I have fears for APC- Izuogu
By Iheanacho Nwosu
Dr Ezekiel Izuogu is a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) now christened Council of Elders of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He is worried about happenings in his party warning that wrangling in the governing party could spell doom for it. The former governorship candidate also spoke on the Fulani herdsmen controversy, the fight against corruption and the cry of alienation by the South East zone.
Excerpts:
Where do you stand on the herdsmen issue?
I was at the National Conference two years ago, and this issue of herdsmen took a lot of our time. We were discussing, debating on whether they should be restricted to certain parts of the country or whether they should have the freedom to move around the country and things like that. The discussion had some people who supported and some who disagreed. We know that the herdsmen are engaged in what they consider a business, which takes them around. The idea of some of them carrying weapons is what I do not understand. Some of them are armed so that they can attack people , they can do a number of very funny things. Look at the issue of going to Enugu to kill people. There are also cases of rape and a number of things that are very unpalatable. Frankly speaking, there is a lot of confusion in the whole thing. I agree with the Sultan of Sokoto, who recommended that there should be a probe.
There should be a probe so that we can know exactly what is happening. If there are genuine herdsmen who are ready to do their work without harassing other people, no problem, we all eat what they trade. So, they should be encouraged but if it is mixed with criminality, then it becomes a terrible thing. If there is a hidden agenda, it becomes a terrible thing and there should be a way of tackling it.
I don’t know much about them but I agree with the Sultan of Sokoto that there should be a proper investigation to know exactly what they are doing; whether they engage in a legitimate business in trying to survive or if there is a mix up. If there is a mix up, then it is very funny for everybody, for the whole country. There are reports in Benue where people are being killed, same in Taraba and now in Enugu. Nigeria needs to be properly managed. I was happy when President Buhari also condemned the activities of the herdsmen and said there should be a proper probe. If there is a proper probe by honest people, I am sure that things can be better for Nigeria as a whole. We are not saying that there should be no herdsmen, we are not saying so. But we are saying that whatever they are doing should not be hazardous to the other citizens. If I am a trader in Adawama State, I should not allow the goods I am selling to kill innocent people; if I am a driver, I should not allow my car to kill innocent people who are using the road.
I can do my work without hurting other people, that is the point we are making. In other words, there should also be some organizations about the nature of their work. Supposing the federal government confines them to a forest like Sambisa , would that be alright? Will it serve their purpose? Will it be good for the whole of Nigeria? These are things we have to study and organize it well if there is a legitimate business in it. It should be properly organized so that nobody is punished.
I agree with him, if he made such comments. I agree with him that no government has actually gone into this thing to find out; there is no doubt that there is a genuine business in what they are doing but the problem is, if it is not properly organized, there can be abuses. What people are complaining about in Nigeria are the abuses associated with it. Is there a way that it can be so organized that those abuses are not there? That is what the government should be concerned about. In other words, government needs to set up a powerful committee to study the situation and make recommendations and those recommendations would be incumbent on those herdsmen to obey in other to operate effectively. If they operate in such atmosphere, they will not become hazardous to other people.
Are you in support of the grazing bill in the National Assembly?
I have heard about the bill but have not studied it. Generally, people are opposed to it; many think it is going to lead to abuses. I am of the opinion that the principal thing is proper organization; government should set up a proper organizational system that will look into the matter. There is a genuine business in herdsmen. There is no doubt about it, but is it being abused? Is it being surrounded with other things? Are they mixed up? If there is any mix up, let those mix up be removed.
For example, in Nigeria, we have a transportation system, if you have some money to buy vehicles, you can transport on our roads, carry passengers and make money. That is a legitimate business but there are rules. Government says you must not exceed certain speed; there are limits on the drivers, they must be qualified, they must have a certain level of education, they must undergo the training as drivers.
