2019: Northern youths won’t support any candidate above 60yrs – Shettima

Last year, your group gave a controversial ultimatum to Igbos in the North, can you tell Nigerians what this group is actually all about? We took our time to study what the young man (Nnamdi Kanu) was doing because he was never consistent. Young not in terms of age, probably he’s older than I am because I recalled he had celebrated 50 years, and I am not up to 50, but in my early 40s. During his agitation, he talked about sovereign national conference and restructuring.

We were closely monitoring him because we are product of struggle. The next thing he said was to insist on secession from the present federal republic following which he threatened a repeat of Rwanda experience. Besides, he ended up looking at my entire identity, I am a core Hausa-Fulani man, a typical Hausa man from Northern part of the country.

No responsible child will fold his hands and look into the face of his grandfather or his father: his identity, and call me an animal. I realised that this guy was truly out to undermine my race and my identity as a typical Hausa-Fulani man. There is nothing wrong if you look at the face of any leader in the North, you abuse him because you have differences with him, but it is different when you generalised it.  We are neither part of the government nor part of those who stopped you from seceding, yet you generalised it by calling us animal. No, we couldn’t accept that.

Rather than being frustrated, there was a need for us likeminds to come together to form a coalition. Many prominent and responsible organisations in Northern part of the country responded. We then decided, since this boy is all out and he’s determined despite the detention, disobeying the court order as contained in the bail conditions, to help him to secede. At first, we thought he was speaking for the entire Igbo but when we made the statement that all Igbos residing in Northern part of the country should leave from June to October – we gave three months. In fact, we knew there is a need for referendum for them to get there. We were ready to be part of those who were going to champion the fight for them to get their referendum.

Sadly, there was misconception everywhere. For those who cared to listen, we kept explaining to them. In fact, we wrote a letter to the Vice President who was the Acting President in the absence of President Buhari, who was on medical tourism at that time, we detailed what we meant by that declaration in Kaduna on 6th of June. We were very detailed and thorough.

Did the Northern coalition achieve its purpose? We did achieve our aim. Besides, what is the achievement? Let me list them for you. At a point Kanu became more whirled, he kept insisting that there will be no election in the entire Southeast. Part of his agenda was that there will be no election in Anambra state in November. He made use of everything on ground. We realised that the Nigerian government was stampeded. The government was helpless. So, there was a need to make a statement, when we made the statement, there was tension everywhere in the land. The objective was to see whether Nnamdi Kanu was truly speaking for the Igbos or not. For the first time, the five South-east governors reacted to the matter that they were not part of the Biafran struggle of this ‘boy’.

That was a plus. Secondly, we saw Ohaneze Ndigbo as a group come out to say we are not part of it, we don’t believe in Biafra, we don’t believe in what this young man is saying. That’s an achievement. Thirdly, we were able to see the Ohaneze Youth Council youth wing worldwide ran down to Abuja to sit with us to plead that we look at the implications of what we did. They wanted calm nerves and tension in their place because their people were already running out of the North. At first time, we thought Kanu was speaking for the Igbos, but at the end we realised that it was his own decision and some few jobless youths who were parading themselves around him and did not even understand what he was trying to achieve. Unknown to some of them, it was a purely business. So, what we did was to expose that ‘Biafraud’ because that wasn’t Biafran struggle. That is ‘Biafraud’, and we exposed them and at the end of the day the thing was a plus.

Why then did you withdraw of your quit notice? The quit notice was moving round but on the 25th of August last year, we withdrew the quit notice, there was jubilation all over the nation. Even the federal government commended us and everybody was happy. The reason behind that was because we realised our elders were serious with us.

The Northern Governor’s forum under the leadership of Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State had in four or five occasions invited us. In fact, he came down to our place to hold meetings to ensure that we had a rethink on the issue because of the implications. The Sultan of Sokoto, prominent emirs from Kano and other places and so many people, even the Presidency told us ‘you have done well but please, have a rethink and withdraw the threat’.

