We believe this country should have responsibility at all levels to preach peace among the people irrespective of religion, ethnic or any other background. You see it every day, where the Sultan or the CAN President and so on sit down and say that they want a peaceful co-existence between their adherents. The last comment that I like most is that there is no quarrel between Christianity and Islam but there is quarrel between Christians and Muslims. It looks like most Christians and Muslims are not reading their scriptures correctly.

What is your position on the intervention of Western powers in Nigeria? 

It is very unfortunate and shameful that Nigeria should go out of its borders to look for help to solve a fairly localised problem. Particularly looking at the meeting in Paris. As far as I’m concerned, Nigeria is claiming to be leader in Africa economically, socially and perhaps politically, which shoulders the initiative of bringing in West African leaders to discuss the problems of their borders In fact this particular meeting has brought us down considerably in the eyes of Africa, the so-called continent that we’re ascribing to lead and indeed in the eyes of world. Like [Senator John] McCain has said: ‘Is there a government in Nigeria?’

This is a huge indictment and for our President to even give some interviews saying that why he is not in Chibok is because his being there will not add value. For the President of Nigeria to say that is regrettable. He said he will not add value by going there, haba! Oh God Almighty. The Americans say they are not going to put boot on ground. It’s a technical term: it is that they’ll not put foot on ground to fight your war for you. If that’s what you’re waiting for, that you’ve failed and you want.

American troops to come and save you, they will not do it. And I will ask them not to do it because they’ve had enough of problems themselves and even if I were their adviser, I would not advise them to add another one to the ones that are already on their plates.

The matter is entirely the responsibility of Nigerians. If you take the military; how come Boko Haram within few months or years is better equipped than the Nigerian soldier? Or even better trained or motivated than the Nigeria soldiers? How do you explain this? 

This is in spite of the fact that for the last two years the allocations to the security forces have been so big. But then, the Commandant, in discussions with the National Assembly said that only 30 per cent of that budget reached them. That is why their AK-47 cannot fire. In fact, somebody told me that they went to the armoury in Kaduna here and by the time they finished the count of the guns, only 50 per cent of them were working.

Then I asked the Speaker, how come you are extending this emergency rule? 

So, they’re doing it only for two or three patriotic reasons – that the government has already invited foreigners. If they’d sought the advice of the National Assembly they wouldn’t have done so. But having invited them, they do not want the foreigners to come and find a more divided house than they expected here. They didn’t want to create that impression because it will worsen our international image.

The second reason he gave was that, after they receive their briefing when they met with the service chiefs, they were convinced that it’s true the budget appropriated for the military did not reach them to be applied for the needs of the forces. They said only 30 per cent was given for their needs. So, they said okay, they will extend this for the last time. Secondly, because the foreigners themselves would want to feel a little more secure if this pronouncement would make them feel a little more confident. Thirdly, they wanted to give the executive another chance to make sure that the military is fully prepared and motivated. Even allowances for their maintenance are not being paid on time.

How do you put a soldier out there standing there in the bush on end? Yet he does not get his allowance for his upkeep. And you want him to be motivated. They’re not reporting this, but I’m sure there are a lot of desertions; people just drop their uniforms and go.

Some people advocated that security should be on the concurrent list. Do you agree with them? 

Every Nigerian is a security officer if you take it logically; you’re a security officer in your house. You don’t allow robbers to come into your house if you can. I come from a traditional rulership house. When traditional rulers were in-charge no stranger comes to a village who is not presented to the ward or village head within a few hours to say that such and such a person has arrived in my house looking for accommodation; that is why I’m bringing him to the authority to know that he’s being housed by me. If later he wants to stay long, he will come and look for space to build a house or something like that. So, if something goes wrong overnight, that man who is staying there will know where to go – the host. That is why hosts are very careful. Whenever they receive guests they immediately report.

Concurrent in the sense that if you are talking organised security arrangement. In terms of that, I support one military for the Nigerian state; military here includes Air Force, Navy and Army. But I support decentralisation of the police. Put it on concurrent list; if a state wants it will create one. Even if a local government wants some gendarmes, they should be able to create one but within a general frame of law that will provide the necessary.

Take United States, there is state police but whenever there is something beyond the state police, the National Guard comes in. It’s another tier of police, and when the national guards fail then the military comes in last. But now you find out that the military is doing the work of a policeman. The policeman is supposed to be working with the civilians.

If you take the Nigeria Police, with due respect I am a District Head, some police officer came to my district from Calabar, Cross River State. His culture and social background is so different from the cultural and social background of his new environment in my district – Hausa/Fulani. How does he relate? A policeman depends on civilians for information for all sorts of things and cooperation. And if he is not culturally acclimatised it’s a problem. This is where the advantage of the local police will come in: they know the hideouts of local thieves or trouble makers. They know their orientation and can identify them quite easily and they were very effective in the First Republic. So I support one military for the nation but the police could be on concurrent list for state to take their stakes if they want, fine.

Northern delegates to the Confab have demanded the reduction of oil derivation revenue from 13 per cent to 5 and abolition of the Niger-Delta Development Commission and Amnesty programme for militants. Will this not cause more harm to the region? 

Yes, I agree. In fact I was part of the conference that moved the derivation arrangement from 5 per cent to 13 per cent. This was in 1994 during the Abacha conference – I was there. I was of course an elected delegate. This time, I said I’m not going because people are not elected, so I knew the fire Shehu Yar’Adua (may his soul rest in peace) came under from northern delegates for conceding, because he was the chairman of the Harmonisation Committee on the deliberation arrangement.

He conceded from 5 per ent to 13 per cent and he came under tremendous pressure from the northern delegates. But knowing Shehu for what he’s made, he stood his ground and argued that this was in the best interest of the Nigerian state and for the fact that we know oil has side effects, mainly negative, on land, water, fishing and so on. And the territory where oil is being extracted is always difficult for development. So we argued and eventually the conference conceded 13 per cent.