A lot of factors come into it before you are allowed to drive in Nigeria even though driving is good business. Being herdsmen, no doubt, there must be some good business in it but is it properly shepherded? Is government interest so much that no one can be a herdsman without abusing other people? In other words, if you identify the good business in it, you must shepherd it as you shepherd the drivers on the road. If you are a driver, you cannot carry more than one passenger in front, depending on the kind of vehicle you are driving. If you do, the police would arrest you and prosecute you. That is a way of protecting the general public. If you are driving through a village, you do not go and kill people there. Those villagers should be protected by the government; that is the point I am trying to make.
Northern Governors last week exonerated Fulani herdsmen from the allegation that they were behind the Enugu invasion and killings. Isn’t such position a politicization of the issue? Why are leaders from your zone keeping mum on the attacks?
No, no, no we are not keeping quiet, we would like to make intelligent contributions. Whenever there is a factor like this in Nigeria, I want my contribution to be in favour of Nigeria’s oneness and togetherness. Twenty people were killed in Enugu, we even saw the corpses in photos in the newspapers, so how can Northern governors say that the South East is lying about it? You cannot kill people and put their photos in the newspapers for propaganda; propaganda for what? So, if the Northern governors said that, I think it is very unfortunate, they were not properly advised or they didn’t get the information correctly.
What happened was in the open, everybody has seen it, everybody in Nigeria knows that there was a killing in Enugu. So, the South East people are mourning, we are in tears that such a thing can happen during a peaceful time, not war. We are in tears, we are weeping and it is very painful if that kind of thing keeps happening in Nigeria. It is giving room to tension in our environment. This is a multi-ethnic country, we must not do anything that tends to set one tribe against the other.
It will not be in the interest of Nigerian’s unity, we must do things that enhance Nigeria’s unity, Nigeria’s oneness, Nigeria’s greatness; that should be our pre-occupation. If something happens like what took place in Enugu, it will not be in the interest of Northern governors to make a statement against Eastern leadership for speaking up. The Enugu governor crying, I mean it is a natural thing. If your people are killed in cold blood, you will weep, you will be very sad, it will pain you that such a thing is happening in a peaceful time, why should it happen. So, I think that the word I expected from the Northern governors would be that of comfort to the Eastern leaders. They should say my brothers, sorry about this thing that happened, let us work together to ensure it doesn’t happen again. That is what I expected from the Northerners, brotherly words, word of affection, word of comfort and not to say that “oh you are telling lies” .
The APC government in the last few months, has come under serious attack from Nigerians who believe that the government has not lived up to its promises one year after. What would you say are government’s underpinnings stopping it from fulfilling some of the promises?
What Buhari has done is a wonderful thing; that is fighting corruption. Nigeria was notorious for corruption worldwide. At a time, we were number one in terms of corruption in the whole world. At a time, we became number two; Buhari came out to fight corruption. Fighting corruption in a most corrupt nation like Nigeria is not easy. It takes something to fight corruption, because if you are fighting corruption, it means that you are not corrupt yourself. You cannot be fighting corruption when you are corrupt.
What are your fears for APC especially with internal wrangling within the party still rocking it?
Yes, it bothers me that these internal fights are going on. Look at the situation where they are trying to remove the Senate president. And I have this situation in a number of places where people want to quit the APC. It bothers me and I keep thinking of what we can do to avoid the mistakes of the PDP. APC has a challengeto avoid the mistakes that PDP made. I have looked at the APC, there are three major tribes in Nigeria, the Yorubas have done well in the
APC , they have a strong root in the party. The Hausas have also done well, they have produced the president, they are very good in the party but the Igbo is lacking behind. The Igbo have not been given a great opportunity to belong. If we look at the chairmanship of trustees which we don’t have, if we look at the track records of the people leading APC, there is nobody who has a better track record than me. For 30 years, I have been in party formation. I have formed several parties, I have chaired parties. All the old progressive leaders believed in me, they have worked with me. I want to be the chairman of APC BoT. If I am the chairman, I can bring the APC to the South East the way it should be. The Igbos are progressives, they would want to support Buhari but they need to be properly brought in. They have made mistakes in the past by bringing Jonathan but they can rethink and they can move into the APC. I have read analysis about it that when the President started, the initial appointment appeared to have favoured the North, but when he finally appointed ministers, we were not cheated.