In a no-holds-barred interview with New Telegraph newspaper, former Borno governor Ali Modu Sheriff reacts to claims by the Australian negotiator on Boko Haram that he’s reportedly one of the sponsors of the deadly sect. Excerpts:
Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, it is nice to have you with us on this interview session. You must have read the story by the Australian negotiator on Boko Haram, which claimed you were one of the major sponsors and financiers of the group. What is your reaction to that?
Well, first and foremost, I was shocked. The whole story looked senseless and baseless. Number one, the man that purportedly gave the interview said he was an Australian, who said he came to Nigeria, and spoke to Boko Haram. I thought that really, if he is a professional mediator or negotiator, or whatever he calls himself, his report would have been given to the security agencies of Nigeria. That is number one. Number two, also, if at all he spoke to Boko Haram, before making his views public, he should have known that I have a right of reply. He should have asked for my reaction or views on his findings, because I am a Nigerian, I am in Nigeria, I didn’t go anywhere.
Number three, I was the former governor of Borno State for eight years. The Boko Haram war as we know it today, started in 2002 in Yobe. The first attack of Boko Haram was in 2002 in Kanama, from there they ran to Borno State. And in 2002, where was I? I wasn’t a governor. There was a sitting governor in Borno State, and there was Boko Haram. They ran away from Kanama and moved to Gwoza hill! But come to think of it, who is Mohammed Yusuf (first leader of the group)? Yusuf had been in Maiduguri, doing his preaching and later taken to court by the Federal Government, and prosecuted in Abuja, ever before I became a governor.
And who was the first casualty of Boko Haram in Borno State?
It is me. I was the first victim of Boko Haram in Borno State. In their first attack, they killed my brother, the same father and mother with me. That was when they fought with the military in Borno. The first casualty was me. Then, they killed my cousin. They killed my candidate for governorship; they killed my party chairman. Two of them were direct relations of mine. Why did they do that? Because I made a law prohibiting Boko Haram in the domain of Borno State. The law said anybody practicing or associated with what Boko Haram was doing, was banned by law from so doing, and if caught will be prosecuted and jailed for 25 years
Are you saying that Boko Haram attacked you because of the law you promulgated against them?
Exactly. They saw me as their attacker, that I was against them and fighting them. But I did so, because I had a responsibility to the state. I was a governor of Borno State, and it is my duty to make sure that what is not tenable in law should not be tolerated. Because you cannot just go and kill human beings and go free. Now, for anybody to turn round and accuse me, or say that Ali Modu Sherriff is Boko Haram, is insane, because… Look, I left government three and a half years ago, they have prosecuted many Nigerians, prominent ones, who were dragged to court, prosecuted by the Federal Government as being connected to Boko Haram, if for any reason I am connected to Boko Haram, I am not above the law, I would have been prosecuted like any other person. It is not for an Australian to come and say that I am a Kwara: APC, PDP differ over ban on rallies / PAGE 17 | Jonathan’s presidential stake / PAGE 18 13 member or sponsor of Boko Haram. And if you look at the interview, it would clearly show that it was a preplanned agenda. It was a sponsored work. Somebody wanted to tarnish my image.
Why did they choose to do that now? I was a member of the APC (All Progressives Congress), I was one of the founders of the APC. I have been in opposition (parties) all my life. Why didn’t you write then that I was Boko Haram. It is only now that I want to join the ruling party that you now publish that I am Boko Haram. It is totally a smear campaign! A campaign of calumny. Because why is it that the interview carried on television, and also the newspaper they carried it, came at the same time? If you check, there’s something under it. Because United Kingdom is a European nation that has a lot of source of information dissemination, not for a medium owned by a Nigerian to be the medium he would use to propagate his opinion.
He didn’t speak with BBC, VOA, CNN on such a sensitive issue. There are too many contradictions in that interview by the Australian. He talked about Boko Haram; then he said I was corrupt, in the same interview. You wonder what he was actually looking for: my corruption or Boko Haram? He said my government was not properly run; that he doesn’t understand why I was not arrested by the Economic and financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). I don’t know when he became a criminal investigative bureau for the EFCC or negotiator for Boko Haram? The whole thing does not make sense.
Were you jolted when you read the damning report?
I was shocked. I was completely shocked. Because, there is no consistency for one minute on what he was trying to do. He was scrambling. A scrambling, faceless person. They said he was struggling to talk on telephone in the TV interview.
But this is not the first time you are being linked to Boko Haram. Part of the accusation is that you armed a group of youths during your election and didn’t disarm.That was the group that turned into Boko Haram?
You know, unfortunately…
Did you arm some people during your election or re-election?