We were touched and when we noticed that the other groups were responding, we decided to do so because we are not devils. Immediately we withdrew the quit notice because he (Kanu) was frustrated, he couldn’t get what he wanted, because his intention was that we would go ahead, so that we can disunite the country, so that there would be another civil war. That failed, he became more whirled. Two days after we withdrew the quit notice, there was an attack on our people in the East. Hausa people were killed, over 70 people were recorded. They did it because they wanted us to carry out reprisal attacks so that there will be war. You know what we did? We told our people not to retaliate. In fact, to show solidarity with Nigerians and those residing in Northern part, and to guarantee their safety, we instructed all our state chairmen to buy bids, singlets and rappers for the boys to dance on the streets. And the Hausa boys were busy dancing going to the Igbos areas, Sabon Gari and everywhere, that was what killed tension in the land. And we should be commended for that. No soul was touched in Northern part of the country, it has never happened. No shop was broken or burgled in the name of reprisal attack. Th at was what brought stability we are enjoying today. Th at was what brought the election in Anambra state.

When did your group discover that the APC federal government has not favoured the Northern Nigeria as you claimed? Well, we have not benefi tted anything and it is very simple to analyse it. One would have expected that the day we have our own as a President, he knew we have suff ered a lot. Despite the non-stewardship of Northern leaders; be it military or civilian government, the North has been backward in terms of education, in terms of infrastructural development, we are backward. Illiteracy is the order of the day. So, we feel strongly that former President Goodluck Jonathan did better for us than our own. Jonathan also empowered a lot of young people from the South south.

Today, you have some of our contemporaries that are billionaires from that region, and even the level of poverty in Niger Delta has been alleviated to a certain level even within their communities. But in our own case, Buhari came to the seat of governance what we have seen was nothing to write home about. There are no major projects in favour of the North, there is more poverty Did you actually call for the resignation of the president?

I did not call for his (Buhari’s) resignation. I didn’t. I was interviewed by SaharaTV and I raised a lot of fundamental issues where I said in 2019, and I have said it times without number that never again will l be part of those that will support anybody that is above 60 years of age. It is not news. It is about a new order. We need younger generation to come and inject something better to the system. So, there was nothing about what I said but I understand that one of the media platforms made headline of the story and came up to say that I said Buhari should resign. I am learned and I am very intelligent.

It hasn’t gone to that and if it gets to that level where we will seek for his resignation, we will still say it but I haven’t said that yet. But we are saying he should be allowed to finish his tenure peacefully. So at the end, Nigerians will have to decide whether they still want him back or not.

Some of your critics said that probably some politicians are sponsoring your group against the President, what is your reaction to this? Well, I am a realist. I say things the way they are no matter how ugly they may sound and they are always going to be bitter and that has been my track-record. I am close to President Muhammadu Buhari and I have known him for a very long time. But I am saying in this situation not because I do not believe in his person, his integrity, there is no doubt about that but what I have problem with right now, is about the way the government is being run.

The government is not run by an individual, it is a collective thing. When you have a team whose members do not have anything to offer the country, and on your own part also you are being constrained by your age, which is natural, then there is problem. Anybody who truly loves President Buhari would have known that he’s doing his best but his best is not being felt because of health and age. It is natural. Anybody in his shoes could have faced that.

Supposing members of his team are up and doing, well organised and very determined, perhaps, there would have been results. But where is the result today? The poverty in the country is high, the unemployment rate is increasing, the students today that have graduated from schools, a lot of them do not have any business than going to kidnappings, robbery and so on – that is for the males. Females are doing nothing other than prostitution. What kind of society is this?

And often time, when an issue come up, the only story is that we have inherited a lot of problems. Are we saying the APC government in the first instance was not aware of these problems before they took over government? If you were aware, you should have looked for solutions? What excuse do you have to tell Nigerians?

Among all the aspirants seeking to become president from the North in 2019, would you say anyone of them has met your criteria? We still have few months to the elections. We will consult our leaders and elders, communities, people and also extend the hands of fellowship to our counterparts in Southern part of the country because the issue of president of a country is not made by a particular region. It has to be collective. We will make sure we lobby the South to give us support, so that at the end of the day, we produce somebody that will be accepted in the country and the country first in his agenda.

What is your message for the youths in Nigeria, especially the Northern youths? My advice to them is that do not allow ourselves to be used by any political leader as thugs. We must be seen to be key players in the politics because we have come of age. By our experiences and knowledge today, we are vast and intelligent than most of the characters you see in the National Assembly, governors and whatever. We are also saying those younger ones seeking political offices must also be intelligent and experienced in leadership. Not the kind of calamities we have in Kogi and Kaduna state as governors because they are calamities and a disgrace to their states.

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