Comrade Zanna Shettima is a household name in Borno State, having piloted the activities of Nigeria Labour (NLC) as its state Chairman for several years, before he later delved into the murky waters of politics few years back. In this interview with SUNNY NWANKWO, Comrade Shettima who is the current State Chairman of Congress for progressive change (CPC) speaks on various issues including the state of insecurity in the state, the government of Kashim Shettima.
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How do you assess the performance of Governor Kashim Shettima so far in the Borno State?
Well, it will be difficult to assess his performance because this government is a continuation of Ali Modu Sheriff’s government, the former governor of the state whose government performed abysmally in terms of provision of dividends of democracy to the people. Worst still, the present governor of the state in the person of Alhaji Kashim Shettima has surrounded himself with mediocres as commissioners, special advisers, senior special assistants, local government care-taker chairman, and even the state legislators who are the products of Sheriff.
Shettima may be having political will to do good things to the people of the state but the problem is that, he does not have good lieutenants, rather he is being surrounded by sycophants and greedy politicians who were planted by the past administration in the state. And with these crops of people around him, it will be very difficult for him to succeed because looking at their antecedents, you hardly find three out of the political appointees that have public service experience. You can not govern the people without any experience. They don’t have any initiative to assist the government. They also lack knowledge to implement policies given to them through the Civil Service. They are very good in presenting memos to the governor and whenever such memos are approved, they share the money among themselves. So, as I have said before, the governor may have good intention to provide much-needed dividends of democracy to the people of the state but unfortunately he doesn’t have good Lieutenants to make the people feel the impact of government.
You said this government is a continuation of previous administration in the state. What do you mean?
What I mean is that the previous government of Governor? Sheriff did not do well at all. For example, the security challenges we are passing through today in the state is caused by Sheriff. The issue of political thugs, Boko Haram is the hand work of the passed regime. In 1991, there was nothing like political thugs, armed robbery, Boko Haram and other violent crimes in the state, until he came to power in 2003, and recruited political thugs called “ECOMOG Boys” who were supplied with sophisticated arms and ammunition to enter people houses and kill them. We have written severally to the government then on the issue but nothing was done about it.
When Boko Haram came in, it was confirmed by the security operatives that, the formal Senior Special Assistant on Medial and Publicity who happens to be from the academia (University), and later became the Chairman of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) used to print leaflets of Boko Haram tagged: “ALLAHU AKBAR” meaning God is great.
He was arrested and released and at a point, he ran away from the state, but today the same person is still at the University of Maiduguri parading himself everywhere. In 2007, the? Sheriff? Government imported pistols and special made knives from Saudi Arabia and distributed to the so-called ECOMOGw Boys at the ward called Geiyeshida. In 2011, the same government imported heavy ammunitions, which was intercepted by the security operatives at the airport, written on it was Borno State Government property clearly written. And it was when the military took it to their barracks that they discovered that they were ammunitions.
So, the security crisis in the state is caused by the past administration, no matter how one looks at it. On the area of development, some people thought? Sheriff had done well because he built some housing estates which were highly sub-standard even the road drainages too are very bad. As far as I am concern, Sheriff was a disaster to the state.
Look at the repair of damaged bridge that is currently going on at the round about Custom area, there is no alternative for other big vehicles to follow before embarking on such reconstruction of the bridge, except if the big trucks will now follow either Lagos street bridge or that of Gwange bridge. Gwange bridge is even older than that of Custom bridge. So, you can see why I said earlier on that, Governor Kashim is surrounded by inexperience lieutenants in government. If not so, he would have been advised professionally before embarking on the project.
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) at the state level after losing all the positions it contested for at the last election, seems to have retired into its shell. Why has it been quiet all this while?
Well, so many harms have been done by both the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the last election in the state, which invariably crippled? Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the state. For example, our executive members, especially, the chairman of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) including his secretary and officials went and liaised with PDP, campaigning that People should vote for PDP instead of CPC. Also, one of the House of Representative members from the same MMC was bought over by PDP and he started campaigning for the party instead of CPC.
On the side of ANPP too, they came with a lot of money, to the extent that some of my? Exco members were enticed with so much money including Jeep, and as a result they abandoned CPC and started campaigning for ANPP.
As a result of this mass defection of our members to other political parties in the state, our party, CPC was left in dilemma. It is a known fact that, without money, you can not play politics effectively. We lacked this during the election and there was no financial support from the national headquarters of CPC throughout the elections and it affected us seriously. Many of our members left CPC because they found that the party has no money. And let me also tell you that, if the CPC at the state level had filed case against ANPP in the state for its electoral fraud during the last election, there will be no money to pursue the case. Why the state PDP is still battling a Court case with ANPP is because the federal government gave Borno PDP money.
But we have problem in the CPC, especially at the national headquarters. The administration is very poor and it is very bad. They work contrary to the ideology of CPC and except they change modus operandi, the party will have a problem in future.
The state of insecurity in Nigeria particularly in Borno State is so devastating. What is responsible for this?
The security challenges, in Nigeria, particularly in Borno State is due to lack of trust and worthiness of the leadership of the government, lack of transparency and accountability to the masses of Nigeria by the leadership from the top to the bottom. These are the causes of insecurity and all sorts of crises everywhere in the country. When a leader is upright in doing what the masses want, implementing their promises to the people, then the society will be relatively calm.
For instance, in Borno State, except this governor addresses the issue of empowerment, it will be very difficult to see peace because lack of empowerment brought about poverty and lack of empowerment brought about insecurity and lack of empowerment made some people to junket from one political party to another looking for something to eat. We have many unemployed youths who have gone to university, polytechnics but are doing nothing from morning till night. We have these political thugs who believe in taking drugs only and when they take these drugs, the next thing is to go into robbery just to get money. At times, they are being hired by influential politicians to kill and even break people’s houses to steal.
Book Haram insurgence is a worrisome phenomenon. What do you think government should do to check this menace?
If government says that it is ready to dialogue with Boko Haram sect, there must be honest and sincerity in doing that.? If government? really wants to sit down with these people, it must be serious about it. Some people don’t understand the mission of these group (Boko Haram).
During the time of Niger Delta crisis, federal government set up high powered committee to look into the matter and even before the committee was set up, the then late Yar’Adua had met with militants and agreed on certain terms. So the same method should be applied to these people here. If the governor says he wants to dialogue with them, let him be sincere in doing it.
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