What is your assessment of political happenings in the country and in Bauchi State in particular?
There is general spread of apathy and disillusionment within the political milieu of Nigeria because people are becoming disenchanted with the process being established and other factors ranging from the readiness of INEC to conduct free and fair elections, vis-a-vis the hunger in the country and, in fact, the lack of employment, youth restiveness and the desperation of the millennial age who are not happy that we have failed them as a generation to provide the required service and infrastructure. The quarrels, rancour and the conflict between us as the elite and leaders have gone down to affect the provision of dividends of democracy. Irrespective of party platforms, we have failed to give that kind of hope that is required and that is because the internal democracies and our leadership recruitment process have been fraught with a lot of issues that bring suspicion and mistrust.
Oshiomhole meets Osinbajo in Aso Rock; says ‘PDP not an option’ in 2019 elections
We are still bringing up primordial issues based on dichotomies, differences, religion and so on and so forth. We have not really conquered all these divisive tendencies in us and at this age when people are either in services by emphasising on working for government where many people thought there are greener pastures. Of course, we are heading to a situation whereby, if we are not careful, there will be a general vote of no confidence on the elite.
What inspired you to contest for the governorship seat of Bauchi State?
My modest contributions as the Minister of the FCT prompted me. I discovered that Nigerians are good and intelligent people. Giving the opportunity, you can create a small London in any part of Nigeria. I brought people to offices in the FCT, in terms of recruitment, in terms of those who gave me assistance and who came from the North, South, East and West. These were intelligent young people who were ready to work and who could compete with their counterparts in any part of the world, in terms of competence, initiative and innovation.
We innovated and brought the land swap programme which is being copied by the United Nations and the World Bank. We innovated and brought incentives to the private sector to bring alternative funding. We brought frameworks that were bankable. We created a situation like the institution of advertising that was not there, institutions like the emergency services, the revenue board, etc, to accentuate or establish some kind of financial independence to raise the GDP and provide a sound financial framework with which to provide services and infrastructure.
We cleaned the town very well with the money we had and we had excess to give to our local government areas; we made them independent, self-sustaining and ensured that there was no demonstration of discord for the six years that I was there not even from the communities because we deepened community relations. We were able to give good governance, not because of me but because of the array of intellectuals that I brought around me. And I think this is what we lack now.
What do you intend to do for the people of Bauchi State if voted as the governor in 2019?
I will want to use my intelligence, creativity and innovation like I did in Abuja where I had no authority; my authority was a delegated one, as written in the Nigerian Constitution as a minister. Yes, I want to be a governor with all the paraphernalia of that office. We used land as a resource in the FCT and I want to use land as a resource in Bauchi. We must take the baseline studies- our land resource, tourism resource, agricultural capabilities, demonstration farms and animal farms, agricultural Institutions- so that we can move the youth out of the streets and create a large number of extension workers that can be agriculturists in the villages and bring the best of seeds to increase the yield in terms of productivity and create off takers within and outside of agriculture.
I have read widely, I have seen how other climes have built resources and wealth. I want to create wealth, create a level playing field for Nigerians in Bauchi first, with the indigenous people, giving them what they have. I will use Geographic Information System (GIS) to give level playing field to world-class investors from the East and the West and all part of the country. And I will create security in such a manner that investment would have security. I want to deepen and create the Nigerianness that we require so that we can have a paradigm shift from dependency on oil resources to agriculture and small businesses, exploiting the capabilities of the youth and other talents in the informal sector that had not been developed.
In Bauchi, there is no government. Today, we don’t have salaries, we don’t have pensions. For three years, no service has been provided. There are no drug revolving funds for our hospitals and so the common man cannot get drugs at subsidised rate as we used to have. Our schools are dilapidated; our teachers have not been paid. Of course, when you come to other sectors, we are all wallowing in melancholy in the country. Our salaries have been increased through dubious means by the government without employment for the youth that the universities and other higher Institutions have produced. Without promotion, without increment in terms of personnel emoluments, our personnel cost has risen from N2 billion to N5 billion. To the common man, there is no government, there is a vacuum. It is nullity in terms of services.
You accused the present administration in the state of non-performance, but you are also accused of not doing anything and that for the six years that you were the Minister of the FCT, there was no federal presence, even in your hometown and local government area. Now that you want to become the governor, what would be your reaction to this accusation?
You see, even the money the current Federal Government gave us, I mean the bailout, has been stolen by the present administration. Our neighbours- Gombe, Jigawa and Plateau states- used their bailouts very well but there is nothing to show for it in Bauchi. For me as the Minister of the FCT then, my statutory responsibilities did not extend beyond the four corners of the FCT. I cannot steal money from Abuja and bring it to Bauchi. But as a member of the then federal cabinet, from the area I came from, the Federal Government rehabilitated 80 kilometres and also constructed new roads- Yashi-Duduri and from Duguri-Kashere. These were federal roads that were done through my initiative. I tried to facilitate some other projects like the Snake Hospital but because of political differences, I was dissuaded. What I did was to make ensure that, like other Nigerians, Bauchi indigenes were able to access employment in the FCT and also land allocations. Through my being in the cabinet, I don’t think anything less than N100 billion came into Bauchi State and that explains my popularity.
I am not saying this to boast but there are those who make billions of Naira. You have seen my house; I have been here for the last 25 years, I have not changed it. I have been able to touch the lives of those near me and those within my immediate community and, in fact, the entire state. People are happy with me. I am not giving anybody money. With all the villainy, treachery and mischief against my character, the people still love me; they know the truth. Even the FCT Administration attested that no kobo was missing in its coffers. No civil society, no individual complained against Bala in any petition to the EFCC. But because of political exigencies, I am facing one of the greatest challenges. Thank God, I won one of my cases in a court of law and I was awarded N5 million as damages.
If you are voted into office as the next governor, what would you do within your first 100 days in office?
The first 100 days is to unify the state because we are in disarray; there is a lot of suspicion. There is no House of Assembly in Bauchi State. The state legislature, which is the basic element of democracy, has been closed down. Members of the National Assembly from the state are no longer with the government and so we cannot access federal projects and programmes. When I become the governor, we would pay salaries, pay pensions and make sure we do measurable and tangible roads connecting towns and cities in so many local government areas and communities and make sure there is peace. Then, we would start unfolding our long term plan; we would especially engage the private sector to give us alternative funds and also demand of the multi-nationals to give us additional projects and programmes.
With the accusations leveled against you, what are your chances of winning the election?
As I mentioned earlier, I am in court with them for the second case. But I am just an accused person and there are so many accused governors in Government Houses; there are so many accused senators and members of the House of Representatives. I am an innocent person. If not, I would not even dare to come out and seek for a political office. I am honest and sincere and it is left to the authority in the state to prove that they can stop me. I don’t think they can stop me because they have nothing against me. All I am telling you is that my chances are very bright because the All Progressives Congress (APC) is working against itself. The party is in disarray, many people are disillusioned; even the state lawmakers who are in the opposition party are with me. All the stakeholders, from here to Abuja, are with me because it is not about party. It is about rescuing Bauchi State from these jokers who are here to divide us. By the grace of God and with the help of all and sundry, we would be able to defeat them because they are only banking on rigging, using INEC, the security agencies and the rest. But we are also taking measures; we have a very strong situation room and we are using knowledge- not all these wishful thinkings- to win elections. We will make sure we cast our votes, protect and escort our votes and, of course, we would be law-abiding. But anybody who tries to shortchange us, we are going to resist such a person.
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