Mohammed Abubakar Audu is the eldest son of the late Prince Abubakar Audu, former governor of Kogi State and the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate in the 2015 governorship election. The junior Audu is a frontline aspirant for the office of the governor of state in the forthcoming November election on the platform of APC. In this interview with journalists at his residence, he explained why he, along with other aspirants, is clamouring for direct primaries in Kogi. Our correspondent, Wale Ibrahim was there.
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The decay in the system in the last four years is enormous. We have moved from a situation where not only viable and sustainable infrastructures are being provided for the people of the state to where we cannot even meet our salary obligations. There are no more agricultural potentials in the state, no viable private sector in the state. Everything seems to be very chaotic in the state. Every day, you hear of protest, kidnapping, killing, armed robbery, suicide attempt, among other ugly happenings in the state. All that we hear about our beloved state is bad news and our people are suffering in squalor. I know that the late Prince Abubakar Audu intended to treat the people very well, but unfortunately he died at the point when victory was knocking at his door. And the same people, who stood under the rain, under the sun, queued up patiently and voted for him so that he could change their narratives for better are the ones suffering and passing through untold hardships. Today, what we are seeing and feeling was the reverse of what Prince Abubakar Audu had in mind for the people of the state. We cannot sit down and allow the people to wallow in abject poverty for no just cause. Kogi State is supposed to be the richest state in Northern Nigeria because we have abundant mineral resources of different kinds. We have arable land suitable for agricultural activities. We have a very virile youth population to harness any level of production that the state intends to engage in. |
But today, the current administration lacks the idea to move the state forward. This administration has enjoyed the highest revenue from the federation account since the creation of the state. This is an administration that receives over N4 billion monthly as allocation.The administration did not deem it fit to look into issues of education, health, road construction and they cannot pay salaries to state and local government workers, which is very embarrassing. The staff screening was endless and the state does not have the nominal roll to show that this is the actual amount they pay, as salary on monthly basis. Now in the last three years, the administration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello cannot point at a single project started and completed. This is bad news to the people of the state because that was not what they craved for when they stood firm to vote for APC in 2015.
So, I took it upon myself alongside other well meaning Kogites to ensure we bring this reign of terror to an end and we are very determined to do it and we want to change the fortune of the people to very positive tidings. We will on our own increase the monthly allocation that comes to the state through a higher level of internally generated revenue.
We have perfected our plans to rake in over N4 billion monthly, as revenue for the state. We have also perfected our plans that during the first nine months of our tenure, we will be able to have over 50,000 young men and women fully engaged into a viable venture that will give them meaningful life.
This plan is not a joke because we will involve the Bank of Industry, BoI, and other critical stakeholders. We will also create potentials for manufacturing, such as food manufacturing outfit that will provide jobs for our teeming youth and having done that we will be able to address youth restiveness. We will be able to address scarce resources we will use for development. We will address inadequate health care facilities. We will address lack of proper and qualitative education. We will address the decay in infrastructure that is all over the state.
I have been travelling to Kogi East in the past 20 years and it is the same road we have been using. There is no refurbishing, no remodeling and nothing has been done to improve on the quality of the road. By now, we are supposed to be discussing rail line across the state to travel from Okun land to the east and from the east to the central senatorial district of the state. But nothing viable is going on at all. Our incursion into politics is only for positive development and we mean what we say.
How can you clinch the ticket of APC, considering the fact that the incumbent governor is also contesting?
I can tell you that I have been in politics and my first attempt in politics was when my father had an accident in 1998 and was flown abroad for treatment. When he got back, he needed someone, who could assist him in the process for electioneering campaign and because I was close to him that time, I was saddled with that responsibility. That was my first experience and afterwards, I was involved in the 2003 and 2007 elections. I was involved in re-run election. I was saddled with some responsibilities in the 2011 election. I was fully involved in the 2015 election. So, I know who and who in Kogi politics by virtue of these experiences.
I was a director of finance for the campaign. I headed the youth mobilisation for the campaign. I have been the director of logistics for the campaign. I have headed sensitive positions for Prince Abubakar Audu’s campaign. So, I have a very strong connection with most politicians across the state.
Today, I can assure you that I have the closest link to the grassroots. Also, I am one of the few politicians that the grassroots communicate with constantly because I answer all calls and they really appreciate that.
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I personally think that the government of today is afraid of opening the process of election and that is why they have chosen to go by way of indirect primaries and the indirect primaries is closed. If you are a politician and a true democrat, you will want everyone to participate in the process of selecting the flagbearer of your party and I dare the governor to say that they will go by way of direct primaries. I am telling you, people will bid him farewell. If we do direct primaries, everyone at the grassroot, who is a member of APC, will be allowed to vote and there is no doubt we will come top at the end of the primaries.
You are one of those clamouring for direct primaries. Is it because of the link you have outside Kogi State?
It is a fact that direct or indirect primaries, it is Kogi people that will vote. But, however, in the case of indirect primaries, you have a chosen few and in the process of selection of delegates in the state, the governor will select his family members and friends. His appointees will select their family members and friends thereby giving themselves undue advantage over and above other contestants. What we are simply saying is that the process should be open to every member. Let the man that sells kolanut and is a member of the party vote. Let the man that sells orange vote, let women vote and you will see and know who will win the primaries.
If you are given the mandate to govern the state what will you do to surpass your father, the late Prince Abubakar Audu’s achievements?
Actually, it is a big responsibility that I offered myself for election because it will be very unfortunate if I am not able to, at least, beat my father’s record. I must be able to surpass that record. So, I understand fully well the responsibility attached to my aspirations for leadership. In that order, I sat down and put together a very comprehensive plan and I have said it earlier that the first thing we will do, even as a businessman, I know that to have a viable business venture, you must be able to explore alternative funding sources because we cannot sit down and depend on the allocation from the federation account, that one is statutory. Kogi got Paris Club refunds twice or three times. We got bailout twice and other subventions from the Federal Government and yet we are still crawling. We will not wait for all of these. We will ensure that we make additional N4 billion monthly, as internally generated revenue because the state has enormous potentials. When we have that, we will reconstruct all our ailing infrastructures, which were abandoned by previous administrations. We will not allow education to be far from the people because the basic foundation for all these is quality education, which will be available within a kilometre of every settlement so that children can go to school and get their basic education. Secondary education will also be available within reasonable distance for boys and girls and we will ensure that we have qualitative education. We will ensure that we have inspectors, who will go round to ensure there is high standard in education, so that the children who go to school in Kogi will compete favourably with other children in other parts of the country.
