Alhaji Balarabe Musa, former civilian governor of old Kaduna State is chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and leader of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP). In this interview with OBIRE ONAKEMU, he speaks on the state of the nation.AS a northerner and a former governor, what is your position on resource control and true federalism'I am in support of true federalism, in the sense that federated units should be capable of taking care of some responsibilities, for instance, education. But if true federalism means making the federal government weaker than it is now, particularly with the serious problems we have with uneven development and insecurity, then, I need to have a second thought.But definitely, I support true federalism in the sense of making the federal government take less than what it is taking now from the federation account. The President is too powerful, just like the governors, who are equally powerful. Their powers in the Constitution should be reduced.The money going to the federal government should be substantially reduced, in favour of more going to the local governments; but a better alternative is for the federating units to be regions, rather than the 36 states and Abuja.There is every need for us to have constitutional amendments, while states and the local governments should be reduced to six or eight regions. And each region could establish as many states and local governments that they can cope with on the basis of what is allocated to them federally and the internally generated revenues that are available to them.In other words, this can be interpreted to mean 6-8 zones or region to replace the 36 states and Abuja and the 774 local governments.If that should be the case, then, what goes to the federal government should be reduced in favour of more going to the states and local governments.At the moment, I think about 50percent goes to the federal government; it should now be limited to about 35percent and the rest should go to about six or eight regions.What happens if the idea of regionalism fails to fly with the political class'But if we cannot return to the former arrangement of regions and we must continue with the 36 states, Abuja as FCT and 774 local governments, then, we need to reduce the power of the President substantially and equally the power of state governors and make more funds available to the local government councils.Some Nigerians have called for a national conference and others call it sovereign national conference. Which one do you canvass'As far as I'm concerned, the best is a sovereign national conference. But we that are asking for it are not united on the issue; then, let us have a national conference. I know a sovereign national conference has the implications of establishing another reality of replacing this government and throwing in another reality.I am not afraid of that! I am not even afraid of the way to get it! But I want to make sure that Nigerians are prepared for it. If Nigerians are not prepared for it, then, let us have a national conference.But I am opposed to a national conference based on ethnic nationalities. I think it is very unnecessary at the moment; we have matured far above that in spite of our problems. Let us have a fresh national conference based on citizenship.What was the position of the recent National Summit on the state of the nation'The dialogue had itemised the problems of Nigeria. We discussed the root cause of the negative state of the nation.We seem to assume, that these problems, whatever they are just dropped from the heavens. We never realised that there must be an environment which caused these problems. I tend to make them realise that these negative state of the nation, in whatever way one looks at it, has a root; it has a tether, which is directly responsible for it and this tether is the socio-economic system controlling all developments in the country, which is based on self-interest as opposed to public interests.Now, if we really want to deal with the problems with any reasonable hope of solving them, we should actually decide on the socio-economic system controlling all development plans in this country; and the political leadership produced by that system.Some attempts had been made to talk on the leadership and a lot of the problems associated with it. But the leadership itself is a product of a system. If the system were not proper, then, you would not have proper leadership.Presently, the leadership is a striving leadership. And this is possible simply because of the leading role of self-interest, either in terms of individuals' attitudes or in terms of state structure, like the economy.The economy of Nigeria is based on self-interests. And that is why we have in this country a capitalist system. We have privatisation, commercialisation, deregulation, etc.All these have been brought about by the desire to establish a base for the supremacy of private enterprises, to establish a leading role of the private sector of the economy.And I have history behind me to show that our problem is the system. At the summit that was held in Lagos Sheraton Hotel, we virtually agreed that leadership during the colonial times and the First Republic was nationalistic, credible and dignified. And that was how we registered more progress. There was more stability in the system and far more harmony within the nationalities.But from the Second Republic, we began to allow monopolistic role of the state in the economy and that is why we have what we have today.But unfortunately, the summit that we had recently, we pointed out all the negative features, all the problems like we have been doing before. This is not the first time, but we failed to focus on the condition enveloping these problems; we failed to identify the socio-economic and political system in control