If An election Is conducted Today in Bauchi, Governor Abubakar Will Lose—Hon Ahmed Yerima
In this interview with Universal Reporters, Hon. Ahmed Yerima representing Misau/Dambam Federal Constituency of Bauchi State in the National Assembly, gave insight over the altercations between the his state Governor Mohammed Abubakar, and the Bauchi State legislators at the National Assembly. He also spoke on the issue of misrule, maladministration of the current government in Bauchi, he also speaks on the issues affecting the State, the Excerpts;
With the recent letter from your Local Government Caretaker Chairman, it goes to show that Gov. Mohammed Abubakar is still not happy with you and others, what could be the reason for all these fight.
Well, first of all my name is Ahmed Yarima representing Misau/Dambam Federal Constituency here in the National Assembly, I cannot specifically tell you why the Governor is not happy, I all can tell you is an ego, you know there are political officers holders that have ego that they want anybody to come up and himself he has issues himself, he doesn’t know his left and right, he couldn’t different himself, secondly he is the one that masterminded all these crisis, because we are 15 from Bauchi State here in the National assembly, it cannot be that all of us are fighting him, he has never been in the party itself, he has never been a member of the APC, he hasn’t even get the registered membership, I don’t know whether they gave him after, but the first one hundred given to everyone in this country he hasn’t got one, because he came forty days to the election and due to some internal discrepancies about the other candidates that he became the candidate of the APC. Not that he campaigned for anyone, not that he contributed financially, rather we are the one that contributed financially to help him in our constituency, he only spent about N20 million in the whole thing, by giving the local government N400,000 to the 20 of them that makes up the N20 million. So he just a new comer in the whole political system and he has not gotten the root.
Like you said that he was not a member of the party at the onset, how was he able to win the election.
What I am saying, when there was a merger 100 cards were given to every unit, he has not got that one, you can today be a member of APC, PDP or any other political party, that doesn’t mean anything, it is not the membership of the merger. He wasn’t part of it from the beginning, he joined forty days to the election and he was welcome by us in Bauchi and he was accepted and welcome. So if God destined you to be a Governor in this country you can be one, the only thing is the legacies left, that is what matters and I don’t think this governor is leaving any legacy to leave rather he is entrenched into infighting, within his own mind, he is in conflict with his own self, that is why he is fighting everybody, he arrogate himself to knowledge of everything when he hasn’t got any grassroots history in the state. Under normal circumstances in other countries and even in this country not every state will take someone from somewhere to be a governor without having a family connection, without having the historical network and everybody knows it. I can be from today by going there, acquiring the citizenship of that state from the Local government area, that is how it happens.
For sometimes now, most of the projects you want undertake for your people, the governor have always be on the way and blocked them, what is his reason behind this.
I don’t know you can ask him that, which means he doesn’t know his responsibility as a leader. Anything positive, coming to your area, local government, state you should welcome it, be it from anybody. His cronies tried to resist my constituency projects in the last financial year 2016 and people took arms to defend their projects, he uses thugs, drug them, incite them to do violence all over the state, everybody knows that is the way that he can be able to uphold to power and he feels he will use the same violence to do the election in 2019 and which we cannot agree to that. We are not violent people and we don’t agree and accept to use violent for anything, so we will void violence, he can employ anyone he wants, but we are going to resist him in any form possible.
Like this recent letter will you still go ahead with your constituency projects?
Yes, I asked the people to defend their project and they took arms to defend it, anybody that he sent will face the consequences, so his cronies couldn’t stop it, they tried to use the police, the army to stop it and they refuse to be intimidated particularly in Dambam Local government. In my local government where I came from Misau, the same thing done, but the people resisted. So they are trying to push people to do just like the Boko Haram, using thugs to harass and intimidate people and people will resist and I am willing to lead the resistance against him.
Late last year you and your colleagues in the National Assembly and other stakeholders from the state visited APC National secretariat, to lay complaints over his government, what is your take.
We went to the President Buhari first and we laid the complaints and he was the one that asked us to come and speak with him, after speaking with the governor we sat with him and discussed things on how to go forward, the ministers from Bauchi State, the officials from Bauchi State, the elected members from Bauchi State all are in one unit and himself is one unit alone. We told the president our position and the party we also told our position. We are not going to buy into any blackmail and we are not going to agree him to destroy the party, because if you put an election day today he is going to fail and everybody know that, and the Governor knows and he should know.
He came up then and said it is because he refused to buy you and your colleagues’ exotic vehicles and houses in Abuja that is why you people are fighting him, how true is this?
