Former Minister of Information, Mr. Labaram Maku, speaks on the insecurity in the North, particularly Nassarawa State. The former governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) return a damning verdict on the Tanko Al-Makura administration: “The governor has failed in all facets.” He also exhumes confidence of a favourable ruling at the Nassarawa Governorship Election Tribunal. DGossip247 reports
What is your take on the increasing spate of insurgency in the country?
First of all, I want to express my displeasure over what is happening in my dear Nasarawa State. For three years under Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, the state has witnessed continuous violence. Now, what is happening in Nasarawa State is high level insurgency.
The same kind of insurgency you see in Borno and Yobe states is what is happening in Nasarawa State today. The initial communal crisis has since been replaced with insurgency, stretching across nine local government areas out of the 13. Those killing people today are hired mercenaries and insurgents. They are not from Nasarawa State. Everybody knows it.
Even they themselves have been saying so. And we have been crying, whoever had hired them should have pity on the people of this state. There is no week that blood is not flowing in Nasarawa State. Between the election of April 11 and now, we have lost close to 100 people in Nasarawa State.
Now, the situation there is getting worse with the withdrawal of these troops. I believe the president was not briefed about it. I believe he did not have the proper briefing, because if he did, he would know that after Borno and Yobe, the most violent state in the North-Central is Nasarawa State, because of the insurgency going on there.
Are you saying that the withdrawal of troops has boosted crime-related issues?
Since the withdrawal of troops, the robberies that are occurring between Abuja, Keffi, Akwanga and Lafia roads tell you clearly that insurgents and their collaborators mount roadblocks to rob people. Since the withdrawal of the roadblocks, and soldiers from Nasarawa State, kidnap has been introduced.
Operating from the knowledge I have had as a politician, as a citizen and as someone that has been in charge of security for some few months, I want to advise the Federal Government to redeploy those troops immediately to places they were taken from. At least that will stop those areas from becoming more vulnerable to attacks while we concentrate on the North-East. We have continued to cry because of Nasarawa State. Throughout the four years of Al-Makura in Nasarawa State, we have not experienced peace; everyday there is killing.
There is no peace at all. We tried to advise in writing, we advised orally, we spoke, but the killings are continuing, and like I said the last time, President Muhammadu Buhari must be surprised that he lost election in Nasarawa State. I am sure the president was surprised because he went to campaign in Lafia two times.
He went on his own first, they dragged him back through North-Central campaign in Lafia where he went to appeal for votes for himself and for the All Progressives Congress (APC). And considering the fact that the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) won Nasarawa State in 2011, I am sure that the president is surprised he lost election in Nasarawa in 2015.
He should not be shocked; the kind of violence associated with the Al-Makura regime, that was why on April 11, the people overwhelmingly rejected Al-Makura and voted for me under the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). But in writing the result and planting himself there, the violence has continued.
I offered a platform for peace, I spoke frankly about it and the people believed me because they could not wait for May 29, so that they can be free from the mercenaries and return to their homes. Now their agonies have been prolonged with Al-Makura forcing himself on the state. While we continue to go through the tedious process of the tribunal, because as you know, the constitution has been changed. It is no longer as it was in 1999 where every election related petitions would be heard before people are sworn in.
They are taking advantage that you can steal election result and remain until the court finally catches up with you, and it takes a long time. So, you will be there for sometime while people are crying.
So, we are calling for special attention on Nasarawa State and return of the troops. I know for sure that at the right moment, the Al-Makura regime will vacate for the elected government of APGA in Nasarawa State to come on board. By then, things would be alright.
We assure the Federal Government that Nasarawa State will cooperate with the president to have absolute peace. I believe that by the time APGA recovers the stolen mandate in Nasarawa State, the president can at least sleep with his two eyes closed, because Nasarawa State will be quite, given the situation I saw that people are hungry for peace. Insecurity is a major problem in Nasarawa today because robbery has increased.
What is your take on the financial state of Nassarawa?
