'I Am Scandalised By Action Of This Govt'
Ibrahim Ahmed Babankowa is a man of history. First, he was the Chief Security Officer to the late Premier of Northern Region and Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. Two, during the first military coup in the country, he was the officer that discovered the bodies of slain Nigeria's Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, among others in the forests of Sango Otta, Ogun State. He retired as a Commissioner of Police in 1984; joined and cut his political teeth as a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee, nominated to represent Jigawa State during the late General Sani Abacha transition programme. Now a chieftain of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and confidant of the party's presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Babankowa, holder of the traditional title of Walin Ringim, took a hard look at the nation's multi-faceted problems and urged a return to the untested and discarded 1995 Constitution. He spoke to YINKA ADERIBIGBE in Kano. Excerpts:
ON democracy at five
Honestly speaking, I don't know where to start because Nigeria's democracy is a type that you hardly understand. They say that, "democracy is government of the people by the people and for the people" but in our own case that is not so. There were so many hurdles put on the electoral process. The politicians themselves and the so-called referees - the INEC - put some of the problems there. But can you tell me one single person who was arrested, prosecuted or jailed for violating any electoral malpractices Are you telling me that no offence was committed during the elections throughout the 1999 or even the 2003 elections
In our own democracy, no matter how good you are, how electable you are to the public, you cannot win election unless the powers that be want you to. The question of stuffing ballot papers is too common to be a crime in Nigeria.
This is the only democracy where someone would contest and win election even from detention and he would be granted bail in order to fulfil a part of the Constitution, which would have disqualified him had he not been sworn-in at the inauguration of the National Assembly. This is a democracy where the election results are already known and declared even before the actual counting was done. They call it election fixing. This is a democracy where at the local government level the party in control at the state captures all seats without allowing for dissenting votes, not conceding anything to the opposition. This is the only democracy where the electorate, who hold the sovereign powers, have no claim to their sovereignty, as it has been usurped by the people on whom it was entrusted.
A lot of things are going on that sadden those who believe so much in democracy. I believe in democracy, but I'm very sad that what I believe in so much is failing me.
On assessment of the security situation in the country before and after the 2003 elections
As a former Commissioner of Police, I am telling you authoritatively that government is not yet interested in taking security serious, because if they want to they know what to do, yet they are not doing it. First, we have perhaps the most ill-equipped police force in the world. Despite the track record of the men especially internationally, the government deliberately ensures that they are not provided with enough equipment to work effectively.
You want to stop violent crime. How can that happen when the police are under-equipped, underpaid; no welfare, no communication gadgets, nothing In the last four years many of them were recruited on a crash programme. They cannot even do ordinary parade and yet you put clothes on him to go and face a more trained, more equipped armed robbers in the road. The government has showed clearly that it is not interested in making sure that this kind of thing is stopped.
Secondly, the nation's number one law officer (Bola Ige) was killed in his house and Harry Marshal was killed in his house and (Aminasoari) Dikibo was killed. These were eminent Nigerians from different parts of the country. Have you ever heard of anybody arrested or interrogated or linked with any of these people Are you telling me that no capable policeman can investigate and find out the authors of that crime The government is not interested. I'm not saying it is the government, which ordered their killings. If they were they would not get to the root. So, how can you advise somebody who doesn't want to know Poor Ige, poor Harry, poor Dikibo and the poor families they left behind!
On ethno-religious crises especially in the northern part of the country
Some of these religious crises were overblown. For example, even here in Kano where they said it was a spill over of the Jos crises, it's all overblown. Some people also politically motivate it. We in ANPP are fully aware that our opponents, whoever they are, don't want Kano State to prosper the way it is prospering now. Our party did not rig the elections; hence we are working. Though we may have our religions preference, with the majority of our people preferring Sharia, that is okay. Everybody in Kano is free to practise his or her own religion. We did not stop any other religion to spread what it wants to spread in Kano, but we know they want to destablise the government and they will not succeed; nobody would succeed to destablise Kano.
We are the most politically aware in this country. Others cannot conduct free and fair elections but in Kano, how many ANPP are in the House of Assembly How many local government chairmen did we have We allowed our opponents a free hand; we could have used state machinery to corner everything, but we said no, let all flowers blossom, let all political parties that have followership hold their own constituencies.
On the indigene/settler controversy
All of these things are all nonsense. Everybody is a settler in this country. Go to the Kano City - Kazo, Kusuwa, Kurmi in Kano are populated by the Nupes, Yorubas from Kwara, Sokoto, Kanuri people, etc. All have their quarters; they are Kano people. The actual Kano man was a peasant and these people are diminishing. All other people who eventually settled down here were attracted by the commercial viability of Kano; they are the Kano people now.
So, everybody is a settler. The present controversy is politically motivated so that they can cause chaos and confusion. Otherwise, who is not a settler If you say you are not a settler, tell me your origin; tell me the origin of your father, your grandfather or great grandfather. Go back to your fourth generation and you would see where you would end up; you'll end up a settler.
