Sani Zorro Mohammed is a member of the House of Representatives representing Gumel/Magatari/Sule Tankarkar/Gagarawa Federal Constituency of Jigawa state. He speaks to ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF on the current effort at amending the 1999 Constitution, and urges the populace to stop the ‘buccaneer’ governors from thwarting the latest move to give both the local government and the state legislature the needed autonomy.
On the recent proposed constitutional amendments, what does the National Assembly expect from the autonomy for state legislatures and the local governments system?
We expect the Nigerian citizenry to realise that this is a very important turning point in the Nigerian history when the National Assembly and patriotic organisations, such as trade unions that value democracy, came together and proposed about 36 amendments, including the one you just mentioned. These amendments are designed to expand the frontiers of democracy.
For instance, on the issue of independent candidature, Nigerians had voted for it but was always killed. Why must we be limited to political parties? We may share certain opinions, ideologies that do not fit into the current political party arrangement in Nigeria. Your individual viewpoint must be recognised and respected.
But I can tell you that as far as impact is concerned, it is possible that if this constitutional amendments sail through and Mr, President assents to them, we can produce councillors as independent candidates, we can produce members of the state assemblies, there is even the likelihood that in some states like Kano, Bayelsa and Kaduna and the rest of them where you have one single local government as a federal constituency, we can even produce members of House of Representatives.
And this is one thing that would counter the effect of governors foisting candidates on people, because this is what they do to sabotage democracy. They have completely hijacked the party system at the ward, state and federal levels. They are the ones that will send names to the president for appointments as ministers, chief executives of parastatals, members of boards of parastatals and agencies, ambassadors and they also appoint commissioners and foist local government chairmen and councillors on their people.
They know they don’t have such powers in the constitution, their powers are defined and limited, but they have created a club-Governors’ Forum- from where because of their strategic advantage of being at the centre, they have now annihilated the local government system which is what we want to reactivate. This is one important tier of government that was created for the people by the wise men who framed the constitution.
But because of governors’ selfish interest, because of the fact that many of them (governors) are nothing but buccaneers, who are mercantilist politicians that see politics not as a way of rendering service but as a way of accumulating wealth, they now rendered the local government system and, in most cases, the state legislature, powerless. That is why they are not pricked by any conscience even though they have continued to face trials at the end of their tenure at EFCC and the ICPC. They are not ashamed of what they are doing.
So, we believe that we will defend all these alterations. Once they go to the various state Houses of Assemblies, we expect Nigerians of conscience to follow up on their legislators in the Houses of Assemblies, to defy their governors or whichever force that would want to sabotage the will of the people so that they will be passed and the president will eventually assent to them.
If we ignore this golden opportunity, I can assure you, with the challenges of agitation, restiveness and so on, Nigeria will not only continue in the doldrums, no, it would have spelt clearly the end of what we know as democracy or democratic governance, and that would have implications for sustainability and survival of Nigeria as a nation-state.
Your party rode to power on the anti-corruption mantra, and it is fighting the menace amidst accusation of selectivity. Specifically, Nigerians are asking why the suspended SGF Babachir D. Lawal is still walking a free man on the street?
Two things: I also share in the perception and conviction that the executive arm of government as presently constituted under President Muhammadu Buhari takes its time before it takes certain decisions that, in the opinion of the greater numbers of Nigerians, need to be addressed within a timeframe. In other word, they also see this government as being abysmally slow in reacting or responding to certain issues, such as the one you have talked about.
Secondly, I am not sympathising with anybody, I support the arraignment of any official either from the executive, judicial or parliamentary side that have been found wanting. But over the years, we must admit that we have cultivated the habit of accused persons being axed. We are quick to sentence people to guilt, not on account of facts and figures, but we are too eager, we believe everyone is a thief. And that mob like response is something some of us must be careful about.
Like I said, I am not trying to save Babachir or anybody, I have no interest whatsoever. In fact, the more such culprits are flushed out of the system, the better for it, including within the humanitarian field. For me, it is even more painful. This is a sector that has a lot of suffering people as a result of displacement and when you have public officials who, from all intent and purposes are disaster profiteers. They capitalise on the suffering of the people to make profit from the system and that is the highest level of insensitivity to the suffering of the human persons.
What I am saying in effect is that I agree with you the government should have taken action long time ago. The government should also realise that with every minute delay, the more our reputation is being dragged in the mud. People cannot understand why this is still under wraps when in the normal circumstance of probes and inquiries, two things are expected. One, a white paper after the inquiry and government will state its position on whether they have agreed with this or they have not agreed with this.
But on this one, they are quiet, and an arm of the National Assembly has indicted certain persons, and has advanced copies that have incriminated them. I believe there are some people who are being dubious or who have benefitted from the same crime Babachir and co were tried. That is why they probably want to frustrate the judgement that is due to them. I will rather appeal to the Buhari administration, whatever its reasons for reacting slowly to issues of that nature, to ensure quick responses and quick fixes. I can assure you the picture will change if this is done.
‘Nigeria’s IDPs second to Syria on world map’
Recently, the governor of Borno State said over 51,000 persons are now orphans, has IDPs phenomenon become a permanent feature of our life? Are these people not going to be relocated? If yes, when?
