Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State in this interview speaks on a wide range of burning political issues in the country.
Excerpts:
What will you do differently if elected senator?

After the presidential primary, by the grace of God and with the support of our people, I came second in the election which I believe many people are surprised about because initially it was thought that the fight was between our two leaders. When we came back from Lagos, many people came here and suggested I should be given the ticket. The candidate that got the ticket was one of those that came to me. They felt that the experiences I have garnered over the years will transcend to quality representation. Remember, I was in the National Assembly as the deputy speaker in the House of Representatives; I was a delegate to the constitutional conference in 1994/1995 and of course I was a governor later a minister, served in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and now back in Kano as governor again. I think it was based on this circumstance that the people felt that I should be given the ticket.  
I know very well the sitting senator because we were together in the same party and we supported him in 2011. When we were moving out of PDP he was one of those who stayed back and he is not in our party. He made efforts really to come to our party in order to get the ticket; he even came directly but when he couldn’t get it, he stayed back in his party where he was given the party’s ticket. I believe the senatorial seat requires experience; a person who is tested and trusted and I also believe my being in the National Assembly again is not for Kano Central or Kano State alone but for the country in general.
 I believe I will do much better at the national level, because there are many national issues that require people with experience. In addition to that don’t forget that I was a civil servant for 17 years and I believe all these will come to bear if I get to the Senate.

Rather than campaigning, you are commissioning and inspecting projects. Are you relying on Buhari to win?
What people don’t understand is that those of us in government are easily being sold by what we have done; the kind of programmes and projects one has done over time. We are not going round again and to make promises. Promises are for those who are not tested and trusted, that is on the one side.
On the other side, I am the chief coordinator of all the APC candidates in this state; we sat down and strategised on what to do or not to do. What we have done in Kano is to ask my deputy and others to work on the politicking and my humble self, I am working on the projects and programmes that we hope to complete by  May 29 when we are going to hand over. We are working together as a family; we are working in division of labour and certainly the deputy governor who is leading the team to go round is also doing his own portion of the government work.
I don’t have to go to all the 44 LGAs as a senatorial aspirant; it is just one-third of that but we will continue to campaign, to talk to people and I assure you that we are very well known and we will get our people by our side. By now I can assure you people have made up their mind on who to vote or who not to vote for and it is just a matter of time that our winning team in the state will come out with flying colours in the elections.

You are one of the political godsons of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. How do you see his exit from the PDP?
Those people in the PDP that are welcoming his exit did same when we left. I can tell you every right thinking person, especially in the PDP now knows that our exit from the party dealt a very serious blow on the PDP. The influence of the five of us that left the party is beyond our states as you have seen during the primaries. Had it been the other four governors contested for the presidential seat you would have seen their level of acceptance across the country. They underrated our importance in the party and unfortunately for them they are coming to terms with realities. I can see same or more with the exit of our leader, President Obasanjo from the party because he has supporters across the country.
I haven’t seen him since he left the PDP but I can comfortably say so much has happened in the party for him to come out and tear his card and say he has left the party. And some of these people who made the same mistake during our own exit from the party, now they are making the same mistake and I hope they handle it in such a way that it doesn’t create more problems for them and even for the country. I think we are happy that PDP is in such challenge now, when we are telling them to correct few things, many of them were saying whether we leave or stay it doesn’t matter to PDP.
Now, realities are cropping up and I can assure you that now they’re seeing their mistakes. In democracy every vote should count and it is now that the real politics will be played.
Governor Sule Lamido said the five of you that defected from PDP to APC have no business being in office. What is your reaction to this?
I don’t want to talk much about the governor of Jigawa. Everyone knows he was part of us, he worked very hard as the leader of the group, in fact he took us to the level that we think there is no going back and we were surprised that he stayed in PDP but we felt we have no business being in PDP. I believe if anybody should criticise our exit I think it shouldn’t come from him or the governor of Niger State.
I don’t want to join issues with any of my colleagues, Nigerians are our judges on our actions and utterances and I believe that judgment is what will happen during the general elections. And I believe by our actions we deepened democracy, the PDP is not the monster that it used to be.
Reports emanating from the PDP said General Muhammadu Buhari is not fit medically to lead the country. As someone close to him would you say he is sound enough to rule the country?

I am sure you know that I am a civil engineer not a medical doctor, so any judgement I make will be a layman’s judgement. But the fact is that based on my judgement since December 10 when we finished our primary; he has been participating in rigorous campaign to states; two states per day. When he visited Kano for campaign, he arrived early in the morning and we visited many areas of the city by the time we finished we were all tired but he went ahead to Jigawa by flight, he campaigned there and came back to Kano by road. And the following morning we went to Katsina by road, I left them there and they proceeded to Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states.
Initially when they were talking about this sickness, I was wondering if he can pass the test but a sick man cannot do what I have seen Buhari doing in the last months. That is my judgment on what I have seen practically because I am not a medical doctor and I have not seen his record.

The PDP members who are the opposition in Kano State are alleging that most of the projects you are executing are substandard and that they have no direct bearing on the people of the state. Can you react to this?

What else do you expect from opponents or enemies. They have to create something. Look at what we have done in this state, every right thinking person knows that Kwankwaso has performed but people still go to radio stations and pay money and abuse me by saying Kwankwaso has done nothing,  he has stolen local governments money. But the two cannot go together; you cannot steal money and perform. If you subtract the money and what we have done in the LGAs nothing will be left.
Some people are surprised where we are getting money to execute these projects. And the fact of the matter is, if I wake up after a week or so and nobody comes and says they’re abusing you on the radio, I will begin to wonder whether I am doing the right thing. Because the more you do well, the more you make some people angry. For instance, if a police man catches an armed robber, the armed robber will be angry with the police but it is his job to arrest the armed robber. That means your job makes some people angry. Someone said if a vehicle climbs Kofar Nasarawa Flyover Bridge it will collapse or I will never finish the flyover and all sort of stories.
Some are saying they will demolish all the infrastructure we built that they want us to go back to 2011. Now if you take us back to 2011, all the over 2,600 students on scholarship abroad will be brought back or have their certificates seized because in 2011 we don’t have all these. All our achievements, they want to reverse them.

Tension is high in the country in view of the violent posture of some politicians. How do you see the forthcoming elections?

You see, in our own side in the APC, we have no business  creating violence, even the foolish person knows if there is election today in Kano APC is going to win and even the country in general. People have already made up their minds on what they are going to do.

Source: http://dailytrust.com.ng/daily/politics/47878-we-dealt-pdp-a-deadly-blow-when-we-left-kwankwaso

Eyah, Eyah and Eyah to PDPians.

after the elections we will know who is a fool

They say Buhari belongs to d analogue age, yet they are d
ones rejecting digital card-readers for the elections and
Buhari is pushing for it