Mr Sunday Biggs, one of the governorship aspirants under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau State, speaks to ISAAC SHOBAYO on his aspiration to govern the state, among other issues.
What requisite political experience do you have for the assignment ahead of you?
I have been within the corridor of government for the past 23 years, having served in different capacities. I believe I have gained the requisite experience to add value to governance and take Plateau to the next level.
As a core civil servant, do you think you will be able to cope with all the intrigues associated with politics?
I have spent the better part of my life in the government house and I have worked closely with politicians. I know their behaviour and sentiments. I am a technocrat that has lived the larger part of his life within a political environment and this has impacted me as well. While I was working in the government house, I did not have official closing hour like other civil servants. So, I am a technocrat with a difference, having lived all my life with politicians from 1999 till date. I have been interacting with them, so I know the demands.
What will you do differently from what others have done, if eventually elected as governor?
I have a different mentality and experience, but the people of Plateau State should expect different things from me, particularly having served three governments. From the beginning of this political dispensation, that is, from 1999 till date, I have worked closely with all the administrations and people have seen how we re-engineered, redeemed and rescued the state. We should have the capacity to serve within these programmes. Those that are good, we will continue with them and for those that cannot impact the people effectively, we see how to polish them, so our package is going to be different. You can see there is a youth renaissance in the polity of the state, so for the big thing coming which is our slogan, it is a movement that will galvanise all age groups, particularly the young generation. They have taken it as a point of duty to move and see that we will bring to the seat of government in 2023. The youths occupy a special place in our agenda, because without them there will be no future. They need to be packaged to make them useful to the society. If they are given special attention and deserved place in government, most of the social vices being experienced today will be a thing of the past.
In your local government alone, there are several aspirants on the platform of APC jostling for the ticket of the party. What is your relationship with other aspirants? Is there any possibility of coming together for a consensus?
We are very mindful that the seat is reserved for one person and in my party, the APC and local government are seven at the moment, including the deputy governor, Professor Sonie Tyoden. But I call tell you that all of us are in talking terms with one another, trying to see how we can build consensus among ourselves. We wouldn’t want this opportunity to pass us by as people like we always say that there should be civility in the way we conduct ourselves. At the end of the day, whoever emerges let us rally around to guarantee victory at the polls. It is not a do or die affair; we are brothers and are conscious of the fact that at the end of the day, it is only one person that will pick the ticket. We are trying to ensure that one of us is saddled with the responsibility of leadership in the government house in 2023. APC, particularly in Plateau State, is a disciplined party and those at the helm of its affairs have done a lot to reposition it and build internal democracy and party members are conscious of this. Hence, there is no internal bickering.
What is your assessment of the zoning arrangement in Plateau State?
It is a perfect system and arrangement that has stabilised the polity of our state, right now, 99 per cent of those contesting are from the central zone; the other zones are conscious of this and no one is coming out. It is a political understanding among the three senatorial zones in the state and it has not been circumvented for any reason. We thank our leaders for this.
Do you have a fresh agenda or you want to continue with what the current governor is doing?
We are living in a situation where there are global challenges, particularly the global economic downturn, which has forced many to begin to think outside the box. So, that we can impact our people. If given the opportunity to govern the state, we have to address certain issues based on the circumstance we find ourselves in the state. We pray that things improve, but if they don’t, we need to think outside the box, because of the lean resources available. The era of bogus programme is long gone; we have to streamline to see how we can prioritise what will benefit the state in the short run and see what we can do in both the medium and long run. We have to focus on peace and security; we know our recent history and we need to consolidate on the peace on the ground at the moment.
This is very crucial to the progress and development of the state. The peace building agency put in place by the incumbent governor, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria, has done a lot in terms of peace building. The agency will be strengthened and further encouraged to do more. We shall build bridges across every divide and reinforce the existing unity among diverse ethnic and religious groups on the state.
Recently, the state APC was engulfed in crisis, do you think the party is strong enough to win the 2023 governorship election in the state?
When the party came on board in 2015, it was given all sorts of names just to discourage people from embracing it. But today it has become a force to be reckoned with and the number one party on the Plateau. So, you can see how the fortune of the party has changed over the years. The present governor and other stalwarts have done a lot to entrench the party. Initially, some people thought the party will fizzle out after the first tenure of this administration in 2019, but it still went ahead to win with a wide margin for the second term. When it comes to secondary elections, the party is good to go. The party came in with some states in power, but today you can see that it has many more in its control at the moment. So the party must leverage this success to ensure that it garners support for the 2023 election. The narrative now is not about the party itself, but about presenting credible candidates that people are yearning for. So far so good, we have seen what the party is doing, the party leaders are doing their best to ensure that we present a common front at the polls so that popular candidates can emerge.
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