Why should I do that? Let me tell you the history of my elections in Borno State. I was elected into the Senate of Nigeria three times, as a senator of the Federal Republic, by the people of Borno State three times. I was elected as a governor twice.
I am the only indigene of Borno State that has ever been elected by the people of Borno to that level. Before I came into government, there was Boko Haram. Now, if you say it is the youth that metamorphosed to Boko Haram, whose youths?
Because every political party in Nigeria has a youth wing.
To my knowledge there are over 15 parties that ran for positions in the last election in Nigeria. Therefore, whose youths?
You know, I didn’t bother myself [about the accusations] all along because to start talking about…the Federal Government of Nigeria, two different administrations set up more than three committees to investigate this matter. And all the investigations came out clearly to say that I have nothing to do with all these people, the Boko Haram. On the contrary, I am a victim of the Boko Haram onslaught. I am a victim who they are now projecting as sponsor. I don’t know how I will be a victim and also the sponsor of Boko Haram. It is just a pure imagination of some people.
If you are not the sponsor, did you succeed in fighting Boko Haram during your tenure as governor of Borno State?
Yes, I did.
You drove them out of Borno?
Yes, I did.
So, how did they return?
Well, I left government. I wouldn’t know what happened thereafter.
How did you then curtail them during your tenure?
First, I did a law. Second, I had the cooperation of all the security agencies, who were working 24 hours round the clock to ensure that Boko Haram did not operate. My responsibility (on security) ended when I left office as governor. What happened thereafter I cannot be responsible for it.
As a private citizen and leader in your own right, why has Boko Haram become so hydra-headed and more vicious now, than in your time as governor…
Much more than it was.
Is it so difficult or impossible to flush them out?
No. The truth about it is that terrorists all over the world everyday device different methods. Let me give you an example: The Americans moved out of Vietnam without succeeding. America is today the strongest country on the living earth. If they didn’t succeed in Vietnam, and moved out, one wouldn’t be surprised whenever terrorists fail to stop terror act. You are fighting people that you don’t know.
Terrorists all over are people who know their target, but you don’t know them. So, it’s like guerrilla warfare. I don’t live in the insinuations that our military are not fighting or capable. That is not true. When I was a governor, our Operation Flush, the military, police and SSS, they curtailed them effectively.
How come they are not doing that now?
I am not in government, so I wouldn’t know.
If you were in government or being a governor, what would you be doing?
Well, I would exactly do what I had done in the past to curtail them. In Maiduguri during my tenure, there was no curfew for one day. They had never taken over any local government or anywhere in the state. They started their operations in an enclave and the soldiers were able to crush them.
Now, they are everywhere, capturing over 200 chibok school girls. Nobody can find them or say precisely when they would be freed. As a former governor, are you not worried?
I am more than worried. I am more than worried…
Three-time senator and two-term governor, what are you doing about it. Even as a private citizen?
As a citizen right now, what I have tried to do as a person is to make sure that all my contacts, who I interacted with as governor, in the neighbouring countries, to ask them to provide security information to relevant security agencies in Nigeria, on what they know about the group and how to get them. We are praying. And every day, we spend our time in praying, that God should bring us out of this terrible mess. And the girls are still there? Not only the girls. Every day, human beings are dying.
Are you in touch with your successor, Governor Kashim Shettima, on how to fight Boko Haram. Do you give him advice?
Well, as someone who took over from me, who succeeded me. I did advise him.
How come he is not following what you said you did during your tenure?Advice is what you call it. You are free to accept it or not to accept.
Did you put him in power?
God installed him, through me.
Are you still the best of friends?
We have no issues between us. But we are no longer in the same party.
Why are you not working together on the insecurity in Borno State?
Security matters should be above politics. The word itself is advice. It is left for the person you are advising to evaluate if your advice is worth anything or nothing. He has a right to decide on how he wants to run the state. I don’t interfere in any matter of government. He is the governor of Borno State. I am a former governor. And I wish him well. I advise him on matters he requires my advice.
At the national level, are you satisfied with the way President Goodluck Jonathan is prosecuting the war against Boko Haram?
The president is trying. The truth about it is that Boko Haram issue is a matter that is very complicated. And you should know that it didn’t start during his tenure. As the president of a nation who came and inherited this issue, to me personally, I believe he is doing his best, because like I told you, America could not succeed in Vietnam because of the difficulty in dealing with terrorists; what happened in Iraq? Up till today, there has been no solution. What happened in Afghanistan?
No solution.
Despite his efforts, the fact remains our girls are not back?
Unfortunately, our girls are not back. I know he is trying. I am not trying to hold brief for him. But the information that I have is that he is doing everything within his power to get the girls out. I know so, because some of his aides and lieutenants are my friends, and they tell me the serious efforts being made to free the girls.
Be prepared!!! @folabright
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