Governor Idris Wada of Kogi state
has said he will defeat his main challenger, Audu Abubakar of the All
Progressive Congress (APC) at the November 21 poll.
Speaking with Naij.com at his Lokoja office, Wada said he is sure of his victory at the poll because of his achievement so far.
The captain also spoke on other issues including his inability to
access the bailout funds granted states by the federal government.
You became governor of Kogi state in 2012, what have you achieved so far?
They are going into clinical. They have a diagnostic hospital where they are using for their training I went there about 20 dead bodies in storages which they are using their training. This is to tell you how advance this medical school has gone during my tenure. We are building a cement factory across the river to be commissioned at the end of this year by the grace of God. The pack I talked about will be commissioned by the end of this year. We built a modern environmental laboratory. We have done more than 300 motor rise boreholes across the state. We have electrified more than 350 towns and villages since we came in provided transformers and cables.
A lot of rural roads are being developed. Only yesterday we launch about 7 or 8 bulldozers, about 10 graders rollers. We are launching a rural road revolution so again that is another means of infrastructure that we are doing in Kogi state. But we have been promoting agriculture in a big way. We are the largest cassava growing state in Nigeria. we are now the rice producing state. Before I became governor, nobody talked about rice in Kogi state. The initiative, when we had flood we converted the flood place to rice belt. Young people are involved and they are excited. I go to farm every day before I go to work. I have done a lot.
We build many schools we equip secondary schools. The secondary school I graduated from in 1978 I went back there I almost cried, I descended on it innovated give them equipment. It’s a modern secondary school now. St Augustine college Kaba government secondary school Okene we have tidied them up renovated. If a government does this in 3 years with the little money available. You can see I live a simply life I don’t live like a governor. We are prudent in managing public resources but am a low profile person I don’t talk I just focus on my business and move on.
That is why opposition has taken advantage to paint us a not doing anything we are doing a lot. Even in Lokoja alone of course we have challenges, you could see some of the roads we are passing. Some of them are federal roads you can’t just go and repair them you need permission of federal government and if you repair without the authority of the federal government they won’t refund you. Right now Kogi state has spent 16 billion on federal road and other projects in the state and they have not refunded. And with the little money we cannot continue to pour state money on federal roads.
With the few resources you have, how have you been able to achieve all you have listed?
We have done a lot and you have to compare what we have done to the resources available. Our average income per month over the last two years is about N3.5 billion; the salary of the state is about N2.6 billion. The money we need to pay pension, support our tertiary institutions, subventions to ministries is about N500 to 600 million a month. Pension alone is about N467 million because it is from 1991 till date, so what is left? Every month, I have maybe N200 million, sometimes N400 million or N500 million to execute projects. I also inherited about 30 projects ongoing which I am committed to completing for the benefit of the people because, once your predecessors have put money in a project, if you abandon it; it is the people who will lose. So we made a policy that we will complete ongoing projects and we have completed several.
There are issues about your government accessing the bailout funds, can you clear the air on this?
There are three categories of bailout out money. One is commercial bank exposure of the state governments debts over the years that is impacting on the revenue of the state governments and limiting their capacity to pay salaries. Mr. President approved the resolution of the National Economic Council to extend some funds to states to restructure their commercial bank debts.
Kogi is one of the lowest states in terms of commercial bank debt exposure in the country. Our debt at that time was N816 million, less than a billion naira. Even as at today, it is about N700 million, that has now been restructured by the FG.
The second category was salaries of workers. So, we compiled the outstanding salaries of our primary school teachers, local government employees and civil servants. Let us recognize that in Nigeria that there are three tiers of government, FG get their money directly from the Federation Account, state governments directly from the Federation Account and local governments directly from the account.
In our case, they are supposed to remit N1.32 billion local government money every month for the payment of teachers’ salaries, while the balance is used to pay their workers as well as develop their areas. The state government has no interference in this, we have total autonomy in the operation of our LG system. There is a joint allocation meeting chaired by the Commissioner for Local Government, but the key members are the LG chairmen.
What brought all this problem was the introduction of minimum wage. The FG agreed with the National Union of Teachers, the National Union of Local Government Employees and Nigerian Labour Congress to operate minimum wage. This minimum wage led to a phenomenal increase in Kogi salary liabilities. So when the money coming in could not meet the salary obligation, we reached an arrangement with our local unions that we couldn’t pay 100% but only 60%. So, since 2011, we have been paying 60% of the agreed minimum wage.
