Buhari Would Soon Come For Obansanjo

Lt-General Jeremiah
Useni is among other things a former Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, FCT, former military governor of the old Bendel State and is
presently, senator representing Plateau South in the National Assembly.
In this interview with MARIE-THERESE NANLONG, he gives his views on
sundry national and state issues. Going by what has been happening in
Nigeria since the return of democracy in the country; do you think the
military was right in interfering in governance in the past?

The military was very justified because looking at what was happening at
 that time, there were lots of crises all over the place, the situation
in East, West and so on. Don’t forget that the first state of emergency
ever declared in Nigeria was during democratic rule. I’m sure you know
that there were lots of indiscipline in the democratic rule and
civilians were going round saying to the military, do you want us to die
 before you do something? So the military did not just wake up and said
give us power,
Buhari and Obasanjo Buhari and Obasanjo

it was the civilian who instigated the military to come into governance
and to see what was happening. It is just the way the coup took place
was one sided, it was mostly Igbos, what did they do, they killed the
leaders in the West, killed Sardauna in the North. If not, if it was a
general thing and in agreement with the military, that type of selected
killings wouldn’t have taken place.

Do you think President Buhari is upholding the rule of law in the way he
 is handling national issues including the trial of Nnamdi Kanu?
He is following the rule of law and I don’t know where he has gone
wrong, unless you will tell me where he is going wrong. We just fought a
 war on Biafra and we now have peace, so for some people to come again
and start reviving Biafra they are not asking for peace and you want a
responsible government to just keep quiet? Biafra issue had been locked
up, it should remain locked up. May be that time the person in question
was very young , he didn’t know how people suffered; we fought for three
 years so you can imagine the number of people dead and you want to
revive that?

How do you foresee governance in the north ahead of 2019?

Well, the problem of the North now is this Boko Haram which affects
about three states, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa but the government is really
 taking care of that. What the North needs now is to really   organise
itself and think of one thing, getting a credible leader like we had in
Sardauna.

Sardauna was a real leader in the North but when Sardauna died, young
politicians brought many things into politics like tribalism, the Boko
Haram hide under religion that they don’t believe and everything changed
 but now that we are taking care of the Boko Haram and people are
returning to their villages and also with this rehabilitation scheme
headed by General Danjuma, maybe by the end of this year, things will be
 much better and people must have learnt their lessons. I know we have
problems not only in the North but in other places like in the Niger
Delta area and what the Biafra people are trying to create in the East,
but the whole country needs to readjust itself and move ahead but I’m
sure we will still remain relevant.

Recently, former President Obasanjo indicted the National Assembly,
accusing it of corruption, as a senator what is your take on that?

He has been replied and I agree with the response. He brought corruption
 to the National Assembly with the way he was giving out money to
senators especially when he wanted to go for third term. He spent a lot
of money he can’t account for. What Buhari is doing now, is like what
Awolowo said when he was Minister of Finance under General Gowon and the
 government then put up a probe and wanted to go backward to past
government.

But Awolowo said no; new logs go on top of old ones, to get to the old
ones; you must remove the new ones first. That is what Buhari is doing
now, trying to clear the new logs so that he can get access to the old
ones; when he clears the new ones and gets access to the old ones, the
case of Obasanjo will come up. So he has no excuse at all to say such a
thing because if there is any corruption at all in the National
Assembly, he was the cause.

The PDP in Plateau State since after the last elections seems to be
falling apart. Do you regret joining the party at this time, if not,
what are you doing to revive the party ahead of the 2019 elections?
No, no, no; I don’t. I’m not regretting anything at all. You know I
don’t like running from party to party but I am only sorry for our boys
who were deceived by those who were saying PDP is going to rule for
another 60 years and when they were given some money to campaign they
just put the money in their pocket thinking that people will just go and
 vote for them. It is not like that, some of these people need to
transport themselves to where you want them, and you have to feed them
so a lot of things went wrong.   I can’t say I regret joining PDP but
I’m just sorry for some of our people who indulged in such things and
put us in this situation but we are trying to sort them out.

What is your personal effort at reviving the party in the state?

The first thing I tried to do was to get my Senatorial district intact
and I have done that. I had meetings about seven times but none of the
other Senators have had even a single meeting in their senatorial zones.
 I have done that and have been going round and I am concentrating on my
 senatorial zone but I have spoken with my colleagues that whether we
like it or not we must take responsibility for our senatorial zones then
 three of us will see how we can move the whole zones forward.

Whether Plateau South, Central or North, there are Senators like me and
when we meet, if it comes to doing something for the entire State, we
are saying that we made mistakes by losing the governorship, we must
learn from our mistakes and work hard now to gain the governorship in
2019. So we are working on that and I’m already spearheading that as far
 as my senatorial zone is concerned. We have gotten the message and we
are working hard towards it.

Do you envisage a mass defection from the PDP to APC?
If there was any, you would have known but no more movement anywhere, it
 is APC that will come back to us.

How do you see the Lalong’s administration in the last eight months?

I am not against Lalong as an individual, he is a friend but all I have
been saying to him is look, you won on the platform of the APC that is
what the constitution says that you must win an election on a platform
of a party. Having won, you are not a governor of APC and we call Buhari
 President of Nigeria, we don’t call him President of APC. He must take
everybody along whether in your party or not but if you think someone is
 good somewhere who can handle any assignment for you, call the person,
that is what the civilized world is doing.

So if you do that, you will gain more for your party but if you think
that the winner takes it all which of course will not go down well with
the majority then go ahead. He should be grateful to the PDP because if
not for the imposition of a candidate by Jang, he wouldn’t be there.

The people voted for him out of annoyance, they are not talking about
APC, it was out of annoyance and the same people are still in the PDP
anyway. As an individual I have nothing against him but that is my
warning. Let him govern properly so that he has a good name, but if he
fails, he knows why he failed. PDP failed in the State because we made a
 wrong choice of candidate and somebody insisted on imposition of a
candidate but we are not out.

Okay sir, what is your advice for the people of Plateau at this time?

Well, they should remain calm and peaceful. I am happy that all these
killings, killings have been on the reduction though there are still
concerns in some parts of Plateau North especially Riyom and Barkin
Ladi. It is still not very peaceful yet around Northern Plateau but I am
 saying that there is no excuse for people to continue to fight and
kill. In my area for instance, in the South, places like Wase where
Hausa/Fulani and the Tarok people were having issues and in parts of
Shendam and Langtang South, things are improving because if you go
there, you see the people moving together and it is very peaceful. We
have high hopes that the peace will be sustained, people should just
live in peace with one another.