BY GBENGA OKE
ADAMU Maina Waziri erstwhile chief executive officer of the Petroleum Technology Developwent Fund, PTDF,  former Minister of Agriculture between 2007 and 2008,

former Minister of Police affairsis a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He was the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections in Yobe State. He was a convener of the 3G, the gropu of politicians that worked to checkmate the manouvres of the famed cabal in the twilight of late  President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s Administration last year.

In this interview with Vanguard, he bares his mind on the state of the nation, the status of 3G, preparations for the election among other issues.

You are a member of a group called Good Governance Group led by Senator Ken Nnamani but for sometime now, nothing much has been heard concerning the group. What happened?

The 3G, which stands for good governance group metamorphosed from the restoration group. If you recall the circumstances, it was during the indisposition of the then President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that created a leadership vacuum in the country and the country was drifting, it was leaderless and it has no direction.

It was a full day for what was called the cabal, so we created a special purpose vehicle one of which became 3G group for good governance to give us an outfit that we will now meet under its auspices to coordinate a resistance to the leadership void created by the indisposition of late Yar’Adua. Also, the group fought the mis-management of the country by the cabal and facilitate a return to democracy and good governance in the country.

Waziri

So our primary objective was achieved in many ways. The good governance also aligned with Save Nigeria Group of Pastor Bakare and pressures were mounted on several relevant organs of state that resulted in the National Assembly passing the doctrine of necessity that saw the then vice-president Goodluck Jonathan becoming acting president and one thing led to other, dissolution of the cabinet, changes in the leadership of security forces and the Almighty intervened in his own mighty wish and took away Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan assumed with full executive power.

Since then, a couple of us found other avenues to express our service to our country but the 3G is still there, we have an office with people managing it but the issues at stake are now bit quieter than they were and that is why you don’t hear much about it.

The emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan as the PDP presidential candidate is still causing some disaffection within the party especially among the Northerners. You are known to be a strong supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan. What is your assessment of the situation presently as it is?

Well, I take exception to your description of me as a Northerner, I am first and foremost a Nigerian from the Northern part of the country. It is because there is Nigeria, that is why there is all sought of groups and identities including political parties one of which is the PDP which I have the honour of being its member.

This controversy of zoning or rotation or whatever are all political tools to be able to manage the various tendencies that come together to make Nigeria, so they are conveniences, they are peculiarities of the territory called Nigeria because we are heterogeneous in so many ways.

I don’t subscribe to leadership being strangulated by zoning or regimentation because the moment you do that, you will limit the human resource capacity to a particular section of the country. If you are lucky, you can get the best, if you are not lucky, you can make do with what you have. In the history of nations, leaders make nations, leadership provides the nations capability to attain its potentialities.

So if we continue to strangulate this country and continue to be undemocratic by introducing elements that limit the choice or emergence of leaders based on where they come from, based on religious they profess, then we are sacrificing the emergence of a good leadership that can transform this country. So, I subscribe to the idea that in contemporary world, Nigeria of today should free itself and align fully with the ideals of democracy where there will be a level playing ground and everybody can come out and aspire to the highest office of the land.

That to me will now allow this country to transform by leaders. So, the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan to me is now an unsolicited intervention whereby zoning or rotation in whatever form is being dealt a mortal blow, that henceforth we will put it behind our back and look forward to the situation where a Nigerian leader will develop and he will come out and lead this country as one. Let me quickly say that is the advent of this 4th republic that brought out institutionalized rotation or zoning. Shagari was not elected on the basis of rotation or zoning, he was elected as the candidate of the National Party of Nigeria.

It was the choice of the NPN that somebody from the North could be its presidential candidate, it was not an institutional arrangement.  Unless the leadership is truly Nigerian democratic, that means you cannot espouse the principles of one nation, one country and democracy.

