Former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, shares his thoughts with AISHA WAKASO on the zoning of the presidency, insecurity in the country and other issues

As a former governor, what will you say were some of your legacies in Niger State?

I have set a standard for any governor to be judged in terms of what he has done or what he has not done. We mobilised the people to appreciate what governance is all about particularly by creating that fourth tier of government which is the ward level, where we went to make them feel like there is also a government at the ward level. When I see people tell me they would not have been in school if not for my coming as a governor, believe me it’s a relief from the other noise that comes from people. I see a retired person telling me thank you very much, you have paid us everything that was due to us.

When I became Niger State governor, I discovered that there were some of them who after 12 years of retirement had not even collected a kobo and many of them really died but we paid their families or their next of kin. I am happy that after we left, people were able to judge, they have been judging in our favour. After you leave office, you hear a lot of things but on the average, you find that people are even calling you to come back. I am happy that God has given me the opportunity to serve Niger State at that level.

You once described Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as the best candidate for the APC. Some think as a PDP chieftain, you were unduly meddling into the ruling party’s affairs, what would you say about this?

I am a Nigerian and every Nigerian should be interested in who leads Nigeria. We have seen where in a situation of coup-d’etat we had no much to say in such situations but now that we are in a democracy, every Nigerian should be able to know the kind of people that lead us. More so, when it is said that people get the kind of government they deserve, meaning if you are a bad people, there is no way you can produce good government or good leaders. Therefore, my interest is that whether it is PDP or APC, let good people be recognised and be the ones elected into offices. A situation where our system has made it almost impossible for good people to present themselves for election and only those who have declared for party are entitled is not good. There is no room for independent candidate because of the nature of the people in the party. We don’t sit to say look, what kind of qualities are we looking for in governance? We need to appreciate, why is it that today, over 50 years after the assassinations of our leaders, we still remember them more? Why is that so? It is simply because they have shown some credible integrity; they have shown the qualities of good governance we require today.

For me, it is not a question of you are in the party, you must not talk about the other party, and in a situation where everyone thinks he must be the president of the country, it is not right.

There must be a yardstick where you will know that that office is not for you because of this and that, but when everybody wakes up and wants to be president, then you know that they want to be president for the wrong reasons. If you look at today, amongst all those who have indicated interest either publicly or privately, I’ll have Osinbajo because we have seen what he has done so far as the Vice President and the few times he has acted, what has transpired. Then I have my friend in Ekiti, Kayode Fayemi in the same APC. For me, I think there is a limit as to who and who should be where and at a given time but the presidency of this country should not be seen as a position where people would say they must be president. I don’t think that’s right and I will advise Nigerians that whether they are in the party system or not, to be very much interested in who governs us.

You also said recently that the PDP had zoned the presidency to the North, only for your party to deny your claim. What is your take on this?

As far as I know, there was never a meeting to say this has been zoned to this particular place. If some people felt that by zoning the chairmanship to the North will automatically mean that the presidential candidate must automatically come from the South, this has now been blunted by saying anyone from any corner of the country can now contest. We can’t have a situation where every little thing is looked at in the prism of “we must breakup, we must do this, and we must do that.” I know that some people don’t know how to argue their own case; they always go to the extreme but we can’t afford that at every moment. We question the sovereignty and that is why I believe that we agreed that every person can contest. That may not stop the PDP later on, maybe when we see that the whole purpose of a party is to win election, to articulate its position and sell it to the people and win election. You don’t have a party simply for having a party. A party is supposed to articulate, aggregate the interest of the people and really win elections and if you can’t win elections after a given time, you better change your tactics.

Insecurity has been a major challenge in the North. Some local government areas in Niger State have been taken over by terrorists. How do you think this challenge can become a thing of the past?

It is really unfortunate that we have allowed the situation to reach this level, and let me say again, I don’t want to be misconstrued as being in that group- this is a cumulative issue. When Boko Haram started and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s government started doing something about it, it fell on former President Jonathan to carry on. Many northerners misconstrued his (Jonathan) position at that time and for political purposes, they threw many arguments that made it impossible for the proper articulation and proper implementation of policies that would have got rid of Boko Haram and now, we still have them till today. The banditry that many of us thought was impossible to happen, I am yet to hear from anybody about the statement credited to Kawu Baraje, our former PDP national chairman in Kwara State, when he stated that they brought the bandits or Fulani from other places. I think based on the thinking that probably former President Jonathan wouldn’t have handed over power even if they had won, but he handed over. He congratulated them even before the conclusion proper counting of votes which then took away whatever purposes of bringing those people would have served and I would have thought that if that is true, then those who brought them in would compensated them to go back to where they came from.

