S-South delegates should insist on 50% derivation or remain in Abuja – Ayemi-Botu

FORMER national chairman of the Association of Traditional Rulers of Oil Minerals Producing Communities of Nigeria, ATROMPCON, and the paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom in Delta State, HRM Charles Ayemi-Botu, aka Lion of the Niger, spoke to Saturday Vanguard on the reign of terror by Boko Haram and what South-South delegates to the National Conference at Abuja must put on the table. Excerpt. Boko Haram has clearly gone wild, what are your thoughts on the group’s violent activities? Well, it is a very sad commentary, the Boko Haraam we are talking about now never started now, you would talk about the Maitatsine men in the early ’80s, where some religious fanatics started in Kano, Kaduna and were cutting people’s neck, maiming and doing all other things, that was the period of Shagari government. It ended but unknown to us, it has not ended. It is like having a private army, some of the ethnic groups have some sort of people they use before the coming of the British colonialist, it could be tribal war lord or any name, you can also remember Usman Dan Fodio, who was seen as having a kind of the Hittites, a megalomaniac kind of idea, not satisfied only living in a place, but conquerors, those who conquer where they are but others perceived to be as strong neighbour, thinking of conquering from the desert till the Atlantic. HRM Charles Ayemi-Botu, ex-national chairman, TROMPCON Something that is in one’s blood, it becomes congenital and from time to time, history has reputation of having a bad person in a family, that person may live and die but another will rise and continue. The Boko Haram thing in the dimension it is now was to a great extent caused by politicians. Without mincing words, in 2011, unfortunately with the death of former President Yar’Adua and with Jonathan, then his Vice President completing his tenure and seeking to contest proper as president, hell was let loose. While the results were still being announced, his opponents in the North said that they were going to make Nigeria ungovernable; that they were going to heat up the polity if Jonathan wins. We have a very shallow memory; this is where the whole thing started again. If you say so but Boko Haram has gone beyond merely heating up the polity over election result? My take on Boko Haram is that if you create a masquerade, and lead it out to dance, either for alms or for festival to entertain, the masquerade knows its master’s voice as to when to end or start, but when the masquerade turn and not listens to the master, it now turn to be a boomerang, that is the Boko Haram that we are seeing today. It was a ploy to create or to heat up the polity so as to make the governance of this country ungovernable. Unfortunately, the plan of using Boko Haram in doing it has now backfired by now going round within the axis which it knows best. The US and some other countries have come on the invitation of Nigeria, are you okay with the foreign intervention? In my own opinion, I think terrorism is a worldwide problem and no one is an expert in it, I do welcome the international community coming into it because Boko Haram has a link with Al Queda, Almagreb, ElShabab, they are working in synergy. Terrorism now has a syndicate and being sponsored by multi-millionaires giving them all what they need. Since they are working in tandem and we don’t know when it will end, the advanced countries have not been ableto curb Al Queda and their splinter groups are spreading in Africa, and now in West Africa. It will also do them good, as Nigeria is a very important country to them in Africa. As a retired soldier, what will you advice Jonathan to do in the search for the Chibok girls? What Jonathan need now is community policing, we need to have the local fighters from the area who understand the Sambisa forest, Can I come to a place I don’t know and achieve results, look at Borno state governor, the man is cantankerous, the governor is saying things as if he is sponsoring them, I mentioned that there is a political dimension to this, what they are doing is simply heat up the polity, as Aso Rock Villa is meant for some people, and not everybody. So for that reason when there is crisis, then the country becomes ungovernable and we are now looking to the prediction of John Campbell, the American Ambassador, who in 2005 said Nigeria will break into precipice come 2015. This was 10 years ago when Boko Haram has not been known to be visible, but political interest has set in, some are saying the girls are in Nigeria, others say they are not in Nigeria, Chinese people were abducted in Cameroun and whisked to Nigeria, so if you are a governor of a state where this hell is let loose and the man is not cooperating, how can we be able to get them, only Jonathan cannot do it because some people have their selfish interest to rule this country eternity and for that reason, all what they are after is let that innocent man be pulled out of Aso Rock so that they will come back.