I WILL CARRY EVERYONE ON BOARD IF GIVEN THE MANDATE-NIAGWAN Senator Cosmas Niagwan is a former Senator representing Plateau Southern Senatorial District at the National Assembly (1999-2003), he was also a gubernatorial aspirant in 2007. In this interview with The Beacon, the retired ship captain turned politician bares his mind on his renewed gubernatorial aspiration and other pressing issues bordering the political atmosphere in Plateau State. Excerpts: Sir, after leaving the National Assembly as Senator, and your contest for the governorship seat in 2007, you became unheard of on the political space of the state. What was the idea? You see, I wasn’t quiet at all. I talk to people whenever there is need for them to understand a thing. I was in the senate for four years and it seemed as if I just went to bed to sleep and somebody woke me up at dawn to say your time is up and you have to go. No one can be there for forever. Therefore, I needed to be patient and hope we will have better understanding with the people at the right time and now comes the time. I think there is a gap now, for instance when I went to Lafia in 2007 to be cleared for the gubernatorial race, I was asked by the then chairman of the committee that why are you vying for the governorship? He said to me southern zone of your state has done it; the central zone too has and now is the turn of the northern zone. Again he added, it may not be the constitutional arrangement of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but it does exist. So you see, I always try to weigh things to make sure the right drum is beaten to produce the right type of music. Therefore, if you ask me, I will tell you this is the time to speak again. Put it in clear terms sir, do you have any political aspiration now? Of course, I want to govern my state, Plateau State. So what will you bring to the table when given the mandate? Very simple, you see any elected officeholder that cannot put smiles in people’s faces, has failed. I will ask the people what they want and within the depth of our pocket do it for them. Don’t forget that as an elected representative, you are first and foremost a messenger, then a custodian. While there, we will go to every local government and sample their needs, having in mind that such needs may be different from place to place, for some it is water while others’ roads, let them tell us what they want, I will take care of that, so long as the funds are available. I think that is the essence of governance. Sir, having widely travelled as Ship Captain, what are those things you see elsewhere that you feel should be brought to Plateau? Well I have been to places; I have spent days, sometimes weeks at the port and have gone round and seen things. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. When someone starts something as a governor and finishes it or not, the successor should be able to continue and complete same. But in Nigeria, once your projects stops and the next person come aboard, they make sure they start theirs anew. As an individual, I believe in one thing if I become the governor, I will finish all projects I find on ground within the limit of funds we have. We will finish them before we move to new ones. You cannot certainly do all projects in four years; neither can you do in eight years, but then start something and let the person coming after continue from wherever you stop. There is something I find difficult to understand. You know Gomwalk did a good job. Baba Lar has done a good job, Tapgun started and was knocked off, Dariye came and did what he did, and Jang now has done his own. If wishes were horses, I would have loved when Baba Lar came on board to have incorporated some of Gomwalk’s people in his government so that there will be no gaps in experience. When it came to Tapgun, he had some Lar’s people on board, but when Dariye came, he had his own group minus those two, and you could see that during his tenure, great number of people fought him because they were kept out. Jang now has his own style and people are fighting him for some reasons also. When I become the governor, I will make sure we pick people from Gomwalk, Lar, Atukum, Tapgun, Dariye and Jang. They will all be in the government and if they are there, there will be no fighting that’s my belief and I will try to see that it works. Seeing the importance of an inland container depot, and being one person that spent over twenty two years of your life as ship Captain concerned with sea exports and imports of goods, how do you feel at the present state of the inland container depot that started sometime back in Plateau but seems abandoned now? Well, I was a Senator when it started during M.I. Musa, the then Minister for State for transport. I had one on one discussion with him because of my experience in the viability of the project that will accrue to the state, I meant to involve people of the state rather than make everybody onlooker, there are big names like Jeremiah Useni, Admiral Atukum, Gyang Buba and others that talk and people listen all involved in this thing. Well, I am afraid that the place was knocked down. I went and saw it before Shippers Council called me from Lagos to find out what actually happened. I went through the site, the main gate was locked down and few other structures. Having seen all there are, I returned to see the representatives of our Shippers Council discovered they were away to Lagos, the intention was to hear from both sides what actually happened and the remedy. Let me tell you something, without the railway running, container depot will not work. And no bank will loan money to build a place and wait for five, ten years to get their money. The moment you build it and railway is on line, you can bring twenty, thirty containers at ago via the train and they will surely arrive Jos complete. But if you send twenty containers by road, three, four or more will have accident, one or two will be attacked by robbers, so, may be only half will arrive. So it will never work if you just use the road. It just has to be with the train. And with the train, the winner takes all. They will either arrive all or not at all. Well I believe why the container depot did not take place was because of the absence of the railway. What is your opinion on having the inland container depot; should it be a forgone thing or should be revived? We must go on with it. Wherever the hiccups are, if we sit down and discuss, we’ll find a solution. Wars are averted when people sit down at table and talk. It will come back in any form, but will still be inland container. If given the mandate, will Plateau be sure of having an inland container depot? We will certainly find out what went wrong first. If it is convincing enough we should be able to find modalities. I will stick to it, but if it is not, I will agree that we start from the scratch.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 07:14:33 +0000
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