I keep crying on the level of poverty in Nasarawa State. If the president didn’t release money as bailout, workers in Nasarawa would not be paid at all. Even state workers are not been paid until this emergency intervention.
People keep talking about Federal Government. Let me tell you, last four years, Nasarawa State received nothing less than N150 billion because for most of the last four years, oil price was up, Nasarawa State was given an average of N2 billion monthly. So, if you calculate that, it is about N96 billion. Then Al-Makura went and took a loan of N30 billion, which amounts to N126 billion from allocation and the loan.
That is beside the SURE-P money that went to Nasarawa for the state and local government. Nobody saw anything. This is in addition to the excess crude account sharing that took place in the last four years. That money went into state coffers. If you look at the Universal Basic Education fund, when you put all these monies together, you will not have anything less than N150 billion in the last four years. Where has all these monies gone?
On the roadside, you will discover that they make sure they renovate primary schools along the major roads so that anytime the president is going to Lafia he will say the state government is working.
The moment you go one kilometre from the main road, schools are abandoned. When I went for campaign I saw what is happening, because of the level of deprivation. Pupils are sitting on the floor, no roof, no desk in classrooms, no window, no door.
You see a school of about 1000 pupils and the classrooms are not more than three. That is why you see we are suffering. If I receive such money as a state governor, I can assure you that I know what to do. I will make sure I block all the leakages, all the loopholes to ensure that the money is deployed in my state. I cannot be governor in a state and people are killed anyhow. What am I governor for? It is to ensure the security of my state. From what I see in Nasarawa State, the major source of insecurity in the north is from the states.
Wherever you have governors that are serious, you will not have insecurity in that state. I want to single out a few governors for praise. I believe that the Federal Government will never find a solution to crisis in the northern states except the governors rise up to occasion.
What is your hope on your petition at the election tribunal?
We are already at the tribunal, our hope is that in the next couple of months, he (Al-Makura) would be shown the door so that we can inaugurate the elected government of Nasarawa State, to bring back peace and security. Once Nasarawa State is destabilised, Benue is destabilised, Plateau is destabilised, Kogi and even Abuja. And if we don’t do something to ensure peace in the state, the surrounding states could be affected. So, it is a major project. Now, for the monies that have been collected without result, there is hardly anything I can say now, but I will appeal to the people is to continue to pray fervently that the tribunal will end the illegitimate government of Al-Makura and return power to the elected government under APGA. We can establish the basis for proper utilisation of resources and restoration of peace in Nasarawa State.
Recently, the Nasarawa State Government said workers should start paying development levy. What is your take on this?
If there is proper accountability of resources, everybody will like to make a contribution. If people can see that the money voted for the state is properly used, and the government is looking for more resource, people will cooperate.
But we have a state where the governor has taken N100 million every month in the name of security vote for four years, which amounts to N4.8 billion and there is no security. What we are seeing instead is insurgency, mercenaries imported into the state and people being killed on their farms, women raped, people beheaded in Nasarawa State.
Even the money for flood victims that was given in 2012, the money did not reach the people. Now, the allocation for four years amounting to close to over N100 billion or over, what did the governor do with it? The N30 billion he collected as loan, what did he do with it? The money from SURE-P for local government, where did it go? Where did the UBE money go? The money from Excess Crude Account, where did our own go? When you talk they will go and show you one kilometre road in Lafia.
When you put all these roads together, they are not up to 30 to 40 kilometres in the whole of Nasarawa State in the last four years. In addition to that, our villages are left abandoned; workers are not paid. So, ordinarily, people would vote for the development of the state. The people want to see a government that is accountable. That is using the money to develop the state, and the people will even volunteer if there is a government in Nasarawa State today that is transparent, where contracts do not go to only one family; younger and elder brothers.
Where the rest of the state is feeling the impact of development, people will contribute. Our people are used to community development. There are places in Nasarawa State where people are developing and running their schools. The major problem we have is when you give this money to government and it goes into blind holes, then it becomes unfair. People want to see the impact of the taxes. He took a loan on our behalf, even when we cried against it, he refused. The SURE-P fund was blown away, regular allocation from federation account blown away, UBE fund blown away.
