Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is one of the leading presidential aspirants on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress. In this interview with select journalists in Abuja, Bello, whose campaign slogan is ‘HOPE 2023″, speaks on why he remains a candidate to beat in the race for the APC ticket for the top job in the country and how over 20 million Nigerians with voters’ cards have already identified willingness to vote him during the 2023 general elections. TIMOTHY AGBOR brings excerpts:
Considering the big names like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Yemi Osinbajo and others that are in the race for the APC ticket with you, aren’t you afraid of these political heavyweights?
The answer is capital no because I trust myself and my party. I believe in my record and I believe in what I am going to do for the party. And I know that I will win. I believe I have the capacity. I respect the founding fathers of this great party, starting from President Muhammadu Buhari, the leader of our party, down to Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, one of the founding fathers of our party, and the rest of them. They are the founding fathers of our party. They are the foundation laying fathers and members of this great party. But, you can never have a building without a foundation; at the same time, that building can never be completed without building on top of it. A foundation alone doesn’t make a building. So, we are building on what has been laid on the ground. I am confident that at the appropriate time, they will actually cherish what they have started profoundly and all Nigerians, including myself, bought into it and it’s working already because the APC has a government that Mr. President is leading and heading today. They actually cherish it and are looking forward to someone who will take over from them and I fit perfectly into that job.
Also, I know that there are other champions in the race. If you want to be a champion, definitely you should meet with champions. And I believe I will beat other champions to be the champion. In APC, on a politicking realm, it’s a game of numbers of which democracy is even paramount. I represent the majority as far as the politics of democracy is concerned. I represent the majority of Nigerians and also women and that was why when I was saddled with the responsibility, it’s not a surprise that the party chose me to lead or chair the committee that drove over 41 million members to the party. They saw the founding fathers and they saw me, the builders of the party. If Nigerians find it very interesting and they have decided to heed our advice and calls, they have equally seen the performance of the man that was leading or championing the desire, myself, Yahaya Bello, and the performance of the APC led by President Muhammadu Buhari. Sometimes, the report is different from reality. We brought in 41 million members and we are still counting. And let me tell you that with just a minimum of three groups, we have recorded over 21 million Nigerians with their PVCs who are ready to vote GYB into the presidency come 2023. The records and data are there. They speak for themselves and these are facts verifiable. So, I don’t think that he who possesses these credentials will ever be afraid to go into a contest. We are in this game to win. We are in this game to restore hope to Nigerians. And that is what our founding fathers are looking forward to and that will happen by the grace of God.
“I represent the majority as far as the politics of democracy is concerned. I represent the majority of Nigerians and also women and that was why when I was saddled with the responsibility, it’s not a surprise that the party chose me to lead or chair the committee that drove over 41 million members to the party
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Why have you been emphasizing on young ones taking up the mantle of leadership in the country?
Let me just give you one analogy and let us take it very seriously. As a father, you grow from your young age to old age. And what is usually the prayer of our fathers? They pray that when they grow old, let their children succeed them and do better than them. I know that reasoning will prevail on our elders and our fathers that we the upcoming ones are ready to build on their legacies, they will give us that opportunity so that Nigeria will actually have hope for the future. They have done their best and we appreciate them. That’s why we say, let’s come and build on what you have started because governance is not an easy task, it doesn’t only require energy to sit, eat and sleep, it also requires energy to move, to be able to bring welfare and harmony and fix things. A lot of achievements that were recorded in this country were recorded by people in their young age. They are still recording lots of successes now, I am not saying they are not, but we can do more with the younger generation. Today, in Kogi State, we are managing the little resources available to us because young men and women that are saddled with the responsibility along with me are putting in their best to ensure that we deploy the little resources and have maximum output. Old men can do well but we the young ones are doing it practically more and better. So, we will not stop calling on the younger generation to come on board. Of course, we have the number, and I think we shall use it effectively and judiciously.
How much of a relationship does your government have with the media?
When I came on board, I was advised to be friends with the media. Honestly, whether we like it or not, media is expensive. I look at reports of development and what do I report? What would the media report if I did not perform? So, I focus on the job so that at the end, there will be things for the media to report. If I had wasted the little resources since we came on board in Kogi State, I don’t know what we would have been reporting today. But, today, we thank God that we have modest achievements and successes to report to the world. And that’s why we are having this engagement. It started last year, up to this moment and we will continue to engage the media. You are our gatekeepers and we expect you to take this message to the larger society.
It’s obvious that your fight against insecurity in Kogi State has yielded positive results and you deserve commendation for that. Now, if you are voted as president of Nigeria, how will you tackle insecurity in the North East and other volatile parts of the nation?
Issues of insecurity can never be discussed openly; same goes for the strategy and the tactics to be used. But, sometimes, what happens physically that you see or call insecurity is just an end product of the process and procedure or all the plans that are brought to bear before they were hatched. So, what we do to ensure that does not happen is not more than what we report to the outsiders. So, my strategies, my tactics and methods, surely, I won’t disclose them openly but all I can assure you is that we have achieved it in Kogi State; Kogi State is more difficult than North East. Kogi State is more difficult and complex than the whole of the country because there are certain sections of this country that are homogenous. In our state, even a senatorial district is so heterogeneous but we still achieved success in terms of security.
Nigeria borders are porous. If you are elected, how will you tackle this and will you name and shame sponsors of terrorists?
In Kogi State, we didn’t just name and shame sponsors of terrorists, that’s not enough. We dealt decisively with those who sponsored terrorism, crimes and criminalities. And it will not be different when we assume as President and Commander- in-Chief of Armed Forces by the grace of God come 2023. To secure our borders and our land, it will require technology; it will require operation with our locals and owners of the land.