The internal displacement crisis in Nigeria is taking a turn for the worse, with each day, every second and hour that this government either acts slowly or those who are responsible pretend or continue to pretend that nothing is happening. And I must add that ignoring it will not make the issue go away. This seems to be our attitude towards the internal displacement crisis, and nobody does that in the world.
At some point in time, we were competing with Syria and Iraq. If you look at the internal displacement matrix that is reviewed consistently by the international organisation for migration in league with NEMA, you will see that at some point in time, we were second on the world map after Syria, then we came after Iraq. That is where we are, we are either second or third because with the recovery of territories, more IDPs come out with our large percentage of refugees in neighbouring Cameroun, Chad and Niger Republics, and our inability to resettle them like you said, or to address our plight become clearly manifest. While other countries are doing their own, that has remained our underbelly as a country that has lost its focus.
Let me make it abundantly clear that according to the constitution of Nigeria like other ground norms elsewhere, the security of lives and property of citizens is vested in the state. Since the federal government is in charge of those agencies of coercion- law enforcement agencies- it has the army, the police and other paramilitary, it is the responsibility of the federal government to defend the lives and properties of citizens. But this is no more the case. Secondly, it is a pity, like the governor of Borno state has said the state has over 51,000 orphans. This is just an official position, may be, affecting only Borno state alone.
Frankly speaking, the state has been allowed to fail because 70 percent of Borno’s territory is not under the control of Nigeria authority, and we shouldn’t have allowed that to happen. How can Nigeria with its name and level and advancement, allow a ragtag army to emerge and evolve to square up and actually defeat our own state actors. This had never been imagined or contemplated before now.
And why is it so?
I believe all these are happening because government has refused to benefit from global policy making process. By this, I mean there are countries in Africa, in West Africa, Cote d Ivoire, Niger, Sierra Leone and Liberia. I can also mention Uganda, I can also mention a far-flung country; Columbia. Each of these countries has a ministry dedicated to humanitarian affairs. Wherever you witness internal displacement or refuge crisis in such a magnitude, you just erect a ministry that formulates policy, a ministry that will review policy, a ministry that will be giving direction as to how to address those problems. Nigeria does not have this. Nigeria has only National Commission for Refugees, which is an abandoned agency, which does not even have laws that would enable it to act on Internally Displaced Persons and other persons of concerns.
What is the lawmakers’ intervention?
We are trying now to amend the law establishing the refugees’ commission, but that would not have the same effect like having a ministry as obtained in the countries I just stated. All those agencies would be under that ministry. But now, you have NEMA (National Emergency Agency) which is another player in the humanitarian field reporting to the Office of the Vice President, you have the Refugees Commission reporting to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and then you have the PCNI reporting also to the Office of Vice President, somehow.
You also have the Victims Support Fund reporting to nobody. And they tell you that our funds were generated by private people. Even today, I learnt they distributed goats and women in Yobe state and that is celebrated.
But to be frank with you, what is required in stabilising that part of Nigeria is reconstruction and redevelopment beyond giving out goats, to ensure speedy and immediate resettlement of the IDPs and refugee population either in their own ancestral lands, or in the host communities where they are already assimilated or better still, in other areas where you have fertile land, and where they can be resettled with dignity and security. These are approaches to settlement according to the law of internal displacement and refugees.
How soon are you getting that done?
I cannot say, even the executive driving the process can’t say so. There is actually a reality but no roadmap anywhere. What we have is a collection of essays and some sophistry put in place by people in the name of proposals. This is what some agencies are going about with, mistaking their own assignments as feeding the IDPs and clothing them when actually they are not doing anything close to that.
That’s why I say the executive arm of government will do well by borrowing from those countries that are serious in erecting the mechanisms which are required to respond to such calamities and emergencies.
The House and Senate have are not agreed on power devolution in the proposed constitutional amendments. Are you contemplating a meeting point on this sensitive matter?
No, we have and we have always had. Even though the National Assembly is bicameral, each can take a decision independent of another. But when it comes to constitutional amendment there is always a nexus. Once one of the Houses shoots down a proposal, even if the other upholds it, it is dead on arrival. So the one that would be transmitted to the state Houses of Assemblies is the one upheld.
So power devolution is out of it?
Yes. I give you a typical example which is INEC conducting local government elections in states which some of us wanted. But even if we had voted for it in the House of Reps, it has been shot down in Senate, it is not going to fly. Also, devolution is dead on arrival and not going to fly. I can tell you why devolution died on arrival. It is because, at some point, what I understood, some people who served on the committee thought they were wiser than others, integrated land use act and subdued it under devolution of power. We the lawmakers from the northern part of the country feel there is a need for land use act because it protects the land.
I give you an example. Those who are canvassing for land use act are people who do not have enough land in their place. They are also the same politicians asking for resource control. It now means someone from another part of Nigeria can come to another part of Nigeria, buy off a land where there are stones and gems, mount a quarry, and because that place belongs to him, if he is lucky he can even get petrol, gas and that become his own. And we said no, since we cannot go to Delta and buy land where there are oil wells or quarry, we need to protect our own.
