Chief Isaac Shaahu was a First Republic Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Benue State and one-time Minister of Communications in the Second Republic. Shaahu, a member of the parliament under the banner of the UMBC/ Action Group alliance in 1961 and one-time chairman of the Middle Belt Forum, in this interview with HENRY IYORKASE in Makurdi, scores the Goodluck Jonathan administration low in performance. He also speaks on the 2015 presidency and other issues. Excerpts:
How would you assess the Goodluck Jonathan administration in the past two years?
Things are happening in Nigeria; things which are fundamentally very wrong. Some of us who have seen Nigeria for a very long time and were there immediately after independence feel so unhappy about the happenings because we had high hopes for democracy.
The elections, which we conducted to usher in independence were fair enough. There was apprehension in the North, but those of us from the Middle Belt happened to fight for our rights and therefore, we won some few seats despite all the oppressions.
Now as it is, after 14 years of democracy, when we should be trying to do more, we are retrogressing because with the present administration of Goodluck Jonathan, I am sorry and I will always be sorry and continue to apologise to the people of the Middle Belt, because I saw President Jonathan as someone from the minority group who will do well to show the majority tribes – the Ibo, the Yoruba, the Hausa, that the minorities too can well practice democracy and we can do even better.
So I led the Middle Belt Forum throughout his campaign; he doesn't know me but throughout the Middle Belt, we won elections for him. It started from when they tried to prevent him from acting when the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua became incapacitated due to ill health; they didn't want him to act. But I was one of the leaders of the Middle Belt that kept on talking and talking until they say that it was his constitutional right to act.
Not only from my talk, but from others' efforts, they succumbed and he started acting. When he wanted to fight for his own term to be elected, I also led the people of the Middle Belt because I was the chairman of the Middle Belt Forum, but in the last few days I had to apologise to the people of Middle Belt that even though I am not the chairman now, but I misled them by leading them to vote for Jonathan. He has failed us.
But that is not the end of the minorities and I specifically say the Tiv people will never fail them. That is, if they have seen my efforts, when we have a leadership, we will do it very well. How have we fared so far? We have fared very badly.
As much as we want this democracy to continue, it is not well practised. Either Jonathan is incapable or his advisers are not giving him the right advice. Ordinarily, infrastructure that should have given him the kick up has failed; all the roads that were there during Shehu Shagari's time are all dead. Is that not a failure of democracy and his administration? It is.
Some few weeks ago, an Ijaw leader, Edwin Clark said that whether Jonathan has performed well or not, he should be given a free hand by Nigerians to re-contest and he emphasised that there will be problem where Jonathan's chances to re-contest are suppressed. How would you react to these utterances?
First and foremost, he is a Nigerian and he is free to make whatever contributions he thinks proper to this country. I know him very well. He was a commissioner in the old Bendel State while I was Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources under J.D. Gomwalk in Benue State and therefore, we knew ourselves. Well, he can make his own statements, but the thing is as I've just said it. I did my best but Jonathan doesn't know me even as I insisted he is from the minority. If he fails, must Nigeria fail because of Jonathan? But if Clark had said what he is quoted to have said, I think it was wrong, but I don't believe Clark will say that because the failure of his brother should be blamed on him if he does not help his brother to do better.
Just like here in Benue State, the failure of Gabriel Suswam should not be attributed to the far North or any other state; it is the failure of Benue State for not fostering what they want on him.
So the failure of an individual because he comes from your area doesn't mean the failure of this country; we cannot allow it. Anybody who does not want should quit and leave Nigeria to exist and get better hands. And since I am not from his party, but the new party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, I cannot talk for them, let them go and fight it out in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
2015 is fast approaching and almost every segment of this country is laying claim to the presidency, especially the South-South and the North. Giving this scenario, which of these zones would you say is supposed to produce the next president?
Leaving it to me as Isaac Shaahu, the South-East, which had not had the opportunity to produce a Nigerian executive president, should actually take the other half of Jonathan's tenure in office. I would say if there is anyone with the pedigree of former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, some of us can sit down, look at the situation and maybe support such a person.
But the far North too is insisting, well, that is up to the PDP. We in the APC we must look at that. We are in different parties; we can produce our candidate here from Tiv, from the Ibos, we can produce our candidate from another minority group in the South-East, that's all.
In other words, you are saying the Igbo can produce the next president?
Of course, yes they can.
Do you think this administration has made impact on the country so far?
I've said it from the beginning. I said the infrastructure, which was put there by former President Shagari is deteriorating. Even to maintain it, they can't. Then, with the bad infrastructure how can the economy grow? It may only grow in figures, but that is all as the yearly budget shows.
Each year, trillions of naira is appropriated, but we are not seeing the infrastructure, a pointer to growth of the economy. Infrastructure should be our roads, our railways, our airports, our healthcare, education all put together.
The country is witnessing another dangerous trend, regarding the violence that has engulfed it. As an elder statesman, what is your take on this volatile situation?
Well, this is more of a difficult problem. But under a good leadership, it could be controlled. An efficient leader can manoeuvre and overcome the situation. This is not the first time this is happening. What are the people looking forward to? Well, I can say it was volatile here in Tiv land because we wanted our own state; a Middle Belt state. And therefore, when the North said no, that was when things turned upside down.
Now, these people (Boko Haram) what are they trying to get? We want them to tell us, that is the thing. But with a good leader, he could get proper answers, but if he can't get good answers, the thing will continue.
We are not the only violent country. But I think we should be able to sit down together and get ideas from everybody on how we could contain them. It's not a one man's job, but you see here, it is all of us because the volatility is going round and round. Here in the Middle Belt particularly, you are hearing about Fulani herdsmen, they are not Boko Haram, but Fulani herdsmen. So it is a question that needs combined efforts of all.
Are you satisfied with the performance of President Jonathan in terms of infrastructural development?
He couldn't do it during the conclusion of the term he inherited from Yar'Adua and I don't see him doing anything now. And that is why I will not vote for him and I will not ask my people to vote for him again.
There have been insinuations that Muhammadu Buhari is warming up to contest for the presidency under the APC, do you think Nigerians will accept his candidature?
For me, let us finish the merger process, then we will start talking. Anybody who is talking first about presidency now is making a mistake. We are talking about organising the party, the APC. When we organise, then people can come out and we will take anyone who fits the bill of the party. It is not a question of Buhari or Mr. A or Mr. Z. At the appropriate time, the APC shall pick an ideal and acceptable presidential candidate.
What makes you think the APC will be different from the PDP?
That is a difficult question. Difficult in the sense that most of the people in the APC were members of the PDP before. We wanted to change the PDP, we couldn't change it. So we believe that in the APC, it will not be the same and the difference here, the party shall be supreme. The president or whosoever that will get our nomination shall not be the leader of the party; another person will be the leader of the party, who is not a government man. We shall separate the presidency from the leadership of the party. Anybody can contest to become the president, but not the leadership of the party; the leader will remain the National Chairman of the party.
What is the level of commitment at the state level in terms of fusing the intending political parties together?
We are in the process. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has held its final convention; other political parties have just held their own conventions. I think by mid-June, we should be in a position to tell you what the APC is.
National Mirror