It is this mis-carriage that make you to describe me a Northerner and it is something that we should try to get over as quickly as possible otherwise even our children will be seeing themselves first as regional citizens before they become a national citizen and unless the country is cohesive and its accepted to be one indivisible, then the full potential of Nigeria will not be realized and this is going to be a threat to everybody.

Few weeks to the April elections, there are still pending cases and your state is not an exception. Don’t you see this affecting the chances of PDP in most of the states in Nigeria?

What has happened is that while we are practicing democracy, somehow  the political field is very undemocratic. Democracy allows you freedom of choice and freedom of association because PDP is so overwhelming, every political aspirant find it easy to perch in the PDP to realize political aspiration or ambition. That does not give room for full blown democracy where by there will be viable opposition parties, so people that are ordinarily supposed to be in opposition have come into the PDP and this has made political contest a bit stiff and this stiffness has now led to a lot of litigations whereby people decides to go and get political expressions in legal litigations.

I was joking with a friend whom I told that ACN, CPC and ANPP should come together as one so that we in the PDP will now have an opposition party to smash, now it is just an easy ride and it is a threat to both the PDP and to all these small parties, it is no more PDP and others, it is PDP and nobody and this is not good.

However, if you look at the results of the 2007 elections, litigations followed and the judgement has reversed a couple of excesses of parties and this has been able to dilute the overwhelming strength of the PDP by giving a party with only one state now three states and two others that are his allies, so litigation has been able to create post election opposition platform that is giving the PDP in those states a good ride for its money.

So, I want to say reluctantly that the resort to litigation is one way of also deepening and enshrining democracy especially when judges corrected some undemocratic behavior by either election or leadership of parties but at the end of the day, we hope we will reach a time where political contest will find resolution under political platforms as against going to the courts.

With the situation of things, most aggrieved members of the PDP has now found solace in opposition parties. Do you foresee some level a kind of reconciliation within the PDP fold to bring about peace in the party?

Well, I think so. The PDP presidential candidate set up a reconciliation committee and if I am being informed that anywhere Mr President visits state in the cause of his campaigns, he takes time to have interaction with the winners and losers of the various congresses conducted in the state to bridge the gap and in those states where such has taken place, the political pressure has gone down significantly.

As it presently stands, there are 3 major Northern figures in the presidential race. Do you see this affecting the chances of President Goodluck Jonathan in the North?

Well, in a political contest especially in an election, you don’t underestimate your opponents. It is not un-usual for surprises to spring up. Infact, underdogs are always lurking in the corner to take advantage. I will like to say that President Goodluck Jonathan should take into consideration that there are other people challenging him for the coveted seat of the president and their chances to win should not be under-estimated, anyone of them is a potential president and therefore a force to be reckon with.

So, as much as they know President Jonathan is the frontrunner and somebody who might deny them their own aspiration.

So it is a political issue but left to me in a political contest, if I will make a choice between a sledge hammer or a broom to kill the fly, I will use a sledge hammer. That means I should under-estimate my opponents in any aspect.

The INEC has continued to explain to Nigerians that the number of litigations in Court might affect its conduct of the April general elections. What is your assessment of this situation?

Well, I don’t agree with my brother Professor Attahiru Jega. The rule of law entrenches democracy and there can never be a flourishing democracy without adherence to the rule of law. If people now feel short-changed in a political inter or intra party, they should feel free to go seek redress under our judicial system because it is in the judicial system that operates the principle of non-partisanship and they should be able to correct any injustice or aggrievement among parties.

Any society that does not uphold the tenets of rule of law cannot be a democratic country or society. So, while Professor Jega might be alarmed over the number of cases which will substantially dislocate his arrangement for the election in view of the short time because this happens to be the shortest time in the history of this country as far as pre-election is concerned.

But the ultimate benefit is that everybody will be remembered that you must operate within the purview of the law and the law is no respecter of persons neither is it a respecter of political parties. So if you think that you can short circuit the system for your own benefit, the law will be there to say no, you must operate within the channel of the law as encapsulated in the constitution of the party.

