Just in: On Boko Haram, President Jonathan Performance and Power Returning To The North. - Col Abubakar Umar.

Click banner for more info

A former military governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Umar, comments on burning national issues in an exclusive interview. Extract:: Question: What’s your attitude to the agitation for power shift to the North? When you talk of power shift, I don’t believe in it because there has been no evidence that it benefits the people.
Continue after the break.

If you take the North, for instance, there is no sign that power has ever been in the region. When people talk of poverty, the people in the North are the most wretched; when people talk of education, the North is the most disadvantaged, yet the region held power for years. So, if this power does any good to a region, the North won’t suffer any deprivation today. I think what power shift does is that it is dangerously dividing Nigeria along ethnic lines.

The politicians are pursing power shift as long as it satisfies their personal interest, it has nothing to do with the well-being of the people. Question: What then should be the right approach? What I think is that power should reside with good people and good people abound in all parts of this country. I want to appeal to our politicians to desist from pursuing their narrow personal interest by agitating for power shift, thereby heating up the polity.

They need to remember that many lives were lost to preserve the unity of this great country. Question: How would you score the Federal Government in terms of tackling insecurity in the land? President Goodluck Jonathan should be treated as a war-time President. He needs the support and cooperation of all well-meaning Nigerians. This is no time for destructive political campaigns. Stakeholders should take cognisance of the fact that conflicts have dire consequences on the country. Then the President should show maturity and magnanimity in dealing with people and issues.

Whatever the situation, it will be nice to see the President, in his next trip abroad, go with governors like Rotimi Amaechi and other persons in the opposition. Talking about scoring, I’ll score the Jonathan government high up in its effort at tackling security challenges. Tackling security challenges can drown a whole government. He has done so well. If not for the security forces, the whole of Nigeria today would have been overrun by the Boko Haram insurgency. So, it is no mean achievement that this is not happening.