By November, Kogi will be going into an election, by which time you would have been in the saddle for almost four years. How has the journey so far been, particularly with regards to your promises when you took over?
Thank God for his mercies; we’ve been there for three and a half years now and it seems just like yesterday. The time spent so far has been full of challenges; a lot of challenges. I should say we started on a very solid foundation of coming up with a blueprint of the agenda we have for the transformation of our state and we’ve done a lot to try and implement that agenda, starting with completing projects that we met, which were ongoing and the essence of that was that because all those projects were being prosecuted for public good and public money had been invested in them, I thought it was only proper that we completed the projects for them to be put to public use. Leaving them half or partly done, having sunk money into it would be a waste of money but after sometime, having completed majority of those projects, we then took another informed decision that we should split resources available between completing some of the remaining projects and also starting new projects and that is a path we have continued on and so far so good, we’ve done a lot of work in terms of creating a peaceful environment and enhancing security for our people and an environment where enterprise will thrive and people will live in peace and tranquility with each other. We tried to unify our people for a common purpose of development and transformation of Kogi state by being fair in the distribution of amenities and projects across the three senatorial zones in a fairly even manner and we try to attend to the needs of our people in an equitable manner and this has helped to propel our agenda for the unity and transformation of Kogi state. We’ve done a lot of infrastructure projects, rural development projects, water, electricity, roads, hospitals, we’ve focused on agriculture because we believe in it as a job creation area and anybody can go into agriculture. So we’ve created opportunities to improve the wealth of our people in agriculture and the message is getting across that that’s the way to the future.
A date has been announced for the governorship election in your state but before the announcement, campaign seems to have started and one area your critics have been harping on is that there is nothing on ground you can physically show to the people as your achievement and that the state is moving towards a failed state, upon claims that you cannot pay salaries etc. What is your reaction to this?
In politics, you can expect all kinds of accusations from your opponents but let’s start from Abuja which belongs to all of us. Go to Kogi House, opposite Abia House, in the Central Business District, I’m building an 11 storey Kogi House and it’s now on the fourth floor. We started it barely six months ago and it’s going on, something that all citizens of Kogi will be proud of. That’s just here in Abuja and you know they say the morning tells the day. If we can do that in Abuja – that plot was there before I became governor and we are making sure it is built and completed – then imagine what we are doing back home. If you come down to Kogi, we’re building a university teaching hospital; it is a tertiary institution, the structure is there for everyone to see. We are building an ultramodern mega motor park in Lokoja which is at an advanced stage now and hopefully, in the next three months, we’ll be in a position to complete it; there’s a very modern vocational training centre which we are building in partnership with Korea Development Agency, it’s a development institution and now at the verge of completion and sometime next month, we’ll be able to commission it. We are also building a dual carriage bypass to Lokoja so that if you are coming from the East, going to the north, you don’t have to go through the city of Lokoja, you can bypass it and if you are from the North going to the west part of the state, again you don’t have to go through the town, it is a 16 kilometre road, it’s a big project. We are building 500 houses in Lokoja and about 218 of them are almost completed. Again, we hope to commission that in the next two or three months. We’ve built 272 housing units in Lokoja for those who were displaced by flood and some have moved in, we are building several roads across the state; township roads in Moppa, Egbe, Isonlu, Kabba. In the East, I just flagged off the Ankpa township road a few days ago, already we’ve done Ojoku road, Okura road, the dualisation is going on, we are building zonal hospitals; the other day I was in Obangede which is in the Central Senatorial District to see the progress of work. We are building four of such zonal hospitals across the state, there are several health centres we’ve built, we’ve done more than 300 motorised boreholes across the state, electrified more than 400 villages across the state, built and renovated uncountable number of schools and we will build more. These are physical projects which people can see and so, if my critics say we are not doing much, you can come and see, you shouldn’t expect our opponents to praise us. And when you talk of development, it must be measured with the resources available to the state. You talked about failed state, no, Kogi is not a failed state. We have paid salary every month during the last week of the month since I came into office until May 2015 and that May 2015, we had challenges of payment where the money that came in was N2.7bn and we need N3.1bn to run our affairs, pay salaries and the likes. There was a shortage and ordinarily, whenever we have such challenges, we take overdraft and pay but at a point, you have to face reality. That’s when we were challenged and couldn’t pay for one month and as we speak, Kogi state owes only one month salary. So, anybody who says we are a failed state is not being factual and it is the prudence with which we have managed the resources of the state that has enabled us to pay our salaries between 25th and 27th of every month since I came into office in January 2012 and nobody had complained of nonpayment of salaries before now so, I don’t know where people are getting that information that we are not paying salaries from. We are one of the states that has been paying salaries regularly since we came into office but the economic challenges we are facing as a nation are obvious to everyone and I think we should be commended for the efforts we’ve made in that regard, including our ability to carry on some infrastructural projects along with this salary commitment over the last three and a half years.