I believe if the governors had really done a lot from 2015 to date, we would have got rid of the banditry but today, it’s so unfortunate that you probably have to be praying when you leave Abuja for Kaduna or Kaduna to Abuja or indeed, particularly in the northern states. Any road that you follow, you probably need a lot of prayers and this is contrary to the position before where many of us were driving from one place to the other, used to sleep in the daytime so we can drive at night when there will be less traffic, less noise. Now, even in the day time, you can’t drive freely and comfortably. So, I believe that the first port of call for fighting insecurity is the governors. Maybe you heard me in Kano when I was saying could one be greater than 19 because at one time, even though the circumstances were different, we had one man for 19 states and now, we have 19 governors and still, we have more problems than we did the last time.

We need to look at how our people are really enjoying their lives and unemployment. Before, we used to beg parents to allow them take their wards to school. Now, they have allowed them to go to school. Many of them have been uprooted from their local culture, many of them are farmers and now, they can’t go back to their farms. They have had their degrees or whatever courses they have gone for and now, unemployment is facing them for five years, six years and thereafter, we are not thinking of any innovation to engage them.

Buhari was one of those who were saying that any attack on boko haram is an attack on the north. Is it any surprise that he went on to appoint terrorist symphatisers like pantami into his government? Buhari himself is a terrorist symphatiser.

Chameleon!!!

Not far from the truth

One of the so called rebel G-7 governors Talking as if he was an exception back then.All northern governors, elites, and masses were all involved in the conspiracy, but guess what today? Bloody Hypocrite

OGA o

Hmm,this is the man who started the campaign against Jonathan before others followed. When the Northern leaders met Obama in the US. He Obama asked them what they wanted,he reportedly told him that they don't want President Jonathan to lead the country again.

He didn't stop there, they all decamped just because they hated the man in power and there after,he became a loud mouth that Jonathan was depleting the population of the North using Bokoharam.

Today,he is politically irrelevant in the Nigerian politics and Niger state has been over ran by bandits and no one is calling on the President to stop what they all started.

They all gathered to rubbished a good man un known to them,more evil awaits them all.

He started speaking truth to power. Mr laud mouth.

Loveurneighbour:
Former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, shares his thoughts with AISHA WAKASO on the zoning of the presidency, insecurity in the country and other issues

As a former governor, what will you say were some of your legacies in Niger State?

I have set a standard for any governor to be judged in terms of what he has done or what he has not done. We mobilised the people to appreciate what governance is all about particularly by creating that fourth tier of government which is the ward level, where we went to make them feel like there is also a government at the ward level. When I see people tell me they would not have been in school if not for my coming as a governor, believe me it’s a relief from the other noise that comes from people. I see a retired person telling me thank you very much, you have paid us everything that was due to us.

When I became Niger State governor, I discovered that there were some of them who after 12 years of retirement had not even collected a kobo and many of them really died but we paid their families or their next of kin. I am happy that after we left, people were able to judge, they have been judging in our favour. After you leave office, you hear a lot of things but on the average, you find that people are even calling you to come back. I am happy that God has given me the opportunity to serve Niger State at that level.

You once described Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as the best candidate for the APC. Some think as a PDP chieftain, you were unduly meddling into the ruling party’s affairs, what would you say about this?

I am a Nigerian and every Nigerian should be interested in who leads Nigeria. We have seen where in a situation of coup-d’etat we had no much to say in such situations but now that we are in a democracy, every Nigerian should be able to know the kind of people that lead us. More so, when it is said that people get the kind of government they deserve, meaning if you are a bad people, there is no way you can produce good government or good leaders. Therefore, my interest is that whether it is PDP or APC, let good people be recognised and be the ones elected into offices. A situation where our system has made it almost impossible for good people to present themselves for election and only those who have declared for party are entitled is not good. There is no room for independent candidate because of the nature of the people in the party. We don’t sit to say look, what kind of qualities are we looking for in governance? We need to appreciate, why is it that today, over 50 years after the assassinations of our leaders, we still remember them more? Why is that so? It is simply because they have shown some credible integrity; they have shown the qualities of good governance we require today.