I am going to tell you something new that happened recently, just recently he gave three cars to three members of the National assembly, those that he believe are with him, so it means he swallowed his promise that even if he is riding on money he will never do that and he ended up doing that. So as a Muslim i believe to apologize to God for breaking his promise. So you can see the way he does, is just a cheap politics, is just cheap blackmail, I had cars before he had a car, and the kind of cars I have he has never had before he became a governor and the car he is riding as a governor is the same car I am riding today even before I came to the National Assembly. So what is he going to talk about cars, house, before he became a governor he was living in a rented house in Bauchi, that is why he has a very questionable indigeneship to our people, you cannot point a place to say this is his family home and say this is his root. Is just this new indigene system of citizenship that warrants him to be there, not that he born in Bauchi State, not that his dad was born in Bauchi State, not that his mum was born in Bauchi State. He was just working in Bauchi State, he was in Kano, his parents were in Kano, they lived in Jos, so can he claim citizenship of Kano and Plateau, the answer is no, but in Bauchi people are open hearted.
What has he not done right, what are really his sins?
He cannot pay salaries, he cannot pay pensioners, he cannot pay gratuities, the hamlets and local chiefs he dismissed them from office, traditional institutions are being abused and neglected. The very responsibility of governance is nowhere seen in the State, public work, there is no single project of N1 billion in Bauchi State combined since the inception of his administration. He said that he is going to construct road from here and there and not even 10 percent of them were done and he paid 70% to 80% of the money, always on variations. So people have no any responsibility it seems to me to allow this kind of thing to happen in their state and I am disappointed.
Why are you disappointed?
I am disappointed with the moral ground of the people in Bauchi State for accepting this kind attitude.
What else could have done?
They have a way to deal with the situation,
What are the ways?
Resistance, resist mismanagement, they can protest, they can demonstrate. Is it not the constitutional right for every Nigerian to express his or her dissatisfaction with a situation you can demonstrate you are free to express your opinion, your position, so people should find a way to deal with the situation? Because you cannot allow somebody governing you to come and destroying your moral standards and ethics, you cannot allow somebody to be a leader and abusing the power and swindling you by the day.
As 2019 approaches, what does this portends for APC in the State
People are not going to vote for the APC at the present current governance position; people are going to vote people not party, if you are the right candidate from anywhere we can vote for you, we are not going to vote you because you are in APC.
Do you think if he stands for the primaries he will lose?
It doesn’t matter to me, if he wins the primary that’s his own business, the bottom line is that people are not going to vote for him and I can bet anything for that.
What are things you have done in your constituency since taking office as Representatives member?
I would have asked you to go and ask them yourself, is not good for me to press sing myself, and is very untraditional. Okay, I took over 1600 persons who are small scale traders and I gave them money to add up to their businesses, the tea makers, the women selling bean cake, Suya sellers, all my constituency projects about N89 million, I took it there, I didn’t remove any penny from there and every day I am helping people go to school and give scholarships, so virtually I am not making any money from here, in fact I am putting my money to help people, even my own personal money I used it on my people. I am serving my people with both their money and my own money.
There was a time your governor accused you and your colleagues in the National Assembly that you people are against the President, what is your take on this.
He has never been with the President, I remember when he was the INEC commissioner for River State, the President earned only nine votes in the whole State and as an INEC commissioner what does that tells you. You mean there is no party leadership in that State who will not cast their vote for CPC Presidential candidate, you mean there are no Party chairmen, ward chairmen, all will refuse to vote for their presidential candidate and choose to vote for the PDP Candidate then former President Goodluck Jonathan. And I remembered during the APC 2014 convention in Lagos, he went with the Atiku’s convoy, and he distributed Atiku’s money at the convention, there are people that can testify that even in court. He is not with the President, and he will always feel that people that are with the President are not with him and he has said it number without times at the personal level. It is a traditional hypocrisy of an average Nigerian politician opportunist that is a common attitude of a Nigerian Politician, spinning to be accepted within a certain circle over some individuals.
With this issue with the party in the State, is the party together in the State?
I don’t think there is any APC in Bauchi State, because as I said to you earlier, the average Nigerian run for money and the governor has public money, so he can always buy the party to be with him, but still there are people that are not with him. He tried to see me out of the party in my local government they resisted every effort to dismissed me or suspend me from the party, they rejected it, same with Dogara, Haliru Jika, Ibrahim Baba from Katagum Local Government and others. He cannot dismiss me; he cannot suspend me, because I am more powerful than him in my local government and he can do nothing and I will decide God’s grace who will be elected Bauchi of Governor come 2019 in that local government.
Two members of his cabinet members have resigned and they cited unfavorable environment and other issues, what does this speak of his government.
The whole environment is ruse, he has not got the wordings and ways to talk to people, you should have respect for the people even if they work under you, but he hasn’t got attitude of public relations, where you give due respect to everybody. This governorship position has entered himself that he arrogates himself all the powers of God and there are people with moral standard that they cannot live under such conditions of abuse, harassment and insults. He is totally unethical in his attitude, he is never straightforward, he is arrogant, he made unfulfilled promise to everyone and so on and so forth.