Having said that, how do you see the preparation of INEC towards the April polls?

Well, let us put that question in proper context. The late President Yar’Adua set up the Uwais committee and they worked within a time schedule and submitted a comprehensive report. The indisposition made government the result of the report delayed because by 2008, the government should have finished everything about the Uwais report and start the implementation one of course will be the leadership in INEC and that leadership would have started that the registration exercise earlier and it would unfunded the problem so that the party will also now key into it and start their primaries.

It was only after the non spell of indecision in lack of leadership after President Jonathan emerged that Jega was appointed and INEC was reconstituted and we are already there and there was little time from the time of implementation of Uwais to the time the elections are coming.

Then the National Assembly also, it took them a long time for them to pass the constitutional amendment, all these impacted on the necessary arrangements that ought to have been in place that would have given INEC time to conduct its operations and prepare the country for credible polls.

It is a fact that anything done in a hurry has high risk of failure, so I appreciate the concern of INEC chairman and his commission but the fact is that we as human beings, our job is to face challenges and overcome challenges. So, these are challenges that it is not only INEC that will face but all Nigerians and all political actors must rise up to the challenge that we have a credible risk of time interfering with arrangements which ought to be in place for a much more credible elections.

But while are hanging on those aspects, we have no alternative than to subsume our personal interest and deepen the democratic process by conducting the political activities inspite of the shortness of time in the way that will lead to the credibility of the results of the 2011 elections.

As former minister of police, what steps do you feel needs to be taken as we approach the elections because the security situation in the last few months has been worrisome. What steps needs to be taken to have a hitch free security situation in Nigeria?

Well, it is true I was Minister of Police affairs but let me also remind you that I was a minister for just about 7months. I have come to realize the enormous challenges facing the security. We are a country of about 150million people and the total police force is estimated about 370thousand which is the first line of security in any democracy not military and I came to realize during my brief stay in that office that those policemen were under-paid, ill-equipped and not accommodated, so they are not motivated and yet they have the most desirable duty to provide security for ordinary Nigerians.

We need a police force which is motivated and for them to be motivated, they must be increased probably close to 3million or more.

Take Egypt for example, a country less than 80million had about 4million people under its security forces and therefore if you go to Egypt, the kind of crimes you have in Nigeria, you don’t have it in Egypt and that is enormous cost to government. If the Federal Government says they will fund the security forces adequately, I will assure you that there will be no money for electricity, there will be no money for so many other important arms of governance that we require.

So there is need for government to come out and tell Nigerians the requirements of an effective security apparatus that would provide an average Nigerian with the security he so desires and this while it will expose the weaknesses but it will also encourage to buy into a programme that will ameliorate the situation that the individuals, voluntary organizations, the business groups, corporate bodies and international donor agencies will now buy into a programme that will provide the police the effectiveness that we require.

This is part of the challenges of the leadership of this country, from afar if you see President Goodluck Jonathan, you will think he is sleeping on the bed of roses but I assure you that even if the bed has some roses, there are also some spikes embedded in the mattress.

The challenges confronting this country and leadership are enormous, they are very huge because leaders in Nigeria under-estimate the sheer volume of Nigeria in terms of population, in terms of land mass, in terms of heterogeneity, in terms of things that ought to have been done 20years ago and they are undone, in terms of the things that we need to do to provide Nigerians the kind of leadership we require.

Ordinarily, the heterogeneity of this country makes other models in other countries in-applicable in Nigeria. Take the problem in Plateau for example, we have the first-line law enforcement agencies, the police and they have proved incapable, we have moved to the next level of enhancing the capacity of the police by getting the military, the Army and others involved, this also has not been able to also deliver.

Now we have moved to a special outfit to be able to provide the security that is required in Plateau that is a thorn in the flesh of other parts of the country, this clearly manifest the challenges the heterogeneity of this posing to the leadership of this country.

There cannot be one model because it has succeeded in one country, it will just be so in Nigeria and you get the same result.