North is blackmailing Jonathan with Boko Haram –Joseph Evah

The Federal Government has been advised to explore all avenues, including dialogue,  to rescue over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram since April 14 from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Giving the advice in Lagos, a social critic and Niger Delta activist, Comrade Joseph Evah, warned government against foreclosing dialogue as part of efforts to rescue the girls. According to Evah, who also serves as the coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group, IMG, President Goodluck Jonathan should embrace all options.

“Since we have allowed the Boko Haram to become monstrous, it is too late in the day to shut the door against dialogue. It will be counterproductive. At the early stages of the insurgency, we advised the president on the best ways to handle this crisis, but his advisers didn’t allow him to listen to us, but now that the problem of insecurity has festered, you have to embrace all options to resolve it”, he stated.

Evah also implored Jonathan to ask Vice President Namadi Sambo to spearhead the rescue mission to Sambisa forest and other Boko Haram strongholds in the North, in the same way the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua asked Jonathan who was then his deputy to proceed to the creeks in the Niger Delta when the zone was under siege by the militants.

In this interview with TUNDE THOMAS, Evah also spoke on other national issues, including Jonathan and 2015, Obasanjo-Jonathan relationship, among others. Excerpts:

How far is it true that some prominent Ijaw leaders have been making underground moves to reconcile President Goodluck Jonathan with former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a result of the alleged frosty relationship between the two following the letter written by Obasanjo to Jonathan sometime ago?

Some of us were not happy about what happened between the two that time. It is unfortunate that some political sycophants and jobbers have been trying to drive a wedge between Obasanjo and Jonathan. These people that have been trying to cause disaffection between the President and Obasanjo are enemies of Jonathan.

They don’t love Jonathan. If Jonathan and Obasanjo are having problems, these people should have made genuine efforts to solve the problem. Obasanjo is supposed to be Jonathan’s godfather. Without Obasanjo, Jonathan will not be where he is today. For those who may have short memory, let me go down the memory lane to remind them that it was Obasanjo that dragged Jonathan from being a state governor to become vice-president.

We know what Jonathan told us Ijaw leaders at the residence of Chief Ebitimi Banigo, how he sought our advice on the new political development and how we encouraged him to take up the challenge with a promise that we will all not only rally round him, but also mobilized support for him and the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Ijaw leaders present at that meeting gave me a taste of marching order to mobilize Niger-Deltans and all non-Niger-Deltans resident in the South-west to be present at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos to garner support for Yar’Adua/Jonathan ticket.

We are all human beings, and nobody is above mistakes, and again, it is normal for human beings to quarrel, and disagree, but again it is normal to reconcile. If at all there is any quarrel between Obasanjo and Jonathan, people should try to reconcile them instead of giving wrong advice to Jonathan.

Eventually, when Jonathan was sworn in as vice-president, I mobilized Niger-Delta people to storm Ota farm to express our appreciation to Obasanjo for giving our son, Jonathan, the opportunity to become elected vice-president of Nigeria for the first time in the history of this country.

Despite the fact that it was Nigerians that voted for Yar’Adua, and Jonathan, we must not forget the fact that it was somebody that God used  as an instrument to ensure that Jonathan emerged as the vice-presidential candidate of PDP.

For us, that is those of us that are referred to as minorities in Nigeria, to become either a president or vice-president would be a herculean task without the support of an incumbent president, and this is why we remain grateful to Obasanjo. God used Obasanjo to make  Jonathan vice-president. So, today if both of them are having problem, it is for those who love Jonathan to see that the two reconcile.

They should have visited Obasanjo for reconciliation, but if Obasanjo refused to grant them audience or snub reconciliatory moves, then you leave him to God.

If all these friends of the President truly love him, they would have looked for ways to get somebody like the former United States President, Jimmy Carter, who is close to Obasanjo to reconcile the two. I believe that if somebody like Carter mediates between the two, there will be a genuine reconciliation, between Obasanjo and Jonathan.

Have you tried to make a suggestion to the president along this line?

It is unfortunate that often it is difficult to have access to Mr President. For those of us who want to give genuine advice to Mr President, some aides surrounding him have been frustrating us.

These political jobbers and chameleons have held Jonathan hostage. They won’t allow you to have access to him. Even if president gives you appointment, when you arrive the Villa to keep the appointment, these people will tell you the president is sleeping.