Are you saying it’s wrong for government to tax her citizens?
If the government is taxing citizens to make sacrifices, it is not wrong. But towards what end? What is going on? The result on ground does not show that those sacrifices being called for will result to any development. If they collected these monies and the lives of the people have not changed, instead they are dying on a daily basis, why will you add more burden on the people? When I am paying tax and there are no teachers to teach my children, your own children are in Dubai and in America, this is the problem.
Are you in anyway trying to alert the anti-graft agencies to investigate the state government?
I am not a whistle-blower. If people are paid to do their work, am I the one to tell them to do it? I have never called for the probe of any government. It is not my responsibility to do that. I am saying what we want in Nasarawa State is government that is elected to be inaugurated. If I am elected, I am not elected to probe anybody. All I know is that if I am given two years, I am going to change the situation of the state. I am not calling for the probe of anybody. I am saying let them go. They should stop inflicting pains on people.
With the concern you raised, it seems the citizens of Nasarawa State have not done anything to bring the government of Al-Makura to accountability.
What can the citizens do? Citizens can only change a government when election is due. In 2011, people believed that the government of Aliyu Akwe Doma was slow and there were lots of sentiments against him. But one thing you can give to Doma is that throughout his four years in government, there was no violence.
Violence started as soon as Al-Makura came and it is becoming like a cancer. You can see clearly. In 2001, there was violence and we brought it to an end. But now, four years under one administration, there is violence everywhere. Look at the killings after the election, where more than 70 people were killed in Kadorko/Keana axis and nothing happened.
The truth of the matter is that the people of Nasarawa State have been the most conscious in the entire North Central. In 2011, Al-Makura came with promises that he will bring peace, people voted out a sitting government that actually gave them peace for four years and brought Al- Makura, hoping that peace would continue instead they are dying. This year, the people brought the government into account by voting out Al-Makura. So, what do you want the people to do? The people voted him out.
There was no way government like that of Al-Makura could be re-elected by the people who are concerned about their women being raped by insurgents. That was why they overwhelmingly voted him out. But, they collaborated to rigged the election. The people are saying, we didn’t vote this man; what is he still doing in Government House? The people have risen up to the occasion. It is imposition through rigging that we are seeing now. Sending false policemen and soldiers to hijack results, to rewrite results, you can’t blame that on the people.
They have changed two governments; they brought one thinking he would bring development, he brought violence. They lost both peace and development.
What is your plan at restoring peace and order in Nasarawa State should the tribunal rule in your favour?
First of all, I have been in Nasarawa politics since 1999. I was Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs. I was part of the process that restored peace to Nasarawa State between 2001 and 2002. In Toto, where there was a major crisis between the Bassa and Ebira people, the problem was solved under the then administration in which I served.
We were able to return peace to Nasarawa State. I was on the committee that brought about reconciliation; I contributed in writing the paper for peace in Nasarawa State, which was held at a special retreat in NIPSS Kuru. Our paper was adopted as the document that has the solution to restoring peace in the North-Central then.
In addition to this, I have been a journalist, been in politics, I have been trained as a peace worker for reconciliation. I have been a programme manager with USAID working across communities in the country. We went to all areas where there was communal crisis to resolve them. And giving my long experience in government in Nasarawa; commissioner for four years, deputy governor for four years, I know Nasarawa State. I know the communities and all of them want peace.
The problem in Nasarawa State is ‘divide and rule’ politics.
There is a small percentage of people who believe that if they set Nasarawa State on fire, they will continue to remain in power. I went round communities during the campaigns and I am in touch with virtually all communities in the state. I know what they want. They want peace, but there is no government on ground prepared to work for peace.
When I become governor, in two months, I will bring Nasarawa State to sustainable peace. Most of the machineries that have been killing people will know that their sponsors are no longer in power. They would run away and those villages will have peace again.
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