We’ve Not Advised President On Issue Of Security, Corruption – Justice Mamman Nasir: The first Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Northern Nigeria, Justice Mamman Nasir, GCON, in this interview with AMINA ALHASSAN AHMAN , gave the recently concluded national conference a pass mark for bringing Nigerians together to speak on issues concerning Nigeria. The Galadiman Katsina however, is not happy that on the issue of security and corruption they did not get to advise the president on steps to take to end insurgency because the conference did not approve. He speaks on other sundry issues as well as how the Islamic Centre for Peace and Research in Imo state came to be named after him, how peace should be promoted in Nigeria. Now that the National Conference has ended, would you say it was worth convening? Well, I have been virtually in government since the first republic through the military period till today in various capacities. There were many conferences. To be honest to myself, all that we require, we already have the records of, even if this conference did not hold. However, holding the conference has given other Nigerians the opportunity to air their views, and there is nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is for us at the conference to believe we are the only wise people in Nigeria, which we are not. Once we accept that, then we are building more friends, and if we are building more friends, we are bound to have better relationship in the country. I had friends for example from Rivers, Enugu, Onitsha, Kano, Borno because I had the opportunity to move about the whole federation. There were so many things which went wrong during the conference, but it was a conference of human beings, we were able to tolerate, and admit that when the conference finishes and the president accepts the result, that would be the end of the conference. The only authority we had at the conference is to advise the president, no more. We were not in a position to make laws, or do anything for anybody. We were simply advisers to the president, after then it will be up to him to adopt after consultation with other people if there are things which he can use from the decisions of the conference. In your view, was the conference a success even though some people’s demands were not met? During the conference, so many things were rowdy. Few people wanted to go to the extreme, but the majority was able to control themselves, and everything in my view was reasonably successful. One mistake people try to make is to believe that the only way we can function is to be multi-millionaires. The leaders in the first republic, none of them left millions as their property. Many of them are still respected more than us who are still living now. We are saying, copy what those leaders have done. Some people at the conference thought that materialism are the only conditions of life. No. All you need is to have your job, do your work, see what you get. As a Muslim or a Christian, whatever you have, it is a duty to share it with other people. So at the conference, in my view, that is the only place were some of us went wrong, and of course some were former ministers and others were not, but when they put their address the way they want, then they are masters. In Nigeria, the constitution says we are all equal. Even our creator said we are all equal. If you want to be superior, it will affect your relationship with Him. Even material wise, whether you are a minister, Galadima, or whatever, that does not make you superior to any other Nigerian because tomorrow, any other Nigerian can be what you are, your son or your grandson may be. Corruption is really eating deep into every facet of Nigeria. Are you satisfied with some of the resolutions made by the conference on tackling corruption? No. That is one issue which we have not fully discussed and I am not happy. I wrote a paper challenging that, even before the conference. My view from the very beginning of the conference is that we are going to have a conference with Nigerians in peace; we know our limitations, we know why we are there, so if we are honestly advising the president, one key condition to consider is this issue of peace in the country. The insurgency, the trouble we are having with criminals. But above all, as long as corruption can lead the way, then we are short of about 50 per cent to build the nation. Once corruption is a leader, honesty has gone. An ordinary man will appreciate that rich business man who is corrupt, by giving money to other people to do things for him. We can accuse anybody. And once you start accusing some people, the accusation goes up. If you are at the bottom, then it goes to the next step, then up to the top. Any human being is entitled to accuse anybody on the basis of the evidence before him. I am not happy with our final decision on corruption, we have not done enough. Because to me, once you remove corruption, everything else will be smooth in government. I have been in government, I have been a minister. Anybody who ever gave me something to do for him that is against the law or not to do something, then after the first time I will report him or I will hand him over to the police. Whoever gave me money at any time to do something corrupt for him, should come out. I know some people have been accused, we even know some of them, and even recently, there was accusation in the judiciary. So, on this issue of corruption, we should go back to school, real school; try to copy what the leaders in the first republic did. They were able to eschew selfishness and any form of making themselves multi-millionaires, to eschew having belief in materialism as the only source of leadership. That is what brings corruption. Because if you want peace in the country, if you are given public money or even private money, use it according to the rules. Corruption can be in government and in businesses and so on, so nobody should accuse government alone, people in government cannot be corrupt without people outside government participating. So if you are accusing, don’t accuse government alone. Accuse even the ordinary people who are making government corrupt. Insurgency is a major concern now in Nigeria. As someone who promotes peaceful co-existence, can you proffer some solutions to how insurgency can be tackled in order for us to have peace? When