Yerima Shettima is the chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) and convener of Northern Stakeholders Consultative Initiative. In this interview, he speaks on some national issues, including the 2027 general election and insecurity in the country. FELIX NWANERI reports
Some people in Northern Nigeria believe that the present administration is marginalising the North. As a northerner, do you think there is a deliberate plan by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to marginalise your region?
I don’t think so because if you’re talking about marginalisation, at some point, we can go back to history to see what has happened with previous governments, beginning from Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo to Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari before Tinubu. Governance is about the people; it is about somebody looking at issues, especially, when they have to do with security and how to succeed. Don’t forget that the democracy we’re talking about today in Nigeria is just less than 30 years.
From 1999, when we started it till date, there has been this fear that the governments at some point in time did not feel that security has been threatened under their watch. To that extent, some of them believed that they must bring people they can trust closer in order to achieve result. So, if you’re talking about nepotism, of course, you can also accuse Buhari’s government of being nepotistic.
If Buhari is not there again and Tinubu is there, he also has his kinsmen that he feels can do better for him. That’s exactly what is going on. So, concerning marginalisation, I do not think so, but let us not also forget that Tinubu inherited a lot of problems. When he came to power, there were challenges of insecurity. He also came to power when the economy was nothing to write home about.
He came to power when the country was neither here nor there. So you don’t expect him to perform miracle in just two years. If you can be patient with Buhari for eight years, why won’t you be patient with Tinubu in less than three years? He hasn’t even completed his first term. Damages were on ground which he inherited. If you want to talk about subsidy as the problem now, you should remember that none of those people that contested against him said otherwise of what he said.
Everybody that contested, including Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, said they will remove fuel subsidy to make headway. So, where is the problem coming from? Let us not do things just because we don’t like somebody or because we hate somebody. We should stop coming up with stories of politics because now is the time for governance. So, let us allow the President to concentrate. Let us give him the support until he proves otherwise. To me, he hasn’t done that yet.
Whether you like it or not, we are seeing some stability in our currency. Whether you like it or not, we’re beginning to see hope. Whether you like it or not, we’re beginning to see that things are about to happen compared to the doom days of the past. I don’t want to bring down Tinubu because I don’t hold any appointment in his government.
Based on your position on the present government, it’s obvious that you may not believe or agree with the popular discussions, especially among the opposition, that the coalition under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is the right alternative ahead of the 2027 elections…
No, it is not. I haven’t seen the characters that will turn things around. Remember that each and every one of these characters in the ADC, at some point, was tested and they failed in their various positions, even at the federal level. So, I don’t think they have answers to our challenges. What were their scores? What did they do? What can we point at to say this is what they have done that will warrant them to turn things around? We cannot continue to repeat one thing and expect to get a different result. Tinubu is doing well as it stands today.
Despite your rating of the President, a lot of people believe that he is not doing well in so many areas, especially in the area of security. Presently, insecurity seems to have escalated under his watch even with Abuja not completely immune. What is your take on that?
There is no country that is free from insecurity today in the world not to talk of Nigeria. Insecurity is a global phenomenon as it stands today. It’s everywhere in the various parts of the country. Sometimes you see the thing going down and at some other time, it picks up.
This has come to stay, so we just have to give the government support and let them continue to rejig the security architecture until we get it right. I’m from the North and if our son will be in government for eight years and he couldn’t resolve our problem, how much more someone who is from the southern part.
Tinubu hasn’t failed although we haven’t gotten it right completely. What we owe him is support. What we need now shouldn’t be about tribe, but who will give us what we want. It’s not about tribe now.
But there’s a school of thought that believes that President changed the service chiefs because of the reported coup threat or do you think it’s because we had to strengthen the fight against insecurity?
Let me tell you something; the truth of the matter is that whether there was a coup threat or not, I’m not aware because I’m not in the service and I don’t have any information to that effect.
But what matters to me is that if somebody is in the position of government; he’s appointed and can be removed at any time by the president. Tinubu hasn’t done anything different from what other people did. Secondly, it is natural that the service chiefs are reshuffled every two years.
So, Tinubu did not do anything wrong. Actually, it is two years now since he appointed them, so if he allowed some and changed other at his own discretion, there is nothing about that.
Ahead of the 2027 elections, some people, especially in the opposition fold, are insisting that there is nothing like zoning and that a northerner can contest even when the presidency is in the South for only one term after Buhari’s eight years. In the ADC, Atiku is bracing up for the contest, while some feel the South should be allowed to compete eight years. What is your position on that?
In the spirit of fairness, justice and equity, they should allow the South to have their eight years. Tinubu is in power, they should allow him to have his eight years, it’s simple, or allow him to have his first four years, then Nigerians will determine if he has done well for him to get a second term. However, on a personal note, I think Tinubu is doing well. If given the opportunity, he will do better.
Your belief that Tinubu is doing well may not align with the position of the ordinary man on the street, who feel that the economy is not smiling at him at all….
It is also a fact that he did not meet the economy doing well when he came to power but he has been trying even trying to work it out and reposition it for the benefits of all Nigerians.
