General Jeremiah Useni, former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister is currently the National Chairman of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP). He is indeed, one of the many military Generals that have removed their uniforms, only to put on agbada, the symbol of politics in Nigeria, rejecting the option of quietly taking their rest, which, as events in the country go, would have conserved them to permanent oblivion. Useni had, therefore, not only got into the murky waters of Nigerian politics, but played it the Nigerian way, taking some and dishing out his own blows here and there.

This saw him in a gritty battle for the soul of former All Peoples Party (APP), now Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), before he left to form his own party. In this interview with CORRESPONDENT ONOJA AUDU in Jos, Useni bares his mind on some burning national issues including the performance of President Umaru Yar'Adua. In fact, he is unequivocal in asserting that the President has not done well and would not do well because his government is presently dogged by illegitimacy syndrome. He also spoke on other issues.

Excepts:

What has the Langtang Mafia done to develop Taroh land, considering the fact that under the military regimes of General Babangida and late Abacha, you people held choice positions?

The Langtang Army Generals and politicians are not selfish people. When I was a military governor in the defunct Bendel State, and served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, I brought 21 governors to Langtang to contribute to Taroh Education Foundation and I remember the sum of N41 million was realised for that purpose. When Chief Solomon Lar was there as civilian Governor of Plateau State, he spread development projects round the old Plateau State, which includes the current Nasarawa State. We are never selfish people. Before Lar became governor, there was a time we had five permanent secretaries from Taroh land purely on merit. But today that Nasarawa has been carved out of the state, we hardly get two permanent secretaries in the state civil service again. All what they give us are nonsense appointments. What is the relevance of the position of commissioner of sports to the Langtang People? When we were there, we were representing Nigeria, but now we are being hit left and right. We were not representing Langtang constituency when we were there.

Was there anything like Langtang Mafia when you had many Langtang Generals in the Nigeria Army?

People are bound to give you names whether they are correct or not. Have you seen in any book or somewhere that there is something like Langtang Mafia? Mafia, I know from what we have seen in films, are a group of deadly people. But let me ask you: were we deadly? We took to the Army in Taroh land because we saw the Army as the job of brave men and not a woman's job. We, Langtang people, see police job as a woman's job. If you enlist into the police force as at that time, they will laugh at you, in Langtang. It is either you go and farm, become a teacher to educate people or you go into the army. But if you join the police force as at that time in the 1960's, you were seen as a woman. We have produced many Army Generals that have retired from service and we still have more that are serving in the Army. Presently we have about four Army Generals, so many Brigadier-Generals, not to talk of their equivalent in the air force.

What has Langtang Army Generals together with political heavy weights from Plateau State done to develop your state and Langtang community?

Well, as I told you earlier, we are never business-like people. It is either you are a farmer, teacher or a soldier. The first person that started business in Langtang is Rev canon Miner, who happens to have served as District Officer, in Sokoto. He was said to be the richest civil servant when he was doing business. You know in COCIN Church as at that time, if you touch a bottle of Fanta then, they will cancel your name. Due to changes of time, things began to change in our land and the little we were able to do, people began to talk about it as if we were building every house in Langtang with gold. But if you come here, you will not see anything.

There was a time former Governor of Nasarawa State once said that if you want to see the best houses in Plateau, go to Langtang. But, yet, we don't have government presence in the state. I remembered, when I left the military, people were saying that I had a mansion here, but some people came to my house from Abuja. Later, I was told they were sent by Obasanjo, but they couldn't believe what they saw, so they went out into the town to enquire about General J.T. Useni's house. But still they were told that the bungalow they were first taken to is the only Useni's house in Langtang

What is your assessment of the present Federal Government under President Umaru Yar'Adua, on the issue of implementation of the national budget?

You have to trace the whole thing to how the President came into being in the first place. What I'm saying is that there was no election in 2007 that brought any of these characters to power in the first place. Remember, the international observers said it. President Yar'Adua too said it and that is why since the committee on electoral reforms was set up for almost two years now, we have not heard that anything concrete has been done by the so called committee, which was set up by Yar'Adua himself.

So, things were done without recourse to the provisions of the law - electoral laws, rule of law were all pushed aside.

If you remember, the number three man in this country, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, couldn't vote in the last general elections in his own home state, Enugu; and when he tried to complain, they told him whether he did not hear announcement about the election and when he returned back to Abuja and told former President Obasanjo that there was no election in Enugu State, the response Nnamani got was shocking as Obasanjo told him that as number three man in the country, he was embarrassing the government.

