In this interview with Quick News Africa, in Jalingo, the Chief of Staff to the Taraba state government. Rebo Usman, believed that the fight against corruption would be a child’s play if the President fail to react on the recent ruling on the governorship of the state.
“For Tribunal To Rule Against PDP, A Lot Of Water Must Have Passed Under The Bridge.” Says Taraba Chief of Staff.
What would be your comment on the recent tribunal ruling which ordered for the removal Gov. Ishaku from office?
I think first and foremost I will like to appreciate the fact that I am not a lawyer because whatever happened at the tribunal are things that had to do with the professionals in the legal field. But as a lay man and a politician, I think the first thing I have to in reaction to the ruling is that I am totally embarrassed as a Nigerian that such a thing could happened in our county at a time that Mr. President is assuring Nigerians that so many things that were bad would be made right. And if under his nose such a thing could happened it is most embarrassing. As a Nigerian I feel embarrassed.
What is the next plan of your party ( PDP)?
The governor himself has already made a statement. He had
already said he will appeal his judgement. He will definitely appeal because his lawyers have already started working on it.
But some of your party members are blaming PDP for their woes for not allowing internal democracy in the party?
In every election period, you will always have one thing and the other that affects all the parties. It was not only PDP that had issues with internal democracy. APC a had more of it than even PDP. We are aware that in Benue state there was no primaries. People had bought their tickets, they had bought their forms for the election and somebody within a day came in who did not even purchased the form and today he is governor. PDP went to court on that issue and was told it is an internal party affairs. Which PDP had nothing to say because that judgement was in line with the electoral laws and the constitution. The tribunal is an election tribunal and not a politics tribunal. To me this thing is funny because it is very clear that issues that has to do with party primaries, internal democracy are issues that should be dealt with in the state or federal high courts. Yes, there was an attempt to conduct the primaries in Jalingo here but it did not work because of insecurity. So because of the insecurity in Jalingo, the primary was conducted in Abuja, and INEC a officials were there. I want to tell you that there is a huge embarrassment that the judiciary in Nigeria is facing now as a result of that judgement on the Taraba governorship.
With this development would you still advice Nigerians to see the judiciary as the last hope of the common man?
It is not really good to make sweeping statements especially on highly placed and highly respected institution like the judiciary. Whether we like it or not we have seen politicians fighting. You go the National Assembly, you see them fighting and throwing fist, you come to the Executive you see certain things happening that could be unexpected of leaders. But we have never had of such in the judiciary. We have never heard them throwing fists here and there or coming out to insult people. Whether we like it or not the judiciary have their respect and we have to recognize them for that. The fact that there are bad eggs among them is not enough reason to placate the whole judiciary. We must accept the fact that they are highly respected people and we must respect them and we must honour them. But we must also accept the fact that the people there are human and when there is a gathering of humans, there will always be a judas.
Won’t this ruling further distract the governor from his rescue mission for the state?
Of course that is the plan but the governor is a composed person. You had him speaking immediately. He laughed over it because he knows that the people of Taraba state gave him the mandate. And whoever is out to disrupt what God want to do for Taraba state would regret it. Many of them have come and they are not Tarabans. They are from outside Taraba. Eighty percent of the people causing problems for us in the state are not Tarabans, they are from outside, and God would catch up with them. They are bringing all sorts of things, including causing crisis even within us. Our people are tired of crisis. Let these people go back to where they came from and live us alone in Taraba so that we can move ahead. We cannot afford to continue to be a war zone. And that is what they are doing. They are behaving like the ISIS. They don’t want to see peace. They are not Nigerians. Many of them are even not Nigerians. And above all they are not Tarabans. What is wrong with them, what have we done to them. They should live us alone and give the governor that peace that he need to drive this state forward. We cannot afford to be backward with all the rich resources that we are endowed with. That is their plans but they won’t succeed because it is very clear that judgment is nonsense. For goodness sake even the provisions of the law says clearly that even the situation where that happens rightly, you don’t declare the next person governor. What you ask for is a fresh election. This guys went ahead to declared Aisha, out rightly against the provisions of the the law. How can you declared somebody governor when the law stated clearly that you cannot go to the court become a governor from the court. This is peoples mandate. I believe this is madness. I will like to state here clearly that President Buhari has a challenge before him on the case of Taraba state. For judges to have done that, it means a lot of water must have passed under the bridge. He has told us of his anti corruption, Taraba is a test case for him. It could not have happened without corruption playing a role. And this is the most dangerous type of corruption. The corruption that would lead to the disenfranchisement of the citizenry is the worse that can ever happen to any country. Honestly if Buhari does not do something about Aisha, if he does not do something about these judges, then we should just tell him let him make his noise. Because all these things about corruption will be noise and no Nigerian would take him serious.
The situation has further hikes tension in the southern part of the state. Don’t you see it causing crisis in the whole parts of the state?
As I told you earlier that is the plan of the people who have being doing everything possible to disrupt the political process in Taraba state. They have done it before in Wukari, they feel that Wukari should be turn into a war zone. But we are watching them. The majority of the people in Wukari are people who voted for the governor. The verdict came up, you would have expected them to have reacted they did not react, but the opposition were the ones that reacted. Running up and down jubilations, they were not touched, and then in the night they started shooting. So where are these people from. One thing I want to let people know is that we have to be very clear to understand clearly what is happening in Wuakri. Nobody can set fire on his house. What is happening in Wukari has external influence.
How can you collaborate the rumour making the rounds that few days before the ruling, APC supporters have being celebrating?
It was even reported in some media that before the ruling APC supporters were jubilating. Day before yesterday ( Friday) we were told that over eighty percent the flight booking from Yola to Abuja were APC supporters. That gives an impression that they had a full knowledge of how the ruling would be like. That is a other area of embarrassment to the judiciary. And I hope that the judiciary and indeed Mr. President will stand to the occasion. Because this is an opportunity for the to assure Nigerians that they are serious.
What would be your final world to PDP supporters in the state and the country at large?
My advice to the people of the state is an reiteration of what the governor said yesterday (Saturday) that they should remain calm and law abiding. I want to be grateful to God that throughout the campaign period the PDP supporters remain very peaceful in spite of provocations. But I will also have to say here that we are in a political era. The PDP supporters should also speak up wherever they are in this country against injustice, against anything that would be done to truncate the democracy in Nigeria. We have come a long way, we can not afford to derail in this political process. So PDP supporters should also speak up wherever they are.
