…Says IBB, Gusau, Atiku, Buhari, govs failed the North —
From ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, Kaduna Sun Newspapers —
From an uncommon quarter came a warning yesterday to the northern political elites already jostling for political power in 2015. Deposed Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Al-Mustapha Jokolo, said they should tarry a while and give the South-South another four-year term beginning from 2015.
Jokolo, who was deposed about seven years ago in a controversial circumstance and still fighting his deposition in court, told Daily Sun in an exclusive interview in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State capital, on Tuesday, that the North should forget the Presidency for another eight years.
He insisted that the North should only return to power at the federal level, after the Igbos too must have produced the President for one term of four years, beginning from 2019.
All these, according to him, are his own panacea for restoration of peace to the country, and to further strengthen the country’s claim of oneness without discriminating against any section or ethnic group.
This is even as he accused the likes of former military president Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, former Head of State Muhammed Buhari, former National Security Adviser (NSA) Aliyu Gusau, including all the northern governors, of being responsible for the spate of insecurity in the region, saying, if they had played their parts well as leaders in their respective times, the situation would certainly have been different.
He said: “The situation whereby all these leaders, who created these problems will now sit down and claim they want to find solution to the problems they created will no longer be acceptable to us. They should just bury their heads in shame, and allow the younger generations in the north, to take the driver’s seat.”
He also spoke on the recent defection of former governor of Kebbi State, Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero, from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), back to the PDP, saying that “it is our turn to laugh at him, and to laugh at Buhari, who handed over the party’s platform to him in the state, after what he did to him in the ANPP. We warned Buhari but he wouldn’t listen,” Jokolo added.
Below are the excerpts of the interview:
What is your take on the recent defection of Aliero from the CPC, back to the PDP?
Why don’t you just leave me out of these political talks. You know I am not a politician. Please, let me be.
But you are a major stakeholder in Kebbi State; as such, you should be concerned about what happens there.
Okay, will you have the courage to publish whatever I would say?
Why not, go ahead, so long as they are not libellous.
(General laughter) You see, Aliero is a serial political betrayer. There is nobody that has associated with him that he has not betrayed. You know he was in ANPP, on which platform he won election to be governor of Kebbi State in 1999. But this man was one of Obasanjo’s agents in the ANPP. He was one of those who betrayed Buhari in 2003.
Now, as we were approaching the 2007 elections, he had concluded plans to move to the PDP, so as to cover his tracks. But he was still attending ANPP meetings, just to jeopardise the party’s chances of making any impact in Kebbi, since he was moving out of the party.
He brought Saidu Dakingari with the hope that he could remote-control him. When that was not working, he connived with the former First Lady, (name witheld by us) to undo Dakingari. But Dakingari trusted in God, and in the end, God delivered him from their hands.
Through divine intervention, he got back the party’s machinery in the state, and he was nominated as the candidate for the 2011 governorship election. So, this was what angered Aliero and he had to leave the party for the CPC.
Now, after losing the election, he is coming back to the PDP. To do what? I don’t know, because Dakingari had won all his elections before now without Aliero. It is absurd to say that out of all the 36 states in the country, only the governorship election in Kebbi State was not free and fair.
Having said that, however, it is good that he is returning to the PDP, after all the insults he had poured on the governor and the government. We will now wait to hear what he would be saying next. But his returning to the PDP will give us opportunity to laugh at him, and to also laugh at Buhari, because we warned him about Aliero, but he would not listen. Now he has abandoned him again. It is our turn to laugh at him, and laugh at Buhari, who handed over the party’s platform to him in the state after what he did to him in the ANPP. We warned Buhari but he wouldn’t listen.
We also hear that his return may have everything to do with positioning for 2015. What do you think?
Well, I don’t deal with speculation. Once the time comes and you are sure of your facts, ask me for my comment then, I will tell you. However, frankly speaking, I am aware some of our northern governors, including former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar are already jostling for the Presidency, come 2015. And I ask myself, what have they done for the North, to justify their aspiration?
Look at Atiku, for the eight years he was vice president, what did he do for the North and Islam, apart from the expensive university he built in Yola, which is not within the reach of the poor in the state? With what he is earning from all his investments, tell me what he has done for Islam and the North. Yet, these people will want to lord it over us in the name of North and Islam. I think they should just forget about 2015.
