Dr. Muhammad Sani Bello, Mainan Zazzau, is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State. A former Commissioner of Science and Technology in the state, Bello recently resigned as a Financial Controller of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In this interview, Bello said no faction can destroy PDP’s resolve to unseat APC government in the state, in 2019. He spoke on the imminent collapse of the APC government in Kaduna, insisting that the el-Rufai’s administration has not lived up to expectations.
Only 14 month is left for APC to complete its first term in office, some Nigerians especially those of the PDP are saying the APC government has failed to fulfill its campaign promises. What are your views on this?
With regards to unfulfilled promises by the APC government, I think we can look at this issue from two perspectives; the perspective of denial and inability. It is unfortunate that the APC government has denied making promises to Nigerians especially on issues concerning living standard and well being of people. The second perspective is their inability to fulfil the actual promises that are supposed to be fulfilled by any government like protection of lives and property of the citizens and provision of basic social amenities. People voted for this government with the hope that changes will come within the shortest possible time, but to their greatest disappointments their hopes and aspirations is not different from what it was claimed to be in the past. Meaning, not much difference was made.
You can’t see fuel anywhere, poor supply of electricity, bad roads everywhere and etc. I think no matter what, these are things that cannot be denied, they are obvious and every Nigerian feels it whether negative or positive. I am seeing a possibility for the PDP to return to power as a result of inability of APC to perform. Nigerians are no longer in darkness, they are becoming more aware of their rights, any government that fails to deliver would have no chance to remain in power again. This is a remarkable progress in our democracy.
Few weeks after PDP held its convention, a new group that looked like a faction from the party emerged, and they opened a secretariat in Abuja. With this negative development, how do you see it within the context of PDP’s desire to return to power 2019?
No. No, I don’t see it as a threat at all. You know, whenever certain things happen in the political arena you don’t just dismiss them .If you look at the struggle and effort of PDP to remain a strong opposition party, capable of unseating the incumbent administration, you don’t expect those who don’t want it to happen to keep quiet. This is how I see it. But be that as it may, I don’t think this faction would have any impact to make. The convention was judged as successful and transparent, and new leaders have emerged. So I don’t think there is any threat, because there is no basis for factions in the first place, talk less of opening a different office for the PDP. If they want to form a new party, they are free to do so. At the moment INEC is busy registering more political parties in the country, so anybody who is not happy with the way and manner PDP convention was conducted or the elected leadership, has an option to accept or to form a new political party. INEC made guidelines for the registration of political party so simple and easy. I don’t think anybody who is really serious will want to go and open a parallel PDP office.
Recently, Kaduna State has been heated up by series of controversies on the way the APC government under Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai is handling issues . What is your take?
Honestly, I am not in the best position to make any comment on what is happening in Kaduna State, though, the situation is so obvious and glaring and people are on the ground to judge the situation. my inability to further comment is not because I am a stakeholder or because I am not among the sacked 21, 000 Primary school teachers or one of those civil servants who are partially sacked or traders who has shop that was demolished at Kasuwan Bacci or living at Gbaygi village protesting for forceful evacuation, but I choose not to talk much because the effected people are in the best position to give assessment about El-Rufai’s administrations especially as its affect their life, positively or negatively through his action or inaction.
There has been agitations and clamour for you to contest for governorship in Kaduna State, What is your response to this?
Honestly, I am not unaware of the agitation requesting me to contest or aspire for governorship, but you know it is not yet time. All what I am doing now is consultations with people , parents , brothers and sisters , political associates , business friends and bureaucrats. All these people have to be consulted regarding the issue of contesting for governorship in Kaduna State. And as you know anybody that tells you go and contest, you should ask him, what is your contribution? Are you coming as a partner or supporter ? All these things are required before someone makes a decision but as I said it is not yet time. INEC has not informed us on when the political activities will commence. I think there is still time for consultations, and I believe that soon INEC will make information available on when to start the game. I hope by then I must have concluded my widely consultations and make definite decision .
You have a rich experience from the academic, then to civil service both in the state and at the federal levels. What do you think are the problems of Kaduna State?
Well, this is not the first time I will be venturing into politics. I aspired for the governorship in 2015 and held political appointments in the state. When I was appointed commissioner in 2007 and worked for three and half years before I disengaged, I have always believed that the problems of Kaduna State can be tackled from the three E’s. The first is Education; the second is Environment and third is Economy. Talking about education, any reform you want to carry out no matter how good it is or beneficial to the people, once you don’t enlighten the public about those reforms and agenda, the people will resist them with all their strength. So when I say education I am not only referring to where people will be enrolled into private school up to tertiary institution, I am talking about general enlightenment of the citizens on where we are , where we are coming from , where we want to be and where we should be. So under this, all issues relating to misunderstanding that led to strike or certain unrest will be handled. Again education is about people knowing about their neighbours and be their brother’s keeper. What is happening in Southern Kaduna between Fulani herdsmen and native for instance will not happen because the people would have been well educated and enlightened. Of course, the normal activities of education where you will go to the class and become a good citizen in terms of quality of education are equally very important but you need to combine the two.
Moral education is very important is society’s moulding. The second E, is related to environment, when I was in government I discovered that most diseases that take people to the hospital and for which government spends 60 per cent of the resources voted to health sector, are diseases related to environment. For instance, the mosquito bite that leads to malaria is an environmental disease. If you deal with environmental issue, you will have a significant reduction in diseases. When your environment is clean with trees all over, you’ll have clean breath, and the water people you drink will be clean. Environment related issue will also include provisions of shelter for people in the state, good plan to get houses for citizens so that they can have a decent life.
The Third E, is Economy, which has to do with the favourable environment for economic activities that will pave way for peace and security. The next thing is to have source of power or improved power supply in a way which requires serious government intervention. We also have a skill acquisition where you teach people skills they can use to earn income and make good living. Unfortunately, the present administration of APC under El-Rufai has not adequately addressed the problems.
With all these problems you listed, what gave you the confidence that PDP will win 2019 gubernatorial election and make the difference?
Why not? PDP from my understanding is set to unseat the incumbent government of APC in Kaduna State next year, for a number of reasons; first, the present administration has failed to satisfy the needs of Kaduna State citizens. Look, the success of any administration depends on its sincerity, in other words, whatever you want to do you must have sincerity of purpose. What I am seeing now in this administration is the creation of distrust and lack of appreciation, in fact there is dissatisfaction on the part of the citizens of Kaduna State for what El- Rufai’s government is doing. People appear to have lost confidence in the administration especially in service delivery. The PDP government has been around in Kaduna State for 16 years and whatever you can see in terms of development in the state was done by the PDP government. So if people compare what PDP did to the current APC era, you will find out that the majority of the people will say that they prefer PDP to the APC government.
Considering the prevailing political climate in the state, what will be your advice to politicians?
Well as for me, I am still consulting , I expect that anybody who wants to take the lead should either go on consultation or if the person’s mind is made up to aspire or contest , he should wait for INEC to release the Rules of the Game. I think it is too early to come out now and say you want to be this or that. INEC has not blown the whistle, so I want to appeal to aspirants to abide by the rules of the game.
|Sun
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