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 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, August 09, 2004.
How I influenced NASS to
exclude Kano from emergency rule - Etiebet
By Haruna
Abdulkareem
Special Correspondent, Maiduguri
An
unlikely man at the weekend claimed the credit for why Aso Rock spared
Kano State of emergency rule in April even when it was nearly as chaotic
as Plateau State that felt the sledge hammer.
Thumping his
chest, National Chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) Don
Etiebet said he single-handedly influenced the National Aassembly to
exclude Kano State.
He spoke in an
interview in Maiduguri, claiming that but for his “vigorous persuasion”
of ANPP and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislators, the National
Assembly would have extended the emergency rule to Kano State.
Etiebet also
touched on the issue of power rotation, which he warned Nigerians to
reject because it will produce a lame-duck President.
With reprisal
attacks in Abia, Cross River and Akwa-Ibom States over the killing of
non-Moslems in Kano, he said the prevailing mood in the National Assembly
while debating the emergency rule bill was that Kano should also suffer
the fate of Plateau.
Etiebet
recalled: “Our Senate minority leader, Albishir called to inform me of
the development at about 11 p.m. on the eve of the declaration. I never
had any meeting with Obasanjo.
“Albishir said I
should try to be in Abuja to see how the National Assembly could be
discouraged from including Kano in the state of emergency order. Our members
who are ANPP from Kano State were also lobbying that Kano should not be
included.
“That was when I
came in the next morning and went to the National Assembly. There, all
the members, both ANPP and PDP, surrounded me saying that Kano should be
included. But I explained the Kano issue to them that what happened there
could have been worse had the governor not intervened”.
Etiebet said he
convinced the ANPP and PDP lawmakers that there would be further
bloodshed in Kano if an emergency rule was declared there.
“I told them
that there were so many children that had been orphaned in Plateau State
because of the crisis. And it could be worse if Kano State was included -
many lives would have gone. And if there is no life, there is no
politics, and if there is no politics, there will be no democracy.
“That was how I
managed to convince the National Assembly members before they gave their
support to the emergency rule in Plateau State”.
On the tussle
between the North and South East for the 2007 Presidency, he warned that
zoning the post would produce an ineffective President, and instead
advocated that the most qualified should be voted into office.
The suitable
candidate should be the “person that can unite this country, that can
bring prosperity to this country, that can bring jobs to this country,
that can revitalise our education, our hospitals, improve agriculture and
give fertilizer to our farmers and create employment to our teeming
youths to rule”.
Etiebet denied
the rumour of plans to expel ANPP Presidential candidate Mohammadu
Buhari.
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