₦airaland Forum

You talk as if there is ulterior motive by Gusau and some highly placed Nigerians?
Yes, they (Olusegun Obasanjo, Theophilus Danjuma, Aliyu Gusau and Ibrahim Babangida) have a game plan. Don’t forget in 2007, Gusau contested against Yar’Adua and he wanted to be President of Nigeria. I saw him when he went to Enugu with a rented crowd where he said: “I passed through your roads, I saw your roads; I saw your roads are not good. I am going to make an Igbo man my Minister of Works.” What kind of statement is that; an Igbo man my Minister of Works? Personalizing appointment and that shows you his level of intelligence.
They cannot and they will not succeed by the grace of God. We will pray God will not give them that chance; we have nothing to live for if we allow this kind of nonsense to go on, we are not what we are, we should resist it. You see, when people orchestrate patriotism but laced by something else, God will not allow them. Why we are in this trouble is because of all these people.

There are reports that Obasanjo and Danjuma are not in good terms; that Obasanjo and IBB have some little difference as well as Obasanjo and Gusau. But some people say the plan may be the handiwork of IBB, Obasanjo, Danjuma and Co. towards ensuring that IBB returns to power. Do you share this line of thought?
I don’t like speculation. I like to go with facts and figures, not speculations. If after IBB left unceremoniously in 1993 after ruling Nigeria for eight years and denied us the right to vote for somebody we wanted, and he still wants us to vote him into power, he thinks he will get that? All his scheming will never get him any thing. God will not allow him to get there.

IBB was my mentor. He was very good to me. In fact, there was no other officer who helped me like IBB. Throughout my service, he treated me like his younger brother. He trained me in the NDA. I was going to his house and felt very free. His late wife was everything good to us. And after I was retired, he appointed me as Sole Administrator of the National Salt Company. He also appointed me chairman of another company in Sokoto.
The man is very benevolent; there is no doubt about that. But we are not talking about personality. We are talking about our nation. We are talking about the prospect of our nation, and if my father is doing something wrong, God told me not to cover him up. Speak the truth even against your parents, even against yourself because God is my witness and if I don’t, I will answer to Him. So it is not a question of whether somebody was good to me or not.

I do not personalize issues. I like to look at things the way they are and speak the truth about them. So if you are going to shoot me for that, go ahead. If you are going to detain for that, go ahead. I have been detained, I have been shot at, (and) I have been removed unceremoniously. So they don’t bother me, but the truth will always be spoken. So if this group that you mentioned - IBB, Danjuma, Obasanjo, Gusau - people who put us in the condition that we are now want to come back to power to perpetuate our slavery, then let us see whether Nigerians are enlightened now or not. Let us see whether Nigerians will be fools to have wool pulled over their eyes the second time.

You think Nigerians can resist the Generals?
We have come of age; we are in 2010 for God’s sake. When we were young officers, we were in our 20s and 30s. Now I am 58 years old. So who is going to make me look like a small boy any more, who? The Chief of Defence Staff, General (Paul) Dike, was equivalent of Course 13 in the NDA. I was 9, there was 10, 11, 12 and his was equivalent of 13. So he barely saw me in the NDA. The Chief of Army Staff was Course 17; he barely saw the Chief of Defence Staff in the NDA. I left the Chief of Defence Staff at the last course, and he left the Chief of Army Staff at the last course. So what am I going to speak other than the truth? Which one of them is going to do me anything that I have not gotten from God? Now they came together; they are birds of the same feather. Even if they fight, what was the fight for?

First, IBB wanted to be President in 2007, but Obasanjo blocked it. That was why he wrote to say that he wanted to be President but because Umaru’s (Yar’Adua’s) father treated him like a son, he decided to withdraw. But he was interested. And Gusau contested against Umaru. Danjuma was booted out because of oil blocks not because of the interest of the country, because Obasanjo refused to give him his entire oil blocks, which he claimed he got one billion dollars from. Was he given oil block to sell it? Now he sold it one billion, paid taxes of half a million dollars and now he has 500 million dollars in his kitty. He took 100 million dollars and turned it into 15 billon and formed a foundation only God knows what he is planning to do with it; possibly to sell it to people and get votes.

Like I said, I don’t like speculation. But the issue is, if you took one-fifth of what you got and you say you don’t want your children to quarrel over it, what are you doing with the balance? If you don’t want your children to quarrel over money, as he claimed, and you took only one-fifth, that is why we have problem in the Niger Delta.