Kogi used to be a state where thuggery thrived, daylight armed robbery especially on the highways became a norm, among other crimes. How have you handled the security situation in the state, what has been your strategy?
It’s not magic, it’s all about a sense of purpose andcommitment. When I came in, believing in the rule of law, I took a clear position that we’ll not tolerate violence, violent crimes would be punished and there’ll be no sacred cows; everybody will be prosecuted according to the law and we urged people to behave well and be law abiding. We also empowered the police and other law enforcement agencies, the army, DSS, paramilitary organisations like immigration, prisons, civil defence etc. We encouraged and empowered them and in some cases, we bought four wheel vehicles for them, provided them equipment support and finance where necessary, to operationalise their efforts and thereafter, when people are arrested and big men cannot succeed in getting them bailed and all that, the message spread that anyone who commits crime in Kogi state will be punished according to the law and that the governor is not going to interfere with justice and I’ve never interferred; I’ve always allowed the law to take its course and once this was clear, all those people who were causing trouble who felt they would be bailed a few days later and go back to commit more crime found that there was only one way now in Kogi state; enter jail and you stay there, you don’t come out to cause more problem for society. So, with that posture, it was clear to everyone that you cannot abuse the law and get away with it and I must commend the security agencies for all their efforts in preventing crime in Kogi state but you know by the location of our state, our location is very strategic, you have 22 states that pass through Kogi state everyday going to the North or South and that way, of course they’ll drop good and bad people along the way to stay with us and because of our central location and with some of the problems in the North-east part of the country, people tend to move to come and settle in Kogi and that is part of the challenge. And I must be honest with you, I was contacting several governors in the North who were facing security challenges to get ideas from them on how to keep our state safe and that helped a lot in coming up with strategies to help us maintain peace and security in the state and these are some of the strategies we adopted in stamping out crime in the state and recently, there were incidences of kidnapping and all that and I want to commend the inspector general of police who deployed very quickly, a crack team of 350 police men who came to our state, stayed with us for about two and a half months and they’ve been able to bring the crime of kidnapping under control and now, our people can walk about with a lot more confidence and a lot of the criminals have been rounded up and are all facing the law right now and we believe that the incidence of kidnapping in our state has been drastically reduced and it will stay that way.
What areas are you exploring internally, to address the financial challenges facing the state, especially in the area of tourism development, considering the huge tourism potential of the state?
With regards to tourism, because of our very historic and unique role in the actualisation of the nation Nigeria, we’ve tried to leverage on some of the historical sites and artefacts we have. You know Lord Lugard operated from Kogi state in Lokoja and we are using his office as our Government House which is the governor’s office in Kogi state now, his residence on Mount Pati has been refurbished and brought back to what it was in those day, furnished the way it was, the graves of British soldiers and service men who served during the world war are being preserved and renovated, the place where the Royal Niger flag was lowered has also been properly designated and rehabilated. Many of these historical points have now been rehabilitated and we have also trained our staff in the ministry of tourism on how to conduct people around, we bought buses for them to start basic tourism, show people who are visiting these tourist centres and the relevance of those centres to the history and existence of our country Nigeria. We are building a golf course in Kogi at the Confluence Beach Hotel, we have plans to redevelop it into a proper conference centre and we are just waiting for availability of funds and partnership to move that forward. We believe that while some of these things are being brought on line, many people will see the attraction of Kogi, particularly Lokoja the capital, and visit us. A lot is being done in the area of tourism.
In April, you lost a lot of political structures during the general election, with a lot of people defecting to the present governing party. These structures are important in the governorship election. How do you intend to regroup and restrategise to be able to win the governorship?
