Junaid Mohammed was a former Joint House Leader of the defunct Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee as well as a member of the Defence Committee in the Second Republic. In this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI, he speaks on latest developments in the polity, especially the war against Boko Haram insurgency. Excerpts:

The Senate President and Speaker of the House recently faulted the Social Investment programme of the FG, saying it is not getting to poor Nigerians. Do you think poor Nigeri­ans are really benefiting from these palliatives?

I agree with the proposition that if the palliatives aimed at assisting the needy in the coun­try, then the government must go out of its way to ensure that it is properly done and the poor do benefit from it. From all indica­tions, the poor are not benefiting from it. The same things was said about palliatives were the things that were said about Tradermo­ni, Marketmoni and other social intervention programmes; that the poor did not benefit from it. They didn’t work in the past and they are not working now. At the end of the day, the government is playing politics. The lies that are being told about the pallia­tives will come back to bite the President and the government, including the ruling party.

President Idriss Deby of Chad few days ago led Chadian troops to rout Boko Haram and some Nigerians are asking President to also lead by example since he promised to lead the war from the front. What is your take on that?

First and foremost, the cir­cumstances of President Buhari and Idriss Deby of Chad are to­tally different. Also, Nigeria is a democratic government while the situation in Chad is that of a semi- dictatorship. So, they are totally different.

But if truth be told, whatever the circumstances, I think Pres­ident Buhari shouldn’t have made the pronouncement that as elected President and Command­er-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, he was going to lead from the front. Whether he was speak­ing literally or metaphorically, it doesn’t matter.

He shouldn’t have made the statement but he made it and now it is now coming back to haunt him. But no sane person who believes in Nigeria’s de­mocracy as a project will imag­ine that Buhari who is over 85 years old should now go and lead Nigeria’s troops in fighting Boko Haram. Given his age, we shouldn’t expect him to be phys­ically involved in frontal attack against Nigeria’s enemy whether they are Boko Haram or foreign countries. That will amount to taking things too far.

What do you think the President can do so that Nigeria can make head­way in the battle against the insur­gents?

I believe that what Buhari is expected to do but which in the views of most Nigerians he has failed to do is to provide politi­cal, economic and other kinds of leadership qualities and make sure that the country is secured internally and ensure that the people who are behind Boko Ha­ram are exposed and they are dealt with appropriately. I don’t think that has happened.

It is clear that in fighting Boko Haram, we are not just fighting the men who are involved physi­cally in the organisation, we are also dealing with some people who, for obvious reasons don’t mean well for our country. These ones will rather blackmail the government into making some kind of concessions that no Ni­gerian leader can make and sur­vive. As far as I am concerned, that is the situation we find our­selves right now.

I want to say that personally in my capacity as the Chairman of the Foreign Relations committee of the House of Representatives during the Second Republic and also having been a friend of Bu­hari, I was disturbed when news came to me that General Buhari was threatening to go on his own and conduct a war in Chad then, without the full authorisation of President Shehu Shagari.

The cardinal principle of dem­ocratic governance is that the mil­itary must be under the full and total control of the political class. Then Buhari was not elected but posted by the then Commander in Chief, Shehu Shagari to Jos as GOC of 3rd Armoured Division. That did not confer on him the power to attack or threaten a for­eign country. If he did so with the authorisation of the President, he had no power to threaten the For­eign Affairs Minister of Nigeria, late Professor Ishaya Audu, a com­plete gentleman.

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Though Audu was not a mem­ber of the National Party of Ni­geria (NPN), he was nevertheless appointed by President Shagari as Foreign Minister. In the course of the performance of his duty as foreign affairs Minister, he has a right to advise the President and if he has any comments to make about the conduct of the war un­der Buhari, he has a right to do so, not necessarily directly to Buhari but to the Service Chiefs and of course, President Shagari himself. So, I was very disturbed.

Given the way the war is going between us and the Chadians, it is clear that there is no full coop­eration because I remember that sometimes last year; they simply took a decision which was almost unilateral to withdraw the Chad­ian armed forces from the theatres of war in the border between Ni­geria and Chad. That was an in­dication that all is not going well and of course, every Nigerian of conscience knows that the war against Boko Haram is not going well and that Nigerians have no confidence in the Service Chiefs appointed by Buhari. That ex­plains why anytime, Boko Haram can get to a venue and attack our soldiers and they never paid the price for it. When they attack the Chadians, they paid the price. So, forget about the personal involve­ment of President Idriss Deby of Chad.

The fact was that the Chadians are seriously feared by Boko Ha­ram. How I wish we have the Gen­erals and officers on the frontline fighting the war in the North East who are feared by Boko Haram. Clearly, they are not respected and they are not feared. The decision making of Nigerian government from top to bottom is such that no one will take us seriously.
I sin­cerely hope that this development will encourage the government to be serious and to make sure that Nigeria’s territorial integrity is preserved and then we have people appointed to man key positions in the armed forces; people who are capable of performing at the war front and do Nigeria proud. At the moment, that is not the case.
https://www.independent.ng/poor-nigerians-not-benefiting-from-federal-governments-palliatives-junaid-mohammed/

Buhari's government is the kind of government that never exist before. The government is full unpatriotic Nigerians as leaders.

we all know but who are those journalist that normally give microphone to this man.
From the entire North does it mean that they don't have mentally balance people that can air their views objectively?
Cos this man will speak good today but tomorrow he become something else.

He created ministry of humanitarian affairs and put fulani human there. The minister of finance is from same tribe.
So don't expect less.

God bless you for this truth..only northerners are benefiting

Ok

very unfortunate

Lipscomb:
He created ministry of humanitarian affairs and put fulani human there. The minister of finance is from same tribe.
So don't expect less.

Scam government, Scam presidency and scam supporters.