I came to the conference, I came with the main objective of getting the delegates to accept that they are Nigerians. If you want ordinary democracy in Nigeria, you go to general elections, which we do not practice, we are nominated by groups, but that is not a barrier, if we are prepared to be honest. If we are serving the country, we can sit in the house, we can sit in the market, we can sit anywhere and we can still serve the nation according to the opportunity you have. So I came with the objective that we should unite ourselves. In fact, I wrote a paper, which I never had the opportunity to read to the conference, but the main objective was that we as Nigerians must come together and accept the trust given to us at the conference. Even the next one I wrote was still on that, the third one I wrote is on peace. The fourth one I wrote is to advise the president, but the conference didn’t approve that one. It was presented by me, but it was not approved. So we have not yet advised the president on the issue of security or insecurity. What we put as part of our security report was the complete historical story of security in Nigeria. What we want now is immediate advice on what would help the nation, what would stop all these insurgencies, killings and so on. If not 100 percent, but much better than what we have now. And if we do that, Mr. President has a duty to do the best he can; he is the leader and there is nobody above him. He must tolerate more than every one of us. God put him there. Having done that, we must call all the governors and chiefs in the states to reconcile and work together. If you see that opportunity, the ordinary man will respect you, he will respect the government, and he will respect the leaders. All this Boko Haram issue would not have been here to the extent we are having it now, because it seems now we have reached a stage where military people are saying they are not going to fight, but it is our entire fault, it is not the fault of the military. It is because we are not working together. Everybody believes they are correct when they do whatever is written in the book. No. Do what is right for the people, and that is what the conference did not allow me to tell them. If only we had done that at the conference, probably, in my view, it could have helped the president, and that is why I am happy that we have this centre in Imo, and nobody is saying we shouldn’t do it. In fact, we have the support of all the leaders, some of them very good Christians. We have come here, we have support of our religious people, and we have support of politicians. Once we can come together and build our leaders, eschew bitterness, swallow more of these bitter pills of leadership, get your colleagues, appeal to them to do the same, let them get to the people next to them to do the same, believe me sincerely, the position would have been completely different. What prompted the situating of the Justice Mamman Nasir Islamic Centre in Owerri, Imo State? We could say that the centre is named after me or in my honor, but concerns not only my religion of Islam, but my relationship with Nigerians all over the federation. The idea is to propagate religion to the people who are interested. One fundamental rule is that there is no compulsion in Islam. Nobody can dictate to anybody to belong to Islam or not. But there is a lot in it which will build brotherhood between all peoples, particularly between Muslims and Christians. To me, these are the two major religions in this country. If the two religions can work as a team, which they ought to do, there would be absolute peace in Nigeria. All what is important to Islam, you will see it in the Bible. So putting the centre there was originally initiated by some Igbo Muslims, Mal. Ibrahim Biobo Nlomije, Secretary Board of Trustees Justice Mamman Nasir Islamic centre was among other Igbo Musims. Many of us thought it to be interesting, since it is their own idea. The main thing is that Islam and peace are used. What Nigeria is in need of is peace. You can hardly get peace if there is no good relationship, no brotherhood. Everybody has been preaching about a united, indivisible Nigeria, but the best of getting an indivisible nation is to have a country in which the people are confident and can live anywhere they like, practice their religions, which is in the constitution, and when you do that, you are bound to have peace. There are many senior people in the north, not only Muslims but also very good Christians that are in support of the centre. In bringing this Islamic centre to Imo state, did you meet any resistance at all since it is predominantly a Christian terrain, or was it a welcome idea? If one is talking seriously of religion, you do not talk of domination; you talk of brotherhood, sisterhood, and above all, fear and respect to God. I can’t see how in a short period one can claim he can dominate anybody. I did not study the constitution and law in the name of domination but there were issues which brought out the question of domination or dictatorship. This arises at times through leadership. Once you see dictatorship, when you see someone trying to dominate, then religion has not been followed and the people are not being allowed to do what they think is right. There are so many people in Nigeria whom I highly respect from Bakassi to Sokoto, and from Lake Chad to Badagry in Lagos state, Christians and Muslims alike, who all hope to have peace in Nigeria. We used to have that peace, except within the last twenty years. What is important is, let us all preach to each other the best way to come, work together for the same people, for our posterity, and that is what religion is all about. The main purpose of religion both in Islam and Christianity is to respect your creator, worship him and then obey the teachings given to the prophets. Now if you do that, you will see that unless somebody tries to suppress you, you have no right to attack anybody, we have no right to hate anybody. There are very good instances in Islam where some Christians joined Islam simply through the interpretation of this equality given to the people even when they were not Muslims. Stay up to date, follow us on Twitter; @LeadershipNGA Original link Read More goo.gl/vLr4hZ (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 02:44:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015