This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that governorship elections are being cancelled. The current developments are begging for answers. In Plateau alone, two senatorial election results were nullified, nine seats of members of the state House of Assembly were cancelled too in similar circumstances, by the election petition tribunal, which sat in Jos to look into complaints that arose from the conduct of the 2007 general election.

The presidential election results too are still a subject of litigation at the Supreme Court, up till this very moment, almost two years into President Yar'Adua's first tenure in office. So it is often said, that people get the kind of government they deserve. Yar'Adua is still carrying the load of legitimacy question on his so-called victory at the polls and, as such, there is little he can do right now.

What should Nigerians expect on the 2011 general election considering the problems that bedeviled the 2007 elections in Nigeria?

Well, I have the belief that once there is life, there is hope. The 2003 election was better than the one of 2007. Of course, in 1999 we said things were bad, hoping that it was going to be better in 2003, only for things to become worse in 2003, and above all in 2007, there was no election at all. We will keep on hoping that one day God will intervene.

What do you think should be done to ensure credible elections become possible to be conducted in this country in no distant future?

The only way is for all of us to go back to God and ask Him for forgiveness. I know that there are some people in Nigeria here who don't believe that there is God. Those who are in charge of this country today either by default or for whatever reason must repent and go back to God and begin to do the right thing in accordance to the oath of office they have taken. While people take oath of office to be fair and just in carrying out their responsibilities, you will find out that they are doing the opposite of what is expected of them in public office. I believe God is angry with Nigerians holding public positions.

How do you explain a situation whereby religious leaders after coming out to condemn what is happening on the political scene of this country that is not good, they turn round again to organise and receive these politicians who rigged themselves into power for thanksgiving in churches and mosques? What are they doing with their thanksgiving offerings? Are we thanking them for cheating us? Nigerians in government positions and the governed must change their ways by realising that no position is permanent. Let everybody do their bids. But if some people are hanging somewhere claiming that it must be only them, nobody else till they die, of course they will die one day and leave those positions of authority. In a true democracy, if you contest an election and you win, it means you are the man loved and supported to carry on the mandate of the people and to do what the people want you to do for them.

What is your position on the Electoral Reform Committee that was set up sometime ago by President Yar'Adua. Do you think anything good will come out of that committee's report at the end of the day?

If those appointed to carry out the task of the electoral reform finish their assignment as scheduled, you will discover that it is the same Nigerians that will work against the reform from succeeding. Didn't the President sign the 2007 electoral law; but simply because there is nothing like defeat and resignation in their dictionary, even if they have seen that something is wrong. They will not criticise it because they want to belong to the government in power at all cost.

You see those who want to remain at the corridors of power by all means blackmailing all over the place and in most cases, some of the politicians, especially in the South have private armies. They kill people at will under any slightest provocation from the camp of their political enemies without any mercy.

How do we solve the problem of this agitation in the Niger Delta? Do you think the creation of Niger Delta ministry is the panacea to the restiveness in the region?

I have answered this question several times in my office in Abuja and in Lagos and everywhere I go.

We believe in this country that once you have been given government appointment today, you begin to claim that you have answers to the problems, and that is not true. Somebody was minister yesterday and no longer minister today, then it is believed that he doesn't know anything again on how to solve problems, or do I say that because General J.T. Useni was minister yesterday and no more today, he doesn't know anything again?

In this country, we are no longer using experience again. As soon as somebody leaves government office, it is considered in this country that he doesn't know anything again . Once you are from opposition party, those in government believe that you have nothing to offer again. Such a thing doesn't happen in civilised countries. We are not making use of experience, and we are not respecting experience here in this country. We are not looking at people who and who that can do something.

I was a military Governor in defunct Bendel State before it was divided into two states. It was not that those people who presently lead the agitation were not there, they were on ground, but still we were having peace in the area as at that time. I'm not asking for recognition, but if it were in civilised countries, the government of the day would look for the contribution of people like me. If somebody mentions my name today to those in government, they will say don't you know he is in DPP? Don't bring him here. Yet the government is PDP, but the problem of Niger Delta has now involved everybody. Until we go back and start using experience in this country and begin to fetch experience, fetching people who command the respect of the people, we are going nowhere.

I remember sometime ago I went to Warri to attend the wedding of one of my commissioners. But the moment they mentioned my name in the church, almost half of the church was empty, because the people were rushing to where I was sitting to come and greet me. If I was a bad military governor when I served in the defunct Bendel State, when my name was mentioned in the church, people could have started hissing. I'm shocked that in this country, nobody wants to hear the names of those who were serving in government in the time past.

