2023 presidency: Don’t look for trouble, Evah warns Northerners

National leader of Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), Comrade Joseph Evah is a bold and fearless personality who never dodges any question from any reporter.

He says things the way he feels about them no matter whose ox is gored.

In this encounter with Sunday Sun in Lagos, Evah spoke about the calls for President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct national census, the greatest challenges before the Southeast presidential aspirants, the perceived enemity between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and his political god-father Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the danger of not letting the presidency berth in the South in 2023, among other crucial issues. Excerpt;    

How will you react to the calls for President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct national census?

I am shocked that people are coming and calling on President Buhari for census, they want census to be conducted. I watched it on NTA network news and from some other news medium. In fact, I was so angry about it. How can we be talking about census when people are in the forests kidnapped, people are dying in the forests, our mothers are crying and still some people are comfortable coming to Buhari to urge him to conduct census. It is another show of shame. I even expect the president to tell his ADC to prepare cane and flog all those people coming around him to meet him for census. They do not wish him well. How can we be talking about census now when our young women, girls, men and over 100 persons from the Abuja/Kaduna train kidnap attack are still in the custody of bandits? We must know the demons that were used in building Aso Rock because what is happening there is getting all of us dumb-founded, the more you watch, the more you look, the less you see, the more you wonder what is happening.  No matter the importance of census,  should it be at this time? Is now not ill-timed? Our women and children are suffering in the forest kidnapped and the same Northerners who are heading the Census Commission are coming to talk about census. Can’t the Northern people reprimand or even find a way to flog those idiot people going to Aso Rock, calling for census? Now, if you do the census will you go into the forests to count the bandits and all those they are holding hostage in the forest?  Will it even be easy to conduct election in the North in 2023 with what we are witnessing? Ordinary INEC registration, I think in Imo State recently, the place was invaded and some people lost their lives. So where is really safe for census to be conducted?  Ask yourself which place is safe in the country today? At a time that we have such a crowd and a number of Nigerians held inside the forests some people still have the guts to talk about census; that’s terrible. Shame to them. You want to allocate billions of Naira to census and share money when the country is at war with itself. We need to do first thing first, arrest the state of insecurity that abound, create a peaceful and conducive atmosphere, put hope back in people, and after that other things will begin to fall in line naturally. Those people calling for census now, if you ask me, should be identified, assembled and properly flogged. For now, you pay attention to priority area first and that should be to ensure we tackle insecurity head-on and see that Nigerians can move about, travel to their destinations through the roads, train, air, go to their farms etc without fear of being killed. Our women, our young girls are being raped, they are suffering in the forest and you are here calling for census, haba, are these people in government not human beings? Are they insensitive that they have lost their humanness?

There have been different presidential declarations of aspirants from different political zones, in the Southwest, Southeast etc. What has been your observation on the development?

Well, we want to see people who are serious, people who are putting their houses in order. This is because some people are declaring so as to go for settlement later. One of the assignments I want to give people from the East is that this time we expect them to come out in full commitment for the race so that other people can reason with them, but sadly, the type of insecurity news coming out from the Southeast, especially the case of sit-at-home is destroying their economy. Why should they succumb to such self-destruction? It is disheartening. The only state in Nigeria, the only zone that deals strictly on business, it is in their DNA, it is in their blood is the Southeast, but schools are closed, the economy is dying what are the presidential aspirants from the Southeast doing about this? I repeat, schools are not going on, the economy is dying, so what are the Igbo Presidential aspirants from the Southeast doing about this? I expected the presidential aspirants from that area to be sitting down with the IPOB leaders, Mazi Kanu boys (Nnamdi Kanu) and any of those other groups and be discussing on what should be done, discussing on the way forward. The most significant symbol of the Igbo man is in industry, now industry is being killed in their own land. So, what are the presidential aspirants really doing? The Igbo are flourishing outside of the Igbo land, so why should they be destroying their home land? I found the entire thing funny or is it strange? Ndigbo must put their house in order; nobody will do it for them. The Igbo relies so much on industrialisation, on manufacturing, on buying and selling, on solid trade, on business, so why are they doing what they are doing? They need to caution themselves and do the right thing because others are watching them and perhaps, some wanting them to fail so as to have an excuse. There must be a think-tank in Igbo land that must genuinely point the way forward for their people. Igbo people have businesses in all parts of the world, so why are they destroying their businesses? Calling for sit-at-home every Monday, watching the spate of insecurity increase alarmingly in the region? Why are they watching and allowing their region to be destroyed? I had expected them to be wiser.

