Reasons middle belt’ll not support Northern Presidency in 2023 –Bitrus, Middle Belt Forum President

Dr Pogu Bitrus is the president of the Middle Belt Forum. In this interview with Sunday Sun, Pogu chronicled the dichotomy that exists between the Middle Belt zone and the North and concluded that Nigeria will exist in a changeless situation if another northerner becomes the country’s president in 2023.
Pogu, who was the leader of the Chibok community in Borno State also spoke on the fight against the insurgents and other national issues. Excerpts:
I’ll want your reaction to the recent proposition that asserts the position of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, at an event organized by the Centre for Islamic Legal Studies of the ABU in collaboration with the National Judicial Institute, Abuja. Just to refresh your memory; the CJN advocated the amendment of the Nigeria constitution to accommodate some of the concerns of Muslims and the Shari’a law. The impetus to this is that he would want universities in the country to give Shari’a law its own faculty. He also called on academics to redesign the method of teaching Shari’a law. What is your attraction to this proposition? Does it stimulate you in anyway?
It is an academic statement as the programme is supposed to attract. Even if it is supposed to come from a professor of Shari’a Law, I think it is a bit far reaching. Why am I saying that? The 1999 Constitution as amended or before the amendment was written and doctored by Professor Yadudu Shari’a was given prominence. Christians were quite accommodating otherwise that constitution would have been rejected all over, ab initio. All the same that is the constitution we are operating; but for this man to come and say this kind of thing is unfortunate, being also the Chief Justice of Nigeria; unless he is coming on board as the Chief Justice which came after the removal of Justice Onnoghen and he has an agenda because it is too early for the Chief Justice of Nigeria to be calling for the constitution to be amended in order to make Shari’a Law to be prominent. That is to say that he is calling for a removal of the secular stand to an Islamic stand which is unacceptable. It is unfortunate that it came from him and I am not surprised given the kind of direction that we are going with this government. We just pray that people like him and others will see reasons and the need for Nigeria to remain a secular state.
You talked about direction and I ask: what direction have you seen the government going?
I am not the one to talk about direction; it is for CAN to talk about direction, but when you look at our democracy that is going on appointments are skewed towards Islam. When Jonathan was there I can’t think of anything skewed towards Christianity. When Yar’Adua was there I can’t remember anything skewed towards Islam. When Obasanjo was there I can’t remember anything skewed towards Christianity, being the adopted religions of the past presidents. But this time, not only are things skewed towards Islam and the North and in the North more particular towards some sections, which is unfortunate. We are being polarized further. The polarization of this country is unfortunate and uncalled for. I just pray that even the government itself would see the need to make Nigeria to remain being secular.
Permit me to draw your attention to one of the quotations in the CJN’s statement at the occasion. He said: “As we all know there are sections of the constitution that allow the implementation of Shari’a personal law and apart from that we cannot do more. However, we have the number to amend the constitution to suit our own position as Muslims.” Does that appeal to you?
The constitutional amendment is a game of numbers and they are in the majority in the Senate and House of Representatives and the Senate President, the Speaker and his deputy are there. So, the Muslims have the numerical strength to do whatever they want to do. To me, that is the take based on the understanding of what you have said. That is very unfortunate. But what they should remember is that it is a wake-up call for others to say it is okay since these things are based on religion. It is going to be unfortunate for this country and he cannot be talking for himself being the Chief Justice of Nigeria. But what he is saying is that they have the number in the National Assembly to amend the constitution if they want to whether it suits others or not.
That they have the number to amend the constitution is really instructive and just to confirm whether you think with regards to the way politics is played they can do that with the numerical strength he is talking about?
What I am saying is that to me it is a wake-up call for others and that is what I will say because I wouldn’t want to delve into numbers, whether you require two-third to amend the constitution or not. That is up to him and his understanding. I remember when he appeared before the Senate and how he answered one question. Up till now I am still wondering if he is really a learned person. However, that is up to him. But the issue is: if he thinks they have the number he can go ahead and do it.
The National Commission for Nomadic Education recently came up with a programme that is similar to the RUGA project when it said a total of 3.4 million hectares of grazing reserves across the six geopolitical zones are to be turned into ranches. A couple of states under the Middle Belt zone were listed as some of the first seven states, Benue, Plateau and others were among these states said to have been gazetted where ranches will be provided with schools, water, electricity, security, health and other facilities. What is your position?
