Not even toiletries were spared when the house of the member representing Gumel/ Maigatari/Sule Tankarkar/Gagarawa Federal Constituency of Jigawa State in the House of Representatives, Hon Nazifi Sani, was attacked during the 10-day protest against high cost of living in the country. The lawmaker, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), spoke with correspondent NICHOLAS KALU.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶
Your home in Jigawa State was attacked during the protesters against high cost of living in the country. What actually was the problem?
First of all, let me say I feel deeply touched. This is not a usual occurrence in my constituency. The last time something like this happened in my constituency was around 2011 when some people burned our former deputy governor’s house. I can remember. So this is the second incident in our constituency. We didn’t expect it in Jigawa at all, because as you all know, Jigawa is a peaceful state.
Just like I said, I feel deeply touched, because I didn’t expect it from my constituency. As a member of the House of Representatives, I do everything I can do to satisfy my constituents, as you all know. I don’t want to praise myself, but I have been trying all my life to do whatever I can do to help my constituency and Jigawa in general. So I don’t know what happened. Just like that.
Can you quantify how much was destroyed in this attack?
Well, you know, when something happens like this, you can’t say exactly. My house is a functional house, because I used to go to my constituency, I spent one week, two weeks in my house. So it’s a functional house. My people used to come and sit and talk and discuss. You understand? Apart from my house, there is another plot of land that I have my store inside, and all my political vehicles are kept there. All the property was vandalised.
Initially, they said that I kept rice in my store. So when they came, they first attacked my store. Whenever I have a programme or I get something from the government for my constituency, I used to keep them there before I would come and distribute them to my people. So the people, I think they were spreading rumours that I had rice in my store. But when they vandalised the store, they didn’t see any rice.
But I had a lot of motor vehicles there that I was planning to do my empowerment programme with. So, they vandalised all the vehicles. Almost 10 of them. They also burnt one. They looted the whole house. They took everything. Even the toiletries. Even the electric wiring that was put in my house, they removed it. So it was not a protest. It was just looting.
You expressed surprise about such behaviour from your constituents. Do you think this attack on your house could have been politically motivated?
Well, you know, you know, something happens like this, there’s mostly politics. Yes, there’s no way you can avoid politics. There’s mostly politics. I cannot say that it may be politically motivated. But I am sure there is politics, because our opposition, you know, we are far ahead of them. We are making good representation. We are doing good.
Even in the whole Jigawa State, our own party is making very good representation for the state, even from the Federal Government. There is no way you can say we can change this country in just one year. I think the damage has already been done for long.
We saw Russian flags waved in some states during the protests. What do you think of this development?
Everybody knows that this is unacceptable to our country. It’s unacceptable. I don’t know how it came about. Maybe there’s something behind it. How can somebody just bring another country’s flag and display it in our own country? You know, this one is unacceptable. I’m sure the relevant authorities will do something about it as soon as possible.
What is your message to Nigerians on taking to the streets to drive home their demands?
Well, to me, protest will not solve the problem. There is no government that can put their citizens in this hardship like people are thinking. So my call is to just come to the negotiating table of the government so that we understand each other. I think this is the best way. Because this protest, as you can see, has not helped.
If it is a peaceful protest, everybody is going to support it, at least. But it was no more protest at all; it was just looting and vandalising government property.
In my own constituency, I participated in an ICT project from NITDA, one big ICT centre. They vandalised that one. They are the people that are utilising the place. So what is the benefit of this? They vandalised the government property. They vandalised our local government secretariat, they vandalised one of our stakeholders’ houses, one of our senatorial campaign offices, they vandalised all.
They vandalised our agricultural store, fertiliser and other food items. They vandalised all those. So is that a peaceful protest we are calling? To me, there is
no way this is going to help us. The security agencies are doing good, because they are the ones that are keeping this tension down, especially in my area.
