Former military administrator of Ekiti State, Col. Mohammed Inuwa Bawa (retd) has decried Federal Government’s officials handling of information on the health of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, saying as number one citizen, matters relating to the president’s welfare is neither the preserve of the Peoples Democratic Party nor his family.

Col. Bawa made the comment in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun against the background of recent conflicting media reports on the president’s health condition. Government had stated that the President Yar’Adua traveled to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, lesser hajj. The position was later revised to include the fact that he took ill and sought treatment while on the pilgrimage, as speculations mounted that he was undergoing kidney transplant surgery in the Arabian country.

Bawa, however, said “They should have told us the truth and many Nigerians would have prayed for him,” stressing that there was no need to play hide-and-seek with Nigerians on their president.”
“We don’t want anything to happen to Yar’Adua now. He is more useful to us alive than dead, even to us in the opposition,” Bawa stressed.
The former military administrator also spoke about the lingering Niger Delta crisis, describing the militants as criminals and urging the Federal Government to take decisive action to resolve the problem.

The full interview below:
Tackling the Niger Delta crisis
The Niger Delta issue is very unfortunate for this country. It did not start with this administration. It started many years ago but escalated during the last regime, because Obasanjo believed in settlement. He believes money can be used to settle anybody. The danger in that is that once you do it, you will attract more people who will seek for that same treatment.

The Niger Delta issue can be classified in three broad categories: There is the criminality, which is the one that is now in focus. These are criminalities by the youths, being sponsored by big politicians and some big time criminals. These Niger Delta militants are nothing but criminals. They partake in this illegal bunkering and it is through it that they get their arms supply and they are being sponsored by big guns. They have also deviated to kidnapping and killings, which are not part of the agitation for the improvement of the environment.

The second is the neglect by the governments that constitute the Niger Delta area in spite of the large allocation from the federation account in terms of derivation and so on.
The third category is the innocent Niger Deltans who constitute about 95 per cent of the population. These are the people bearing the brunt of the whole scenario. Now what can we do? The Federal Government has set up the military Joint Task Force to combat the activities of the militants, but unfortunately not so much impact is being felt. They also have to cope with the political imposition creeping in. From time to time, you hear people calling for withdrawal of the joint task force of the Niger Delta. I do not think we are serious in solving this Niger Delta issue.

If we are, a serious situation like that deserves a very firm reaction from the government. Obviously, some innocent people might suffer, but that is part of it. To solve the problem, this illegal bunkering, which has assumed a large dimension beyond comprehension, has to be controlled by the navy. The navy has to screen all ships coming to the Nigerian territorial waters and this must be done as if we are in a war situation. They must ensure that any ship coming in does not have arms on board and any jetty that is being loaded must be under the watchful eye of the navy.

In the night, the navy must be at alert. In fact, it must have 24 hours patrol of our territorial waters. It should be empowered to stop and search all vessels entering our waters. It is going to be inconvenient for some of our importers but in terms of national security, that has to be done.
Secondly, the Joint Task Force should now go in using intelligence. Without intelligence, we will just be fighting ghost water. There must be very good intelligence network that will be feeding the joint task force with specific targets they must go in to neutralize and get out. Otherwise, we shall still be experiencing what is happening now, whenever they go in, they will be recording a lot of civilian casualties and so on. Intelligence is vital in that area. The police, the army and the State Security Service (SSS) must have their intelligence units and we can even have foreign intelligent service because they have their satellites and electronic intelligence, which can be utilized to reduce civilian casualties.

The other thing that needed to be done is to call to caution the Niger Delta governors and to properly scrutinize what they have been doing with their federal allocations. During Obasanjo’s regime one of them bought a jet, while they are still claiming that people were suffering in the region. They get a lot of money and these have been published for all to see but nobody is cautioning them on what they have been doing with that money. The EFCC or whatever instrument the Federal Government has, must be put in place to monitor what the governors are doing with their derivation, allocation, etc. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) must be properly supervised. With the controversy surrounding it and others like it created in the past, I would say we should have a rethink on whether the commissions are necessary or not.

