Critics of Tambuwal are ignoramuses —Sokoto PDP

Alhaji Kabiru Aliyu is the secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sokoto State. In this interview by OLAKUNLE MARUF, he speaks on the administration of the Governor Aminu Tambuwal and other issues in the state.

 

 GOVERNOR Aminu Tambuwal recently marked four years and 100 days in office but with little or no celebration. How will you rate his performance so far?

I would say the governor has performed creditably well to the best of our expectations. He has been able to accomplish so many things during his first tenure and also within the last three months or thereabout. You will recalled that he was the first governor in the country to form cabinet after the swearing in ceremony for the second term whereas, as at today, we have about 20 governors across the country that are yet to form cabinet.

Immediately after the inauguration of the cabinet, the governor approved over N2 billion for various projects in the state, including education, environmental and water supply as well as agricultural inputs. He has also, within the same period, been able to secure the state, which is the number one priority of any responsible government. He has been able to reduce banditry to its barest minimum by cooperating with neighbouring governors of Zamfara, Katsina and even Kaduna to ensure the security of our people by reaching out to the leadership of those bandits and ensuring that banditry is grounded in the state. He was able to do this by also making use of traditional rulers in those areas to reach out to those bandits and also by intelligent gathering from local authorities. We can see that Sokoto State is now secured.

N1trn debt: Reps query Acting NDDC MD, summon Alaibe, Ekere, others

The governor has also, within the period, been able to start the construction of a modern clinic at Kasarawa. He has met with various international trade organisations. For example, Moroccan investors were in Sokoto to sign a contract to rehabilitate the state fertilizer company at Kalambina; the work is now 70 per cent completed. The governor ensured the supply of teaching materials and the renovations of primary schools and some are still ongoing. He established modern secondary school in addition to the existing one at Bale in Gudu Local Government Area and many others.

He also constituted a committee to look into how the new minimum wage will be implemented. There are so many things the governor has done but he is not the type that blows his trumpet to attract praises. While we, his followers, want him to bring all these things to the fore, he said he doesn’t need to advertise his achievement because he did all of them in the interest of the people and the people will definitely feel the impact. So, I believe he has performed more than any governor in the state during the same period.

 

But the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), claimed he has under-performed, given the resources at his disposal. What is your view on this?

The nature of politics in Nigeria is that the opposition always tries to hide under the carpet every good things of the government and that has not helped our country. You have to look at what the governor has done and praise him and then look at where he has not and criticise him, rather than just rubbishing everything out rightly.

All what I said about his achievement is the truth and they are verifiable. It is wrong to say the governor has not done anything. We are in opposition in the state against the Federal Government but we don’t just say President Muhammadu Buhari has not done anything. We know he has not done much; we know there are failures here and there. He has not been able to secure the country. He has not been able to uplift the standard of living of the people and we know that so many things have failed. But we don’t just say he has done nothing. There are failures and successes in everything in life, but our governor has done a lot. We are proud of him and the people of Sokoto State are happy that the governor is working.

 

The governor was accused by the APC of not showing enough concern to the plight of the people but went to Imo State to celebrate the New Yam Festival at a time bandits were killing people in his state. What is your reaction to this?

I am yet to understand the logic in their argument and I will not take them serious unless they are saying the presence of the governor in the state will stop bandits from attacking the state. I think that is wrong. If the bandits are waiting for the governor to go out of the state before they strike, it means they will only attack when he is not around. Also, there are occasions when he travels in the interest of the state.

When he traveled to Imo State, he was there on the invitation of the governor of that state for the celebration of New Yam Festival, an important event to the people of Imo State. As a friend of Governor Emeka Ihedioha who happened to be his former deputy in the House of Representatives, there is no way Governor Tambuwal would not have attended the important occasion. Don’t forget that we too also want people to attend to our own cultural and traditional celebrations. I think there is nothing wrong with the governor traveling; it is just a coincidence that he traveled for that event at the same time the bandits struck in Sokoto State. The opposition should also remember that immediately the governor came back, he visited the victims and gave out relief materials and other things required of his office. I believe it is very wrong and callous for the APC or anybody to accuse the governor of not having the interest of the state at heart.

 

How will you react to the allegation that the Tambuwal-led administration sponsored political thugs to Saudi Arabia to perform the last Hajj?

I don’t know who were the political thugs sponsored by the state government for Hajj because, as far as we are concerned, all those who went to Saudi Arabia for Hajj paid for their seats and if any of them is a thug, he must have paid for his seat. There is nothing we can do because the screening committee is the one to determine who is fit to go and vice versa. No thugs were sponsored by the state government; the government only sponsored those who will guide our pilgrims over there and help them to do things properly. The issue of thugs is one of the political statements because they don’t have anything tangible to say. That was why they came up with another lie or propaganda that the government sponsored thugs to Mecca. We have the most hitch-free and the best pilgrimage this year.

 

What about the allegation that the state government distributed the Kalambina Housing Estate to only PDP members without following due process?

I think the opposition party and whoever is saying that don’t know the situation of the houses as well as the occupants. Some of these houses are not yet completed and arrangement has been made for them to be completed. Occupants of the completed ones have satisfied all the requirements laid down in the rules of the state Ministry of Housing. Nobody or any member of our party collected the house because he is a member of the PDP. This is because the governor is a lawyer and he is somebody who is upright and with integrity. He is someone who will not allow someone to do what is wrong.

Let them specifically point out who and whom were the beneficiaries and find out if they were given houses as favour by the government. I think that is one of the ways the opposition works by creating scenarios to tell lies. The era of that kind of politics is gone; we should engage in constructive criticism. Blanket or carpet criticism is no longer welcome in our politics because the state is moving forward. I called on these critics to make their own contributions in terms of constructive criticism and any other way they think they can assist, instead of staying on the sidelines to criticise anything that the governor does. Doing otherwise will not help either them or even the state.

 

What is your advice to PDP members as the state awaits the judgment on the petition filed against the election of the governor?

My advice is rather for the APC members in the state. I want to call on them to remain calm because the judgment is actually going to be in favour of Governor Tambuwal and the PDP because all judgments in other states have shown that. The governor won the first time before they declared the election inconclusive and he won again. If I were an APC member, I will not even have approached the court. But all the same, it is good as it increased the level of participation in politics which allow someone to explore all means and methods and they have done it.

I hope they will accept the outcome of the judgment in good faith and would not go on appeal so as not to waste more of their time and that of the governor as well as the people. This is because people stand to gain more when all these litigations are limited.