With regards to the election, obviously, we learnt a lot of lessons in terms of what we should have done, what we shouldn’t have done, what the opposition did, what we could have done better and I can tell you that a lot of studies and consultations and meetings have been going on and we are restrategising on how to ensure that we win the next election. Obviously, an interview like this is not the best place for me to divulge our strategy but we learnt some hard lessons and we are taking very concrete steps to make sure that we have a better result in the coming election by the grace of God.
You have remained as quiet as you were before you ventured into pol-itics. What has been your greatest challenge in government?
With regards to the way I am, I’ve come a long way in life; I’m not a very young man and I see this job as a temporary job, four years and if one is lucky, maybe eight years and you go back to normal life and so, I’ve tried my best as a governor to live a normal life knowing that if I’m lucky and alive in good health, I’ll come back to live a normal life and so, I’ve not allowed the office to disorganise me or make me believe that I’m bigger or better than anybody. I’m here to serve and I’ll do my best to serve. The biggest challenge is satisfying the number of people who want my attention, who want improvement in their lives, who want me to do one thing or the other for them and of course I try my best but generally, it cannot be enough because there are so many and the resources and opportunities are so limited. However, what keeps me going is my conscience, I go to bed everyday knowing that I’ve done the best I can for that particular day and looking forward to the next day and that’s how I’ve been able to navigate through the challenges of office.
But are you going to contest the forthcoming election?
I’m getting close to answering that question but I’m not there yet; I’m getting close to the point that I will give a categorical answer but I’m not there yet.
You are not like the typical politician in many regards, what attracted you to politics?
I came into politics to make a difference in people’s lives, I saw it as an opportunity to serve the larger populace and make a difference. Most of my life, I’ve been in the private sector, I spent about 10 years in the public service before I got into the private sector and while in the private sector, because of the so many challenges we have in Nigeria, I decided to try and run our small company in the best way possible, reflecting the spirit of Nigeria and I was able to touch people’s lives in that limited way within the company. When the opportunity for politics came, I saw myself as having the opportunity to serve a larger mass of our people using the vehicle of politics.
Will you want to fly again?
I’m looking forward to that, I miss it everyday.
The PDP suffered heavy defeat in the last election. As a PDP governor, what do you think the party did wrong or could have done better?
There was a cry for change in our country so PDP having been in power for 16 years and people feeling there was a need for change, there wasn’t really much PDP could have done to overcome the change wind that was blowing across the country. Buharimania had taken over and there was very little PDP could do. There was so much criticism of the efforts of PDP and it was difficult at that point for PDP as a party to have done much better than it did and I think we should commend the PDP for the effort to even in the face of that, doing very well and with time, the PDP will find its feet and do better in future elections.
There is this notion that you cannot win election in Kogi unless you have a killer squad, is this true?
I’m not a typical politician, I’m a normal human being who has come into politics. I believe in fairness, justice and equity and I treat all human beings with respect. We are all equal before God so I don’t live the life of a larger than life person or politician and I treat everyone with respect and if people say because of my gentle mien and profile, and my pursuit of justice and equity that I won’t win election, may God give me the opportunity to stand for the election and I pray for those people to stand with me and they will see the result because I believe that God almighty will stand behind me to win if I stand for election.
There is an ongoing clamour over which area should produce the next governor, with each area claiming it is their turn. What is your stand on power rotation?
Rotation was a major issue even at the last national confab and ideas were proposed. It’s about equity to me, it’s an issue of fairness. No particular tribe has the monopoly of leadership of any state. I believe in power rotation and I believe it is an equitable thing to do but there is a process. I’m surprised that people only bring this point or topic up whenever we are close to an election and to me, it belittles the significance and essence and I think our leaders need to get together over a long period, work out modalities, technicalities and a proper way to approach this issue and have some understanding and if possible, agreement on how tosort out this issue of power rotation. It shouldn’t be some people who are interested in governorship that should make it a topic; this is something about the lives of the people of Kogi state and not about individuals so why do we always rotate it around individuals who come and go and that’s my view. I believe in it but it should be properly approached, intellectually, socially and politically in such a way that we have a steady way forward.
There appears to be a face-off between you and your party over ward congress in the state. What is the true situation of things?
There is no face-off between me and the party with regards to ward congress. The leadership of the party is the leadership of the party; there’s more like a misunderstanding on the issue but it’s been resolved; we are in discussion with the national leadership and I believe in the next few days, that matter will be resolved.
Culled from Leadership Newspapers
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