A former boss of the development commission (Names withheld) made his money and left and nothing was done about it and some people from the region were even saying, ‘afterall he is our son and it’s our money’. Another one has recently happened again. So, the Federal Government has to reconsider whether it is actually necessary to have that kind of commission. In fact, relevant federal ministries can go in and do what is necessary there. For instance, the federal ministry of education can go in and establish more schools where necessary. Ministry of Works can do the same on roads. A lot of money is being sunk into Niger Delta through derivation and the commissions but they are to no effect.

We must not forget that there are many other areas in this country that need the Federal Government’s attention, but because of the criminal activities of the militants, all attention are on it. For instance, areas around Kainji Dam that produce electricity for this country are being submerged in water. I can talk about it because I am from there. My original village, Yauri is now under River Niger. We were located and our farmlands have been submerged and a lot of economic trees, and a very beautiful island, which we called Koge Island in Yauri emirate with trees such as timber etc has been submerged. Incidentally, most of the occupants of that island are from the Niger Delta and they are still there. Someone can go there and asked them about their experiences. A lot of economic activities has been stopped and nobody is hearing from us. Is it because we do not take arms and start kidnapping people? If we do not handle the issue of Niger Delta very well, it will now become a norm that for you to be noticed, you have to take up arms.

Foreign military intervention
There is a merit and demerit to that suggestion. The merit is that the militants have internationalized the conflict. Therefore, all our partners have a stake in that area, because their nationals or their interest is being threatened. If they feel that the Nigerian government cannot handle the situation, they have to take a step to safeguard their interest, but that cannot come without Nigeria inviting them, because Nigeria is a sovereign country. It can seek their help in providing intelligence, but not to come in and intervene directly or by bringing warship. They can also help us in policing our territorial water in conjunction with our navy.

Retired service chiefs’ involvement in Niger Delta
I hope it does not turn out to be true. I believe it cannot be true. I know the calibre of officers the retired service chiefs were. If you say some members of the armed forces were involved, I would not fault it because the armed forces are part of the Nigerian society. In the past the armed forces have been very well above board but things have changed greatly with the coming of democracy etc. If some members of the armed forces have been involved in arms running and oil bunkering, I will not fault the allegation even though it is very unfortunate. The new service chiefs and Chief of Defence Staff now have the responsibility of looking internally and actually going in to clean the services and flush out the miscreants that are there. I cannot in my wildest dream think that some of the retired service chiefs could be involved in such things. I know most of them and I think they should be above board.

President’s health and the nation
As a Nigerian, even though I know there were some underhand dealings during Obasanjo’s regime, I would not say he was planted there intentionally because his health was failing. His emergence as presidential candidate was no doubt a surprise to many Nigerians because there were many frontrunners that expressed their desire in the PDP to contest. All of a sudden Yar’Adua somehow emerged. Well, we can say it is the will of God, because that is the easiest way to dismiss issues. So, it is the will of God and the hands of Obasanjo to some extent. People knew that Yar’Adua had some ailment when he was the governor of Katsina State but we did not know its extent. As God would have it and as Prof Maurice Iwu of INEC would have it, he is now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Right from the onset, all the speculation about his ill-health has been going on with a lot of denials till this time when the issue came to light. This is very unfortunate. I would not want to say something just because President Yar’Adua is a Northerner and I am a Northerner. He is the President of this country and ceases to be a Northerner.

He is the father of all Nigerians. He is a central figure we all look up to, forget about legitimacy. The issue of his ill-health is a great concern to all Nigerians. I must add my voice to those that have said that the Presidency and his (President’s) team are mishandling the issue of his ill-health. Since he became the president, he has ceased to be the preserve of the PDP and even the preserve of his wife, Turai. He is the preserve of all Nigerians and therefore we deserve to know what is happening to him. Just as someone said, they should have told us the truth and many Nigerians would have prayed for his quick recovery and better health. Nobody, not even the enemies of Yar’Adua will wish him dead now. There was no need to play hide-and-seek with Nigerians on their own President. It is very unfortunate the way they are handling things. That is why many people say things are not going smoothly in Nigeria today.

