Your posters are seen almost everywhere in Kaduna. Are you interested in contesting the governorship election in your state in 2015?
Sincerely speaking, the posters took me by surprise, I was not in the country when these posters were flooding the major towns in Kaduna State but that is not to say that I was not aware that something of that nature is going on. Some youth groups and some politicians had paid me visits and requested me to consider vying for that position. I told them that I needed time to make consultations. Many of them told me they have made their own consultations but since I had to travel that time, I told everybody to put everything on hold until my return from US but immediately I had left the shores of Nigeria, the posters were just flooding and it seems these posters were printed and kept because I left here on Sunday through Lagos to US and by the time I left US, someone told me that this was what was going on, I was surprised. But to me, I took it in different forms; one, since some people have already set the idea and requested me to contest, I looked at it as a positive development since it is a demand from the generality of the people.
Second, there are times posters are said to be pasted by unknown faces for sinister motives but I don’t think in this case it was so since some had already contacted me.
Will it be correct to say that you are under pressure to contest in 2015?
People always make use of the word ‘pressure,’ we are used to pressure but the issue is that there are people who are interested in me contesting based on my antecedents. During my discussion with some of them, when I highlighted that I am not particularly keen about contesting, they reminded me that I have been a member of the state House of Assembly, chairman of a local government, commissioner in three ministries within the state, chief of staff, SSG and I have been minister so they felt that I should not deny people the value of my experience.
Recent agitations from the southern Kaduna have been against the PDP as the people say they have nothing to show for their support to the party. As a chieftain of PDP from that area what will you say about this?
We had cause to complain at certain times but not throughout. During the first eight years of this democracy up to 2011, any time that we had governor from the northern part, the ministerial slot was always given to the southern part and four of us occupied that seat. That is late Garba Ali Madaki, Isaiah Balat, followed by my humble self and my elder brother Arc Nuhu but when Yakowa became governor, the seat went back to the northern part but when we lost the governor, we pressurized the government to see the need to return the seat to the southern part. We must thank the President and the Vice President sincerely for conceding to that cry of the people of the southern part. So we feel that President Jonathan has heard our cry and has listened to the submissions of our people. That is why we feel comfortable with PDP in the south. The people of southern Kaduna are peace loving people, we only keep on putting the pressure because we have given more than any part of Kaduna State to PDP.
Have you considered the challenges of getting the ticket of a party that has an incumbent?
We believe that when there is fairness in politics, the issue of incumbency should not be a factor, what should really be the concern is the capacity of the individuals that are under consideration. When you bring incumbency which is a factor in Nigeria, the reality is that it is a negative factor because it derails development and fairness when you are coming to things of this nature. After all, power belongs to God and if God has decided on something the incumbency may just be an issue of theoretical discussions.
The APC seems to be getting stronger in Southern Kaduna. Are you not bothered?
The truth is that whether one likes it or not, there was a time that PDP had challenges especially in 2011 general elections. But we believe that PDP has learnt a lesson from it and will not allow it to re-occur.
Southern Kaduna is one of the areas hit by insurgency. Is there any way we can come out of this situation?
I think one of the greatest problems facing the security agencies today is that of reliable information. If the security information gathering is worked upon, I think there could be a lot of improvement. Look at it from this angle, we have the SSS and even in the police force, they have the CID, if you go to the military, they have also their units of security gathering and if these units are really functional and there is inter-agency collaboration as we are being told then there must be sharing of information. Now we have an added agency known as the NSCDC.
At every time security agents are beaten hands down, it really means that something is wrong somewhere. We believe that there is need for improvement.
Second, the number of security operatives in the country is highly inadequate. Today, our population is over 160 million, I expect to see on nearly every street, a security personnel in mufti with gadgets but I don’t think we are having that. I think that we are sophisticated enough as a nation to have this type of set up in order to safeguard the nation. How much does it cost a government to be fighting this Boko Haram? We are talking of billions from both the states and the federal government, now you put these billions together and get adequate equipment that can install strategically to help control this situation because we don’t know when we will end this.
Are you satisfied with what the northern governors have done to curtail the insurgency?
No, I can’t say I am satisfied as long as the problem lingers but I know that the northern governors have all it takes to confront the insecurity in the north squarely but if they are not utilizing what is available to them, then it becomes an unfortunate situation. Now every state has a state security council with the governor as chairman and all the security operatives, agencies within the state as members which means the governor should be on top of the situation and I don’t think there is any governor that will report a security operative on abdication of duties in his state and the superiors will look the other way, therefore, I believe that instead of government to turn security agents to be agents of handling political opponents, they should be utilized as agents for handling devilish and criminal people within the society.
I believe if security agents look at the issue of criminals rather than the interest of some powers that be certainly, they’ll be better off.
You worked with Makarfi as SSG, how were you able to achieve peace during your tenure?
Makarfi got a grasp of all these things and he utilized them to the highest and I know Makarfi did some things not only on the issue of security even on the issue of implementation of government projects. He was not over relying on reports from ministries, he may just close from work, take a drive with somebody he may choose and go outside Kaduna to look at projects in Sanga, Kala, Birnin Gwari so that by the time you who is the supervising commissioner is giving a report, he is aware of whether you are telling him the right thing or not so he was on ground at all times.
The national confab has recommended the creation of more states, are you satisfied with this?
To me, the main aim of creating states is not to bring about peace rather, the creation of states is to bring the government closer to the people. It is through development and bringing government to the people that peace comes in, it is not the other way round. There is no fairness in the distribution of projects, appointments but when you bring government closer and you bring development to the people peace is going to reign because it will eliminate unnecessary complaints. If there is no creation of state but you can work on indices that are having human factor in them, you can achieve what creation of states can equally achieve. For instance if in Kaduna State, we have an estimated population of over six million, and a federal establishment like the NDA is recruiting and Kaduna is asked to bring ten people while Kano and Lagos State which is getting to ten million are asked to bring the same number of people, is that fairness? So if we can work on pro rata we may not create states but make sure population becomes a very important indices in sharing government facilities.
People have their reservations about what will happen when states are created and they want to know whether states can sustain themselves outside the normal federal allocations….
There is no state that God has not given it one thing or the other in terms of solid minerals or in terms of agriculture.
Last year, I heard our governor saying several times that he could not complete a project because of lack of resources but at the same time, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy listed Kaduna as one among the ten states that got the highest allocation from the FG so we are at a loss because she quoted a figure of N97 billion for 2013, now if other states have gotten more than that and we say we have no money then something is wrong somewhere. But I know that in this modern society, N97 billion for a population of six million people for a year is still inadequate if I am asking for more I should be satisfied that the N97 billion was judiciously utilized.