On National Conference
My own view is; if there is anything that could make Nigerians survive peacefully with each other, let's have it. We are not afraid of a National Conference, even if it means dismantling Nigeria; what we need is peace and prosperity. If we are going to have peace and prosperity in this country, let us do what is necessary and begin to live peacefully among ourselves.
On the best political system for Nigeria
One straight fact I would like to say here is that this presidential system has jailed Nigeria; unlike America where we copied it, it has jailed our binding unity. One fundamental truth again is that this democracy is built on a false premise. We do not have the right kind of Constitution that could accommodate all our differences in cultures and religions.
It pains me how Nigeria always loses its opportunities. Look at the extensive work done on the 1995 Constitution. I was a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee set up by Gen. Abacha to review the work done by the then Constituent Assembly. We were made up of eminent personalities, who represented each of the 36 States of the Federation as well as interest groups. Eminent people such as Dr Alex Ekwueme, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, Chukwumerije, Dr. C.C. Onoh, etc., were in this committee and we fine-tuned the Constitution.
We took time to broker the right kind of Constitution that could have suited our situation. The Constitution was fashioned by Nigerians, and we tried to clear some grey areas. Our concern was to accommodate all differences; so we fashioned a rotational presidency along the French option. We first agreed that the nation needed to have the six geo-political structures. Then to make every culture feel part of the government, we suggested that the system be a mixed presidential/parliamentary system. Let's have a President and Prime Minister, then we have a Vice President and a Deputy Prime Minister. Already, we have the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House Representatives.
These six positions we proposed should be shared within the six zones for a period of five years. We agreed to also have a transitional period of 30 years, i.e. five years multiplied by the six zones. That way, each zone is assured of getting the number one seat. Thirty years in the life of country is very small, if you realise the beauty that each of the six zones would have been assured, to taste power at the centre. That way, each zone, no matter who holds the presidential seat, is still accommodated at the centre; no zone is neglected.
We proposed that the President would appoint the Prime Minister and his deputy. All he needs is to make his recommendation to the Senate, which approves. The Prime Minister, the Deputy and the Ministers we said were to be elected members of the National Assembly. These we did in order to reduce costs tremendously and shorten the gap between the executive and the legislative because some of the people in the legislature are also in the executive.
Thus, it is a marriage of our First Republic parliamentary system with the Second Republic of presidential system. This would have brought the best in our union; the question of whether now it is the turn of the North of South would have been unnecessary; it does not even arise; nobody would even talk about it. Unfortunately, this blue print to lasting peace, drawn up by patriotic Nigerians, was dumped for a hurriedly packaged Constitution that is so defective that the only thing it is good at is to make a monster out of a president by giving him so much powers.
On possibility of returning to the 1995 Constitution
They don't want to. Even the administration that took over from Abacha was the first to throw it to the trashcan. So, if there are people to be crucified, they are the people because they derailed the nation's democracy. What is wrong in having a President and Prime Minister Nothing! Everybody would have a fair share of power because at the end of 30 years, each would have produced six key officers from the President down to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Any time there is government you have your man in it. What else do you want You are not sidelined. At your turn you'll have the President in your own zone. But for us to do that, we have to face the reality; we have to agree that we are living on a false world and the foundation of our own democracy is faulty - a useless foundation that is floating in the air.
On Obasanjo's administration
Honestly, one is being scandalised by the performance of this administration. We have made so much money in the life of this administration but we have also made so much poverty in the last five years. How many times now have we had an increase in fuel prices Government is making so much yet it is talking of retrenching. People are getting poorer. A bag of 25kg of rice now goes for over N5,000 yet it was not up to N1,000 when the military handed over five years ago. The educational system has collapsed yet the President talked about establishing his own University for children of the affluent and the wealthy like him.
We are in a system where only three per cent of the people are enjoying while the rest of Nigerians are in poverty. It is sad that our leaders have no pity for the poor and no visible attempt is made to rectify all these. Look at the whole war on corruption, can anybody have any hope in an administration that pretends to fight corruption, yet gives enough loopholes for all types of charlatans to make good with the common wealth Everything the government does seems to be too cosmetic and because it has so distanced itself from the people not a single one of its reforms ever works. It's simple; it cannot work when the people cannot digest it. There is a disconnection, a gulf, which the government seems not in a hurry to bridge.
On his profile
I have born in Ringim. It was under Kano emirate but during state creation, an emirate was formed and an Emir installed and I am the Walin of Ringim now. All my life, I've been living in Kano. We are the first graduands of Rumfa College, which is the prime and only college then in Kano. I graduated in 1959 and joined the police. I served for 25 years. I rose from Cadet Inspector to Commissioner of Police. I was trained in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Malaysia. I was among the first to set of mobile police in Nigeria. I retired in 1984. I am a businessman cum politician.
I was one of the policemen drafted to quell the Tiv riots of 1961-1962; I was also involved in the quelling of the Western Region crises, of "operation wetie" which resulted in the first coup in the country. I was the officer, who discovered the bodies of the Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, his Finance Minister Chief Festus Okotie Eboh, and two others inside the bush in Sango-Ota, Ogun State. At a time, I was the Chief Security Officer to the Northern Region Premier and the Sardauna of Sokoto, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello.
