In this interview with journalists, former member of Borno State Executive Council and All Progressives Congress candidate in the Borno Central senatorial district bye election, Baba Kaka Garbai, speaks on how to end insurgency in the country and his plans to win the next month’s election
Is it true that the APC stakeholders have endorsed you as the senatorial candidate of the party?
I have been active in the politics of the ANPP since 2011 and at the
last election I was greatly involved in the success of the APC in Borno
State. I am a staunch loyalist of the APC and Governor Kashim Shettima
with a good network of true friends and associates within the APC with
whom we share very strong passion for the recovery and development of
Borno State. I was sounded out by some members of our party to contest
for the vacant senatorial seat. They believe we need another strong
representation after the death of Senator Ahmed Zannah, who represented
us in the Senate between 2011 and 2015, and died shortly after he was
re-elected in 2015 for another four years term. I could not but accede
to their call. If you call this their brotherly and sisterly support for
me as an endorsement, I am greatly humbled and will only hope that this
endorsement as you have called it translates to overwhelming victory
for the APC at the forthcoming senatorial bye-election and a resounding
victory for the good people of Borno State when I am able to make
meaningful contributions at the Senate with the guidance of Allah.
What new things do you plan to take to the Senate if elected?
I have a mission in the Senate. I am not going for the sake of adding
the prefix, 'Senator' before my name. I want to add creative value with
my primary focus being on the insurgency which is the number one problem
facing Borno today. But then, one of the most fundamental requirements
of Borno and indeed the North-east is a radical fight against poverty
and mass unemployment. Only last Saturday, I accompanied Governor Kashim
Shettima to General Shuwa hospital in Maiduguri, most of the patients
we met had issues that doctors said it is associated with lack of good
nutrition. We have a very serious crisis of unemployment which requires a
national legislation that will ensure rapid response to the urgent need
for vocational skills and provisional of tools to our teeming populace
to make them self-employed and the need for conditional cash transfer to
support thousands of our wealthy business men and traders who have been
sent out of businesses by Boko Haram insurgents. This is why the
establishment of the Northeast Development Commission is important. The
region requires a marshal economic blueprint. Another major problem we
must tackle is youth access to drugs. Many of our youths have access to
drugs and this encourages criminality and this cannot also be detached
from the insurgency affecting the area. Fighting drug abuse is key in
addressing any armed conflict but I have seven key agenda that are
connected with the fight against insurgency.
Can you list these seven agenda?
One big mistake we will make is to abandon the fight against insurgency
after the Boko Haram is defeated. This will be a big mistake. Since
September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York which
was 14 years ago, the United States Government has not relaxed the
measures in fighting terrorism in their country because terrorists do
not give notice before striking. From the roles played by youth
volunteers otherwise called the civilian JTF in Borno State, everyone
must have been convinced that one of the most effective ways of stopping
insurgents is by involving residents who offer to help. These residents
know their territories. I will like to work with Senators to legislate
for the establishment of a National Agency for Training and Management
of Counter Insurgency Resident Volunteers, so that we have an
institution in place to be charged with enlisting, reorientation,
training, kitting, deployments, welfare and general management of
resident volunteers willing to help the Federal Government in securing
lives and property of Nigerians. It will be a nationwide thing such that
all volunteers in all part of Nigeria can be enlisted based on extant
security needs to be determined by the Federal Government. The agency
can be fully funded by the Federal Government or through a shared
funding arrangement between the Federal, States and local governments.
What of other agenda?
The second agenda is also on security. In the modern world, the use of CCTV is not just used to track down crimes and those who perpetuate them but most importantly, people restrain themselves from carrying out crime especially terrorism, robbery and other violence when they fear there are CCTV cameras in place to record them. Two weeks or so, President Buhari talked about his plan to install CCTVs in all cities. I think before that is done, it is very important that we have an institution in place to be specifically charged with managing, deployment and access to content and distribution of CCTV footages.
My idea is for us to have in place a Closed-Circuit Management and Intelligence Bureau (C.I.B) under a Director General with intelligence background so as to make the issue a serious one that is detached from any existing security outfit. The bureau should have State commands under Directors and should work with all security agencies for access to footages through laid down procedures. It is important to have legislation in place to confer powers on the bureau on deployments because some Nigerians can be funny enough to reject CCTVs in certain areas whether around their houses, businesses. We need to spell out constitutional penalties for punishment of anyone that vandalise or steal any installed CCTV.
We also need a provision that will make it compulsory for every corporate organisation with a certain share capital and personnel size as well as all government institutions at the federal, state and local governments to install CCTVs with the CIB having powers to access the content based on provisions that protect the right and privacy of citizens without disregarding national security. My third agenda is to work with the leadership of the Senate to reach out to countries with threats of Boko Haram attacks so that we have what I call Nigeria/Cameroon/Chad and Niger Inter-Parliamentary Union under a Senate President of any of the four countries as chairman for rotational period of 2, 3 or 4 years.
The parliament has a duty to also come together with a view to putting in place legislative framework to support executives and also to oversight their cooperative efforts. One of the first things such an inter-parliamentary union should do which is my fourth agenda is to make heads of government of the four countries to consider putting in place what I call Nigeria/Cameroon/Chad and Niger Terrorism and Transborder Crimes Joint Intelligence Commission with headquarters in the capital of any of the four countries such as Abuja, Chad, Niamey or Yaounde, and each country should have a competent intelligence officer whether retired or in service to serve as a commissioner for a period of four years in the commission and their role should be sharing intelligence on issues of terrorism, arms and cash smuggle and continuous evaluation of activities in border communities to prevent crime.
Treaties establishing the commission should identify powers and limits of the commission so that sovereignty of member countries are not compromised.
My fifth agenda is to lobby the Senate leadership to put in place a Senate Committee on National Emergency Prevention and Response, Victims Welfare and Stability so that the parliament gets involved in over-sighting emergency issues, the welfare of those affected and what happens after. There are internally displaced persons and refugees on account of Boko Haram, other armed conflicts, flooding. We are aware of all the talks about reconstruction, the donations to the Victims Support Fund, there should be a senate committee to ask questions that will ensure the right victims get the support through transparent utilization of resources, the Senate also need to get involved in over-sighting reconstruction effort to compel those who should do what to do what they must do.
My sixth agenda is to work with the Senate to identify constitutional roles for traditional rulers with serious focus on community policing to check insurgency. A lot of people do not know why insurgents targeted the Shehu of Borno, killed the Emir of Gwoza, and killed many district and village heads and those traditional rulers who man streets as Bulamas. The traditional ruling system is one of the most effective and efficient structure in monitoring criminal elements and in gathering intelligence for security. We need constitutional roles to strengthen them. My seventh agenda is to work with my colleagues to compel the Federal executive to set aside a day for annual remembrance of Victims of Terrorism and other Violent Crimes and on such day, the President should address the nation on issues of public safety with the regards to violence of terrorism, armed robbery and other armed conflicts with fresh steps. Boko Haram insurgency is the worst calamity that befell Nigeria; we cannot afford business as usual by easily forgetting very serious calamities.
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