Look at TY Danjuma, the man is assisting Christianity with his wealth. He has singlehandedly built infrastructures for universities in the Middle Belt area. But what do we have from our own leaders? Nothing! They created Boko Haram and other security challenges we have in the north. Yet, the same people will now sit down and say they want to find solution to the problem. They should please give me a break. They should quietly retire to their homes and wait for their turn to die, and allow the younger generations to take over leadership in the region.
Since all these people; IBB, Gusau, Buhari, Atiku, Ciroma, and others in their category, have all failed us, they have nothing more to offer. The likes of IBB, Atiku, Buhari, Gusau, Ciroma, including all the governors, are responsible for the spate of insecurity in the North. If they had done the right thing, as leaders during their time, the situation we find ourselves today would certainly have been different. The situation whereby all these leaders, who created these problems, will now sit down and claim they want to find solution to the problems they created will no longer be acceptable to us.
They should just bury their heads in shame and allow the younger generations in the north to take the driver’s seat. Look, the truth is that if Mohammed Yusuf, (late Boko Haram leader) was not killed, all these people, including the former governors of some of the North-Eastern states, would have been exposed, and Nigerians would have had the opportunity of knowing the role they played in the whole thing.
If I heard you correctly, you are saying the north should forget about 2015 Presidency. Is that correct?
Look, not only 2015 but after 2015. They should not think of producing the president until after the South-East has produced the president in 2019. The South-South produces the oil for God’s sake. So, I am strongly advocating that for peace to reign in Nigeria, South-South must be given another term of four years in 2015. It must not necessarily be Jonathan, it can be anybody, but the Presidency must remain in the South-South by 2015.
The one year Jonathan spent before the 2011 election is part of Yar’Adua’s tenure, so this is just the first term of the South-South. The region should be given another term of four years after Jonathan’s first term. After that, the South-East should also be given another four years after South-South’s second term. It is after that that the north can now have it. And even in the north, it should go to the North-East, because we in the North-West have produced Nigeria’s president on too many occasions. I am talking of both military and civilian.
After North-East, it should go to the South-West, for another four years, from where it should come back to the North-Central, for another four years, from where it should go back to the South-East for another four years, before returning to the North-West. This is my own recipe for a lasting peace and unity in the country. Since we are talking about constitution review now, they should find a way of inserting it in the constitution, so that the Presidency would go round and every section or region will have a sense of belonging.
Are you sure northerners will not call for your head with this position of yours?
I don’t give a damn! Those who want to call for my head can as well go to hell. Don’t you think we should be honest enough by telling ourselves the truth? Tell me which Sardauna’s legacy is still standing today? Sardauna united the north but they have succeeded in dividing the north. I am prepared for whatever that will follow my position on this Presidency matter.
No. of Views:3492
You are right and right to speak the right at the right time for right decision on presidential seat for nation peace and is a right to every Nigerians. Tnx 4 telling the TRUTH
You are right and right to speak the right at the right time for right decision on presidential ship for nation peace and is right to every Nigerian. Tnx 4 telling the TRUTH
This is one rich and spooky mallam that might have drank truth serum. We need more of these confessions
True talk by Alhaji Jokolo. I don’t care what his motivations are, fact is that he’s an imminent northerner and he spoke boldly and truthfully to his northern ruling class. Jonathan to take note of a true northern friend of the South
Thank God they are beginning to realise the truth.
To Stanley from Liberia; you have every reason to feel bitter against Nigeria Government and so many millions of Igbo living both in Nigeria and abroad. I don,t think there will be any war against any one ethnic except there will be war among the ethnicity in Nigeria. The State burial given to Ojukwu is an indirect way Nigeria was able to apologise to Ojukwu and Igbo people. Jonathan from the South South minority ethnic as a President exposed the selfishness, arogant, and power hungry of the Northerners. In most of comments, I advocate for dual Federalism or Confederation system of Government which Ojukwu asked for during the Aburi meeting in Ghana. And I hope this will be achieved before 2015.
Alhaji Al-Mustapha Jokolo is the second Northerner after Balarabe Musa to speak the truth about the situation in The North and the Political Leaders from the North. Everybody knows that these people Jokolo named are only interested in power and to milk the wealth of the Country into their pockets but not the progress of their people. The wind of change is blowing in Nigeria. Either any Northerners; brave and sensible like Balarabe Musa and Jokolo speak their minds openly in public or not, the strong hold of power by the Northerners is broken.
GENOCIDE IN BIAFRA
General Adekunle, commander of the Third Marine Commando (Nigerian Army), simply let his mainly-Hausa troops have the run of the city for nearly a week.