Our position has been quite clear on this issue. We even produced a document which captures the whole problems and presented our views which ended up with the National Livestock Transformation Plan which to us is the same variant with RUGA and colony plan. But as far as we are concerned it is land grabbing for Fulanis; favouring one ethnic nationality over the others. And land as it is, is held in trust for the people by the state governor. The Federal Government cannot just come now and say they have gazetted those lands and say they have been allocated to Fulani and also come to tell us that the former grazing reserves are to be turned to ranches by targeting one nationality. We’ll continue to say that a large number of the Fulanis and their cattle roaming our land are foreign and not Nigeria. The question now is: how does the Federal Government just come to one state and say they have acquired land and gazetted such lands without going through the constitutional requirements? Number two, of course, all of us want ranching than this nomadic style of moving around; but it should apply to Nigerian Fulanis, not foreign Fulanis. Then, number three, all the localities around the country, all the Middle Belt, North and South know the local Fulanis who have co-existed with them. You don’t just come and impose Fulani on our communities and then take our ancestral land and just allocate it to Fulanis. It doesn’t work that way. So, there are going to be challenges to this issue. And then when we go back to the Middle Belt issue, ab initio, we feel the issue is lopsided. Why should six Middle Belt states be selected and just drop Zamfara. And if you look at the states that have been selected they are the ones affected by insurgency, mainly Fulani herdsmen attack. Were those attacks associated with this programme? So, it is something that requires so many answers. But for now, as far as we are concerned this government has brought in nepotism than we have ever had in this country. It has been Fulani in all its decisions and even appointments. The government is at it again and I believe not only the Middle Belt, but the whole Nigeria will resist it.
You have been an apostle of restructuring. I would like to hear from you whether or not you think the PDP candidate in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, was sincere when he said he would restructure Nigeria if he gets to office and whether the PDP needs to restructure the country only when it gets power when it has almost an equal number with the APC in the parliament?
I think there are two questions here; one is about the position of the former PDP presidential candidate, Atiku. We supported him because we believed in what he said. He even showed us a list of lawyers he has assembled to look at the technicalities involved so that he can hit the ground running when he gets to office. It was when we were convinced that this man means business that we concluded he was the better of the two candidates and, therefore, we were going to support him and we did support him. So, we believed in what he said. Then number two, with regards to the National Assembly, yes, there is a sizable number of members of the PDP in the House of Representatives and the Senate who could kick-start the process. There are even APC House of Representatives members and Senators who believe that this country needs to be restructured. Restructuring may mean one thing to one group and another thing to another group. For example, we in the Middle Belt; we will want the autonomy of our people over the lordship of the oppressors. For example, in Kaduna State, the larger population is from Southern Kaduna. They need a state of their own. We don’t want them to be lorded over and manipulated by the oligarchy. We have such things here and there. Number two, we have suffered attacks. For example, some of these attacks are just few distances from police or military checkpoints and they will not come to defend Nigerians when they are attacked. We believe in having state police similar to what we had in the past, the Native Authority Police so that we can solve our security problems. In the South they have different approaches to restructuring, but all of us believe that in the exclusive list some of the things should be moved to the concurrent list so that states which are the federating units and country can operate better. As it is today, we have a very powerful lordship and they are lording it over others and anything they want to do they can use the military, EFCC, police to do what they feel like. I will go as far as saying that our governor, my governor because I am from Borno State, is an APC member, but he is such a man that is doing what is supposed to be done. He came and looked at the situation; he didn’t care what the policy of the APC is and he said look, my people are in danger. The insurgency is hurting us and everybody and the soldiers are just staying in one place without defending people. What they do is to wait for Boko Haram to attack before they repel. He said that shouldn’t be the case. These people should be routed out. So, I believe if there is state police, that man would have used them to clear the insurgents from our areas. Though restructuring means different things to different people, generally, we want Nigeria restructured so that it can work better for us and our children yet unborn.
Going further, would you suggest to the PDP to represent Atiku as its presidential candidate in 2023 elections?
That is up to PDP because it is not my own to suggest. We supported Atiku because of the politics, looking at the two and believing that he (Atiku) would be a better representative of the people than the man in office. That’s why we backed him. If the PDP still says he is a better person, so be it. If PDP says it is another person, so be it. Ours is to look at the persons presented and see what his policies would be and our choice would be based on rational discussions, quality and personality of the candidate.
ACF spoke recently and said it would support a northern candidate. Are you part of those who would support a northern candidate for the 2013 election, being a northerner yourself?
Certainly, I cannot be part of it and I do not think the Middle Belt will be part of it.
Are you not a member of the ACF?
I am not. I have declined. I refused being a member of the ACF even before I assumed this position of the President of the Middle Belt Forum. I declined being a member of the ACF because I didn’t believe in the doctrines and ideologies of the ACF.
But some of your members do. Some have even been chairmen.
Everybody has liberty to his or her opinion, but those of us who believe in the Middle Belt agenda and opinion wouldn’t subscribe to that. We believe in equality, equity, depending on where you applied these two words; equity in the sense that everybody should have a say in this federating structure that we have. We know that our partners from the South are clamouring for other systems of government rather than this presidential system. But we cannot say that a section of the country that has brought all these problems should now be supported to continue to lord it over others so that we will continue to stagnate. No; the Middle Belt will not support that, I will not support that.
You are from Chibok in Borno State. Can I have your assessment of the war against insurgency?