I'm happy I have what can keep me busy. I often come home to Langtang to see my ageing mother, running around to attend to board meetings, attend church service and launching here and there. If the government is serious about solving the problems of Niger Delta, they should know those they can approach to speak to the people. There are times Oba of Benin will not receive visitors, but if he hears that Useni is here, he will come out to attend to me. This is a place we have tradition with history. There was a time in this country I was chairman, traditional rulers forum of all chairmen of traditional councils in all the 36 states of this country including the FCT. I still command respect of these traditional rulers till today. In Niger Delta today, is it Clark, the leader of the Ijaws that I don't know or Dokubo? Remember, I was a Brigade Commander twice in Port Harcourt, before I left there to Benin City as Military Governor of Defunct Bendel State.

Looking at your long experience in governance, how come the new administration of the Federal Capital Territory is accusing you of having bastardised the Abuja master plan?

With the entire probe that is going on at the FCT, go and find out if somebody has come out to make any accusation against Useni. People in authority are fond of putting up claims so that people should focus on what they are doing. Look at General Obasanjo, what has he not said about late Head of State General Sani Abacha. People thought he was a saint. But what happened when he left office? A lot of things came out into the open. Wait and see what will happen when the man in charge of FCT administration now leaves office, we shall see who is a saint.

For the first time in this country, the present Federal Executive Council had to sit down in council and revoke over 90 plots of land wrongly given by former FTC minister Mallam Nasir el- Rufai who served as the Minister of FCT under President Obasanjo. I'm not happy with those who just come on board and immediately condemn the past administration. I expected the present FCT administration to build on what I have done to develop the FCT during my time. When I was there, people were making some allegations on past administration of the FCT, but I told them that I would not accept such claims from them because I knew they were doing so because those who were in charge before I came on board were no longer there.

When I came to the FCT, National Assembly chambers had been built; Vice President's residential quarters and Villa had already been built. But if we are to go according to the master plan, those buildings shouldn't have been there where they are today. Those who are making noise, I charge them to go and start demolishing them. I have said it several times in the news. The Presidential Villa was not in the master plan. Why some land allocation was done wrongly in the FCT was because there was no correlation between the Engineering department of the FCT and that of Land, because most of the modern sewage facilities that were put on ground were put many years before building started springing up everywhere in the FCT. It was not that I was allocating land to everybody during my time. We checked with the Department of engineering before lands were allocated out as at that time. When people start making noise, I laugh at them. In the entire probe going, has anybody mentioned the name of Gen. Useni?

What is your reaction to the downturn of the economy now that the price of oil is going down in the international market? What is the way out for our economy?

From what is happening, we are getting our punishment from the Almighty God. When the late Abacha was in power, the highest we got from the oil was 11 dollars per barrel. But when Obasanjo took over power in 1999, the price of crude oil jumped to 25 dollars per barrel, and before you could say Jack Robinson! the price of crude oil jumped to 75 dollars and 120 dollars and above per barrel. And what are we seeing today. Look at what is being disclosed at various probe panels on the immediate past administration of Obasanjo.

There are cases of contractors collecting N13 billion without knowing the site of the job to be executed. Look at the power probe, billions of naira have been paid out to contractors, but nothing was found at the sites of most of the power projects' sites across the country. Where is the money? Look at how the National Assembly lawmakers are giving themselves allowances everyday. So we had our chance, we blew it. Gone are those days we used to saying money is not our problem, but how to spend it. I always tell people that this life is like waves: it takes you up and comes down. Nothing is permanent except change.

People thought the Abacha was very hard; but they now know that Abacha was a very good financial manager. Even as close as I was to the Abacha, if I write my memo to be submitted to him, I had to read it for about five times before I take it to him, for approval. Within those five years, we didn't take any foreign loan and because we refused to take any foreign loan, all the World Bank projects offices disappeared because if they give you loan, they will not allow you to administer it, but they set up offices for you, employ people and administer the loan on our behalf.

Immediately Obasanjo came on board in 1999 what happened? He brought in foreign troops to come and train our soldiers. That was why he fell apart with Gen. Victor Malu. When we come together with the so-called foreign troops, we are always beating them in any competition; why bringing them to train our troops who are well-trained better than them? In Somalia, when it was getting tough for American troops and they couldn't stay where they were stationed, we replaced them with our troops and moved them to safer grounds. Remember when we went to Lebanon, Congo and several other countries and made Nigeria proud, the facts are on ground for all to see.

Obasanjo only went to bring American troops because of his fear of coup. But let me tell you that if you are sure of what you are doing, you will not be afraid of coups. It is when you are doing something that hurts the feelings of the people that you begin to fear the known and unknown. The people of this country deserve good governance at all times, if this country is to move forward from where it is today under the present democratic dispensation.