How do you mean?
How can somebody from Taraba State get $500 million for selling oil block for doing nothing other than just that Abacha gave it to him and he sold it? He made neat $500 million, which he kept in his own coffers, and somebody in Niger Delta does not even have a toilet, a house to live in, no school, no hospital and yet you say these people should not make trouble. When they blow up pipelines we don’t have gas, and when we have no gas, we don’t have electricity and no foreign exchange. That is why we can’t refurbish our plants. It means we can’t get good things from outside which we can’t manufacture here. That means people are unemployed, crime rate will increase because people have to survive. Eventually, we end up with armed robbers and all kinds of characters. So you see the impact of Danjuma’s $500million. What is he doing to us just because he got it, and Niger Delta people have nothing? And these people are coming back to power; what is so special about Danjuma? What is so special about Gusau? What is so special about Obasanjo?

In any case, this is nemesis catching up with everybody because Obasanjo was not the choice of the South West. We in the North; I say we because we are unfortunate to have these people within our midst who sold Obasanjo’s dummy to us and we had no alternative but to take him. What could we do? Power play was there, so the Yoruba people in the South West told us he is not their choice, that he is our choice.

Now for Obasanjo’s misgivings, Yoruba people are being held responsible because Obasanjo is a Yoruba man. But they also forgot that the same Obasanjo gave us Shagari. Even when Shagari said he wanted to be a Senator and begged Obasanjo to make him a Senator, Obasanjo made him President of Nigeria. The North did not bargain for Shagari but Obasanjo imposed him on us. So whatever nonsense that happened during Shagari’s tenure should be on the head of Obasanjo, just like whatever Obasanjo did should not be on the head of Yoruba people but on the head of people who put him there.

What about Buhari? He is another candidate people are looking up to, especially with the opposition trying to form a coalition? Do we have any hope in him?
I have no hope in anybody whether Buhari, Babangida, Gusau, Obasanjo, Danjuma or any body. I have no hope in all these people. I believe they should retire and go and sleep. They should allow young men to come in and take over. Look at America; Obama, I am older than (him). I am 58 years. How old is Obama? Why do we want people who are 70 to come and rule us? Danjuma, for example, came into limelight in 1966 in the coup that (Aguiyi-) Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi were killed.

He took over the government and handed over to (Yakubu) Gowon. This guy was in power from that time and he is now chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee. Look, Ahmed Joda was Permanent Secretary during the time only God knows when, and he is still chairman of (National) Communication (Commission). What is he chairing? He is one of those holding meetings to go and be in PAC or whatever. What has he got to offer? He is like my grandfather and he is still active without beards. I have put on beards, my son has beards but he has no beard, and he is supposed to be my grandfather. For God’s sake!

If you have no respect for all those the North is throwing in the ring for the 2011 presidency, what then do you suggest?
If we will continue to be under the thumbs of this same group, we in the North should give it to the South even if it is our turn because we are better off without them. We ruled Nigeria from 1960 to 2010; Tafawa Balewa was there from 1960 to 1966. After him, Ironsi ruled for only six months, then Gowon for nine years, 1967 to 1975; then Murtala for six months; then Obasanjo from 1976 to 1979. Shagari ruled from 1979 to 1983, Buhari 1983 to 1985, Babangida 1985 to 1993, (Ernest) Shonekan for about three months, (Sani) Abacha for six years, that is up to 1998. Then Abdulsalam (Abubakar) took over from 1988 to 1999, then Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007, and now Umaru Yar’Adua. If you calculate the number of years the North held power from independence, you will notice that the number of years that the South got was about 12 years out of 50 years. This is a federation and if we are to going be fair, we ought to sit down and decide how we are going to make sure that everybody has a go at it.

Apart from Ironsi, nobody from the South East has got it, nobody from the South South has got it but all the zones in the North have got it. Only one zone in the South, only the South West, was able to rule for 12 years and nine months. Except for the six months of Ironsi, the South East and South South never got a shot at it. So if we are to be sincere, we should reduce the number of years anybody should rule Nigeria so that it is zoned to every part of Nigeria. Make it only four years. Whether it is a party that will continue, you must look for alternative candidate. The party can rule as long as they win their election but the party’s candidate should be changed every four years.

I don’t like the idea of telling me to support a candidate because he is a northerner or Muslim. From personal experience, I have been dealt with by northerners that are Muslims. I have been taken care of by Southerners who are Christians. When I was removed, I was oppressed by northerners, including our judges. But Christian judges gave me my freedom. For instance, Justice Stephen Adah. I have Toyibo, who awarded me N5 million. He is a Yoruba man, a Christian, and Adah is from Benue, a Christian. But we have judges from the North, except for the Federal Court of Appeal here in Kaduna that was fair to me who are northerners, and only one Yoruba man, the rest of them were all judges from the North. My case was taken to four courts in Kebbi, and who are these people who did this to me? (Adamu) Aliero, Obasanjo, Aliyu Gusau and the man who called himself Emir of Gwandu.

