Northern Governors have failed -Prof. Shown

From  Gyang Bere, Jos

A second Republic politician and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Dakum Shown has taken a swipe at the Northern Governors Forum for its failure to keep the northern region together adding that the  forum was full of religious bigots that have no positive impact on the north.
There has been debate lately on the need to restructure Nigeria where each region can become independent. Is that a healthy development for the country?
Take any country in the world that Britain amalgamated, none of them is still a country except Nigeria and those countries are doing very well. These countries have separated to be one of the world biggest economy, this is a pointer for Nigeria that we have to go back to history. My experience during the National Conference convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan, I discovered that we were not a country, a lot of Northerner don’t know much about the Southerners, even the Southerner themselves don’t know much about each other. They have been identified by their geographical link for a long time, and my experience during the civil war when South East wanted to go,  marginalization was the reason the war broke out. Has that been eradicated? We are still very suspicious of each other.
The political suspicions is that, an average Southerner believes that the far North want to cling to power at all cost, that is their framework and you can imagine young Igbo boys and girls, young Yoruba coming up and will be asking what is our future? Can we continue to be dominated this way ? It is all these  suspicions that brought about the creation of states, Benue/Plateau was carved out of the North because the Christians felt they were minorities and they could never get any government of their own. Also, these states have been group together as, South-South, South East, South West, North Central, North East and North West; they work among themselves happily in a meeting and understand each other and any of these geographical areas can be a country.
We suggested during the Confab that the Presidency should rotate between the North and the South to address the suspicion among us and we took it back to the states and said that governorship position must rotate within the Senatorial Zones but the way we are operating now, I am afraid that it may lead to forceful restructuring, I wish that we sit down on the table and everybody finds his way.
What do you mean by forceful restructuring?
If you allow the present forces to grow, they can burst, that was how the Biafra war started. General Gowon then was the most gentleman in the Army but nobody thought of his gentility. The war of stomach is much more harder than the war of the gun, if we continue this way without trusting one another, it might lead to something else.
Don’t you think the north will suffer if the country breaks up?
What is north? Where is the geographical location of the north, it lost it values long time ago when states were created. The north is just an imagination of your brain, there are so many things that the North East and the North West don’t agree on, and the North Central too disagree with the North East on so many things, so what is this idea of the North? For example, a Plateau person will trust an Igbo more than a Hausa man, so where is the North? I laugh when I hear people talk about the North.
Are you saying that there is nothing that binds the entire north together?
There is nothing that binds the north together or do you know of any?
We have the Northern Governors’ Forum, the Arewa Consultative Forum; don’t you think those organisations are working towards one north?
What is the interest of that north that they are protecting, we used to have Northern Banks, are they functioning now? What is the link between Katsina and Plateau State? Some years ago, there was a link between Benue/Plateau and South-South, students were exchange among the states, there was peace but there has never been any history of Benue/Plateau exchanging students with North West, or North East.
Should there be forceful restructuring; will the North Central prefer to go with the South-South?
No, the North Central can be a country on its own, we have everything to exist as a country, but no country exists in isolation.
Are you saying that the Northern Governors Forum has not done well in keeping the entire north together?
They have done nothing, it is just a tea taking forum, tell me one thing that they have done in the interest of the north. If I am a Governor of Plateau state, I will never attend Northern Governors’ Forum, what will I do there? They had Unity Bank which has been taken over, how many people from the North Central got loan? What is the essence of saying you are going to Northern Governors Forum and you have nothing to bring home for your people.
Are you saying the Forum has failed?
It has failed completely, it failed long time ago. There was too much sentiment in the Northern Governors’ Forum and I don’t think it has achieved anything, it was nepotism that killed it and we must avoid nepotism in the north.
You have many unresolved political crisis in PDP, particularly the leadership crisis, don’t you think those problems are strong hurdles for the party ahead of 2019?
I think what people need to know is that party is completely different from an individual, the party has affected the lives of people and they have reasons why they joined. So they should be ready to abide by the rules and regulations of the party. The PDP is a party that has been deeply rooted in this country, it has a lot of attractive ideas to the ordinary man, so it cannot just die, it can be sick like human being, but certainly there is a very bright feature for the PDP in this country. The party is very much alive particularly now that Nigerians have realised they made a big mistake for not electing the PDP in 2015. There can be wrangling between individuals but PDP as a party is intact; there is no village or electoral ward in this country that there is no PDP.
 Is there hope in resolving the leadership tussle at the national level?
Justice will prevail between Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff and Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, and we are getting closer to resolving the issues. You don’t make noise in a political party because you have money, the people are your oxygen, I am surprised that since the court gave it to Sheriff, he  has not moved the PDP to anywhere, if Makarfi calls a meeting today, everybody will go there and they are not going there because of Makarfi but because they believe that the man can take them to justice, they believe he has leadership qualities, the court can continue to give it to anybody but the will of the people will prevail.
I strongly believe that the Supreme Court is not a place you joke with, they are men and women of integrity, I think APC should stop playing politics with Sheriff and they should stop deceiving him, Sheriff is not in charge of PDP, the courts cannot in anywhere in the world impose leadership on a political party, it is the people that does that.
Are you satisfied with Buhari’s approach to anti-corruption war?
Frankly, the approach to corruption generally in this government is wrong, it is only a good system that can eradicate corruption. In America today, If you touch any single money that belong to the country, the President will know it, whatever you do, people will know because the system is transparent, so if I want to steal billions of naira, I should be aware that government will know and if you are leaving as a President that system will still be there. We must not wait until someone report or blow a whistle that somebody stole some money and securities are sent after him, it will never work. Also, corruption is never fought by creating fear in the minds of the  citizens.
Are you saying President Buhari is intimidating Nigerians?
Yes, they have decided to intimidate and create fear in people, if you are investigating corruption, creating fear will not give you the right result, everybody should be allowed to go on with their business. There was no need for government to stop people from saving dollars in their accounts. If we are seriously fighting corruption, government should be able to monitor who brought up these dollars? Where is he getting it from? And not to stop people from saving dollars because clever people are taking advantage of the system to cheat the country and government must find a way of checkmating those who tell lies. Anti-corruption in Nigeria should not only stop or start where Jonathan took over, it should start right from independence.
You wanted him to have started the probing right from time Obasanjo was in government?
He should have started with himself, he should tell Nigerians here I am before you, I have only one building as he claimed, these are my properties and people will begin to ask questions, why are people who took over governance after him have these mansions?

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