Mr president as no business going to chibok says Asara

Chief Asara Asara Aki IX is the paramount ruler of   Obanema of Akipelai kingdom in Bayelsa State and a member of the National Conference. He explains in this interview why President Goodluck Jonathan should not be blamed for the insecurity in the country. Excerpts:

Initial fears about the Confab are that it will lead to the country’s break up. Would you say the fear has been dispelled?
The confab is moving forward as expected, because you know in the president’s inaugural speech, he made a statement on the two things that we must not discuss; the indivisibility and the unity of this country, but to me I feel the other way, because even if it is a marriage, as husband and wife, you have to discuss, you have to meet your fiancée, speak to her, convince her, then she will assess you, look at your qualities, then she will accept you.  But in the case of Nigeria, there is nothing like that. They just got up one day, and one white man who has finished taking tea called the people and said you are  together, and the people have been managing themselves until now and therefore, there is need to discuss.

With the exclusion of these two major areas, do you still hold that the Confab is necessary?
Yes, I believe the Confab is necessary. It is better for us to correct our mistakes for the younger generation because most of the things we are tolerating now, these children might not tolerate them tomorrow. You might just get up one morning and there is no Nigeria. So, now it is proper for us to sit and do the corrections and stop Nigeria from drifting.
You are from the South South region; do you sincerely feel the President has been fair to all in the running of his administration?
Well, that is a part of the insincerity in this country, and that is one of the areas that I told the people at the Confab, that this country belongs to all Nigerians. You are a journalist, and you know the set up of the government. If they are saying that appointment is lopsided, they should tell us the offices where it is lopsided. It is only then, that I will be able to comment. Let us look at the security of this country. The NSA is a northerner, the IG a northerner, and these are key in the security of this country. Look at the police set up, look at the postings, look at the customs, these are key places. Look at the minister of defence, look at the judiciary, where is the lopsidedness?  We have three arms of government. To who is it lopsided? How many ministers do we have? Take the parastatals, the MDAs and look at them. Bayelsa has no slot in NDDC. We are supposed to produce the executive director, works. Do you have any Bayelsan there? There was a government that when the man was sworn in as the president of this country, all the Inspector Generals of Police came from his area, and nobody is commenting. Is it because Minimah was made the Chief of Army Staff? Is that why it is lopsided? Chief of staff, who is he? Who is from Bayelsa in the presidency? The PSP is from where? The ADC to Mr. President is from where? These are key positions in the villa.
We believe in working and achieving. So if they are saying that, there is lopsidedness, let them tell us the areas that are lopsided. Am I not qualified to be appointed? Can’t I be a minister? Am I a minister? If there is one man that is qualified to be appointed in this government, I am number one.  I am the paramount ruler of the president’s mother’s community. He is my cousin. I was the political adviser, I pushed him to become what he is. So I have to lay claim to him than any person either dead or alive. Because it is only myself that knows the history of our journey.
You said the President is being distracted?
You were there after the elections, they said they will make the country ungovernable. Somebody spoke here in Nigeria saying “I will make this country ungovernable”. Were you not in Nigeria at the time? Are you people able to take on the man who has been threatening this country?
But what action has the president taken?
If the president starts dealing with him, will you support him? You will say he is victimizing or witchunting people. The press will be the first to say hang him. There are people holding executive positions in this country with no certificate, and what they only do is to steal the resources of their states. You go to some states they own all the properties, and the press keeps writing that they are progressives.
If it is going to be in the interest of the country, does it need the approval of the press?
The press should lead. You have been given all the facilities. There is no press all over the world that is as free as the Nigerian. How can people be abducted in Chibok in Borno and people are saying it is the president? And there is a chief executive of that province. They are not holding him responsible. Will Goodluck now carry guns and go to the front and fight?
But, he is the commander in chief…
So he should also carry guns and go to the front? Is there no other chief executive? They said they are the chief security officers of their states. Here is the story, when the WAEC was coming,  it wrote to the man, who calls himself the chief executive. They came to the minister and the minister wrote to him, but the man said no, they must sit here. How can a minister write to the chief executive of the state telling him of the implication of allowing the children to write the WAEC there and the man will say no?
If the President has power as the Commander in Chief, he would have said, don’t sit there. If he has done that, the journalists will be the ones to say, oh, the president is a dictator. Can he come and govern Borno State? That would have been the question. Now we allow democracy, and the children were abducted and they say, Mr. President you are the one. You see, because the President does not come from where he is supposed to come from. The man who came from the place he is supposed to come, nobody talks about it. That is Nigeria. That is why the conference is needed. That is why the conference is important. If we should continue as a nation, we need to discuss and agree to continue as a nation.
Are you saying you are impressed by the action taken by the president to recover these children?
What action has the governor taken to recover the children? Those are the people who voted him. I am not saying that, they did not vote for Mr. President. But what action is the governor taking to rescue these children? It is within his vicinity, the same environment. The president is far away in Abuja. What is the governor doing? I think these questions should be directed to him not Mr. President. Mr. President has deployed what he can deploy. The army, the police, the Civil Defence, the state director of the SSS, they have all been deployed. Do you also want Mr. President to also put a General’s uniform  and go to the war front?
People say he should at least visited Chibok in order to placate the parents of the abducted girls….
You see, young man, we are talking about the presidency. We are not talking about Goodluck Jonathan. We are talking about President, not Goodluck Jonathan. We must also know that Jonathan will complete his tenure and some other persons will also come. If you succeed in ridiculing the presidency, you will continue to ridicule it. There will be no end to it.
Mr. President is not a classroom teacher. He is not a chairman of a local government. How many times has the governor himself visited that place?
He has been there.
How many times? The governor is supposed to be sleeping there. But is he leading the team, the search team? Is he part of the military, that are going out in search of them? He has to set an example. Not just sitting down and criticizing. If he wants Mr. President to be there, then he should also be there. Is it when the president goes to Chibok that we will know he is the president of Nigeria.
Your royal highness, you are from the president’s area.
Not just from his area, I am the paramount ruler of the community of the mother of Mr. President, I am the paramount ruler, not just from her area.
Obviously, you will want him to come back for second term. So, if for whatever reason he fails to secure the presidency?
What will make him fail? Are you reading history at all? Are you a Nigerian? So you think he will fail? Because some people say he will fail. Even those who did not perform did not fail. Is it because he comes from the minorities? The minorities are the majorities today. What we are experiencing, every other minority is experiencing it today. This man is a divine intervention. He makes you to have hope in this country. God deliberately decided to push him up. Look, if you are opposing Goodluck, you are opposing yourself, and opposing God, and nobody has ever wrestled God. He came into politics in 1999, and in 2010 the person is the president. So is it not surprising? So this is the hand of God. How many people will use nine to 10 years to be the president of this country, how many? That alone is supposed to inform us that Goodluck Jonathan is not ordinary.