Power Should Not Return To The North - Gen. Jeremiah Useni (Rtd)

The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, and former FCT Minister, Lt.Gen Jeremiah Useni (retd.) in an interview with ADELANI ADEPEGBA ssaid that the proposed national conference is a waste of time and that northern agitators should allow President Goodluck Jonathan contest in 2015

It is widely believed that the North is against the proposed national conference. Is this true?

That is not true; I am the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, the umbrella body of all the associations in the North. We believe that the members of the National Assembly are the representatives of the people. They should be able to speak for the people; they should be able to see whether something is good or bad. Can you give a man a job and still sack him  and say there is a group of people that should come and do the job? Don’t forget, you still have  to go back to them again and they can disagree with what you have done. That means nothing will come out of it. That is why some of us are saying we must tread with caution. Has there been any talk that lawmakers have failed or that we think they are useless and we should get a new crop of people? I don’t understand. We are not against it, we are just saying it should go through the National Assembly.

Do you believe the conference is necessary at this point in time?

It should be the National Assembly; it’s a procedure, it’s a system. We are talking of how we will go about it. What are you going to get differently? We had a national conference during (Chief Olusegun) Obasanjo’s regime, but what happened? That conference was an attempt to give Obasanjo a third term. When we realised, we kicked from the North. During our meeting at the ACF then, I led a delegation as Deputy National Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum. Then I led a delegation of Afenifere, Ohanaeze and South-South Assembly to the National Assembly to say no. So, Obasanjo was not happy he didn’t get the third term. He didn’t take the report of the conference seriously, but there were very serious points, useful suggestions, and recommendations in that report. I don’t know whether people have looked at it. I think it’s because the hand is different from the palm; that is what they are trying to do now. But where is the palm, is it not in the hand? When you talk of national conference, this-and-this conference, they are saying the same thing, it’s just different English. So, I believe it can be handled by the National Assembly.

It seems the government is bent on conducting the conference. Do you think it has an ulterior motive for doing this?

I don’t think they are bent on carrying out the conference, it’s people that are instigating the government to do it. The government never suggested it. So, it will be wrong to say government is bent on doing it. It is people, for their own interest, that are pressurising the government. That is the position. It is not because the government is bent on doing it.

Is it true that President Jonathan had a one-term agreement with the North?

I have never been in the PDP, so I don’t know. That was a party thing. I don’t know anything about it. The  discussions were at the party level, not elders level, so I don’t know.

Some Niger-Delta activists are threatening bloodshed if Jonathan is not allowed to contest in 2015. What is your take on this?

I agree with them on this. Jonathan has the right to contest to complete two terms in office. There is no reason why Jonathan should not contest in 2015. If Yar’Ardua were alive, he would be finishing his eight years now. The man (Jonathan) took part of it. I can only say these four years that he is about to finish will be really his own. So if you don’t want him to spend another four years to make eight years, you can say let him spend two-and-a-half years or so, of what remained of Yar’Adua’s tenure to make up his own eight years. Definitely, there is no reason why Jonathan should not go for it in 2015, unless people reject him. It is not that he is not qualified, he is over-qualified.

So, are you opposed to agitators who want power to return to the North?

I am from the North, I don’t agree with them. The calculation is wrong, the calculation is selfish.

How do you assess Jonathan’s government?

The only thing I would say is he (the President) should blow hot and cold. Too much of cold compared to hot is why this nonsense is going on. He should balance it. I think he is doing well. One tree cannot make a forest; he cannot run the Federal Government and also run the states. State governments are there to do their own bit, so also are local governments.