The National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spoke to journalists in Ilorin on some national issues.  Success Nwogu was there.

There is the feeling that the ambition of some stalwarts of the parties involved in the merger talks will stall the realisation of the proposed merger of ACN, What is the update or extent of the merger development?

Clearly the PDP is very jittery. Honestly there is no alternative to pushing out the PDP. IfNigeriawants to survive as a corporate entity, the PDP must be given the boot. I think that the leaders of the opposition (when I say opposition, it is not all parties that are not in power that are in opposition.) There are some political parties that are not in government but they are even more PDP in their thoughts and actions. But I believe that the ACN, CPC and ANPP have come to the realization that posterity will not forget us, if we allow PDP to remain one day more in power after 2015. I think the leaders of the parties are taking this responsibility very seriously? We are not saying that it is going to be easy to have a merger. But we shall have a merge, I can assure you.

But recently, there was a text canvassing support for Maj.-Gen. Muhammad Buhari (retd)for presidency in 2015 even as the merger talks are ongoing?

Is it not possible that a fake columnist or a PDP apologist is behind this sabotage act?  I  can tell you categorically that Buhari has not sent anybody to canvass for support for him.  But if Buhari wants to be the President, would he not use a platform? What platform did  that text message  indicate it came from? I believe it is part of the ploy of the PDP to sow seeds of discord in the minds of all us and make the merger even more difficult by destroying the confidence among the leaders.  I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that it is PDP anti-progressive tactics.

How do you see the recurring insecurity in Nigeria?

We have different kinds of insecurity.  There is armed robbery, kidnapping and terrorism. The insecurity inNigeriaboils down to one issue – lack of capacity by the government  to understand the issues at stake.

Let us take the issue of Boko Haram.  For a long time, we told them that Boko Haram is neither religious nor ethnic. But the mindset of the government at the beginning of Boko Haram is that they first saw it as the reaction of the North to Jonathan’s presidency.  It is a fallacy because we know that the late leader of the Boko Haram, Yusuf, was killed under late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s watch. Somebody cannot come out to say Boko Haram is because some people said they would make the country ungovernable. That is why there is Boko Haram.  No! Boko Haram is basically a social-political problem.

It started as  the reaction of the local people to perceived local injustice and poverty. If we had understood  it from the beginning, Boko Haram would not have become the monster it is today.

Second. For a long time, people said because Boko Haram is happening in the north, it was of no concern to them and in any event, they felt that it is not as dangerous as the Niger Delta militant because there are no resources in the North.  So they paid scant attention to it forgetting that it might look small by them but it could affect the whole country. When one has whitlow, it does not occupy more than the thumb, but the whole body cannot sleep. Now, nobody can sleep very well inNigeria.

The issue of kidnapping is another matter. Kidnapping is an indication that the government has failed. Security of lives and property is the primary responsibility of government even before the provision of roads and other amenities.  Any government that failed to provide security, has failed.  It is amazing that todayNigeriaranks as one of the topmost terrorist countries in the world. Infact a lot of kidnappings are not reported.

What then are the solutions?

This falls backs to the state police. Speaking as a person, because ACN has not taken position on the state police, there can never be an end to our security problems until we have state police.  We must not say that because the governors are likely to abuse the state police, therefore, state police is not desirable.

What we should do is to find areas of excesses and how it can be curbed. We may not have a state police now that will do everything. We can have special police for election which will be drawn from all over the federation or which will be controlled by the central police.

But security is about the ability of Nigerians to sleep peacefully. It is about mothers sending their daughters on errands without fear that they will be raped before they come back.

via Punch