In this interview with journalists, the Bauchi State governor, Muhammed Abubakar, gives insight into his attempts to reconcile with Federal lawmakers from the state. Also, he spoke about other issues within the All Progressives Congress (APC). CHIBUZO UKAIBE was there for LEADERSHIP Sunday.
With all the achievements and interventions of your administration, why do you think anyone, especially within your party, would be planning to unseat you?
Whoever is doing that has the ambition to become governor of Bauchi State, but my argument is that, now is not the time for that. What we need now is to work for the people of the state. By the time we are ready to begin politics everybody is free to come and aspire for any office. When I was not governor, I contested along-side seven other people for the ticket of the APC. I was the underdog.
When I visited the headquarters of my party for the first time, the secretary of the party told me clearly: “we don’t know you, we only know of two aspirants in Bauchi State” and he mentioned their names. I replied that “it is because those people have access to you and they are always on the pages of newspapers showing themselves as the leading candidates of Bauchi State while we have always been with the people who will vote in the election.”
So, I am not afraid of anybody who wishes to contest for any office but now is not the time. I told people at one time that some people think they are denigrating me, but they have lost touch with reality, because if my wish is to be the governor of Bauchi State, God Almighty has already answered that. It has gone down in history. I should not be concerned for myself here, but for the image of the state. Our state has never been like this and we have never had it so bad, but we are not the only state that has this crop of members of the House of Representatives and Senators. Every state in the Federation has them. But, then, whatever they are, they are free to aspire for whatever they so choose.
Are you saying [that] each and every one of them wants your seat or are just showing their support for a particular person they think should replace you?
I don’t know whether they are throwing a support behind a particular candidate, but, clearly, each of them is harbouring an ambition. The question, then, is this; is it true that I am not delivering? Before you answer, I hope you have the opportunity to go to other states to compare [what is happening over there] with what is happening in Bauchi.
What is your relationship with the party’s executive committee in the state and at the national level, as well as with those who are based in Abuja?
The party in the state is intact and is behind this government. There is no problem with the party in the state. As far as the relationship with the party at the national level is concerned, I was at an event at the state multi-purpose hall when the national chairman of the party called me and told me that he would be calling an emergency meeting with governors for Thursday and requested that I contact others in the zone. I think that is an indication of some measure of confidence between the national arm of the party and myself. Moreover, politics is a game of numbers. I asked questions and, even, went to the INEC to obtain some figures and discovered that the constituencies of some of the antagonists do not have more than 70,000 registered voters. My ward has more than 69,000 [registered voters]. By the time they finish all that hullabaloo in Abuja, when the time now comes for politics, it is here that this politics is going to be practiced and, at that time there would be no gang-up, because everybody would go to his constituency and answer his father’s name. That is how politics is played. For now, they are merely grand-standing. Just because they have some money, they are spreading it around, sponsoring a campaign of calumny against their own state.
To this end, I assure you that the party is intact and our relationship with Abuja is also fantastic. Of course, even when I was contesting for the ticket of the APC, I was not the favourite of the so-called powers that be. God, in His infinite mercy, chose me over and above their favourite. I do not expect them to be happy, because they would want business to go on as usual.
Do you still hope to reconcile with them?
At every opportunity, I have stated that they are our children. If they tarry and they have a re-think, we would be willing to take them back. We cannot wish them away, because they are our children. Let me tell you a secret; I had a meeting with some heavy weights in the state who took it upon themselves to intervene. In fact, I was the one who went to them, hoping for reconciliation. Before then, I did everything I could. I have sent committee after committee to them. Once, I even sent the entire working committee of the party, telling them to go to Abuja and ‘call these our sons, ask them what the matter is and what grudgethey have’. Those attempts failed.
Another time, the first-class emirs in Bauchi State invited them to come. They did not. A three-man committee was set up under one of our emirs, but when they went to Abuja to meet with them, nothing came of that move.
Elder statesman, Maitama Sule, invited the speaker and they had a long talk, but he refused to heed. We have done all and we will continue, because, as the leader, if there is peace in the polity I will enjoy it the most. I am interested in peace and the development of Bauchi State.
Do you think the party at the national level has done enough to resolve this issue?
Essentially, the problem is not a party problem because there is no problem with the party in Bauchi State and the national level has intervened. It recently announced the formation of a fact-finding committee to get to the root of the whole thing and we are expecting the committee here. When they come they will do what we have done and more, and see for themselves what is on ground. They will do their fact-finding and, then, we will avail them the opportunity of sitting with the party hierarchy here and, also, explain to them where there is any problem in the party.