For me, it is not a question of you are in the party, you must not talk about the other party, and in a situation where everyone thinks he must be the president of the country, it is not right.

There must be a yardstick where you will know that that office is not for you because of this and that, but when everybody wakes up and wants to be president, then you know that they want to be president for the wrong reasons. If you look at today, amongst all those who have indicated interest either publicly or privately, I’ll have Osinbajo because we have seen what he has done so far as the Vice President and the few times he has acted, what has transpired. Then I have my friend in Ekiti, Kayode Fayemi in the same APC. For me, I think there is a limit as to who and who should be where and at a given time but the presidency of this country should not be seen as a position where people would say they must be president. I don’t think that’s right and I will advise Nigerians that whether they are in the party system or not, to be very much interested in who governs us.

You also said recently that the PDP had zoned the presidency to the North, only for your party to deny your claim. What is your take on this?

As far as I know, there was never a meeting to say this has been zoned to this particular place. If some people felt that by zoning the chairmanship to the North will automatically mean that the presidential candidate must automatically come from the South, this has now been blunted by saying anyone from any corner of the country can now contest. We can’t have a situation where every little thing is looked at in the prism of “we must breakup, we must do this, and we must do that.” I know that some people don’t know how to argue their own case; they always go to the extreme but we can’t afford that at every moment. We question the sovereignty and that is why I believe that we agreed that every person can contest. That may not stop the PDP later on, maybe when we see that the whole purpose of a party is to win election, to articulate its position and sell it to the people and win election. You don’t have a party simply for having a party. A party is supposed to articulate, aggregate the interest of the people and really win elections and if you can’t win elections after a given time, you better change your tactics.

Insecurity has been a major challenge in the North. Some local government areas in Niger State have been taken over by terrorists. How do you think this challenge can become a thing of the past?

It is really unfortunate that we have allowed the situation to reach this level, and let me say again, I don’t want to be misconstrued as being in that group- this is a cumulative issue. When Boko Haram started and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s government started doing something about it, it fell on former President Jonathan to carry on. Many northerners misconstrued his (Jonathan) position at that time and for political purposes, they threw many arguments that made it impossible for the proper articulation and proper implementation of policies that would have got rid of Boko Haram and now, we still have them till today. The banditry that many of us thought was impossible to happen, I am yet to hear from anybody about the statement credited to Kawu Baraje, our former PDP national chairman in Kwara State, when he stated that they brought the bandits or Fulani from other places. I think based on the thinking that probably former President Jonathan wouldn’t have handed over power even if they had won, but he handed over. He congratulated them even before the conclusion proper counting of votes which then took away whatever purposes of bringing those people would have served and I would have thought that if that is true, then those who brought them in would compensated them to go back to where they came from.

I believe if the governors had really done a lot from 2015 to date, we would have got rid of the banditry but today, it’s so unfortunate that you probably have to be praying when you leave Abuja for Kaduna or Kaduna to Abuja or indeed, particularly in the northern states. Any road that you follow, you probably need a lot of prayers and this is contrary to the position before where many of us were driving from one place to the other, used to sleep in the daytime so we can drive at night when there will be less traffic, less noise. Now, even in the day time, you can’t drive freely and comfortably. So, I believe that the first port of call for fighting insecurity is the governors. Maybe you heard me in Kano when I was saying could one be greater than 19 because at one time, even though the circumstances were different, we had one man for 19 states and now, we have 19 governors and still, we have more problems than we did the last time.

We need to look at how our people are really enjoying their lives and unemployment. Before, we used to beg parents to allow them take their wards to school. Now, they have allowed them to go to school. Many of them have been uprooted from their local culture, many of them are farmers and now, they can’t go back to their farms. They have had their degrees or whatever courses they have gone for and now, unemployment is facing them for five years, six years and thereafter, we are not thinking of any innovation to engage them.

Confession TIME oya let go deir