When they know that you want to come and give the president genuine advice, they will tell you the president has just taken panadol and that you can’t see him for two or three days. But if you insisted that the president asked you to come, they will tell you that the president had just taken panadol and that there is nothing they can do. Many fake and selfish people are surrounding the president.

But I sincerely believe that if we can have Jimmy Carter to mediate between Jonathan and Obasanjo, there will be a head way because both Jonathan and Obasanjo will be able to tell each other the bitter truth.

In view of this development, what advice will you like to give President Jonathan not only concerning Obasanjo but also on other national issues?

Jonathan should realise that we are now in a period I will refer to as injury time. This is time for him to do stock taking. This is time for him to take a closer look at some of those working with him. Some of these aides are political liabilities. He should fire them. They have become political liabilities. They are of no value to him again.

Look at the way the CNN reporter was grilling and mesmerizing the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, the other day on the screen. It was a big shame how the CNN reporter grilled the minister who obviously was not prepared for the challenge. It was a big shame, an embarrassing spectacle.

Some of these people surrounding the president are no longer relevant. They have nothing to offer. They should be allowed to go.

These people are not relevant for anything. I now ask Jonathan, where are people like Frank Nweke? I’m asking Mr President, where are people like Timi Alaibe? Jonathan should scout for the best brains in his generation to work with him. This is what the late Obafemi Awolowo did during his time, and he became a super star.

Where are people like Colonel Abubakar Umar, former governor of Kaduna State? Can’t Jonathan get brilliant men to work for him?  The president should look for people that are smart and brilliant.

Some of those working presently with the president are liabilities. If Jonathan sacks two or three of these people for incompetence, others will sit up. Jonathan should step on toes. He should remember it is him that people will hold accountable for whatever happens during his own presidency. Then Jonathan should be careful about some of these people calling themselves his supporters. They are creating more enemies for him.

The other day I was reading a report where a former minister was saying that Obasanjo is no longer relevant in PDP, and to the re-election of Jonathan in 2015. What a reckless statement! It is the highest level of hypocrisy. This is the same man that Obasanjo appointed a minister, but because Obasanjo is no longer there, and he wants to curry Jonathan’s favour, he is now abusing Obasanjo. That is human being for you, and this is why I said Jonathan should be careful, because it is this same type of people that will turn round to abuse Jonathan when he is no longer in power.

The current state of insecurity has become a serious source of concern with bombings all over the place, what is the way out of the quagmire? How do we tackle the Boko Haram insurgency?

From the day one, especially after the bombing of the United Nations Office, the Police Headquarters, and the Catholic Church in Abuja, I advised President Jonathan about the way out, but unfortunately he ignored it, and look at the situation in the country today.

What kind of advice?

I told the president that he doesn’t have to pretend or be gentlemanly about this issue. I told him to ask the Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, to relocate to Borno, Adamawa or Yobe States the way the late President Yar’Adua asked Jonathan who was then the country’s Vice-President, to enter the creeks to go and talk to Niger-Delta militants who were then taking expatriates hostage as a result of the pollution of Niger-Delta through oil exploration.

Why can’t Jonathan toe a similar line by asking Sambo to go and talk to these Boko Haram people. Sambo speaks and understand their language.

But surprisingly Jonathan didn’t take this advice, and this is why you see Namadi Sambo sitting down comfortably in Abuja sitting over contract awards. You see him holding files, smiling and running all over Aso Rock dealing with contractors when he is actually supposed to be talking with Boko Haram leaders in their strongholds in Damaturu or any other part of the North.

Up till now as we are talking, Namadi Sambo is in the Villa. If Sambo had relocated to any of these northern states where Boko Haram has been terrorizing the people, we would not be in this situation.

I also told Jonathan to declare a full state of emergency in one of these states like Obasanjo did during his time, and there would be sanity as other state governors there in the North would sit up and do everything possible to checkmate the insurgents.

But some people I believe told Jonathan that that would be unconstitutional, but I want to ask those people who are saying that such a step would be unconstitutional that when Yar’Adua failed to transmit a letter to the National Assembly to confirm Jonathan as the Acting President in his absence, did Yar’Adua follow the constitution? We came up with a document that was never in our constitution, the doctrine of necessity which later enabled Jonathan to step in as Acting President in order to ensure peace and prevent a constitutional crisis.

