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Alhaji Othman Bashir Tofa is a Kano based successful businessman and politician, in 1993, Bashir Tofa contested for the presidency on the ticket of defunct NRC but when the result of the polls was about to be announced, the then Military Cabal led by Former President Ibrahim Babangida cancel the entire process, since then, Tofa has returned to his native home of Kano and continue running chains of his businesses, unlike most of our elites, Tofa refused to join the ruling PDP during the current democratic program, he kept faith with ANPP even when ANPP presidential candidate then General Muhammadu Buhari formed the CPC, Tofa is an opinion leader and elder statesman in the North remains in ANPP now APC which has produced the current president.



Last week, Bashir Tofa granted an elaborate interview to Neptune Prime’s correspondent, Saleh Inuwa in Kano in which he talked about the current insecurity, challenges before INEC, resource control, why Nigerians may collapse if care is not taken, his insistence that he did not lose the June 12 election to Late MKO Abiola and his worry over the silence of senior Nigerians about the insecurity in the country.

EXCERPTS OF THE INTERVIEW

Neptune Prime: Before your recent statement, calling on senior Nigerians to come out and state their position on the insecurity ravaging the country, you have almost gone underground, what happened?

Tofa: I am surprised that you are the one asking this question because whenever there are major issues to talk about, you always come to my house or my office to hear my view, so I am not quiet at all but my concern is if I am to seek elective office today, it is going to be that of the president which I contested for in 1993 and the whole world knew that there was neither victor nor vanquished in that election, I never lost to MKO Abiola that is why whenever June 12 comes in our calendar, I don’t talk about it, when Buhari came, he almost declared Late MKO Abiola as the winner of that election by honouring him with GCFR, an honour that is normally conferred on Presidents.

NP: Your body language is telling me that you may not vie for an elective office in future?

Tofa: Do we have a future? When Nigeria is virtually grounding to a halt, and people like IBB, Abdulsalam Abubakar, General Aliyu Gusau, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Comrade Ebitu Ikiwe, Former President Obasanjo and other well-meaning Nigerians like Gowon are watching when they know very well that the country may collapse, I am worried that they are keeping quiet, about whether I will contest in future, since 1999, you watched how INEC conduct elections in this country, the exercise is always full of fraud, cheating, rigging and what have you. If you challenge your loss, it is still the fraudulent government in power that will tell the court, what to do, the judiciary is no longer the last hope of the common man because, most of our judges are corrupt and even INEC officials are nowadays massively corrupt, so at my age, and experience, I will not contest in future.

NP: But you have a dream to make Nigeria great again, how can you do that outside office?

Tofa: That is why I am always calling for National Conference to discuss our future, we need a national forum to talk about the future of this country especially how Boko Haram emerged, today people who stole billions are occupying sensitive positions in Government stealing more billions from the treasury, what happened to the outcome of the capital market probe, the subsidy problem, the Senate report on privatization, the reports are dying gradually, why? Today the level of corruption in Nigeria is more shocking to me than June 12 annulment, I went into June 12 and came out of it more popular, more experienced and richer if you want to know.

NP: What do you actually want Nigerians to discuss in a conference when we have senators and house of representatives?

Tofa: I don’t want to talk about our National Assembly and the Caliber of Politicians there, because, for a very long time, Nigeria was been ravaged by bandits, they did not compel the president to change his service chiefs, his ministers, National Security adviser or what have you, even the Executive these days are behaving as if they are deaf, so let’s go for a conference and talk about NNDC, Ompadec, Ministry for Niger Delta, derivation formula, these agencies are consuming massive resources, as a result, the North has become poor, we also should re-visit the present arrangement whereby the onshore/offshore law lifted the barrier between oil extracted onshore and offshore for the purposes of computing derivation revenue to be given the littoral states which are not acceptable to the North.

NP: Generally, can you summarize the performance of the Buhari Government?

Tofa: This government has failed, this government is weak, this government has no focus, the government is deaf and dumb, there is no single project by this government especially in the North, Nigeria is collapsing, poverty is killing our people, this is a government that can kill Nigerian Citizen because of a bag of rice imported through the border, all our textile companies are not working, we cannot go to the farm, we cannot travel in the night, yet the government is not ready to change or listen. Everyday, you hear of killing or kidnapping, some governors are even threatening the Federal Government by setting up their private security apparatus today, tribalism has increased in the country and foreign powers are working hard for Nigeria to be like Libya, Rwanda or Iraq. This is very very dangerous and we must pray hard for God to give us a purposeful president in 2023



https://neptuneprime.com.ng/2021/05/nigerians-need-urgent-sovereign-national-conference-to-re-examine-our-corporate-existence-bashir-tofa/?fbclid=IwAR1Yl4_I8_uPyIhaV8hmndG0FvOsqkaMWWXUtOZYGcRl5O2XVIpX7PuPgHw

I would rather say we need self check individually as a nation

Nigerians across religion, ethnic or tribe are the ones that damaged Nigeria

Nothing like Nigeria without the people

From ritual killings, drug baron, get rich quick syndrome, yahoo yahoo, bandits, Islamic fundamentals, bad governance, tax evaders and many more are all the most synonyms for Nigerians

sarrki:
I would rather say we need self check individually as a nation

Nigerians across religion, ethnic or tribe are the ones that damaged Nigeria

Nothing like Nigeria without the people

From ritual killings, drug baron, get rich quick syndrome, yahoo yahoo, bandits, Islamic fundamentals, bad governance, tax evaders and many more are all the most synonyms for Nigerians