We will ensure that everybody lives up to his responsibility. Just a while ago, I gave an instruction to some of our people back in Kogi State and the response I received has been wonderful. I called the local government chairman and I told him that “Your job is at stake. The recent rise in kidnapping and cultism in your domain will not be tolerated again, you are the security officer of the local government, if you can’t secure it, I will take over your job and secure it. Therefore, you have 72 hours only to do the needful. Your time starts counting now. This message is applicable to all other local government chairmen. This is the very last warning. Before you cause embarrassment to our government and stain our good record, I will take decisive action against you.” Things will not be different when I become the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The response has been so wonderful and I can assure you that you are going to see a new Kogi State again from this moment. I am in charge of Kogi State.
“If I am given the opportunity to select, I will simply go the way of women to be my Vice President. But where that woman is going to come from, I will equally allow my party to make that decision
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There are reports that some workers in Kogi State are not being paid their salaries. How do you react to this?
I will rather say, be an investigative journalist by trying to inquire, who is that civil servant in Kogi that is being owed salaries and why? Go and carry out your assignment and report it publicly to Nigerians about the state of payment of workers’ salaries in Kogi State and their welfare. I take time to go through our website once again, I think we are the only state in the federation that has published its financial statements since 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and even 2021 and it’s ongoing. All these are online and payments of salaries are contained therein. Everything, from salary account to each and every individual’s account. Go and verify, including payrolls. All the workings, everything is there. Do that, let it be your own assignment so that it won’t sound as if we are not doing our homework. As a Governor, I am not just the one that has come to take care of salaries alone, I have the responsibility of managing the financial resources, the human resources, the material resources, even the spiritual resources of an enclave called Kogi State. That is what we have been doing and we are getting all the successes and achievements in Kogi State even with payment of workers’ salaries. By way of refreshing our memories, sometimes in 2017, this particular ugly incident happened about the utilisation of the first N20 billion and we went as far as taking inner spreads of newspapers and publishing the utilisation down to the last Kobo. And all of these are there on our website. If we find any worker that claims not to be paid, such a person can show us the evidence or even publish the pay slip. I don’t frown at people telling me the truth; tell me the truth so that I can serve my people better because that’s what I am elected to do. But, it will be uncharitable that fake news is used against me. That will not be fair.
Many Nigerians have criticized President Muhammadu Buhari in his appointments and they described them as being lopsided. Have you ever advised Buhari on this?
I am the Governor and Chief Executive Officer of Kogi State, I don’t have the responsibility of appointing or advising Mr. President on whom to appoint. Mr. President is constitutionally permitted and allowed to permit whom he so wishes to serve in his administration. I respect him (Buhari) and his decision. If we have issues with that, I feel Mr. President is a listening President, take it up to him and he will surely address that. He has the reason for appointing whoever he has appointed. It is the responsibility of those he appoints to carry out their job and do it effectively to the satisfaction of Mr. President and the whole of Nigerians.
How would you bring the regions in the country which are agitating for self-independence together when you become the president?
In Kogi State, we have done it and we are going to do it in Nigeria. First of all, I will ensure that you see who I am and you should understand that I don’t tolerate segregation and division. I have been able to practice that in Kogi State. In fact, it will interest you to understand that in Kogi State, when the executive council cabinet is sitting, no same ethnic group or language or religion must sit close to each other.
We ensure that if any cabinet member is for instance, from North East, and another is from North East, they will never sit close to each other. If one cabinet member is a Christian and another is also a Christian, they will never sit close to each other. That’s the way we make our sitting arrangements in the cabinet. That’s where we started from in preaching unity and tolerance and we ensure that whatever touches one, touches all, whether good or otherwise. We solidarise and sympathise with one another. We are the ones that citizens of Kogi State are looking up to. So, how we conduct our affairs, starting from the seat of power, matters a lot and that’s how we carry it down to the grassroots. We ensure that even those who are said not to be from the state originally, are parts and parcel of the traditional council. If you are an Igbo man or Yoruba man, a Fulani man or the so-called non-indigene, everybody is represented in my government, everybody is represented in the traditional council, everybody is represented in any form of organisation or group in Kogi State. That’s how the unity remains. And judging by that body language, everybody is together. And I ensure that there is an equitable distribution and utilisation of the meagre resources that are available to us in Kogi State. You will never go to any senatorial district or one local government and see that one has more than the other. We balance it, starting from the budgetary provision to the execution. Then, we ensure that even in the civil service, when I assumed office, we discovered that a particular local government has many Permanent Secretaries while some will have very few or none. So, we ensure that we balance it, increase the number of Permanent Secretaries to the required number and it’s evenly distributed among the local governments and the state constituencies. And nobody has any issue with that. And we ensure that once you are appointed, you do your job. If you don’t do your job and you have to be replaced, the replacement will come from where the original person was appointed. That’s how we tried to balance it and of course, that’s the culture in Kogi State.
Nigeria is known for borrowing and our debt profile keeps rising. How will you navigate the huge debt burden of the country in delivering on your manifestos if elected President?
Kogi State is the only state that has revealed her debt profile even when there was the first recession and during COVID-19. It’s there on our website or Wikipedia. And when we come on board in the presidency, we will ensure that we reduce or eliminate wastage and ensure that we go for the essentials by ensuring that resources are judiciously utilized. I want to assure you that if Nigeria resources are judiciously utilized, we don’t have business in borrowing. That’s the truth. If we look inwards and ensure that we utilize our own resources financially, materially and humanly and deploy technology to ensure that all wastages are blocked, then our resources will be enough to take care of our needs and continue to reduce our debts.
You are from North Central, where will you pick your Vice President from?
Where the Vice President will come from is in the hands of my party. The party will take that decision. But, if I am given the opportunity to select, I will simply go the way of women to be my Vice President. But where that woman is going to come from, I will equally allow my party to make that decision.
