FG SHOULD GIVE COMMUNITIES AK-47S TO FIGHT BANDITS — MIDDLE BELT FORUM SPOKESPERSON, LUKA BINIYAT. (PHOTO).

 FG Should Give Communities AK-47s To Fight Bandits — Middle Belt Forum Spokesperson, Luka Biniyat 

The spokesperson of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Luka Binniyat, has called on the Federal Government to empower communities with firearms, including AK-47 rifles, to defend themselves against bandits and other armed groups.

Binniyat, who spoke with Nigerian Tribune’s Northern Bureau Chief, Muhammad Sabiu, also maintained that the presidency should remain in the South until 2031, when, according to him, it should be handed to a candidate from the Middle Belt.

He further defended the Minister of Defence, retired General Christopher Musa, over comments concerning former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, challenging El-Rufai to seek legal redress if he believes the minister’s allegations are unfounded.

For someone reading you for the first time, can you introduce yourself?

My name is Luka Binniyat. I am from Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Southern Kaduna, and I am the National Spokesman of the Middle Belt Forum. I am also the Joint Spokesman of the Southern and Middle Belt Leadership Forum.

You are from Kaduna, not the North-Central geopolitical zone. How did you come to speak for the Middle Belt Forum?

Let me first define what the Middle Belt is so that Nigerians will not confuse it with the six states that make up the North-Central geopolitical zone.

The Middle Belt is made up of more than 300 ethnic nationalities that are not Hausa, Fulani or Kanuri. It does not matter whether they are Muslims or Christians. So, if you are from any of the 19 Northern states or Abuja and you are not Hausa, Kanuri or Fulani, you invariably fall under what we call the Middle Belt.

The Middle Belt Forum is the socio-political organisation that represents the interests of these ethnic groups. It was formed in 1954 because we were clamouring to be separated from the arrangement of the defunct Northern Protectorate. We felt that the core North and the Middle Belt did not share the same values, history or identity.

The feudal system that the colonialists established, which placed us under their subjugation, was unacceptable to our founding fathers. That was why the Middle Belt Forum was formed around that period.

As for how I came into the organisation, since the present executive committee came on board, I was elected chairman of the Kaduna State chapter of the Middle Belt Forum in July 2024. The national headquarters felt that I was very vibrant and that the organisation did not have a spokesman who was getting sufficient visibility, so I was brought in as the National Spokesman.

One achievement I can categorically mention is that we have been able to bring to Nigerians’ attention the fact that the North is not monolithic. The North has other ethnic nationalities that do not belong to the Arewa North, and the Middle Belt cannot be limited to the North-Central geopolitical zone.

We have tried to educate people that the Middle Belt includes Southern Kebbi and Southern Kaduna. I am the National Spokesman of the Middle Belt Forum and I am from Southern Kaduna. The President of the Middle Belt Forum himself, Dr Pogu Bitrus, is from Southern Borno. He is from Chibok Local Government Area.

Therefore, the Middle Belt is bigger than the six states that make up the North-Central geopolitical zone. We are in Taraba, Adamawa and Gombe, as well as parts of Southern Yobe and Southern Bauchi. The core North-Central states, including Kwara, Kogi, Benue and Niger, are also part of the Middle Belt.

We have also tried to sensitise Nigerians that the real majority in the North are not necessarily the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri. There are so-called minorities — people who have been branded minorities, which is an abnormality.

When you consider population and landmass, the 19 Northern states plus Abuja cover about 732,000 square kilometres, while the Middle Belt region occupies more than 500,000 square kilometres of that land.

We believe that in a free and fair census, there is no way you can describe the people covering such a large area as a minority. When you aggregate our numbers, we are actually a majority. I agree that if you separate us individually, we are all minorities, but if you put the people of the Middle Belt together, we are actually the majority in Northern Nigeria.

That is what we have been able to bring to the conscience of Nigerians.

The Middle Belt Forum has also tried to intervene in some intra-ethnic conflicts, including those involving the Tiv and Jukun communities in Taraba and other communities in Adamawa. We have tried to encourage them to cease hostilities.

We have also exposed the oppression and killings affecting our people under this bizarre state of insecurity, both by Boko Haram and the so-called Fulani bandits. We have raised our voices very loudly.

