‘Zamfara should learn from 2019 polls’

Former Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani Yerima served in the Senate between 2007 and 2019. In this interview with TONY AKOWE, he speaks on why he introduced the Sharia law in the Northwest state, the electoral misfortune of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last general elections and how to prevent a re-occurrence of the protracted crisis.

How do you feel that the state where you once governed on the platform of the APC has been taken over by the PDP and what would you attribute to the loss?

As a politician, I will not be happy because it is a sad thing. As a politician, we believe that God has power over all things. I believe it is an act of God and that what happened has to happen. Everybody has to play his role to come to what we are seeing today. The major cause is the breaches of rules. As you know, we had meetings within the party and the President, the Vice President and the National Chairman were all there and we agreed that the primaries would be direct, indirect or through consensus. The party felt that they were not comfortable with the arrangement in Zamfara. A committee was set up in Zamfara, just like every other state, but the committee came back without conducting any primary. As a result, another panel was set up. Everybody knows what happened after that. I tried my best to help resolve the situation, but, as you know, the governor was my product. God gave him that position and I led the struggle to bring him to that position. We had problems with my former successor who was my deputy for eight years and we decided that there will be no more problems again. People did not know what really happened between us. The cause of our quarrel was the fact that after endorsing him, we endorsed Yari as his running mate. We campaigned together until seven days to election. After collecting his INEC form, he came to me at night and said he wanted me to replace Yari and I told him it was not possible. That was the cause of all the problems. At the end, Yari met me arguing with him and his people, because at that time, he had already established his own empire as the incoming governor and Yari said he will never be deputy. He said if I impose him as his deputy, after the election, he will use the state assembly to remove him. So, a decision was reached to replace Yari and allow him to go to House of Representatives. From then onwards, I said I will never come out openly to speak on anything Yari is doing. I will meet him in his room, advice him and if he takes the advice and do well, I will be happy. So, I did my best as the father figure within the APC in Zamfara State, by not openly criticizing Yari or any other party chieftain in the media. What happened had to happen. I tried to mediate by liaising with the governor, the state chapter, other chieftains and the national chairman. Eventually, we landed ourselves in the position we found ourselves. However, the same person that is governor today was my commissioner for eight years. He came to the House of Representatives when I came to the Senate on the platform of the ANPP. That is why people were surprised when I went to congratulate him. I believe that party politics should end as soon as elections are over and the winner is declared. As an elder in the state, I had to go and congratulate him and wish him well. I will continue to advise him, so that Zamfara will continue to have peace and prosperity.

Is there any possibility that the APC will reclaim the state in the next four years?

Let me tell you one thing. Since 1998/99, when the current dispensation started, we have never lost election in Zamfara State. The APP, which later transformed into the ANPP, was one of the three major parties that merged to form the APC. In 1998/1999, I became governor and was re-elected in 2003 and when I was leaving in 2007, we elected my former deputy. But, he later defected to the PDP and that was the only time they ruled the state. But in 2011, we defeated him. The present governor became governor following the Supreme Court ruling. We will never, by the grace of God, loss election in Zamfara again.

But, what is on ground does not suggest that the APC will have an easy ride in 2023, especially with the division within the fold. As a leader, what are you doing to bring the warring parties together?

It is all part of politics. From the beginning, when it all started, all these factions believed I will be able to solve the problem. I tried to do that initially, but it didn’t work. As I speak with you, every so-called faction knows its position. But, we are going to wait for the intervention of the national secretariat. What is likely going to happen is restructuring of the party. We have to look at the structure again and make sure that we bring them together, by using the party machinery to harmonise the groups and come up with a solid structure.

What gives you the impression that the APC will reclaim the state in 2023?

Let me cast your mind back to 1998/99. That time, when the APP, the PDP and the AD contested the local government election in Zamfara, my party, the APP, won seven out of the 14 local governments, including the state capital. One of the candidates who lost in the chairmanship contest was the current governor. He contested the chairmanship of his local government under my party and lost. I appointed him Commissioner for Local Government to supervise the person that defeated him. That is what is bringing us together. What you see him doing now is not only his work. He was my commissioner for eight years before coming to the House of Representative when I came to the Senate. It is a combination of advises that he is listening to, and it is all of us working and not him alone. In view of that, you will now know whether it will be easy or difficult for us in Zamfara. Don’t be surprised if he moves to the APC.

Are you worried that the once peaceful Zamfara state is now a theatre of banditry?

