₦airaland Forum

Senator Joseph Kennedy N Waku, (JKN Waku), the stormy petrel of the Middle Belt was elected senator for the Benue North West Constituency of Benue State, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in 1999. Not long after she came into national renown following his controversial call for a military coup on the claim that President Olusegun Obasanjo was derailing the democracy project. Since then he has been an unrepentant critic of President Obasanjo, and a major political figure in the North. Waku is not only a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC but also of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF. In this interview, he speaks on current national issues. Excerpts:

By Joseph Erunke

What is your reaction to the renewed insurgency by militants in the Niger Delta?

In the first place, what were the offences committed by these people before they were pardoned? Are they not criminals? If I were the president, I would jail them.

So, are you ruling out dialogue as proposed by some people as a way of resolving the problem?

What kind of dialogue? Let them bring to table what they want. Let them do what they are doing, they will also suffer it. Are they also not suffering when they ruin the economy? Are they not facing the same problem like you and I? They are talking of marginalization today.

If you create Biafra today, is Biafra solidly Igbo’s? It’s not. When you go there, you would find a southern minority who will tell you that they don’t want to be part of it, even among the Igbo. Some Igbo will tell you that they don’t want it. If there is definitive kind of discrimination against certain segments of the country, that needs to be addressed because injustice creates dissatisfaction. If there have been injustices against one particular group in this country, let’s address it and not by taking the law into their hands.

That is criminality. We are also affected but we want to take it in a matured approach. You cannot go and begin to destroy state apparatus in order to achieve your agitation, it is against the law. I am not in a position to talk about which contract was revoked because I am not involved in that.

If those contracts were illegally awarded without going through the due process and the current administration wants to follow due process, what is bad about that? Go and do your investigation on that contract to see whether the old law that qualifies one for such contracts were made. What do you award contracts to militants for? In the first place, the name ‘militant’ is criminality. It is only this country that somebody will come back and say I am a militant and then ‘you award him contract.’ If they claim to be agitators as they are saying, then let them come out with their demands and not by holding the state to ransom.

Now, how would you want the government to handle this situation?

My advice is that you can’t take government for ransom. If their livelihoods have been damaged considerably by the pipelines and they have nowhere to go, let there be adequate compensation to them. It is not to take laws into their hands. And by the way, let me be honest with you, this is natural resources; nobody owns it and nobody farms it but by virtue of the location that you find yourself. If there is ecological diversification and you need to do something for your livelihood, then you table this issue to the federal government so that there would be amicable resolution

Giving the adverse effects of their actions, will it not be better to seek dialogue?

What do they need? Let them come out and tell government that ‘this has been our farmland, it has been devastated, we have no land to farm anymore’ and then bring a proposal to the federal government. This is how it should be done than issuing threats. If I were the president, I would have ended that thing by now.



How would you have done it?

Yes, by closing the whole thing down. Before oil came, didn’t this country exist? So, what are you talking about? We have been blindfolded and Nigeria became so lazy, a nation of cheap money. Before the oil, we had cocoa, we had palm oil, groundnut and pyramid, and those were the things that actually helped to develop the oil.

At a point, we in Benue challenged them that okay,’ let them go and drink their oil, we would eat our yams and then see who will survive.’

Edusouls:
u re the same people that said that the recovery efforts by the president is cluelesness, now it bearing fruit and you are talking rubbish, nigerians una no go see better thing for una lives..

Ndolarr:
Can we have the breakdown of the recovered loot on ethnic, gender and religious basis! After all, those who returned looted funds must belong to any of the three categories. My mind is telling me that a particular tribe looted the most and a particular religion looted small amount!! Presidency, please, give us the information pronto or I will invoke the provisions of freedom of information bill!!!

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Adaure4ever:
How is this crap a news? what is nairaland turning into?

Yuneehk:
You're really troublesome! If you use the lady's photo, then I'll be forced to take selfies with the guys

stnglobal:
I can help you just call me on 09085080282

sugarkemi:
Borehole=350k,depending on ur location atleast 140ft deep,automatic sealing machine 600k now due to dollar issue,carbon and sand filter 250k,two tanks=200k surface pump,30k,first aid box,nafdac fee=100k ,water analysing 150k

RichYoungNigga:
Nigeria don't even have gold.

Adaure4ever:
this thread is for a research test on a Gender Conference Project I am writing on.. I have gotten what I wanted.

willyo:
Are u on drugs...?

kenobi007:
The tittle is OK. A celebrity is a famous person.

Adaure4ever:
Abia State own loading soon.
#proudly_abia_babe

Emnyte:
Blessing Okagbare is from ondo state

ALAYORMII:
Is everyone that has money or that works with govt a celebrity?

Zehner:
I am from Delta

urchcoded:
Potatoe wey person go chop

Wealthgang:
Negotiating with d FG on increment of minimum wage is d best move, not strike.
NLC has to understand that d fuel price hike is a necessity, not some kinda punishment d govt just feels like giving to us. It has notin to do with subsidy removal but simply LACK OF FOREX.
Ok let's say that d FG suddenly reverses pump price to N86.5. Marketers still won't get forex for importatn from CBN because there's no money. They're still gonna source for it at unofficial rates and WON'T sell at that N86.5 because they'll be making losses. So fuel will still be scarce n we'll still queue to buy at N180-300.
Forex reserves have been depleted and int'l price of oil has slumped.

Total deregulatn is our last hope.

Btw, where was NLC when workers were being owed for months w/o pay?

francisbarrack:
Most Nigerians don't realise we've been living in The Matrix. This subsidy removal is the red pill that may wake us up to reality.
We are poor. We are broke. We've been raped, pillaged, looted and left for dead.
All these years our economy has been sustained on the junk food of corruption. We have kwashiorkor but because we look chubby we think we are healthy.
Those two bedrooms in Abuja going for N700 million. Those make up artists charging 500k and pre-wedding photo shoots for 700k. Aso ebi for 90k. Buying Rolexes and Ferraris. Range Rover Sport all over Lagos like keke napep.
It is all fake. It's all a mirage. We've all been living off the spoils of corruption. That's why the country is so hard now. No money circulating. Because no money to steal and rent flats and shops for girlfriends. For civil servants to pay bogus tithes of N500k. For senators to spray dollars at their daughters' weddings. For lagos big boys to spend N2m every Friday night at nightclubs.
It's time to face reality. The party is over. Now we may see the real Nigeria and Nigerians.
Now that money will go into our roads and bridges and hospitals. It will benefit those who don't have a rich corrupt uncle with connections in oil and gas. Those who can't travel to Dubai to celebrate birthdays. Those who don't know what Coldstone ice cream tastes like.
Hopefully the real estate markets will crash. The thieves with 15 houses in abuja will be forced to sell them fast for cash. I would prefer if EFCC seized and auctioned them, though.
All those in the service industry will have to revaluate their pricing. You can't charge 500k to paint faces anymore; free money don finish.
Welcome to the real world