone to the tribunal, so it is a two way thing. If you look at the scenario in Rivers State, you will realize that it was done to humiliate Governor Ameachi. The three man panel sent by INEC there before the declaration of its result did not mean anything. The people in the state know what happened. In most places, no election took place. Result sheets were just filled. But we will wait and see what happens.
It was God that compelled Jonathan to call and congratulate Buhari
I agree that it was very good of President Jonathan to call the president-elect even before the final result was announced, to congratulate him. Whether he did it on his own volition or he was influenced does not really matter. That helped to douse a lot of tension. If we remember the mock dance we witnessed by the former minister of Niger Delta, Orubebe which was part of the orchestrated plan to scuttle the announcement of the result. I think one thing we should first acknowledge is the role of the Almighty God in the 2015 election. No human being should arrogate to himself that he was responsible for the fair and violent free 2015 general election. Nigerians of all religions sat down and prayed for so many months and God in His infinite mercy answered their prayers and that is why God compelled Jonathan to make that phone call. Otherwise, only God knows what would have happened. There were a lot of predictions about how it would go, but to the surprise of everybody, though there were pockets of violence in some places, but it was not to the scale people expected. So we should thank God for making it possible. Yes, Jonathan did well to concede defeat which was obvious anyway, but to say he needs to play any special role close to government is uncalled for. Well, he would be an ex-president and a member of council of states and he would have ample opportunity in contributing towards solving any major national issue. I think that is okay for him. ,
Probing is inevitable
Buhari did not say he is not going to probe anybody. What he said is that he is not going to waste his time to start dwelling on probe to cause distraction because there are so many issues that need his attention. He said any ongoing case in court concerning corruption will still go on, and that in the process of governance, if anybody is found to have corruptly enriched himself, action would be taken against such a person. I agree entirely with him on this, rather than saying immediately he is sworn in, he will set up a team that will start probing people. How many people will he be probing? It is when a government is in place that revelations will start coming in. People will have to be called upon to clarify issues.
There must be a very strong team to look into the economy. People with economic acumen I believe are already looking into the general economy of the country and how to run it successfully. It is the priority now. I did not read where Buhari said they will make education free at all levels but maybe some individual did. If he did say so, he must have his reasons.
But for me, to make any promise now will be a hitch because we are not sure of the economy. The latest we have is that our foreign reserves have depleted and so many other things have gone wrong. We should give the government about three months to go look into the books and find out exactly how the economy is. We know it has gone bad but it is not too bad that we cannot run this country.
The APC has its criteria for zoning Senate president
I do not see anything bad for both the President and the Senate President to come from the north. They may come from the same zone but not from the same geopolitical region. This issue of zoning is a very delicate issue; there is a lot of balancing to be done. As I said, even though the South -south and the South East did not vote for APC, they have to be accommodated but at the same time one cannot neglect those voted for the president.
They must have their own criteria to be used for zoning the senate presidency to the north central but I do not know the criteria being used. But if you look at it, the strong areas of the APC are South West, North West, North East, and North Central. The south West already had the vice president. The North West has the president. So it has to be within these three other zones. – North central, North East; realistically because it cannot be taken to southeast or South -South because APC does not have senators there. So it is fair under this circumstance we find ourselves.
Kebbi state has always been ruled by one zone. What we want is fairness
The governor elect in Kebbi state is still from the Kebbi central that has always produced the governors. There are so many factors that played themselves into having this situation. I was to contest; I even signified my intention to contest. I am from Kebbi South and we have never produced a governor but then realistically, I did not have the resources. In Nigeria, to contest, you need tons of money, no matter how dignified you are. At the end of the day, Senator Atiku Bagudu emerged. Most of the people, mostly from Kebbi Central withdrew for him. As God will have it, he won.
He has the experience having stayed in the Senate for two sessions or so. All we are asking is fairness. Honestly speaking, we in Kebbi south have been very, very marginalized. If you go to my town, it was just before the election that the outgoing governor went to grade the township roads and left them like that. They are very dusty and people have died from inhaling dust etc.
It was about a week to the election that the contractor was sent to start putting the tar. My contention is that if the governor elected is very fair, it would not matter where he comes from. But our experiences in the last 16 years have not been so and that is why people always agitate that the governor comes from their area. They know once he is there, it is the people from his area that will be empowered and heighten their own political cleavage, Let him just be fair all, that is what we ask for You can see what happened in Plateau and the outcome of the election..
In fairness zoning should have to be done to ensure every section of the state has the sense of belonging. We are all human beings and we are not infallible, unless that is done, there will be lopsidedness in development. I believe there should be a sort of arrangement even if it will be within the party that every zone should be able to feel the impact of leadership.
Both our police and the military must be re-orientated
It is not only the Nigerian police that needs to be sanitized; even the army. There are so many things the incoming administration has to do, it has to prioritize its programmes. There is need to re-orient them, first and foremost, for their allegiances to the to constitution and Nigeria and not to the person in power because that is what is happening.
The military over the last three or four years has been exposed to the vagaries of the Nigerian factor because they have been living with us in the township because of internal insecurity. They have been so common that the average Nigerian does not hold them in esteem as it was before.
It used to be very rare before you come in contact with the soldiers in the town. The aura that was there is no more. All the failings that were common with the police are now with the military. They take N20 at check points, which is very unfortunate. You do not blame them; it is because they have been exposed. When the internal security situation and internal insurgency assignment is completed and soldiers are back to the barracks and all those little, little things they are used to receiving are blocked, how do you expect them to react?
We have to think about that and also how to demilitarize the populace. Now even if there is power outrage, the first thing the people will do is to call the military; for every damn small thing, they call the military and it is not their role.
The traditional role of the military has been bastardized over the years, so it would take time to re-orientate them and that will happen if we have very dedicated officers who will re-orientate the other ranks and instill professionalism in them.
For the police, it will also take time because it has to be from the recruitment level. That is where the problem starts. When policemen have to be recruited fraudulently because they have to pay to secure a place in the force, you can just imagine what becomes of them when they secure the admission.
It is even the same thing with Nigerian army now. Now the highest bidder gets recruited. That is the level the country has degenerated. The policemen are used to this thing they call roger.
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