But the President met the exchange rate at a far lower rate. I think Buhari left it at N400 plus or something like that and a bag of rice when Buhari was leaving was just about N30,000 or thereabout…
Have you also forgotten that when Buhari was leaving, almost everything was crashing down and Tinubu has to take measures to stem the tide? We all know that when there are damages, it is not easy to get them fixed. It is like having dislocation or getting your bone broken; it takes a lot of pains and so many other things to get the leg or bone fixed.]
Even if you don’t like Tinubu, you can be rest assured that the naira has been a bit stable. The dollar hasn’t exceeded N1,500 in recent time. Businesses cannot thrive when there are these ups and downs. I’m looking at our foreign reserve.
I am also looking at what we are generating internally, over N22 trillion. These are resources that would be used to develop the country. Isn’t that enough to commend him? Things are gradually taking shape. It’s not rocket science because these are the things that must go through processes. Nigerians just have to be patient because it is just over two years that Tinubu has been on the saddle.
Most of them speaking so much against this government are speaking because of interest and not because they are credible alternatives. All of them, name them, one after the other, what have they done in their various capacities? Nothing! And when they are out of business, and they cannot keep and stay away from power, they must look for a way to come back.
They cannot manage themselves because it’s only the politicians that make fast money and enjoy same with their cronies and families. When they are out of power, they become frustrated. ADC has nothing to offer. Like I said earlier, ADC is not an alternative. I don’t think it’s an alternative for now.
There is this allegation that the presidential candidate of Labour Party in 2023, Peter Obi, is a hard sell in the North, perhaps because he is an Igbo man. If it’s true, why is it so?
Peter Obi doesn’t have any problems in the North. He hasn’t had any problems, and even now, he has no problem. It’s just that he needed to do more things, not because we don’t see him as Nigerian, but you see, it depends on the approaches and what you do.
We have our tradition here; he needs to get reliable people who can work for him in the North, not those ones that he is picking, who are not really on ground. That’s just the issue, not because people don’t want him. He needs to go down to the people and tell the people exactly what he wants to do and what he thinks about Nigeria. That’s just it.
Some political stakeholder in the North still feel that the issue of the civil war is still a clog that hangs around the neck of any Igbo man as they fought against the rest of the country. Do you think the civil war fought decades ago is still a factor going into elections now?
I don’t think so, and anybody who is relying on that too is still living in the past. Those are things that people have grown up to put behind them in the northern part of the country.
It has happened, it has happened and nobody can bring it back. It has become part of our lives that we just have to look at it as history. Like I just told you, we need to do more, after some many Igbos have received traditional titles in the North and they have friends in other parts of the country.
They do their businesses, and when it comes to politics, we rob minds together and work together. So, I don’t agree that the civil war is the reason. The way people may look at Obi or any other candidate, has nothing to do with what happened during the civil war. It is purely about how the person presents himself and what he promises to offer.
We earlier talked about insecurity. Let me now take you to the South-East, where some people believe that the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been the reason insecurity has continued to escalate in that zone. Do you believe that and do you also share in the position of so many Nigerians, including northerners and south westerners, who have been calling for his release?
You see, I’m a product of struggle. For me, Nnamdi Kanu is before a court, and it’s not right for anybody to preempt what is likely to happen. To say that he should just be released when he’s already in court, I don’t think we’re doing the country any good. So, let’s do away with sentiment.
But a Court of Appeal had earlier quashed the charges against him and pronounced that he should be freed…
But he’s still in court as we speak and if he has no case to answer, then he has no business going to court and they should release him. But in this case, the court case is still on. There are other issues. I’m not against his release but I want the due process to be followed, so that it will serve as a deterrent for other people who think they can take laws into their hands.
There is nothing personally against Nnamdi Kanu but let the court decide his fate. It is not about him; it is about what is likely to happen in future. We must have law and order in our land. We’re not in the banana republic. We run the constitutional democracy, and there are laws in the land.
Recently, a new chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission was appointed. While many Nigerians believe the 2023 elections were highly compromised, do you think that without proper electoral reform, we can have credible elections despite the change of guard?
Laws are meant to be amended and we will continue to make amendments where we found it necessary. But then, it is true that there’s the need for us to look at our electoral process in order to strengthen it.
Don’t forget that Prof. Mahmood Yakubu did very well in the previous election, whether you like it or not. It’s just that one problem we have in Nigeria is that those who lost elections will always assume that there are compromises; while those who won will believe that this is the best. For me, being an outsider who is also a stakeholder in Nigeria, you have to give him credit.
He did well, but naturally, people must bear grudges but Yakubu is one of the best I’ve seen. He’s very articulate and his positions are very clear. But like I said, once elections don’t go the way of some people, they will definitely criticize the process. But Yakubu is one of those who must be celebrated because he has done well.
What are your thoughts on the 2027 presidential election?
I’ve told you; in the spirit of fairness and equity, the South should be allowed to continue. And if it is the South, Tinubu is doing well, so they should allow him to continue. Let us give him the benefit of doubt from now to the end of this tenure. Then we’ll assess his performance and take a position. But so far, so good, and personal opinion is that the President should be allowed to continue.
