Salihu Mahmud Dantata is the director of publicity, Arewa Youths For Peace and Security, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). He told ANDREW OOTA that the former National Security Adviser, NSA Sambo Dasuki did not act professionally in the fight against insurgency. He was of the view that in spite of the shortcomings of the former NSA, the former President, Goodluck Jonathan should be made to provide information and account for his role as Commander- In- Chief who gave the approvals for disbursement of both the $2.1billion and the recovered Abacha loot.
There has being discordant tunes over the maiden Presidential media chat of President Muhammadu Buhari, what is your view?
The President’s response was apt and straight to the point, especially his response on the alleged abuse of the rule of law. The reporter was talking about the bail that was granted to the former National Security Adviser, NSA Sambo Dasuku and his re-arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS). Nigeria is first and foremost a third world country where even the judiciary has being accused of corruption. Now, the former NSA asked to be allowed to travel to London for medical attention and I believe the President that yes indeed, giving the alleged atrocities he could jump bail if allowed. What about the orphans, homeless and various degrees of destruction that the actions of the former NSA and his associates caused. As we speak millions of Nigerians are displaced and scattered in IDP camps all over. Then the former president was just granting approvals to staggering amounts of monies with absolute impunity and some people feel it was okay; that is not right. Look at the ejection of Kayode Aare the former DSS boss from his official home in Lagos and other issues and people involved in the arms deal I dare say the President did well. I was equally impressed by his response on the stipends to be paid to the unemployed youths, because it is not possible for the President to have statistics on those to benefit and rightly as he said, it is the responsibility of the labour and employment ministry that should handle that, so in a nut shell he was accurate and perfect.
What is your take on his response to the clash between the Shi’ite group and the military in Kaduna?
It is only where people want to be mischievous that such issues are made serious, first and foremost, President Muhammadu Buhari is a Muslim and not a Christian, the Shi’ite people are not Christians or Jews, they are Muslims and we must understand clearly that there is nowhere in the world that a responsible government would allow citizens or religious groups as it were to take laws into their hands and undermine the state. The video clips of what happened between the Shi’ite group and the Nigerian Military is an evidence for all to see. In that video clip you could see a Military General supported by other senior Officers engaged the shi’ite group in their own dilate not even in English language and were telling them to calm down and that they were all one. The military even allowed them to get close to them which should not be, we saw where the superior officers were asking the rank and file to seize fire and after sometime the group starting hauling stones and objects on the military and let me tell you that in the rules of engagements be it Army, Police , Air Force or whatever, it is clearly stated that a Chief of Army, Air or Naval staff must be protected by the troops against any attack, assassination or aggression , so what we saw in that video was a clear attempt to assassinate the Chief of Army Staff. So the military acted properly in trying to save the Chief of Army Staff, yes the casualty is unfortunate, but the military acted properly, so whatever that people like Senator Shehu Sani and other acclaimed human rights group are saying is just being economical with the truth. Now, listen to Sheik Mahmud Gumi who is another leading Cleric in the country, where he said he had severally told the leader of the Shi’ite group El-Zakzakay to desist from always blocking the road anytime they are having a procession, the group does not even respect the Emir of Zaria, therefore, apart from the security forces, nobody has the right to block any road for whatever reasons. This is a deterrent to all and an example that nobody is above the law.
Some people feel that the President is infringing on the constitutional duties of other arms, particularly his comments regarding Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu, what is your view?
There are three arms of government, the President is a Head of government and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces and that makes him the Chief Security officer for the country. Look at America where we copied our democracy you would find out that the President in some instances overrules those authorities to do what is necessary, today President Barrack Obama is likely to overrule the parliament on the issues of guns, look at the issue of American-Marine invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan and others; it was not supported by the US Congress, but the President used his veto powers , so it is not that President Buhari was doing anything ordinary or undermining the judiciary but it was rather based on the volume of information at his disposal and he must act to save the country. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo perceived that there was breach of peace in Plateau State under Senator Joshua Dariye, he used his Presidential powers and declared a state of emergency there, suspended a democratically elected government and appointed a Sole Administrator. So Buhari is right and the response of the DSS regarding Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu was right.
Would you say that former National Security Adviser, Dasuki Sambo played his role professionally or were there gaps in all that he did in the disbursement of monies meant for procurement of arms for the military to fight insurgency?
Let us first and foremost understand the role of the National Security Adviser and what it stands for, in the United States of America for instance, after the National Security Adviser you have the chairman Joint Chief of Staff which rotates among the military, Air force and the Navy. What happens is that all the briefings of these three forces are submitted to the NSA and in that instance you could say that yes an NSA played an intermediary role. But going by his training and background as a military officer as former director of military Intelligence one can again say that Sambo did not act as expected of a military person. The reason president Jonathan appointed him in the first place was because of his past experience, therefore one would have expected that Dasuki ought to have advised President Jonathan on how best to handle the mess that he has found himself in today, because the money was meant for a certain purpose other than the purpose for which it was being used. We are also not ruling out the fact that in a country where sycophancy plays a very major role in the way we do things , Sambo may have as well did what he did just to satisfy the former president at the expense of the country and the millions of people in the North East.
Do you think the former president needs to make some expla?
It is our believe, that President Muhammadu Buhari can as well do this country good by extending the probe to the former president and this comes from the memo released by the former minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, where she stated that the former NSA made a request and that particular request was approved by Jonathan. So if indeed such request was made and approval granted by the former president, what then is the guarantee that the same president did not grant several other approvals and the only way to tackle the issues head on, would be to quiz former president Jonathan for questioning. Dasuki could not have just wakened up and released such huge sums of monies we are hearing and the former minister’s memo says it all. I want to believe that perhaps the memo also went through the Federal Executive Council and the Council of States, which are the highest decision making bodies, which is the right thing, but if that was not done, then we are in for it, but for us to arrive at the true position of things, the right person to be pulled in should be the former president.
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Fantastic….Jonathan have answers to give. Plenty answers for that matter.