From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Presidential candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) in 2019 election, Alhaji Sani Yabagi has said that as long as the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) government refused to admit that it has failed in tackling banditry, kidnapping and other crimes in the country, insecurity will not end in this dispensation.
Fielding questions from Journalists in his Kaduna home at the weekend, Yabagi said the wise thing for government to do is to admit failure and source help from outside the government to fight the insecurity.
The former presidential candidate who is the National Chairman of ADP however, said that Nigeria is the easiest country to govern, given the available human and natural resources that are abound in the country.
To this end, the ADP presidential hopeful for 2023 general elections raised the hope of the masses by assuring that if elected to succeed President Buhari, all socio-economic problems militating against the country would be solved without delay.
“Solution to insecurity needs intelligent approach that you must first of all accept that you have failed to tackle the problem. And when you know that you have failed, what do you do; look for help. Even in business there is what is called outsourcing. When you know that your machinery cannot produce everything, you approach another company to use its machinery to produce for you. And at the end of the we take the credit. So the security situation in this country require us to outsource; it could be machinery, it could be allying with other government to stop this problems.
“It is very easy to govern Nigeria. I always say that Nigeria is the easiest country to govern. It is the easiest, mark my words, and I will tell you why. This is the country where
what you require government successful is given to you beyond what you need to run the government.
“Talking about resources; we are fabulously endowed. Look at agricultural potentials, a country that guarantee food security, a country that is number six among countries that export crude oil and gas, you can stand on your two legs and challenge anybody because you have the resources, the capital. We have a large population in this country to fight poverty. Our economy is the biggest economy in Africa. Africa continent has 30% of natural resource in the world. The next economy to Nigeria is South Africa, and talk of Egypt, Ethiopia, they are nowhere near Nigeria. All we need is a leader with skills.
“We have Nigerians with skills who are making it outside the shores of this country. If you at countries that we call developed countries, they are enjoying the services of Nigerians in their hospitals, government, whatever. If you go to Canada you find Nigerians occupying third position in their government. You go to UK it is the same thing and we call them developed countries. The brain drain in Nigeria is alarming.
“By the time ADP assume power you will never believe this is the same Nigeria. There will be employment for the masses. How do you expect a situation where 200 barrels of crude oil is exported per day amounting to 140 billion dollars per day, and we are still in poverty, killing each other. Somebody should ask question. Where is our money? But we are not asking questions, and that is why we are in these problems. If you employed a manager in your company and he keeps on recording losses everyday and you keep that manager there, without asking him what he did with the money, he will continue to loot the company because he believes that nobody knows what he is doing.
“So the problem of Nigerians is with Nigerians. I am not calling for any uprising to burn down any house. But burn down the minds of these thieves so that their conscience will begin to prick them do that they will begin to have respect for you. They don’t have respect for us because we don’t ask questions, they think we are fools. When we get there it is give and take. You give us your allegiance and resources, we will definitely make your life better. The Constitution of this country says you must provide welfare, security and shelter before you can call self a governor”.
Asked if merger of opposition political parties is possible to wrestle power from the ruling party, Yabagi said, “In an ideal situation, merge of political parties could work. But in a situation where it is not election, everybody knows it. It is not election that we holding; everybody knows that Nigeria is conducting a kind of jamboree, an organized crime so that the people’s mandate can be snatched and give it to whoever they want to give.
“It doesn’t matter if all the political parties become one party as long as electing our leaders remain the way it is today, you can forget it because it is not about who count votes for who, it is about those at the helm of affairs and those conducting the election who decide who to give power. They don’t care about what people will say because they are already in court before even the election”.
On solution to political manipulation in the country, the presidential hopeful explained, “the solution for inequality and injustice in our democracy is for the followers to wake up to take power. Power is not given on platter of gold. The power that belongs to Nigerians have been hijacked by State capitals. This country is under what we call the State capitals. No matter what you do it will not serve the interest of the masses under the condition we find ourselves today where we are about to get the solution by way of Electoral Bill. The transmission of election results to be done electronically.
“But the State capital agents are looting, steal brazenly. The way stealing is going on by State Chairmen, State governors, Councillors, National Assembly, the presidency. Stealing is rampant under this government. We know it, except if we pretend we don’t know it. No wonder the situation we are in today in this country is banditry, wanton killing, kidnapping, Boko Haram insurgency, restiveness. This is because there is no governance. We must tell ourselves the gospel truth.
“There is government but no governance in Nigeria today which was put in place by agents of oppression against the masses. Tell me what have the masses gotten from this democracy. What is it. The masses have become poorer, they are faced with abject poverty, insecurity. They are being kidnapped, killed, and we have a military that we are spending large part of our money, last year they gave them one billion dollars to fight insecurity. What happened to that one billion dollars which President Buhari took for the military.
“As long as people are not asking questions about what they did with the money, and as long as people are not asking questions to hold government accountable, we will remain in this rigmarole. We are not saying someone should kill somebody, but hold them accountable. Constitution guarantee that people should demonstrate if they must demonstrate. You have to demonstrate peaceful because that is the beauty of democracy. In developed societies the people hold government accountable, the people ask questions, so government cannot deprive the people of their rights. There is sorrows and fears in our land”.