I am very worried. When I was governor, I did everything I could to the extent that the then IGP under the Obasanjo government wrote a report that Zamfara is virtually crime free. The records are there. They even put our crime rate at two per cent, even though I don’t know the criteria they used to arrive at that. But what happened after me started with cattle rustling during the tenure of the governor who took over from me. So, it did not start now. From cattle rustling, kidnapping started and what I can call semi insurgency started. Today, armed bandits will just enter a village and start killing people in form of revenge. What happened is that the former governor formed what he called vigilante group and this group started attacking the Fulanis who they believed were the cattle rustlers. It got to a level that a Fulani man will come to the market and they will kill him. From that time, the Fulanis started carrying arms in place of their normal stick to defend themselves. Everyone had believed that it is something that can only be resolved through military action. But, the current administration has started talking to them and they have started responding. Recently, the bandits released a good number of people, some of whom are from Sokoto State. Criminality can start small and gradually enlarge. So, it is not a question of military action alone to address it. This method of talking to them to lay down their arms is working. They know these people and they know the terrain. We should adopt a two-pronged approach to resolve the crisis: negotiation, as well as the military action. So, the carrot and stick approach may be what we should adopt.

Traditional rulers have been accused of backing some bandits. How true is this allegation? Why will they get themselves in such thing?

Two things: one is the level of poverty in the society. People have forgotten that during the era of former President Jonathan, the economy was virtually on its knees, because of the level of corruption. By the time this administration came in, the task before it was not just fighting corruption, but reviving the economy and tackling the security challenges. Boko Haram was already in Abuja and something had to be done. A lot of resources were required to fight the insurgency and the fight against corruption was also not easy. So, by the grace of God, the harvest the following year was good and the economy started changing. That level of poverty that was inherited has started making some people think the other way, including the traditional rulers. The second issue is fear for their lives. Because of the little money they are getting from the bandits, they either try to give them information or hide them or do things that will support them. If you remember, one of the things that happened was the kidnapping of an emir in Zamfara. He was taken away for a long time until ransom was paid before he was released. So, some of the emirs became afraid of the bandits. The Yari administration had to suspend one emir for his alleged role in supporting the bandits. Every traditional ruler now knows that he either supports the government in its bid to address this issue or lose his position. So, I think these two factors — poverty and fear of the bandits — made some of the traditional rulers to back some of the bandits. But now, things are changing.

You are the first governor to introduce the Sharia legal system in the country. Do you have any regret about it?

You see, people don’t even know what Sharia is all about. At the time I said I was going to launch Sharia, there was so much outcry. I would have done my project quietly, because the state was 99.9 per cent Muslims and their agitation for Sharia did not start with me. That area comprising Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara were in the fore front of the struggle for the reintroduction of Sharia, because there has been sharia in Nigeria since the beginning of Islam. People thought that sharia is all about when you cut hand or flog people. Sharia has two components. It has the capital punishment which is called hudud and done through adjudication by the courts and what you call ma’amala which has to do with relationship. It regulates the activities of human beings. If you go to Zamfara today or any other state that adopted sharia after we started it in 1999, you will not find prostitution going on right now. You will not find a house or hall publicly where gambling is taking place and you cannot find people consuming alcohol openly. You can only find alcohol in the military barracks or police barracks. They were all successfully banned and the attitude of people has changed. Our girls use to come out with their body open. But, because sharia prohibit that, we introduced a new form of dressing which is called hijab approved by sharia under Islam and today, the entire northern Nigeria, you go to their primary schools, secondary schools and the universities, it is the norm now. If you recall, one lady went to the law school and refused to remove her hijab and it became a national controversy and at the end, she won because she has certain rights under the constitution. Sharia is about attitudinal change which has been achieved and will remain with us for a long time. The society is changing and in all religion, you see some extremists and fundamentalist as well as the moderates. I don’t believe in extremism. We are operating a constitutional system and by the time I came as governor, I understand the fact that I was elected under the constitution and it is the same constitution that I used to enact all the laws I enacted. That is why nobody could challenge it till today. All the laws are being implemented. If you have governors who have the political will to make sure that laws are implemented, you will not have problems, because the laws are already there. You have some governors who are serious and some that are not serious and this is how it is going to continue. It depends on the person on the seat, but the attitudinal change that has been achieved will be there for a long time. You can’t go to my village or any village in Zamfara and say you want to establish a brothel. The people will never allow it. Before I became governor, there were more than 500 brothels in the state capital alone, but today, there is none. Not only in Zamfara. Go to the entire 12 northern states that established sharia and say you want to have a prostitute. My son is 21 years old now and does not know what a prostitute is. He has never seen it. From 1999 till date, there have never been brothels, but that does not mean that people are not misbehaving. If you go to church or mosque or any worship place, they will tell you that God has power over all things. So, if God has power over all things, as a human being, you just need to do your best and leave Him to handle the rest.