North will revolt rehabilitation in Niger Delta — Audu

Kwawo Jim Audu represents Gujuk/Shelleng Federal Constituency, Adamawa State in the National Assembly. In this interview with OGBU NGENE in Abuja, Jim Audu declares that people from Northern Nigeria would soon revolt against Federal Government's post-amnesty package for the Niger Delta gulping huge sums of money. He dismisses Northern Leaders as failures in fighting the courses of the region.

WHAT is your perception of the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta?
I don't see how to justify paying attention only to the Niger Delta when other parts of the country are in abject poverty.

If you go round the North, the problems there are 10 times worse than what is happening in the Niger Delta. I am from the North. I know the poverty level in my area. I know the level of backwardness in the area. It is not healthy that the Federal Government is paying attention to only one part of the country and ignoring the others.
What I expected the government to do was to map out a comprehensive way of developing the country and reducing poverty generally. These things are our common wealth. If we suffer, pay our taxes, labour and after the harvest, you are taking the harvest to a particular place to benefit, what happens to the rest hungry people? I am not happy about the development.

Are aware the Niger Delta people risked their lives and fought with arms against the government?
It is possible; but you also know that the Northern people are peaceful. It is not that we cannot take up arms. It is not that we cannot cork guns; but a hungry man is an angry man. A hungry man does not go to war with an empty stomach. They may not even have the money with which to buy the arms. But the Niger Delta people have the money because they have been involved in bunkering, stealing oil money. So, they have a way of sourcing the guns because they are buoyant. But the Northerners cannot even afford the money to buy local guns.

Do you believe in the spirit of equity and justice; when cocoa, groundnut, cotton, palm produce and coal were the mainstay of the economy, the various regions used the wealth to develop their areas?
If that is what they are saying, was the North developed in spite of the groundnut or cotton boom? Where was the first International Airport built? It was in Lagos. Ports were built in Port Harcourt, Warri, Sapele and Lagos. All the funds were used to develop those areas. All these things were built during the groundnut and cotton boom.
The issue is that we don't have representatives or leadership in the North. Our leaders are greedy and selfish. They don't fight for the ordinary person in the North. That is the truth. It was only Sardauna that tried. And that is why when you go round, you cannot see personal things built by Sardauna. You cannot see anything called “Sardauna School” or Sardauna House” etc. And that was because those people were not interested in enriching themselves. They were interested in making sure that the Northern people were part and parcel of the government. But today when you go round, you see Universities built by our today's leaders, but of which the average Northerner cannot attend.

So, on the issue of fair sharing, I will blame our leaders from the North. And in the North, the ordinary “talakawa” man believes in the leader. His belief is that the leader is to go and argue his situation. But the twist is that the leader goes to fight for his personal interest.

So, do you feel that even in the face of serious pollution and degradation of the environment due to oil extraction, the Niger Delta should not be given any special attention?
Well, in that aspect, I agree with them that the environment should be taken care of. And I will blame the Federal Government for not supervising the Oil Companies properly. There is supposed to be a regulatory body that would always make sure that those Oil Companies that extract oil from those communities provide the basic amenities for those communities.

The Oil Companies are willing to do those things for the people, but we have a situation where their leaders would meet the companies and collect money and go to Port Harcourt, Lagos or Abuja and buy houses and other luxurious things. I am very conversant with the Niger Delta environment. There is no creek in the area that I don't know. I have done businesses there.

So, if the people are crying that they have been neglected, fine, and a kind of attention ought to be paid to them. What is needed is for government to improve their general well-being socially, and economically. They don't have schools, hospitals, good roads, drinking water, etc. These are the things that should be done. It is not an issue of rehabilitating somebody. What are you rehabilitating him for? Were they destitute? They have their works. They have their various businesses.

The fact is that these militants had seen so much money during their militancy years. They indulged in a lot of unlawful activities that were paying them a lot of money. Now, you call them, and say that you would be paying each N65,000, for doing what? Which work are they doing that every month you wake up and pay N65,000? That is not being done in the North. And we are part of the problem. In most parts of the North, there are no roads, no good drinking water, no good schools, no good hospitals, and the government has not provided palliatives.
The bottom line is that this oil belongs to Nigerians, not only Niger Delta people. In the era of groundnut and cotton, did we lay claim to them? Nigerians were farming them and the government was buying from them.

