There has been some noise on Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar’s indigeneship of Bauchi State and speculations that his name might be substituted by that of another All Progressives Congress aspirant for the seat of the Governor against 2019. Alhaji Danladi OC Kwano, a radio media aide to the government, clears the air on these issues and a lot more in this interview with our Bauchi Correspondent SANI MUH’D SANI. Excerpts.
There is the speculation that the candidacy of Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar might be cancelled and substituted by another candidate. How true is this?
This is only speculations and the work of the opposition, especially the Peoples Democratic Party and some forces within the All Progressives Congress itself. Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar has been given the certificate by the Independent National Electoral Commission . INEC is the
only electoral body that clears any candidate after primary elections and clearance from the party of which the aspirant is contesting. So, are these opposition and forces thinking that INEC is a political party led by moron politicians? There is no way INEC can give you that certificate without scaling through all laid down electoral processes and those electoral processes are laws guiding elections, even if the political party of which a certain aspirant is contesting has its rules and regulations. Based on this, the rumor going round town on Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar’s substitution is fabricated only by politicians that are trying to win elections on the foundation of lies, treachery and deceit. And any politician whose foundation are laid on these three vices cannot offer anything tangible to the people that elected him. The electorate must be very aware and they should be able to identify them early before elections because as vendors of slander, they cannot, if elected into office, respect their office, respect themselves and respect the people that voted for them. As liars and deceivers they can one day lead the state into chaos .
But some people are alleging that APC
primary elections did not hold in Bauchi…
Does these set of rumour mongers take INEC officials and APC leaders as bunch of fools? INEC works closely with the political parties in tandem with the electoral laws. The APC crisis in Zamfara State is a very good example . Did INEC publish any name for the Senate, Governorship and other contested offices of the APC in that state? Capital NO. because the National Working Committee of the APC did not send any name to INEC; even if it did, INEC believes the elections there did not conform with its laid down procedures. Our Governor, lawfully, as a member of the Nigeria Bar Association, tackled all the
problems that some key members of the APC tried to put on his ways , it is a known fact that some frontline members of the APC didn’t want the election to take place. So, they started trooping to Abuja to scuttle the concentration of the leaders of the APC at the state level, but this was not achieved and Governor Muhammad Abdullahi emerged as the winner. As for crisis, no one can point to a single crisis that erupted after the primary elections in Bauchi State because there was none. The two frontline contestants did not fight the governor, they
are not talking, they did not channel any complain anywhere . Only one is talking and he’ll soon get tired and shut up. I assure you that our party is more than united with no element of disunity.
Some are saying that there is a backlog of salary arrears, pension and gratuities of workers unpaid by this administration with some of them going to court.
May be it is a campaign gimmick. I think whoever is saying this is not conversant with the activities of this government and the people of Bauchi State and needs to get his facts right because those feeding him with the information are deceiving him or her .The more he talks about this, the more foolish he’ll look. It is true when Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar came on board, these problems came up but because of prudence, accountability and transparency associated with the day to day running of his administration, he was able to pay all outstanding arrears he inherited from his predecessor. This, I can authoritatively tell you, it’s the backlog of two of his predecessors, not only the last one in the state but he
cleared all of these. Don’t forget so soon that Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar is one of the first two governors in the Nigerian federation that agreed without persuasion to pay the new minimum wage that some governors are still grumbling about. In Bauchi, accountability matters because the state has a lot of work force and
Government salaries earners constitute almost half of the state population. Despite that, he pays salary every month without delay. You will remember that when Bauchi started having salary problems some two years back was because of the garnishee order by an industrial court that mandated the payments of some arrears of councillors owed by
the state from the administration of Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu. That was from around 2005 to 2009, you can imagine the years but not a single of them went to court until they were instigated by politicians that are not wishing the state well. But before the garnishee order, the present administration in Bauchi State had been paying salaries smoothly, I think this is what angered the enemies of this administration who instigated the councilors to go to court. That was the only time Bauchi had salary problems.
It is widely speculated that Muhammad Adullahi Abubakar is not an indigene of the state, a reason many political pundits attribute for the attack unleashed on his administration by some prominent persons…
It is high time for people to stop taking the issue of indigeneship as criteria for electing people into elective offices. We believe we are practising democracy in Nigeria and what is democracy, it is interpreted as government of the people, by the people and for the people. If it is government by the people in quotes, bold and capital, then let the people make their choices because the government is by them and will be for them. It is because the government again is for them that only adult are lawfully allowed to vote during all elections. An adult decides who is the right person to lead his affairs, nobody can open eyes and say vote Mr. so so. Governor Abubakar has worked for the state for over half of his life, dedicated
to the well being of the people of the state and pursuing government interest wherever he served during both civilian and military administrations, nobody grumbled. Why now? On the issue of indigeneship, if one is to authenticate that, he has superseded all those unscrupulous characters that are trying to make this a point. Firstly, Governor Abubakar can contest the stool of the Galadima of Bauchi if the stool is vacant because he is from the lineage of those who held the power of that stool. He is a heir to it and you cannot be a heir to
anything unless by being either a paternal child of the owner of that property or the owner decides to trust and make you his or her child.
In this case, Governor Abubakar is a paternal child of those that became the Galadima from the day the Emirate Council of Bauchi was created. Go to Jahun , ask for the house of Abdullahi Sarkin Gero, they are well known. That is his parents house. When the founder of the Bauchi Emirate came, the Yakubu of Bauchi met five traditional ruling houses. Among them is the Galadima house and this man, our governor, Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar, is from the lineage of that house. Why is anyone making noise? Doesn’t it have political
connotation?