So when the FG brought out this bailout package, they said states could apply to pay over 20 years period at 9% interest rate. We aggregated all our exposure in the outstanding percentage payment to our local government workers and teachers and applied for the bailout to clean it all out and give confidence that, it is because the money coming was not enough, that we could not pay full salaries. Kogi was one of the first states to apply with complete documentation, but many states that applied after us, some of them even copied our presentation, they have been given. I have gone to see the CBN Governor three times and I went to the President to complain that are we being delayed.
We also applied for fund to cover pension liabilities and outstanding gratuities of our government. These liabilities are things I inherited, some of them existed from the creation of Kogi, but when this window was opened, the sensible thing to do is to use it to clean up the liabilities and move forward. We applied for the bailout and supplied all the documentation.
The CBN approved and advertised the entire amount they have approved for all states. They said they approved N50.8 billion for Kogi in the following structure: N 4.9 billion for civil servants, about N23 billion for LG employees and about N21 billion for our teachers. They advertised it in the newspapers. They didn’t call us to say this is what they had approved. They started releasing to various states and didn’t release to us. So I went to the CBN Governor and asked that what is going on, he said they will soon get to us. At a critical meeting, he committed that within the following week, they were going to release the money, but up till now they have not.
The next thing we know is for the APC governorship candidate in the state to be boasting in his campaign that they will not release the money until he becomes the governor; that he is going to win the next election and that APC is in charge of the Federal Government, that they have blocked the release of the money to Kogi.
This is shocking because this country belongs to all of us; whether you are in APC or PDP, the interest of the people is why we come to public service. So, if you say you want to be governor of a state, why will you block what will improve the lives of the workers of our state? It will improve the economy because everybody that collects salary will buy one thing or the other, and that is how the money circulates to improve the lives of the people.
I have done everything I can, which include seeing the President, who said he had no problem authorizing the release of the money, but why the CBN governor has refused to release the money is what I don’t know. They asked us to bring biometric verification of the teachers and local government employees. We have done it. They asked us to bring BVN verification of these people, we collected those that have done their and told them that others have not because the time frame for BVN registration has not elapsed. Immediately, we wrote a circular to our employees and unions that they should they get their BVN as they will not be able to receive their money without it. I challenge the CBN to tell Nigerians, which other state they put through this type of process? This is injustice, it is unfair.
So do you think this is political?
It is political and unfortunate, Nobody has taken the trouble that I have taken to get this money for our state. This is not the money that can be mismanaged or misappropriated because the names of people, with the amount due to them, their account numbers and their BVN are there with biometric verification so how can you take out of the money except someone willingly gives you his own money?
I am confident it is not the intention of Mr. President. The clear intent of President Buhari was to help Nigerian workers; so I don’t want anybody to drag him into it. This mischief is between some APC leaders, especially from Kogi and the CBN Governor, who should explain to Nigerians why he (CBN Governor, Emefiele) is holding the money due to Kogi. Honourably, the CBN Governor should come out and tell the world what we have done wrong so that we can correct it; we are not infallible. But to tie it to election is bad for the democracy of this country.
We have been meticulous here. All outstanding pension and gratuities have been paid. We are also paying all current pensioners in the state. All these we are dealing with are historic, they are things we inherited.
Tell us how you have been able to improve the internally generated revenue of the state and infrastructure development
When I came into office, the state was generating between N150 and N180 million a month because Kogi is a civil service state with two major companies- Dangote Cement and Ajaokuta Steel. Ajaokuta Steel has been dead for 30 years; so Dangote is the main industry we have. We are encouraging people and other new industries are coming up; hopefully, in the next five to ten years, we will be able to leverage on solid minerals.
When we came in, we said we needed ways to survive as a state without federal allocation and we started taking steps. One was to clean up manual tax clearance. We decided to digitalize the process to manage our revenue generation; so, now, we are generating between N550 and N600 million a month, which is about 300 percent increase of what we met. We have blocked many of the loopholes where people were stealing money and we are continuing to improve. We have also widened the tax net; so it is ongoing reform which is improving our IGR strength.
Some of the infrastructure projects our government is doing is also tailored to improve the IGR of the state. We are building an 11-storey Kogi House in Abuja right in the Central Business District which will be a major income earner for the state. By next year, the building will be completed because they are on the 11th floor.