So why should I attack Christians or Southerners? Even when I was in detention, nobody gave me anything except Southerners and Christians who looked after my family; people like Chimaroke Nnamani, Oba of Lagos, and Bola Tinubu. They are the people who have been helping my family, and Uche. They all came to the help of my family in my absence. And when I was facing my travails in detention, it was AIT and your paper, The Sun, that told the world what happened to me. So who am I now to start saying because they are Christians, they are Southerners, they are not worthy of anything? To be sincere these are people who always stand by the downtrodden. Why should I want a northern Muslim to come and start messing up everybody, after all they have done it before?

What has our northern leaders done for us? You go round Kaduna and see the textile industries Sardauna created for us, which one is working now? All our boys are now beggars. They are either armed robbers or criminals one way or the other, and yet we have been the ones ruling. One of them brought N15 billion from one oil block. How many people do we have here who have oil blocks? If each of them brings N15 billion, why can’t the North be the richest region of Nigeria? But we are the poorest, and yet we are fighting each other, saying that we want northerners and Muslims to be rulers. Why should I go for that when it is unfair to other Nigerians?



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@naijamini, if you want i can give you a joke why everyone thinks fulani dumb, but they're not, they're calculating.

@naijamini, am not as violent as you think and afterall violence is not the exclusive preserve of any one individual, it is reciprocal. my pain is that jang is persecuting innocent people for someone's misdeeds, he have issues with babangida but he's punishing anybody whose ID says HAUSA/FULANI/MUSLIM. look during dariye there was similar case but dariye handled it with wisdom, but jang will go around making threats, after the january crisis jang was in shendam to commission some projects and he said somethings that are inflamatory, hear him ""they do not know that i am an old soldier who is retired but not tired, i am ready to deal with them no matter how many they're""
Should a good leader who want peace be making that kind of statement, I DONT THINK SO, not upto to a week after this statement, HAUSA/FULANI/MUSLIM women, children and the aged where massacared in there sleep,300 of them in kuru karama, kuru jentar and tim tim nobody said anything not even the press if not aljazeera, and i think everyone deserves to be treated fairly, but when you refuse to do justice then there will be chaos, and jang have told to sit up or give his seat and he can even be jailed if he makes any noise cos he's cockroach and you know what happens to cockroaches.

As for ezeuche in maryland we've sorted ourselves and he's a hommy now.

@dominifet, i swear i didn't catch a word in that jargon you wrote, can you translate please.

@frosbel, market is good today, i can see you're over excited cos all what you've been saying have started to manifest, chai prophet frosbel.

Guys una dey vex oooh, na because of nairalanders the guy dey try show himself as a progressive cos nairalanders no dey joke with am at all at all, but abeg make we just leave me since him don show remorse for many of him writings [i know he's ref. to NL].

@fhemmey, let me tell you, SANUSI is not loved in the north as you think, just try to get his articles where he was blasting late SHEIHK JA'AFAR over shari'a in the north since then he've become a persona non grata of some sorts in the north.

@frosbel, its not funny just think about it and make up your mind.

@frosbel, my man i invite you to ISLAM.

@naijamini, yeah whatever.

@lkeyman00, then forgiven.

@hillsate, why body dey pepper you anytime wey we expose jang? well, pikin wey say him mama no go sleep, him too no go sleep. barrack boy or no barrack boy, atleast now una dey fear to touch any HAUSA/FULANI guy cos if you do, BAD things will happen.

@mikeansy, is there any nepotism in the Nigerian Army? well, i dont know of it, every state in Nigeria is represented in the Army so what sh.it nepotism ar you saying.

What is propaganda in this, firstly you he accused fulanis of all the wrong things happening in plateau and now he've made 360 degrees turn and he's praising them, he dos'nt have to say sorry verbally for him to mean he's sorry, cos actions speaks louder than voice, he's really sorry and he's begging.

please take this to the properties section.

Plateau State governor, Jonah David Jang, has ruled out the possibility that those who unleashed the recent violence on some villages in the state were Fulani herdsmen, saying he had lived with Fulani for too long to believe that.

He said those who committed the act were “outsiders”, but he did not say exactly who.

