BY SIMON EBEGBULEM, Benin City
The Otaru of Auchi, Ikelebe 111, Alhaji Aliru Momoh, is not like many other traditional rulers in the country. His activism and bluntness on issues have distinguished him from many other first class traditional rulers. Not too long ago, the Otaru led a protest in the streets of Auchi against kidnapping and the menace of erosion in his domain.

He lamented the deaths and devastation erosion has caused to his people and called on the Federal Government to urgent declare state of emergency on Auchi erosion sites. However in this interview with Saturday Vanguard, the Otaru spoke on the erosion problem, Boko Haram and why he recently declared that the people of Edo North and traditional rulers in the area will not accept the position of deputy governorship ticket being dangled on the people by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Excerpts:

Not too long ago you led a protest in the streets of Auchi calling on the Federal Government to intervene on the erosion menace in Auchi. Has there been any response so far from government?  

We are yet to get any meaningful answer. The World Bank has come and they have seen the problem we are having here as regards erosion. The World Bank made provision for Auchi and Queen Ede erosion sites. Of this twenty million dollars, that is irrespective of what Federal Government will be doing, of this twenty million dollars nine million was spent by the Osunbor government.

Otaru of Auchi

We were told they withdrew nine million dollars out of the twenty million dollars. What is left is eleven million now the question is what happened to the eleven million dollars that is left because nothing was done in Auchi and nothing was done in Ede. If that is the way government operates who can you say God will save us when people are suffering, when people are dying, people’s blood pressure rising each time it rains. Every rainy season we experience deaths. There has been a situation where contracts were awarded to people who don’t have the means to construct a road not to talk of tackling the erosion problem in Auchi. So money was shared as they have always been doing. If EFCC look away from some of these issues being published all the time, then I don’t know the role they are playing.

They have every reason to now come to Auchi and go to the Ministry of Environment and investigate all monies, contracts awarded in respect of Auchi erosion. They will see the facts on the ground.

There is no where here in Auchi where you can identify a project that is done by a contractor contracted by the Federal government on Auchi erosion. Other than the original one by the Niger Cat that has now been eroded by flooding.

But I must say again we are grateful to Almighty God because over the past two rainy season, God has given us rains in measured level so that there will be no further destruction. So we want to appeal to the Federal Government, to come to our aid. The Federal Government should declare erosion site in Auchi a disaster area.

Your recent comment that the people of Edo North have rejected the deputy governorship position which the PDP intends to cede to the area generated a lot of comments, particularly from the PDP leadership, what motivated that comment?

Yes I openly campaigned for Adams Oshiomhole in 2007, now I have been joined by other traditional rulers who did not believe in that project at that time, this time around they have all supported what the Oba of Benin had done.

He has said more or less that we have a governor and that governor has done wonders transforming Edo state for good.

And indeed he is not singularly the one who is saying that which is true. The World Bank has supported what the Oba and every body is saying about the magic that is being experienced in Edo state. And every single community in Edo state is feeling the positive development of road and water, even in Esan where you don’t have a borehole in the past, he is sinking many boreholes now. How else can some body demonstrate his capacity to produce results for the good of the people. So traditional rulers of Edo North resolved that we must appreciate the Oba of Benin for his support to the Comrade Governor. And indeed if you open your eyes you see the beauty of roads and other things in Benin now and you can appreciate the beauty of what is happening.

The same thing in Auchi and Esan area. Now, are the traditional rulers not therefore entitled to say we must give thanks to God for bringing this man to us?  And what we are now saying is that we as traditional rulers in Edo North, following what the Oba has said, we do not want a deputy governor from Edo North, we already have a Governor and we ask every body to support him because of what he has done and he is continuing to do.

If there is any other political party that said they want to bring some body from Edo North as Deputy Governor, they should forget about it. Edo North people are not prepared to support the person.

Here again, we must look at what has happened before his emergence, we cannot thank God enough for bringing him. And I am sure that his programme for his second tenure will be much better than his first tenure. What people are surprised about is where did this young man getting the money that he is using for all these jobs we are witnessing in Edo state.

Even if he has to borrow, you borrow and invest on the people, but don’t borrow and eat the money which has been what is happening in most part of the country. We must all learn to say the truth. If the man has not performed like the other governors that we have before now, then the question will be who is going to give him the support. Even Dr Ogbemudia who was the foremost pioneer in developmental strides in this state, had admitted that what this governor is doing is wonderful, magical, given the level of finances available. And that is a man of truth. He is of the PDP but he supports what the man is doing.

Looking at Nigeria today, why do you think is has been difficult for us to get it right?

We have been battling all these long to trace our steps to Almighty God. Inability to do that brings about a problem in a nation’s aspiration. If we have people who are God conscious then the question about a national conference will not have arisen. If our people are God conscious, the 1999 constitution would have attempted to cover any loophole we had in the 1991 constitution.

At my age 78 I am nearing my grave, so I will say the truth about Nigeria as much as I know it. I said to the President, November last year when the South South traditional rulers visited him, that before I left this country in 1962 to United Kingdom, we had never had any power failure, I think his answer was that at that time the population was small.