We are rebuilding what we called Kogi Hotel which will be a major comfort centre for tourists and visitors to the state. It will also serve as a revenue earner. We are also building a mega motor park, the first of its kind in northern Nigeria to tidy road transportation in the state. The terminal looks like an airport and our estimate is that about 10,000 people will go through that terminal and that will generate revenue for Kogi. It will be private sector driven so that it can survive. We are building a modern abattoir to also generate revenue.
We are building a golf course and renovating our Confluence Beach Hotel, to boost tourism in the state. We are building 500 housing units which we are going to sell and generate revenue to build more. So, many of the projects we are doing are to improve the income generation of the state, and we are not engaging in white elephant projects to impress anybody. We are doing practical projects that add meaning to the lives of the people.
We are building a modern diagnostic centre, a four-storey building close to our specialist hospital with modern and sophisticated equipment along with a laboratory, that will make this place a centre of excellence in medical care and diagnosis of illness; so instead of people rushing to Ilorin, Abuja, Enugu, Lagos, our people will be willing to come here, thereby generating medical tourists into the state once the facilities are launched.
With these projects, do you think you can defeat your opponent who is a former governor?
I’m confidence if it is based on ones record of performances. I’m confidence that I will win because the reality on ground is high on the propaganda. My conscience is clear that as governor of this state, I have given the state my best within the resources available. I am ready to do more for the people of the state, it’s up to them to re-elect me. I am happy to work for the state. If the election is free and fair I have no doubt that PDP will win.
Kogi state is historical with lot of mineral resources, what are you doing to create a better economy for the state?
We have a lot of historical things here. What I have done in the last 3 years is to tidy them up. Make them presentable, you don’t bring visitors to an untidied house. First thing tided your environment. The residence of Lord Lugard is on top of mount parti. We have made it the way it was when Lord Lugard was alive its neat tidied. It’s there where he sits and watches the river.
We have preserved it. We can now take people in confidence there where the union flag was posted here we have tidied it up. The cemetery of world war British soldiers who fought in the world war is all tidied up. The first primary school in Northern Nigeria we have tided it up. The first church we have tidied it up. So all those historical places we have tidied them up.
With a view of developing tourism, we are starting by inviting groups; students on excursion take them on tour. We bought buses for ministry of tourism. We have trained their attendance to know how to sell these things when they go they will talk to other people to come. We are starting from the foundation of tourism we can’t just start expecting people from aboard when our home is not tidied.
Then to investment, we have clean investment environment pass a public partnership law to keep investor confidence in investing in the state. To liberalize environment for investment, we have a one stop shop if you want permission. If you want land we don’t want you running around from one office to the other carry files people who will do it for you what we need is your expatriate or your capital to invest in our state.
To create employment and to improve the economy of our state, people like Dangote who are interested we have given them land to grow rice and sugarcane and other products. Promotion of commercial agriculture with the solid minerals it not as straight forward as its looks. What people fail to understand is that all minerals underground belong to the federal government, that state government cannot exploit It directly you have to get permission from ministry of solid minerals and we have tried to locate partners who will come and invest.
A lot of them are not confident because if as state government I need permission from federal government in my own state then where the confidence is. We have a change of federal government they are not confidence to come and invest their money. Look at the insecurity it has made it difficult to attract foreign investors. We are trying local investors. We have done a lot of work to attract investors to our state. This thing take time that is why you need continuity of leadership for one to build this foundation. That is why we are asking for another 4 years so that we can take the state to another level.
In Kogi state, the issue of power rotation has been in the forefront of this election, and your party is playing up that, do you think this can help your re-election?
I believe it will boost my position as a candidate in the party. For me power rotation is beyond that and the issue has been mismanaged over the year that is why we are where we are. I have been consistent when you look at my vision of uniting our people for a common purpose. Its gives respect to every component. But it’s not a very straight forward issue. That is where my opponent fail because he will say one thing and do another.
I’m consistent from day 1 I said look why are we triggering power shift. We bring it up only when people are running for the governorship of a state. When they are running for presidency or others no body talk about power shift but it’s a topic we need to discuss continuously don’t wait every 4 years. You want to be governor of a state because of so so tribe. We must move away from tribe and recognize everybody as equal and important. Everybody is intelligent. Everybody should be given a chance to run the affairs of the state. That is my position.