of all developments and the political leadership produced by them. They are actually responsible for this negative state of the nation.Do you agree it is only through a sovereign national conference that peaceful solution could be reached for the myriad of problems'Well, I think the sovereign national conference is the right thing! But I'm not very hopeful for it now. We have to endure a lot of suffering before we could agree to embark on it.At the last seminar, I was shocked to have found lack of courage by the participants; too much concerns about attitude of the federal government towards the dialogue.I was shocked when I found that the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State was present from the beginning to the end of the sitting of the summit. Why was it necessary'So, that is why I said the deliberations of the two- day summit lack courage. We were too much concerned about attitude of government. With that weakness, can we pursue fundamental things like sovereign national conference now' For that to take place, we must declare it a new reality and that cannot be created without a revolutionary change.Now, if we are not up to that and I believe, we are not, Okay! It is progress for us to have a political conference. But I hope, we would not be begging to be allowed to have a constitutional conference. We should have an independent, patriotic national conference!There is the immediate security challenge posed by Boko Haram; how do you see government efforts so far'No hopes should be lost with regard to Boko Haram! There is a possibility that what we are seeing is not Boko Haram. It's like something using Islam because of its potency. I doubt if it is truly an Islamic Movement. It is more likely to be an agent ' like a movement established for the purpose of keeping the country unstable and for the purpose of keeping opponents Islam in check. There are so many things happening. There are key bombings of military establishments here and there. Are they not going too far' Is this not something beyond Boko Haram' Boko Haram is just being used. I think we should begin to reflect.If only I should remind you; the President said two things to which Nigerians should be very careful. That all public institutions in Nigeria have collapsed. This is a heavy weight statement coming from the President himself. He said Boko Haram has infiltrated every organ of government, which means including the federal executive council, the presidency and so; this is a very serious matter, which virtually by implication means he is unable to cope with the situation.Apart from the Sultan of Sokoto, why is it that no other Northern elite has come out openly as you are doing to condemn the Boko Haram insurgence'You know virtually all the Islamic leaders, from the Sultan of Sokoto downward condemn Boko Haram. In order to make sure that that condemnation is credible, Muslim leaders in Nigeria as a whole and in the North have engaged themselves in joint action to deal with three basic problems in this country: poverty, insecurity and now, Boko Haram.Remember, Christian and Muslim leaders engaged the President in a parley initiated by the President himself. And this had been made public. There have been meetings and both Muslim and Christian leaders have been working out how to deal with the problems of Boko Haram and the possibility of it being used for ulterior purposes. They have gone to the extent that we now have on every church on Sunday, Muslims protecting Christians during church services. We have also, Christians protecting Muslims during private services.The problem with you the media is, you have always failed to re-emphasise the relevance of events and dates; instead, you always capitalise on this bombings and so on. You shouldn't ignore the bombing, but where there is something, which is of greater hope for harmony, you should do it.Christians and Muslims meeting the President, you people keep it in the background, when in effect it is the best way of solving the problems for now. You have no better way for now.Are you satisfied with the security/intelligence handling of the situation'The bitter truth is that intelligence services in Nigeria have not been up to standard, just like other aspects of public services. Identifying those that fully constitute Boko Haram and what Boko Haram stands for should not have been so difficult for the intelligent services. But it seems difficult, and that is why they couldn't brief the President convincingly.No doubts, I know the intelligent services are doing their best when one takes everything into account. But the very best under normal circumstances, is not enough. They should put in more efforts, but I think, they are so much incapacitated.We understand that public finance and its application makes the intelligence or security services to be under-funded. I don't even believe that the security services get what they claim in budgets. I don't think this money goes to the security services; more than half of it, if not more goes to politicians in the name of security.I don't believe security services get that much; if they do, they would have overcome the problem that has left the country marginally secured.Do you mean there should be an overhaul of the entire security'Well, every other aspect of Nigeria should be overhauled, which involves a fundamental change of the whole system. If you overhaul the security services and you don't do anything about poverty or about this deadly level of corruption, stealing and wastes, you may not have achieved anything yet. You may probably achieve having a very strong security system that is designed for a dictator!We are facing very serious crisis, which would definitely define our future! And every Nigeria should be involved in whatever ways he can!
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