So, whatever step that is taken to ensure peace, you take it. You use any necessary means to achieve peace. If Jonathan had declared a full state of emergency by sacking all the entire political class in one of the northern states, other governors would have sat up and stop all these political Boko Haram they are doing. But now it is too late for Jonathan to declare full state of emergency in these states. It can’t work again.

At the outset, I told Jonathan that this Boko Haram insurgency is political, but he didn’t take me seriously. I told him that those advising him not to declare full state of emergency in one of these states are his enemies, that the problem would fester if he didn’t take drastic action, but Jonathan chose to listen to these people who are his enemies.

Today, all manner of people are calling Jonathan names. They are hurling insults at him, and the criticism of him has gone further higher following the abduction of those schoolgirls in Chibok. But unfortunately all those people that Jonathan wants to please including Namadi Sambo and those governors are all enjoying and smiling. The heat is not on them but on Jonathan. But I told Jonathan that he should declare a full state of emergency in one of these states, but he refused to do so because he doesn’t want to hurt those people who are creating problems for him.

Now, the whole campaign of Bring Back Our Girls is on Jonathan’s head. They are asking him to bring back these girls, and nobody remembers that it is supposed to be a team work where other aides of Jonathan also have roles to play. When Niger-Delta was on fire during the period militants were making trouble, it was all the governors, and political leaders in the area that mobilized, intervened and resolved the crisis. But have the northern elders and political leaders done so to Boko Haram? They have done nothing. But now you see everybody saying that Jonathan should visit Chibok, that is an insult. Did Yar’Adua visit the creeks when the Niger-Delta was in crisis? No, he sent Jonathan who was then his deputy to go into the creeks.

Everywhere you go now, people are saying that Jonathan is afraid of Chibok. Some are saying that he is afraid that if he goes there, the abducted girls and the Boko Haram people will attack him, what kind of nonsense is this? Yar’Adua never smelt the creeks, so why should Jonathan now go to Chibok?

How can we have these abducted girls rescued from Boko Haram insurgents?

I strongly believe that Namadi Sambo hasa vital role to play in efforts being made to rescue the girls. Sambo should actually lead the operation to Sambisa forest, the stronghold of Boko Haram to rescue our girls. Sambo should climb a camel or a donkey to enter Sambisa forest the same way Jonathan entered boat that took him to the creeks to talk to Niger-Delta militants.

Jonathan paddled a canoe to the creeks, since their own way of movement is through camels and donkeys, Namadi Sambo should climb a donkey to Sambisa forest where he should hold dialogue with the Boko Haram people.

Jonathan doesn’t speak the language of these people, but Namadi Sambo does, and not only that it is Sambo who is from that area understand the culture, and the way of life of the Boko Haram people.

But it is unfortunate that Sambo is hiding in the Villa, he never made any statement on any national issue. Can Jonathan speak Hausa-Fulani language, and yet you are asking him to go and speak with Boko Haram.

Sambo is of Hausa-Fulani extraction, he should lead the operation to Sambisa forest, and not only that he should be a man of courage. He should be courageous to visit Borno, Adamawa and Yobe to meet these insurgents face to face.

At the outset of the crisis, they even conspired to ensure that Jonathan removed the then National Security Adviser, the late General Andrew AzazI. But after sacking Azazi, has the problem been resolved? I told Jonathan then that if he sacked Azazi, that he would regret his action as the situation will become worse. Today, have I not been proved right? Has the security situation not worsened?

Today, the Minister of Defence is from the North, the National Security Adviser is from the North and also the Chief of Defence Staff, but has it brought any relief? No, the security situation is even getting worse and worse. Azazi, in his grave, would be laughing at this nation, and saying look at these people.

Now you see Armies from other foreign nations in Nigeria, and I’m even sure that very soon, we will be begging Ghanaian and Togolese Army to come and help us. This is sad, is this not the same Nigerian Army that rescued Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and even in Congo and Lebanon?

It is a big shame that in this 21st century, a foreign army is in our country to help us resolve insecurity in Nigeria. No political leader in the North can tell me that they don’t know these Boko Haram boys. They are just deceiving us or deceiving themselves. These people are using Boko Haram boys to cause confusion so that people will say that Jonathan is incompetent, that he can’t manage the nation’s security.

I expect northern leaders to come out to talk to their Boko Haram boys, they are their children.

The Presidency should also negotiate and dialogue with Boko Haram. We have allowed the problem to become a big monster and, therefore, we must explore all avenues including dialogue to solve the problem.