Amaechi, Sylva feud will affect Jonathan in 2015 –Balarabe Musa

[Mirror]

Alhaji Balarabe Musa is the fi rst executive governor of defunct Kaduna State and Chairman, Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP). In this interview with Aza Msue in Kaduna, he raises alarm over the danger of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rejecting the outcome of 2015 election result like they did in the Nigerian Governors' Forum. He declares that the Rotimi Amaechi/Timipre Sylva feuds might affect Jonathan's chances in 2015. Excerpts:

How do you see the constitution amendment by the Senate and the issue of immunity clause?

The issue of immunity clause is a delicate one. For me, I do not support its removal because the executives, including the local government chairmen need a conducive environment to perform. There can be an arrangement to hold them accountable after office or the use of the impeachment process. The constitution is not even what Nigerians need right now, what we need is a national conference that will reconcile Nigerians and address the issues we have at hand, not the usual conference we used to have, a conference that is not piloted by the government. What is your take on the Egypt military takeover and what lessons can Nigerians learn from it? First of all, Egypt as a leader of the Arab world has an imposter which is Israel, a state created by war and imperialism which is aided by America and Britain. Secondly, America has a lot of influence on the Egyptian Army and this is playing out. Now if this can happen to Egypt which is more organised and has one of the oldest history in the world, then the possibility of a similar situation occurring in any other African country cannot be ruled out. But I do not support that kind of government. Let me say this, Nigeria cannot divide except everything of value is gone like the case of Somalia.

The Nigerian Governors' Forum was seen as a reputable organization. At the moment, they are engaged in a battle for leadership; what is your opinion on this?

The attitude of the Jonah Jang group is embarrassing and unbecoming of leaders because there was a free and fair election in which they participated equally and the result showed that Chibuike Amaechi was the truly elected Chairman of the Nigerian Governors' Forum. The issue is that those with Jang should have accepted the outcome of the election faithfully as responsible leaders and as leaders in this country. They are supposed to know that one of Nigeria's biggest problems is that of imposition of leaders on the masses. Now I hear that there was a previous agreement to elect Jang by the PDP governors, but they should also know that despite that agreement they are bound by the present decision of the majority. That agreement they had before was secondary. When that election was conducted and they participated, they should have acted accordingly as responsible leaders and abide by the popular decision, but the way PDP led by Jonathan is behaving by ignoring democratic election shows to us clearly that if the 2015 election does not favour them, they will reject it and say Jonathan should continue. That will create more crises for the country. If they realised this, they should discontinue with the Jonah Jang group and continue with Ameachi. This Nigerian governors' forum is very important not only because the governors coordinate their activities as leaders but also because it brings about a greater sense of national unity. In fact, with this development, my advice is that all sectional associations of the governors should be discontinued and have only the Nigerian Governors' Forum. These sectional groups are useless and I am in the position to tell them because we had Progressive Governors' Forum during the Second Republic. In spite of all the propaganda, we did not achieve much apart from organising against the NPN and even that organisation against NPN was limited to propaganda.

The Northern Governors' Forum is also having some issues resulting in the pulling out of governors Gabriel Suswam and Isa Yuguda of Benue and Bauchi states respectively; even though Yuguda has returned, what do you make out of this development?

All I can do is to advise them to go back to the Forum and stop all regional forums as The Northern, Eastern, Western, and South-South Governors Forums particularly now that there is a threat.

Recently, the Arewa Consultative Forum rejected Jonathan for 2015. On the other hand, the Middle Belt Forum and some other groups have endorsed his candidature. What does this portend for 2015 general election?

All I want to say is that whatever they do, the pro- and anti-Jonathan groups should think of the interest of the country and the protection of that interest. They should stop nursing this issue to become a serious problem. Those who don't want Jonathan should mobilise against him if the contest begins in 2015 and those who want him should mobilise for him in 2015. They should stop anything that will overheat the polity. I said it before, since in Nigeria everybody knows that money is the deciding factor in politics, he can use money, power and incumbency to return to power in 2015 by any means. And this is very dangerous because there is no guarantee of peaceful transition by relying on money, power and incumbency because there is no consideration of merit in such a democracy.

The Jonathan-Amaechi crisis is eating deep into Nigeria's democracy. If this continues, what would be the future of our democracy beyond 2015?

I think it has links with Jonathan's ambition to be president in 2015. Let us ignore all the other arguments for or against. Let us look at what he is doing to make the masses end his tenure or see him in 2015. He doesn't seem to be doing much. First, he is not performing. Secondly, he has no public confidence because people do not believe what he says and you know there is this problem he inherited in 2011 which is lack of public legitimacy and this has made him more dishonest before Nigerians. He is now even fighting his own zone; he fought former governor Timipre Sylva to the finish and he is now fighting Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State to the finish. He will lose at least one third of the vote in the South- South because he cannot say Amaechi and Sylva are irrelevant in his zone, so what is his chance in 2015? If he knows he has no chance in 2015 and he is a patriotic Nigerian, let him stop all this campaigns. He is the president and therefore holds the key to peace and progress in this country. At the moment, we have seen that he has not achieved anything even the thing he was about to achieve he has lost it...the dialogue with insurgents... the whole thing now is mismanaged. Let him do something in this country so that even if he doesn't contest in 2015, people will remember him.

The PDP crisis is another critical issue in our democracy, and in the midst of this, the APC is warming up for 2015, do you think the party is capable of taking advantage of the PDP crisis to triumph?

The All Progressives Party (APC) can do it but I doubt it with the way they are going. They have failed to realise the reality of the political system; the three political parties alone cannot confront PDP and they must do their home work very well. For example, the APC must realise that the ACN is more mature and has six states with very crucial positions across the country. You know most of the people you have in that formation are worse than the PDP itself but as humans, some of them may learn from the mistakes of PDP. For the fact that they will be afraid to lose the people's mandate, they may change and some are still in the ideology of money- power in governance. They do not believe in the role of merit leading to a legitimate government. The new APC should include other political parties too because the three of them alone cannot defeat PDP. Labour Party, LP, full APGA and others must be included in the formation. I pray for their success

National Mirror