As far as I am concerned we are not fighting the insurgents. We are only defending people against attacks from insurgents. Our soldiers wait for attacks by the insurgents and then try to repel such attacks and protect such communities. Beyond that I have never seen anything different. Soldiers have not been treated like during the civil war, go out and comb the forest, find out where the insurgents are, deal with them, dislodge them and let the place be clean. That is not happening; it has not happened and is not happening. So, we are not fighting the insurgents, but defending the people from attacks of insurgents. That policy is not taking us anywhere; it is just keeping us in one place. It is elongating the time frame of suffering of our people, keeping them in IDP camps. Whether that is the policy of government, I don’t know, but it is unfortunately failing. It has failed and would continue to fail unless that policy changes. So far, yes, I was in Chibok just a month ago, I have seen the military formations; they are only in towns and at checkpoints, a small convoy of about five, six, seven, sometimes eight people on motorbikes with one pick up vehicle driving along the road to allow people to pass. I have not seen any of the military formations going into the bushes to comb and flush out insurgents so that there will be permanent peace. People are still in IDP camps. Many of them couldn’t go out to farm, thereby decreasing the prospects of food supply.
But they were said to have voted?
I thank God you used the right word. They were said to have voted by who? By people in power; votes were allocated. That is why there is need to change this faulty electoral system. Let votes count. Let it be electronic. You cast your vote, it is transmitted immediately so that nobody goes and write results like it was done in Yobe where we had more voters than those accredited and such results were accepted by INEC. So, we have all these discrepancies because the electoral system is faulty. So, the electoral bill has to be corrected and ensure that all these malpractices are checked before it is signed into law so that it can have the credibility it requires.
You believed Atiku when he said he would restructure Nigeria, don’t you believe President Mohammadu Buhari when he said he believes in true federalism?
I wish that happens. That is to say I am skeptical. Why am I skeptical? The things he is doing I have not seen any sign. Up till now the Service Chiefs are yet to be changed despite outcry from the people. Yes, if he removed Justice Onnoghen and brought in a new Chief Justice of Nigeria for personal reasons I don’t know and that is over. Up till now, I have not seen that this man is changing direction. But I am praying that there would be sincerity in what he has said, but I am not convinced. There should be sincerity and truth in whatever you say and do.
Is there any dichotomy between the North and the Middle Belt really?
You see the North assumed its position right from independence. You know the position before independence. The Willings Commission which was set up before independence tried to put a case for Middle Belters and even had sittings. The reports are there for anybody to consult. And it was not just minorities and nationalities from the North, the Hausa-Fulani, but it also addressed nationalities in the South. That was what resulted in the creation of Mid-West State in the South. Unfortunately, no such thing happened in the North because at that time the powers that be knew if Middle Belt is carved from the North, the North would be weakened. However, over time, we have seen the manipulations that are going on. It is stagnating Nigeria rather than move Nigeria forward. So, Middle Belters and those who believe in the Middle Belt ideology believe that the North which has lorded it over time, sometimes unfortunately, use religion as a means of creating dichotomy. In the Middle Belt we leave together. We don’t say this one is a Muslim, this one is a Christian. Sometimes some of our parents and relations go for Hajj. That’s what they don’t believe in the North and they use these things to create division. And we are saying they either stop and let Nigeria move forward or we cooperate with others to force you to move forward. The Yoruba man has no division. Hardly do you find a Yoruba man talking about religion. They talk about a Yoruba nation. Why is there the difference in the North? All these will have to stop or Middle Belt will cooperate to liberate Nigeria. We are the aborigenes of Nigeria and we believe anybody who comes should remain a Nigerian and not to create division in Nigeria. We warn and we preach what will unite Nigeria and not what will divide Nigeria. No, we want one Nigeria, not North, South or bla, bla. No.
What would you say to northerners who are saying that they do not need the Middle Belt to succeed, electorally and that…
(Cuts in) Hold on, hold on…
(Cuts in) Don’t you think they can truly call off your bluff?
I said hold on. Let’s reform our electoral systems and see how and what the votes will be. Where are the people in the North? I am asking you. I am old enough to know what is happening in Nigeria. My father was a leader of Action Group, AG, in my area. We had NPN. It was a northern thing though it was nationalistic. Today, we have what we have and irrespective of that the symptoms and methodology seem not to have changed, coercion, manipulation. It has to stop. Votes have to count and when votes count they will know whether we are irrelevant or not.
But when you take a look at the figures from the last elections you begin to wonder how far the Middle Belt can go because some of the people you call Middle Belters do not believe in your cause. Look at the figures from the last elections for instance. The North Central states produced a mere 7,670,000 against the Northeast that got above 10 million votes and the Northwest 18 million votes. Now, if you put the two together, you will have 28 million for the Northeast and Northwest while your zone, the North-central has a paltry seven million. How far can you go?
Your definition of the Middle Belt is wrong. In the Northwest, a chunk of Kebbi State, about 60 per cent of Kaduna State, they are all Middle Belt areas in the Northwest. Parts of Bauchi, Gombe, the whole of Adamawa and Taraba states, parts of Borno and Yobe states are all Middle Belt areas. So, what do you mean by limitation of Middle Belt that you are trying to create. Those zones are political creation. So, you can see what the Middle Belt is. It goes beyond what you are talking about.
But it is like your forum has not made any impact because when you talk about the pattern of votes it shows that they can actually call off…
(Cuts in) Don’t worry, don’t worry. They can call any bluff they want. They can cooperate with anybody they want to cooperate with. They can coerce those they want to coerce or those they can coerce. But we are Middle Belters and that cause we shall pursue.
Credit : Sunnews