Post-Poll Violence Was Deliberate – Zamfara Governor-Elect

Leadership (Abuja)

Chibuzo Ukaibe

18 May 2011

interview

Abuja — Fresh from his electoral victory, Zamfara State Governor-elect, Hon. Abubakar Yari Abdul-Aziz in this interview with Chibuzo Ukaibe speaks on his agenda, affirms that ex-governor Ahmed Yerima is his godfather and gives his verdict on the post-poll violence that claimed over 800 lives.

From records of your public life, it does appear that you do not have the requisite administrative background to run a state?

First, let me say this about governance. What is important is the commitment you bring into it. It has a lot to do with the heart and not just about having an administrative background. In any case, I know that I have an administrative background. You should understand that I just didn’t jump from school to become a member of the National Assembly. Before then, I was the Secretary of the All Nigerian Peoples Party and in 1999. We won an election which we ran the government for eight years. I later became the state chairman of my party up till 2007 and in 2007, I became a lawmaker and God has been merciful to me. So it is not a matter of administrative background but the heart to do it.

Can you give us an insight into your developmental agenda for Zamfara State?

You see, I don’t know what you guys call development because development comes from so many perspectives. Now if you want to say someone develops a state, some people would like to see the infrastructures, roads, secretariat being built, government houses etc. But if you look at the economy carefully, for instance, my own state is mostly dependent on the revenue that accrues to it from the Federation Account. What is generated internally is not much. And so one needs to ask some questions in an attempt to develop the state. What type of developmental programmes are you expecting me to concentrate on? First, you know the state is backward in education.

If you do not educate your people, forget about development. Zamfara State is one of the states that live below the poverty level. So, we have a lot of task ahead. As a governor who has the opportunity to manage the state administration for four years, I have to prioritize. I will do my best in the areas of education and poverty eradication. I will also concentrate on the provision of infrastructure. I believe there is an urgent need to address the lapses in the education sector. For example, out of 3,000 students that sat for WAEC, only 36 got the requirement to go to university. All those things need to be addressed and they require resources.

You were one of the few candidates that were able to defeat incumbent governors, how did you achieve this?

Well, the way I achieved mine is different from other people. We have a ladder. For instance as I said, I have been a secretary of the party, a chairman and now a serving member of the House of Representatives. As I told you earlier, I was supposed to be the deputy governor but one of the political arithmetics changed the equation. So, all those things are part of it. And you can see that when people came for voting, they didn’t vote the party, they voted for the person. You should also remember that Zamfara State is the only state that the deputy governor succeeded his boss and you know what happened to him. He quit from the party that brought him to power and jumped to another party. People have that in mind and what he did really gave us sympathy. Initially, the plan was for me to be governor. Later, after a consensus, they said ‘okay, Mr. Man, leave it and take deputy governor.’ I accepted it. But because I was the party chairman then, the governor-to-be was not comfortable with me. His supporters said because I was in charge of the party machinery, I could impeach him.

When I observed that, I said if that is the case let me look at an independent seat and contest. The next possible seat was the Senate and the then Governor Sani Ahmed Yerima was going to the Senate. The next available seat was the House of Representatives. So that is how I came to House. Added to this is the fact that Yerima had so many programmes that the people benefitted from despite the fact that the state has little resources. He managed the resources very well more especially to develop humanity. For example, when Yerima came on board in 1999, the scholarship of students studying in university was N1,050 for the entire season. Yerima decided to increase the money. Students studying sciences were being given N7,000 and those in the humanities 5,000 monthly.

For the HND students, whether engineering or banking, it was N4,000 monthly and diploma students were collecting N3,000. When Shinkafi came on board, all these things were stopped. The next area where Yerima excelled was in the agriculture sector in which he introduced the system of agriculture in Ethiopia. Being an agrarian state, the farmers were very happy with the system, whereby a farmer would be given a loan for fertilizers, a loan for grain seeds, a loan to buy farming tools. When you harvest, you will not pay with money but with your agriculture products. And if one kilo or a tonne of maize is being sold at N20,000, the government will buy at N40,000.

What are our plans for creating jobs for the teeming youths in the state?

There are so many ways you can create jobs. Through the programme that we are planning reduce poverty, we will create civilized jobs. We all know that most graduates do not want to engage in handiwork but would rather opt for government jobs or practice what they studied. No doubt, the government will not be able to accommodate all of them. But we are planning to create an atmosphere whereby people can engage in private practice outside the government jobs. We also intend to create skill acquisition centres where we are going to train our youths and give them jobs.

You’re being portrayed you as the political son of the former governor of Zamfara State, Yerima. Would you accept that fact that the former governor is like a godfather to you?

Yes. Whether we like it or not, Yerima played a gigantic role in the governance of Zamfara State. So therefore you can give it any name; say godfather, whatever you call it, you are right.

Then what is your take on Sharia?

My opinion about Sharia in Zamfara State is no different from the feeling of the average Zamfara person. The aim of Sharia is to sensitize the society. That is part of what gave us victory because all those things have been in place since the administration of Yerima. It inculcates discipline and good living. For instance, in Zamfara, a 10-year-old child cannot experience the despicable things going on in beer parlours while we do not expect to see a 14-year-old in the gathering of commercial sex workers. After Yerima left, some of these vices started creeping back into the system such that, today, the people of Zamfara are not happy with the present administration. I plan to implement Sharia law and do my best to eliminate those things. We are going to modernize the system according to the law of Sharia.

You accept that Senator Yerima is your godfather and at the same time said you plan to modernize Sharia law in the state. May we know those things you plan to do differently?

Not really different from what Yerima did. But I will do my best as a governor to ensure that we have a peaceful coexistence as we did before. You should remember that I was a chairman under him, and we never had any quarrel for one day.

What would ascribe to the fact that most serving lawmakers in the National Assembly lost their seats and would not be returning?

You see, this is a tradition. We improved. This time we got about 27%. The truth is that a lot of attention is being given to the National Assembly and the competition is tough. For instance, now you can be a senator before you even finish; some persons would have decided on who should take over from you. And so, you will not even get nominated for a second term. Most of our colleagues long lost their ticket at the nomination stage with the exception of those that lost and defected to other parties to get tickets. But we do have some problems in the National Assembly because some governors think they are the determining factors for the Senate or National Assembly.

Unless that is out of the system, then you cannot see changes in the ways things are being done. In some other countries, a congressman can stay in the Congress for thirty to forty years, some twenty years. But, in Nigeria, the issue is not the same because of this so called zoning. When I came to the National Assembly four years back, before I was even inaugurated, the government had started looking for a candidate that would replace me four years after because of the zoning arrangement. With time, I believe we will see a lot of changes because these persons did not lose elections because they are not qualified to be at the National Assembly or because they did not perform in their first term. They lost because they were victims of diverse political interests and calculations.

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