We have also been able to speak with one voice and vote as a bloc in the 2023 presidential election. That showed that the Middle Belt voted for Peter Obi, and we believe the results were manipulated against him.

The Middle Belt is therefore emerging under this executive committee as a formidable bloc, and we will soon take a position on the direction to go in the 2027 presidential election.

The Middle Belt Forum appears to be backing Defence Minister Christopher Musa over his recent allegations against former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai. Don't you think that, as a Federal Minister, he should not have made such remarks?

In fact, we expected him to say even more because what El-Rufai is being accused of now is a very small allegation compared with the weighty things he did against humanity. We were even disappointed that the minister could not say more than he did about El-Rufai.

So, we stand by him, and we believe that if another party had won the presidential election and the governorship election in Kaduna State, El-Rufai would have since been brought to justice and charged with crimes against humanity.

What Christopher said is true. When he said “my people”, he was not referring specifically to the people of Southern Kaduna. He was talking about every resident of Kaduna State because that is his state of origin.

I know that he is not flippant. He is not a man who would simply come out and make statements that he cannot substantiate.

We are very excited that if El-Rufai’s family eventually goes to court, there will be a plethora of witnesses to affirm what the minister has said. Being part of the government, I believe he also has a lot of evidence that he can present in his defence.

Looking at the situation in the southern part of the state, can we say that the people of Southern Kaduna are happy?

Yes. As an indigene of Kaduna State and a son of Southern Kaduna, I want to say with all sense of responsibility that killings in Southern Kaduna have drastically reduced.

What has not stopped is kidnapping, but the invasion of communities and the burning of houses have reduced drastically, almost by 90 per cent.

The governor himself is very restrained in his utterances. His statements are geared towards unity, and his actions are also aimed at promoting unity. He seems to have been able to assure the people of Southern Kaduna that he is a team player.

He still has many shortcomings that he can work on, but the violence has drastically reduced.

What we are still insisting on is that the kidnapping that is ongoing should stop and that those being held captive by bandits should be rescued.

But the situation is far, far better than when El-Rufai was in power.

What is the relationship between the Middle Belt Forum and other blocs such as the Arewa Consultative Forum and Afenifere?

Yes. In 2023, Afenifere, PANDEF, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the Middle Belt Forum took a unilateral decision that the presidency of Nigeria should be rotated to the South from 2023 to 2027.

We stood by that position, and as the voting took place, it affirmed that a Southerner was eventually elected. We are still maintaining that the presidency should remain in the South in 2027. We continue to stand by that position.

The understanding we have with these groups is that, having supported them to produce a president for those eight years, if the presidency is eventually rotated to the North in 2031, a Middle Belt person should become the presidential candidate of all the political parties.

We have started another round of talks and are mobilising credible candidates from the Middle Belt. It does not matter whether the candidate is a Muslim or a Christian. He could be a Nupe, Alago or Eggon person. We do not care whether he is Muslim or Christian.

But the presidency in 2031 must be returned to the Middle Belt because we have never had an elected president, apart from Gowon, who came to power through a coup.

We have not produced an elected president, and given the statistics I have mentioned about our size and population, we believe it is fair and appropriate for a Middle Belter to take the presidency in 2031.

That is the agreement we have with these other groups, and that relationship is keeping us together as a group of vulnerable people.

Finally, what have I not asked you? What else would you like to say?

Our biggest worry now consists of two things, one of which is the state of insecurity in Nigeria, which is becoming very worrisome.

We want the Federal Government to tackle it head-on. There is a small solution: the government should facilitate and supervise communities so that they can defend themselves by giving them light weapons that are approved by law.

If every community, for example, is able to have four AK-47s, we believe we can take care of this insecurity once and for all, and it can be done in a supervised manner.

Alternatively, give us shotguns that use cartridges — plenty of them — and we will be able to take care of these wicked people.

That is our major worry now. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are still in the captivity of Boko Haram, ISWAP and the so-called bandits.

We are therefore very unhappy that our communities are subjected to this condition. This is not limited to our communities; even in the Southeast, there are still pockets of violence and armed groups that have become lawless.