The problem I have with people like u is you always focus on symptoms instead of the root cause of the problem

Ritual killing , bad governance , baby factory ( which I think is something that can be structured n made to work well ) and the rest are all products of the Nigerian structure

Nigeria is designed in such a way that unqualified people can raise to the highest potential ...take our chief judge for example ...it's a faulty system that allows someone like that to become a judge in the first place

For any country to develop n grow u need two things 1) patriotic citizens and 2) equity to every citizens ...and Nigeria lacks that and equity brings about patriotic citizens

We need to sit and let the people decide first if they want one Nigeria or now , if they do what would be the structure

Capitalist and Republican igbos can't be controlled by socialist and none Republican north and u expect peace there would always be issues

Hmmm

The WHOLE PROBLEM can be summarized into one big WORD - CORRUPTION.

We need Laws that punish political incompetence, Nepotism, Negligence, and all the negative traits that has crept into the mind of Every Nigerian in Power, vying for power or having a potential to become an aspirant someday.

NIGERIA DOES NOT HAVE FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMS - That's why the state is dying on its own weight!

If Governors are held accountable for the security of their states, they won't be spewing thrash such as "We know who are sponsoring the BH but we can't say anything because if we talk, the country will scatter"

If we had laws that hold ministers and MDAs responsible for every act and inaction they undertake, we won't be hearing of underperforming budgets, overbloated budgets and abandoned projects.

If we had a democracy of merit, we won't be having a potato in the rock.

What happened with the resolutions of the National Conference held last? Nada! Zilch! Zero! Nought!

Even if the country breaks now, we'll only have two sections of a once failed state, carrying on with the modus operandi and after the excitement of "SOVERIEGNTY" return to perpetual failure as the first from which they seceded

sarrki:
I would rather say we need self check individually as a nation

Nigerians across religion, ethnic or tribe are the ones that damaged Nigeria

Nothing like Nigeria without the people

From ritual killings, drug baron, get rich quick syndrome, yahoo yahoo, bandits, Islamic fundamentals, bad governance, tax evaders and many more are all the most synonyms for Nigerians

Nigeria number 1 problem is it's leader every other thing is secondary, you don't have failure like Buhari and expect Nigeria to flourish. Tell me one thing Nigerians have benefited from Buhari government if not hardship and death

JUST RETURN POLICE, RESOURCES AND ELECTIONS CONTROL AUTHORITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE 36 CONSTITUTIONAL STATE GOVERNMENTS

JUST RETURN POLICE, RESOURCES AND ELECTIONS CONTROL AUTHORITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE 36 CONSTITUTIONAL STATE GOVERNMENTS

AND LIMIT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MILITARY ON EQUALITY OF STATES BASIS AND TREATIES SEALING ONLY.

They early the sitting starts the better, though no force Can bring the country together again after a very deep cut by Buhari

sarrki:
I would rather say we need self check individually as a nation

Nigerians across religion, ethnic or tribe are the ones that damaged Nigeria

Nothing like Nigeria without the people

From ritual killings, drug baron, get rich quick syndrome, yahoo yahoo, bandits, Islamic fundamentals, bad governance, tax evaders and many more are all the most synonyms for Nigerians

Did you just transfer the blame to the masses, or I have comprehension problem?


Leadership is to be held responsible whenever an organization, family, team or whatever's failure to realize it potential.


Take countries like USA, Singapore, China, Rwanda, Germany, Japan, South Korea, UAE etc, they're where they are today because of the kind of leaders they have. They wanted things done in a certain way that will benefit the nation, built a team towards the purpose and achieved their aim. When Singapore was chased out of the union with Indonesia and Malaysia, they sent students to various developed countries to study and develop the nation with their knowledge, encouraged entrepreneurship and made the country almost tax free for companies willing to set up in the country.
UAE with oil diversified their economy and is making money from tourim today.
This is a Muslim nation with a good number of it citizens known to be ISIS sympathizers, but why are there no terrorist attacks there, it has been handled, security is water tight.


What has the masses got to do with NNPC, Ompadec, Niger Delta commission and the rest that Bashir Tofa mentioned in the interview? The Yahoo Yahoo, banditry, kidnapping etc is one of the results of the failures of the above mentioned organizations.


Summary, leadership and mentorship go hand in hand.
We only have chop chop leaders, not fathers or mothers of the nation.
Good leaders aim to develop the mindset of the population in a way that will compel them to have singleness of purpose, they are presented with visions and the part they are to play in achieving them.
Slogans, billboards, radio jingles, television adverts, and different forms of sensitisation are used to drive it into their consciousness, you see excitement in them plus the willingness to participate in the process.

Long and short, anytime there is failure, blame leadership.

God knows my being is tired of this Nigeria. It brings sad news everyday.

The first thing we need to establish is if the units still wants to be part of this entity. As for me and my household, I can no longer be a supporter of one Nigeria.

NO NO NO. enough of the tea drinking and money sharing gathering called national conference.