So, I have seen that there are lapses both on the side of the government and the leaders of the communities. And this programme will just last for sometime. How long will the government stand it? From which sub-head will it continue? What happens to the other people in the country? Do you think that they will sit down and see the government giving such huge amount of money to a section and keep quiet, and tomorrow you want them to vote for one President to come back? They will not do it. Instead of that, you will see other people inciting their own people. That is what will happen. I know a lot of people will be inciting their people.

What the government is supposed to do is to centralize the issue. We have highest destitute in the North. You find in the North, the highest number of the blind, the cripples, the “almajiris” etc. Has the government done any programme like that for them? It is a very big problem in the North.

Do you agree with popular view that your party, the AC, lost the Miaha/Mubi North\South Constituency, Adamawa State by-election to the PDP because of poor planning?
Anybody can go about talking what he likes, but the issue is that the PDP stole the mandate. You can imagine where in the broad day light, the Police came and stopped the election. The other candidates saw what was totally absurd. The Police people came there, shot guns and took the ballot boxes. There was no election.
How can you talk of an election where even at the Polling Units, you saw PDP Officials with Adamawa State Government vehicles buying votes at N500? And at another polling station, you saw Police shooting guns and chasing people away. This is the scenario we witnessed in the Constituency that day.

Given that the AC had similar experiences with the PDP in the past, did you take the matter for granted?
Of course, there was also a crack on our part. The leadership of the AC had a crack towards that election. There was no unity among us. If there was unity, we would have formed a common front and fought the mess.
So, the PDP took advantage of the crack and did whatever they wanted. The PDP clearly stole that mandate. There was no election.

Given the way things were, if the PDP had allowed free and fair election in that by-election, and had lost it, that would have marked the end of PDP in Adamawa State. They fully knew it. That was why they used every foul means to steal it. They used the Police and guns to chase every other person away.

It was a terrible experience. I was there. A Policeman threatened to shoot me. I can even mention his name. I am even thinking about instituting a case against him. He threatened to shoot me when he was insisting that materials should leave INEC by 12.00 midnight. You can imagine where a DPO asked that materials be moved by midnight to polling booths. You can imagine where he was sending the materials to. These were what we saw. I am not exaggerating anything. We were all witnesses. We tried to resist it.
The PDP, as usual, stole the mandate. And the Governor actually knew that if he didn't do that, he would be in big trouble.

Why didn't your party formally challenge the election?
The Candidate said that he was not going to waste his money to fight the matter. After all, how long is left of the tenure?

What is the future of the AC in Adamawa State?
The AC in Adamawa is still intact. That does not scare us; we are preparing fully to ensure that what happened in this situation will not be repeated in 2011. In 2011, everybody will be in his Ward. I will not leave my Ward to go and fight for another person. I will protect my Constituency, Guyuk/Shelleng.
It will be a different game when everybody gathered there. There was a gang-up. All the PDP House of Assembly members, All the Special Advisers, the Police, etc were there. It will not be possible for them to gang-up like that in 2011, and I don't think that the federal structure will be used to support anybody perpetuating electoral fraud. If President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua goes by his words, I think we will have free and fair elections.

This man carry style wicked oh!

Why can't he as a "leader" of his people, find a way to create jobs, opportunities and money for his constituency? Why should that be the FG's problem?

If there was true federalism such idiots will not get time of day. One thing you can be sure of is that his type would be at the forefront of agitating for a new state for his people so they can get free money.

Instead of addressing his own shortcomings as a "leader", he wants to take his anger out on the ND. Na wa!

This guy is a total clown. If true federalism was to be practiced in 9ja as done in other part of the world, the ND would be in 100% controll of its oil and then would be paying tax to the federal gov. Then the north would not even see a penny. By d way dis olodo don shoot gun b4? as em wan start anoda civil war, protest na where na?

Boko haram again

Boko haram again

that guy is a fool

that guy is a fool

this man is speaking the mind of every northerner.This country is a big joke.the country needs to split