And I said if by the grace of God I have the chance to serve another term within the first 100 days I will establish a very powerful committee to that will look at this power rotation in detail. What are the economic, social and political considerations? How can we balance the power, because it’s all about interest. Because if the governor is from the east, deputy could be from the central or west. The SSG must come from the third zone. That is how we share it these positions. We need stakeholders to seat down work out this arrangement seriously and in details because it’s a matter of confidence. You have to win the confidence of the people. You have to make it a thing of discussion among young people an issue for women, elders everybody should make a contribution then we will have a common interest we will all support because if a PDP we support power rotation.
With the recent tribunal ruling against your party, do you think these rulings will not work against you?
No. I trust president Buhari, he is a man of equity a man of justice and he is a straight forward person. I believe that some of these things will pass. The judiciary has been a pillar of sustenance of democracy. We just need to step back a bit look at the issues I have not read the decisions in those tribunal. So am not competent to comment but let us not panic because we can still go to court of appeal or Supreme Court.
Do you nurse the fear of interference in the election?
It’s already happening. We can see their hands and fingers everywhere they are already coming in to manipulate the process. They are even importing thugs we are monitoring them and we capture them over time. The thing is if you believe in democracy and in the will of God then the will of God will perveil. Some of these people have evil intentions but truth will surely prevail over everything. Me am one worried. One thing my attitude to life is whatever is yours you will get no human being can stop it. They can try but at the end of the day you will prevail. I don’t want us to lose confidence in our judiciary system when the court calls no matter the manipulation of these people at the end of the day the truth will be out
The slogan for your re-election is 4+4, what is the central message for your campaign?
My message of 4 plus 4 is not just a message of continuity but continuity for consolidation and when I started I started with the blue print for a transformation for about 10 years period. So my vision is to unite the people of Kogi sate on a common purpose relying on our mineral resources and human capital.
We are less with very bright people. So I felt if I have the chance of doing another 4 years for a 10 years plan we have brought it to a reversible momentum just 20% left 2 more years so whoever takes over whether is opposition or PDP they have no choice but to complete those projects. I was telling you about the hostels many of these projects by the time we complete them the state will be transformed its will be economically solid and its will be attracted.
The legacy I want to leave is that of security peace and stability. That stability includes commercial and economic stability. So if I have the chance for the next four years consolidating on the things we are doing now, kogi state will be one of the 10 state to reckon with that is my vision very clear in my blueprint.
Source: Naij.com
Kogi state governor, Idris Wada
ADVERTISING
You became governor of Kogi state in 2012, what have you achieved so far?
They are going into clinical. They have a diagnostic hospital where they are using for their training I went there about 20 dead bodies in storages which they are using their training. This is to tell you how advance this medical school has gone during my tenure. We are building a cement factory across the river to be commissioned at the end of this year by the grace of God. The pack I talked about will be commissioned by the end of this year. We built a modern environmental laboratory. We have done more than 300 motor rise boreholes across the state. We have electrified more than 350 towns and villages since we came in provided transformers and cables.
A lot of rural roads are being developed. Only yesterday we launch about 7 or 8 bulldozers, about 10 graders rollers. We are launching a rural road revolution so again that is another means of infrastructure that we are doing in Kogi state. But we have been promoting agriculture in a big way. We are the largest cassava growing state in Nigeria. we are now the rice producing state. Before I became governor, nobody talked about rice in Kogi state. The initiative, when we had flood we converted the flood place to rice belt. Young people are involved and they are excited. I go to farm every day before I go to work. I have done a lot.
We build many schools we equip secondary schools. The secondary school I graduated from in 1978 I went back there I almost cried, I descended on it innovated give them equipment. It’s a modern secondary school now. St Augustine college Kaba government secondary school Okene we have tidied them up renovated. If a government does this in 3 years with the little money available. You can see I live a simply life I don’t live like a governor. We are prudent in managing public resources but am a low profile person I don’t talk I just focus on my business and move on.
That is why opposition has taken advantage to paint us a not doing anything we are doing a lot. Even in Lokoja alone of course we have challenges, you could see some of the roads we are passing. Some of them are federal roads you can’t just go and repair them you need permission of federal government and if you repair without the authority of the federal government they won’t refund you. Right now Kogi state has spent 16 billion on federal road and other projects in the state and they have not refunded. And with the little money we cannot continue to pour state money on federal roads.
With the few resources you have, how have you been able to achieve all you have listed?
