VANGUARD
The Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed advises President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to rush, but thread with care and not put too much burden on the already overburdened citizenry, adding that the effect of his policy such as liberalisation of the exchange regime, the increase in the cost of power, as well as the inevitable increase in school fees as a result of the education loan will add up to the burden of already overburdened Nigerians.
In this interview with Saturday Vanguard, he also counsels that the President should not appoint anyone with any slightest hint of corruption, emphasizing that Nigeria cannot stand more years of misgovernance, indifference and incompetence of Buhari. Excerpts.
What is happening in Kano now should be a source of concern for the Northern
Elders like you, don’t you see it as pettiness laced with vengeance?
It is a source of concern. If a legitimate government, elected to respect the rule of law will allocate land and it will be questioned in terms of impropriety then we have a very serious reason to worry. Also, if another government has reason for retrieving that land, except by demolishing all the buildings, then we have double jeopardy. It is difficult to see how to get out of this. Who does more wrong, is it the government that gave out land or the government that operates under the pretext of correcting the ills of past government, embarking on something that has a semblance of vengeance? We are worried and we have to find a way of breaking the vicious circle. Preceding governments have done so many things that are wrong and a new government will say we are going to upturn it. That is our worry now, not so much the buildings. This is a very serious issue, a country like Nigeria cannot progress with this caliber of people that became our governors and legislators. We have to find a way of breaking the circle. We are degenerating.
Is there any internal mechanism of the Northern Elders Forum deployed to call the governors to order?
Well, the governors are new. What we want to do is to start on a very strong footing with all the Northern governors. We are trying to encourage them to adopt uniform policies for a lot of issues that are absolutely essential to reducing insecurity, and poverty as well as dealing with the weaknesses of our traditional institutions and values; dealing with the issue of poor education, girl-child education, and the Al-Majiri education. We believe that we can encourage them to adopt a common position on all of these issues. We used to have one north, now we have 19 governors, a full-blown government with executive, legislators, and judiciary. There is no way we can progress with this style of governance. So, we will encourage them to rise above partisanship and rise above pettiness, and vengeance. Of course, we are worried about what individual governors are doing and that is why we have to caution them and offer words of advice. It is really disturbing. It is not the action of one governor, it is the fact that we don’t appear to understand that the rule of law must be maintained. If you don’t have business allocating land, then you shouldn’t do it even if you have the power under the law. Secondly, if you have the power to demolish buildings that must have cost billions of naira, don’t do it because you have the power, because it couldn’t have been the only option. In between the two positions, we ought to find a way.