This is because the people running the government and those in the Presidency are amateurs who don’t know what to do. If they can bungle the President’s birthday, the issue of his being flown out to have a surgery, how can pressing national issues be well-handled by them? It is unfortunate. I think the President needs more mature people that can handle issues around him properly. Life and death are in the hands of God. We don’t want anything to happen to Yar’Adua now. He is more useful to us alive than dead, even to us in the opposition. We wish him quick recovery and we hope that once he recovers and comes back, he is coming back a re-invigorated person. And things have not been working fine in this country.

Probably the sickness had kept him a little bit low and slow in the way the country should be run. The government is over one year in office and things are not taking shape. If the truth must be told, a lot of things have deteriorated in this country. The prices of foodstuff have escalated, the road network is becoming worse, especially during the rainy season and the insecurity in the country is something one cannot comprehend. There are so many problems. We know as a human being he cannot tackle all at the same time, but at least something should be seen to being done. By now the Federal Government could have focused on two main issues and gone into them with zeal and people will know that when the other issues start receiving attention they will also get due attention.

Faith in the judiciary and the re-run elections
The Yar’Adua administration came in with the legitimacy question and it promoted the rule of law to the highest level. Many people have questioned this issue of rule of law, saying it is only applicable when it suits the PDP. Events that have happened in this country with the nullification of so many governorship or senatorial elections and these instances where re-run elections were ordered have put the judiciary to test. Sometimes the appellate court gives some bizarre judgment, making one to wonder whether the rule of law is actually another means of buying popularity for the present government and underneath it is business as usual.

Some of the rulings especially by the appellate court even to us as laymen and judging by the facts put before them, it seems the judges are not living in Nigeria or they came from Mars to deliver the judgement and after that, they go away. That is the only way I can explain their judgment or else they are being teleguided. I believe something is drastically wrong. In all the cases where re-run elections were ordered, it is the people that had their election nullified that were always coming back (winning re-run polls). I do not know if it is by sheer coincidence but they were always from the ruling party, the PDP.

My party, the Action Congress has stated right from the outset that no re-run election must take place until after the Electoral Reform Committee had submitted its report and it has been accepted and the anomalies rectified. This would enable us to see the impact of the electoral reform. But now things have gone the way the PDP wanted despite the rule of law conundrum President Yar’Adua has brought to us. Something is really wrong. To me as a layman, if an election is nullified, that means something was wrong during the election and the beneficiary of that election has broken an electoral law and even the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He should therefore not be allowed to re-contest that election and he should be prosecuted. The party that produced him should either be banned from the election or be allowed to have a substitute.

This also brings out a lot of legal dilemma. Someone who has been in office for six or nine months or a year has had his election nullified. That means all the actions he took within those periods were null and void but nobody is talking about this. Everybody is silent. If someone’s election is annulled, it means he was never elected in the first place, so what happens to all the actions he took in that period he was holding office? What happens to all the salaries and allowances he took? Nobody is talking about that. Now all of them have come back. It is the day they were re-sworn in that will be taken as their first day in office. So the former period that they were annulled is now blank in the annals of that state. Nobody is discussing this issue.

That is why someone whose election was annulled should not be allowed to re-contest. And the period he held office should be put under scrutiny so that we know what he has to refund as the chief executive for that period, all the salaries and allowances he took. So, we can now accept that that period was a blank space and there was no government in place. The electoral reform committee has to come out with a workable suggestion. It must agree that nobody must be sworn in until after the disposal of all cases; otherwise we will still have this legal conundrum, which is not being addressed by anyone.

What has happened with all those whose elections were nullified and are now coming back after re-election simply means those judges that annulled their elections did not know what they were doing. We have just wasted a lot of time, money and other resources, which should not have been wasted. This issue must be looked at seriously.

The other parties must have now realized that they were bad cases, which they should not have pursued in the first place. The best thing is for opposition to forget about election for now. It is a waste of resources. We are just wasting money in this country. All those whose elections were nullified should just have been asked to be re-sworn in. The INEC is working in consonant with the ruling party and we will just be pumping money to INEC all the time for re- election whose result is already known. Our democracy needs a lot of injection. This is no democracy at all.