We have done a lot and you have to compare what we have done to the resources available. Our average income per month over the last two years is about N3.5 billion; the salary of the state is about N2.6 billion. The money we need to pay pension, support our tertiary institutions, subventions to ministries is about N500 to 600 million a month. Pension alone is about N467 million because it is from 1991 till date, so what is left? Every month, I have maybe N200 million, sometimes N400 million or N500 million to execute projects. I also inherited about 30 projects ongoing which I am committed to completing for the benefit of the people because, once your predecessors have put money in a project, if you abandon it; it is the people who will lose. So we made a policy that we will complete ongoing projects and we have completed several.
There are issues about your government accessing the bailout funds, can you clear the air on this?
There are three categories of bailout out money. One is commercial bank exposure of the state governments debts over the years that is impacting on the revenue of the state governments and limiting their capacity to pay salaries. Mr. President approved the resolution of the National Economic Council to extend some funds to states to restructure their commercial bank debts.
Kogi is one of the lowest states in terms of commercial bank debt exposure in the country. Our debt at that time was N816 million, less than a billion naira. Even as at today, it is about N700 million, that has now been restructured by the FG.
The second category was salaries of workers. So, we compiled the outstanding salaries of our primary school teachers, local government employees and civil servants. Let us recognize that in Nigeria that there are three tiers of government, FG get their money directly from the Federation Account, state governments directly from the Federation Account and local governments directly from the account.
In our case, they are supposed to remit N1.32 billion local government money every month for the payment of teachers’ salaries, while the balance is used to pay their workers as well as develop their areas. The state government has no interference in this, we have total autonomy in the operation of our LG system. There is a joint allocation meeting chaired by the Commissioner for Local Government, but the key members are the LG chairmen.
What brought all this problem was the introduction of minimum wage. The FG agreed with the National Union of Teachers, the National Union of Local Government Employees and Nigerian Labour Congress to operate minimum wage. This minimum wage led to a phenomenal increase in Kogi salary liabilities. So when the money coming in could not meet the salary obligation, we reached an arrangement with our local unions that we couldn’t pay 100% but only 60%. So, since 2011, we have been paying 60% of the agreed minimum wage.
So when the FG brought out this bailout package, they said states could apply to pay over 20 years period at 9% interest rate. We aggregated all our exposure in the outstanding percentage payment to our local government workers and teachers and applied for the bailout to clean it all out and give confidence that, it is because the money coming was not enough, that we could not pay full salaries. Kogi was one of the first states to apply with complete documentation, but many states that applied after us, some of them even copied our presentation, they have been given. I have gone to see the CBN Governor three times and I went to the President to complain that are we being delayed.
We also applied for fund to cover pension liabilities and outstanding gratuities of our government. These liabilities are things I inherited, some of them existed from the creation of Kogi, but when this window was opened, the sensible thing to do is to use it to clean up the liabilities and move forward. We applied for the bailout and supplied all the documentation.
The CBN approved and advertised the entire amount they have approved for all states. They said they approved N50.8 billion for Kogi in the following structure: N 4.9 billion for civil servants, about N23 billion for LG employees and about N21 billion for our teachers. They advertised it in the newspapers. They didn’t call us to say this is what they had approved. They started releasing to various states and didn’t release to us. So I went to the CBN Governor and asked that what is going on, he said they will soon get to us. At a critical meeting, he committed that within the following week, they were going to release the money, but up till now they have not.
The next thing we know is for the APC governorship candidate in the state to be boasting in his campaign that they will not release the money until he becomes the governor; that he is going to win the next election and that APC is in charge of the Federal Government, that they have blocked the release of the money to Kogi.
This is shocking because this country belongs to all of us; whether you are in APC or PDP, the interest of the people is why we come to public service. So, if you say you want to be governor of a state, why will you block what will improve the lives of the workers of our state? It will improve the economy because everybody that collects salary will buy one thing or the other, and that is how the money circulates to improve the lives of the people.
I have done everything I can, which include seeing the President, who said he had no problem authorizing the release of the money, but why the CBN governor has refused to release the money is what I don’t know. They asked us to bring biometric verification of the teachers and local government employees. We have done it. They asked us to bring BVN verification of these people, we collected those that have done their and told them that others have not because the time frame for BVN registration has not elapsed. Immediately, we wrote a circular to our employees and unions that they should they get their BVN as they will not be able to receive their money without it. I challenge the CBN to tell Nigerians, which other state they put through this type of process? This is injustice, it is unfair.