Bayoneting anyone who resisted, the Third Marines engaged in a chaotic ‘suppression’ of the Port Harcourt population, raping women at will, murdering their husbands and children, and looting with abandon.
Entering the Port Harcourt hospital, they bayoneted the wounded Biafran soldiers who could not evacuate, as well as the physicians who stayed behind; raped nurses and new mothers in the maternity wards, looted all medical supplies, and eventually returned to their units.
This complete breakdown in discipline on the part of Nigerian Third Marine Commando bought the remnants of the Biafran defenders badly-needed time to establish their perimeters around Owerri – but at a civilian cost of over 50,000 Biafran lives during the week-long orgy of murder, looting, and rape in Port Harcourt.
Biafra had lost its one deep-water port capable of bringing supplies to the nation via the sea. It had also lost its major population center, plus the oil resources so badly needed to fuel its economy.
In August, over 2,000 short-range rockets and millions of rounds of badly-needed ammunition began arriving at the airfield near Owerri. At the same time, the OAU (Organization of African Unity) began to lobby the international community for aid.
Ojukwu has long been criticized for his rejection of land-haulage for food-aid – however, there is a long –standing west African tradition of using poison to eliminate one’s enemies, and an equally-long tradition of failing to differentiate between civilian and military personnel in this endeavor; it may well be that the Biafran government wanted to prevent this possibility.
Ojukwu demanded airlift-only as a means of resupply; it’s often been suggested that he wanted this method so he could fly in arms along with food supplies; however, there’s little practical evidence that this occurred.
What is known is this – by the end of 1968, over 200,000 Biafrans were dying monthly, due to the Nigerian blockade of all road-entries to Biafra, plus the crowding of Biafra’s population into a land-area a little less than one-half of the original size of the nation.
Contacted repeatedly by the Biafran foreign-office in Lisbon, Portugal, the United States was content to do nothing, either to support a nation seeking its independence, or to provide material relief for the Biafran civilian population.
Reinforced by fresh volunteers and French munitions, the Biafran army went on a counter-offensive in October of 1968. This resulted in large numbers of Nigerian army casualties along with the capture of Owerri by the Biafran army, but eventually resulted in a stalemate by spring of 1969 as the Biafrans ran out of ammunition, food and other supplies.
Airlift of arms and supplies were neither enough nor of any frequency to sustain the life of the population nor the viability of the army. What followed – from early 1969 until the end – is a shameful chapter in modern history.
Nigeria, with the tacit agreement of the international community and with the active support of Great Britain and the Soviet Union, having squeezed the population of Biafra into an area around half its original size, was allowed to simply starve Biafra into submission. During 1969, Biafrans died daily at a horrendous rate. At the peak of Biafra’s suffering, it’s been estimated that nearly 250,000 Biafrans were dying monthly.
On 22 December, 1969, the Gowon government launched its final offensive. Starving; Biafran troops could do no more. They simply threw down their weapons and faded into the jungle. Nigerian columns advanced unopposed, cutting Biafra in two and rendering the nation indefensible and the situation hopeless. Nigerian troops began a systematic process of killing every male over the age of ten, raping and mutilating the women of childbearing-age, and destroying anything that might be of value.
My comment
“I have every reasons and vengeful justification to launch military inclusion into Nigeria as a result of what Nigeria did to the people of Biafra. Based on this vengeful and wise decision, I had the privileged to join the National Patriotic Front of Liberia during the Liberia civil wars and fought Nigerian soldiers both in Liberia and Sierra Leone respectively.
I can confirm that my garrison was responsible for death of 200 Nigerian soldiers in both Liberia and Sierra Leone respectively. Why Biafrans must actualize the State of Biafra? Biafra lost the war because of economic blocked and lack of arms. In today’s world, Biafra would have succeeded. It is still not too late to bring back the Republic of Biafra. It is even easier, now that Goodluck Jonathan is in power.”
Stanley Emeka, Liberian, of Biafran Origin
Hmmm, jokolo u are a disgrace to de north ol wat u are saying is politics for u to reinstate bak as emir , don’t forget only God give power to whom he lyk & wish not Jonathan. Buhari is not ur mate.
Mr anonymous, you did not say why mr jokolo turned out to be a disgrace, on my own I will say you are a disapointment to your generation for not facing up to the truth
Aji, a.; Mustapha,n.; Suleman, Bunu; Yaquib.
