Why North is Angry-Shinkafi
Nigerian Compass  (Reproduced Mon July 18,2011)

 Former Head of the National Security Organisation, NSO and one time Presidential  Aspirant ,Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi(CON,NPM,MNIM) is the Marafan Sokoto .In this interview James Dazie,he urges the Federal Government to explore dialogue  in dealing with the radical Islamic sect,Boko Haram(He raised other  related issues)….Here is an excerpt culled from COMPASS

THERE is no doubt that the security of the nation is hanging in the balance, going by the spate of kidnappings, bomb blasts, assassinations and killings, particularly by the Boko Haram sect in thenorth and similar groups elsewhere in the country. As the Marafan Sokoto, a titled chief in the North, how do you feel about the activities of the Boko Haram?

Well, you started with an assessment of the security situation with which I do not agree. First of all, there is no doubt that there have been incidents and episodes of disturbances of the peace and daring assaults on constituted authority. But, we definitely are not in a state of anarchy. There is still rule of law and overall order still prevails. But when you talk about law and order, you must go back to the fundamental essence of the subject, which is that both the citizens and the state must live within the precincts of law. The legislature enacts the law, hands it over to the president; he signs and ratifies it, and thereafter it is entrusted in his hands for enforcement, using the security agencies under him. Now, that is the essence of the law. A lot of the problems we are having today emanate from one or the other not abiding by the tenets of the law. Then thre is skewed governance and the even more perennially skewed process that produces it.

This Boko Haram movement, I don't know whether they call themselves Boko Haram. The media has featured names recently such as Jamaat Ahlis Sunnah Lidaawati Wal Jihad and Yusufiyyah. They now have a spokesman who the media has now identified as Abuzaid. Both names seem to embrace precepts of Jihad. But, the movement is of recent history and the media call them Boko Haram. But whatever their name, if you remember, the peak of their disagreement with the state was the confrontation between them and security agencies in Bauchi and Maiduguri during which their leader was killed while in lawful custody. Since then, they have become more aggressive and fearless. One good development recently is that those responsible for the killings of those people in custody, and the other killings that were shown to the whole world by the Al-Jazeerah; those alleged to be responsible have been investigated and identified and are now being charged. So, we may now be at the beginning of a new phase of the conflict between Boko Haram and the state. Because, all along, there have been persistent requests for justice in connection with the extrajudicial killings by the state and also by the movement itself. It is a good beginning towards finding a solution and ameliorating the anger and fury of the movement. It is up to the authorities now to follow, if you like with carrot and of course a little bit of stick. A section of the public is even advocating dialogue. In my view this does not need to be bipartisan. An acceptable mediator could be appointed.

Before the April elections, some eminent northern leaders were swearing that if a Northerner was not elected to complete the tenure of the late President Umar Yar'Adua, they would make governance of this country difficult for President Goodluck Jonathan. Would one be right to link the violence in the north, especially the ones being carried out by the Boko Haram, to the pronouncements of these northern elders?

No. I don't agree with you. You see, the prominent figures in the pro-zoning debate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were known; their statements were published, particularly, Mallam Adamu Ciroma who was the leader. Every statement he made has been on record and he is an experienced public affairs man and he has made his position very clear. He did say there will be a political cost for ignoring zoning. There were the aspects of others who spoke in their own names during the zoning debate. The fundamental point about the debate was that, at the beginning, I believe the pro-zoning committee said that if it was intended to discard zoning, then, let there be dialogue between the zoning advocates, so called, and the president. So that there will be the bargaining, not only within the party, but also within the elements that are beneficiaries of zoning. It was not the North alone that was to be the beneficiary of zoning. We are now seeing the consequences of not resolving the whole issue of zoning in the last transition. If the presidency had embraced dialogue before the primaries, it would have made a lot difference to the issue. It is not easy to reject the argument that a sitting President could not just walk away and concede an opportunity to run which has arisen out of a force majour, the death of an incumbent President, even if because of the rules of the party to which the President subscribed. It was not politically easy for President Jonathan to pack his bag and baggage out of Aso Rock and go back to Otueke. So, dialogue became important. Unfortunately, the notorious G-20 comprising serial "AGIPs" bigots and creeping political reptiles discouraged the Presidency from dialogue before the primaries and so it was ignored and we went ahead and held the primaries and, as they say, the rest is history. But at the beginning, if the dialogue requested within the party had been undertaken, I am sure we would have had less tension and friction during and after the elections.