Recently, you disclosed that ghost workers on the state’s pay-roll amounts to N1bn monthly and your prescription for that problem has met with serious resistance from some quarters. Have you given up on that?
No, I have not.
On the issue of security votes, the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has endlessly harped on the need for said there is the need for state governments to disclose their security vote. Do you subscribe to that?
In the first place, governors have no security votes. Yes, the state has a security vote but it is not controlled by the governor. The security vote is controlled by the permanent secretary for security; in every state, there is permanent secretary for security and there is a security committee in every state, with the governor as chairman and all the security chiefs – the deputy governor, secretary to the state government, head of service, the chairman of the traditional council (the Emir of Bauchi) – as members of that Security Council.
You said you receive N5bn and, sometimes, less than that as your monthly allocation, while you current expenditure is far higher than that amount. How have you been able to achieve some of the work you have done in the past two years?
There is no magic, really. Apart from the bail-out for salaries, the Federal Government of Nigeria availed, to each state, a N10bn infrastructure loan guaranteed by excess crude account. What you have seen is a prudent utilisation of that N10bn infrastructure loan. The projects, of course, are far above N10bn. Even the first phase of the roads we have started constructing are over N20bn.We have made up our minds, from day one, to adhere strictly to what the funds were meant for. If, for example, money is meant for bail-out of salaries, we will use it for that purpose. If it is for infrastructure, we will use it for that purpose. We will not divert a kobo. That is the magic you see in Bauchi.
At the national level, the APC claims that it is cash-strapped and one of the reasons is that major stakeholders in the party, especially governors, seem to have stopped supporting the party. What is the current situation and do you subscribe to the idea of governors not supporting the party financially?
I am not in the position to either confirm or deny the fact that the party at the national headquarters is cash-strapped. Secondly, I believe it is not because governors have shelved their responsibilities. I think it is because a formula has not been agreed upon. Obviously, there is no way we can take public resources and fund the political party. I know, at one time, that we recommended a formula. But, for some reason, the major organs of the party have not met regularly to agree upon a formula. We will see light at the end of the tunnel soon.
What are your plans to revolutionlise agricultural activities in the state?
From day one, we picked agriculture as one of our areas of comparative advantage and we are negotiating with a company in Czech Republic, where we saw a multi-purpose machine and we intend to bring in 150 [of these machines]. We want to embark on a pilot project; one each in each of the senatorial districts. We will pick youths, put them in our farm houses in their areas, then give them the machines, set them up to farm a particular crop for which a value chain can be attached.
When I first saw the machines, I believed it is the tool we need. You pick the machine and you fix it on whatever implement you want to utilise it for. For instance, if it is to till, you fix it to the tiller and clip, no spanner, no screw-driver needed. Same applies for other purposes too and since most of our farmers are illiterate, this is the kind of thing that will work for them.
One of the major things we are aiming to accomplish is to ensure that fertiliser, one of the main inputs needed by farmers get to them. We have not failed since we came on board. Right now, our fertiliser blending plant is the one that has been chosen by the Fertilizer Blending Association of Nigeria (FBAN) to blend for the entire North-east and, of course, were the first to qualify for the delivery of fertilisers they are blending.
We have already started taking delivery for the next season. So, our farmers are assured of fertilisers and, for two farming seasons now, Bauchi State has been selling fertilisers at most affordable rates nation-wide. The last one we sold was N4,500 per bag at a time fertiliser was selling for about N9,000 in the open market. This year, the federal government has a programme to sell fertilizers to farmers at N5,500 tops. We have keyed into that programme already. In our case we are gaining twice, we are blending for pay and then we are getting our fertilizers on time.
What is the story surrounding the state’s school of medicine and nursing which was given to the federal government by the past administration?
The former government didn’t give out the school of nursing only; they gave out the specialist hospital as well as the school of nursing. The two schools were together so that a medical school and teaching hospital was based there. That in itself is not bad the fact that they wanted to attract a teaching hospital. But then what I am saying is that the federal government is the giant, why would tiny Bauchi State now be dashing federal government anything. Let them come, they want to establish a teaching hospital, yes, we are willing to provide our specialist hospital as the nucleus for the teaching hospital but you have to pay but we need to now replicate a specialist hospital for the people of Bauchi State, that is the medical facility that everybody goes to.