Google APO SIX
B/4 u want to be president help us to inprison this Mohammed.
Any northerner that feel that a South Easterner should not be the next President after GEJ is a tribalist and did not want the progress of Nigeria. Buhari is an Islamist and a tribalist from Fulani stock that is terrorizing the whole Nigeria. It will be difficult for him to win. He touched off negatively to Nigerians of repute leaving core northerners to continue their evil ways. Buhari just want to show that the core north is still in charge while he knows that in truth the core north has lost its power when they gave it Obj. Again the north exposed it self when it started to kill Igbo again. This time most minority Nigerians know they are the next in line. As this phenomenon is exposed and realized, it will be difficult for a core northerner to rule Nigeria any time soon. You northerners should try the shoe others has been wearing. SW will be risking being seen as a northern benefactor by SE,SS, North Central union. Buhari locked up Ekwueme, even Ikemba and left Shagari, he had a running with Wole Soyinka seizing his passport for no good reason while his northern brothers continue to divide oil blocks in another region. We are in democratic rule not northern mafia any more.
Wetin make the bokos dey quarrel?abi dem don tire 4 politician handout?.honestly the problems of the north is caused by the clique of politician and their royal father who patronize each other to the perile of thier subjects.
with due respect to u sir, u r opinion sound ridicolous! Why includng buhari?ur zoning formular is also madnes.u are doing 4 jonathan to reinstate u back to d seat of emir.u would hv relied on god nt jonathan.
Mr jokolo you are right but you analysis on zoning sound ridiculous.
Jakolo wht u hv said is true but Buhari name should not be appeared wiz those Burgu ppl and remember u are among the click who destroyed the north.
all what you ar sayin is reality but am not glad To appear Gen Buhari name among those people who neglected northern and sold our dignity to the sourtherness. So mr jakolo yet we youth of arewa decide to rank u “the New Sardauna” &
your royal Highness we youth union of Arewa rank u “The new sardauna” cuz all what u ar sayin is reality but am nt glad to appear Of Gen Buhari name Among those people who neglected northern. Thank ur Highness
I don’t think Buhari should b mentioned bcos atempt has been made by him & other well meaning elites excluding u 2 rectify the isues but frusted by pple like u. With due respect 2 majority of kabawa, kebbi u have so many betrayals …Aleiru,jakolo& jega.
your royal Highnest am not glad to appear name of Gen Buhari among those people who give neglecter northern because Buhari his d 1 who every body knew his a honesty which he is not join any click of injustice person.
Then seconly about religion reality ex northern leaders and present they ll concern islam and they sold our dignity to the sourtherness. for up to yet there’s no any apart from north to come out and awareness us what ll happenin today in north about the problem northern find her self today. So finally Mr jokolo thank u very much because you ar the only person that come out to show your annoyed about what the Problem Northern found her self today also we north youth union we nominated u the ” The New sardauna. Bye
Jakolo said the truth but he is also part of the large consignment…for ex-presidents,leaders they should not only bury themselves in shame but for eternity in seclusion praying for forgiveness.for Sardauna legacy,the ‘elites’ of his time are the founding fathers of our present situation…think abt it.
Of course, ur highness, what u ar saying is true. But u forgot to mention ur name in, let the fact be exposed out.
this is wat we ar long time waiting for somebody that will stand for truth somebody that can give something emminent to the mases. My dear Jakolo i realy support ur view and insha Allah HE the Almighty will surelly be with you and may HE guide you AMEEN.
You don’t know what u are doing, i don’t support some fomer pres but no matter how, they are better than those who creat this probems in this country, b/c look at the selfism that he made recently and he did consider with us in anyways.
Well this sound funny,Becouse ur royal highbess is also part of these people his accusing for not improving the Socio,Educational ,Religeous and Economic development of the North. If IBB,Buhari ,Atiku and Chiroma with Gusau could accused by not doing enough for the north,i think Jokolo will not be in exception.they have failed and have also devistated the gud policies and legacies left by the SARDAUNA of sokoto.so ur highnes is part of these people
You don’t know what u are doing, i don’t support some fomer pres but no matter how, they are better than those who creat this probems in this country.
Wat Mustapha Jakolo is sayin is thru bcos all d ex presnt & wat of u are betrayrs luk at wat hapen in kebbi st. Haleru is a betrayr he beytray him self bcos PDP is a society party nt fully human beings are controlin it.
I don’t think buhari’s name should appear here !
Are u drunk?
Mr abdulahi how do you mean?