Why APC will never rule Nigeria – Bauchi governor, Isa Yuguda

Gov. Isa Yuguda

by Akan Ido

In this interview with the Vanguard Newspapers, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State talks about his party, the race for the 2015 elections, the opposition parties, Boko Haram and more.

Read excerpts of the interview below.

What do you think of Boko Haram amnesty being planned by Federal Government?
The extension of hands of friendship to the group is a good development and we are happy about it and we pray that God Almighty will make it possible for a final solution to be found to the problem that has been staring the nation in the face. I don’t expect any of the parties to soft pedal on this initiative. Government should fast-rack its agenda to end this ugly scenario in our land. The group should also see the offer as an opportunity for peace and dialogue with government.

There are rumours you are battling to upstage Vice President Namadi Sambo in 2015. Why?
I have read something like that in the papers, but, seriously, there is no iota of truth in it. The VP and I are very close friends. I cannot, in all honesty, do anything to undermine him or his position. He is aware of my love and friendship with him over the years and nothing can separate us. In the first instance , I don’t have blind ambition. Those who are familiar with me know that I have never lobbied or struggled for any of the positions I have occupied in life. I have been a bank managing director twice. I have been a minister twice and i have also been a governor twice.  God paved the way for me to occupy those positions and render service to society without coveting anyone. What I should rather do at this stage of my life is to say to God ‘thank you for all that you have done for me’ instead of going to pull down another person put in place by the Almighty God. I know that God would unfailingly punish me if I don’t show appreciation for what he has done for me and wickedly go to bring down the vice president.

Besides, the VP and I have a very good relationship. I look up to him as a senior brother just I look up to Mr. President as a senior brother. I know that what they expect from me is total loyalty and not competition with them. As a matter of fact I have never competed for any office in my life. As a bank MD, I was interviewed and given the job out of many others who competed for the post. But as a minister,(ex) President Obasanjo called me and offered me the job and, out of the 65 ministers who worked with him between 1999 and 2003, I was among the only three ministers who were retained by the government without lobbying to be returned. God used Obasanjo to return me and two others. I did not lobby.

When I wanted to become governor, I went to the PDP, but some people made life very difficult for me then and I went to the ANPP and God made it possible for me to defeat the PDP in Bauchi. So, as far as I am concerned, God has a path for everybody and you don’t need blind ambition because, if you do, it means you are daring God. It is God that gives one power and, if you don’t believe that he is the one that gives you a path where you should tread, you are blindfolding yourself.

So, I am a loyal PDP member who is bound by the constitution of the party, faithfully committed to the party leaders at all levels and unwilling to do anything against the interest and well- being of our great party. So, those who are peddling the rumour that I want to upstage the VP are just trying to create enmity where there is none and will never be. I want to state unequivocally that, as a committed and faithful PDP stalwart, I will continue to work for the progress and success of the party to continue to rule and provide the right leadership for Nigeria even after leaving office as a governor.

There is also the allegation you are running for the Presidency, the chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum or the Northern Governors’ Forum. Which of this are you really going for?
Like I told you before, if I say I’m not grateful to God and that I would pursue inordinate ambition, then I would be out of tune with God. I never knew God  had planned for me to become a managing director of a bank at the age of 32 after graduating from the university. I didn’t know that God had also planned for me to be made the managing director of a second bank just as I never imagined that God had destined for me to become a minister twice in this country, not to talk of becoming a governor straight from the banking hall. You can imagine how difficult it could be for someone who is coming from the corporate world devoid of political connections to partisan politics. This is a profession bound by secrecy and somehow cut off from the general public. It is a profession that only the private sector players dominate.
So, is somebody so Satanic as to believe  that Isa Yuguda has an ambition to become the president of Nigeria? Then that person must be crazy.

Why didn’t he ask that same question when I was a banker that I wanted to become a minister and why did he not ask the same question when I became a governor after serving the nation twice as minister? And after being a governor twice, you are suggesting or coming out with the figment of your imagination that I want to be president or vice president. It is God that makes a president and not human being.

Even Mr. President himself has said it many times that he is grateful to God that he has taken him to the peak of power in Nigeria from the humble beginning he started from. As a number one citizen of Nigeria presiding over a population of over 160 million and a person from a minority tribe, he was not reckoned with to occupy such post. But, as God wants it, he is the president of Nigeria and there is nothing any man can do about it.

So, for any person, all these Satanic people who spread rumours to cause disaffection and bad blood between the leadership and followers, they should know that there is repercussion for every evil done to another person. These people should realise that I’m a governor and that  I’m a loyal party member totally committed to the president and his vice as well as the party leadership and its entire structures across the country.

Why do they want to play me against my own bosses? It is a tragedy. And i take serious exception to such an unholy attempt by evil-minded elements to blackmail me before my leaders. I leave the fabricators of that falsehood to their conscience knowing that judgment awaits them in the hand of God for fabricating lies against an innocent person all in their desperate bid to create problems between me and my bosses.

