INTERVIEW APC HASNT OFFERED ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMMES – says Mordecai Sunday Ibrahim, National Chairman, Arewa Peoples Patriotic Front BY JULIET OYOYO, CORRESPONDENT Mordecai Sunday Ibrahim is the National Chairman of the Arewa Peoples Patriotic Front (APPFRONT) and a PDP chieftain who has continuously added his voice to burning National issues in the country, especially those which affect his people from Southern Kaduna. He speaks on some of these in this interview with CORRESPONDENT, JULIET OYOYO. Excerpts… You have just returned from a tour of the roads awarded by the late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, also known as the 31 Yakowa road contracts. What was your motivation for this extensive and time-consuming tour which is making you speak out against what your kinsmen are alleging? Truth. I am rising in defense of truth, fairness and equity. I am not standing against my people. On the contrary, if they tour the sites and see what I saw, they would know that they are the ones standing against themselves. In this particular matter, my people are not fair to Governor Yero. I insist, let anybody pick a bus, go round the state, see the projects, ask probing questions and take pictures of the roads one by one and return to contradict me. For now, I have decided to hold my peace. But if I am pushed to the wall I will spill the beans by mentioning their names one by one. I don’t know if you are aware of the stories all over town that Governor Mukhtar Yero has revoked the contracts Yakowa awarded to Senators Makarfi, Saleh, and Nenadi? I am not aware that Governor Mukhtar Yero has revoked the contracts of Senators Makarfi, Saleh and Nenadi because that is not what I set out to investigate. I set out to see the roads under construction, to know whether they are abandoned or not. I tried to find out which company was given which job. If Kwasam–Kushere–Gashere road falls under the one you are talking about, I am sure the governor will offer no apologies for revoking that contract. It is in the media that John Danfulani and others have continued to say that 2015 may not be palatable for the likes of Governor Yero. How would you react to this? John Danfulani and all those who share his ideas are entitled to their opinion. The generality of the people of Southern Kaduna are also entitled to choose who to vote for. On the day of the election, John Danfulani will be in only one polling unit to cast one vote. He cannot even force his wife, if he is married, to vote against her wish. Are you telling me that the entire people of Southern Kaduna are unhappy with Governor Yero? Is that true? They are talking about majority and public opinion – What was the yardstick they used to measure their majority? Which public opinion? That you are on facebook saying Yero this, Yero that, what does my old mother in the village who cannot operate computer know about that? Have you sampled the opinion, have you sampled my relations’ opinion? Have you gone to my village, my ward and all the other wards in Southern Kaduna and they told you that they will not vote for Ramalan Yero? I am not here campaigning for Ramalan Yero, please. All I am saying is that no single individual will decide who will and who will not vote for Ramalan. That is the bottomline of what I am saying. The People of Southern Kaduna are enlightened enough to know whether Ramalan Yero is worth being elected in 2015 or not. Above all, it is God who gives power. If it pleases God for Yero to remain as governor beyond 2015, even if the entire people of Kaduna State – I am not talking of Southern Kaduna people alone now – even if all Kaduna State citizens are instigated not to vote for Yero, if it pleases God for him to retain the seat, they will go and vote for him. It is when they would have finished voting, I mean real voting because I am not talking of rigging, they would wake up to reality. By the way, who ever told Mukhtar Ramalan Yero that he would be governor of Kaduna State? In the 1950s, the people of Southern Kaduna decided their fate but today the case is not so. The people of Southern Kaduna are made to play the second fiddle. At which time of our history have we not played the second fiddle except one? We played second fiddle in Balarabe Musa’s regime. In fact, not even second fiddle but third fiddle. We were not even Deputy Governor. Is it not when Katsina State was carved out that Southern Kaduna started occupying the position of Deputy Governor and Deputy Speaker? We played second fiddle in Makarfi’s tenure, did we not? We played second fiddle in Namadi’s tenure, but God in His infinite mercy and sovereignty made us governor in Yakowa’s time and that time has gone. We are back to second fiddle again. I am a realist. When people talk of second fiddle, what do they mean by second fiddle? We cannot have two governors at the same time. When it was time in God’s agenda for Southern Kaduna to be governor, Yakowa was governor. Yakowa and Yero were not governor. Yakowa was governor, Ramalan Yero was Deputy. When Yakowa left the scene, Ramalan Yero became governor. When Yero leaves, may be Mordecai Sunday Ibrahim will be governor of Kaduna State, if it pleases God. You were in the opposition and you have now joined the PDP. Do you share the opinion that PDP is the heritage of Southern Kaduna? I don’t think it is the right word or expression to use. I would rather say that Southern Kaduna people have found love, commitment and loyalty in PDP and PDP has also found favour with Southern Kaduna. Once there is love, commitment and loyalty in relation to favour, then such relation will continue to blossom. I think what is happening between PDP and Southern Kaduna is Amos 3:3: ‘how can two walk together except they agree? And I am seeing agreement between PDP and Southern Kaduna.’ Let us move to the national level. With the insecurity in the country, do you see Jonathan having a bright chance in the election of 2015? On the 2015 and security challenges in the country, President Goodluck Jonathan is not the cause of insecurity in Nigeria. That is the first thing we must realize. No responsible leader, no God fearing leader, no leader who has human feeling, will decide to create problems so as to kill his people. Who will he govern? So, it is a wrong impression. It is unfortunate. I sympathize with President Goodluck Jonathan, because – to the best of my knowledge, he is the only Nigerian leader that has suffered the most bashing since I became wise and knew leaders in this country. And this bashing is being spear-headed by the opposition. The opposition party that we thought came with an agenda. We thought they (the APC) were coming with a credible and focused alternative. We have however seen with utter disappointment that they have nothing good, not even better, to offer Nigeria and Nigerians. They are only coming to grab power, just for the purpose of grabbing it, so that they will impoverish us the more. When you talk about security, yes, he is the Commander–in–Chief, but he is not the soldier, not a Lance Corporal, Corporal or Sergeant, Captain, Colonel or the police that are manning all the check points in the country. Those reporting to him could come and tell him that they are doing well when they are actually not doing well. Meanwhile, it will take him time to find out who is not doing what and then send them packing. If he retires a general, he does not have to come to tell you that he has retired this or that general because he is not doing well. For God’s sake, we must also give credit to the Nigerian military. They are doing their best. If the Nigerian populace cooperate with security agencies and feed them with useful information, sure we will not be where we are today. Let us take the case of the Chibok abducted girls as example. We must not forget that the Boko Haram insurgents are holding the girls as shields. The fact remains that we want our daughters back and alive just like the Bring Back our Girls campaigners are saying: “Bring Back our Girls Back now and Alive.” It is not their dead bodies that we want. We want them alive. So you have to be careful and patient. You have to be patient. Why are we blaming President Jonathan only, why are we not looking at Borno State? Is there no government in Borno State? Is Governor Shettima not the Chief Security Officer of Borno State? Was he not the one who asked them to go and write examination even when the Federal Ministry of Education said schools be closed? DAILY INDEPENDENT AUG. 11, 2014
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 05:31:13 +0000
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