Gov Bello is ahead of his opponents —Campaign DG

What do you have to say to the allegation that your principal has not performed?

Well, we were not expecting members of the opposition political parties in the state to applaud us, rather we were expecting that we would be criticized by a lot of them, especially those who must have made up their minds to be blind to some of the good things that we have done.  But to me, we have performed very well and we have been able to take developmental issues in this state one after the other with a view to improving on them. We have made some appreciable impacts on roads, on schools, on prompt payment of monthly salaries of the state civil service on payments of pension and gratuities to retirees and on health care delivery system.  Although on the issues of administration, we know we came in very naïve which was common with any new government. We came in with a very low revenue generation and the damages before we came, which was as at that time a national issue, was not hidden to anybody. For you to properly gauge the mindset of the people, it is an herculean task. So, invariably, yes, we performed because we are able to keep the state’s civil service. Yes we kept them. Also in the area of pension matters, when we came in it was a sort of confused scenario  But of course pensioners are getting their money  and there are a lot of issues here and there and these issues cannot be resolved overnight but at least an attempt is being made in trying to resolve the issues.

If you succeed in the re-election bid, which area is going to be on the priority list of the government?

We have seen the whole favour they did to us and it is part of the favour that has been making us move in a snail-like manner since we came on board in 2015 in the state as a government in power. For instance, in water supply, over N2billion has been expended on water supply alone and in Minna town, in Kontagora, in Suleja and in Bida.  These are four major cities in the State. The money that was expended in the water sector alone by this government is monumental. And you know the issue of water is so essential and it is not something you take from the annual budget of the state because it needs a special intervention funds. In fact, we are doing something tremendously well in the area of water supply. Also in the Education sector, we embarked on whole school approach by selecting some few schools in the entire three senatorial districts of the state. And the process is still ongoing.

•  As we enter 2019

What do you say to the criticism that the governor since his assumption of office cannot point to a project he has expended N2billion since he came on board other than building wall fence around the government house and embarking on putting interlock blocs in the walkways on the roads across the Minna metropolitan areas?

I was in Ilorin, the capital city of Kwara State recently and a boy came up and said he wished he was in Minna, Niger State capital. I asked him why he said so and he said in Kwara State, they have not seen anything yet in terms of infrastructural development, and that he wished they are doing interlocks for them. But I said the Interlocks is another negative issue in Niger State by some people.  But he said he wished their government is doing interlock for them. Aside the issue of interlocking blocks, we went into construction of roads and schools here and there despite the fact that the money is not there for us to do these things as we are managing to really do certain things or raise our heads above the water level. Yet people are saying we have not had projects for N2billion. The question we should also ask our predecessors in office is that have they had projects of N2billion when they were in office. Let them point to a successful project of N1 billion.

If they cannot do it in 16 years why that cry now that we have spent barely three years in governance? 

If per adventure, the electorate in Niger decides to cast their votes for your party, what are those things you intend to do differently unlike in your first tenure in office?

Definitely, we want to do things differently because we want to be there for the people, we want to have people oriented programmes and importantly, to be very focused in governance because we need a lot of focus and we really need to be hard on pushing developmental issues to a logical conclusion because people are so passionate about performance.