In this interview with Sharpedgenews.com, the presidential aspirant under the platform of National Action Council, Dr. Olapade Agoro spoke on the menace of Boko Haram and also dwelt extensively on the issue of Sovereign National Conference (SNC) and others.
EXCERPTS:
The Boko Haram menace is by each day threatening Nigeria’s corporate existence. How best can we address this problem as a Nation?
Let me start by telling you that there is nothing like Boko Haram. What we have is political Boko Haram. It is political machinery turned evil. If you remember a lot of the governors especially since 1979 made it a duty of having ‘political power supportive thugs’. They train and arm these thugs to do their biddings. In the South west, we had the OPC. In the South east they had the Egbesu and MASSOB. In the Niger/Delta region, we had the militants. The militants were then used to force Obasanjo and Yar Adua to a bargaining table. But trust Obasanjo, he never tolerated their nonsense.
The Niger/Delta became a cog in the wheel of progress of Yar Adua’s government. As at that time, Yusuf was leading his own gang in Bauchi and Maiduguri area. If you remember in the South west here during the Abacha era, we had Maiyasin, Serikin Sabo who was even more powerful than the Governor. He had his own escort and all the rest. He was revered. Yusuf, a young man was also strong in Bauchi and Borno state.
Unfortunately for Yusuf when Yar Adua tried to dismantle the Niger/Delta militants, he never lost focus of Yusuf’s gang in Bauchi area. Incidentally, the governor in Bauchi was Isa Yuguda. Isa Yuguda cannot tell the world that he does not know about the formation of this so-called Boko Haram. It was an attempt by the police on the instruction of Yar Adua to demystify Yusuf that confrontation arose and the police killed some members of Yusuf’s gang.
An attempt therefore to dislodge Yusuf forcefully led to the killing, maiming and inhuman treatment of Yusuf. In the process, Yusuf’s in-laws,and his members were killed. They were extra-judicially killed. They dispersed, and that led them to getting help from PDP members. Unfortunately for us also, political powers in Nigeria saw the need to use Yusuf during the 2007 election.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram led by Yusuf went underground-getting trained. If you noticed that later they took reprisal attacks on the police formations. They went after the police and it was in the process they got tagged ‘Boko Haram’. By the time it started, it was just political machinery that was toughened to become a menace to the corporate existence of Nigeria. Let me tell you that the ruling party aided what today is known as Boko Haram. You can see that there was nothing like that before the 2007 Obasanjo’s presidency.
Obasanjo curtailed them but it was an attempt by Yar Adua to dismantle them that led us to where we are today. So to curb the menace-first of all, we must sit down and identify their sponsors.
What would you is the reason why their sponsors have remained hidden despite dawning revelations from those arrested?
I told you their sponsors are powers within the power. They are powers within the block of our national administrative power. Jonathan knows them but he is afraid to touch them. If you remember in early 2011, it was I who first alerted the nation that Boko Haram was a political machinery of some people in this country. Nobody took me serious until later that Jonathan concluded that it was political. Now, if you know the root cause of an event; the ability to nip it in the bud will depend on your will-power. We don’t have the political will-power to attack those sponsoring Boko Haram. I call them- the powers within power blocks. Jonathan is afraid of them.
What then is your take-on on President Goodluck Jonathan?
The way Jonathan came to power rendered him weak. When your assumption of power was based on negotiation; then people who got you there are the ones who are going to be controlling you. Jonathan has not demonstrated the will-power to confront a lot of problems facing this country.
Some say by the year 2015, Nigeria may be no more going by the myriad of problems bedeviling us as a Nation. What would be your response to this?
Setting a time frame may not be the answer to the question. But I believe strongly that there is urgency of necessity on our living together as a nation. There is need for us to have a conference to re-appraise our federalism and also our future. Failure to do this will spell doom for Nigeria. I don’t even know why we are afraid of coming together to deliberate on our differences. It is happening all over the world now. In Britain, the Scotch people are now threatening to pull out of the union. Even in Africa here; we have seen how south of Sudan pulled out of Sudanese republic. So it is a timely warning to us as a nation to do the right thing before it is too late. Back to the prediction, anybody can predict but it is left for you to prevent such prediction from coming into reality. But the way we are moving-we are moving towards the permutation of dismemberment as a nation.
Will Sovereign National Conference (SNC) be a solution to our problems?
I am not saying that it should be Sovereign National Conference (SNC).Those in power would not want to relinquish their authority. Sovereign National Conference (SNC) means that the moment you invoke it, somebody will take over power. And will Jonathan do that? No, you can’t have power within power. So, what I’m saying is that we should have a national conference to determine our existence as a nation. We can decide to go confedral or even regional if we reach an understanding. I believe that the name Nigeria is given to us by God.
Your party has been de-registered by INEC. How optimistic are on your standing appeal?
See; let me tell you that nobody has the power to deregister the National Action Council (NAC). The case came up in Lagos court and we are optimistic of a good case. Jega is only fooling around. My fear is that he may negotiate anything called ‘democracy’ in this country with the way he is going. He has messed up with the rule of law and justice by holding elections despite a pending case in court. You just wait and see how my party will dictate how Nigeria’s democracy should be.