As a one-time superior security officer in this country, having been the Director General of the defunct Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO), how best do you think this issue of insecurity can be handled, including the kidnappings, the bomb blasts and killings?

The most important thing is for the whole nation itself to be security-conscious. Sometimes, the rules of protective security are common place, routine and tedious and therefore can become boring and liable to be ignored. Ignoring them in the slightest manner, sometimes, can have the kind of terrible consequences we have seen recently. Secondly, the security intelligence agencies themselves ought to be the first to admit that they cannot alone ensure the security of this nation. They need the cooperation of the entire nation, the citizenry and other more overt security agencies in uniform, especially the Nigeria Police being the largest of such agencies and with the widest spread. From Abuja to the smallest ward, we have policemen in uniform working to ensure our security. Therefore, cooperation between them and others not so visible is crucial. And now, we are developing a reasonably affluent and virile private sector. The private sector must invest in not only its own security but also in assisting in the enhancement of state security through their material contributions. This is because the governments at whatever level just cannot afford the cost of security. The state itself must be fair; must be just; and must itself also be law-abiding. The moment the citizenry sees the state as being unjust and unfair, then the whole basis of the social contract and security will be wrecked.

In the 1980s, when you were the Director General of the NSO, people used to shiver at the name NSO, much more about your person. Why do you think this was so?

You see, the organisation I headed operated in a democratic setting. There was no power of arrest outside what the ordinary laws conferred. There were no emergency powers. The President himself was acting lawfully and operating under the law. When I assumed office, taking over from military, the first task we faced was re-orientation from the military setting in which the organisation was created and operating, to a democratic, civilian setting because that was what the constitution and the President who appointed me demanded of me. So, if you are talking of dread and fear, maybe you are talking about 1984 after the military came back. You ought to be circumspect enough to differentiate between the Second Republic and the military intervention that terminatedit.

Before the military intervention we had the UPN, headed by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. We had the GNPP and the opposition parties. The ruling party at the centre was, of course, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), headed by Alhaji Shehu Shagari. It was feared that the operations of the NSO were slanted against the opposition parties, particularly the UPN. For this reason, people in the opposition parties tended to be afraid of the NSO and they looked at it as a terror organisation.

What you are saying is prejudiced because if you did your research, you would have known that from the utterances of the opposition parties themselves, the organisation I was heading showed no bias whatsoever against them. In fact, in some of my campaigns when I joined politics, whenever confronted with accusations like the one you are making I quoted some of the positive remarks about the organisation in my time made by opposition parties. I would like to let you into one important national political secret. President Shehu Shagari told me that of all opposition parties' leaders of the Second Republic, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was more understanding and cooperative during the innovation of briefing them about national security which he initiated with our encouragement. I have good friends in the

UPN, GNPP and in the NPP and this served my work and governance and security very well. Having been a federal civil servant who worked throughout the country, I made good friends in all the parties across the board. And, in fact, if there was any problem at all, it was to convince the ruling party that the NSO belonged to the Nigerian nation; not to the ruling party itself alone, and Alhamdulillahi, with the cooperation of the President himself we succeeded in doing that.

As the Marafan Sokoto, what legacy would you say you are leaving for your immediate community and the nation?

My title relates to the Sultanate; if you like, in a wider sense, to the Caliphate. The noblest set of governance values available in the history of Nigeria today are those that were articulated by founders of the Sokoto Caliphate. And that legacy, thank God, has been recorded. During the last centenary celebration the legacy was well published in books. At the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and indeed the older one at Ibadan, considerable research has been done on caliphate values and these values embrace the tenets of good governance more than you can find in the Nigerian constitution today. The best treatise on caliphal values which I have read was the intellectual heavy going but superb book written by Dr. Mahmoud Tukur and I strongly commend it to you, but more especially our leaders and institutions.

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