The excuse some give is that what is being witnessed in the Southeast zone, the destruction, the rising insecurity is orchestrated from outside Igbo land, the unknown gun men and all of that?

Can anybody, can any serious mind take such excuse seriously? You cannot come to my home land and cause trouble and escape freely without our people getting you down, without them catching you, exposing who you are, it is not possible. If I say that unknown people are coming to my place and destroying my land and we cannot fish them out, people will laugh at me. You can’t come to my place from the outside to cause trouble, to maim and kill people and you think you can go free with your head on your neck. What is the internal security in my place doing? Where are our men? Where are our boys? Where will they be for you to come in and kill my people and they will not apprehend you? Those unknown gun men as you chose to call them are not spirits or are they?

Yes, they are not spirits?

So far they are not spirits they can be apprehended? What are their local, community security groups doing? What is the Eastern Security Network (ESN) doing? It is the reason the Southwest created Amotekun. What it means is that ESN is not flourishing like Amotekun. We have been shouting: when will the Southeast Security Network take off, nobody answers. We want them to make the Southeast Security Network to flourish.

They need to go back to the drawing board. Let all the governors of the Southeast ensure they make their security network to flourish like the case of Amotekun. The security of life and property should be uppermost in the agenda, I do not want to buy the excuse of outsiders coming to Igbo land, outsiders cannot come to Igbo land to destroy the place and the people are watching it like a drama and refused to do nothing. Outsiders cannot come to my family to destabilise my family and I will fold hands and watch; no, it cannot happen, we must apprehend the person, we must get the person down and deal with the person or persons, so that others contemplating such evil motive will know that the place is a no-go-area because you are not likely going to go back alive. If I tell somebody that an outsider is coming to destroy my place they will laugh at me, yes, they will laugh at me.  You should not tolerate an outsider that has come to destroy you. The people must unite and fight that common enemy. Look, let me tell you the truth: Some of the aspirants (presidential aspirants) from the Southeast are just roaming about. They should go home and put their base in order if they should be taken seriously and if they know they have leadership capacity. We commend them for their efforts to fight for Mazi Kanu, that is one way forward, but the economy of their region (Southeast) is being destroyed and they must rise up to the challenge, ensure they arrest the situation. It is the first thing they need to do. The Igbo are known for their industry, their entrepreneurship, business etc, they must identify with it, it’s their symbol, and ensure nobody destroys it for them, either within their home or from the outside.  Eyes are on them, so they must not fail the test, they must do the needful, put their home in order, and create an environment that will stimulate business. They should put their home in order and come out with the best of their candidates let us see whether they mean business to contest the 2023 election. 

Are you still in support of the presidency coming to the South?

President Buhari should not hand over to a Northerner. Those who are jostling for the presidential position from the North must have a re-think when the trouble starts, they will not be around to quell the storm.  Zoning is another name for federal character and for peace to reign, for equity; fairness and justice the position should go to the South. It is the most reasonable thing to do; it is something that should not generate any logic, any skewed argument.

What are the characteristics Nigerians should look out for in the 2023 presidential election?                        

At the right time, when the political parties have done their primaries and presidential candidates emerge, we will embark on that aggressive campaign of letting the people know the right person, given their credentials, their antecedents etc. We will find a way to embarrass those that have been taking us for a ride over the years. I think several meeting are still going on among the political class and their parties. It is when the presidential candidates emerge, we will now know who and who are in the race and how to handle them. It is no longer time that they will come and rabble-rouse us with their sweet-coated tongue, no, we will go beyond that and will be ready to embarrass those that have manifested as enemies of the people.And we know them. Look at the presidential aspirants from the North, if they want to go to their villages they have to carry battalion of soldiers, so who is fooling who? They are there in Abuja parading themselves, they can’t go home, it’s a shame.

What is your take on what is playing out politically between the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and his political god-father, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu since the declaration of interest to run for president by the VP?

Make no mistake to think that they are enemies. Politicians remain specie you cannot predict. You will be cracking and killing yourself for them, unknown to you they are inside together at night popping Champaign, drinking wine and pepper-soup. Let nobody carry headache in their case because they can decide to settle today or have you forgotten the word “consensus”? When there is conflict of interest among them (politicians), they have their own way of settling it and you that have been killing yourself, fighting and arguing to defend them will look stupid in the end. Politicians, at least Nigerian politicians, will always reconcile to guide and guard their interest. So, do not be deceived, Osinbajo and Tinubu are not enemies. (Sunday Sun)