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| Dr. Junaid Mohamed |
Mohammed stated this in an interview with Saturday SUN while reacting to a call made by the former Kaduna governor, Balarabe Musa, who recently proposed breaking the country into six zones as the only solution to the problems of Nigeria.
He said, "What he was talking about is that the country should be broken up completely; why didn’t he come and say straight away, ‘break up the country’. Forget about what he called the federating units because the federating units in Nigeria didn’t create itself; not that they voluntarily came together and formed a country called Nigeria. Coming together of Nigeria was done at the instance of the colonial powers, and if you want to now break it, you have to go back to the period that preceded the colonial powers, and I begin to ask, what are the constituent units?"
"Nigeria came to being by the colonial powers bringing the North and South together in 1914, and you now come to say, let us break what emerged from 1914 and after, and he is also telling us that we are going to do it on the basis of the current six geopolitical zones, he has to tell us the basis."
"Without basis, it turns out to be ridiculous remedy you can imagine. We had 12 states as federating units, we had 21, then 23 and now 36, no reason can one advance to persuade the people of this country that these six zones are the most prudent structures that we can have in the country, and no one will listen to that garbage. The man is over 80, how come he never came up with this idea since."
"I believe in politics and when the time comes and we have a serious crisis, which we need to put our best foot forward; men with ideas, not those who want to see their names on the pages of newspapers because when we have a crisis, you don’t simply talk of how we break up, but how you come out of the crisis.
What Balarabe Musa was saying isn’t new; it is has been part and parcel of the Southeast for agitation of additional state, local governments and of course agitation for presidency to go to the region."
"He was not part of the 2014 constitutional conference, I was, and I represented Kano, the largest state in the country. If he wants to now be a propagandist and a demagogue for a section of the country, he can go ahead and do so, but the fact of the matter is that, what he is even canvassing cannot be delivered even in his village in Kaduna."
"When he mentioned devolution of powers, has he told you the power that should be devolved? If it’s education, then let me tell you, I’m not in government, but I have information in government."
"According to the constitutions of Nigeria in 1979 and 1999, primary education and substantial part of secondary education are supposed to be the responsibilities of state and local governments, but unfortunately, they took or stole the money meant from primary and secondary education."
"So, whoever was in charge over the years from 1979 or 1999 to date would have to now come and finance to ensure the running of primary and secondary education, otherwise, the entire education in the country would collapse. The federal government had to create parastatals to run education because the states would not do it if the money is given to them."
"What the law says is important to adhere to, to avoid anarchy, but at the same time, it is important to realise that in addition to what the law says, you have to look at what is practical, and how to go about it. Do you deny the country education simply because we have irresponsible governors, and irresponsible local government chairmen and their councilors because if the wordings of the constitution were to be adhered to, none of the state governments would run their education system effectively; they would only steal the money."
"I don’t go for cheap words or slogans – true federalism, this or that. In actual terms, what does that mean and how does it translate to your lifestyle, to my lifestyle, my security, your security, to social harmony between you and I and other people; these are what I want to hear from people who claim to be politicians; who think they know something."
He also warned those still calling for the implementation of the 2014 constitutional conference report to stop troubling themselves as that will never be done at all.
Mohammed stated that former President Goodluck Jonathan had already written a constitution and wanted them to rubber stamp it, but those of them from the North showed him how to play politics.
He said, "what was actually submitted to former President Jonathan was not what was agreed by members. Secondly, the legitimacy of the conference and all the recommendations were stillborn; it was a bastard constitutional conference because national conference or constitutional conference is supposed to be a new image for the country itself."
"When we went to the conference, we found that its composition has been so skewed that the minority became the majority and vice versa. In the course of the discussion, a lot of things we didn’t discuss or we didn’t agree or accept or didn’t get before were smuggled into the final report. What they said we agreed was not what we agreed. We found that they already had a prepared constitution they wanted us to rubber stamp, and we refused to rubber stamp it and that nearly broke the conference."
"So, why must we ratify and enact what we didn’t agree upon? Like I said, the composition was stillborn."
"It was a bastard constitutional conference put together for the purpose of tenure elongation of Jonathan. You cannot play with the intelligence of 200 million Nigerians. Those who took his money and told him that if only he could hold the conference that his reelection was assured have disappeared into thin air."
"If we had a proper constitutional conference arrived at from the basis of national consensus, particularly among the elites, because it’s the elites who go to constitutional conference, then of course, the result could be implemented. You cannot implement the result of something, which was stillborn. So, it was dead on arrival."