Hundreds of people were killed in two separate attacks on villages in Jos South Local Government Area of the state early this month. The attacks were widely reported to have been perpetrated by Fulani pastoralists avenging the killings in Kuru Karama village in January.

Speaking to State House reporters after a visit to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan in company of members of the Solomon Lar Committee yesterday, Jang said everything is being done to address the situation in the state and restore peace.

The governor said: “I came to brief the acting president on the latest situation and how far we have gone. I believe that with the additional (security) forces sent in for deployment in all the various localities to ensure that lives and property is protected, as you know, you can win a war but you cannot win peace, not easily.

“Everything is being done to ensure that peace returns to Plateau State. We have started talking to various groups; particularly the Fulani who have been living here for so many years.”

On the Fulani, he said, “Also I can assure you that I was born in a neighbourhood of the Fulani. The neighbour of my father was a Fulani man and I grew up with his children and even went to tend his cows, and if you look at my age now, around 66, then you would understand how long the Fulani have lived around the Berom and other indigenes of Plateau State.

“We would do everything to ensure that all these outsiders that are coming in to create disharmony … we can never wish each other away. You don't even know the difference between the Fulani and the natives who are cattle rearers.

“We want peace on the Plateau, we want to live as brothers and sisters. We are Nigerians, we must be able to live together."

Jang said when there is this type of crisis, one can never rule out the outbreak of sectarian skirmishes here and there, but "gradually the security agents are doing everything possible to trace this kind of situation. “

“People are still bitter with each other but it takes time to win peace," he added.

Meanwhile, the special military task force on the restoration of peace in Plateau State has confirmed the arrest of two suspected cattle rustlers in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of the state, as well as the recovery of five out of the 30 cows stolen from the area a few day ago.

Also, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of "B" division, Bukuru, headquarters of Jos South Local Government Area of the state, was among the two people wounded as he and his men were struggling to quell a riot that broke out in the area.

LEADERSHIP gathered that some youths engaged in a free-for-all fight after a football game, a commotion that led to the blocking of roads and assault on passers-by.

Four people were arrested in connection with the incident.

The commander of the task force, Major General Saleh Maina, who confirmed the incident, said the situation has since been brought under control.

He enjoined the people in the area to cooperate with the military in its efforts to bring lasting peace to the troubled areas.

@uktrader, i've told you what you need to do, please take my advice.

Its done to spite turai cos they're NOT in good terms with the guy, and the rest of SHEHU's immidiate family, look this politicians know more than we know that's sometimes we'll be asking how on earth will they take some decisions.

@chosen04, they're trying to go to libya and everybody knows the nigerians that goes to libya are from your part of the country, we've got the stats, we've seen it on AIT, we've seen there meeting with abike dabiri's committee on diaspora there's no single HAUSA guy among them, they're all from your tribe trying to go to europe by road.

I think its done to spite turai cos they're in good terms, the guy is cool.

Yakassai, not in my name, you're on your own.

@bombay. what trash, it still baffles me why you thugs accepted amnesty, look nigerian army can grind you urchins into pieces whithin 48hrs, until you guys start bombing abuja before i can take you serious, look there're real G's and then there're internet junkies like you. you guys can only bark and bark and bark.

@oboma1, cos ebonyi is not stable (peace wise), its just that the mainstream media is downplaying it.

@becomepoor, you too like wahala, your notice-me don too oooh.

@forget, story story, they're just mouth no action, truly am missing obasanjo cos during his time no negotiation no amnesty, just straffing. ten times of the local thugs that are not allowing us here word in the ND cannot withstand our armed forces.

@beaf, that's what am here to do, TALK TOO MUCH.
this is a case of pot calling kettle black.

@borat, please i dont know where you heard of any coup ooooh, i think you've got the wrong guy, sorry.

@edoyad monkey, where have you been? well they all regard you as HAUSA wether CHRISTIAN or MUSLIM, so you can continue to lick their ass they'll never trust you.

@ziddy, the joint task force in jos is made up of the army, airforce and the police, all of them played equal role in the crises, but people are only asking for the of DAMBAZAU for obvious reasons. DAMBAZAU is my role model, i can die for him and i can kill for him.

@igbo boy, since na you dey vex, i extend my invitation to you, please come to the north and practice what you've been preaching, you wan go heaven but you no wan die.

@uktrader, ?

your life have so many unanswered questions, go and ask questions about yourself.

@ziddy, you can hate him all you like but the truth is that you can never ever ever be an acheiver like DAMBAZAU, and FYI he's not going anywhere. him dey kampe.