But they should be wise enough to know that it is God who placed me here as the governor of the state and any attempt to blackmail me and my family would earn the wrath of the Almighty God. Let the Nigerian press begin to see itself as an anchor for development and justice for all and not an instrument for blackmail.

So, where are you going after completing your tenure as governor?
I’m a loyal PDP member and I’m a professional banker and, by extension, I’m a businessman. We are trained to start business and make it work well. We can even revive ailing companies and turn them around. One thing is certain, I will remain in PDP and continue to work for its interest after 2015.

What do you think about the emergence of APC?
I’m happy about the development, which shows that Nigeria’s democracy is deepening. What the APC is doing is good for the polity. We, as a party, are also working hard to regain those states which they took from us. But one thing the APC people should note is that power belongs to God and that, no matter the kind of alliances they go into, they will never defeat PDP by the grace of God because of the  good intention that the PDP and the president of this country have for Nigeria. President Jonathan means well for Nigeria and he has a good heart to move the nation forward. For this and other reasons, the opposition will never defeat the PDP. The hearts of some of the leaders of the merging parties are not good. In other words, they do not love this country and God will never allow them to defeat the PDP in any election. God will never allow these people to rule Nigeria.

What is really the problem between your government and teachers?
The truth is that many of the teachers committed fraud and stayed on in the system wasting public funds and trying to ruin the future of our children. They are so many in number and they have a leadership not worthy to lead them, they were misled. In the first instance, those that were sacked, only one or two could be said to have had the qualification and were sacked in error. The majority of those sacked never saw the four walls of primary or secondary school or teacher training college. These are people who cannot write their names. I discovered that the state was paying salaries to the wrong people to destroy the future of our children by indoctrinating them into crimes and leading them astray because they did not have anything useful to impart to them. They have never gone to school before.

Did you discuss this with the NUT leaders?
The leadership of the union was here and was thoroughly embarrassed by this sordid issue. The leadership even gave me an award for the intervention we have carried out since I came in as governor. Because of our untiring effort to put the education system in good shape, I have all it takes to make students in my state to score at least 80%  to 90% success in WAEC and NECO. This became possible after taking several steps to tackle the lapses I noticed on assumption of office. We have not only bought over six million books and distributed free to students, but we have also significantly increased their feeding allowances and provided the schools with essential facilities such as electricity, water and equipment to enable them excel.

The intervention we have made in the schools in the state is unprecedented in the history of Bauchi State. In fact, I can say that the amount of money being  given to schools for feeding is four times more than what they were getting before I became governor. I have also increased the remuneration of teachers such they today they are among the highest paid in the country. With this in mind, i expect nothing but the best from the teachers and students. But, four years after, it was like motion without movement.

I knew  something was amiss and I set up a committee to investigate the situation. The State Universal Basic Education Board also probed the teachers and came out with its own findings. We discovered  that some of the so—called teachers called upon to defend their certificates could not write or spell their names. This is the tragedy that has befallen the state.

We discovered that most of them, who never enrolled in any school, just went to business centres and printed fake NCE certificates and submitted for employment into the school system. Kaduna State did the same and discovered that over 3,000 of the so-called teachers could neither write their names nor pass primary four test administered on them and they were fired. I have given them the opportunity to come and prove that they can teach.

First, we will re-certify them and confirm from the institutions they claim they graduated from and they will be subjected to an examination and, if we confirm that they can teach, we retain them. We have over 6,000 of such persons in our school system. But, right now, we have more than 30,000 applications from prospective teachers. I would not submit to any form of blackmail to allow these unqualified elements to destroy our schools.

How far has your power project gone?
We are just waiting for the signing of the loan agreement between Nigeria and the Chinese Exim Bank, for which they have availed us $1.6billion out of which I am getting $171 million to jumpstart the project. At the same time, we are waiting for the release of the Power Intervention Fund to us by one of the commercial banks in Nigeria to start the project. In the next 18 months, Bauchi would have sufficient power for use and for sale.  We have already signed a memorandum of understanding with a distribution company in Jos to buy the excess power from the plant. The good thing again about our IPP is that we now have access to crude oil very close to us. Therefore, the cost of lifting the oil has been made cheaper for me. You can see that the break- even period for the project would be shorter than envisaged.

It’s good news that I have access to gas within 200 kilometres. And I have a tank  farm that can keep gas for six months. There is also a capped well in Yankari that we can use to run the plant.

Are you worried about criticisms?
No. Criticism is meant to keep you in check and enable you do better; the only problem may be when criticism is borne out of wrong motives just to pull down the leadership.

Comments (2)

  1. he is stupid monkey, is he not elected under the opposition party has he forgotten so fast. time will tell.

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