Mohammed Abdulrahman is a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of Arewa Consultative Forum and the Secretary of ACF’s Political Committee.
He is also a member of Concerned Citizens of Nigeria (CCN) and he has been involved in everything about Nigeria; that is everything involving the political dynamics that witnessed Chief MKO Abiola winning the June 12, 1993 election that was later annulled.
He also participated in stabilizing late General Sani Abacha’s government. He worked with the late Major General Shehu Yar’Adua and was also instrumental to developing most of the northern youths after their graduation from universities, putting them on the road to leadership skills and ideas that can develop the nation. In this interview with Vanguard he spoke on the contentious PDP zoning arrangement, 2011 presidency, President Goodluck Jonanthan, failure of past northern leaders to develop the North, perceived marginalsation of middle belt and other national issues. Excerpts:
As a foundation member of Arewa Consultative Forum ACF, are you happy with what is happening in the group? Some people have accused it of working for the success of particular political groups when it is supposed to be apolitical.
Well, I must tell you truly that there is no measuring stick or tape for the activities or performance of ACF in the sense that, this is an NGO that is political but non-partisan; the reason being that there are quite a lot of people from diverse callings and political parties to whom ACF is an umbrella. Having said that the group is trying its best.
The challenges have been enormous. The situation in Nigeria has been changing. I will say that of recent, the ACF has been able to give a good account of itself. We cannot take care of the whole northern challenges. There are even some of the challenges that the Articles of Association or the constitution of the association does not allow them to be involved in. A lot of people do not know this, but more than anything else, even the unstable nature of our political machinery or government in the last one year.
I will say that ACF deserves a lot of commendation within the rough weather it has found itself. That is my opinion about the showing of ACF within the Nigerian state. It has reached out to other parts of Nigeria and I think that it is still too early to describe what its performance is because we have to look at some variables but for now, I give ACF a pass mark.
Would you regard a body like the Northern Union (nu) as a splinter group from acf as a lot of people think? They believe that nu with people like dr. Umaru dikko and dr. Olusola Saraki broke away because of inaction of acf on certain issues.
The picture is actually different. The real picture is like I have just told you, ACF is political but non-partisan, meaning that it is not a political party but everything you say about Nigeria today is political. The partisan aspect of it is what ACF does not get itself involved in. The body for the first time in 10 years set up what you call a political committee, meaning that there are certain issues that require attention and they are partisan in nature.
This group, that is the political committee, views them and also faces the challenges on behalf of ACF and gives the variables and fall back situations that will guide the sympathies and position of the organization on those issues. Having said this, the NU is not a breakaway faction of ACF because members of ACF and members of the NU are the same northerners.
It is because; there are limitations to partisan discourse in ACF that Chief Olusola Saraki in his wisdom, wanted a platform that could face the challenges on partisan issues in Nigeria headlong and he is doing very well. There is no competition between ACF and NU. You know that in political discourse, a set of people can just get excessive in their expectations and some people could actually want to propel such organizations to achieve their personal interests but ACF has been able to achieve a moderation in this by staying out of partisan politics. Dr Saraki’s NU is also northern institution that is faced with partisan politics and they are all doing a good job. They are all related and apparently, it is the same umbrella that is covering all of them.
You are the secretary of the political committee of acf. The group is waiting for your committee’s report on the step it will take in regard to the expectations that President Goodluck Jonathan will contest the 2011 election. Is it true that acf and by extention the North will not support the president if he decides to run because of the pdp zoning policy?
Well, my personal opinion (I am not speaking for the Political Committee)is in line with what the Chairman of the National Working Committee of ACF, General Ibrahim Haruna; said recently that ACF will continue to guide itself with the dictates of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria about candidacy for presidential election and that nothing stops President Jonathan from contesting.
But ACF will not join issues with anybody on the issue of zoning because it is a PDP affair. It is a party affair. The Political Committee, like the National Publicity of ACF, Mr. Anthony Sani rightly said, is working on it. When the time comes, and when the time is right, ACF will make a statement, but certainly, it will not be a partisan statement. Not about supporting Jonathan’s ambition or the ambition thrust upon him by the politics of Nigeria. The simple reason is that there are many parties in ACF.
I told you that it is an umbrella organization and there are people from different parties including the Action Congress, PDP, ANPP and all that. It will be against the grain of political principles and objectives of being non-partisan to actually throw our weight behind President Jonathan’s candidature but what ACF can do which Gen.
Haruna has stated is that the people who are promoting and sponsoring the candidacy of President Jonathan, can reach out to ACF because, that would mean reaching out to more representation of the North; to sell the idea, platform and intentions so that it can be well received, it can be viewed within the context of political intentions and that is what the ACF has said; that is what Gen. IBM Haruna has said and I am on the same page with him on the issue.
As an individual, will you support Jonathan to contest the 2011 election?
Yes, I personally will support a Jonathan Presidency and I know that the dynamics of politics in Nigeria is rotten. That is why you hear about one man, one vote; rigging or no rigging. That is why you also hear about zoning or no zoning. We are still in a civil or civilian dispensation but we are certainly not in a democracy yet.
This is because, some of the attitudes, utterances and behaviour of political actors in Nigeria do not show that we are in a democracy. Democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people but apparently, what is happening in the country is the choice of the big guns.
It is the choice of the people who control the financial power of Nigeria. That is why, you find that the governor of a state has so much powers that the budget of his state has become his petty cash account; that he decides who goes to the National Assembly (NASS), and whoever is going to run for Senate or member of NASS must have the blessings of the governor. This is no democracy. People are asking for reforms.
But the question is how soon shall we see the reforms? And how can we ensure that we stop these people who are suffocating us with their political gimmicks and gangsterism? This will be determined by how the people themselves view government and democracy. So, I will support Jonathan’s presidency but you know that corruption is very pervasive in our country. We have economic, judicial, moral and bureaucratic corruption. These forms have eaten deeply into our body politic and have not allowed smooth operation of democratic principles. A lot need to be done but we have very
by vanguardngr.com
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