So it was able to encompass what ever level of capacity utilization the power thing could have. But you know you will not have the opportunity to continue the argument before the President but I feel that as a nation we are supposed to be putting facilities in place so as to equal the population as it happens all over the world so that our people will not suffer. The second question that I was permitted to make was the issue of fuel subsidy.

If we are taking into consideration the consumption of fuel in this country, the issue of subsidy will not be a problem. Now on the issue of a National Conference, I want to say that we have had one and I was one of the participants. And we invited President Obasanjo during our concluding stages, and we duly informed him what level we have reached. And that conference was sponsored by traditional rulers and all professionals and past political office holders in Abuja. The President was impressed with what we have done but at the end of the day nothing was done.

That brings me back to what I said God’s consciousness. If people say this is what they want why don’t you give it to them. Recently, Justice Uwais had made a recommendation about how elections should be conducted and the various processes that we have supposed to have gone and also regarding the question of governance, he also said there should be no immunity granted to any body. And a host of other beautiful suggestions that would have made elections in Nigeria so transparent. Again, the former President of the court of Appeal, Justice Salami is one man who came out openly to advocate the truth what has happened in one part of the country, where he objected to the pressurized to do certain things which are not in accordance with the rule of law and the truth.

At the end of the day Salami was suspended, not because they found him guilty, they asked him to apologize and he refused because he felt he has not done any thing wrong to warrant giving an apology. So you find that in this country people who speak the truth are being frustrated.

So what is the basis of holding a Sovereign National Conference if the nation is not in a position to abide to it. I believe that we need a fundamental restructuring of the country not peasant or pieces restructuring that are being recommended here and there which some people are doing to suit the constitution of their political parties. That is not good enough for this country. So we have to go back to God for direction because if you don’t change the evil in your soul, you cannot change your condition. It does not matter who you are, Muslim or Christian we are all under the Almighty Allah and he said we must use one irrevocable law of nature to decide what ever matter that is affecting his creation.

Nigerians living in the North are constantly attacked by gunmen called Boko Haram. What’s your take on them?

So we merit what we are getting today because if we talk about security it is not there.

Now people talk about Boko Haram and they said they are Muslims but I said no they are not Muslims. Because the Koran says in chapter 5 Vs 32&33 that any one who kills an innocent person is seen to have killed the whole of man kind. And any one who saves the life of one person is seen to have saved the life of the whole of man kind.

And it further said that any body who has murdered another illegally that person who group of persons should face the torment of this life through execution of cutting their hands or legs or you banish them. That is the Koran. So tell me where it is that Boko Haram is taking their instruction from. But God also said that if some body attacks you should defend your self to the limit of the attack no more.

So if Boko Haram is planting bombs in the churches killing innocent people, where did they get their law from?

They cannot be Muslims. But if they have a grouse against the police alleged to have killed their leader, they must limit the killing to the people who killed their leader but they must not continue to kill every police man who did not know any thing about killing of their leader.

And that takes me to the militants in the South South, we felt as a matter of fact that these guys were working towards ensuring that their people gets compensation for the oil being exploited in their domain. But we now know that they were militants who are involved in bunkering and what ever we are expecting from oil were all going into private hands and other parts of the country. However, we need peace to prevail in this country because with out peace we cannot have development in all levels.

But it seems the traditional institution has failed that is why we are experiencing high level of insecurity and criminality?

I am afraid to say that traditional rulers don’t have cover any more in this country. The 1999 constitution we are talking about, the constitution we had preceding 1999, we always had traditional rulers provision embedded in the constitution.

But it was removed from the constitution of 1999, when I asked our man, Admiral Akhigbe, I said to him, your government, Abdulsalam’s government removed the role of traditional rulers from the constitution. But he said it was a lie at the time the constitution was put together he was abroad. Naturally, God blessed the Jews with Prophets all along, but they now demanded for a King and God gave them Solomon as King. And God says the traditional rulers are his representatives on earth and any decision based on justice must be made by them.

Even the colonial governments came here to meet traditional rulers and they used them to rule. And the ruler ship then was so open. All these problems we are having did not occur. Even now when we are not even in the constitution, traditional rulers take care of their people. A case that will take about twenty years to handle in the High Court, will just take an hour to conclude in the court of traditional rulers and it does not cost you a kobo.

If we don’t have this place in place, then you can imagine what would have happened in the country, talking about crime and criminality. Every Friday the Mallams, all of us prays for the country, if we are not doing this in various parts of the country, where we have traditional rulers, this country would have been ruined long time ago.

In Imo state, since the governor Okorocha dissolved councils, he has been using traditional rulers and that is a very wise decision and I am sure with time every body will buy into that. But let me say this, not all traditional rulers are corrupt free, the political system has corrupted every body so we don’t have nay conscience any more to say that God will answer our prayers because when there is corruption and fornication God says it is only a matter of time before the torment will come to that community.

And that is what is happening in the whole world and Nigeria cannot be an exception. So what we see of the Boko Haram and the militancy in the South South is nothing compared to what we might suffer in the hands of the Almighty Allah when the decree comes. But we beg Almighty Allah to help our people to change their conscience, the evil in their soul so that God will change their condition.