L-R: Aregbesola, Jonathan, Obanikoro
The
Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, in this interview speaks on the Ekiti governorship election and
efforts made by the Federal Government towards rescuing the schoolgirls
abducted from Chibok, Borno State
What’s your view on the forthcoming Osun State governorship election?
I see the Peoples Democratic Party
winning this election and I’ll tell you why. Despite the propaganda
going on, you can see that in real terms these guys have not done
anything and people are not stupid. Look at the accumulation of debt.
The debt profile of Osun State is frightening. For a state without an
industrial base; for an agrarian state like Osun to pile up the kind of
debt the present governor has accumulated is mortgaging the future of
the state. Sometimes we underestimate people; we think people are not
learned enough to understand and appreciate what is happening around
them. They do. This is one of the reasons why Aregbesola would be kicked
out of office.
Some people have criticised you
over your involvement in the Ekiti State governorship election, saying
you should visit Chibok, Borno State, instead of going about politicking
and capturing South-West states for the PDP.
We did not capture anywhere. We won the
hearts of the voters in Ekiti State and they voted for the PDP. We are
trying to replicate the same thing here in Osun. We are not here to
capture. The era of slavery is gone. We are urging people to come out
and express themselves without fear of intimidation. The noise; the
hullabaloo you are hearing borders on the fact that we know them too
well and their capacity to rig elections. They are not interested in one
man, one vote. They are interested in multiple voting, fraudulent
manipulations of election results. We have seen that if Yoruba people
are allowed, they would vote against the All Progressives Congress and
that is what we have seen in Ekiti. Ekiti election was the voice of the
people. There is no way the election would have been manipulated without
an uproar after the election. That people were rejoicing is to say the
least that the people had expressed themselves. If you look at the
development they are ascribing to themselves, you’ll see that these are
cosmetic developments that will not stand the test of time. People are
clamouring for change; change that they believe will add value to them,
not somebody trying to impose something alien on the society. That is
what they are trying to do across South-West states. Ekiti has fallen; I
don’t have any doubt in our mind that Osun will also fall.
The APC has said the PDP
hierarchy stopped its leaders from taking part in the Ekiti election
process by refusing them entry into the state to campaign for their
candidate.
As I speak to you, these people are
bringing people in buses to come and influence the election in Osun
State. That is what they attempted in Ekiti. They wanted to introduce
violence, so that they can have the opportunity to rig the election. Not
a single gunshot was heard in Ekiti during the election. The turnout
for that election was extremely high and yet there was no incidence of
gunshot; no incidence of moderate or extreme violence. That is what
election is all about. Now they are bringing in people in droves into
Osun to influence the outcome of the election. It’s unacceptable to me.
The APC said you should visit Chibok and fashion out ways to rescue the kidnapped girls.
They say I should have been in Chibok,
but I tell you that it is extreme religious sentiments that brought us
where we are in Chibok. Are we going to close our eyes and allow these
characters bring the same thing to Yorubaland? Extreme religious
sentiments bring about intolerance and when there is intolerance; people
begin to exhibit tendencies that could wreak havoc on the society. All
of us must stand up against that. Whether I’m in Chibok or not, all
hands are on deck to ensure that we bring the insurgency to an end.
Terrorism is not easy to fight. We have a history of terrorism across
the world. Even the almighty America has not been able to overcome the
terrorism in Afghanistan. Even in the United States, there was bombing
about two years ago during the Boston marathon. That is to tell you that
to end terrorism is not a 100 metre dash. It is a marathon. Let’s not
be deceived, we did not create it, it is their associate that created
it. All we are doing is to clean up the mess they created. To now turn
it into politics and try to get political mileage out of it is not fair
to the people of this country; it’s not fair to the people of Borno
State. All hands must be on deck to eliminate this problem, which did
not happen overnight. It’s an accumulation of neglect and insensitivity
on their part. Don’t forget that this was a domestic issue that was left
unattended to that grew into national significance. If a responsible
chairman of a local government in conjunction with a responsible
governor had attacked this from the outset; it would not be a national
issue that it is today. When I was a local government chairman, if any
crime occurred in my local government area, I could tell you the
characters behind it. Whenever I called the police area commander, I was
always specific on the areas they should look at. This thing should
have been sorted out at that level. It escalated to the state level and
it was not addressed, now it has become a national issue. They are just
shameless. Their associate presided over this crisis without resolving
it and yet they have the mouth to say Obanikoro has not gone to Chibok
to do the needful. When the West African Examination Council wrote a
letter to these characters that the students taking the examination
should be transferred to Maiduguri, where were they? We are working but
we are not going to discuss security matters on the pages of newspapers.
That is what they can’t understand but we do. We are going to shame
them. We are on top of the game and we are going to win the battle.
Why haven’t you been to Chibok at least to assess the situation?
It’s not being in Chibok physically that
matters. What matters is what we are doing to bring our children back.
It is what we are doing to ensure that the Boko Haram menace is
completely checked that matters.
The Minister of Finance, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, recently said the Chibok issue was not handled properly
by the Federal Government in terms of communication.
It was not handled properly because the
governor of the state didn’t listen to the advice given to him. If he
had listened to the advice, there probably would have been no abduction
in the first place. The issue is already out there, I don’t want to
start casting blame on anybody. The issue is that we have a job to do
and we are doing it and we are going to get it done.
Do you think the Chibok girls will be brought back alive?
All I can tell you authoritatively is that at some point we will bring this issue to finality.
Has the foreign intervention been effective?
The collaboration is ongoing. As I told
you, fighting terrorism is not easy. It will take some time before this
whole issue is resolved. We appeal to Nigerians to be patient with
government and extremely vigilant. Intelligence gathering is very
crucial and there is no better way to effectively gather intelligence
than for all of us to be our brothers’ keeper. If something strange is
happening in my neighbourhood, it is my responsibility to call the
attention of security agencies to it. If we all take up that challenge
responsibly, I’m sure this wave of bombings will reduce.
Second Republic Governor of
Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, said the involvement of foreign security
agents in the Chibok issue was unpatriotic, insisting that the Federal
Government has the capacity to handle the abduction of the schoolgirls
alone.
I totally disagree with him. People can
criticise when they are outside government but when you are in
government and all the issues are before you, you are in a better
position to determine the best action to take at any given time. The
world has become a global village; someone who sits in Nigeria and
thinks that what affects Nigeria does not affect other countries must be
joking. Look at the picture of a Nigerian with a bomb diaper going to
bomb a passenger plane in America. Is that a local or international
issue? It goes to show that if a Nigerian could be recruited to bomb the
US, then this issue of terrorism cannot be localised. We cannot rule
out the infiltration of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups from what is
the happening in Nigeria. With all due respect to Mallam Balarabe Musa,
he is wrong in this instance. It makes a lot of sense to have an
interface with countries that have experience in fighting terrorism.
America, Israel and some Arab countries have gone through it and are
still going through it. There is no better way to deal with situations
than ensuring that people with requisite capacities are brought in to be
of assistance.
Based on the amount of work done in rescuing the Chibok girls, how long would it take to bring them back?
On the issue of terrorism, I can’t put a
timeframe to it because I don’t want to be wrong. All I can say is that
we will not rest until we overcome this challenge. This is a challenge
to our generation. To every generation there is a challenge. For the
generation of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and co it was the struggle for
independence and they were able to overcome it. The next generation was
faced with the challenge of military rule and they overcame it. We will
overcome our own challenges.
How is your party handling the crisis in Ogun State involving Buruji Kashamu and former President Olusegun Obasanjo?
We will resolve everything and we will win Ogun State.
PUNCH
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