• Says Only God can save Nigeria in 2015
Alhaji Ja’afaru Makarfi is the Chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of the apex Islamic body in northern Nigeria, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI). In this interview with Saturday Sun, the octogenarian spoke on a wide range of national issues including the proposed national conference, corruption, security challenges and the 2015 general elections.Makarfi, who is also a one-time commissioner for education in Kaduna State and a delegate to the 2005 National Political Reform Conference, stated categorically that Nigeria does not require a national conference to address its challenges, but abolish the present presidential system of government, which he described as too expensive for the nation’s quest for development.

According to him, the national conference if allowed will leave Nigeria more disunited than it is, as delegates will bring forth their sectional agenda too numerous to be addressed. On the 2015 general election, the JNI Chairman said Nigerians don’t care about where the nation’s president comes from, adding that what matters to a common man is his right and justice. He also said that only God can save the country ahead of the 2015 polls. He spoke more on this and other national issues with ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE. Excerpts:



It is already 53 years after Nigeria’s independence, as an elder statesman, what is your assessment of our journey so far?

The major problem of Nigeria is corruption. Nigerians have become followers of the devil; where there is money, people will always go and look for it by all means, that is why it is difficult now to get things right, and as I am talking to you now, you also know that, nothing goes right in Nigeria; whatever you want, you have to bribe or you have to ask for favour. No matter how qualified you are, you don’t get any appointment, you don’t get any job unless you know somebody. That is not the way to do things. Even this politics we are doing now, people spend money to get votes, then everything is wrong in Nigeria. And to get it right, there is no amount of sovereign conference that will solve our problem. Do you know why? The moment you come for a meeting, then there must be diverse opinions. You know, we have more than 400 ethnic tribes in Nigeria; each tribe has its own ways of doing things, has its own culture and so, they will bring about old prejudices and things like that, and that is why I don’t support this sort of conference. It is going to disrupt the present stability we are enjoying right now. Despite all the inconsistencies, we are still enjoying something and that thing is that, every part of Nigeria is proud to belong to Nigeria. And we must maintain that, to make sure that we maintain unity to be one country. The moment you bring people of different groups together, everybody has his own likes and dislikes, his own taste, you will bring something which will disturb the present unity that we are enjoying.

Already, if you are in a state, some people will begin to say, we, we are minority, we are subjugated, we are discriminated, we are this, we are that, we want our own state. Even if you go to the local government, you will see people who will say, oh yes I belong to another tribe, and my people want our own local government, we cannot continue to live like that. If we continue to break up, that means we are weakening the unity of the country, and the moment you bring about this conference, all these problems will come up, and then you will start to regret, why did we call for this conference in the first place? Because you cannot reach any consensus on any issue in Nigeria now. So, we need to first try to maintain the status quo. Number two, you cannot right the wrongs of the present till you wipe out or reduce corruption drastically. Corruption is the bane of our development now: in every aspect of our lives, corruption has eaten deep to the extent that people don’t even know that there is God. We don’t follow the tenets of our religions of Islam and Christianity. All of us are guilty; we are all looking for worldly things and we are all aware of this. For example, I am a pensioner, I have areas of two years of pension not paid. What brought about this? Corruption. Look, if there is no corruption, nobody will care who is the President of Nigeria, nobody will care about who is the governor of a state or the chairman of that local government. If there is no corruption, if there is justice and fair play, everyone will get his own share of what is due to him, and there will be no problem. Apart from corruption, the system of government we are operating now needs to be addressed.



Which system?

The present system, the presidential system we are operating is too costly for the level of our development in this country. If we want to be realistic, we should wipe it off. If you go on record to see how much we are spending with the executive arm, legislature and judiciary, how much we are spending at all levels of our local government, you will find out that, by the time we finish paying all these organs, there will be very little left for any meaningful development. And when we continue to do that, we will never get development, when these people are taking away 90 to 95 per cent of our revenue. I was reading the other day in the paper that, because this minister of aviation has bought two armoured vehicles at N255 million, they said, the American President’s vehicle is only N47 million and that is a President, President of the biggest country in the world, the most economically developed country in the world, with all their resources, yet the President is riding just N47 million car, and now, a minister is to ride cars worth N255 million. And these ones are just for her safety, there are still official cars around, how can you have development? You cannot have development, because these people have eaten deep into our resources and there is nothing left. So, I will plead that we go back to the way we were living before. We should go back to the way we were governing ourselves before, leaving presidential system of government, it is too expensive and go back to parliamentary system of government, where you elect people and among them, they elect a prime minister, then there will be no chaos.

Look at the way people scramble now to become governor or president, it is because it is too expensive, it is because they enjoy the positions, that is why it has become a do-or-die affair. Leave that. And then, why do we have to pay people if they are the servants of the people? We pay legislators to go and make laws, they should be paid allowances and not salaries, but now, they are paying them salaries, they are paying them retirement benefits; it is wrong, we are squandering our riches for nothing, nothing is left for development, so we should change. And that is why I condemn this meeting. In 2005, we were appointed to go and discuss National Political Reform during the time of Obasanjo. We were there for four months; they wasted a lot of money, we wasted a lot of time, we wasted a lot of papers, we wasted a lot of everything. When it finished, then it went to the National Assembly, they did not even look at our report. It means, we wasted time, we wasted everything. But, it was later we learnt that the whole essence of that meeting was that, they wanted third term. So, this is what national conference will bring about. There is a hidden agenda; there is something that is hidden, that is why I don’t support it.



Were you a delegate to the National Political Conference in 2005?

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Source http://nigerianewsflash.com

Nigeria have destroy already... Makarfi should go and sit down

Nigeria has been destroyed since, its just that ppl have been scared of speaking der minds, until of recent.

How can Nigerians not care where the president comes from? Isn't it the same Nigerians from a particular part of the country that rejects others from ruling them? Isn't it the same Nigerians that end up killing innocent corps members, business people, innocent people just because a leader of their choice is rejected? Isn't it the same Nigerians that wanted other Nigerians not to reside in the same locality with them?

I believe that every old fart that has benefited from the wickedness of this country should abstain from this proposed national conference(sovereign or non-sovereign). It is time the future is created either we go together or we go separate.

saintneo: How can Nigerians not care where the president comes from? Isn't it the same Nigerians from a particular part of the country that rejects others from ruling them? Isn't it the same Nigerians that end up killing innocent corps members, business people, innocent people just because a leader of their choice is rejected? Isn't it the same Nigerians that wanted other Nigerians not to reside in the same locality with them?

I believe that every old fart that has benefited from the wickedness of this country should abstain from this proposed national conference(sovereign or non-sovereign). It is time the future is created either we go together or we go separate.

Well said

I was raised to stand up tall and stare challenges blank in the eye.

Asking not to hold a conference cos we have discovered comfortability in hanging askew is hardly a good reason to oppose the SNC.

When things are bad and you wanna make them better, people will suffer first cos they have to be exorcised of the comfortability they have found in the wrong things. Its after this exorcism that things can ever get better.