So do you think this is political?
It is political and unfortunate, Nobody has taken the trouble that I have taken to get this money for our state. This is not the money that can be mismanaged or misappropriated because the names of people, with the amount due to them, their account numbers and their BVN are there with biometric verification so how can you take out of the money except someone willingly gives you his own money?
I am confident it is not the intention of Mr. President. The clear intent of President Buhari was to help Nigerian workers; so I don’t want anybody to drag him into it. This mischief is between some APC leaders, especially from Kogi and the CBN Governor, who should explain to Nigerians why he (CBN Governor, Emefiele) is holding the money due to Kogi. Honourably, the CBN Governor should come out and tell the world what we have done wrong so that we can correct it; we are not infallible. But to tie it to election is bad for the democracy of this country.
We have been meticulous here. All outstanding pension and gratuities have been paid. We are also paying all current pensioners in the state. All these we are dealing with are historic, they are things we inherited.
Tell us how you have been able to improve the internally generated revenue of the state and infrastructure development
When I came into office, the state was generating between N150 and N180 million a month because Kogi is a civil service state with two major companies- Dangote Cement and Ajaokuta Steel. Ajaokuta Steel has been dead for 30 years; so Dangote is the main industry we have. We are encouraging people and other new industries are coming up; hopefully, in the next five to ten years, we will be able to leverage on solid minerals.
When we came in, we said we needed ways to survive as a state without federal allocation and we started taking steps. One was to clean up manual tax clearance. We decided to digitalize the process to manage our revenue generation; so, now, we are generating between N550 and N600 million a month, which is about 300 percent increase of what we met. We have blocked many of the loopholes where people were stealing money and we are continuing to improve. We have also widened the tax net; so it is ongoing reform which is improving our IGR strength.
Some of the infrastructure projects our government is doing is also tailored to improve the IGR of the state. We are building an 11-storey Kogi House in Abuja right in the Central Business District which will be a major income earner for the state. By next year, the building will be completed because they are on the 11th floor.
We are rebuilding what we called Kogi Hotel which will be a major comfort centre for tourists and visitors to the state. It will also serve as a revenue earner. We are also building a mega motor park, the first of its kind in northern Nigeria to tidy road transportation in the state. The terminal looks like an airport and our estimate is that about 10,000 people will go through that terminal and that will generate revenue for Kogi. It will be private sector driven so that it can survive. We are building a modern abattoir to also generate revenue.
We are building a golf course and renovating our Confluence Beach Hotel, to boost tourism in the state. We are building 500 housing units which we are going to sell and generate revenue to build more. So, many of the projects we are doing are to improve the income generation of the state, and we are not engaging in white elephant projects to impress anybody. We are doing practical projects that add meaning to the lives of the people.
We are building a modern diagnostic centre, a four-storey building close to our specialist hospital with modern and sophisticated equipment along with a laboratory, that will make this place a centre of excellence in medical care and diagnosis of illness; so instead of people rushing to Ilorin, Abuja, Enugu, Lagos, our people will be willing to come here, thereby generating medical tourists into the state once the facilities are launched.
With these projects, do you think you can defeat your opponent who is a former governor?
I’m confidence if it is based on ones record of performances. I’m confidence that I will win because the reality on ground is high on the propaganda. My conscience is clear that as governor of this state, I have given the state my best within the resources available. I am ready to do more for the people of the state, it’s up to them to re-elect me. I am happy to work for the state. If the election is free and fair I have no doubt that PDP will win.
Kogi state is historical with lot of mineral resources, what are you doing to create a better economy for the state?
We have a lot of historical things here. What I have done in the last 3 years is to tidy them up. Make them presentable, you don’t bring visitors to an untidied house. First thing tided your environment. The residence of Lord Lugard is on top of mount parti. We have made it the way it was when Lord Lugard was alive its neat tidied. It’s there where he sits and watches the river.
We have preserved it. We can now take people in confidence there where the union flag was posted here we have tidied it up. The cemetery of world war British soldiers who fought in the world war is all tidied up. The first primary school in Northern Nigeria we have tided it up. The first church we have tidied it up. So all those historical places we have tidied them up.
With a view of developing tourism, we are starting by inviting groups; students on excursion take them on tour. We bought buses for ministry of tourism. We have trained their attendance to know how to sell these things when they go they will talk to other people to come. We are starting from the foundation of tourism we can’t just start expecting people from aboard when our home is not tidied.