Last time when you people went to meet the President and complained about the bailout his response was that he was doing verification,
He has been doing verification for the last two years, and he has not been paying salaries, I have a brother who is a director in the Government, he told me that every month they will take N40, 000, N20, 000, N10, 000, N5, 000, N2, 500 from their salary, depending on your salary scale and it is not being accounted for and it is unconstitutional and up till now he cannot tell you how many people are verified, what is the gross or bulk salary in the State that he spends monthly. I remember during the Isa Yuguda’s regime it was about, N2 billion and some money on top even with about 4,000 political appointees in the State. He hasn’t got 200 political appointees and still he cannot disclose how much he is paying as Bauchi Salary, he cannot disclose how much is the earnings of the State from the statutory allocation to Local Government and the State, even the Internally Generated Revenue, he cannot account for all that. He can give a contract, you don’t know the contractor, you don’t know the amount, there is no terms and conditions for the contract? All the projects he is claiming to do which you cannot visibly see. Where are the roads, it is just mere pronouncement, he started a road inside Bauchi town, from Central Bank Roundabout to the Railway Station about 4km, yes, variations here and there, 5km could not be finishd in the last two year, it is not even a new road, it is resurfacing, he cannot come to dispute what I am saying, how much he gave the road for, who are the contractors, under what obligations or terms or condition or agreement.
So where is all the money he has collected such as the Paris-Club refund, bailout, and others, where are these monies going into?
I am not the one to ask him to account for it, the public should ask, if they could not ask that is their business, if he can account it for himself that is good for him, if he don’t, I keep mute. In this world you either account here or there in the next world. God will not let you to just go and taking public monies for hospital, schools, and you enrich yourself with it, people are in abject poverty and you expect to go away with that, no, so it isn’t my business.
Do you have ambition to run for office of Governor in your state, as he even accuses you most time.
I don’t have that ambition, it is not about office to me, it is about the people’s interest, and I don’t see anything in this office or in the office of the Governor provided you cannot serve the people.
There was this letter that exposed where he has already commenced plans for 2019 as far back as early 2015, why do you think he is paranoid about this, why early preparation.
Well, he plan is actually with his surrogates, cronies, to reposition himself politically in the State, he is doing so that he gets rid of those that were in APC before him. So he took people of the his common approach to life, people with the same attitude to replaces all the offices, I mean elective offices, Senate, Reps, State Assemblies, even party offices and even in the local government, so he did that under the leadership of the party chairman Ahmed Uba Nana, his chief Staff Abdul Katagum, his friend Ali Kumo Mohammed, the Speaker Kawuwa Damina, they sat down and planned all that.
So, why such early plan, even with the claim that he has taken Bauchi State to an Eldorado height, his achievements should be able to speak for him,
Lack of confidence, lack of attitude and his inability to appreciate that God gives and takes in life, that puts a very serious question on his morality, on his faithfulness to whatever religion he follows, because the person of God, who believes in God would not do that, that was too early, just within six months of coming to power, and you are plotting what you are going to do in the next four years, not even up to even a year, that was on the 18th of November that he did that, that portrays him as someone that has a very questionable character.
With Bauchi people known as people with a very strong political mindset, what do you think the people will do come 2019, do you think they will boot him out.
That is what I can assure you.
Even with everything in his disposal and even security within him.
They cannot do anything; we are going to resist it, eye for an eye, we are very democratic.
Irrespective of the party he contest
He can contest in any party, if people want him they should vote for him. I have no problem with that. If the people of Bauchi can vote for him again, that is their business. It is not my business, I have made my position clear, I am not going to support any party that fields him as their candidate, I am not going to be in the camp that are supporting him to contest, and I am not leaving the APC, so if he resort to violence, we are going to resist it.
You said you are not leaving the APC
I cannot leave the APC; I put my money in APC more than him.
But you said, as far as you are concerned there is no APC in the State
Yes, what I am saying, as far as him the Governor is concerned there is no APC. APC is there, I am a member of the living APC, am not a member of the dead APC, but himself is the dead APC.
Are there moves by you and your colleagues to reposition the party in the State?
Yes, we have that approach with the like minds, just as we are trying to reposition things to be better for all of us, including him, at the same time he is repositioning himself and his own kind of person for his own betterment and betterment of people with the same kind of attitude and character. We are going to be very democratic, people should come and vote, if they vote and said Mohammed Abubakar is the governor we want him again, fair enough I will surrender and follow the will of the people, though I wouldn’t be part of the process of governance. But if he wants to use violence to impose himself, we are going to resist it in any format, that’s what the law of God said, to resist your oppressor.
