Gov Suntai is a God fearing man – Bello

Written by Fidelis Mac-Leva Wednesday, 22 June 2011 11:07

Mr. Emmanuel Bello was last week appointed the Commissioner of Information, Culture and Home Affairs in Taraba State. In this interview, he describes Governor Suntai as a ‘God-fearing man’ and speaks on the governor’s plans for the next four years. Excerpts:

Do you feel Governor Danbaba Suntai made the right choices in picking his cabinet members?

Well, I’m one of them so yes, he did well. His choice was based on what each one of us will bring to the table as we strive to build Taraba together. Governor Suntai loves Taraba and has continued to place the state above his own desire or persona.

He is probably the only governor in Nigeria who does not make Abuja his home. He is always flying back to Jalingo after every engagement as a demonstration of his love for Taraba people. So when he picked his team, service to Taraba was paramount on his mind and he carried out the posting knowing that he would achieve results for the people.

That wasn’t how it was done in the past. In those days, people got appointed based on some primordial reasons like who you know and what not. But the current governor is a practical man. His selection was squarely based on scientific postulations. Of course, the names came in from the stakeholders, but it was the governor who took the final decision based on the competence of each one of us. Even the people feel good about his choice and they have demonstrated this by continually hailing his choices both at the commissioners and other aides’ levels. Already, our people believe that this team will deliver. You have to know that on his first meeting with us, the governor thoroughly touched our hearts. He told us to eschew sudden wealth. He practically preached to us, telling us that if we don’t put the people first in all our dealings he would be forced to reconsider our appointments. It was a touching moment, because he told us point blank that amassing wealth is vanity. He urged us to embrace contentment and look forward to leaving our mark on the history of the state. Now, when you are working with someone like that; someone who respects transparency and decency, well you know the administration is set to be different.

There are complains that the governor is not taking the opposition along and that he is rewarding only those who worked for him; how true is this?

No, the governor is getting faithful people in place. He gave the parable of the talent as contained in the Holy Writs. He said that he would do the same thing – that is – reward everyone according to his or her work. He is not speaking only of people’s work as politicians, but also their contribution at work. You were given a job to do; so have you done it well? Are you ripe for elevation? Will you do it with all of your heart? That is the sort of thing he is working on. And I believe it makes perfect sense to reward people who have worked for a cause and who stand out in their field. This is how to encourage excellence; be realistic.

How much do you think your team can really accomplish?

You know, the governor had already achieved much in his first term. If you knew Jalingo- the state capital- and how it was, then compare it with what we have now you would better appreciate what I’m saying. Jalingo used to be a one road town. That is one road came into the town and went out the other end; it was just horrible. Today, Jalingo is fast catching up with the rest of the country as a befitting capital – complete with street lights all over the place. We now have many roads criss-crossing the city. He did all that in three years of effective governance. Yet some folks had been there for the last 12 years and had nothing to show for it. Elsewhere in the state, the governor also started opening up roads. Like the Mararaba-Kurmi road. For years, the people from that part had nothing but tears and woes due to the bad road there. Immediately he came in, Suntai opened that road.

In education, he was the governor who gave the state its first university. the Federal Government also gave us a university. Overnight, our dear Taraba had two universities. We were almost in tears. We remembered when we used to travel very far for university education. Now our sons and daughters can stay back home and get good certificates.

It was Suntai who revolutionised the civil service in Taraba by improving on the welfare of the workers. When he came, some permanent secretaries didn’t even have a means of transport. He changed all that; he provided befitting offices and better rides.

Now that Suntai has been re-elected, what should Tarabans expect in the next four years?

The point is that if Suntai achieved all that in a matter of two to three years with all the troubles of his first tenure, you can imagine the good we would do to Taraba people in the next four years. Already his first action in office is to approve the construction of the Garba Chede road. Once that road is fixed, it would link up over 14 local government areas with the state capital and as far as Adamawa state. That is the sort of visionary leadership he is giving the state. He is also thinking of giant strides in tourism, culture, information and other sectors. So our people can expect more roads, more rural electrification projects and all the other indices of development.

The election left many surprised because there was a strike action at the time. There were predictions that the strike will cripple Suntai’s chances as it was making him unpopular. By the way, the strike has been called off since, right after the election. It wasn’t really necessary in the first place. And many workers in Taraba believe they don’t need the strike especially in a state where the governor does not joke with their welfare. They also reasoned that no one was benefitting from the strike other than the labour leaders. A situation where the labour leaders have their kids in private schools but ask teachers in public schools to down tools, that is wicked. Who suffers the most? The masses.

Labour leaders are big men who can afford private clinics and other amenities while the strike lasted. But we have put that behind us now. Truth is that there are about 16,500 workers in Taraba. Now, that is not the entire population and we have close to three million people. When the leadership of the workers started making spurious demands of a salary raise, the governor said look we are already paying one of the best salaries in the country.

The governor also paid off huge backlog of pension arrears owed by the previous administration. Also, if we implement the demand of labour leaders we would be spending over 80% of our allocations on salaries. Where do we then get money to take care of the rest of the state and the millions who are not civil servants? So when we went to the field to canvass for votes, the grassroots was sympathetic and understood with us. We were giving them good governance already and they wanted us to continue. That was how we won.

But your opponents are at the tribunal alleging that the elections were rigged?

That is their charge and so they have to prove it. But just as it was in the presidential election, this was one of the most transparent elections I have ever seen in my life. There were many factors at play but in the end, what helped the people to make up their mind for Suntai was his performance. The people were particularly impressed with his effort at providing peace and security. Taraba State, and we give God the glory for this, has been spared all the troubles associated with insecurity in the North East.

Our governor is an expert of sorts in this area and the people like this. Besides, the people like his mannerism – his gentle approach to all issues, his seriousness and forthrightness. They see him as a man they could trust. His opponents were too loud and brash and inadvertently gave the impression that they could not be trusted. But Suntai is a God-fearing man. And everyone knows this in the state.

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