Then to investment, we have clean investment environment pass a public partnership law to keep investor confidence in investing in the state. To liberalize environment for investment, we have a one stop shop if you want permission. If you want land we don’t want you running around from one office to the other carry files people who will do it for you what we need is your expatriate or your capital to invest in our state.
To create employment and to improve the economy of our state, people like Dangote who are interested we have given them land to grow rice and sugarcane and other products. Promotion of commercial agriculture with the solid minerals it not as straight forward as its looks. What people fail to understand is that all minerals underground belong to the federal government, that state government cannot exploit It directly you have to get permission from ministry of solid minerals and we have tried to locate partners who will come and invest.
A lot of them are not confident because if as state government I need permission from federal government in my own state then where the confidence is. We have a change of federal government they are not confidence to come and invest their money. Look at the insecurity it has made it difficult to attract foreign investors. We are trying local investors. We have done a lot of work to attract investors to our state. This thing take time that is why you need continuity of leadership for one to build this foundation. That is why we are asking for another 4 years so that we can take the state to another level.
In Kogi state, the issue of power rotation has been in the forefront of this election, and your party is playing up that, do you think this can help your re-election?
I believe it will boost my position as a candidate in the party. For me power rotation is beyond that and the issue has been mismanaged over the year that is why we are where we are. I have been consistent when you look at my vision of uniting our people for a common purpose. Its gives respect to every component. But it’s not a very straight forward issue. That is where my opponent fail because he will say one thing and do another.
I’m consistent from day 1 I said look why are we triggering power shift. We bring it up only when people are running for the governorship of a state. When they are running for presidency or others no body talk about power shift but it’s a topic we need to discuss continuously don’t wait every 4 years. You want to be governor of a state because of so so tribe. We must move away from tribe and recognize everybody as equal and important. Everybody is intelligent. Everybody should be given a chance to run the affairs of the state. That is my position.
And I said if by the grace of God I have the chance to serve another term within the first 100 days I will establish a very powerful committee to that will look at this power rotation in detail. What are the economic, social and political considerations? How can we balance the power, because it’s all about interest. Because if the governor is from the east, deputy could be from the central or west. The SSG must come from the third zone. That is how we share it these positions. We need stakeholders to seat down work out this arrangement seriously and in details because it’s a matter of confidence. You have to win the confidence of the people. You have to make it a thing of discussion among young people an issue for women, elders everybody should make a contribution then we will have a common interest we will all support because if a PDP we support power rotation.
With the recent tribunal ruling against your party, do you think these rulings will not work against you?
No. I trust president Buhari, he is a man of equity a man of justice and he is a straight forward person. I believe that some of these things will pass. The judiciary has been a pillar of sustenance of democracy. We just need to step back a bit look at the issues I have not read the decisions in those tribunal. So am not competent to comment but let us not panic because we can still go to court of appeal or Supreme Court.
Do you nurse the fear of interference in the election?
It’s already happening. We can see their hands and fingers everywhere they are already coming in to manipulate the process. They are even importing thugs we are monitoring them and we capture them over time. The thing is if you believe in democracy and in the will of God then the will of God will perveil. Some of these people have evil intentions but truth will surely prevail over everything. Me am one worried. One thing my attitude to life is whatever is yours you will get no human being can stop it. They can try but at the end of the day you will prevail. I don’t want us to lose confidence in our judiciary system when the court calls no matter the manipulation of these people at the end of the day the truth will be out
The slogan for your re-election is 4+4, what is the central message for your campaign?
My message of 4 plus 4 is not just a message of continuity but continuity for consolidation and when I started I started with the blue print for a transformation for about 10 years period. So my vision is to unite the people of Kogi sate on a common purpose relying on our mineral resources and human capital.
We are less with very bright people. So I felt if I have the chance of doing another 4 years for a 10 years plan we have brought it to a reversible momentum just 20% left 2 more years so whoever takes over whether is opposition or PDP they have no choice but to complete those projects. I was telling you about the hostels many of these projects by the time we complete them the state will be transformed its will be economically solid and its will be attracted.
The legacy I want to leave is that of security peace and stability. That stability includes commercial and economic stability. So if I have the chance for the next four years consolidating on the things we are doing now, kogi state will be one of the 10 state to reckon with that is my vision very clear in my blueprint.
Source: Naij.com