Boko Haram: Internal, external conspiracies against Nigeria – Balarabe Musa

Former governor of old Kaduna state and immediate past national chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, is a veteran of Nigerian politics with over 40 years experience. In this interview with ABDULRAHEEM AODU, he bares his mind on the challenges he foresees in next month’s general elections, limited options available to Nigerians and the people behind insurgency in the north.

The much-awaited general elections come up next month, how would you assess the conduct of political parties?

It shows lack of seriousness arising from lack of confidence that there won’t be free, fair and transparent elections leading to a legitimate government.

You can see that the campaign is generally at a low level and serious issues affecting national unity, democracy and progress even development of the country are not being taken on. The debate in the media is particularly generally limited to PDP and APC and their presidential candidates, none of whom is demonstratively, qualitatively and credibly different from the other, and most of whom there is no fundamental alternative to any of them. This is the tragedy of Nigeria now, which can lead to anything negative or positive.

Would you say the campaign, especially of the two leading presidential candidates, is issue-based?

None of them is issue-based and if by coincidence issues are mentioned they turn out not to be fundamental. We know the negative state of the nation as characterised by unemployment, poverty and hunger, insecurity, corruption etc are directly the result of the social, economic and political conditions controlling all developments in the country and this system has produced a leadership characteristic to it. And unless you change the system and the leadership controlling all developments in the country, you cannot have what we need most which is national unity, equality, democracy and even development of the country.

This is possible only if we start with three fundamental things; one: a leading role of the state in the economy to ensure peace, equality, justice, dignity of human person and progressive even development of the country.

Two: free, fair and transparent elections leading to a legitimate government in which the voter controls the state of the political parties and eliminate candidates.

Three: drastic reduction of the level of poverty, hunger and corruption.

You were reported recently in the media to have expressed preference for Muhammadu Buhari over Atiku Abubakar. What informed this?

I did not express preference for Buhari over Atiku, I said both of them and their parties constitute tragedy for Nigeria. In other words, there is no demonstrative, credible and qualitative difference between them. The election of any of them would not improve the situation in the country. It can even make it worse and the alternative which is a third force does not appear possible because of the leading role of stolen money power in politics and election.

I don’t see any way any of the two candidates or parties can change the negative state of the nation for the better. But I also added that I pray that we would not be forced to choose any of the two on the basis of who will do less harm to our parties and to the country.

Are you implying that there is no hope for the country in next month’s election?

No, the only party which differs fundamentally from all the 91 registered political parties is the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) which has now been priced out by the politicians as a result it has no presidential candidate. It is only contesting other elections.

Against the backdrop of Buhari’s anti-corruption war, what is your take on the allegation by the PDP candidate that Buhari’s family acquired 9mobile and Keystone Bank?

The Nigerian media, if it is truly relevant, should thoroughly investigate the allegation and guide Nigerians accordingly because this is the time for choice based on trust, which can only be done by the media and civil society organisations. There are accusations of corruption on both sides and against the two political parties and candidates. The media and civil societyOrganisations should investigate, in depth, and guide Nigerians against continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again.

What is your take on INEC’s preparation for the polls?

Let me tell you, INEC is not capable of conducting what Nigerians needs and that is free, fair and transparent elections leading to a legitimate government because the conditions and the laws do not make it possible for INEC to do so. INEC may demonstrate marginal capability that is not capable of changing anything because it is not sufficiently independent. Take for instance, the number of unclaimed PVCs throughout the country and the difficulty of collecting these PVCs by the ordinary people who have to travel long distances at financial cost to collect them at the local government headquarters. The other example is some of the people who have the PVC may not easily be able to vote because of the financial cost of doing so at this time of poverty facing the common man.

The recent upsurge in insurgency comes amidst claims by the federal government that the Boko Haram elements had been degraded. Do this and other security challenges playing dominant role in deciding who wins the presidential poll?

Yes, of course. The insecurity posed by Boko Haram will give the government in power the opportunity to rig the election and the insecurity is not limited to the North-east, it is now appearing in the North-west especially Katsina, Kaduna and Zamfara states, and may, before the elections, appear in many more states.

This definitely can give the government opportunity to rig the elections, so that the elections are not even possible or if it is possible, it is undecided and the government in power will remain in power beyond 2019 because there is no elected president to hand over power to in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

How did the security challenge in the North get to this level?

The security challenge in the North got to this level because the calculation of the opponents of Nigeria, both internal and external, it is that if you can destabilise the North, it is easier to destabilise the whole country for various reasons of history, population, and geographical logistics. There is no way you can destabilise Nigeria without destabilising the North.

Are you saying there is a conspiracy against the country?

Yes, there are conspiracies against the country, both internal and external. The internal conspiracy is made by corrupt political leaders of the country, who know that there is a day of reckoning and they want to prevent that day coming by destabilising the country so that no government can face them effectively.

That explains why we have this coalition, Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), for the purpose of defeating APC which is now in power, even though no better than PDP, because how can you explain this coalition between individuals in the PDP, who don’t differ from the individuals in the APC in terms of the misdeeds they committed in the past. This CUPP mentions only the desire to unseat APC.

There is also the international conspiracy; Nigeria has the capability of emerging as one of the five most developed countries in the world within 20 years. Nigeria has the capacity and this threatens those countries that are now most developed exploiting and oppressing other countries. The so called neo-colonialist powers and imperialists, whose continuing existence cannot be denied.

So, why are the Northern leaders not speaking up despite the daunting security challenges, is this a conspiracy of silence?

No, these northern leaders conspire with their counterparts in the South to maintain the inequality in the system and country for their own benefit. For example, they conspire to decide where the President will come from at anytime and they have been doing so since colonial times.

Right now, the ruling class in Nigeria, both in the North and South, have decided for their own benefit that the President should come from the North because their Northern faction is more capable of ruling the country in their own interest in spite of all the controversies. Though, we have outstanding, demonstrative, credible and qualitative people from the South contesting for the Presidency, the South and the North have donated the position to the North like they always do.

I’m not against rotation of power, but let it be done in the interest of equality and democracy not in the interest of the ruling class, which is less in number but more united than the masses.

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